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The weird case of the unresponsive Earth - why does the Earth stop communicating with Mars?
Clash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP
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Mars has been colonized, close to a million people are now living above (and below) the martian soil, every few months a ship from Earth arrives with more resource for expansion and more settlers, currently the travel is one way until the martian space elevator will be completed in the near future.
Everything is going well until one day the "blackout" happens, all communication to Earth & the sister colonies on the moon stopped, pointing what telescopes the Martian settlers did have to Earth show no signs of life - no lights in the dark sides of the planet, no signals of any kind in any of the electric spectrum that the settlers have equipment to measure and as the months pass no new ships arrive.
It's as if one day everybody on Earth and Earth orbit just vanished.
The Question
What caused the "blackout"?
- The settlers don't know if anyone is alive, causes which would keep people alive on Earth yet unable to communicate with Mars or use anything that shows sign of life to settlers outside the planet is acceptable.
- Ideally Earth should remain intact, I would prefer answers where the settlers are guessing but never know for sure what happened on Earth.
- Tech level is near future - 100 years to the future is a good benchmark.
- Whatever the "blackout" is it should have no affect on Mars.
- I can handwave the lunar colonies using Earth to relay communication with Mars do to the small size of the lunar colony so it's possible the "blackout" to affect Earth only and not the moon - however satellites around the earth should still be affected as even automatic transmissions from them stopped.
science-based space-colonization extinction
asked 3 hours ago
cypher
1,8311417
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
favorite
Mars has been colonized, close to a million people are now living above (and below) the martian soil, every few months a ship from Earth arrives with more resource for expansion and more settlers, currently the travel is one way until the martian space elevator will be completed in the near future.
Everything is going well until one day the "blackout" happens, all communication to Earth & the sister colonies on the moon stopped, pointing what telescopes the Martian settlers did have to Earth show no signs of life - no lights in the dark sides of the planet, no signals of any kind in any of the electric spectrum that the settlers have equipment to measure and as the months pass no new ships arrive.
It's as if one day everybody on Earth and Earth orbit just vanished.
The Question
What caused the "blackout"?
- The settlers don't know if anyone is alive, causes which would keep people alive on Earth yet unable to communicate with Mars or use anything that shows sign of life to settlers outside the planet is acceptable.
- Ideally Earth should remain intact, I would prefer answers where the settlers are guessing but never know for sure what happened on Earth.
- Tech level is near future - 100 years to the future is a good benchmark.
- Whatever the "blackout" is it should have no affect on Mars.
- I can handwave the lunar colonies using Earth to relay communication with Mars do to the small size of the lunar colony so it's possible the "blackout" to affect Earth only and not the moon - however satellites around the earth should still be affected as even automatic transmissions from them stopped.
science-based space-colonization extinction
asked 3 hours ago
cypher
1,8311417
Changed the locks after unwelcome boarders left... nothing to see here. Just pretend you're not at home if they come calling
– nzaman
3 hours ago
Is Mars continuously observing Earth? Or does it only look at Earth occasionally?
– Jasper
1 hour ago
The way I imagine it is that before the blackout there was non stop data transfer between Earth and mars, a million people sending messages to their loved ones, scientfic data, even new movies all flow from one planet to the other non stop... I assume that after the blackout happen there will be someone on mars trying non stop to reconnect back with earth on but it's possible that due to lack of resources there are time gaps where Mars can't observe Earth at all.
– cypher
1 hour ago
Does Earth still have to be alive?
– SRM
54 mins ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
favorite
up vote
2
down vote
favorite
Mars has been colonized, close to a million people are now living above (and below) the martian soil, every few months a ship from Earth arrives with more resource for expansion and more settlers, currently the travel is one way until the martian space elevator will be completed in the near future.
Everything is going well until one day the "blackout" happens, all communication to Earth & the sister colonies on the moon stopped, pointing what telescopes the Martian settlers did have to Earth show no signs of life - no lights in the dark sides of the planet, no signals of any kind in any of the electric spectrum that the settlers have equipment to measure and as the months pass no new ships arrive.
It's as if one day everybody on Earth and Earth orbit just vanished.
The Question
What caused the "blackout"?
- The settlers don't know if anyone is alive, causes which would keep people alive on Earth yet unable to communicate with Mars or use anything that shows sign of life to settlers outside the planet is acceptable.
- Ideally Earth should remain intact, I would prefer answers where the settlers are guessing but never know for sure what happened on Earth.
