I appreciate the stab at the US empire, but if I may be serious for a moment: It makes no sense to come here to steal our shit when there’s countless stars and planets in the universe. I don’t even think it makes the least bit of sense for humans to ever go to Mars and mine minerals there, given the logistics involved. Any alien smart enough to come here is going to be smart enough to realize that going to the pub is way easier and more fun.
The only question you need to ask to determine practicality is, “What is the return on investment?” We don’t mine the seas or asteroids because they wouldn’t be worth it. However, as soon as the technology becomes cheap enough, you can bet that there will be investors putting money into extracting resources from those locations. The same principle applies to other planets – if it’s profitable, it will be pursued.
Launching spacecraft from earth and putting them into various orbits needs a lot of energy. It’s just going to be cheaper to mine stuff on earth or recycle. With fully automated robots and something as close as Mars and mining something super rare and valueable maybe, but it gets exponentially stupider when you need to send humans or go to another solar system.
You are right that it wouldn’t make much sense going to other solar systems or invading alien planets when there are so many minerals on asteroids and planets closer to Earth like Mars.
Yeah the artificial intelligence gurus are deluded. And don’t get me started on Kurzgesagt, those fucks think a couple of billion dead due to climate change is reason to be hopeful, and that Bill Gates’ investing in carbon capture is going to save the rest, because, err, magical thinking he gives them money.
For the same reasons we would visit them, for cultural exchange or to steal their resources in the case of the US empire.
I appreciate the stab at the US empire, but if I may be serious for a moment: It makes no sense to come here to steal our shit when there’s countless stars and planets in the universe. I don’t even think it makes the least bit of sense for humans to ever go to Mars and mine minerals there, given the logistics involved. Any alien smart enough to come here is going to be smart enough to realize that going to the pub is way easier and more fun.
The only question you need to ask to determine practicality is, “What is the return on investment?” We don’t mine the seas or asteroids because they wouldn’t be worth it. However, as soon as the technology becomes cheap enough, you can bet that there will be investors putting money into extracting resources from those locations. The same principle applies to other planets – if it’s profitable, it will be pursued.
Launching spacecraft from earth and putting them into various orbits needs a lot of energy. It’s just going to be cheaper to mine stuff on earth or recycle. With fully automated robots and something as close as Mars and mining something super rare and valueable maybe, but it gets exponentially stupider when you need to send humans or go to another solar system.
The maximum likelihood estimate date for AGI according to metaculus is 2027
After we achieve AGI you don’t need to send humans anywhere because a robot could do anything a human can and probably better.
And this Kurzgesagt video explains how asteroid mining could be done. Unlimited Resources From Space – Asteroid Mining
You are right that it wouldn’t make much sense going to other solar systems or invading alien planets when there are so many minerals on asteroids and planets closer to Earth like Mars.
Yeah the artificial intelligence gurus are deluded. And don’t get me started on Kurzgesagt, those fucks think a couple of billion dead due to climate change is reason to be hopeful, and that Bill Gates’ investing in carbon capture is going to save the rest, because, err,
magical thinkinghe gives them money.