Life on Mars?

Will we ever have significant settlements of human beings living off-planet? Not according to this post at Crooked Timber. The author, John Quiggin says bluntly " humans will never go out to explore this universe, or even leave Earth in significant numbers." He offers lots of arguments including a comparison of the rates of progress in information technology with those in physical engineering. Even so, I'm not convinced, although as a long time reader of Science Fiction I admit that may just be wishful thinking. I'm not alone though and many of the comments, while recognising the need for major advances in various areas in order to make progress, still argue that we will be able to do it. This comment in particular sets out the real progress that has been made in space technology since the days of Apollo and the moon landings. All agree though that in order to achieve anything we need to survive as a species first, which is increasingly not assured as we ransack the planet and despoil its ecology.

All I know is that contrary to what I thought at the time of the landings, I won't be around to see that first footprint on Mars.