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Name one thing, that in a small timeframe has delivered so much science and engineering
The printing press and movable metal type, and the publication of Copernicus' Revolutions of the Heavens.
Where do we think the world would be if the printing press was the intellectual property of someone like Musk or Bezos?
Well,on the scale of time in question, the patent would have expired not long after the invention, so basically pretty much where we are now.
Bezos's company is revolutionising things today, he's just making a profit from it. I think if Gutenberg has been like Bezos we'd be in the same place, but Gutenberg would have been very very rich.
There have been many Bezoses over the years.
Going back to the original question, why not Mars? It’s got an atmosphere of sorts, it’s got a decent gravity, and it’s the only planet that we can actually reach within practical limits. Just watching the Mars programme shows that there’s a huge amount to learn from it.
Humans as a species have an inbuilt curiosity, a desire to know everything about life and what’s around us, and that includes the space around us. Without that, we’d have barely moved beyond the life our early ancestors, Neanderthals and Denisovians were living, they seemed to possess the same intelligence, and curiosity as Homo Sapiens, we do have inherited some of our DNA from them after all.
We could have ended up a planet inhabited by nothing but Republicans…