A City on Mars ends with a kind of call to action. The point is that we have a tiny space station, and we have the potential to build a lot of experimental facilities on Earth where we can investigate some of the practical problems. Let’s get the biology and engineering right before we send people to Mars.
The authors aren’t against colonization. They’re against hasty, uninformed, reckless attempts.
Plugging our ears and going “NYAAAAAA” isn’t going to help. We need pragmatists to ask hard questions to cover all the bases, and force us to anticipate problems. Being aware of potentially fatal issues isn’t “doomscrolling”.
The authors aren’t saying that we should never, ever try to colonize Mars. They’re only saying that there are a LOT of questions to answer before we try.
Yes… many years later, and while those lawsuits were slowly being resolved, Microsoft was busy laying the groundwork for other bullshit that was unethical but not technically illegal.
If you actually expect a solution in a reasonable amount of time, either invent time travel or spoof Chrome.
This is as close as you can come to committing an act or war while still leaving yourself enough room to wiggle out of it. Apparently the world is going to wait until the Chinese navy actually kills someone before doing something.
I don’t see admitting that I’m wrong as a weakness, and I’m not afraid to be the first to make a “concession”. I had a very few arguments on reddit turn into something positive (to the surprise of both parties) because I admitted I had made an incorrect assumption, my reasoning was flawed, or whatever. That made it “okay” for the other individual to admit they had made a mistake, too. Importantly, I didn’t use that as an opportunity to judge, criticize, or attack them. From there, we had a real conversation. It didn’t happen often, but it was great when it did!
Of course, most of the time people made cheap insults or just ignored me, but I was okay with that, too. Sure, it was disappointing, but the whole conversation was right there for anyone who wanted to read it. At least I wasn’t the one who looked like a petty asshole.
I’ve often had the same question as OP. I’ve read and understood the replies in this thread, and some of them are very good. I understand the points being made, but I still don’t get it, ya know? Everybody is wrong sometimes. There’s absolutely no shame in it, and it’s completely unrealistic to pretend that you never are. Plus, by keeping an open mind, being wrong is a fantastic way to learn!
“Above everything, including profit, X works to protect the public’s right to free speech. But for speech to be truly free, we must also have the freedom to see or hear things that some people may consider objectionable,” he added.
It’s important to note that one of Musk’s lawyers, not Musk himself, made this statement. That’s because lawyers are immune to levels of irony that would be lethal to an ordinary human.
Rattlesnake. Not bad, but totally unremarkable - tasted like chicken. Still, I’d recommend it, because the best thing about it is getting to say you’ve eaten rattlesnake.
100% agree. I was at a festival, saw a stand selling “ostrich steak” sandwiches, which I’d never heard of before. I figured I’d try it. The meat, which was served on a hoagie roll, looked and tasted like London broil. Good stuff! I’m surprised it’s not more common!
Did we even read the same article?
The authors aren’t against colonization. They’re against hasty, uninformed, reckless attempts.