Terraforming Mars

Another discussion on the possibility of terraforming Mars to make it habitable for humans. In Asimov's world, terraforming is the basis of human colonization of the galaxy, but the spread of humanity across the universe brings its own set of problems - it's almost a one-way trip to the colonies, and with their own culture and superhuman abilities (living in an inhospitable environment needs some modifications to the human body, right?) comes a sense of superiority and clash of cultures across the galaxy. Of course, something like that may or may not happen, and 500 years hence, we'll probably still be talking about colonizing our neighboring planets, but it's interesting to think of how human life and culture will change if we spread out to other planets. (Interplanetory Survivor on telly?) Will we, for once stop thinking of ourselves as citizens of our countries, and instead consider ourselves to be citizens of earth as a whole? (Even if we do not spread across the universe, it's interesting to think of how we shape our identities as the globe shrinks with the use of all this technology!)

Closer home is Biosphere 2 near Tucson, Arizona (about an hour and a half from Phoenix) which has a fully functioning artificial biosphere complete with rainforest, savannah, desert and an underwater ocean! (The Phoenix-Tucson landscape probably does feel like Mars, eh?). Built to test human and biological endurance, Biosphere 2 has had 2 human survival missions. I haven't seen this place, but it's definitely on my itenerary this fall!