- Tech level is near future - 100 years to the future is a good benchmark.
- Whatever the "blackout" is it should have no affect on Mars.
- I can handwave the lunar colonies using Earth to relay communication with Mars do to the small size of the lunar colony so it's possible the "blackout" to affect Earth only and not the moon - however satellites around the earth should still be affected as even automatic transmissions from them stopped.
science-based space-colonization extinction
asked 3 hours ago
cypher
1,8311417
Mars has been colonized, close to a million people are now living above (and below) the martian soil, every few months a ship from Earth arrives with more resource for expansion and more settlers, currently the travel is one way until the martian space elevator will be completed in the near future.
Everything is going well until one day the "blackout" happens, all communication to Earth & the sister colonies on the moon stopped, pointing what telescopes the Martian settlers did have to Earth show no signs of life - no lights in the dark sides of the planet, no signals of any kind in any of the electric spectrum that the settlers have equipment to measure and as the months pass no new ships arrive.
It's as if one day everybody on Earth and Earth orbit just vanished.
The Question
What caused the "blackout"?
- The settlers don't know if anyone is alive, causes which would keep people alive on Earth yet unable to communicate with Mars or use anything that shows sign of life to settlers outside the planet is acceptable.
- Ideally Earth should remain intact, I would prefer answers where the settlers are guessing but never know for sure what happened on Earth.
- Tech level is near future - 100 years to the future is a good benchmark.
- Whatever the "blackout" is it should have no affect on Mars.
- I can handwave the lunar colonies using Earth to relay communication with Mars do to the small size of the lunar colony so it's possible the "blackout" to affect Earth only and not the moon - however satellites around the earth should still be affected as even automatic transmissions from them stopped.
science-based space-colonization extinction
science-based space-colonization extinction
asked 3 hours ago
cypher
1,8311417
asked 3 hours ago
cypher
1,8311417
asked 3 hours ago
cypher
1,8311417
asked 3 hours ago
cypher
1,8311417
asked 3 hours ago
cypher
1,8311417
1,8311417
Changed the locks after unwelcome boarders left... nothing to see here. Just pretend you're not at home if they come calling
– nzaman
3 hours ago
Is Mars continuously observing Earth? Or does it only look at Earth occasionally?
– Jasper
1 hour ago
The way I imagine it is that before the blackout there was non stop data transfer between Earth and mars, a million people sending messages to their loved ones, scientfic data, even new movies all flow from one planet to the other non stop... I assume that after the blackout happen there will be someone on mars trying non stop to reconnect back with earth on but it's possible that due to lack of resources there are time gaps where Mars can't observe Earth at all.
– cypher
1 hour ago
Does Earth still have to be alive?
– SRM
54 mins ago
add a comment |Â
Changed the locks after unwelcome boarders left... nothing to see here. Just pretend you're not at home if they come calling
– nzaman
3 hours ago
Is Mars continuously observing Earth? Or does it only look at Earth occasionally?
– Jasper
1 hour ago
The way I imagine it is that before the blackout there was non stop data transfer between Earth and mars, a million people sending messages to their loved ones, scientfic data, even new movies all flow from one planet to the other non stop... I assume that after the blackout happen there will be someone on mars trying non stop to reconnect back with earth on but it's possible that due to lack of resources there are time gaps where Mars can't observe Earth at all.
– cypher
1 hour ago
Does Earth still have to be alive?
– SRM
54 mins ago
Changed the locks after unwelcome boarders left... nothing to see here. Just pretend you're not at home if they come calling
– nzaman
3 hours ago
Changed the locks after unwelcome boarders left... nothing to see here. Just pretend you're not at home if they come calling
– nzaman
3 hours ago
Is Mars continuously observing Earth? Or does it only look at Earth occasionally?
– Jasper
1 hour ago
Is Mars continuously observing Earth? Or does it only look at Earth occasionally?
– Jasper
1 hour ago
The way I imagine it is that before the blackout there was non stop data transfer between Earth and mars, a million people sending messages to their loved ones, scientfic data, even new movies all flow from one planet to the other non stop... I assume that after the blackout happen there will be someone on mars trying non stop to reconnect back with earth on but it's possible that due to lack of resources there are time gaps where Mars can't observe Earth at all.
