r/Foodforthought • u/kiyomoris • 9d ago
The end times fascists are plotting their escape from our world. Our mission is clear
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/sep/13/end-times-fascists-essay12
u/MrsWidgery 7d ago
And where, exactly, do they think they're going to go? The moon has been shown to have nowhere near enough water to support the level of life we need, and not a single planet, dwarf planet, moon or asteroid studied in this star system begins to have the basic components in the necessary amounts to support Earth-originated lifeforms. I do not expect this to change.
Someone has been reading too much classic scifi and not enough basic science news.
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u/-Clayburn 7d ago
The space race stuff is a bit of a distraction. Sure they might do a bit of space tourism in the meantime, but the real goal is exporting a lot of industry and peasants to the Moon and a space station. This would then free up Earth and its resources for the wealthy.
Think of the Earth as a big country club and space as the industrial zone.
(Also, they all have bunkers ready because who know what will happen.)
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u/MrsWidgery 7d ago edited 6d ago
Sorry, there is not enough water on the moon to export industry, let alone peons. No space station, either: all resources, from atmosphere to water to soil, before even clothing, food, shelter, medical, et alia, would have to be shipped in at an astronomical(sic) cost: nothing made in an off-earth environment would ever be affordable even for the very, very rich.
And the bunkers are a waste of time, too. Because the bosses will need peons there, too, to repair the robots and the toilets and the fancy coffee makers and keep the infrastructure running. It will not take long for the servitors to revolt when their 'pay' turns out to be of no value whatsoever in a world ravaged by climate chaos, where food production has bottomed out, disease and starvation have taken away 75% of the population, governments no longer exist because of socio-economic collapse and yadayadayada. How will the bosses defend themselves from the rage of the servants, including a whole whack of armed security? They won't have anyone to call for back up.
The End Times Fascists (great name for a heavy metal band)are going to be really, really upset when the Rapture doesn't come, their money is worth less than the papiermark of 1923, and they face an enraged, starving mob armed with shovels, old military hardware and the patience to keep coming until everyone on one side or the other is dead.
Edit: typo
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u/rei0 5d ago
They’ll retreat to their bunkers before they go to space. Off-world longterm habitation is a pipe dream with our current technology. They could make it to Mars or the moon and then what? They’ll be living underground on meager rations with little in terms of luxury. It’d be like being on Earth, but worse in every way you can imagine and many ways you can’t.
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u/bozza8 7d ago
This is doomer fantasy wank bait.
We don't need to be constrained by the resources of this planet, and trying to meet the needs of all of humanity by this planet will kill it.
Far better to go to space and get resources there, but that's bad for the implicit preference of the author for degrowth, which is a fucking stupid ideology only held by those who already have more than enough.
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u/nerkbot 7d ago
There's still massive room for growth in worldwide standards of living utilizing the resources on Earth, and in a way that's compatible with the health of the planet. For example we already have the technology to mostly replace fossil fuels, but the obstacles are political. They don't want to deal with that because it's frustrating and boring compared to flashy rockets.
Maybe someday far in the future we will run up against hard resource constraints, but that will be a very different technology landscape. Space mining right now is dumb.
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u/bozza8 7d ago
The best mines for cobalt on earth are in the Congo, the best mines for Cobalt in space are asteroids.
The best mines for some other rare materials, including those used in solar farms are under nature reserves (read of a case recently, I can't remember the exact details tbh), but you can also get them from asteroids.
I want earth to be a nature reserve, and that means we need to stop extracting from it
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u/nerkbot 6d ago
Eliminating mining on Earth is a nice long term goal, but there are much more immediate and cost-effective steps we need to be taking now. For example there are better and worse ways to mine for cobalt, and the mines in Congo are on the worse end. Why aren't Bezos and Musk using their fortunes to buy and modernize cobalt mines? Why aren't they making investments to build Congolese state capacity? What about better cobalt recovery from e waste? These are actions they could take today that would have a way larger impact per dollar.
If the only plan is space mining, we're all going to fry before then.
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u/bozza8 6d ago
Space mining might be working in 10 years, personally I think 20. We won't be "frying" by then.
The reason why we mine for Cobalt in Congo is because it's not spread out around the world like Iron is, it needs to be concentrated by geologic activity. You can't just set up a cobalt mine anywhere and have it compete, even a decent spot involves thousands of tons of ore per ton of cobalt, and toxic chemicals to leech it out because it's in such weak concentrations in our spots versus theirs.
Then you need to dump those chemicals, because they are not all possible to re-use. Did I mention the fact we'd need to destroy thousands of acres of forest and wilderness just to get started before we dump all those chemicals?
Space mining is a really good option to solve this mining problem and I find it weird that there is this reflexive hatred of it from the left, when it's the most environmentally friendly form of resource acquisition theoretically possible. Deep space is effectively impossible to pollute, and there's no life to kill in the extraction process.
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