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ArchAngel_X
If humanity is to get into actual space colonization, it won't be for the quest for knowledge or the exploration of the unknown; forget those awesome Star Trek plots based on voyages merely based on the premise "to go where no man has gone before", the real world (sadly) doesn't work like that.
You don't get into space on hopes and ambitions alone. You need money. Lots of it. Much more than you're probably thinking of right now. And no one is going to back such a venture unless they can make a profit off of it. So instead of selling the potential future of humanity on the high ideals of peaceful exploration and becoming interstellar trailblazers, focus on the one thing potential investors care about: how they can make money off of it!
Asteroid mining, He3 fusion power on the Moon, zero-gravity molecular engineering, anything that can be turned into the next consumer 'must-have' product or service that they can market, embezzle, trademark or embargo to their heart's content. We don't need astronauts and scientists selling this idea to potential investors; we need pitchmen! Guys in off-the-rack suits and clip-on ties, loaded with caffeine and flop sweat as they stumble through cue card presentations, telling the millionaires that they'll double - no, TRIPLE - their initial investments within five years.
That's how we'll colonize space. Anything else will fall short.
Millionaires don't care about the survival of humanity. They don't care about exploration. They aren't interested in enlightening our understanding of science, physics or the cosmos. They're only interested in adding more zeroes and commas to their bank accounts, so we have to play to that. Then once we get into space in order to hollow-out orbiting celestial bodies and start polluting other planets so we feel right at home, colonization will naturally follow suit.
Zanti Misfit
ArchAngel_X
If humanity is to get into actual space colonization, it won't be for the quest for knowledge or the exploration of the unknown; forget those awesome Star Trek plots based on voyages merely based on the premise "to go where no man has gone before", the real world (sadly) doesn't work like that.
You don't get into space on hopes and ambitions alone. You need money. Lots of it. Much more than you're probably thinking of right now. And no one is going to back such a venture unless they can make a profit off of it. So instead of selling the potential future of humanity on the high ideals of peaceful exploration and becoming interstellar trailblazers, focus on the one thing potential investors care about: how they can make money off of it!
Asteroid mining, He3 fusion power on the Moon, zero-gravity molecular engineering, anything that can be turned into the next consumer 'must-have' product or service that they can market, embezzle, trademark or embargo to their heart's content. We don't need astronauts and scientists selling this idea to potential investors; we need pitchmen! Guys in off-the-rack suits and clip-on ties, loaded with caffeine and flop sweat as they stumble through cue card presentations, telling the millionaires that they'll double - no, TRIPLE - their initial investments within five years.
That's how we'll colonize space. Anything else will fall short.
Millionaires don't care about the survival of humanity. They don't care about exploration. They aren't interested in enlightening our understanding of science, physics or the cosmos. They're only interested in adding more zeroes and commas to their bank accounts, so we have to play to that. Then once we get into space in order to hollow-out orbiting celestial bodies and start polluting other planets so we feel right at home, colonization will naturally follow suit.
Yes , you see my Point . Sad Really........M-O-N-E-Y .The ONLY PRIME DIRECTIVE
MysterX
reply to post by darkbake
I'm just fed up that we are not already a multi-planet species.
TrueBrit
Our survival in the future will rely far more on our ability to move around the cosmos, than it ever will on how easily we can kill each other, and despite that, all the resources at the moment seem focused in that deadly direction, rather than on the lofty goals that will see our aspirations realised ,and see our survival come to pass in the future.