Would you take the one way trip to Mars?

[Steve James]

I don't know how to create a poll, but I'd be interested to know your thoughts. Personally, for me, no way. Leaving family and friends forever is one thing I'd rather not do at this point. But, I also think that the real "future" will be the ability to live in space.

Mars is cool, of course. However, it's smaller than the Earth; so, it won't be a solution for overpopulation. That is, even if we could radically terraform the Mars environment. And, thinking further ahead, even if we find a larger, already habitable planet outside our solar system, it'd take a long space ride to get there for an extremely large number of people. They'd have to be able to live in space for at least a year, and that'd be plenty of time to have babies. We don't know what the effects of space-birth would be, but we don't know about births anywhere other than on this planet. I think it's likely that we'll only find out because of some necessity.

[Bao]

Nope. Sorry.

[everything]

I always wondered what humans will do when the Sun goes Red Dwarf. Maybe we changed to zombies by then anyway

[everything]

https://www.quora.com/What-will-happen- ... e-sun-dies

[Ian C. Kuzushi]

Nope. But, I have a close friend who has been talking about this for quite some time. He says he would go in a heartbeat, and I believe him.

[Steve James]

Nope. But, I have a close friend who has been talking about this for quite some time. He says he would go in a heartbeat, and I believe him.

Oh, there are definitely people like that, and we need them in the gene pool. Some people would go to expand science; others would go just for the glory.

[fuga]

I might pay to send some people there.

[origami_itto]

Single whip on Mars!

[Dmitri]

Why go through all the trouble? Much cheaper and simpler to go to one of earth's many uninhabitable deserts...

the real "future" will be the ability to live in space

I dunno, there's also hope that people will eventually figure out how to control population on a global scale without getting all wound-up and sensitive and fighty about it.

I might pay to send some people there.

[Bill]

No way.

You'll probably die long before you get there due to cosmic radiation poisoning.

[Steve James]

there's also hope that people will eventually figure out how to control population on a global scale without getting all wound-up and sensitive and fighty about it.

One way or the other, the only way the species will survive for the next million years is if it's somewhere other than Earth. I do agree, however, that people will/should be inhabiting the oceans --even after the sun begins to broil the Earth.

If I could go there and safely return, I miiiight think about it. But, that's the problem. We could put a person on Mars next year. We just wouldn't be able to get him or her back. Yet. Btw, sending robots to set up a living environment for human is probably possible.

[Giles]

Two basic possibilities. Either we, as the human race, screw ourselves up so much in the coming few decades or centuries - through environmental degradation or plain old nuclear war or similar - that society and its structures collapse and we fall back to a hugely reduced population at more or less stone-age level, scavenging a few resources from the ruins. At best a kind of “Riddley Walker” scenario and at worst “The Road”.
Under these circumstances, the space programme might be delayed for some time…

Or, we scrape through somehow and science and technology – although probably not moral intelligence and compassion, alas – continue to develop more or less on the present curve. In that case, humanity and its abilities will change so much in the coming few thousand years that we from our present perspective might not even recognise or understand what homo sapiens has become. Or homo sapiens splits and goes in different directions, some more similar to what we are now – for better or for worse – and some radically different.

Even ruling out the option of some way of getting around the faster-than-light travel problem, by that time interplanetary and probably interstellar travel and colonization will be a given. We probably won’t be doing much of it in human-standard or even organic bodies, or even in ‘bodies’ at all. The next ice age here on Earth might theoretically present some problems for the human race, but the interglacial will probably last at least a few thousand years more and by that time, as said, we’ll either be post-apocalyptic and eking out an existence in the warmer zones like we did 50,000 years ago or we’ll be so advanced that an ice age can either be prevented or mitigated, or we just don’t care because it can’t touch us.

As far the sun is concerned…. Come on guys, it will be hundreds of millions of years at least before the sun changes in any significant way for Planet Earth. And 5 billion years before it even starts to expand. By then, we’ll either have a galactic diaspora or we’ll be long extinct. In fact, more than enough time for both.

And no, I wouldn’t personally recommend a one-way ticket to Mars in the next decade or so. If they don’t die from the effects of cosmic radiation on the journey or after arriving on Mars, I think there are very large chances of such a small, no-return community on Mars going pear-shaped in technological and/or social terms and ending quite unpleasantly.

[Dmitri]

By then, we’ll either have a galactic diaspora or we’ll be long extinct

If -- and it's a huge "if" -- we survive over that long a time, it wouldn't be "us" anymore, in any recognizable, or even imaginable, fashion. Aside from (likely?) larger eyes and heads and smaller muscles and body, if our brains continue on the same path at the same pace, there's no way to even imagine what "we" would be like in a billion years. Especially considering effects of technology on them, eventual removal of evolutionary need to fight each other, etc. And, what are the "simpler" animals today, would they have our current brain capacity and capabilities by then? Could "we" have pets who, instead of rolling over or playing dead, would be having philosophical discussions among themselves and projecting evolutionary possibilities of their species millions of years from then...

[Giles]

By then, we’ll either have a galactic diaspora or we’ll be long extinct

If -- and it's a huge "if" -- we survive over that long a time, it wouldn't be "us" anymore, in any recognizable, or even imaginable, fashion.

Indeed! Jackie C. has it right. Actually, as I wrote above, I think the state of "us humans" will move beyond recognizability within a few thousand years, or possibly even much less than that, if the development curve isn't seriously slowed or shattered. Or at least for parts of humanity. Evolution in the sense of normal genetic mutation won't cut it -- much too slow, but genetic engineering, body resculpting, machine/man-fusions and who knows what else will be unstoppable, despite all (possibly justified) ethical objections. Colonization of Mars, for instance, will probably be successful just as much by changing humans to fit Mars as by changing Mars to fit humans.
Which would bring new diversification of homo sapiens, new life experiences, and new minds and mentalities. But unless we also get our act more together as social beings, by dealing with our hard-wired (self)destructive traits in parallel to other developments, then I fear it will bring plenty new opportunities for war and genocide, too.

For instance, do smartphones and social media seem likely to result in any less aggression and destruction and in more happiness? Not yet, anyway.

[Michael]

I don't agree with the premise, but let's say I did, that it was necessary to leave and there would need to be some early generations of people to ride the first few thousand ships for a couple of centuries to iron out the kinks...not me.

It is unpredictable what technological or social developments will occur, so the future trajectory of available resources, etc., is based on too many variables. I think social conditions are more relevant than technological ones, the Mutually Assured Destruction scenario proving that in my opinion. No matter what material technology we come up with, it could be weaponized because of the biological need for a dominance hierarchy. If the latter doesn't change, it doesn't matter where we go and we'll eventually, probably not too far into the future, blow ourselves up 99.999% and go through some massive time cycle of giving it another try as the tectonic shifts destroy the evidence of our "advanced civilization", as they have the previous ones, all while Stanley Kubrick's brain sits suspended in a vat of molybdenum-mercuride laughing about how we thought we'd gone to the moon when we couldn't even solve simple traffic control problems.