Hacker News Reader

Comment by ljm | Hacker News Reader

If I move to Mars and my only contact with Earth is via Twitter over Starlink in Elon’s Hyperverse, then I think I’ll take my chances with the climate catastrophe on Earth. Death would be more merciful.

View on HN

Off topic, but I heard it said that Earth in the worst case of climate catastrophe would still be far more habitable than Mars. Seems to make sense.

If we could build a "bubbled" city on Mars, we could do it on Earth far more cheaply, it seems.

I'm not sure if that is the same case if a meteor strikes.

A bubbled city on mars will not be immune to climate refugees. It's about how many bubbles we would need, and how many people might not fit.

And it's easier to ignore people on another planet. Empathy does not survive distance, and on Earth even a wall is enough to remove empathy.

It's a bit depressing that Zardoz[1] might suddenly become a relevant piece of social commentary. If we get to the point where we need to choose who gets to be inside or outside of the bubble our ethical codes are going to collapse.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zardoz

Follow up to off-topic. I have also thought the arcologies of Sim City 3000 or the unexplained environment in the Black Mirror episode "15 million merits"[1] are likely in our future.

0: https://simcity.fandom.com/wiki/Arcology

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteen_Million_Merits

I get it twitter is more like a firehouse of information being streamed at once. getting a message through that were someone would see who isn't a follower would be difficult.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com