NASA chief wants to send some people to the moon permanently

[Slartibartfast]

Like I said, vertical farming doesn't even use soil. We've engineered crops to also take the most advantage of nutrients, lessen impact on soils, etc....

Basically any problem we may encounter on Earth is miniscule in comparison to going star trekking.

Yes we know there solutions, maybe, though the soil will die anyway because while it is a penny cheaper, it will be used until exhaustion. Replacing the arable land is no small task, it's scale is bigger than anything dreamed of though I guess we can get used to eating insect protein, re-cycled human and gm-tofu grown in tanks.

As delicious as that may be, what do the 10 - 20 billion of us do on the Earth with our time?

 

[Cuddles]

Yes we know there solutions, maybe, though the soil will die anyway because while it is a penny cheaper, it will be used until exhaustion. Replacing the arable land is no small task, it's scale is bigger than anything dreamed of though I guess we can get used to eating insect protein, re-cycled human and gm-tofu grown in tanks.

As delicious as that may be, what do the 10 - 20 billion of us do on the Earth with our time?

https://www.livescience.com/16493-people-planet-earth-support.html

Slowing growth

Fortunately, we may be spared from entering the end-times phase of overpopulation and starvation envisioned by Malthus. According to the United Nations Population Division, the human population will hit 7 billion on or around Oct. 31, and, if its projections are correct, we're en route to a population of 9 billion by 2050, and 10 billion by 2100. However, somewhere on the road between those milestones, scientists think we'll make a U-turn.

UN estimates of global population trends show that families are getting smaller. "Empirical data from 230 countries since 1950 shows that the great majority have fertility declines," said Gerhard Heilig, chief of population estimates and projections section at the UN.

Globally, the fertility rate is falling to the "replacement level" — 2.1 children per woman, the rate at which children replace their parents (and make up for those who die young). If the global fertility rate does indeed reach replacement level by the end of the century, then the human population will stabilize between 9 billion and 10 billion. As far as Earth's capacity is concerned, we'll have gone about as far as we can go, but no farther.

 

[Slartibartfast]

https://www.livescience.com/16493-people-planet-earth-support.html

Slowing growth

Fortunately, we may be spared from entering the end-times phase of overpopulation and starvation envisioned by Malthus. According to the United Nations Population Division, the human population will hit 7 billion on or around Oct. 31, and, if its projections are correct, we're en route to a population of 9 billion by 2050, and 10 billion by 2100. However, somewhere on the road between those milestones, scientists think we'll make a U-turn.

UN estimates of global population trends show that families are getting smaller. "Empirical data from 230 countries since 1950 shows that the great majority have fertility declines," said Gerhard Heilig, chief of population estimates and projections section at the UN.

Globally, the fertility rate is falling to the "replacement level" — 2.1 children per woman, the rate at which children replace their parents (and make up for those who die young). If the global fertility rate does indeed reach replacement level by the end of the century, then the human population will stabilize between 9 billion and 10 billion. As far as Earth's capacity is concerned, we'll have gone about as far as we can go, but no farther.

Ok, however as the vast majority of humanity who live in poverty now improve their lot with the wealth that reduces birthrate.. resource consumption skyrockets etc.

Anyway, you are an intelligent guy and we can ping ping forever.

May I ask that you respond to my last question. What do the billions of us do with our time?

Is you vision that we learn to live on Earth before entering the cosmos or just stay here?

 

[Cuddles]

Ok, however as the vast majority of humanity who live in poverty now improve their lot with the wealth that reduces birthrate.. resource consumption skyrockets etc.

Anyway, you are an intelligent guy and we can ping ping forever.

May I ask that you respond to my last question. What do the billions of us do with our time?

Is you vision that we learn to live on Earth before entering the cosmos or just stay here?

I think the general public overestimates our technological/scientific capabilities when it comes to space. What do we do with our time? We try to conquer it....I feel it's a more feasible goal to try to double/triple our life span by medical means, bio-engineering, or genetic editing. It's more worthwhile to try to understand our brains and attempt to move our consciousness to a shell w/o an expiration date.

When we conquer time, space travel and its devastation on our bodies becomes meaningless.

That's assuming we want to stick to rockets....we may as well scrap the military, force everyone into STEM, specifically physics, and try to advance space/time bending. Because the amount of infrastructure you'd need to move to make "space colonies" feasible with rockets would just bring the planet to an early death from atmospheric pollution.

 

[CaptainObvious]

Double or triple the lifespan? We better eliminate all disease first and then figure out what the hell you're going to do for 200 years. Sure, if you're wealthy and heathy it's a great idea. For the other 95% of the population, not so much.

