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Comment by bufbupa | Hacker News Reader

What a pessimistic outlook. People climb Everest for the challenge, not because its most convenient mountain. People sky dive, ski, mountain bike, and rock climb for the thrill of it. The men that crossed the Atlantic into the unknown in the face of near certain death are evangelized and their names taught to children in history books (there’s even a holiday for it!).

I think it’s a good thing that not all humans optimize for the most practical routes in life. It makes us more diverse and greater as a species, and pushes us to accomplish amazing feats that seem impractical on the surface. If everyone was optimizing for the lowest hanging fruits, who would invest in constructing the really tall ladders that future generations could build off of?

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

Embrace your inner childhood sense of adventure and wonder!

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> People climb Everest for the challenge, not because its most convenient mountain.

Notice that once they reach the summit, they don't stay very long. They don't plan on building a home there and plant potatoes.

Musk is not just talking about exploring mars in this paper. He's not talking about a Everest-like challenge. He's talking about colonization, which in the eyes of many, is extremely premature at best, completely delusional at worst.

>Notice that once they reach the summit, they don't stay very long. They don't plan on building a home there and plant potatoes.

If it was allowed, someone would have tried.

There are plenty of places on Earth that people explored, tried to colonize, and failed.

Australia for instance, is mostly empty for this very reason[1]. Why would mars be easier to colonize than Australia?

1. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3320021/Maps-just-Au...

Why does it being "easier" matter?

This is such a frail argument in my opinion. Have a look at Dubai for an example of what humanity is capable of when we put our effort into something. If we truly wanted to, we could colonize any area of the planet. We just have no real motive to do so. Colonizing Mars is just the next step for our species. It's going to force us to tackle some really, really big engineering and civil problems, but we're going to eventually get there because that's what we do. We explore and we create new civilizations. Always have, always will.

> Colonizing Mars is just the next step for our species.

Not quite. The next step is colonizing Earth. I agree we can do it if we really want to, and Dubai is a valid example. We may colonize mars in the future, but to me it doesn't make sense to try to do it now.

I’m not sure I follow. Should we not be impressed and respect someone capable of living off potatoes off the top of Everest? That would be incredible!

At the risk of using stale analogies: In the eyes of many, crossing the Atlantic was premature at best. In the eyes of many, summiting Everest is a waste of tens of thousands of dollars. In the eyes of many, free climbing is border-line delusional.

And that’s the point. This diversity of prioritization is what makes our species so great. Let the dreamers dream. I can see how you might want to make an argument that we shouldn’t publicly fund every naïve dreamer, but it seems difficult to argue that both NASA and Musk are idiots with how much they’ve already accomplished.

“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?”

NASA doesn't have the same objectives than Musk regarding mars. And I did not call Musk an idiot.

Look, I understand people can have dreams that I neither understand nor approve. As you correctly pointed out, as long as they don't divert tax payer money to fund them, I'm more or less fine with it.

Yet, when I see someone doing something that I consider silly, or even suicidal (for mars the term is almost appropriate), I feel compelled to at least say it loud. Like if I saw Franz Reichelt just before he jumped from the Eiffel tower[1]. I would say "don't do that, you'll kill yourself" and nobody should blame me for saying that. Well, in the case of the colonization of mars, to me that sounds like a terribly wasteful and dangerous idea, and I feel compelled to say it whenever the subject comes up.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gsnVntGoxM

Sorry, didn't mean to put words in your mouth. I think you made a fair point. I was just responding with the other side of the coin to bring a little yang to the yin :)

What about the second order effects of pushing humanity closer to becoming a full fledged space faring civilization? You don't find any value in that?

"They don't plan on building a home there and plant potatoes."

Maybe they don't. I totally would.

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