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Comment by leobg | Hacker News Reader

> Mr. Musk explained that his plan was to colonize Mars to escape overpopulation and other dangers on Earth.

I don’t think Musk has ever been worried about overpopulation. The opposite is true.

Such a silly argument to make for settling other planets. No matter how bad earth is going to get due to climate change, it's still a million times more livable than the toxic hellscapes that both the Moon and Mars are.

Also, outerspace is not some lawless frontier akin to America in the 1800s it is governed by the, quite restrictive, Outer Space Treaty which doesn't even allow for claiming parts of a planet as sovereign territory.

In short, everyone who thinks settling outer space will save us from problems here on earth is extremely wrong along multiple axes.

Ah, but a Lunar or Martian colony provides the perfect opportunity for a billionaire to set up his pet dystopia in a place where everyone is dependent upon him for the essentials of life and can't leave.

You're absolutely right, everyone living there would be living in what's essentially a really terrible company town. One where your boss has direct control over your oxygen supply.

I'm really not sure why anyone thinks space colonies are a good idea

Space colonies are the worst idea possible until they’re not. And that on a very large timescale, having that humans survive that long. For now it’s absolutely pointless to think we could pull it off. It’s still a good subject to explore in the Scifi genre

Kinda like our situation here on Earth with all of our corrupt politicians and their tall tales of democracy, our most sacred institution.

These toxic hellscapes also add up to less than a third of the Earth's total surface area, so even in the best case scenario they couldn't hold a whole lot of people. And regarding overpopulation, exponential population growth will outstrip any space colonization plan, so it really is a silly idea.

Human population growth isn't exponential thou. And my understanding is that people who study human population growth believe that it will slow in future. But yeah, still a silly idea :o)

Surely you can’t believe the outer space treaty will be followed once interplanetary travel is actually possible.

If someone like Elon Musk were to liquidate all their earth assets to lead a mission to mars to start a permanent colony there what actions do you think would happen to stop him? What consequences would he face once he staked out “muskland” with some other settlers?

Yeah, this. "Law" is meaningless unless it can be enforced.

At least if we can settle toxic hellscapes then the future Earth should be easy.

I think climate change has the potential to f up us in the next 10 years. Assuming that happens I could picture a world where the likes of Bezos and Musk run the show. The Pinkerton's of the 21st century.

I don’t think Musk and Bezos would run any show having the chaos ensuing in such a situation. Their wealth will melt too.

Musk claimed that we need to copulate more because the Earth needs more children: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/07/elon-musk-civilization-will-...

Aside from the obvious contradiction, this only makes sense if you have people of certain persuasion in mind. This guy ran out of chances to prove he is not a racist.

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