> > Exactly. Personally I think we ought to terraform Mars first so that
> > we learn the ropes before tackling the Earth (although I consider
> > planets a waste of matter, but that is just personal opinion).
>
> And why stop there? Surely all those other galaxies which have no direct
> importance for human existence are a waste of matter also. Something must be
> done about this imbalance between useful and non-useful matter. I propose the
> prime purpose of the human race to be the systematic removal of all matter
> known to not influence our society in any way. As the moon has some
> importance as an illumination device, perhaps our first target should be
> that irrelevant red planet.
I think you misunderstood me :-) What I would like is to convert all
the inert matter lying around into habitats for life and
complexity. What use is the iron at the Earth's core right now? It
provides gravity and a protective magnetic field all right, but the
mass of the Earth could probably be used to create a much larger, much
more diverse ecosphere based on (say) thousands or millions of O'Neill
colonies. The same for most of the solar system. I admit I enjoy the
unexpected beauty of most planetary surfaces; it is really all the
matter that just lies there I want to turn into complexity. Maybe we
should really take the Hitchiker's Guide to heart and rebuild planets
into nanocomputer spheres with standard molecular life on the surface.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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