Science Fiction Genre - Religion vs Scientific Origins, and the Nature of Self Destruction

[DesertDan]

And there will be plenty of people who will line up to take the risk. The only thing holding up the process is the spaceage equivalent of the Conestoga wagon.

Colonization has always had a high body count consisting primarily of "untrained" average joes and janes. If the human race is ever to be successful in colonizing our solar system it will be no different.

 

[BlueTrain]

If there is a better reason for going than there is for staying behind, then it may eventually happen. The discovery of gold would help.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

And there will be plenty of people who will line up to take the risk. The only thing holding up the process is the spaceage equivalent of the Conestoga wagon.

Colonization has always had a high body count consisting primarily of "untrained" average joes and janes. If the human race is ever to be successful in colonizing our solar system it will be no different.

I don't think you can compare colonizing the earth, which after all has air, food & water & we have evolved to live on this planet, to colonizing our solar system, which we know to be void of all things life, & that includes us, need to exist. If we were at the stage where folk were whizzing around space at phenominal speeds in huge spacecraft, equiped with all mod cons & had gravity similar to earth's,(zero gravity isn't too good for biological tissue) then yes, the colonization of other planets may be feasable but we are only at the push bike stage as far as space travel is concerned. Besides, building space stations on the moon or Mars would be extremely expensive & pointless unless there was a real ambition regarding space exploration & secured funding behind it.
Space travel is also a billion light years away from any Joe or Jane deciding to hop on a wagon train & seek a better life elsewhere. Anybody going into space are & will probably always be, chosen & selected with specific required qualities ......it isn't like taking a bus, everyone & everything has to have a reason to be onboard a space vessel.

Colonization has always had a high body count consisting primarily of "untrained" average joes and janes. .

European colonization has always had a high body count consisiting primarily of " native inhabitants"

 

[DesertDan]

Nonetheless it will be done, if not by the western nations than by the eastern.
I believe it was Robert Heinlein who pointed out that there was no rule that said the lingua franca of space colonization must be English.

 

[Edward]

This is looking more and more likely:

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/there-is-a-20-chance-we-are-living-in-the-matrix.21121/

I like the idea, as long as it means we can hack the system so I can lsoe wight, eat what I like, and have a better wardrobe...

Yesterday Elon Musk outlined his plan to colonize Mars within the next couple of decades. It's straight out of Heinlein. No candyass NASA program to send 3 or 4 astronauts and bring them back. He wants to send thousands at once and they stay there until they can manufacture fuel for a return voyage. Say what you will about the man, he dreams big and he's serious. He actually plans to do it. But it took that work by Heinlein and the other SF writers of his era to get the idea into peoples'heads.

The first known sighting of a vehicle with a warning sound to indicate that it is reversing hooked up to the reverse gear was in Blade Runner. I do firmly believe that an awful lot of things we see in scif-i have an influence, insofar as it only takes one person seeing itg and thinking "cool idea" who has the skillset to make it a reality...

 

[MisterCairo]

Nonetheless it will be done, if not by the western nations than by the eastern.
I believe it was Robert Heinlein who pointed out that there was no rule that said the lingua franca of space colonization must be English.

Most likely to be Mandarin now...

 

[Benny Holiday]

Most likely to be Mandarin now...

Not sure if you watched or were/are a fan of the series Firefly, but when it came out nearly 20 years ago, I thought it was kind of believable that the Alliance that ruled the star systems depicted in the future was a mix of China and the USA.

All these years later, and with all the trouble Australia is having with China politically and economically these days(trying to skirt the political side of it ll here), as an Aussie the prospect of the CCP in space is not a happy one.

 

[MisterCairo]

Huge fan of the show and film Serenity, and equally terrified of Communist China. Why Canada maintains a naval base in Halifax Nova Scotia vice moving it all to Esquimalt British Columbia is beyond me.

Not sure if you watched or were/are a fan of the series Firefly, but when it came out nearly 20 years ago, I thought it was kind of believable that the Alliance that ruled the star systems depicted in the future was a mix of China and the USA.

All these years later, and with all the trouble Australia is having with China politically and economically these days(trying to skirt the political side of it ll here), as an Aussie the prospect of the CCP in space is not a happy one.

 

[Tiki Tom]

I have never been interested in the type of space travel that we are currently capable of. It sounds about as glamorous and comfortable as camping in a car above the Arctic Circle. But apparently there is no shortage of volunteers for colonizing Mars. At some point a valuable mineral will be found on the red planet, and then the turf wars will begin up there too. On the other hand, I was just reading an article about the population decline that China is supposedly facing (along with a huge jump in the percentage of old people who will need to be supported) and suddenly China doesn’t seem as big of a threat as I had feared.

 

[Harp]

Nonetheless it will be done, if not by the western nations than by the eastern.
I believe it was Robert Heinlein who pointed out that there was no rule that said the lingua franca of space colonization must be English.

China's space exploration is at best nascent, and, frankly ill defined when considered with more pressing terrestrial
issues she faces on planet Earth. Lingua franca for solar safari is cash; language ancillary but an easily learned less
complicated tongue. Also, inductive thought is not hard reasoned analytical. Techno-piracy temporarily enabled
Beijing but will not sustain Sino ambitions. And the pandemic fallout will have consequences for China whether she
wishes it or not, while the Occident is awakening from its slumber.
Lastly, enslavement is hardly conducive to enlightened exploration.

 

[MikeKardec]

enslavement is hardly conducive to enlightened exploration.

I agree with you ... about the "enlightened" part. But space exploration seems rife with the possibilities of slavery. Astronauts are trapped and EVERYTHING even air is a commodity that can be denied. Scary.

Lingua franca for solar safari is cash

Perhaps as a joke, someone has started some sort of referendum to deny Jeff Bezos "reentry" once he has left the earth. An amusing use of the term.

 

[Harp]

I agree with you ... about the "enlightened" part. But space exploration seems rife with the possibilities of slavery. Astronauts are trapped and EVERYTHING even air is a commodity that can be denied. Scary.

China enslaves herself, indigenous native, others within society and gulag; utilizes whatever means
necessary to achieve objectives. But space colonization for reasons cited and more, exploration beyond
nominal martial purpose, isn't consonant with her particular brand of communism.

Covid-19 if anything, served notice worldwide. Occident insular bewilderment and all the asinine pablum
philosophy run amok in the West, particularly universities are due for awakening soon if not sooner.