Nicely put.

[kickaha]

By way of boingboing: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007092.html

Synopsis: the biggest win for us as a species for investigating terraforming or colonizing other planets? Learning how to colonize our own.

Comments

[badger.livejournal.com]

The Worldchanging blog is on my regular reading list - more so these days than boingboing, at least in time I spend on it. I can recommend the big huge _Worldchanging_ book that I read last month. I saw Charlie Stross' original post, and my friend David of the Eluminati made a similar argument recently, at least in the terraforming Earth is easier than terraforming Mars. I like the idea from the approach of refining the technology here before trying it at the end of a very long and unidirectional supply line.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

OTOH, if it's high-risk, you can't do anything half-assed or lowest-bidder shoddy... :P See the TED07 talk by the spelunking/diving geologist who is proposing a moon shot... *one-way*? They'll make their own fuel on site for the return trip. Now *THAT* is ballsy.

Another site you might like: medgadget.com

[badger.livejournal.com]

OTOH, if it's high-risk, you can't do anything half-assed or lowest-bidder shoddy...

I am so not arguing against that, which is exactly why I like the idea of development in an environment where failure does not equal death. I look at medgadget sometimes, I should more often. Thanks for the reminder.