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OK, my turn to play devil's advocate. What follows is more to provoke thought and discussion than anything else. How do I feel? When the anti-aging pills come out, I'm first in line, and nothing is more important than my kids getting to have kids of their own ad infinitum...
Let's face it. In exploring these fascinating tomorrows, all of us are eventually going to run across one that includes our own personal death. At that point, the last day of our life starts ticking away. The day after that, humanity and the universe (presumably) goes on - just without us. As John Donne said in Meditation XVII, the bell tolls for us; this bedrock reality we all must face is the reason to gather ye rosebuds while ye may. At least, that's the personal philosophy I try to adhere to...
Now, there's a lot of promising work going on about personal life extension that may very well be successful, and if you think there's a long line for Viagra pills, you ain't seen nothin' yet (tho with my luck, they'll be announced on the day of my wake and somebody else will have to post the news here on SciScoop). But...have we REALLY thought about the implications of a drastically expanded personal life span? I think not. Will we have 100% divorce rates or 100th wedding anniversaries? Retirement ages of 200? Politicians on their 50th term in Congress? Skyrocketing populations as one end of the Natural Balance gets askew? Millions dying as infants in Africa while millions of North Americans and Europeans live to 500? To roll out a favorite quote from another British philosopher, Arthur C. Clarke: the truth, as always, will be far stranger. And if that truth ever includes true immortality with no personal death, then I submit that homo sapiens will be extinct and replaced by something else that is not us. We will not be the species we are today if we ever truly leave death behind tomorrow.
By Drog, Section Ask SciScoop Posted on Fri Oct 03, 2003 at 07:36:54 AM PST
Last Wednesday, there was a story about how Earth's mass extinction 443 million years ago may have been the result of a massive gamma ray burst (GRB) from a collapsing star aimed directly at us. Today, a story in New Scientist said that an asteroid the size of a house recently flew past us at a distance of only 88,000 km--the closest approach ever recorded--with no warning at all. These stories got me to thinking (again) about how there are just soooooo many ways in which all (or most) life on Earth could be destroyed. A GRB destroys our ozone layer, blackens the skies and causes an ice age. An asteroid impact causes tidal waves, blackens the skies and causes an ice age. A nuclear war kills most of us, blackens the skies and causes an ice age. A genetically engineered virus kills us all. Self-replicating nanobots turn the world into grey goo. Global pollution destroys the ozone layer and causes a greenhouse effect that eventually makes Earth uninhabitable. We are unlucky enough to make first contact with an alien species that isn't very friendly. The list of potential final scenarios is very long. And quite depressing, if you allow yourself to dwell upon it.
But most of us don't, because we feel the danger isn't that great or because we think there's nothing we can do about it. And so, of course, we're not doing anything about it. Which is rather strange, because saving the human race from extinction is the sort of thing you'd expect most people to care about.
Ask SciScoop : Why is Mars' Mass So Small Compared To Earth's?
By Oilpit, Section Ask SciScoop Posted on Wed Aug 20, 2003 at 07:36:08 AM PST
Oilpit asks SciScoop: Mars is 53% the Diameter of the Earth and only 11% the Mass of Earth. Why is this?
rickyjames responds: A great place to get comparison data between these two planets is at the Solarviews website. As you note in your question, the Mars / Earth radius (half the diameter) ratio from this data source is 3397km / 6378 km = 0.53. But this radius difference isn't the end of the story...
Update [2003-8-26 6:16:55 by rickyjames]:: Neat and even amusing comparison table of the two planets here.
