Quantum Limit.com: The Winds of Destiny

Alex Michael Bonnici wrote:

> But one day soon, a group of pioneers will depart the slivers of land on this ocean planet and venture forth into a completely alien world,
> with no intention of ever returning to live on land.

I'm not impressed. First, the oceans are a huge and thriving ecosystem
-- but not so huge or thriving that human occupation won't thoroughly
screw it up. The land areas of Earth are a desert by comparison, and
this is especially true wherever people live. If people started living
underwater in appreciable numbers, the same would happen there. The
diversity of life is too valuable for us to wreck that way.

Moreover, ocean dwelling is ultimately short-sighted. There is room in
the asteroid belt for trillions (i.e. thousands of times our current
population) to live comfortably. Not so in the oceans, even if we kill
everything and pack ourselves in like sardines. They're big, but not
compared to humanity's potential growth.

And finally, colonizing the oceans is simply unnecessary. The rest of
the solar system is rich in resources and energy, and we have the
technology to live there. That's where our future lies, and where we
should be headed now. Let's leave the living ocean as much in its
natural state as we can.