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Comment by mongol | Hacker News Reader

Let's say there is an earth killing event, and let's say there is an outpost on Mars with some people on it. How much does it really matter that some humans survive, in light of the enormous catastrohophe that killed all life on earth? Is it a very worthwhile objective for our species to persist a while longer, or should we not just accept that also life itself will will die out on geological or astronomical time scales?

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I would suppose there is a gap we face between true species-wide survival capability and where we sit today. I have no true idea how hard we must go to bridge that gap, but it’s quite hard and far.

I also see no reason to “lay down and die” as I feel is somewhat implied here. I think it’s a truly noble cause, but maybe I read too much sci-fi as a young lad.

No matter what anyone does, the universe will end, and reality will stop changing.

Everything dies. Deal with it.

Instead of empowering shithead grifters who promise you a way out, grow trees to create shade for people you will never know. You do that by improving things, not burning limited resources on a conman.

If this outcome is guaranteed, why hasn't it already happened ?

Because we exist inside time, not outside it.

Same reason you're not dead yet.

How do you know it hasn't?

The whole point of the space stuff is not accepting all life dying out on any timescale.

Even rocks don’t last. What do you expect?

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