13
votes
A random sci-fi question for you
You've just been convicted by the UN security council for being a Tildes user, and have been sentenced to 7 years in a penal colony, but you get a choice. Do you choose either:
1: Mars - 7 years without ever being able to go outside without a suit on, but afterwards you could travel back to Earth, if you desired.
2: New Mongolia: An Earth-like planet, almost as if Earth was new again. But it's a one way trip.
(Asking for a friend)
More info needed.
Is there a functioning society on New Mongolia, or am I to be dumped unceremoniously into a solo survival game scenario? If the latter, that's certainly a death sentence with a nicer name, since "no man is an island" etc., and I can't just punch trees for building materials. At least, I don't think I can.
Of course, at our present level of technology, so would a stint in the Mars gulag. Unless I'm misremembering, Mars doesn't have a notable magnetosphere, so anyone stuck there is gonna pick up a hellacious dose of radiation unless the colony is pretty deep under the surface. That raises further logistics questions.
Also, what does Earth look like in this thought experiment? Are we talking present levels of political dipshittery, or are we cyberpunking even harder? I'm gonna guess more the latter, since visiting the tamest vaguely lefty space that exists online is grounds for transportation in this scenario. I figure you just kinda threw that out as a hand wave for the reason, but I gotta work with what I'm given.
A suggestion: maybe change the banishment planet's name to New Botany Bay. It's more thematic.
I mean water/Ice is a pretty good insulator for radiation and you don't need much of it to be an effective shield, so my guess is that anything permanently built on Mars would initially be at the poles.
Also any permanent buildings would probably be made with a layer of water/ice to shield from radiation as well.
Not too unfeasible with current or near-current technology.
I mean, in this life? If I didn't have a wife and kids to come back to, New Mongolia, because being a pioneer sounds pretty cool. But there's roughly a 0.00% chance I could abandon my family. Send me to Mars!
New Mongolia, new and full of exploration and an entire new world to build and die on. I'm game, when do I get convicted?
I'll take my chances with New Mongolia.
I see it in terms of opportunity. New Mongolia has a lot more opportunity than Mars then back to Earth.
I mean, you'd be the first to see a lot of things, like imagine what exploration would be like, the biology. Even if it wasn't the most advanced and was more like the frontier that'd still be good for me.
I'm tempted to choose the New Mongolia, but then, it's a one way trip. Never seeing everyone & everything I've ever known (despite their flaws) isn't very appealing. I choose 7 years in Mars-schwitz as punishment.
2, But once I get there I'm definetly changing the name to something cooler.
New Mongolia. Let’s say I go to Mars — what do I do when I get back? Probably post on tildes about it, and then here we go again….
I feel like I'd probably do everything in my power to resist and/or become a fugitive or some shit, rather than accept either outcome
Either of those two "options" is suicide
after 7 years on mars it's likely (though not certain, we have very little data on this) that muscle wastage means that going back to earth will leave me severely disabled, barring maybe large amounts of physiotherapy or idk a power-assist exoskeleton, so probably would go for new mongolia