– cypher
1 hour ago
The way I imagine it is that before the blackout there was non stop data transfer between Earth and mars, a million people sending messages to their loved ones, scientfic data, even new movies all flow from one planet to the other non stop... I assume that after the blackout happen there will be someone on mars trying non stop to reconnect back with earth on but it's possible that due to lack of resources there are time gaps where Mars can't observe Earth at all.
– cypher
1 hour ago
Does Earth still have to be alive?
– SRM
54 mins ago
Does Earth still have to be alive?
– SRM
54 mins ago
add a comment |Â
4 Answers
4
active
oldest
votes
up vote
3
down vote
It was the Singularity. The density of computer networks and AIs on Earth reached a critical point, and humanity and its machines abruptly ascended into something unknowable. See Vernor Vinge’s novel Marooned In Realtime for a version of this idea where the separation is in time rather than in space.
answered 2 hours ago
Mike Scott
9,85131943
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Supermassive blackholes, such as those found at the center of galaxies, produce relativistic jets of particles from their poles. ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysical_jet ). Such jets can exceed millions of parsecs in length. Because the cone of these jets is so narrow, it is kind of like a laser fired across space. But the radiation in these is lethal. If one of these jets from some other galaxy happened by random chance to sweep through, it could pick off one side of solar orbit without affecting the other side. There would be little hint that Sol was about to cross such a stream (just as you cannot see a laser until it hits something). The crossing could happen quite quickly if we went through the edge of a jet. If Mars was on opposite side of Sol while Earth gets cooked, Mars wouldn’t see the cooking. When the planets came back on the same side, Earth, and other planets that were over there, would just be an irradiated mess. Silent and black, including satellites.
answered 45 mins ago
SRM
14k32675
That would cook one side of the Earth, but the other side would be shielded by thousands of miles of rock and metal.
– Mike Scott
32 mins ago
No. It would encompass the planet by combination of atmospheric scattering and solar reflection. @MikeScott
– SRM
27 mins ago
And that’s if the beam came straight in on our pole. If it came in at all at an angle, Earth’s rotation would cook all sides evenly.
– SRM
25 mins ago
It wouldn’t cook the Earth fast enough to prevent the news from getting to Mars. There’s non-stop data transfer between Earth and Mars, so whatever happens has to affect the whole Earth simultaneously.
– Mike Scott
1 min ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Look for "The Locusts" by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. First published in Analog in 1979.
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?49922
Colonists land on foreign planet (in story, around a new star). They settle in and eventually start having kids. But the kids are a bit, well, stupid. And the second generation isn’t really sentient. The grandparents are in full scale panic. Why? Well turns out, humans are like locusts... when our numbers swell, our genome metastasizes to create a massive brain which causes us to be spacefaring, but having completed our spawning, we revert to feral form for another few thousand years.
That was 1979. Since then, we’ve discovered many species where even adult members of the population shift body types, even gender, in response to environment concerns such as population pressure. As soon as humanity “spawns†onto another world, there’s a global collective sigh of relief that all our eggs aren’t in one basket. Earth is a paradise of resources without environmental threat to the species, and we’ve just solved our last species-wide biological mandate. That tension release triggers hormones and unwinds our intelligence. Mars colonists ate unaffected because they’re still experiencing the survival stress of a new world.
Doesn’t solve the satellite problem unless, as intellect declines, someone does something stupid, like turn them off or crash a couple into each other and create a cascade crash.
answered 29 mins ago
SRM
14k32675
By the OP, about one million people has left Earth. This effect could affect the people on Mars, but not the several billions still on Earth.
– SJuan76
7 mins ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
A massive solar flare was emitted by the sun and engulfed both earth and the moon but mars was no-where near that part of the solar system. The flare was extremely powerful, far more so than any on record, and basically destroyed all electronic devices. Those people who survived the immediate aftermath as everything moving crashed and all life support, navigation, communications etc fried in an instant are too busy with rescue and recovery efforts to even think about mars.
