Beltalowda!
Only if you ignore the opportunity cost—i.e., the number of terrestrial jobs that could have been created with the same investment.
Depends on the time frame. In the period immediately following such a venture, sure, but if you actually properly establish settlement off earth, the total resource base and thus carrying capacity of civilization as a whole increases and continues to increase until we either hit the limits of that part of the universe one can theoretically reach (which is so big as to make the entire earth less than a speck of dust by comparison), you decide to just stop space colonization (which gets more difficult the further on you go, because the number of potential polities to launch a new mission increases the more space is populated), or you find yourself boxed in by alien civilizations in all directions (since we haven’t seen any, they’re most likely far enough apart on average for this to still leave an extremely vast chunk of space). A hypothetical spacefairing civilization should be able to reach sizes so vast that it would be physically impossible to create enough jobs on just one planet to equal it, even with just this solar system even.
Job creation by itself is not exactly the best motivation to pursue this though, since the jobs created will after the initial period be generally far away and therefore not likely to be worked by anyone except the people that end up in those colonies, who wouldn’t even exist otherwise.
Yeah—“job creation” only makes sense in the timeframe of making incremental changes to industry to adjust to changes in the labor pool. On the timeframe of decisions that alter future demographics, “job creation” is a distorted and detrimental lens.
Will never happen. Human flesh is not meant to live outside Earth. It’s just fairy tales.
That’s my same thoughts as well, The thought of us currently working together in space is ridiculous. There would be courts in no time claiming borders for areas in time and space. Maybe if we make a Luna base, ill have hope we might one day get to Mars.
Great, we’re already fucking up this planet let’s go fuck up the rest of the solar system too.
Most of the solid bodies in the solar system are literally a bunch of airless, irradiated, toxic rocks, with either no life at all or potentially some rare bacteria-like stuff hidden somewhere we haven’t been able to conclusively examine yet. They already are in a more “fucked up” state than even the most polluted wasteland we’ve created on earth. What could we possibly do to them to mess them up further?
Life… uhh… finds a way
Its current “fucked up” state is also its natural state, relatively uninfluenced by humans for the entirety of existence.
I don’t doubt our ability to act brashly and fuck something up to the point of impacting life back here on Earth or screw things up for others out there in the cosmos.
I don’t get why we’re all still so stuck on capitalism being a thing even beyond this blue rock. Like c’mon… first, we need to stop having wars HERE and make it so that people don’t have to work to feed themselves or shelter themselves. From there on, worry about the rest of things.
As every new thing.
AI, for example, has created a a brand new job: Vibe Coding Corrector/fixer, people hire to fix the fuck ups of the AI and vibe coders.
Play Hardspace: Shipbreaker if you want to see what that’d probably look like, considering our current trajectory
The Expanse basically.
Belters. Third class citizens seen as little more than slaves. Treated like garbage.
It is a little darker than that, as Belters can’t actually live on Earth due to their bones being crushed and broken by gravity.
Not only are they slaves, they are very much trapped in space. Well, trapped if we’re avoiding spoilers.
This exact same phenomenon already happens in real life to astronauts though. So if space colonization were to occur in real life, this would totally happen in reality as well.
Is the bone thing a developmental issue or could someone still gradually adjust to it as an adult? Obviously that sort of time would be impossible to get as a belter, but just curious of the biology of it
If I’m not mistaken it is a developmental issue — wasn’t an O.P.A. agent tortured using the moons gravity? Or maybe they were in orbit, I’m not sure.
I’m pretty sure it’s also a major problem later on with the new planets being found — Belters have it way more rough than both Earthers and Martians. Like, to the tune of ‘get me the fuck off this rock’ rough.
how far into the future is this set? is it possible medical science gets advanced enough to surgically implant a robot skeleton that can repair itself and grow with the person? if these belters make a universal healthcare system, they could have free cybernetic surgeries for masses of belters able to withstand surface gravity of planets. should i just watch it, is the expanse a good show?
According to a quick search (memory is foggy) it is set around 2350 — humans have colonized most of the solar system. They have fusion reactors and ships capable of traveling from Earth to the Jovian moons (I think? I’m not sure if they go further). There is definitely advanced medicine regarding surviving spaceflight (i.e. performing maneuvers that put you in otherwise unliveable circumstances without drugs).
The circumstances of Earth, Mars and the Belt are delicate. Without spoiling too much, no the Belters do not have good health care.
I like the Expanse, I was a fan of the books before the show. The show is good, some aspects are better than the books — but I haven’t actually finished the show itself. Give it a shot if you’re into hard science fiction!
Edit: I should note, a baby born in the belt could be taken to Mars or Earth and they would grow up fine. The Belters themselves aren’t riddled with genetic diseases or anything like that, growing up in low g’s is just fucked.
currently rewatching the show firefly rn, but after i will start The expanse. ive seen other mentions of it around here on lemmy, and they always avoid revealing spoilers so i will too.
so this is just a general question shooting off of your edit: i wonder what a baby born and grown in higher-than-earth g’s would be like?
Well, in the books the physical differences between Earthers, Martians and Belters are very striking. Due to the lower gravity on Mars, and the even lower gravity on spinning asteroids in the belt; Earthers end up being much shorter than their counterparts with Belters looking very bizarre. I would imagine it would result in them being shorter, and if the gravity is high enough it could completely stunt the baby’s growth in a sort of inverse to what the Belters go through.
Ok Elon
*You know we thought we liked the sound of finding glory in the stars
The board has taught us to be proud of never reaching very far
So we earn what we’re allowed and give it right back at the bar*
- The Outer Worlds Song by The Stupendium
Remember, you gotta start with the below jobs before you get the above jobs.
