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Old July 19th 09, 04:13 AM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.physics
Marvin the Martian
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Default An American Colony on Mars!

On Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:54:42 -0400, Adam wrote:

On Sat, 18 Jul 2009 09:21:17 -0500, Marvin the Martian wrote:

Buzz Aldrin tells it like it is: the moon is a "dead end"!!

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/20...-Aldrin-calls-

for-
an-American-colony-on-Mars

Buzz Aldrin calls for "an American colony" on Mars by Magnifico
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at 01:49:51 PM PDT

Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the moon, writes in an opinion
piece at the Washington Post that "it is time we were bold again in
space."

Aldrin's vision, "Time to Boldly Go Once More", advocates creating an
American colony on Mars in 20 years. He believes if the United States
space program "avoided the pitfall of aiming solely for the moon, we
could be on Mars by the 60th anniversary year of our Apollo 11 flight."

Aldrin thinks NASA plans to re-explore the moon is a "dead end".
Instead, Aldrin says we should commit our nation to establishing "an
American colony" on Mars.


What is the motivation for "colonizing" space? Is it not the presumption
that we are going to foul this planet beyond repair; so we will need
another planet to foul?

Perhaps a civilization that is advanced enough to colonize space hows to
take care of their home planet and doesn't need to colonize space.
Perhaps a civilization that doesn't know how to take care of its home
planet shouldn't inflict itself on pristine worlds.


Personally, I don't take the view that humans "foul" everything they come
into contact, nor do I find much value in dead worlds that beg to be
colonized remaining dead.

What if we do find ET in our travels? Why do we suppose that he will be
benevolent rather than see us as a source of food?


I doubt ET will be a problem.

If ET is smart enough to find us, he'd realize that it takes far more
food to bring a human to any kind of slaughter weight than he gets back
as food, and that the same animals we eat; cows, pigs and chickens, are a
far better and less contaminated food source.

Lets face it, after a decade or so, human flesh gets a nasty taste.

We have lots of animals on this planet. How many do we want to socialize
with? Few - as pets. How many do we treat as equals? None. Most animals
on this planet are seen as food by one or more of our societies. Why
wouldn't ET see us as food? Because they respect our intelligence? Pigs
are smarter that horses. Which ends up on a dinner plate more often in
the West?


Not being a liberal, I don't find dumb animals to be on par or superior
to humans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Serv..._Twilight_Zone)

Maybe the "we are here" message sent with Voyager was a bad idea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record

Or maybe ET won't know what to do with a record anymore than many on
Earth do today.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102975/quotes Memorable quotes for
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Let us redefine progress to mean
that just because we can do a thing, it does not necessarily mean we
must do that thing.


Yeah.... I don't get my philosophy from impossible to exist star trek
societies.