Anyone in space is most likely dying of radiation poisoning even if their life support systems can be recovered (although more heavily shielded areas may offer some protection).
https://gizmodo.com/what-would-happen-if-a-massive-solar-storm-hit-the-eart-1724650105
answered 7 mins ago
Tim B♦
55.6k22155272
add a comment |Â
4 Answers
4
active
oldest
votes
4 Answers
4
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
3
down vote
It was the Singularity. The density of computer networks and AIs on Earth reached a critical point, and humanity and its machines abruptly ascended into something unknowable. See Vernor Vinge’s novel Marooned In Realtime for a version of this idea where the separation is in time rather than in space.
answered 2 hours ago
Mike Scott
9,85131943
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
It was the Singularity. The density of computer networks and AIs on Earth reached a critical point, and humanity and its machines abruptly ascended into something unknowable. See Vernor Vinge’s novel Marooned In Realtime for a version of this idea where the separation is in time rather than in space.
answered 2 hours ago
Mike Scott
9,85131943
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
up vote
3
down vote
It was the Singularity. The density of computer networks and AIs on Earth reached a critical point, and humanity and its machines abruptly ascended into something unknowable. See Vernor Vinge’s novel Marooned In Realtime for a version of this idea where the separation is in time rather than in space.
answered 2 hours ago
Mike Scott
9,85131943
It was the Singularity. The density of computer networks and AIs on Earth reached a critical point, and humanity and its machines abruptly ascended into something unknowable. See Vernor Vinge’s novel Marooned In Realtime for a version of this idea where the separation is in time rather than in space.
answered 2 hours ago
Mike Scott
9,85131943
answered 2 hours ago
Mike Scott
9,85131943
answered 2 hours ago
Mike Scott
9,85131943
answered 2 hours ago
Mike Scott
9,85131943
9,85131943
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Supermassive blackholes, such as those found at the center of galaxies, produce relativistic jets of particles from their poles. ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysical_jet ). Such jets can exceed millions of parsecs in length. Because the cone of these jets is so narrow, it is kind of like a laser fired across space. But the radiation in these is lethal. If one of these jets from some other galaxy happened by random chance to sweep through, it could pick off one side of solar orbit without affecting the other side. There would be little hint that Sol was about to cross such a stream (just as you cannot see a laser until it hits something). The crossing could happen quite quickly if we went through the edge of a jet. If Mars was on opposite side of Sol while Earth gets cooked, Mars wouldn’t see the cooking. When the planets came back on the same side, Earth, and other planets that were over there, would just be an irradiated mess. Silent and black, including satellites.
answered 45 mins ago
SRM
14k32675
That would cook one side of the Earth, but the other side would be shielded by thousands of miles of rock and metal.
– Mike Scott
32 mins ago
No. It would encompass the planet by combination of atmospheric scattering and solar reflection. @MikeScott
– SRM
27 mins ago
And that’s if the beam came straight in on our pole. If it came in at all at an angle, Earth’s rotation would cook all sides evenly.
– SRM
25 mins ago
It wouldn’t cook the Earth fast enough to prevent the news from getting to Mars. There’s non-stop data transfer between Earth and Mars, so whatever happens has to affect the whole Earth simultaneously.
– Mike Scott
1 min ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Supermassive blackholes, such as those found at the center of galaxies, produce relativistic jets of particles from their poles. ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysical_jet ). Such jets can exceed millions of parsecs in length. Because the cone of these jets is so narrow, it is kind of like a laser fired across space. But the radiation in these is lethal. If one of these jets from some other galaxy happened by random chance to sweep through, it could pick off one side of solar orbit without affecting the other side. There would be little hint that Sol was about to cross such a stream (just as you cannot see a laser until it hits something). The crossing could happen quite quickly if we went through the edge of a jet. If Mars was on opposite side of Sol while Earth gets cooked, Mars wouldn’t see the cooking. When the planets came back on the same side, Earth, and other planets that were over there, would just be an irradiated mess. Silent and black, including satellites.
answered 45 mins ago
SRM
14k32675
That would cook one side of the Earth, but the other side would be shielded by thousands of miles of rock and metal.
– Mike Scott
32 mins ago
No. It would encompass the planet by combination of atmospheric scattering and solar reflection. @MikeScott
– SRM
27 mins ago
And that’s if the beam came straight in on our pole. If it came in at all at an angle, Earth’s rotation would cook all sides evenly.
– SRM
25 mins ago
It wouldn’t cook the Earth fast enough to prevent the news from getting to Mars. There’s non-stop data transfer between Earth and Mars, so whatever happens has to affect the whole Earth simultaneously.
– Mike Scott
1 min ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
up vote
0
down vote
Supermassive blackholes, such as those found at the center of galaxies, produce relativistic jets of particles from their poles. ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysical_jet ). Such jets can exceed millions of parsecs in length. Because the cone of these jets is so narrow, it is kind of like a laser fired across space. But the radiation in these is lethal. If one of these jets from some other galaxy happened by random chance to sweep through, it could pick off one side of solar orbit without affecting the other side. There would be little hint that Sol was about to cross such a stream (just as you cannot see a laser until it hits something). The crossing could happen quite quickly if we went through the edge of a jet. If Mars was on opposite side of Sol while Earth gets cooked, Mars wouldn’t see the cooking. When the planets came back on the same side, Earth, and other planets that were over there, would just be an irradiated mess. Silent and black, including satellites.
answered 45 mins ago
SRM
14k32675
Supermassive blackholes, such as those found at the center of galaxies, produce relativistic jets of particles from their poles. ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysical_jet ). Such jets can exceed millions of parsecs in length. Because the cone of these jets is so narrow, it is kind of like a laser fired across space. But the radiation in these is lethal. If one of these jets from some other galaxy happened by random chance to sweep through, it could pick off one side of solar orbit without affecting the other side. There would be little hint that Sol was about to cross such a stream (just as you cannot see a laser until it hits something). The crossing could happen quite quickly if we went through the edge of a jet. If Mars was on opposite side of Sol while Earth gets cooked, Mars wouldn’t see the cooking. When the planets came back on the same side, Earth, and other planets that were over there, would just be an irradiated mess. Silent and black, including satellites.
answered 45 mins ago
SRM
14k32675
answered 45 mins ago
SRM
14k32675
answered 45 mins ago
SRM
14k32675
answered 45 mins ago
SRM
14k32675
14k32675
That would cook one side of the Earth, but the other side would be shielded by thousands of miles of rock and metal.
– Mike Scott
32 mins ago
No. It would encompass the planet by combination of atmospheric scattering and solar reflection. @MikeScott
– SRM
27 mins ago
And that’s if the beam came straight in on our pole. If it came in at all at an angle, Earth’s rotation would cook all sides evenly.
– SRM
25 mins ago
It wouldn’t cook the Earth fast enough to prevent the news from getting to Mars. There’s non-stop data transfer between Earth and Mars, so whatever happens has to affect the whole Earth simultaneously.
– Mike Scott
1 min ago
add a comment |Â
That would cook one side of the Earth, but the other side would be shielded by thousands of miles of rock and metal.
– Mike Scott
32 mins ago
No. It would encompass the planet by combination of atmospheric scattering and solar reflection. @MikeScott
– SRM
27 mins ago
And that’s if the beam came straight in on our pole. If it came in at all at an angle, Earth’s rotation would cook all sides evenly.
– SRM
25 mins ago
It wouldn’t cook the Earth fast enough to prevent the news from getting to Mars. There’s non-stop data transfer between Earth and Mars, so whatever happens has to affect the whole Earth simultaneously.
– Mike Scott
1 min ago
That would cook one side of the Earth, but the other side would be shielded by thousands of miles of rock and metal.
– Mike Scott
32 mins ago
That would cook one side of the Earth, but the other side would be shielded by thousands of miles of rock and metal.
– Mike Scott
32 mins ago
No. It would encompass the planet by combination of atmospheric scattering and solar reflection. @MikeScott
– SRM
27 mins ago
No. It would encompass the planet by combination of atmospheric scattering and solar reflection. @MikeScott
– SRM
27 mins ago
And that’s if the beam came straight in on our pole. If it came in at all at an angle, Earth’s rotation would cook all sides evenly.
– SRM
25 mins ago
And that’s if the beam came straight in on our pole. If it came in at all at an angle, Earth’s rotation would cook all sides evenly.
– SRM
25 mins ago
It wouldn’t cook the Earth fast enough to prevent the news from getting to Mars. There’s non-stop data transfer between Earth and Mars, so whatever happens has to affect the whole Earth simultaneously.
– Mike Scott
1 min ago
It wouldn’t cook the Earth fast enough to prevent the news from getting to Mars. There’s non-stop data transfer between Earth and Mars, so whatever happens has to affect the whole Earth simultaneously.
– Mike Scott
1 min ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Look for "The Locusts" by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. First published in Analog in 1979.
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?49922
Colonists land on foreign planet (in story, around a new star). They settle in and eventually start having kids. But the kids are a bit, well, stupid. And the second generation isn’t really sentient. The grandparents are in full scale panic. Why? Well turns out, humans are like locusts... when our numbers swell, our genome metastasizes to create a massive brain which causes us to be spacefaring, but having completed our spawning, we revert to feral form for another few thousand years.
