Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
I am all for it in principle. I believe that we owe it to ourselves and our future to make space travel, research, and colonization as feasible as possible.
At the present time, however, I have to believe that we would take all of our earthbound problems, inequities, ignorance, and failings into the solar system with us. Which makes us not a more prosperous civilization, but the same backwards civilization with a larger footprint.
I do believe however that our population is large enough that we can simultaneously devote maximum effort into bettering ourselves, becoming better stewards of this planet, and settling on other ones. To me it’s not an “either or” thing, and I reject any argument that glibly states that we’re so fucked up that we should never leave earth.
Edit: I’m going to change my answer. The more I think about it, the more I realize that my opinion on whether or not we should go to space is irrelevant. We are going to do it. It’s in us as a species to do it. The need, the drive, is innate, and the ramblings of a bunch of opinionated internet squibs isn’t going to change that.
So the question, perhaps, is not whether or not we should, but how do we best go about it without fucking it up? That’s a way more complex question.
One of the interesting things I found in the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson was the first mars settlers trying to create a new type of society without many of the problems the left behind.
Yeah, I think if we survive as a species for long enough, it will happen. Unfortunately, I see that "if" as less likely lately.