Hacker News Reader

> The goal of Mars to me is silly. Mars is already worse off in terms of climate than Earth. Why not work to improve what we have?

Earth's biosphere has already had five (5) mass extinctions. Guess what happens to humanity if number six shows up before we colonize another planet? Mars is simply the closest option.

View on HN

The thing about the last five mass extinctions is they didn't involve a species so good at adapting the environment to serve its own needs that said species could colonize Mars.

Of those 5 mass extinctions, did any of them make Earth less habitable than Mars is today? I'm genuinely curious.

The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event is theorized to be a massive asteroid strike which "release[d] the equivalent energy of several million nuclear weapons detonating simultaneously" and killed off 75% of extant species.

Sure, the preppers will be gleefully LARPing Fallout from their bunkers, and a small percentage of humans would probably pull through. Maybe.

If we have a seed colony on Mars, it significantly de-risks human extinction from an asteroid strike. Elon is the ultimate prepper.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com