http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40345048 - Steve wants us to leave for the sake of Humantiy; A trip to the Moon will invigorate that mindset.

I agree. In your opinion what elements are holding us back from this? And which elements are actually currently in our favor?

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- I think the biggest thing that holds us back is passion. When I talk to everday people in everyday circumstances the issue of leaving the planet, astronomy in general, over-population...they never come up. What comes up is Netflix, Political Theatre, Gossip, and casual beat-around-the-bush. People are complacent, perhaps a natural side effect of life, nevertheless it is the current state of society imo. No passion for out of the ordinary things. A negative.

- For the good? Technology is clearly moving in an already tangible direction of how we could very feasibly carry out ordinary life even if we were to move into a completely different physical environment. So much societal interaction and "glue" is already existing indiscriminate of the physical environment; digital dating, digital communication, digital jobs, entertainment, VR, etc. I don't think the day-to-day of living on the Moon/Mars will take as much ofan adjustment as we think it would.

I am currently at the Starmus festival in Trondheim
I saw his lecture/conference (which he held digitally from Cambridge because he couldn't come for some reason), but I am not nearly as pessimistic as Stephen Hawking.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson said two very important things in his talks here today: when we have the capability to terraform Mars, we also have the capability to fix earth from whatever we are doing, have done and will do to fuck it up. This principle also applies to just colonizing mars and living there at all really. If we can do that, we can also save earth.

He also said that if we can't even be peaceful and sustainable on this planet, what makes us think we could do it in space? We have to be wiser and have a completely different mindset, which must also include our actions here on earth for the human species to survive into the future.

However I still think that going to mars is a great idea in both spurring technological advances, inspiring new, young people to go into STEM, furthering internationally co-operative missions and furthering our species' agenda as a spacefaring and space-exploring species.

I say most of the stuff that holds us back is cost. Everyone understands people need to make money and live. But if a world wide effort was enacted. We could do things to reduce a lot of issues. If companies made a loss on electric cars for some years/ a decade. We could get most to change over. It's a dream. But it could be possible.

Why people wanna evacuate this planet to live in a shittier planet is beyond my intelligence. Terraforming is science fiction.

I think in the end, we'll all be ok, here, on Earth.

He really should stress the need to cure the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) disease.

I'll be dead, and I seriously don't want to go to space anyway, at least not in those tin cans we call "spaceships"

And pursuing science fiction makes our everyday lives better.

Teeqoz said: I am currently at the Starmus festival in Trondheim I saw his lecture/conference (which he held digitally from Cambridge because he couldn't come for some reason), but I am not nearly as pessimistic as Stephen Hawking. Neil DeGrasse Tyson said two very important things in his talks here today: when we have the capability to terraform Mars, we also have the capability to fix earth from whatever we are doing, have done and will do to fuck it up. This principle also applies to just colonizing mars and living there at all really. If we can do that, we can also save earth. He also said that if we can't even be peaceful and sustainable on this planet, what makes us think we could do it in space? We have to be wiser and have a completely different mindset, which must also include our actions here on earth for the human species to survive into the future. However I still think that going to mars is a great idea in both spurring technological advances, inspiring new, young people to go into STEM, furthering internationally co-operative missions and furthering our species' agenda as a spacefaring and space-exploring species.

I agree with Tyson and you, and I'm surprised VGC has people who know who Tyson is. With Hawkings I understand this, he is a posterchild for science.

I was once very passionate about colonizing space and stuff. But today, I just think humans are not worth to do it. They are just way too stupid and too concerned about themselves to ever conquer the galaxy or even the universe. Today we have the internet and science moves forward faster than ever. But what I'm seeing is people getting dumber and dumber. We have so much wisdom it's not even funny anymore. Hell, the other day we found a very good candidate for dark matter with neutralinos. But no one cares, instead people want to ban other people from their country because of their origins, deny climate change, scream for war and even believe the earth is flat. It's ridiculous. Now I get that isn't true for everybody. But a species that would be capable of conquering space shouldn't have such problems on any significant scale. At all.

Right now humans can barely control themselves to not chop each others heads off just because someone comes from elsewhere, has different beliefs or just another skin color. Just imagine what would happen when we got to other planets. There's this little tiny thing called evolution which will lead to people on Mars or whatever to not look like humans on earth anymore. Depending on gravity they can get smaller or taller, they can develop better or worse senses, hell they could even develop higher intellect or body mutations. With the insanely stupidity of the human race, that will just lead to more hate for no reason at all. Wouldn't end well I'm sure.

Whatever, there's this small chance that humanity will get better in the future, but I just don't believe in it. I don't see any need for humans to stay in this universe. Today I think of humans more as a stepstone for evolution. The whole purpose of humanity for the galaxy or the greater universe is at best to build machines that can conquer the universe and learn more about its origins and future. But humans themselves will disappear someday and never come back. And I don't think that's a bad thing.