That was 1979. Since then, we’ve discovered many species where even adult members of the population shift body types, even gender, in response to environment concerns such as population pressure. As soon as humanity “spawns†onto another world, there’s a global collective sigh of relief that all our eggs aren’t in one basket. Earth is a paradise of resources without environmental threat to the species, and we’ve just solved our last species-wide biological mandate. That tension release triggers hormones and unwinds our intelligence. Mars colonists ate unaffected because they’re still experiencing the survival stress of a new world.
Doesn’t solve the satellite problem unless, as intellect declines, someone does something stupid, like turn them off or crash a couple into each other and create a cascade crash.
answered 29 mins ago
SRM
14k32675
By the OP, about one million people has left Earth. This effect could affect the people on Mars, but not the several billions still on Earth.
– SJuan76
7 mins ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Look for "The Locusts" by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. First published in Analog in 1979.
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?49922
Colonists land on foreign planet (in story, around a new star). They settle in and eventually start having kids. But the kids are a bit, well, stupid. And the second generation isn’t really sentient. The grandparents are in full scale panic. Why? Well turns out, humans are like locusts... when our numbers swell, our genome metastasizes to create a massive brain which causes us to be spacefaring, but having completed our spawning, we revert to feral form for another few thousand years.
That was 1979. Since then, we’ve discovered many species where even adult members of the population shift body types, even gender, in response to environment concerns such as population pressure. As soon as humanity “spawns†onto another world, there’s a global collective sigh of relief that all our eggs aren’t in one basket. Earth is a paradise of resources without environmental threat to the species, and we’ve just solved our last species-wide biological mandate. That tension release triggers hormones and unwinds our intelligence. Mars colonists ate unaffected because they’re still experiencing the survival stress of a new world.
Doesn’t solve the satellite problem unless, as intellect declines, someone does something stupid, like turn them off or crash a couple into each other and create a cascade crash.
answered 29 mins ago
SRM
14k32675
By the OP, about one million people has left Earth. This effect could affect the people on Mars, but not the several billions still on Earth.
– SJuan76
7 mins ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
up vote
0
down vote
Look for "The Locusts" by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. First published in Analog in 1979.
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?49922
Colonists land on foreign planet (in story, around a new star). They settle in and eventually start having kids. But the kids are a bit, well, stupid. And the second generation isn’t really sentient. The grandparents are in full scale panic. Why? Well turns out, humans are like locusts... when our numbers swell, our genome metastasizes to create a massive brain which causes us to be spacefaring, but having completed our spawning, we revert to feral form for another few thousand years.
That was 1979. Since then, we’ve discovered many species where even adult members of the population shift body types, even gender, in response to environment concerns such as population pressure. As soon as humanity “spawns†onto another world, there’s a global collective sigh of relief that all our eggs aren’t in one basket. Earth is a paradise of resources without environmental threat to the species, and we’ve just solved our last species-wide biological mandate. That tension release triggers hormones and unwinds our intelligence. Mars colonists ate unaffected because they’re still experiencing the survival stress of a new world.
Doesn’t solve the satellite problem unless, as intellect declines, someone does something stupid, like turn them off or crash a couple into each other and create a cascade crash.
answered 29 mins ago
SRM
14k32675
Look for "The Locusts" by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. First published in Analog in 1979.
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?49922
Colonists land on foreign planet (in story, around a new star). They settle in and eventually start having kids. But the kids are a bit, well, stupid. And the second generation isn’t really sentient. The grandparents are in full scale panic. Why? Well turns out, humans are like locusts... when our numbers swell, our genome metastasizes to create a massive brain which causes us to be spacefaring, but having completed our spawning, we revert to feral form for another few thousand years.
That was 1979. Since then, we’ve discovered many species where even adult members of the population shift body types, even gender, in response to environment concerns such as population pressure. As soon as humanity “spawns†onto another world, there’s a global collective sigh of relief that all our eggs aren’t in one basket. Earth is a paradise of resources without environmental threat to the species, and we’ve just solved our last species-wide biological mandate. That tension release triggers hormones and unwinds our intelligence. Mars colonists ate unaffected because they’re still experiencing the survival stress of a new world.
