• @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    91 year ago

    What makes life on another planet more worthwhile than life here? Also humans didn’t take that long to evolve so there’s plenty of opportunity for a successor to us to reach the stars in a way that causes less suffering. For that matter, we could have simply taken a couple hundred extra years to get there and reduced human suffering by like a thousandfold with a more equitable society. Bloody stupid capitalist nonsense.

    • @Sordid
      link
      11 year ago

      there’s plenty of opportunity for a successor to us to reach the stars

      No, there isn’t. We’ve already used up all the easily accessible sources of fossil fuels, so whoever comes after us won’t have the energy sources necessary to have an industrial revolution and will be stuck at a pre-industrial tech level forever.

      • Blyfh
        link
        2
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Great! So they’ll skip the fossil energy era and jump directly to renewables? We paved the path for them to avoiding another climate change.

        • @Sordid
          link
          1
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          We’re having quite a bit of trouble making that transition even with the benefits of a couple centuries of fossil-fueled industry. I find the idea of jumping directly from horse-drawn wagons to wind turbines and solar panels rather implausible.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        1
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        That’s right, if we kick the bucket, a new intelligent civilization would not have the resources to advance at our pace. They may figure out the atom, but they won’t have the resources to utilize their knowledge. Then there is the ever looming threat of a disaster, and these preindustrial civilizations will be wiped out with zero warning or preparation.

        Also: what are the chances a species similar to us in intelligence will emerge again on this rock? I’m going to bet it’s pretty darn tiny.

        • @Daft_ish
          link
          11 year ago

          You guys make some giant assumptions…

          • @Sordid
            link
            11 year ago

            Feel free to name one or two examples and show how and why they’re incorrect.

            • @Daft_ish
              link
              1
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              Write for me 4000 words on how technological advancement is a linear progression that always follows the same path and needs the same exact external stimuli to occur.

              • @Sordid
                link
                11 year ago

                4000 words? Oh please, that can be done in a hundredth of that: The laws of physics are constant, and more advanced technologies have energy requirements that must be met by preceding technologies. At the same time, each technology also has to offer enough tangible benefits to be worth pursuing on its own.

                • @Daft_ish
                  link
                  1
                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

                  Sorry, that is not what I asked for. The fact you won’t do it means you’re wrong.

                  • @Sordid
                    link
                    11 year ago

                    Feel free to make up the difference by rereading those two sentences a hundred times. Maybe that’ll be enough for the point to get through.