SHow us the way, Jethro!
I hope he spends his money on this. As projects go, this is less problematic for the human race than more socialism.
We do need to leave the Earth and colonize, but not for the reasons stated. Much like the reasons certain Europeans left Europe for the new world, people who want to be free will seek a new home elsewhere to thrive.
And, I would expect a similar outcome after a few centuries. Those risk takers, after a few false starts, will become a free powerhouse in all aspects. Earth will eventually be drained of the remaining quality gene pool, and continue to decline like Europe has.
You first.
Elon Musk has this car...ask him about it.
There is hardly a place in the solar system where we could exist for very long. The number of products we’d need to exist as a civilization are astonishing and there would be little in the way of materials on hand to make them. Then, there’s the Sun, which we are protected from on Earth, but which would ravage our DNA almost anywhere else. Then, there’s the atmosphere, or lack thereof.
If something bad happens here and civilization goes into a dark, low-tech phase for a few years, decades or centuries, we could, in theory, live off the land. A similar calamity in space would see everybody dead in minutes, hours, days.
And, then, there’s the biggie. There are more microbes living in our bodies than there are human cells. (That’s because they are so much smaller than human cells.) We have evolved with them and so we hardly notice they are there unless something happens to upset the balance. Suppose there are microbes on Mars or the Moon and they find our armpits or other crannies where there is an abundance of moisture. They are likely to reproduce very fast. Our immune systems will likely not recognize them and they will kill us in no time.
This guy hasn’t given five minutes thought to the practicality of living in space, let alone moving us all there. (Oh, and what about all those sacred sites that some religions have to visit?)
No, idiot. Colonizing the Moon is a stupid idea.
1. Man is not optimized for life on the Moon.
2. Man is optimized for life on Earth.
3. It is irresponsible to conceive children with the express purpose of forcing them to live their lives on the Moon.
They have the right to be born on Earth, with blue skies, green trees, wind, rain, birds, elephants, etc. No one has the right to deprive them of the life on the planet that they are optimized for.
Of course, no one gives a $hit about what I just said. A society that celebrates killing unborn babies doesn’t give one flying f*ck about whether babies get to live on Earth or on the Moon.
Funny how the neo-communists always blame humans for the “mess” were are supposed to have made. But, what they really mean is that everyone else should leave/die-off so they can live in their utopia.
SO, Jeffy, why don’t YOU start with YOURSELF. Send us a note on how it’s going for you and we’ll follow.
At some point the richest people on earth are going to start asking themselves, “why do we need all of these people?”
In the early 20th century NYC was in a crisis. They had no clue what they were going to do in the soon coming future about all the horse dung generated on their streets.
Oddly, the problem fixed itself.
Imagine where we would be if there were no such thing as the pill, iud’s etc. And look at what LED lighting has done to energy use. My entire home, inside and out, is lit by the same watts that used to power a light bulb or two.
Mark me as one who has decided to stay....
Silly dreamer with too much money.
I don’t agree with bezos much on anything. But I’d love to see humanity on mars and the moon and beyond! And it will give us a second chance after the leftist commie Nazi types finish destroying society on earth
Do I still get free Amazon delivery with Prime?
Send me a postcard.
He’s correct, but leaves out some important reasons.
First, there are limited resources here - limited in the economically-viable sense. I’m not so much worried about pollution, since higher technology tends to reduce this waste of resources. There are FAR greater resource in the Solar System, let alone in nearby star systems.
Second, I’m not real keen on the idea of being stuck on one (rather nice) ball of dust...when a single asteroid can bring down all of our civilization (if not literally destroy life on the planet if large enough). Granted, that is a low probability event in any of our lifetimes, but it is not a zero risk thing, and especially not over thousands of years or longer. It is a low probability, high impact event, and if we can reduce the risk to the human race by diversifying our living quarters (with emphasis on independent quarters that have no NEED - desire being a different thing - for supplies from Earth) to different places, and can make money and train large numbers of space workers, so much the better.
Third, I’m also not too keen on living on one ball of dust when there may be aggressive space-faring races out there. Let’s have multiple planets/asteroids, then multiple star systems, then hundreds of them - and we’ll be far safer as a species. Oh, and NO I haven’t ever seen any space aliens, nor do I believe that we’ve been visited by aliens, or any of that crap. But simple logic dictates that if life arose here, and there are 100 billion or so stars in this one galaxy alone, then there are likely other planets that also gave rise to life...and those creatures which rise to the top of their planet’s food chain and develop the technology to travel between stars are not to be trifled with, not at our current level of technology being stuck on one planet. We have to spread out, become FAR more numerous, and advance our technology by leaps and bounds if we are to hope to survive over the course of tens or hundreds of thousands of years, let alone millions of years. No, none of us will see that, but how short-sighted and selfish would it be of us to turn inward and deny space to our descendants?
Makes a lot of sense, to move to a body that has 2% the volume and 7.4% the surface of the earth.
Like leaving an overcrowded apt and moving into a microwave oven.
Check it out Jeff and report back.
It will be the only way to escape islam.
Lex Luthor needs to leave Earth. Ask Brainiac for a lift.