If an Earth type world were discovered orbiting a nearby star, would we go?

[Lancer]

We need to get up to light speed, yes? Then the people get there within their own lives iirc. Thousands of years here on earth, so should we even bother?

[Krill]

Well, there is always the 'Human race getting wiped out by a meteor event' that colonising another world would solve...

[Arrian]

Of course we should go. Even if we manage to get a handle on the mess we're making of our current world, there is the meteor/comet/naturally occurring disasterous climate change possibility.

Gotta get off this rock and go **** up another!

-Arrian

[Elok]

You can go, provided you don't use any of my money. I'm staying.

[Spec]

I'd go.

Spec.

[Darius871]

Re: If an Earth type world were discovered orbiting a nearby star, would we go?

Originally posted by Lancer
We need to get up to light speed, yes?

No, even today we have the technology needed for a "generation ship." The only problem is no $$$.

[Garth Vader]

Originally posted by Spec
I'd go.

Spec.

Me too

[Japher]

How are the women?

[chequita guevara]

I think they'd send only prime examples of humanity, not internet geeks.

[Riesstiu IV]

Serious answer:

How do you colonize another earth like planet that has it's own ecosystem and biological diversity? I mean what would happen if two different earth like bio-systems that formed separately came into contact?

Science Fiction shows like Star Trek always make colonizing a planet as simple as beaming down a bunch of f*ggots in spandex uniforms with equipment. But the reality is that it would be dangerous because who knows what kind of microbes exist and what they would do to human life and what earth microbes would do to life on the planet to be colonized.

[chequita guevara]

It's rather unlikely that alien microbes would be able to do much to us. Unless, somehow, the same proteins and dna existed on the planet, I fail to see how they would be able to attack our bodies.

The bigger issue is that we'd very likely be allergic to alien proteins. An alien planet would likely be toxic to us.

[Ninot]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
The bigger issue is that we'd very likely be allergic to alien proteins. An alien planet would likely be toxic to us.

That's why we'd wear them space suits untill we figured all the chemistry out!

[Bosh]

Also pretty much anything we ate on a planet with an alien ecosystem would do ****-all for us nutrition-wise, to really colonize it we'd have to pretty much replace the native ecosystem with Earth stuff.

[chequita guevara]

yup

[Patroklos]

It's rather unlikely that alien microbes would be able to do much to us. Unless, somehow, the same proteins and dna existed on the planet, I fail to see how they would be able to attack our bodies.

That applies to viruses, not microbes. Alien bacteria/fungus/protists would probably eat organic material (us) just as readily there as ours does here.