Money talks in a world in which the evolutionary merit of money ought to be questioned. Evolutionary merit is a consequence of adaptability, not often instigated by money. When a man who thinks differently becomes the wealthiest man on Earth, everyone suddenly pays god-like attention to what he has to say more than what he did.
The name of the person in question is, of course, Elon Musk, a man for whom I have a lot of respect. But his idea of living on Mars is stupid. Let me explain why.
Reasons Why
Humans, arguably the most intelligent species, are on a trajectory to live the shortest of all major species ever. We use our intelligence not to advance our collective interests and discover more about the laws of nature to which our species is subjugated but to get the upper hand over others within our individual lifetime. Living in proverbial cocoons smaller than countries would only increase the tensions and in-fighting between people.
Humans are an evolutionary product of the environment in which we live. The human body is a walking petri-dish, a mere vessel, for microorganisms outnumbering human cells ten to one. Those microorganisms are unlikely to survive on Mars, and thus the composition of our bodies will change to no longer represent humans. You have a better chance of remaining human on Planet Earth.
The evolution of humanity, in intelligence more advanced than the neanderthal cousins we killed along the way, is no older than 10,000 years. With 3.5 billion years of Earth’s evolution ahead of us, with likely one billion liveable in our current state, the quest for a better life is one-hundred-thousand times more promising on Earth than on Mars.
The laws of nature are the same on Mars as on Earth. Meaning, the way we ignore those laws today, as in the decline of energy availability incompatible with sustainability, will harm us more on Mars than Earth. More threats to human existence, as a result of not being a product of martian evolution, plus the ignorance of nature’s laws, will make humans worse, not better, off on Mars.
And, has anyone looked at Mars lately? Does that look like a place you want to live? So much for the inspiration of a barren landscape to look forward to.
Sans Theory
We have failed to deploy a theory of humanity that determines, in the words of Albert Einstein, what can be discovered. Hence, a laissez-faire hen house of riches detached from evolutionary merit on Mars will wreak even more havoc than it does on Earth. Human wants, as promulgated by democracy, are incompatible with human needs as defined by nature. On Mars, we are even less likely to adapt to human needs derived from our earthly composition.
Elon’s expedition to Mars will be a helpful experiment, as the discovery of a larger part of our universe is bound to yield new normalizations of nature’s truth from which we can benefit. It is why space programs exist, to begin with. So, go fund Starship!
The problem with those experiments is the application of their newfound normalizations to how humans operate, manage, and reinvent themselves. Einstein’s theory of general relativity, discovered by having both feet planted firmly on Earth, has yet to be applied to how we manage ourselves one hundred years later. To put it differently, the efficacy of humanity living on a round planet remains constrained by dumb, flat-world systems we created for ourselves, holding the expansion of humanity hostage.
Vectors Of Make Believe
I haphazardly forgive Elon’s use of the term sustainability to describe the support for the human condition, for the evolution of any species is predicated on the strength of renewal. Nothing in the universe is sustainable, let alone humanity. Nothing can be sustained indefinitely by the decline of available energy, called nature’s entropy.
Oddly enough, in his most recent investor presentation, Elon talked about renewable energy sources to support the human condition. Like so many others, does he not comprehend the vector of sustainability points in a different direction than the vector of renewal and requires adherence to nature’s first-principles to traverse?
The confounding of sustainability and renewal is a confounding of consequence and cause, leading, in the words of Nietzsche, to grave depravity of reason. Only the cause for renewal can produce temporal consequences of perceived sustainability. Hence, sustainability is an evolutionary oxymoron.
Careful What You Wish For
Elon’s work on commoditizing truth with Twitter, his brain implant technology, his belief in Doge crypto, and his faith in AI fail to make humanity more responsible for the strength of its evolution. The vector of his beliefs eventually turns man into robots and robots into man.
I am worried about the blind faith we now attribute to a person who has done some remarkable things for humanity, who I believe has his heart in the right place, and because of his success, will now be granted to experiment with a vector of the human condition that does not improve human adaptability to nature’s entropy.
I suggest you think again.
