Would you be a colonist?

[GoodSarmatian]

That's not really my definition of boredom.
Boredom is either doing the same thing again and again, or way having too much spare time.
I think setting up a colony wouldn't be boring at all.
You won't have a full fledged entertainmet industry, but you're contributing to something, and you see the results of your labors: You see the hut you're bulding get bigger and bigger, you see the emergence if a new state, you see the growth of a new city from nothing.
Woking all the time isn't so bad if you can always see what you're working for.
I think life in a new colony could be very fulfilling, but it would be too risky to go on board of the first colony ship.

 

[Synobun]

That's not really my definition of boredom.
Boredom is either doing the same thing again and again, or way having too much spare time.
I think setting up a colony wouldn't be boring at all.
You won't have a full fledged entertainmet industry, but you're contributing to something, and you see the results of your labors: You see the hut you're bulding get bigger and bigger, you see the emergence if a new state, you see the growth of a new city from nothing.
Woking all the time isn't so bad if you can always see what you're working for.
I think life in a new colony could be very fulfilling, but it would be too risky to go on board of the first colony ship.

Risky, yes, but if it goes well.. Very, very satisfying.

 

[civver_764]

No. I'm too lazy, I don't like being the center of attention so much, and I don't buy into these romanticised notions of colonization at all. Cudos to those who would though, if there's anyone who I think deserves the exorbiant amounts of compensation the richest in our society enjoy, it'd be people like this.

 

[NickyJ]

Only if they have reruns of TV shows from the 50's and 60's out there.

 

[Murky]

You would be too busy figuring out how to survive on the new planet to be bored. That last thing the early pioneers in America were, was bored.

 

[Kennigit]

I don't think I'd be good at terraforming, or things related to that nature that require practical skills. Because I'm assuming you can't just take a bunch of everything with you and need to rely on things from the planet (which I will assume has an earth like atmosphere). Setting up a colony would require a lot of work.

I wouldn't mind going as far as entertainment and all, and I don't really care about the people too much. I assume a decent population would have to go (say 100-200 people) and that's enough to keep me happy.

but everything is on Earth and I wouldn't have any skills.

 

[Antilogic]

Things on Earth would have to be going pretty bad for me to consider leaving behind all of human society to try and survive on some distant hellhole that my species had never evolved in (and thus isn't adapted to).

Let others figure out the hard stuff, I'll move once the planet is terraformed, food sources are steady and bountiful, infrastructure is built, etc.

 

[Joecoolyo]

No, only after a couple decades or so.

Reading history, I know that being the first colonist anywhere usually sucks, pretty badly.

 

[The_J]

I'd say yes, but only due to excitement.
I would probably horribly regret doing it after having arrived, because i'm too much a creature of habit and not an adventurer.

Oh, and some people should more consider some of the possibilites here.
Because the first colony might not be on a dead planet like the Moon or Mars, but might be a living planet.
Did someone here watch Earth2 ?

 

[amadeus]

No, Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids.

In fact, it's cold as hell.

And there's no one there to raise them, if you did.

 

[Joecoolyo]

No, Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids.

In fact, it's cold as hell.

Didn't you grow up in Minnesota?

 

[CELTICEMPIRE]

I'd rather colonize a tropical island

 

[Cutlass]

I seriously doubt the American colonists worked all day. Everyone needs to relax. Heck, many colonists were religious, and given that Sunday is a day of rest...

Plus, as nice as videogames and whatnot are, there's good old fashioned conversation or board games. They've worked for thousands of years in the absence of high technology.

Never mind, who assumes we start from square one?

Chances are the colony ships will have plenty of supplies and manuals, enabling a colonisation and development speed that would make the original colonists' jaws drop.

I doubt we'd just be a bunch of mud huts. The knowledge we have stored in our brains makes us multiple times better than our predecessors in this regard, and there will likely be many supplies to assist modernity.

American colonists worked damned hard. When they weren't too sick or dying of starvation or reduced to cannibalism for bare survival. If it wasn't for the fact that heavy streams of follow on colonists significantly outnumbered the original colonists, the colonies would have had a 100% death rate. As it was, the numbers for the early settlers was over 50% death rate in the first few years.

 

[NetGear]

Cons: lawlessness
Pros: no stupid laws

 

[mangxema]

Not now, but I might be tempted to retire there.

 

[Zelig]

Maybe.

Stupid people annoy me.

I assume all the colonists would be smart.

Depends on stuff though, like what I'd be doing, what kind of leisure activities would be available, risk of death, etc.

 

[madviking]

I wouldn't mind shooting some injuns, stealing their land, and having everything within a twenty mile radius named after me.

 

[Perfection]

When all my friends discover that I'm a jerkwad, I just go find new friends. Doesn't work that way in a small colony.

 

[Rashiminos]

Echoing Crezth with that. How would it be boring? You'd be creating a new society on a fresh world. Where is the boring part in this?

What about the indigenous life?

 

[Synobun]

What about the indigenous life?

What about it? Not every hospitable planet will have sentient life