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Why Werner Herzog Thinks Human Space Colonization “Will Inevitably Fail”

posted by janrinok on Tuesday March 15 2022, @11:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the doomed-from-the-start? dept.

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/03/ars-talks-to-werner-herzog-about-space-colonization-its-poetry/

Last Exit: Space is a new documentary on Discovery+ that explores the possibility of humans colonizing planets beyond Earth. Since it is produced and narrated by Werner Herzog (director of Grizzly Man, guest star on The Mandalorian) and written and directed by his son Rudolph, however, it goes in a different direction than your average space documentary. It's weird, beautiful, skeptical, and even a bit funny.

In light of the film's recent streaming launch, father and son Herzog spoke with Ars Technica from their respective homes about the film's otherworldly hopes, pessimistic conclusions, and that one part about space colonists having to drink their own urine.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2022, @02:32PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2022, @02:32PM (#1229324)

    European countries were able to live off the land at their destinations, and even then, needed to rely heavily on the local inhabitants to get them established.

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2022, @04:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2022, @04:47PM (#1229362)

    Not to mention, breathe.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 15 2022, @09:15PM (4 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday March 15 2022, @09:15PM (#1229453) Homepage
    They literally just took over pre-established settlements. America is very much *not* a good analogue for outer-space.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

    • (Score: 2) by deimtee on Wednesday March 16 2022, @11:48AM (3 children)

      by deimtee (3272) on Wednesday March 16 2022, @11:48AM (#1229597) Journal

      They literally just took over pre-established settlements.

      Where did the pre-established settlements come from?

      --
      200 million years is actually quite a long time.

      • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday March 16 2022, @01:56PM (2 children)

        by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Wednesday March 16 2022, @01:56PM (#1229624) Homepage
        Settlements arise. Do you mean the settlers?

        But if you're trying to pull some chicken-egg silliness - the continent was ideal for inhabitation by nimble mammals before those nimble mammals even existed. Unlike space. So it's a terrible analogue for space.
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

        • (Score: 2) by deimtee on Wednesday March 16 2022, @06:10PM (1 child)

          by deimtee (3272) on Wednesday March 16 2022, @06:10PM (#1229725) Journal

          No. I was pointing out that at some point, someone colonised that land without existing settlements. Or don't natives count as people?

          It would be more correct to call the later arrivals immigrants.

          --
          200 million years is actually quite a long time.

          • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday March 17 2022, @11:13AM

            by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Thursday March 17 2022, @11:13AM (#1229912) Homepage
            Nobody disagrees that someone must have got there first, that was the chicken-egg reference I was making. There were many tribes moving all over the continent and beyond, one of them must have been the first to each individual place that was worth settling in, subsequent ones just took over what was already there. Without corroborated histories, we simply can't know how many times this happened, but archaeological records show many different types of tech, implying multiple waves. And of course, everything's complicated by the fact that not everyone settled, many were migratory.
            --
            Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves