Dear Kevin, Show some love and expand a little on these cryptic remarks that leave me puzzled.
Anna > On 30 Sep 2015, at 01:59, Kevin Carson <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Kim Stanley Robinson presented a pretty level-headed terraforming > scenario in the Mars Trilogy IMO. > > This article reflects a false "Green vs. Expert" dichotomy that is, > sadly, all too common on the Left. Being green and anti-capitalist > means, ipso facto, being at least a primativist lite. > >> On Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 7:53 PM, Eric Hunting <[email protected]> wrote: >> What Musk was describing in this interview is a concept sometimes called >> 'ballistic terraforming' and which can be achieved in a variety of ways. >> Musk chose to refer to a method that sounds more realistic to most people; >> nuclear bombs. The easier and more practical way more commonly proposed is >> steering small comets or icy objects from the outer solar system into >> collision with Mars. As inconceivable as that sounds, that's relatively >> simple through the use of automated spacecraft as 'gravity tugs' to coax >> planned changes in orbit, though it may take decades to move an object into >> the desired path. The point of all this is simple; triggering an atmospheric >> thermal cascade by putting enough water vapor into the atmosphere at once so >> that, by the greenhouse effect, it raises temperature and causes more water >> in the Mars crust globally to evaporate into the atmosphere and >> progressively increases the temperature and atmosphere density to where the >> surface might be colonized by very hardy plants like lichens--if they can be >> adapted to tolerate the large amounts of toxic perchlorate salts in the >> water and soil. In this way enough atmosphere might be built up to where >> humans can operate on the surface without space suits--though still >> requiring supplemental oxygen. This 'fast' process is still a process that >> would take many generations to accomplish, as opposed to the very many >> centuries pumping synthetic greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere would >> using the other more commonly suggested method. Realistically, it may take >> generations of research from the present day before we even know enough >> about Mars to say whether or not these methods would work and it remains an >> open question of whether it would be worthwhile given that Mars, lacking an >> active planetary core, cannot produce its own magnetosphere to help hold an >> atmosphere sustainably--which is why it lost it's formerly dense atmosphere >> in the first place. And, of course, we don't even know if long term living >> under Mars' reduced gravity is safe or if a clinical solution to that >> problem is possible. By the time any of that matters, the technology >> proposed may be made completely moot by nanotechnology and the 'human race' >> may be long supplanted by transhumans who would need none of these elaborate >> machinations to live in that environment. >> >> So, basically, the author of this piece, triggered by the 'N word', is >> complaining about something that is, at best, pure speculation if not >> retrofuturist SciFi. What personally annoys me is the playing to the old >> argument of; "why should we go to space just to export our terrestrial >> madness?" This is rooted in a notion that the human race is ultimately a >> mistake that needs to be contained, that all works of man are inherently >> profane, and that we need to 'grow up' more and get our terrestrial house in >> order to be worthy of doing things in the sacrosanct heavenly realms beyond >> Earth. It never occurs to proponents of this notion that the act of going to >> space might be a necessary part of that process of growing up. That we might >> need the challenge of the space environment to ultimately learn the craft of >> sustainability because Mother Earth molly-coddles us with a too-benign >> environment that make its too easy to cheat. That we might need frontiers on >> which to experiment in new ways of life when every single part of the Old >> World is now owned and ruled-over by someone with vested interests in doing >> things old ways. >> >> There is a fundamental lack of understanding of the concept of space >> settlement here which relates to preconceptions about space activity and its >> relationship to the military industrial complex and exploitation for >> nationalist prestige. It is assumed to be some expression of militaristic or >> corporatist culture--understandable given that the outpost architecture >> commonly illustrated is always militaristic in character. But in practice >> every plausible space settlement must--of necessity--be a cohabitation >> eco-village seeking an ideal sustainability. (on pain of death) The ultimate >> space settler will not see themselves as a 'conqueror' of space but a >> gardener of the universe and an experimenter in alternative lifestyle. The >> garden is the essential functional and cultural core of any truly plausible >> space settlement concept. The bottom-line of space development is that >> learning to live in space means learning to go from dirt, rocks, and >> sunlight to a sustainable middle-class standard of living using tools and >> systems on the scale of home appliances--and there is nothing about life on >> Earth and the way civilization here works that such capability will not >> radically change. If one wished to make a valid argument here, argue about >> the largely disingenuous and retrofuturist nature of contemporary proposals >> for so-called space settlement coming from governments who are, ultimately, >> not in the business of inventing new places for people to go and not pay >> taxes and from corporations who are fully aware that the only sustainable >> ROI from space not based on exploiting government bankrolls cannot realize >> that ROI in banks on Earth but only in infrastructure out there. Complain >> about the root corruption of priorities in national space agencies that must >> pander to the vanities of opposing political interests to survive as venues >> for pork-barrel politics. Complain about the continued elitism and >> militarism of the contemporary space development vision when the technology >> emerging and already at hand points to a near future where the settlement of >> any body in space is soon to become a community project akin to Linux. >> >> >> >> On 9/29/15 2:35 AM, [email protected] wrote: >> >> 1. Fwd: [NetworkedLabour] Fwd: [Debate-List] (Fwd) Elon Musk's >> bourgeois Mars (Michel Bauwens) >> >> >> -- >> Eric Hunting >> [email protected] >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> P2P Foundation - Mailing list >> >> Blog - http://www.blog.p2pfoundation.net >> Wiki - http://www.p2pfoundation.net >> >> Show some love and help us maintain and update our knowledge commons by >> making a donation. Thank you for your support. >> https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/donation >> >> https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation >> > > > > -- > Kevin Carson > Senior Fellow, Karl Hess Scholar in Social Theory > Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org > > "You have no authority that we are bound to respect" -- John Perry Barlow > "We are legion. We never forgive. We never forget. Expect us" -- Anonymous > > Homebrew Industrial Revolution: A Low-Overhead Manifesto > http://homebrewindustrialrevolution.wordpress.com > Desktop Regulatory State http://desktopregulatorystate.wordpress.com > > _______________________________________________ > P2P Foundation - Mailing list > > Blog - http://www.blog.p2pfoundation.net > Wiki - http://www.p2pfoundation.net > > Show some love and help us maintain and update our knowledge commons by > making a donation. Thank you for your support. > https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/donation > > https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation _______________________________________________ P2P Foundation - Mailing list Blog - http://www.blog.p2pfoundation.net Wiki - http://www.p2pfoundation.net Show some love and help us maintain and update our knowledge commons by making a donation. Thank you for your support. https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/donation https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation
