PZ Myers agrees with my Martian analysis

Stephen Hawking, the brief historian of space and time, today proposed that humans really need to quit watching all those reality shows on television and instead, focus on coming up with a way of blasting themselves out into deep space in order to colonize other planets. Hawking says that our planet, i.e : earth, for those who were busy text messaging during science class, faces global warming, pollution, imminent nuclear holocaust and the rapid proliferation of Ipods, which, if things continue at their current pace, especially the proliferation of Ipods, would soon make the planet uninhabitable for its teeming billions.

In response, PZ Myers, the renowned science blogger of Pharyngula fame, lists his objections to Mr Hawking's proposal. Funnily enough, many of his grievances mirror the ones I myself laid out on this blog a few weeks ago regarding humans establishing colonies on Mars. Here's what PZ says :

In the long run, I don't think that any of our progeny that we spin off into space will be human for long, and I don't think we can predict what a post-human race would want, or how it would interact with us.

and

Sure, our many times great grandchildren could get a foothold off of planet Earth. But do we really want to create a competing race of naked mole apes?

"naked mole apes" is the scientific term used to describe Indian graduate students, which is the species of mutants I predicted we would turn into once we successfully colonized Mars. These Indian graduate students, I predicted, would soon begin to think of us earthly inhabitants as lesser mortals and ultimately, after a particularly bad episode of genocidal frustration brought about by a lack of sambar powder in the apartment, proceed to annihilate us with their psychedelic neutron propelled plasma rays.

PZ, however, elaborates further on the horrors that would ensue on Mars once our race turns into naked mole apes. He says :

I think the priorities in an environment as hostile as, for instance, the surface of Mars would be conformity, control, and specialization—social concerns to maintain safety and stability in a very nasty place. Individualism would be discouraged, since loners don't survive in a situation requiring communal dedication. Humans in a space colony could be more like naked mole rats, with reproduction regulated tightly and in the hands of a few, caste-like arrangements of workers, and social mechanisms to make sure no one individual could put the community at hazard.

Good God. That sounds almost like .... life in 21st century India. So basically, 30th century Martian society would be exactly similar to the one currently underway in 21st century India. And they call us a third world country. What a crock of crap.