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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 7766188" data-attributes="member: 22779">True.&nbsp; And I might win the lottery tomorrow.&nbsp; But, we're talking about what is, not what we wish things to be.&nbsp; And, as far as we know, right now, there's no &quot;get out of physics free&quot; cards in the offing.&nbsp; The speed of light (in a vacuum) is absolute.&nbsp; The third law of thermodynamics applies.&nbsp; Even Shasharak's example of bacteria isn't really valid because those bacteria now are not the same as the bacteria then - they have evolved.&nbsp; There is NO perfect replication.&nbsp; It just cannot happen.&nbsp; Not over the long term anyway.Again, this is a myth.&nbsp; We cannot possibly fix our population problems by colonization.&nbsp; You cannot possibly move enough people off planet faster than reproduction will replace them.&nbsp; It isn't possible.&nbsp; The energy required to get those people to an off world colony is so great that you simply can't do it.&nbsp; Look, if colonization was possible to relieve population pressures, we would have done it on Earth.&nbsp; Yet, funnily enough, despite having these huge land masses in North and South America, and a couple of centuries of exporting our people out of countries, country populations have never declined.&nbsp; It's not like England ran out of people.&nbsp; It just doesn't work.&nbsp; You can't do it fast enough.Put it this way.&nbsp; The world population today is growing at about 83 million people per year.&nbsp; Give or take.&nbsp; How much energy would it take to move even 10% of that off world and keep them alive on Mars?&nbsp; And, remember, you haven't even scratched the surface of population growth at this point.&nbsp; 10% reduction?&nbsp; Whoopee.&nbsp; You could ship nearly 10 MILLION people a year to Mars and it would make basically no difference in world population growth.&nbsp; It's just not possible.&nbsp; Which means that populations will have to reduce on their own.&nbsp; If we cannot control that, we are not going to resolve it with a thousand year plan to terraform Mars.&nbsp; Look, I want to be wrong.&nbsp; I really do.&nbsp; I'm a GIANT SF nerd. I love SF.&nbsp; Far more than I like fantasy.&nbsp; But, if we're going to talk about actual reality, we can't start positing impossibilities.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 7766188, member: 22779"] True. And I might win the lottery tomorrow. But, we're talking about what is, not what we wish things to be. And, as far as we know, right now, there's no "get out of physics free" cards in the offing. The speed of light (in a vacuum) is absolute. The third law of thermodynamics applies. Even Shasharak's example of bacteria isn't really valid because those bacteria now are not the same as the bacteria then - they have evolved. There is NO perfect replication. It just cannot happen. Not over the long term anyway. Again, this is a myth. We cannot possibly fix our population problems by colonization. You cannot possibly move enough people off planet faster than reproduction will replace them. It isn't possible. The energy required to get those people to an off world colony is so great that you simply can't do it. Look, if colonization was possible to relieve population pressures, we would have done it on Earth. Yet, funnily enough, despite having these huge land masses in North and South America, and a couple of centuries of exporting our people out of countries, country populations have never declined. It's not like England ran out of people. It just doesn't work. You can't do it fast enough. Put it this way. The world population today is growing at about 83 million people per year. Give or take. How much energy would it take to move even 10% of that off world and keep them alive on Mars? And, remember, you haven't even scratched the surface of population growth at this point. 10% reduction? Whoopee. You could ship nearly 10 MILLION people a year to Mars and it would make basically no difference in world population growth. It's just not possible. Which means that populations will have to reduce on their own. If we cannot control that, we are not going to resolve it with a thousand year plan to terraform Mars. Look, I want to be wrong. I really do. I'm a GIANT SF nerd. I love SF. Far more than I like fantasy. But, if we're going to talk about actual reality, we can't start positing impossibilities. [/QUOTE]

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