James Swayze <swayzej@earthlink.net> writes:
> > Why? I don't want to spend time near so much gravity.:) I would prefer a
> > free floating existence -
>
> Sounds like fun. Bound to get boring after a while. Probably have some
> dilitarious effects on ones bones and heart and a host of other things, but
> don't take my word for it.
Bodies need some redesign for zero-g living, but likely it is not that
severe (do we really want calcified bones except for maybe the skull?
Why not go for cartilage?). In fact, there might be more trouble with
adapting to a low-g planet like Mars where you cannot escape the
gravity or set up rotating simulated gravity environments.
> > - or one inside a hollowed out asteroid.
>
> Let's do that too. In fact let's do that first! I've always contended that we
> need to finance both Moon and Mars colonization with asteroid mining first.
The problem is of course that it is doubtful there is anything
valuable enough in the asteroids to cover the expenses given that we
are moving towards an information/bio/nano society. Services might be
a greater source of capital than matter.
> > It's kind of cute how a lot of people want to move into space only to
> > recreate Earth.
>
> Well, Earth is THE environment we are, so far, adapted to. One
> reason might be we are running--scratch that--HAVE run out of
> space. Unfortunately the archain ideologies that support
> overpopulation don't appear to be abating any time soon. We might
> have an overpopulation "singularity" soon if we're not careful.
This is not supported by data. The current UN population estimates
show that the population is likely to level out at 10-11 billion by
2050 or so. A lot of people, but there is a huge amount of unused
space and resources on Earth that can be used with the right
technology and economic incentives.
While I strongly support space colonisation both to ensure human
survival in a likely turbulent future and promote human exploration
and diversity, it is currently not very economic. It needs to be that
before we will see any large scale colonies.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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