A Martian question...

[_Sin]

The irony is people trying to think that there is some big moral question here, without stopping to realise that by their own lifestye choice, the insatiable demand for power and products they are using, the house the live in, the street they drive on, and almost everything they do in life has resulted in countless species being made extinct already, both directly and indirectly.

To be fair, some of those species were *delicious*.

[EEVblog]

To be fair, some of those species were *delicious*.

Darwin at his finest!

Only 100 lost a day or thereabouts:
http://www.care2.com/news/section/clock

Dave.

[digsys]

To be fair, some of those species were *delicious*.

GRRRR .. spat my drink

[BravoV]

It's not that there is any intelligent life there anyway, or likely any form of semi-complex life at all to disturb.

Dave.

Does this look familiar to you ? (youngster might not recognize this)



LOL .. couldn't stand it, especially with the new version released recently 

[EEVblog]

Does this look familiar to you ? (youngster might not recognize this)

I don't Recall.

Dave.

[JuKu]

First:

So it's morally ok for me to clean my toilet bowl? That's good, I was getting worried for a minute there.

Don't do it. It's over-rated.

Mine's never been cleaned in 15 years and I can assure you it gives me no trouble what so ever.

the very next post:

Whatever life there is there (if any) won't be ended by us finding it.

LOL

[Mechatrommer]

To be fair, some of those species were *delicious*.

GRRRR .. spat my drink

"you should not eat living creature! thats barbaric!" ... according to a school of thought. as morality is concern, nowadays the way i see it, whats moral is what accepted by majority of "people". so, should we open up a poll?

[_Sin]

Open up a poll? I'm more likely to open up a roll, in order to insert some bacon.

[SoftwareSamurai]

Me: Proud member of P.E.T.A.

People
Eating
Tasty
Animals

[Ed.Kloonk]

First:

So it's morally ok for me to clean my toilet bowl? That's good, I was getting worried for a minute there.

Don't do it. It's over-rated.


Mine's never been cleaned in 15 years and I can assure you it gives me no trouble what so ever.

the very next post:

Whatever life there is there (if any) won't be ended by us finding it.

LOL

[Sionyn]

shhhh its really a dust bin lid that nasa has hooked up in back yard

[benemorius]

The irony is people trying to think that there is some big moral question here, without stopping to realise that by their own lifestye choice, the insatiable demand for power and products they are using, the house the live in, the street they drive on, and almost everything they do in life has resulted in countless species being made extinct already, both directly and indirectly.

This talk of potentially finding familiar microbes on Mars is decidedly small potatoes, as are the countless extinct unintelligent species here on this planet. What concerns me greatly though is how the public will react in the event that a separate genesis of life is discovered on Mars, distinct from the tree of life found here on Earth - the kind of life that Carl Sagan spoke of when he suggested that the appropriate course of action may in that case be to leave Mars and its life alone, saying "Mars then belongs to the Martians". Now I'm afraid I may not share that sentiment with him, but I have no doubt that many people will if we are indeed faced with that situation. When and if we do finally get our governments to take serious steps toward colonizing Mars, the last thing we'll need is a bunch of microbe-huggers standing in the way of our survival.

Make no mistake - people do and will see a big moral dilemma here, as evidenced by the existence of this thread and many other discussions like it. It seems wise to encourage discussion about it sooner rather than later to help prepare the race for our transformation into a multi-planet species.

[EEVblog]

The irony is people trying to think that there is some big moral question here, without stopping to realise that by their own lifestye choice, the insatiable demand for power and products they are using, the house the live in, the street they drive on, and almost everything they do in life has resulted in countless species being made extinct already, both directly and indirectly.

This talk of potentially finding familiar microbes on Mars is decidedly small potatoes, as are the countless extinct unintelligent species here on this planet. What concerns me greatly though is how the public will react in the event that a separate genesis of life is discovered on Mars, distinct from the tree of life found here on Earth - the kind of life that Carl Sagan spoke of when he suggested that the appropriate course of action may in that case be to leave Mars and its life alone, saying "Mars then belongs to the Martians". Now I'm afraid I may not share that sentiment with him, but I have no doubt that many people will if we are indeed faced with that situation. When and if we do finally get our governments to take serious steps toward colonizing Mars, the last thing we'll need is a bunch of microbe-huggers standing in the way of our survival.

Make no mistake - people do and will see a big moral dilemma here, as evidenced by the existence of this thread and many other discussions like it. It seems wise to encourage discussion about it sooner rather than later to help prepare the race for our transformation into a multi-planet species.

It'll go down exactly the same way it's always gone down. Well, actually, thankfully not because we are more civilised and knowledgeable these days!
But like it or not Mars will become ours, it will be conquered and colonised. We'll do our best to preserve any life there and live in harmony with it, but it will in now way stop us.
But almost certainly, any "life" there will be at best, the very early stages of evolution.
To leave that alone and let it evolve "naturally" and give up probably our only sensible place to expand off this planet, is a very weak case indeed.
What if we know life is there, but we find a huge global killer asteroid heading to it? Should we stop it? or let the life evolve "naturally"?

Indeed, by most accounts, any life there is already either extinct or almost extinct, and the planet is doomed as far as life is concerned, it way past it's prime.
Should we terraform the planet and help any life there? or let them die out the natural evolution way?

Dave.