Could Humanity become a successful space faring species?

[paxamericana]

I'd argue mostly no. While we are all born with innate desires for adventure, we are still our own worse enemy. Until Humanity can come to a successful unification of the planet, there would be no benefit to colonising another planet. The evils of humanity would just spread into a different world. No amount of Technology will conquer our own worse enemy that lies in our own hearts.

[SpankyMcFarland]

We evolved for life here. The distances involved in interstellar travel and the amount of radiation may be too much for us - perhaps we can grow intelligent tardigrades and put them in spacesuits? Robots, on the other hand, are much more resilient. I’d send them to Mars a hundred times safely before dispatching any humans there. 

Edited October 26, 2025 by SpankyMcFarland

[eyeball]

If we're to venture into space it'll be via download to a robot body, ideally into a swarm of synchronized robots. That would be really resilient not to mention offer a pretty cool perspective on things.

But seriously if a technological breakthrough suddenly turned human beings into a space-faring species we'd probably behave like the proverbial invasive monsters from outer space.

[herbie]

the Future as the Ferengi

[SpankyMcFarland]

On 10/26/2025 at 8:23 PM, eyeball said:

If we're to venture into space it'll be via download to a robot body, ideally into a swarm of synchronized robots. That would be really resilient not to mention offer a pretty cool perspective on things.

But seriously if a technological breakthrough suddenly turned human beings into a space-faring species we'd probably behave like the proverbial invasive monsters from outer space.

Let’s face it, we are a plague. 

[eyeball]

On 10/27/2025 at 12:28 PM, herbie said:

the Future as the Ferengi

Or the Borg if AI gets the better of us.

[Hodad]

On 10/26/2025 at 1:05 PM, paxamericana said:

I'd argue mostly no. While we are all born with innate desires for adventure, we are still our own worse enemy. Until Humanity can come to a successful unification of the planet, there would be no benefit to colonising another planet. The evils of humanity would just spread into a different world. No amount of Technology will conquer our own worse enemy that lies in our own hearts.

Why? The Spanish, Italians, French and the English didn't have a unified continent--or even domestic political alignment--when they set out to conquer and colonize new continents. They were certainly successful, and they benefitted massively.

Becoming spacefaring species is still pretty impractical, and we certainly have crippling dysfunction in terms of our political environment, but if tomorrow there were ships and lands to conquer we'd be on them greedily dreaming of resource acquisition.  

Edited October 30, 2025 by Hodad

[paxamericana]

24 minutes ago, Hodad said:

Why?

Because it'll just devolve into an interstellar arms race and war over celestial body. 

[Hodad]

5 hours ago, paxamericana said:

Because it'll just devolve into an interstellar arms race and war over celestial body. 

And? That's exactly what happened with the colonization of the "new world." Colonialism wasn't great morally, but there's no denying that if profited the colonists immensely, wars and all. 

 

[Nationalist]

On 10/28/2025 at 9:50 PM, SpankyMcFarland said:

Let’s face it, we are a plague. 

Well that's heartening. 

As I've said many times, Libbie beliefs force them to hate humanity.

I think man will become a spacefaring species. It is our nature to explore and expand.