Accelerating Future

Terraformed Mars Friday, Jan 23 2009 

images Michael Anissimov 7:06 am

 

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14 Responses to “Terraformed Mars”

1. IConrad Says:
   January 23rd, 2009 at 9:45 am

   It would need more of a shimmer around the edges. The only way Mars can support an atmosphere which supports human life is if we induced an artificial EM field around it.

2. steven Says:
   January 23rd, 2009 at 1:02 pm

   Was just considering posting this.

3. steven Says:
   January 23rd, 2009 at 1:04 pm

   and this also.

4. Felix H. Cat Says:
   January 23rd, 2009 at 3:45 pm

   A great link here too

5. Michael Anissimov Says:
   January 24th, 2009 at 4:08 pm

   Ian, it seems like it might be cheaper to genetically engineer humans to deal with cosmic rays better, if that is possible. Do you know of any books or web pages that describe your induced EM field idea? I’ve heard of it before, but it sounds so expensive and difficult to pull off.

6. Roko Says:
   January 24th, 2009 at 5:30 pm

   This is all a bit old school, isn’t it? Terraformed planets?

   We all know that it’d be easier to build a Dyson Sphere and create simulated planets.

   Perhaps you think that there is a sentimental reason to leave Mars and Venus and terraform them in real space?

7. Roko Says:
   January 24th, 2009 at 5:32 pm

   Which reminds me of a problem with h+: any image or story of the future that is conceptually simple for us to understand simply doesn’t do the possibilities justice…

   It’s hard to post a picture of what people would get up to in the many simulated realities that would exist on a Dyson sphere.

8. Michael Anissimov Says:
   January 24th, 2009 at 6:02 pm

   Roko, it’s just something interesting. Perhaps we’ll choose to make “terraformed” planets in virtual worlds. As you say, portraying what we really expect is pretty much impossible, so “old school” is all there is. It’s not very interesting to be like, “here’s the future!” and have a picture of a gigantic question mark.

   I personally think that Dyson spheres are silly, myself. There is more than enough matter on Earth to simulate a quadrillion beings for a quadrillion years.

9. Roko Says:
   January 26th, 2009 at 4:18 am

   “I personally think that Dyson spheres are silly, myself. There is more than enough matter on Earth to simulate a quadrillion beings for a quadrillion years.”

   - interesting. I expect that someone will build some machine that taps almost all of the solar output before 2200. The reason is that energy is so instrumentally useful that you’d want it just to brute force the proof of your favorite mathematical theorem, if nothing else.

   “It’s not very interesting to be like, “here’s the future!” and have a picture of a gigantic question mark. ”

   - indeed. This is why I am very interested in the OB sequence on fun theory. I think that there should be something intermediate between the question mark and terraformed mars, though I’m not sure exactly how to express this.

   Incidentally, how focused is h+ on popularity with a large audience these days?

10. Michael Anissimov Says:
    January 26th, 2009 at 8:05 am

    2200 will never come. Our brains will be accelerated by a factor of millions before 2100. 2200 won’t be for millions of years.

    Yeah, Fun Theory is awesome. The most recent post on it did some nice explaining of its usefulness that I hadn’t thought of.

    Medium-focused.

11. IConrad Says:
    January 26th, 2009 at 9:34 am

    Ian, it seems like it might be cheaper to genetically engineer humans to deal with cosmic rays better, if that is possible. Do you know of any books or web pages that describe your induced EM field idea? I’ve heard of it before, but it sounds so expensive and difficult to pull off.

    Considering I’m the only person I’ve seen mention it at all? I couldn’t say.

    However, the reason for the EM field isn’t to protect people from cosmic radiation. It’s to prevent solar storms from stripping the atmosphere. It is the lack of an electromagnetic “bubble” around Mars that has lead to the escape of its atmosphere over time. Each time a solar storm hits Mars, another chunk of its atmosphere reaches escape velocity.

    And if you’re willing to go the vonNeumann approach to constructing EM generators for Mars, it gets less problematic.

    I also find the concept somewhat nostalgiac as it invokes memories of Barsoom and John Carter.

    I personally think that Dyson spheres are silly, myself. There is more than enough matter on Earth to simulate a quadrillion beings for a quadrillion years.

    Perhaps, but just because it’s there doesn’t mean it has a high level of availability. Or that it will be used for that purpose. I remain convinced that a significant portion of the human race will not opt for simulation. Even if it is only 1%, that’s still worth worrying about.

    Especially when we further consider that if we’re all simulated and accelerated a few orders of magnitude, then the population of human minds could readily exceed a quadrillion individuals within a couple of decades.

12. Roko Says:
    January 26th, 2009 at 2:26 pm

    Michael said: “Medium-focused.”

    - that’s interesting. I gathered a while ago that there was some consensus that public that much support wasn’t worth worrying. It seems like an interesting move.

13. Pablo Says:
    February 26th, 2009 at 11:35 pm

    How could a Terrafrom Mars have so much water?
    Where would it come from?

14. R.F. Crowson Says:
    December 26th, 2009 at 7:16 pm

    @13 -
    It is conceivable that Mars has deep rooted ice formation. If we were to pump massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, the resulting melted ice would evaporate into the atmosphere. — this could cause the water cycle to initiate… instead of a red planted, a blue planet with a cloud system and possibly large oceanic developments would birth. Though this is purely speculation.

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