Sidecar,
Putting s~~~ on every womans face on the planet might be more expensive that putting one guy on the moon, but Im quite sure putting all the women on the moon would be far more expensive (and unfortunately, not possible).
Twelve men have walked on the moon, not just one. And not a single woman. I don’t see a reason to change that X to 0 ratio. I’m more interested in seeing men walk on mars. Women would much rather put s~~~ on their faces. Which benefits humanity more?
In terms of the sun exploding (as far as I know it will only collapse, not explode), by then “humanity” will most likely not exist at all.
As the sun runs out of hydrogen it will start fusing heavier elements and expand outwards into a red giant slightly larger than the orbit of the earth. Only after that will it blow off most of its mass, including the absorbed mass of mercury, venus, and the earth, as heavier elemental dust leaving a white dwarf behind.
And yes, humanity most likely won’t exist any more by that point (we’ll be lucky to get another couple centuries, really), but that’s not the point. What matters is that the earth definitely has a fixed time limit, and humanity had better be well off it, one way or another, by that point.
I mean, we would have probably evolved some by then. And if by then we still dont care, I think we sorta deserve it.
Nah. We’ll be extinct. And deserve has nothing to do with anything.
Mining asteroids would not be a good idea. The huge initial cost is not the only problem:
Once you have the resources, and they would have to be in huge quantities to be worth it, their price will also drop dramatically.
Doesn’t matter. Whoever makes the huge initial investment will still reap inconceivable profits. The amount of just iron, never mind the other rarer metals, to be had from a single asteroid would put every single iron mine on the planet out of business. At that point the asteroid miners would be able to charge what they like but would still reap fantastic profits selling the iron at giveaway prices. So they become fabulously wealthy and meantime humanity as a whole become wealthier as well from practically free, near limitless metal. Imagine the era of the truly disposable car. It would basically destroy the current economy of scarcity, and that’s a good thing.
You can see this in everything: We got both Taxis and Buses. We got fast and high tech trains… but the old slow ones with cheaper tickets still run as well. We got lamborginis and honda civics. If we were to discover a NEW element that would make something possible we never dreamed about… maybe.
You logic is based on an economy of scarcity. A single asteroid turns that into an economy of abundance, and that changes all the rules.
There really is that much metal up there.
But we’ll never get it because the hungry welfare mobs don’t care about nearly free, forest preserving, strip mine closing, stainless steel housing tomorrow. They want their welfare check now. After all, we can’t ask them to quit having babies they can’t afford to feed, now can we? That would be racist / sexist / elitist / whateverist.
But you are right that starvation (or war)
Each leads to the other.
due to welfare collapse is the most likely scenario. So even if we disagree in the rest, Im sure it wont matter cus none of us will get to say “I Told you so” :D.
Maybe not, but I can tell people: “You’ll see…” And we’re starting to.
At $20 trillion in debt we’re a lot closer to the brink than people think.