Doesn’t solve the satellite problem unless, as intellect declines, someone does something stupid, like turn them off or crash a couple into each other and create a cascade crash.
answered 29 mins ago
SRM
14k32675
answered 29 mins ago
SRM
14k32675
answered 29 mins ago
SRM
14k32675
answered 29 mins ago
SRM
14k32675
14k32675
By the OP, about one million people has left Earth. This effect could affect the people on Mars, but not the several billions still on Earth.
– SJuan76
7 mins ago
add a comment |Â
By the OP, about one million people has left Earth. This effect could affect the people on Mars, but not the several billions still on Earth.
– SJuan76
7 mins ago
By the OP, about one million people has left Earth. This effect could affect the people on Mars, but not the several billions still on Earth.
– SJuan76
7 mins ago
By the OP, about one million people has left Earth. This effect could affect the people on Mars, but not the several billions still on Earth.
– SJuan76
7 mins ago
add a comment |Â
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A massive solar flare was emitted by the sun and engulfed both earth and the moon but mars was no-where near that part of the solar system. The flare was extremely powerful, far more so than any on record, and basically destroyed all electronic devices. Those people who survived the immediate aftermath as everything moving crashed and all life support, navigation, communications etc fried in an instant are too busy with rescue and recovery efforts to even think about mars.
Anyone in space is most likely dying of radiation poisoning even if their life support systems can be recovered (although more heavily shielded areas may offer some protection).
https://gizmodo.com/what-would-happen-if-a-massive-solar-storm-hit-the-eart-1724650105
answered 7 mins ago
Tim B♦
55.6k22155272
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
A massive solar flare was emitted by the sun and engulfed both earth and the moon but mars was no-where near that part of the solar system. The flare was extremely powerful, far more so than any on record, and basically destroyed all electronic devices. Those people who survived the immediate aftermath as everything moving crashed and all life support, navigation, communications etc fried in an instant are too busy with rescue and recovery efforts to even think about mars.
Anyone in space is most likely dying of radiation poisoning even if their life support systems can be recovered (although more heavily shielded areas may offer some protection).
https://gizmodo.com/what-would-happen-if-a-massive-solar-storm-hit-the-eart-1724650105
answered 7 mins ago
Tim B♦
55.6k22155272
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
up vote
0
down vote
A massive solar flare was emitted by the sun and engulfed both earth and the moon but mars was no-where near that part of the solar system. The flare was extremely powerful, far more so than any on record, and basically destroyed all electronic devices. Those people who survived the immediate aftermath as everything moving crashed and all life support, navigation, communications etc fried in an instant are too busy with rescue and recovery efforts to even think about mars.
Anyone in space is most likely dying of radiation poisoning even if their life support systems can be recovered (although more heavily shielded areas may offer some protection).
https://gizmodo.com/what-would-happen-if-a-massive-solar-storm-hit-the-eart-1724650105
answered 7 mins ago
Tim B♦
55.6k22155272
A massive solar flare was emitted by the sun and engulfed both earth and the moon but mars was no-where near that part of the solar system. The flare was extremely powerful, far more so than any on record, and basically destroyed all electronic devices. Those people who survived the immediate aftermath as everything moving crashed and all life support, navigation, communications etc fried in an instant are too busy with rescue and recovery efforts to even think about mars.
Anyone in space is most likely dying of radiation poisoning even if their life support systems can be recovered (although more heavily shielded areas may offer some protection).
https://gizmodo.com/what-would-happen-if-a-massive-solar-storm-hit-the-eart-1724650105
answered 7 mins ago
Tim B♦
55.6k22155272
answered 7 mins ago
Tim B♦
55.6k22155272
answered 7 mins ago
Tim B♦
55.6k22155272
answered 7 mins ago
Tim B♦
55.6k22155272
55.6k22155272
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
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Changed the locks after unwelcome boarders left... nothing to see here. Just pretend you're not at home if they come calling
– nzaman
3 hours ago
Is Mars continuously observing Earth? Or does it only look at Earth occasionally?
– Jasper
1 hour ago
The way I imagine it is that before the blackout there was non stop data transfer between Earth and mars, a million people sending messages to their loved ones, scientfic data, even new movies all flow from one planet to the other non stop... I assume that after the blackout happen there will be someone on mars trying non stop to reconnect back with earth on but it's possible that due to lack of resources there are time gaps where Mars can't observe Earth at all.
– cypher
1 hour ago
Does Earth still have to be alive?
– SRM
54 mins ago