Rhaedas

The why of mass is "just" more material within the same unit area.

What always gets me is how adding one more of the pieces of matter, specifically another proton, changes the very properties of that atom, sometimes dramatically.

Clicking on newer revision lets you walk through time.

It's not about finding habitat, but a large scale version of kill or be killed, or stay quiet and hope they don't see you.

Definitely not to enslave. The path that the 3 Body Problem goes down is a science-based eldritch horror.

Yes, the problem was solved.

listens to the last scene

Oh no.

I knew I remembered that name. Great book and reference.

I was with Pizza Hut when we got that directive of empowerment to do what was best to retain the customer. No manager needed for most things, just treat them well. We had a lot of regular customers, I wonder why. That was a long time ago.

Escaping from one gravity well to go to another gravity well that is far more deadly is foolish. Both Mars and the Moon, as well as probably any body that doesn't have some sort of erosion mechanic, has fine, sharp dust which is terrible on both equipment and biology.

I still am a believer just as I was a 70s kid that O'Neill was on the right track, and space is the next logical place for humanity. What has changed over the decades is my belief that we can get there. Not because of the science or the technology, but because of our tendency to focus resources on other things that don't help anyone. The window is all but shut on space now. And any billionaires that send people to Mars in some grand colonization scheme are just dooming them and wasting more on their own ego.

So whatever happens now, humanity will have its eggs in one basket, and that basket does have an expiration date.

I'd say answer just to see if the Dark Forest is valid. If it is, honestly they're going to find us eventually anyway.

So, Ender's Game

Large NEOs are very unlikely at this point for the reasons you've given. It's advanced warning on anything else that's needed. Redirection is another topic, but we have no experience and only theory on the best ways to do it, and wouldn't know which technique to try before a close examination (which means time to find it and get to it just to figure that out). As for advanced warning for evacuation, that's probably the most likely scenario, but it's also morbidly funny to mention in a thread discussing near misses found days before its passing, and often we see articles about the rock after the fact. (Although maybe it was known about before by experts, just didn't hit the press in time)