[dyingkneepad]

> Basically there is not need and motivation for humans to colonize anything outside the Earth.

Our current gas emissions would disagree.

Also, asteroids, gamma ray bursts, curiosity, sheer ambition, etc, etc.

The thing is: we don't need to convince all of mankind to colonize another planet. All it takes is a few people. Crazy rich Mr. Musk is one example. He may not be able to achieve it, but maybe all we need is a few other Musks in the next generations and suddenly we'll be in other planets.

The Fermi Paradox discussion is fascinating.

[vl]

While personal ambition is commendable, realistically for inter-stellar colonization this has to be planet-wide project.

> suddenly we'll be in other planets.

Who is “we” in this case, how does it affect you and me? (The point being is that such long-term projects are beyond current society capabilities)

[staticman2]

If Musk sent out a generation ship he'd die onboard and his grandchildren would turn the ship around to visit the mysterious alien planet they've heard tales of known as "earth".

I don't see any scenario where a generation ship can plausibly be expected to colonize another planet.

[AndyPa32]

> Our current gas emissions would disagree.

While at first it might seem that Mars or any other planet is the solution to our environmental problem, the easiest solution to the problem would be fixing this planet. Colonizing Mars would take up so many resources that fixing Earth might be more cost-effective.

[psychoslave]

This is not Earth that needs to be fixed, it's human behavior.

Teraformation and space conquest are fassinating topics, but "fixing our behavior to avoid to fuck up the only accessible viable environment we have" is far from deserving only a mere "might be more cost-effective".

[dyingkneepad]

But way less fun :)

Or we could, you know, just transfer our consciousness to machines that can easily survive Mars and other environments and start our colonization after declaring ourselves to be Homo-sapiens-machina.