The first, and also the most futuristic techno-utopian one, is the colonisation of Mars. Elon Musk founded Space X in 2002 (Peter Thiel was the first outside investor) with the idea of re-founding humanity. It’s all there: the call to save humanity by turning it into a multi-planetary species, the desire to start from scratch without the legal constraints of Earth, and the will to break with the established order. As you can read, half-hidden, on the terms and conditions page of the Starlink service owned by Space X:

The parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities.

  • @[email protected]
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    61 month ago

    I barely have two nickels to rub together, but I would donate them if it would get these fuckheads to Mars.

    • @[email protected]
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      1 month ago

      I think it’s also about economic factors … the first spaceflight programs in the 60s were a huge boost to the economy, both by creating jobs and inspiring a generation of engineers. they hope that mars settlement would have similar effects, maybe on a larger scale, depending on the size of the project. which very much fits into Trump’s narrative to “bring back manufacturing to the US”.

      • @[email protected]
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        31 month ago

        Any big dump of money (Manhattan Project, Space Race, Arms Race) brings about great strides in progress. It would have been great to see a big dump of money, on the aforementioned scale, dumped into raw research.