What if we found another earth-like world?

[julius2]

What if we found another earth-like world that we could get to. Obviously that hasn't happened yet and maybe lots of people haven't thought about it yet..

What would you envisage the first steps would be?

Exploration I suspect would be top of the list?

My point is over the last 2000 years we have developed this world to such an extent. It has been such a voyage of discovery. But if we find another habitable planet would it just be a transfer of knowledge?

[exchemist]

1 hour ago, julius2 said:

What if we found another earth-like world that we could get to. Obviously that hasn't happened yet and maybe lots of people haven't thought about it yet..

What would you envisage the first steps would be?

Exploration I suspect would be top of the list?

My point is over the last 2000 years we have developed this world to such an extent. It has been such a voyage of discovery. But if we find another habitable planet would it just be a transfer of knowledge?

Avoidance of contamination. We would go to great lengths to investigate it by means of carefully sterilised probes (unmanned of course). 

[julius2]

10 minutes ago, exchemist said:

Avoidance of contamination. We would go to great lengths to investigate it by means of carefully sterilised probes (unmanned of course). 

Contamination would be an important consideration. Who knows what kind of bacteria would exist on the planet.

It would depend what kind of vegetation exists on the planet.

If the environment was found to be harmful would we try to invent vaccines?

[exchemist]

22 minutes ago, julius2 said:

Contamination would be an important consideration. Who knows what kind of bacteria would exist on the planet.

It would depend what kind of vegetation exists on the planet.

If the environment was found to be harmful would we try to invent vaccines?

No, I meant contamination of the planet by micro-organisms from Earth, i.e. we should not introduce contamination to the planet. 

[Ken Fabian]

If we have the technologies to take people to another star humanity will not need planets; artificial habitats should be easy in comparison. Humans that have been living in space for a long time may not feel the same (primitive) attraction for living on planets - may even find it disturbing and unnecessarily dangerous.

I think the desire for new lands is less innate than historical with a strong survivorship bias - history written by descendants of people living in successfully "colonised/conquered" lands. I expect that for most humans making the most of their lives in the lands they were born into, without any strong urge to migrate has always been the majority. Earliest human migrations were into mostly familiar or similar environments that the tools and skills they carried with them were more than adequate to survive. Desperation when things were tough probably had more influence than any overarching urge to explore and migrate. There was a great abundance of resource rich environments reachable on foot and with simple boats.

How Earth-like? For most of Earth's history Earth would not have been suitable for humans - not enough Oxygen for one thing. Is the biochemistry similar enough for compatibility? Even chirality can be different - mirror imaged compared to terrestrial biochemistry. Even aside from predators and diseases biology can make a great variety of poisons and allergens.

11 hours ago, exchemist said:

Avoidance of contamination. We would go to great lengths to investigate it by means of carefully sterilised probes (unmanned of course). 

I expect the uncontaminated biology and biochemistry for study to be the most valuable things about an Earth-like world to an interstellar capable humanity. Terraforming - deliberately introducing invasive Earth species to displace native life for the purpose of making it more Earthlike for colonists looks unnecessary, shortsighted and selfish to me.

Edited October 30 by Ken Fabian

[julius2]

I guess following this thread, brings to light that is not such a straight forward question. The nature of such an earth-like planet would have a great effect on what we as humans of this world would do with it. For instance, we would not want to contaminate the new planet with stuff from earth, or likewise we would not want to be contaminated by anything living from it's environment.

I guess I didn't think this far ahead.

I guess it would be "rewarding" for this world to find another planet capable of being developed. But it would not be half as much fun if we were forced to wear space-suits everywhere on the new planet. So I guess we should appreciate the "luxury" of being so well suited to our existing planet.

[dimreepr]

33 minutes ago, julius2 said:

I guess following this thread, brings to light that is not such a straight forward question.

It's a straightforward question, to which the answer is and?

Bc 'we' could never visit, to see for ourselves...

39 minutes ago, julius2 said:

I guess it would be "rewarding" for this world to find another planet capable of being developed.

Why?

 

[julius2]

9 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

It's a straightforward question, to which the answer is and?

Bc 'we' could never visit, to see for ourselves...

Why?

 

Why?

I guess we would need a planetary vote on it....

But everything we have developed could be "duplicated" on the new planet. The economies of scale would be enormous.

For instance, mining. How long has it taken humanity to develop all the science (periodic table), mining methods. We had to have the renaissance before we had the industrial revolution, which allowed us to make the machinery to undertake deep sea drilling etc.

Our financial systems could be extended. Not only would we have an earth banking system which we have now, but an interplanetary banking system - depending on what resources are available on the new planet etc.

[swansont]

1 hour ago, julius2 said:

Our financial systems could be extended. Not only would we have an earth banking system which we have now, but an interplanetary banking system - depending on what resources are available on the new planet etc.

Interstellar commerce might be an interesting topic to investigate, but any assumption that it would be a simple extrapolation from what we know and have is naive. 

[julius2]

True.

It would not be a simple extrapolation.

First, we would need to know what sort of environment we are dealing with.

For a simple case, the other planet could just be a mining settlement. Earth using it to mine for precious metals / resources such as magnesium, iron ore, oil. But would this just prolong our existence on earth? What is the end goal?

If we as a planetary species are imaging a Star Wars like scenario, exchemist made a good point. On all the planets (desert planet, ice planet, Yoda planet etc), humans were freely able to breath the atmosphere. With this reality check, Star Wars is not believable at all.

Yes, I know it is "just" a movie.

[swansont]

3 hours ago, julius2 said:

True.

It would not be a simple extrapolation.

First, we would need to know what sort of environment we are dealing with.

For a simple case, the other planet could just be a mining settlement. Earth using it to mine for precious metals / resources such as magnesium, iron ore, oil. But would this just prolong our existence on earth? What is the end goal?

If we as a planetary species are imaging a Star Wars like scenario, exchemist made a good point. On all the planets (desert planet, ice planet, Yoda planet etc), humans were freely able to breath the atmosphere. With this reality check, Star Wars is not believable at all.

Yes, I know it is "just" a movie.

The issue is the distance. Another solar system means light years of distance, which means years of delay in communication and several decades of travel time for cargo. You decide to mine something (“floof”)  on planet X and send it to earth, but you run the risk that floof will still be worth it in 100 years — that a huge deposit won’t be discovered on earth or a planet/asteroid in our solar system, driving the price down.

Exporting a finished product to X assumes it’s not cheaper to just build a facility on X to make it, and that it won’t be obsolete in 100 years. Is there any 100 year-old product you’d buy today?

[julius2]

Yes, a very big problem. Who would want "floof" in 100 years....

The thing is what makes us think we have a future in the universe?

I blame the science of film-making. Maybe not so much in the world today where the movies are a bit "watery". But the 1980s, where we fed ourselves all sorts of science fiction. As a planet we have to be careful we didn't build a "machine" to spark our own death!

In other words were the movies one big psychology machine???

 

[Koni]

Sorry THAT I write My oppinion but from the many "Biology-Books" I have read !!!... (1) First IF the extraterrestial Planet has "similar" LIVE with that of "Earth" WE will find something to "eat" !!!... BUT also WE will get "ill" from the "similar" Bacteria !!!... and (2) Second IF the LIVE on the extraterrestial Planet is very "different" of that on our "Earth" !!!... WE will NOT get "ill" !!!... BUT we also will NOT find something THAT WE can "eat" !!!... (1) + (2) = Solution(3) !!!... which is a extraterrestial Planet without LIVE !!!... BUT with "Liquit-Water" !!!... ( Like "Mars"  IF he has underground Water !!!... )  BUT before THAT !!!... WE have to go with Spaceships and Robots there !!!... and sent OUR "Earth-Bacteria" to the extraterrestial Planet !!!... and then "Plants" !!!... and then "Animals" !!!... and after a lot of Years can WE also go there !!!... BUT will have to deal with the "different" Enviroment !!!... and the "different" Gravitation !!!... THAT will make us "Human" to "Evolve" !!!... to NEW "Humanoid-Alien-Species" !!!... and AFTER THAT !!!... there is NO easy way to come back to "Earth" !!!... because it is always !!!... "sweat" Home !!!... "My" Home !!!... because "Humans" and "Earth" !!!... evolve "together" !!!... ( and about the "Question" ???... How ???... will be "LIVE" on "other" Planets ???... "Look" on the "Earth" Like an "Alien" !!!... and You will "see" !!!... on the one Hand "Fish-Like" and "Bird-Like" animals !!!... and on the other Hand strange "animals" Like the "Oktopus" and the "Hippocampus" !!!... because also the Evolution has "Rules" !!!... BUT "never" is the "same" !!!... )