Less Wrong - Spaceship Earth
Reading The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch has made me realize that I treat a lot of debatable and even potentially incorrect ideas as facts. I'm going to keep sharing them as I identify them.
Deutsch defines Spaceship Earth as the belief that "The biosphere is a life-support system for humans."
I have never thought critically about this. But I've definitely assumed it for most of my life. Most recently in a discussion with a friend about the possibility of humans living on Mars. My argument was based on the "fact" that at least in our solar system, the earth is uniquely and wonderfully hospitable, ready-made for us. And we are in the process of destroying it to a degree that's going to make life more difficult for us and for most other species. If we aren't capable of taking care of this almost perfect home that we have, how can we be optimistic about creating a new home under far harsher circumstances?
According to Deutsch, my point of view here, which he calls Spaceship Earth is accepted by most people, including a lot of scientists, but it's incorrect. Some quotes from the book about Spaceship Earth (all from chapter 3):
Almost the entire capacity of the Earth's "life-support system for humans" has been provided not for us but by us using our ability to create new knowledge.
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The Earth did provide the raw materials for our survival - just as the sun has provided the energy, and supernovae provided the elements, and so on. But a heap of raw materials is not the same thing as a life-support system. It takes knowledge to convert the one into the other, and biological evolution never provided us with enough knowledge to survive, let alone thrive.
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While intergalactic space would kill me in a matter of seconds, Oxfordshire in its primeval state might do it in a matter of hours - which can be considered "life support" only in the most contrived sense. There is a life-support system in Oxfordshire today, but it was not provided by the biosphere. It has been built my humans. It consists of clothes, houses, farms, hospitals, an electric grid, a sewage system and so on. Nearly the whole of the Earth's biosphere in its primeval state was likewise incapable of keeping an unprotected human alive for long. It would be much more accurate to call it a death trap for humans rather than a life-support system.
Deutsch's arguments make sense to me. Despite actively looking for any holes in them, I don't see any yet. This leaves me a little more open and optimistic to the possibility that we make Mars habitable. We still need to learn from and fix the mistakes we're making with the earth, but we can build a new home whether it's driven by necessity or exploration.