Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

> I find myself falling into this line of thought a lot: why should we make tradeoffs that favor the earth instead of hyper-accelerating progress to get off of it in preparation for its inevitable demise?

Get off and go where? Anywhere we could go is a million times worse for human habitation than post-demise Earth.




I think the idea is: assume sufficient technological advancement to be able to reach or even create countless other essentially exact replicas of earth? Barring that, plenty of ideas have been floated along the lines of extraterrestrial colonization and/or intergenerational spaceships.


If you are advanced enough to do that, you’re advanced enough to clean up Earth and make it a paradise.


I’m not arguing strongly in favor of “getting off it” so I’m not going to make much effort defending the position.

But I can imagine scenarios where we have to leave earth with intergenerational ships and only then acquire the ability to terraform, harness a star’s energy or travel at light speed.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: