The living tech we need to support human life on other planets | Lynn Rothschild

What would it take to settle Mars? In a talk about the future of space exploration, Lynn Rothschild reviews the immense challenges to living elsewhere in the universe and proposes some bold, creative solutions to making a home off planet Earth — like "growing" houses out of fungi or using bacteria to help generate electricity.

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32 Comments on The living tech we need to support human life on other planets | Lynn Rothschild

  1. I think there is some kind of *”Elysium”* project going on.
    Earth feels like dumpster and they want to escape it.

    • We have never been so prolific and prosperous in our entire human history
      you and other uninformed naive credulous empty-headed christians with your creationist agenda just want to see the WORST of humanity, so that somehow you allow yourself to justify your personal beliefs.

      The only dumpster that I see around is some minorities around the globe who thinks world is currently getting worst and worst – like you.

      go read something that is actually OUT of your personal biased bubble and compare numbers: we are developing and making progress every single day. You cannot see it because you are too narrow-minded for that.

  2. Planet Earth is abuzz with headlines about Mars. First, NASA announced the discovery of flowing water on the red planet. Then The Martian opened to rave reviews. We have so many questions about the mysterious frozen planet. Does liquid water mean there’s life on Mars?

    • This is one of the most revolutionary technologies in the world allowing us to cost-effectively grow essential resources in inclosed habitats. This can potentially be done on Mars and maybe even asteroids allowing us to set the foundation for further resource extraction and industrial development. All the people talking about saving the earth fail to realize that much of the unsustainable levels of deforestation and pollution are caused by us having to extract (ex. cutting down rainforest) and process/manufacture (ex. CO2 emitting factories) here on earth. In outer space lies an unfathomable plentitude of natural resources capable of ending resource scarcity and consequently all forms of poverty, while simultaneously allowing us to meet our consumer needs in an environment unaffected by CO2 emissions. This technology is one important step in outsourcing all our resource extraction and manufacturing processes beyond our vulnerable planet.

    • But we do. For many environments it’s just more cost-effective to do it with clay (bricks), sand (glass), stone (concrete), in the long run, though. Because, you know, vertical space usage, maintenance, durability, temperature control, weight… Standardized architecture sucks because it doesn’t care about the specific needs of those who’ll use that space, not because its engineering is flawed.

  3. One of the lines at the bottom is that we are going to have to genetically modify Humans in order for us to successfully venture forth into space on the long term. This would be true for any critters that we take along with us. The simplest model is that we will need to have GMO tech for plants that we take with us into space. Fungi? Life always changes to its environment as best it is able.

  4. We need to support life on our planet. Kids starving and dying of preventable and curable disease. I appreciate ability to study space and other planets, just wish wed care about ours.

    • I don’t disagree. I’m pretty sure that this technology could help there, too. The ability to modify and engineer organisms would be a feedback loop to creating more stable and robust crops for poorer areas, as well as lowering the cost of vaccines or straight up engineered immunity. Logistics and bureaucracy are the current problem, but if such a technology were to become cheap and widespread such areas wouldn’t need to rely on outside help.

  5. To the unimaginative and narrow minds that consider this a waste, and want to spend the money and effort on [insert good cause] on Earth.

    If you’d actually listened, you would’ve picked up on how extremely useful many of these technologies will be on Earth. As she said, constraints unlock creativity. You could claim that, well, we could unlock that creativity with the constraints on Earth, but you’d be wrong. Earth has desperate needs, but few constraints. We fail to focus narrowly enough to make the extreme breakthroughs. In addition, expensive as space exploration is, it’s still small scale relative to poverty. Small scale makes for safe testing.

    Just a few examples, off the top of my head: The work necessary for making organisms thrive on Mars will help us make organisms thrive under extreme conditions on Earth. NASA may even solve one of the biggest problems with GMO, which is confidence. Being very cautious by the nature of their work, NASA tests everything very thoroughly. The absence of proper regulations on GMO in many regions, including the US, will be compensated for by NASA’s extreme testing. Also remember, NASA has been vital in exploring Earth, itself, through it’s exploration of space. The amount of information we have about our planet is manifold greater than it would’ve been without space exploration. A study of Mars may give us clues about geological and atmospheric processes, which may be useful for all sorts of things.

    • There are a lot of effort towards preserving our planet, space travel and life support on other planets don’t disable us from doing it. The possibility of migrating to other planets is not only useful for a situation were the Earth is inhabitable because of polution or global warming, if it becomes inhabitable for reasons out of our control we need life support on another planet.

  6. Wow, this is crazy. Your compairing dogs to wolfs and corn then to corn now. These huge differences are less than 1% geneticaly different. All life on earth is 98% same. GMO or synthetic life vary around 4%. Smart people are kinda crazy, maybe youve been in the lab to much.. Try stepping into nature for 40- 50 hrs a week and then think about this. Maybe then you will notice how dumb this sounds. We arent ready for this yet. We dont know the side effects of this stuff. We be infintile to the infinity of life. Get a grip please!

  7. I’m convinced that there are more “crazy conspiracy theorists” on TED Talks’ comments than people actually interested in the subjects of the videos.

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