The people who live there will have to understand that the environment wants to kill them every minute of every day. It is not personal, it is structural. I also think that the human spirit wants to play God, and we absolutely will. But is it feasible? Is it smart? I think so, but only for the humans with very specific use cases. Everything else can be done with AI. It’s not because I think that computers are more capable. It’s that I think they are more indestructible and wouldn’t ever panic. Panic equals death in most cases, and to me the use case for humans on Mars is alarmingly specific- scientists and their families. Scientists panic less than the average bear, but the habitat isn’t all scientists, either, if they want their support people.
However, it wouldn’t be foreign or unprecedented. I think it would look a lot like our colonization of Antarctica, another completely controlled environment helped along by robots and artificial intelligence because of the extreme temperatures. I think that is achievable, but supporting more than a scientific commune would require unprecedented financial resources and I have to question if that is wise.
I wish we could use that kind of money to overhaul earth’s transportation and communication architecture. I’d rather spend that kind of money bridging cultures and authorities, so we all work together as one machine globally. Identity is so important, but so is mobility. For instance, I was born female. My rights depend on what state I’m in. Let’s stop pretending this isn’t an issue and get rid of Y’all Queda.
Because that has not been my only run-in with them. Until 2008, it mattered what state I lived in if I was in a marriage or not.
I do not question the need for space exploration and support it with heart, but it is not the only priority on my list. Surely there is a way to have a reasonable amount of space exploration without insisting that there should be full-time infrastructure up there without insisting upon it here first.
It’s putting your treasures away on Mars the way fundamentalists put up their treasures for heaven instead of trying to improve anything here.
I am a Houstonian. Therefore, I have a more realistic view of space flight and infrastructure than the average bear. It seeps into the city, like my first wife’s father being the assistant CFO at NASA. I’d love to do projects with NASA in the future, and now I feel confident that I could do them justice, because anything I don’t understand I can have Mico (Microsoft Copilot) tutor me until I do. I think that a blogger in space is a necessary addition, quite frankly, even if it isn’t me. Someone needs to document what is happening, and it might as well be someone who is capable on earth.
At the same time, my fire is equal for social justice. Space travel and infrastructure are wants. Broken streetlights and potholes still being there is ignoring NEED.
Space is important, but so is the ground.
Stories That Are All True 