Yeesh sounds like you are down on humanity generally, referring to the growth of our civilization as “metastasizing” like it’s a cancer. I don’t expect that expanding into space will solve any big metaphysical problems or anything, but you shouldn’t turn your nose up so quickly at the benefits of growth. The first space settlements beyond little research outposts probably will be some kind of resource extraction, since any human settlement needs to be economically viable and that’s what they’ve got up there. I’d be very happy to make the world a lot richer with cheap raw materials while reducing the need for environmentally damaging mining on Earth where there’s an environment to damage.
Reckless growth of an aspect(humans) of a larger but still finite organism(Earth’s ecosystem) that aspect is completely dependent on but indifferent to the damage its growth is doing, because it keeps doing it as it is its only imperative, is what metastatic cancer does.
I know our species worships the idea of infinite growth/metastasis with reckless abandon as fast as we can, but that recklessness has consequences.
That analogy makes nonsense of your description of humanity metastasizing into space though - the equivalent being a cancer expanding and gathering resources from outside of the body it’s embedded in? If anything it’s the obvious solution to the problem of our putting too much strain on Earth’s ecosystem - let us spread that strain to other worlds where there’s no ecosystem to damage.
We haven’t learned how to care for one another or the very air we breathe, and have very little interest in doing so, so I’m sure mastering strip mining the death void despite not learning how to crawl or walk as a species will go spectacularly 👍
Yeesh sounds like you are down on humanity generally, referring to the growth of our civilization as “metastasizing” like it’s a cancer. I don’t expect that expanding into space will solve any big metaphysical problems or anything, but you shouldn’t turn your nose up so quickly at the benefits of growth. The first space settlements beyond little research outposts probably will be some kind of resource extraction, since any human settlement needs to be economically viable and that’s what they’ve got up there. I’d be very happy to make the world a lot richer with cheap raw materials while reducing the need for environmentally damaging mining on Earth where there’s an environment to damage.
https://apnews.com/article/climate-change-hot-world-meteorological-organization-6096b3b604025aea9dee07a653907b55
Reckless growth of an aspect(humans) of a larger but still finite organism(Earth’s ecosystem) that aspect is completely dependent on but indifferent to the damage its growth is doing, because it keeps doing it as it is its only imperative, is what metastatic cancer does.
I know our species worships the idea of infinite growth/metastasis with reckless abandon as fast as we can, but that recklessness has consequences.
Gotta love the true believers.
That analogy makes nonsense of your description of humanity metastasizing into space though - the equivalent being a cancer expanding and gathering resources from outside of the body it’s embedded in? If anything it’s the obvious solution to the problem of our putting too much strain on Earth’s ecosystem - let us spread that strain to other worlds where there’s no ecosystem to damage.
We haven’t learned how to care for one another or the very air we breathe, and have very little interest in doing so, so I’m sure mastering strip mining the death void despite not learning how to crawl or walk as a species will go spectacularly 👍
Remember, the answer is always mooooaaaaaar.
Well yes mooooooar economic growth has always been an incredibly positive thing for humanity and space based growth would be no different.