Is Outer Space The Future Of Mankind? - the moon, mars, asteroids

Thats very philosophical of you A200.
I have seen (as I'm sure many of you have) the statistical thought experiment which postulates on the probable number of developed species we might find in our galaxy.. space is very big, after all, and there are a lot of stars in our galaxy (which is fairly large, as galaxies go).
The fact that we have yet to find any hard evidence that they are out there should never be used as an excuse to say 'there is nothing out there'.. it is probably just a matter of us not knowing what to look for.
One smart guy thought that the best thing to look for would be infrared emissions, as any energy use by a technological culture would produce waste heat, and a sufficiently advanced species might have something like a Dyson sphere (an entire star enclosed in a shell which collects the star's energy for the use of that species).. this would show up as a dark star that emits infrared only.. but if we did find evidence of that kind of species, they would be largely beyond our ability to comprehend.. truly alien.

If I could project a little.. lets say that our species was that advanced. We would be very, very weird from the perspective of one of us from our time (primitive hicks that we are).
Imagine a world where humans are data, our bodies are constructs and we can operate multiple bodies at any time.. where our minds can operate at different rates of time, processing days in minutes, absorbing multiple experiences that took place at the same time, from multiple different perspectives, a lifetime would be a vastly different concept to a human who was free of the constraints of physical death, who had bodies constructed/grown for them, who existed beyond physical senses and the restraints of the body's ability to experience time and space.
A culture of immortals, who can ghost themselves into remote constructs and purpose bred biological bodies, who could ignore the problems posed by the vast amount of distance that needs to be traveled between the stars, because they exist in an artificial data reality during transit, where subjective time is under their complete control.
A species who regarded life as a biological entity on a planet's surface as a 'fun experience for a while', but who were more comfortable existing in a vast, complex digital reality.

Would we even know how to deal with something like that?
And thats only a few thousand years ahead of us... what would a species be like that has several million years on us?

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How do we know that out of space actually 'exists'?

How do we know that the earth is not a bubble being used as a scientific experiement by a greater and more powerful species, being shown to millions of their species around their world to provide hope and happiness (aka the truman show)?

For all we know, when we 'leave' the world, we just enter in another chamber outside the set of planet 'earth' and just stay in one spot, with everything else coming closer in an optical illusion, and the earth going away in an optical illusion too?

But what could we find in outer space? Could we discover another developed world like our own, with people inhabiting it, but thousands of light years away?

Who knows

A200

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Do I believe that our future lies in space?
Absolutely.. for one simple reason, if we stay here and do not venture into space, we are going to become extinct, and that is a certainty.

There are billions of years of life left for this world, our star is relatively young, life on our world is robust and pervasive, and one of the most successful kinds of organism, the Dinosaur, lived for many hundreds of millions of years.
But it they had a major problem, as do we.. one rock out of space and we are just as dead as they all are.

I often hear people say that our end is the natural way of things, life moves on and the planet renews itself.
Let me just rebut that with the argument that we are the only true intelligent life forms, that we know of, that have ever lived, or that are alive anywhere in the universe (that we know of).. sure, Dolphins are pretty smart, so are Chimps.. but only Humans have walked on another world, only we are capable of taking ourselves and by extension, the rest of the life forms that we depend on to survive, to another world.
Think not just about our own kind, think about what we can do for all life? It is possible for a sufficiently disastrous cosmic event to wipe out all life on Earth.. no second chances, no reset button.. end of the story of life as we know it.
I am not nihilistic enough to view that as anything but the worst kind of tragedy, and I have trouble understanding an opposing view to that sentiment, although I am sure there are a few who would say "We have no choice".

I think survival is not only central to ourselves, it is our place in the scheme of things.. we are here to live, to be a part of life and to understand life, and more than that, we are here to protect and nurture life.
I mean look at us.. we are a relatively fresh species on the planet, and yet we are unlocking the very building blocks of matter, the source code of life itself and we are very close to unlocking methods of producing clean, renewable energy sources on a wide scale. We can communicate with each other planet wide, we can live in nearly every environment thrown at us, we take active steps to preserve and protect other organisms, even those which are our predators (such as Tigers).. we have the means to take life and transport it through space, deposit it on another world, and nurture it to grow, adapt and start an entirely new ecological system.

That automatically doubles our chances of long term survival as a species, and the same goes for all the other species which depend on us for survival.
Without Humans, where would the cats and dogs be now? What about cattle and wheat? Vegetables and fruits?
The plants and animals we depend on, also depend on us.. we are the best thing to ever happen to the cat, thats for sure.

What problems do we face?
Many, its true, but that will not stop us.
We are driven by the need for resources, foremost, the economics is not the limiting factor, it is the driving factor.
Our thirst for rare metals and fresh water, for new territory and for the strategic advantages of space will drive private industry and the new industrial giants to press out into space. Innovation thrives on conflict, and the struggle for resources is something we can all feel... every time we fill our gas tanks or buy those bottles of water.
Who would have believed, one hundred years ago, that we would be buying bottled water?

We have theories on increasing the speeds we can reach in space.. I think the best I have seen so far estimates a maximum of 70 percent of light speed, using a hydrogen ram jet system, collecting hydrogen from space with a magnetic scoop.. but lets not forget that we could propel craft around our own Solar system, just using the energy of the Earth and the Sun.. imagine pushing a space vessel using a laser?
We can build systems to grow food and recycle water, but we need to iron out the kinks and get serious about it.. we need to fully utilize genetic engineering to unlock the power of living technology.. it is not impossible to imagine a living space vessel, at best, or at least a contained ecosystem of highly refined, engineered species, tailored to all of our needs.
This requires a lot of water, and water is one of the best insulators against impacts from micro meteorites and the hard radiation of space... a handy coincidence.
What a pretty sight it evokes.. a massive vessel, coated in bright, shining ice, with a green heart of verdant forests and productive, courageous people, traveling the vast voids of space.

I want Humanity to survive, and one day, to be so far spread and independent, that no cosmic disaster can ever kill us all off in one horrible moment.

Call me an optimist, but I think it will happen.

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Well I might be an amateur in this subject too as I agree with White Eagle. We are no where near to understanding the depths of complexity that our world is in right now, but we go out thinking that all of out problems will be solved. We are hopefuls, thinking that if we forget what is going on at home and venture into neighboring soil, we may find a better and easier way out of our issues than looking in our own homes.

We can see this pattern through out history, where the European countries wanted to colonize and spread their reach before they fully grasped the problems back at home. Instances such as the inquisition and the French Revolution go to show that Europe was in a fair share of chaos, for such occurrences to rise, but they insisted on expanding their horizon through the Earth. We are greedy by nature and not patient, thus often we find ourselves unable to bring forth enough patience to solve the problems within, and instead we go out to blindly search of the wonders without.

Quite frankly, I believe once we have found a solution to Global Warming and a solution to the threat of nuclear war, then we should begin thinking about Mars. If we can not handle Earth, how can we handle Mars?

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As I am not that into this kind of topics but I have a personal opinion (though an amaterish one ), I want to say that I think the problem with the mankind is that we can't handle our own world (wars, oil etc.) and we want to handle the universe tourism seriously.
I say, lets fix the problems in our world first, and then (possibly) create problems in other worlds in the galaxy.

Regards

Miladin

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