A moon base and thermodynamics

[Simpo Two]

mrmr96 said:

We're in the jet age now - disease can/will spread faster than ever in the planets history.

True, but it still won't reach every human. There will be pandemics (mind you the last 'scary' ones killed about 3 and 7 people respectively, hardly extinction events!) and people will die, but the question was about wiping out the human race.

In fact I watched a recording of Alice Roberts and 'Are we still evolving?' which was quite interesting. The conclusion was that the driving force behind evolution is environmental change - and that WILL change - and that is what will have the greatest effect on the species.

[Simpo Two]

Yep - 99% of children now live to 21 ie breeding age. 150 years ago it was 50% and a century before that, 33%. Infant mortality was propounded as a prime mover of natural selection, keeping the gene pool fit for purpose.

[Shaolin]

Bedazzled said:

...apart from a few developing countries every human gets to survive and reproduce.

These days even including those who previously had the ultimate slected-against trait of infertility.

[SpeckledJim]

Bedazzled said:

Simpo Two said:

In fact I watched a recording of Alice Roberts and 'Are we still evolving?' which was quite interesting. The conclusion was that the driving force behind evolution is environmental change - and that WILL change - and that is what will have the greatest effect on the species.

I think we're now evolving to be more diverse, rather than better adapted, because there's no natural selection anymore;

With respect, this is rubbish. How do you explain the dwindling numbers of ginger people? What about our rocketing average heights?

And in what ways are we becoming more diverse? Inter-racial reproduction is higher than ever and growing quickly.

[Einion Yrth]

Bedazzled said:

Einion Yrth said:

Jeebus, warfare is expensive enough on Earth - over interplanetary distances I suspect it would be infeasible until a time when scarcities are no longer an issue - there is a lot to mine out there guys.

Mining above the Earth's gravity well is unlikely to be economic, imo. And if you bring it all back here, it will continue to wreck our environment with increasing over-population. Deflecting an asteroid to destroy a civilisation on another planet would be relatively straightforward, don't assume two planets makes us safe; we're our own worst enemy.

Should a point arrive that interplanetary war is even numerically possible then you can be damned sure that deep space mining will be a fact. Without the mining the colonisation is infeasable.

[annodomini2]

Einion Yrth said:

Bedazzled said:

Einion Yrth said:

Jeebus, warfare is expensive enough on Earth - over interplanetary distances I suspect it would be infeasible until a time when scarcities are no longer an issue - there is a lot to mine out there guys.

Mining above the Earth's gravity well is unlikely to be economic, imo. And if you bring it all back here, it will continue to wreck our environment with increasing over-population. Deflecting an asteroid to destroy a civilisation on another planet would be relatively straightforward, don't assume two planets makes us safe; we're our own worst enemy.

Should a point arrive that interplanetary war is even numerically possible then you can be damned sure that deep space mining will be a fact. Without the mining the colonisation is infeasable.

Mining on orbit actually makes sense when you want that material in orbit, rather than returned to Earth.

SpaceX's are currently the cheapest commercial launch provider, with costs around $2000/lb or $4405/kg.

If you can mine an entire 10,000t asteroid (of which there are quite a lot!) this is worth at least ~$45B in launch costs alone.

Let alone the worth of the material involved.

[Simpo Two]

annodomini2 said:

If you can mine an entire 10,000t asteroid (of which there are quite a lot!) this is worth at least ~$45B in launch costs alone.

I tried landing one in Russia for melting down but it went a bit wrong...

[hornet]

annodomini2 said:

We know that due to advances and widespread use drugs we are seeing rapid mutation of diseases, which suggests that it may be possible that something appears in the future that could wipe out an entire species. If not several.

The reverse also applies though. Granted the diseases have the upper hand because they can mutate far more rapidly, but who's to say nature won't some day throw up a human DNA mutation that's impervious to HIV, cancer or whatever?