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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.

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  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday March 16 2022, @01:38AM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday March 16 2022, @01:38AM (#1229515) Journal

    European colonization of North America failed numerous times, and probably only succeeded with assistance rendered by descendants of the Asian land bridge settlers. Space colonization is going to be slightly more predictable, and much much more costly. The enemies of space colonization are the mud crawlers, unwilling to back the endeavor sufficiently for it to succeed.

    Well, trying to colonize a place that is already inhabited is not necessarily a negative or positive. The Pilgrims, as we all know, benefited from friendly natives who showed them the local ropes. The Vikings, on the other hand, reported failing because of hostile natives. And ultimately European colonization might have succeeded because the little microbes hitchhiking on their bodies successfully pre-colonized the Americas through early contacts with Basque fishermen and successive waves of formal European settlement. And, lest we forget, Europeans weren't the only ones who colonized the Americas. The Navajo did quite well as Johnnie-come-latelies when they arrived on the scene around the 16th century A.D.

    Human colonists on other worlds might not have to face that question at all, particularly if they wind up some lifeless place they'll have to terraform, like Mars.

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