Futures

Actually, it's a lot better to dig, free radiation shield!

- ???
My plan is to use concentrated sunlight to tunnel directly through an asteroid and use the material to build a small O'Neill cylinder inside. The rest of the rock would provide radiation shielding so the cylinder would be cheaper to construct, and we can send sunlight into the cylinder from either end using the same mirrors we carved the asteroid with.

https://poorlydrawnstore.com/products/our-future-in-space-print

In case you're like my space friends who want this as a poster

How did you get friends from space?
- Met one on an airplane, actually
Are you by chance the author?
- I don't think so but I can check my driver's license

nerd Um, acktually, we should build long-term Lunar and Martian habitats underground (lava tubes would work nicely) to protect from solar and interstellar radiation. nerd

It's so ridiculous. We can do that at home. There's literally no point in living in Mars. No air no gravity, no radiation protection. Even if we make the air here radioactive and the water poisonous, at least there's air and water.
- It's not like this makes up for everything else, but there is gravity on Mars
- We need that terraforming exercise to eventually leave the solar system though. Stars don't live indefinitely. But we probably have to grow up first and try in a couple of centuries.
- Go shit in someone else's punchbowl. The future can be wonderful.

... I don't get this comic. Is it satirical, or is it just not saying anything?

Seems to be making the point that it would be kind of dumb to spread across the solar system just making the other planets just as messed up as what we are currently doing on Earth.
- There's not so much to mess up on, say, Mars. I mean the terrain is interesting in its way but it's not like we'd be annihilating complex ecosystems like we are here on earth. We would have to establish significant ecosystems anywhere we settled, in fact.
- It would be dumb unless we leave earth and turn it into a nature preserve
It is funny. I am not sure why or why the why matters
The joke is that Venus is special.
Do you not like balloons?
What is saying is that our style of life is stupid and boring compared to our ambitions. It's why I don't bother traveling. Little bit of different geography and I'm still just hanging out inside for comfort and amenities.

This kind of thing is why I'm most interested in abstractions and stuff like dancing.
- It’s why I don’t bother traveling. Little bit of different geography and I’m still just hanging out inside for comfort and amenities.
  
  Have you considered not staying at a resort/cruise ship? Like yeah I don't understand why people who just hang out inside travel either, that's why I don't do that.

Lol, we ain't making it off earth, especially not Venus

Ironically, between Venus' earth-like gravity and high atmospheric density, it might actually be easier to build cloud colonies on Venus than ground colonies on Mars.
- Except that venus is just absolutely hostile to everything
- The hard part would things like water and raw building materials, one of the benefits of ground is that it’s mostly iron, oxygen, and other metals, while basically everything on Venus would need to be shipped in from off world.
- In the long term, it's also possible to alter the atmosphere on Venus until it's approximately the same as Earth. It would be a massive undertaking, but a hell of a lot easier than getting Mars to a comfortably habitable state. And you could potentially get an entire habitable planet out of the deal, which would be nice.
  
  Kurzgesagt had an interesting video on the topic.
  
  Obviously it would take a significant investment of resources that would benefit some future generation, but not our own. So, back to being impossible, at least for now.
- Right cause getting food/oxygen/water is so easy while in fucking hot air balloons.
I remember reading some old sci-fi that thought Venus was going to be paradise. The next earth.

Then they found out how awful it really was.
- Yeah, lot of "Alien from venus!!" stuff. Too bad all the planets and moons are FAR from hospitable, we'd be better off fixing our own planet than trying to build a new one from scratch

City planners wouldn't allow more buildings on Earth...

But we need to build more pylons (into space)!

Most vermin on this planet reflexively build nests all over the place to accommodate population growth. Its a sickness

Human bad

There. Saved you a few words