On 9/27 Tierney's column in the New York Times (subscription required; the cheapest option is get home delivery and go on permanent vacation hold) again picked up the alt.space agenda of colonization. His advice, "If officials hope to get money for NASA's new program of manned exploration, I suggest they go to Capitol Hill with a two-word sales pitch: gray goo."

I second the sentiment that civilization protects and heals itself, but a rich planet can afford a stylish colony just in case the unthinkable happens.

I don't see why the magic words "total thermonuclear war" or "biological warfare" aren't sufficient in themselves. That is, we have sufficient technology (and dangling blades of Damocles) now to justify a permanent space presence. When you consider that some sort of political disaster (eg, a totalitarian world government or effective global anti-technology movement, for starters) might occur as well.

When you consider that some sort of political disaster (eg, a totalitarian world government or effective global anti-technology movement, for starters) might occur as well.

Then this colony had better have an excellent means of defending itself as well.

Just call it a "second amendment" for space.

Sam, I'm not so sure Tierney is giving those ever-sinister self-replicating nightmare nanobots enough credit if he thinks "the ideal refuge would be Mars." MWAHAHAHA!!!

Of course an easier way to sell NASA's exploration plan as civilization insurance, as is so often pointed out, is to keep telling Congress the killer asteroid or comet IS coming. (Never mind the singularity). Then again, there are always other unthinkables: swallowed by a black hole, blown up by a matter/antimatter reaction, let's see...any of those particularly mindblowing, earth-dooming particle accelerator experiment results. (Tierney does mention some ordinary species-busting scenarios like nuclear holocaust, doomsday virus, global climate change, etc.)

But to his credit, he agrees, "stepping up the evolutionary ladder sounds so appealing that I'm glad to risk even the gray goo problem.." Exactly. And he's not volunteering to become one of those fail-safe monk-types who live off the nanogrid in case things do go haywire. (Where in the solar system would we put those safehouses, anyway?) In any case, I'm convinced those guys would quickly become jealous of the pleasures of posthumanity and wish they hadn't opted out in the first place ;)

Where in the solar system would we put those safehouses, anyway?

The Moon would be a good spot. Vacuum is the best barrier you can get against them, and the regolith is unlikely to have all the elements goobots need to replicate. So we might get a settlement of Amish types avoiding nanotech the only way they can.