The Skeptics Guide #949 - Sep 16 2023

[Steven Novella]

The Skeptics Guide #949 - Sep 16 2023

Special Guest: Christian Hubicki; DragonCon 2023 Highlights; Robots of the Future; News Items: Exploding Batteries and Deorbiting Satellites, Dark Stars, AI Drone Racing, Settling Mars, Stress Patches; Science or Fiction

Source: The Skeptics Guide #949 - Sep 16 2023

[arthwollipot]

You'd think after this long they'd be better at balancing the inputs on live recordings. There were some sections of this show that were just completely inaudible.

[DevoutCatalyst]

Shouldn't have hired Jay full time to do things he maybe kinda doesn't know how to do.

[arthwollipot]

Shouldn't have hired Jay full time to do things he maybe kinda doesn't know how to do.

Pretty sure Jay doesn't do the sound engineering for live shows.

[daniel1948]

Assuming you wanted to create a permanent settlement on Mars, and assuming you had the funding and the technology, you could pick the most perfect personality type(s) for the settlers, and in the following generations you'd have all personality types, including all possible kinds of antisocial traits. You'd have people pissed as hell that you brought them into that hellscape of a world, and you'd have people who'd rather die than live that way. On Earth, such people blow up a building or go on a killing rampage. On Mars they'd bomb the containment shell and kill the entire colony. On Earth they break off into factions and eventually nations and have wars. On Mars, those wars would exterminate the colony. On Earth, extermination-level weapons are difficult enough and expensive enough to build that only a few nations have them. (So far.) On Mars, a stick of dynamite is an extermination-level weapon.

As long as you're just sending researchers and their support staff for a limited stay and then bringing them back, personality testing is useful. As soon as you have a permanent settlement with people having kids, you're back to all personality types and traits at random.

[DevoutCatalyst]

Was nice to hear Bob admit he'll never see a Mars colony. Moreover Mars' less than half assed gravity might be insuperable for all future humans constructed to the current specifications of the manufacturer.

[daniel1948]

Was nice to hear Bob admit he'll never see a Mars colony. Moreover Mars' less than half assed gravity might be insuperable for all future humans constructed to the current specifications of the manufacturer.

I think the 1/3 G of gravity would be less of an issue than having to live the entirety of your life underground, in a small space. It would be almost exactly like being in prison. The cost of building space, and keeping that space supplied with sufficient air, containing sufficient oxygen, would mean that they'd be able to construct only as much space as would be absolutely necessary. The environment would be overcrowded, with all the emotional stress that brings with it.

Note: less than one-tenth ATM partial pressure of oxygen, and you black out; more than 1.25 ATM PP of O2 and you go into convulsions. Submarines and space stations maintain healthy levels of O2 by means of extremely complex and very sensitive machinery. They can do this because they're operating in very limited space. Closed-circuit scuba equipment (rebreathers) do the same, and are extremely touchy and very expensive. Biosphere II was unable to maintain healthy O2 levels and had to bring in oxygen tanks from outside.

Regulating O2 levels is not a simple matter. They're not going to be able to fill a large space with breathable gas. Either you'll wear a portable oxygen tank, or you'll be living in extremely crowded conditions in a very small space that you can afford to maintain a suitable atmosphere in. Probably the latter, as constructing living space of any sort will be prohibitively expensive.