Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Last Day of Terrestrial Humans

Posted by Hemos on from the lost-in-time-lost-in-space-lost-in...meaning dept.

A reader writes: "According to Christian Science Monitor, tomorrow humans will begin their permanent lives off of earth. Starting with the Expedition 1 launch in Kazakhstan at 7:53 GMT, Oct. 31, NASA plans to always have a human on the ISS, which has a projected mission life of 10 to 25 years. So, it is quite possible, that for the rest of history, there will always be humans who are not living on earth. See this ISS Homepage for more information on the mission."

4 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Old news by rknop · · Score: 5

    Dude, passage of laws like the DMCA indicate that there is already a measurable segment of humanity who aren't living on this planet.

    -Rob

  2. I can suggest a few people. . . by kfg · · Score: 5

    Who I'd like to see live off of earth.

    Well, we'd probably have a permanent station on Mars in a year if Al Sharpton would volunteer to go and not come back.

    Seriously, this really could be the dawn of a new era. I've always considered the most noticable thing about humanity is our pure, unadulterated wanderlust.

    We were hardly up on our hind feet before we started spreading all over the globe. Long before history began we had spread to the far corners of the globe.

    Think about that. Not modern man, but man three feet tall with only the tools that he could fashion with his bare hands simply wandered into nearly every corner of globe. Just when, and HOW, did man first reach Australia?

    We travel. Tourism is a major activity. We build bypasses so people at point A can get to point B, and vice versa, for no real reason. We go places for no more reason than " we havn't been THERE before."

    When a cat gets bored it takes a nap. When a person gets bored * it paces. * It goes for a walk, it * goes SOMEWHERE.*

    UP is the only place left to go, and it's about time we got down to it. Not for science, not for population pressure relief, not to 'save the whales', not for financial gain, but because we are human, and that's what humans DO!

  3. Real Question by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 5

    If I spend a year on the ISS...do I have to pay taxes for my income that year?

  4. Moon walkers by Michael+Woodhams · · Score: 5

    Here is a related but pessimistic prediction: before I die, there will be no living person who has walked on the moon. This seems incredibly sad to me.

    --
    Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.