| It is very inhospitable to biological humans. There is a decent chance that our present biological basis is not congruent with the future of humanity. Mind-extension into synthetic cognitive structures is not as far fetched as it seems- we already extend our consciousness using machines, albeit with a very poor interface. It is foreseeable that we will come to understand the nature of sentience - after all, many simpler organisms exhibit sentience- and beyond that it seems to be a scaling problem, which are inherently tractable. If we can improve the interface between biological computation and synthetic computation, it will likely become possible to extend sentience across that divide, barring some kind of spiritual phenomenon or “magic “. If we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot too badly, it is foreseeable that we may make very substantial progress in this direction over the next century. Establishing a toehold on mars during that century will be a huge strategic advantage. The problem with “people these days” is that almost no one thinks a multi decade project is worth doing. If everyone waits for the future to “arrive “, the future you end up with is just driven by quarterlies. The most important accomplishments will be remembered for centuries. If you aren’t working on one in some capacity, what are you even doing with your life? |
But I think you underlined the issue of timelines. Yes we can technically go to Mars in only a few years, but people living there permanently is going to be beyond my lifetime. Unless some people are willing to drastically sacrifice their health.