the ethics of interplanetary mining

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What are the ethics of mining other planets for their rich ores?

how far could we go? would we have to worry about polluting the planet with our crap and industrial byproducts? what if it's a moon? what if it's OUR moon - does that change things?

say we discovered an incredible treasure trove of valuable minerals on some crap moon of jupiter - there's no native life on the planet, and no one else to care what we do with it. would it be ethical to mine it? need we be worried about totally raping the landscape to get to the goodies? etc etc.

If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it... does it still make a sound?

― AaronK (AaronK), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

http://www.clubdesmonstres.com/totalrecall03.jpg
step back homie

― $#@!, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:35 (twenty years ago)

if there's no native life, who cares?

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:36 (twenty years ago)

well, we'd be messing with nature and marring some small part of the universe. making it look ugly and such.

― AaronK (AaronK), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:38 (twenty years ago)

Most planets already are ugly.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:41 (twenty years ago)

http://www.sea.fi/foto/total_recall.jpg

― DR. O. RLY? (eman), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

by human standards maybe. you know what you are? you're a humanist.

― AaronK (AaronK), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/hukl/bizarro.jpg

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:45 (twenty years ago)

I guess there are some ethical considerations to changing the landscape of another planet — most of them were raised in Robinson's Mars Trilogy. But for stuff like metal- and mineral-rich asteroids and comets with water ice, I say bring on the strip-mining bots! I don't think we could realistically have colonies on the moon, Mars or further out if we have to tug every single bit of sustenance out of Earth's gravity.

― truck-patch pixel farmer (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:46 (twenty years ago)

what if the strip mining bots rebel?

― AaronK (AaronK), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 19:25 (twenty years ago)

http://www.gizmodo.com/images/Reaching2.jpg
"...another day older and deeper in debt!"

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com/images/Space%20Page/atomic1.JPG
"Lie doon, my dear, and in your ear,
To help you close your eye,
I'll sing a song, a slumber song,
A miner's lullaby."

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 19:32 (twenty years ago)

what if the strip mining bots rebel?

Are you asking a serious question or just taking the piss? When was the last time a robot "rebelled" on an auto assembly line? That's about the same level of self-awareness as a mining robot would have, I imagine.

― truck-patch pixel farmer (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 19:57 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, but they'd be robots in SPACE.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 19:59 (twenty years ago)

Jordan OTM. They will overtake the crap moons of Jupiter.

― Polysix Bad Battery (cprek), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 20:02 (twenty years ago)

Oh, SPACE! (smacks self in head) Then obviously they'd drop 100-ton chunks of nickel ore on us until we were all tomato paste.
xpost

― truck-patch pixel farmer (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 20:02 (twenty years ago)

well if the mining bots rebel, they'll be outlawed on earth. special units of armed killlers will be dispatched to hunt down the ones that make it here. these units will be called "Mine-Sweepers"

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 20:12 (twenty years ago)

Hurrah, as one of the world's best at that game I can be a hero!

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 20:29 (twenty years ago)

― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 20:47 (twenty years ago)

http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/serials/5b.jpg

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 21:02 (twenty years ago)

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