[ExI] OP-ED: The billionaire space race reflects a colonial mindset that fails to imagine a different world

[Adrian Tymes]

On Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 7:44 AM Dave Sill via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 26, 2021 at 10:37 PM Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>>
>> What's removed is the "nature, red in tooth and claw" aspect.  No
>> hurricanes, no earthquakes, no volcanoes, no natural disasters.  Rain every
>> so often - maybe on a slightly random schedule, but scheduled so people
>> know when to get out of the rain - because that's the easiest way to wash
>> the sky, but no floods or droughts.  Maybe you are fortunate enough to live
>> somewhere where these things do not every so often threaten life and wreck
>> property, but there are a lot of people for whom this alone would be luxury
>> worth calling Heaven.
>>
>
> Droughts, floods, fires, and other natural "disasters" are necessary for
> the life cycles of many plants and animals.
>

Those particular plants and animals would not be among the first residents
of these colonies.  If they are introduced at all, it would be after ways
are implemented to simulate the disasters - and they are disasters to the
human experience, which is what counts here - to sustain said life cycles.

Providing a habitat for every single species on Earth is less important
than providing a safe and comfortable habitat for humanity.  At the very
least, colonies optimized for the one use are different from colonies
optimized for the other.  I am discussing ones optimized for humans, though
this does not preclude there also being other colonies optimized as nature
preserves.

We do not tolerate wild wolves in cities on Earth.  Likewise, not every
species would be welcome in human habitats in space.

>
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