this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2025
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

They'll collapse their own civilization well before all that becomes possible. Personally, just the idea of Mars colonization strikes me as just cringingly deluded. Forget the hard limits imposed by relativity, even to get something as tiny as a satellite into space requires the full stack of today's civilization to be up and running - i.e. everything from the food and energy system required to keep 8 billion people alive to the advanced microchip factories. All of this depends on a climate that humans are currently turning upside down and on an ecological substrate (soils, oceans, freshwater, biodiversity) that we're pounding into oblivion. To anyone who can see in front of them, some kind of collapse is literally inevitable. Forget Mars colonies, we'll be lucky if we're eating. A few decades at most.

PS: This comes across as a bit depressing but I don't mean to spread hopelessness. Personally I'm not a cynic or even really a pessimist. After all, there's always some way that we can make things better than they might otherwise be. It's important to be realistic but nothing about the future is inevitable.

[–] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago

Yeah, you’re right. None of these absurd journeys can take place if the rest of the population struggles to survive. My guess is, wrecking the whole planet beyond repair is the only thing that will force governments to start banning fossil fuels and investing in carbon capture and storage technologies.

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Ha. Dumbest name ever but too late to change now.