Elon Musk’s Best Argument for Mars

Marty Berman

On the scale of evolution…

There are many arguments for going to Mars.

One is the “backup Earth” argument. There could be a devastating event that wipes out life on Earth (climate change, nuclear war) and establishing a self-sustaining civilization on Mars would prevent life’s extinction.

There’s the explorer argument, which I like better. Humans are curious creatures with the thirst to explore. It’s our destiny to be out among the stars discovering new things. And it’d be really fun and exciting!

But I think the best argument is when you take a step back, look at how life evolved on Earth, and imagine what the next milestone would be. Elon’s argument is that the next step of evolution is life becoming multi-planetary:

“What are the important steps in the evolution of life? Obviously there was the advent of single cell life, there was differentiation of plants and animals, there was life going from oceans to land, mammals, consciousness, and I would argue also on that scale should fit life becoming multi-planetary.”

I follow this logic. Going to Mars would be as significant an event as life going from the oceans to land.

And then Elon makes a humble request:

"If something is important enough to fit on the scale of evolution, then it's important. And maybe worth a little bit of our resources."

I’m sold.

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