 

[Slartibartfast]

I think the general public overestimates our technological/scientific capabilities when it comes to space. What do we do with our time? We try to conquer it....I feel it's a more feasible goal to try to double/triple our life span by medical means, bio-engineering, or genetic editing. It's more worthwhile to try to understand our brains and attempt to move our consciousness to a shell w/o an expiration date.

When we conquer time, space travel and its devastation on our bodies becomes meaningless.

That's assuming we want to stick to rockets....we may as well scrap the military, force everyone into STEM, specifically physics, and try to advance space/time bending. Because the amount of infrastructure you'd need to move to make "space colonies" feasible with rockets would just bring the planet to an early death from atmospheric pollution.

The soon to come AI singularity will either solve all of these problems and/or end us in a relative snap. 3.7 billion+ years of evolution on Earth only serving to bootstrap artificial intelligence? Perhaps but we keep moving forward until then.

We will do both as we always do when crisis becomes undeniable. One of my closer relatives worked on project Tube Alloys / MAUD committee stuff in the UK. These got the Manhattan project started in the US. It always amazed me growing up how much got done in the few years of WWII and I do believe we need a bigger goal to unite the tribe. If I sit in a cafe and overhear one more conversation about website design for some moronic company (usually real-estate around here).. I may go mad

It does not mean there will be efforts some consider wasted. One my relative used to rail about all the time was the Norden bomb sight project as a total waste of resources. Back in 2011 Malcom Gladwell who did some brilliant work on how too much choice causes unhappiness did this talk.

Really worth the time this one I think:

I would say that it may seem we have to do Earth first or Space first however we will do both as too many cooks spoil the broth on projets, unused talent will insist on being productive in new areas.

 

[Cuddles]

The soon to come AI singularity will either solve all of these problems and/or end us in a relative snap. 3.7 billion+ years of evolution on Earth only serving to bootstrap artificial intelligence? Perhaps but we keep moving forward until then.

We will do both as we always do when crisis becomes undeniable. One of my closer relatives worked on project Tube Alloys / MAUD committee stuff in the UK. These got the Manhattan project started in the US. It always amazed me growing up how much got done in the few years of WWII and I do believe we need a bigger goal to unite the tribe. If I sit in a cafe and overhear one more conversation about website design for some moronic company (usually real-estate around here).. I may go mad

It does not mean there will be efforts some consider wasted. One my relative used to rail about all the time was the Norden bomb sight project as a total waste of resources. Back in 2011 Malcom Gladwell who did some brilliant work on how too much choice causes unhappiness did this talk.

Really worth the time this one I think:

I would say that it may seem we have to do Earth first or Space first however we will do both as too many cooks spoil the broth on projets, unused talent will insist on being productive in new areas.

Like I said, I'm for space exploration...hell even having a post here and there. Just the idea of colonizing non-viable planets strikes me as incredibly wasteful.

 

[Cuddles]

Double or triple the lifespan? We better eliminate all disease first and then figure out what the hell you're going to do for 200 years. Sure, if you're wealthy and heathy it's a great idea. For the other 95% of the population, not so much.

Because planetary colonizers will be from the ghetto and 3rd world favelas.

 

[Slartibartfast]

Like I said, I'm for space exploration...hell even having a post here and there. Just the idea of colonizing non-viable planets strikes me as incredibly wasteful.

We don't know if they are non-viable so we will cross that bridge when we come to it. What is doubtless is there will be some expeditions and from there we shall see if there are riches to plunder.

We can send the adventurous elderly as Al Frankin suggested

As I say to my kid facing any long project, there is nothing in any day that you can't do, we move forward even if some days seem sideways.

Speaking of which one of my girlfriend's doctoral students had been diagnosed with colon with liver cancer metastasis. 37, single mom with two kids. She is likely moving in with us during treatment. Kind of looking forward to being too busy to trade and certainly away from ET waffle for a bit

Once we solve cancer down here, probably make space a lot easier.

 

[Cuddles]

We don't know if they are non-viable so we will cross that bridge when we come to it. What is doubtless is there will be some expeditions and from there we shall see if there are riches to plunder.

We can send the adventurous elderly as Al Frankin suggested

As I say to my kid facing any long project, there is nothing in any day that you can't do, we move forward even if some days seem sideways.

Speaking of which one of my girlfriend's doctoral students had been diagnosed with colon with liver cancer metastasis. 37, single mom with two kids. She is likely moving in with us during treatment. Kind of looking forward to being too busy to trade and certainly away from ET waffle for a bit

Once we solve cancer down here, probably make space a lot easier.

That's awfully generous of you. I have close family with similar condition, and even though they're your blood, it gets tough. Be patient is all I can say