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[GSGBen]

I'm probably going to have to start a mars shitposting facebook group now

[gimymblert]

[GSGBen]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/marsshitposting/

[GSGBen]

join imo

[GSGBen]

the classic are flowing thick and fast:

[GSGBen]

[s0]

crossposting from other thread for greater visibility:

To my friend Elon Musk,

I know our last deal fell through and I would like to formally apologize for publicly calling you a coward and traitor. However, since I last contacted you, new opportunities for collaboration have presented themselves.

If it is in any way possible, I would like to be installed on a secret base on Mars, from where I could send shitposts to Earth using military grade satellite technology. Given enough supplies, I could produce about 500-600 shitposts a day, mainly consisting of irreverent jabs at minor celebrities. I would grow food using my own poop as fertilizer, in a manner similar to what was shown in the Hollywood Blockbuster "The Martian", starring Matt Damon. I would collect my profits, which will still have to negotiate, upon my return to Earth directly from you. Please contact me for further details.

Your business partner,
Silbereisen

[Dacke]

If it's only to increase survival for the species (also not clear on why you'd care about that)

imagine a hypothetical scenario where you know that the inevitable "apocalypse" will likely happen within your lifetime. a few hundred years ago, society decided that survival of the species is an unimportant goal and thus abandoned most research in that direction, so there's no way out. human life on earth is going to go extinct no matter what and you will either die a premature death or live a miserable life as one of the last humans on an inhospitable earth.

how would you deal with this? would you just go "welp that's it folks, survival of the species is not important so i'm just going to curl up and die"?

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE

survival of individuals ≠ survival of the species

Your scenario is bad because it kills individuals who want to live, so it would be a good idea to try to save them.
(Even though I wonder if it's possible to create worthwhile lives after the earth is dead, but who knows?)

I don't think it's obviously bad because there will be no more humans after that point, I don't really care about that personally and don't really see why you would. But I've learned that many care about it. And I do respect that people have different feelings about stuff like that (even if I don't understand their point of view)

[s0]

survival of individuals ≠ survival of the species

but ensuring the survival of individuals = ensuring the survival of the species. so i don't see saving the species as an intrinsic goal, but more as a side effect of saving individuals. obv the goal would be saving as many as possible, not some eugenics bullshit where "only the best survive the apocalypse".

the reason why i care is just simple empathy. i, as a person living in 2016, have a will to live and i know that most people living in 3016 will probably have the same will to live. that was the point of my hypothetical scenario.

[Dacke]

dunno if we're talking passed each-other

In your example, saving individuals and saving the species is the same thing, sure.

But that's not really true in the case of off-world colonies, the way they're being talked about. So if we had independent places where human lives, at least some could survive a sudden pandemic. In that case, no people are being saved, you just have some other people who survive. No individual-saving, only species-saving.

See the difference?

Though I guess you could save a small number of people if you already had the infrastructure to move people off earth, depending on the apocalypse type.

[s0]

i think we actually agree with each other lol

[J-Snake]

The motivation to colonize space in order for the human race to survive is immature and silly.
You will eventually come to this conclusion once you accept the following:

Well, in case you believe in the evolution of the species then you can't save humanity anyway. Over time humans will evolve into another species anyway. Also all prior zeitgeist and generations died, for example there is no one left of the roman empire, it is a world long gone, and so will be ours. Now instead, if the point is just to keep sentient life alive then isn't it silly to assume that earth is the only place with sentient beings in the universe? Think about that.

[J-Snake]

To those emotionally hurt by this, think about this way: Just because everything comes to an end doesn't mean you can't have some fun on the way.

[s0]

But that's not really true in the case of off-world colonies, the way they're being talked about.

btw i wasn't talking about off world colonies necessarily, just about the notion that survival of the species (which is based on the collective will of individuals to live) is a stupid goal. this is also an indirect reply to j-snake. sure, things are going to end eventually, but it's possible to push back the end somehow, why not try?

[gimymblert]

Neanderthal still live through us, rip neanderthal i_i7

[J-Snake]

sure, things are going to end eventually, but it's possible to push back the end somehow, why not try?

You can do so on earth. By avoiding negative changes to our environment and society, and possibly external threats from space, by nuking asteroids (probably easier than colonizing mars btw). It's not like our existence on earth can be taken for granted for the next 700 Million years (then the sun starts to blow up, if experts can be trusted).

Btw. if you want to be safer, you are better off staying on earth. Its atmosphere shields away the majority of external threats.
That's not something you will get on Mars. And even when you manage to make Mars a second Earth, you can still not escape the solar system since sun is the only energy source you have.

[gimymblert]

You can't JUST nuke asteroid, that's not how it work, don't believe hollywood movies!
Also good luck averting gamma burst from super nova!

[J-Snake]

I don't base my beliefs on movies.

[s0]

You can do so on earth.

i know. i've said as much. i wasn't talking about offworld colonies.

[Capntastic]

I will go to Mars but I won't tell anyone