We Need Three Planets to Keep the Human Race Alive, NASA Scientist Says

Discussion in 'Science and Technology' started by Wolfman's Brother, Mar 21, 2014.

  1. Wolfman's Brother

    Wolfman's Brother Member

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    It’s no secret that uncurbed climate change and population growth are going to (and already have) put stress on the planet. But the situation is getting so bad that one prominent NASA scientist says we have to start thinking about terraforming Mars and that, in order for the human race to survive at current levels, we will eventually “need at least three planets.”

    Source: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/we...keep-the-human-race-alive-nasa-scientist-says
     
  2. RandomVegan

    RandomVegan Member

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    a much more practical solution (since we can't even get there, let alone terraform)

    Everyone live a simpler life
     
  3. happilyinlove

    happilyinlove with myself :p

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    Ya and let people die naturally instead of transplants, chemical therapy, and mandating healthcare for all. :p
     
  4. deleted

    deleted Visitor

    not necessary when spacecrafts are the size of the super dome..
     
  5. Asmodean

    Asmodean Slo motion rider

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    Yep!

    ?
     
  6. happilyinlove

    happilyinlove with myself :p

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    What's the question?
     
  7. NoxiousGas

    NoxiousGas Old Fart

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    Yeah but that may be too little too late.
     
  8. NoxiousGas

    NoxiousGas Old Fart

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    Modern medicine certainly is a two edged sword to say the least.
     
  9. bird_migration

    bird_migration ~

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    There are hundreds of billions of planets in the universe (conservative estimate).
    I'd say let's terraform a few of them.
    :2thumbsup:
     
  10. Justin_Hale

    Justin_Hale ( •_•)⌐■-■ ...(⌐■_■)

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    And can replicate food, replacement organs, etc.

    It's being worked on right now.

    Tool replication example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ-aWFYT_SU"]ZCorp's 3D Printer replicates a wrench - YouTube

    A few weeks ago I read that a small living human kidney lasted for months after being 3D printed.
     
  11. NoxiousGas

    NoxiousGas Old Fart

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    They can easily "print" organs......if people can pull their collective heads out of their ass about stem cells.
    With stem cells and a simple biomatrix or scaffolding to seed it on, they can/will be able to grow just about any organ.
     
  12. AceK

    AceK Scientia Potentia Est

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    The conservatives seem to want to impede the progress of science and keep people in the dark ages. Not that either party isn't totally full of shit but at least Obama supports funding of the scientific community.


    Idk....we gotta find something new. Terraforming mars would take 150 years so we better start now. And Venus and mercury I don't think could ever be habitable. Beyond Mars those planets are way too cold, and the gravity way too strong for the human body to be able to survive.

    Apparently in just 500 years at the current rate of population growth, the entire earth would have to be completely urbanized with a density like that of Manhattan. This work obviously not be sustainable. The density of cities would have to get extremely high (like that of Kowloon walled city, the densest place on earth where you can't even see the sky.)

    I think eventually the population growth will level off or slow though after a certain point when there's not enough resources available...or when there's not enough job/money to go around and a lot of people just simply die because they can't afford to eat because 1% of the privileged population is hogging everything and they couldn't give 2 shits about anyone but their sorry selves.

    What a terrible world :/
     
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  13. RandomVegan

    RandomVegan Member

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    seriously? I must have slept through the launch of that, het lets start shipping people off planet now that we have those.
     
  14. volunteer_tommy

    volunteer_tommy Elongated Member

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    Quoted for truth.

    Now if I can ever get the damn stretch marks to leave my legs... yeah. Well, coulda been worse
     
  15. themnax

    themnax Senior Member

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    based on the really dumb assumption that we want human population to keep increasing. yes we would need three now to be sustainably comfortable for as many as we have now. but that's not what's going to happen.

    famine and disease from climate change will come within an inch of wiping out the human species, if we don't change some of our ways, which we have every technology we need that we could.

    if it wipes us out completely, it will be several million years, at least, before furry sapiens evolves.

    i see a number of possible scenarios. we convert to clean energy and transportation now, and avoid most of the pain. there will still be serious famines and disease. we've gone too far down this garden path to prevent this entirely. but we can still reduce the depth of the problem.
    or
    we can go on as we are, as long as it remains possible to at all. this will very nearly guarantee the complete destruction of the species. nearly but not entirely.
    following this course there will be a period of several decades of deep famine and pandemic, from which a very small gene pool MAY survive. to rebuild a civilization nature will have been able to largely reclaim. personally i would live to be alive in that rebuilding period, after the apocalypse of suffering will have run its course.
    or
    humanity as a species will have wiped itself out completely, and several million years later, sapience evolves from other species, or perhaps several of them.

    could some remnant survive by fleeing to some other world?
    this is a complete unknown, and, even if it were to happen, will have little or now effect on the 99% left behind.

    because even if we could build starships that could carry thousands, and blasted one off from the earth every minuet, they would still not be enough to even keep up with the rate of population increase as it stands now. not even put a dent in the numbers of those already living.

    so might i not humbly suggest, it just might be a really good idea, to stop putting little green pieces of paper ahead of the future of humanity?
     
  16. trndpage2006

    trndpage2006 Member

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    a Little more about how we get there,and what it will take,
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiKf0E7iqno"]NASA - Science Lecture: Humans Living on Mars - YouTube
     
  17. HippieDude76

    HippieDude76 Member

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    Do these 3 planets consist of assholes that control the resources, pollute them and use them inefficiently and hold them over peoples' heads? Or is it 3 planets that have a more equal distribution of wealth, resources and education that manage the resources and use them in a more efficient manner. If the latter is the case we may only need 1!!!
     
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  18. Asmodean

    Asmodean Slo motion rider

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    What they mean is we need 3 planets to keep our current way of life alive. Not the human race. Or if we interprete the word race differently as in the rat race: then yes we need more planets to keep racing. I'm not racing though :)
     
  19. Reality is BS

    Reality is BS Member

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    In spite of what this guy says I predict the humans will stubbornly cling to life. The doomsayers are nothing new and have always been wrong. Their track record is as bad as the religious types and their nonsense about Jesus coming back.
     
  20. seaurchin1986

    seaurchin1986 Guest

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    @reality is BS I do believe humans will cling on but let's be realistic, the ones who survive will be the rich ones. Actualy I'm pretty sure thats why we continue to f*ck up the planet - the rich people running the oil companies etc probably already have a back up plan for themselves.
     

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