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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6115187" data-attributes="member: 177">There is a great tendency to say, &quot;We don't know everything, and that means we know nothing!&quot;&nbsp; We should avoid this tendency.&nbsp; We don't know with 100% accuracy how the human mind works, but somehow, by and large, we get along.&nbsp; We don't have to know the alien mind down to umpteen decimal places to get along with them, either.All we need to know to get along is that we aren't in conflict over some major required resource.&nbsp; Everything else is then negotiable.Aren't you the guy who just said the air (like, you know, gases) would be the least of our issues? It would be really good if you used an example of something that was hard to detect - a high amount of *anything* (other gases, radiation, and such) is easy to detect, and thus fix.&nbsp; If you wanted to suggest that Martian soil might hold some thing rare and deadly and undetectable, you might have a point.&nbsp; But you better make sure it isn't something that will show up with a Geiger counter or simple chromatograph.I believe the original point was to establish a way to have our scientists stay there (or, really, theirs here) for a prolonged period.&nbsp; Food production probably being the idea.&nbsp; Of course, we know lots of food crops from Earth that grow well by hydroponics - we don't need their dirt.&nbsp; Just some space.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 6115187, member: 177"] There is a great tendency to say, "We don't know everything, and that means we know nothing!" We should avoid this tendency. We don't know with 100% accuracy how the human mind works, but somehow, by and large, we get along. We don't have to know the alien mind down to umpteen decimal places to get along with them, either. All we need to know to get along is that we aren't in conflict over some major required resource. Everything else is then negotiable. Aren't you the guy who just said the air (like, you know, [I]gases[/I]) would be the least of our issues? It would be really good if you used an example of something that was hard to detect - a high amount of *anything* (other gases, radiation, and such) is easy to detect, and thus fix. If you wanted to suggest that Martian soil might hold some thing rare and deadly and undetectable, you might have a point. But you better make sure it isn't something that will show up with a Geiger counter or simple chromatograph. I believe the original point was to establish a way to have our scientists stay there (or, really, theirs here) for a prolonged period. Food production probably being the idea. Of course, we know lots of food crops from Earth that grow well by hydroponics - we don't need their dirt. Just some space. [/QUOTE]

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