Stephen Hawking recently said that he thought humans needed to start colonizing space in response to threats such as nuclear war, global warming and other doomsday scenarios.
Count me out.
As my column Friday suggested, who really wants to live on Mars? It’s a dreary, barren place.
Instead of trying to run away into space, we’d be better off figuring out how to live successfully together here on this lovely planet.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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28 Comments
In principle, I agree with you Randy. We best treat this place as the only home we have and treat it accordingly. Their is no other even remotely hospitable alternative and even a dog is smart enough to not sh.. in its bed.
But the idea of hedging our bets with the future of the human race in mind DOES have merit. There are biosphere and species extincting threats over which we HAVE no control like a massive comet or asteroid impact or a global pathogen.
Too it would serve the inhabitants of this world to view it from the Moon or a space station or Mars. It would deprovincialize thinking and remind us that we exist on awonderful but woefully alone place; a “pale blue dot” (credit Carl Sagan) in an endless ocean of darkness.
Let’s do both. Let’s appreciate and preserve our home and spread ourselves out. It is the obligation we owe to our billions of years of evolution. We can. So we should.
We are just one of many species on earth. Do we build a Star Trek version of Noah’s Ark?
No Joe.
We protect the Earth as best we can and as the highest evolved living organism of it do our best to insure our own survival. Also we use our technology to insure the genetic survival of every species we can. This is called stewarship.
Hey, don’t knock Mars. Bush could build a prison there and nobody could hear anybody scream.
“It’s a dreary, barren place.”
The same could be said about a lot of Kansas.
I’ve heard that joke about Oklahoma.
Q: What does Mars and Oklahoma have in common?
A: Nothing but red dirt and no sign of intelligent life.
Count you out? Okay, you can stay here with the half breeds like Ian.We’re only taking pure whities to our new utopian society in the sky.
And besides, why would anyone listen to one of the most intelligent people alive?Isn’t he just another one of the lefty nutballs?Why DOES he hate earth?
Joe’s post reminds me of the old college-bar graffiti: “If I owned hell and Oklahoma, I’d rent out Oklahoma.”
I think Mars is probably quite a bit more barren than any place in Oklahoma or Kansas, though.
Randy’s column reminds me of an interesting scifi novel called “Spin,” by RC Wilson.
FYI, I read that it may have been a part of Mar striking the earth that caused Oklahoma’s red clay. It seem both are quite similar in their make up. There is a study going on to determine if it is the case and at one time perhaps the Earth and Marr did collided.
OK that or them there damn space aliens do not wipe their feet! Oklahoma being the number one place for the aliens to hun’t for human beings to exparIment on!Why just the other day my friend Bill he came home late at night, His wife was waiting up and said “Bill ya no good’n drunk again fool! What there an’t no clock at that damn bar?” He said ” Nahhhh, thats an’t it, I was abductedd by them there space aliens! Thry did’t some sexually exparlments on me! That I would not like to talk about! That there is the reason ya be smell whiskey see thay do not have rubb’n al-key-hal to stair-real-eyes them there sexually exparlmental in-star-mint So they use Kentucky bourbon!”.
I knows this to be the God honest truth, because Bill told me what happen later that night when he woke me up to ask if he could sleep on my couch !
Joe, That was pretty good!
Here’s one for you:
Q: What’s an Oklahoman?
A: A Kansan on his way to Texas.
Q: What’s a Texan?
A: An oklahoman who got lost.
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge…………..Stephen Hawking
“It’s a dreary, barren place.”
The same could be said about a lot of Kansas.”
Only by those who are dumb enough to live in a location they hate.
It’s only a matter of time before most life gets wiped out again on earth, it’s happened at least 3 times since it’s birth. Probably not in our lifetime, but at some point in the future a big meteorite will hit or Yellowstone will blow. It makes sense to look elsewhere if mankind wants to survive, plus the technology we gain from such exploits is valuble to our life on earth.
Thank you Damoon.We’re NOT talking about only man made problems, Stephen is also talking about end of the world stuff that is uncontrollable and unpredictable.Don’t let the religious fundies get ahold of this issue, or they’ll be lobbying for a ban on space travel because it doesn’t fall in line with their wishes for an apocalyptic end to mankind.
Back when I was in scouts, we were admonished to leave a campsite better than we found it. Same thing applies here. We shouldn’t abandon this planet until we’ve fixed it!
Nobody wants to abandon Earth, all Hawking is saying is that we should be prepared in case we HAVE to, due to things beyond our control.
It’s happened on Earth several times before. I guess we can be caught up in the 6th extinction or will it be the 7th?
While you guys are talking about the end of the world I will be preparing for the zombie attack.
We’ll see which happens first.
So we’re NOT supposed to be prepared?Hmmmm……………..Bury your head in the sand if you please!
Well, don’t get me wrong, I am preparing for the second coming of Christ.
Yeah Nathan, you don’t have to worry about screwing up the world, you got Jesus to bail you out when you find yourself up to your neck in trash!
Jed,
I don’t worry about screwing up the world because I try my best not to.
You might try going to some other countries some day Jed, when you get back to America you will see that we do a pretty good job of keeping things clean.
SOME Americans do a pretty good job. Like Oregonians who took a cesspool Willamette River and restored it to water that you can swim in and that supports salmon and steelhead. They did that in the 1970’s. The Arkansas and its tributaries are still coliform contaminated. Of course there is also downtown Wichita’s Superfund site designation, that locals promised to clean up on their own without federal intervention, but failed to do. nice bs’ing job.
Okay, logically speaking, how long could live be sustained on another planet without the the help of NASA or another countries space program? If everyone on earth were wiped out by some terrible event, what makes anyone think that they could indefinitely survive elsewhere? I don’t see it happening for the long-haul.
I’ll take my chances here on earth. Death is not always the worst option — especially if you know the Lord.
Its difficult to disagree with Stephen Hawking considering he is a world renowned scientist, a theoretical physicist and one of the most brilliant persons living today. Of course, he is also a victim of ALS so can’t walk or talk without electronic support.
So here’s my suggestion short of sending Stephen Hawking, himself, out in space which would be difficult considering his disability.
Assemble DNA samples of Mr. Hawkings brain tissue and also DNA of male/female reproducible couples of all nationalities plus the same of all other species including giant 100 pound catfish from the Cottonwood River up in Chase County.
Also include representative samples of the 110 or so elements from the table of elements. Everything in the universe is made from these basic elements. Yes, I know, the elements above atomic number 89 or so must be synthesized in a laboratory and only exist for milliseconds. But here I leave details to other WE bloggers such as CF and Joe Williams.
Then encase this collection in millions of identical microscopic droplets of AMBER to be hurtled into outer space by an Atlas-type rocket.
Hopefully this collection of Amber modules will escape our solar system and, indeed, the Milky Way prior to another Big Bang or catastrophe that eliminates life as we know it today.
Over millions of years this esoteric collection encased in amber will drift across billions and trillions and, yes, even zillions of miles of space until one day it lands on a receptive planet in a solar system much like ours.
As these life giving seeds begin to develop over the next billion years who knows what evolutionary developments might take place. Presumably water will develop from the combining of seeds of hydrogen and oxygen elements. As plants grow in the water, more oxygen will be produced in the oceans and atmosphere. The seeds from Stephen Hawking’s great brain will search out the brains of living species to inhabit to rule over other life on the new-born planet.
Another billion years will go by until I foresee the following scenerio.
Standing in the water almost up to their chins would be evolutionary human clones of George Bush, Jimmy Carter, Hillary Clinton and Saddam Hussein.
Nearby on a small island, King Catfish and several associate Catfish, all with the Hawking brains, are lounging around, supervising the human beings at their work. King Catfish comments to his companions, “Do you think our success here is totally due to the principals of EVOLUTION or could some INTELLIGENT DESIGN be involved here also?”
I suspect that Dr. Hawking wasn’t seriously proposing space colonization, because it isn’t technologically feasible in the near future. I think he was trying to get people to consider not destroying our planet, in an oblique, unconventional way.
I think he’s serious about a LONG term plan, say over the next 100 yrs.