I think the propagation of the human race through space is a natural consequence of technological progression under the assumption that it does not annihilate itself before it is capable of doing so. As Vollstrecker already pointed out living space is a limited resource. Though I believe that the human population will stabilize somewhat logarithmically, the idea of terraforming and living on other planets is certainly appealing.

Whether or not terraforming a planet is ethical is a difficult question to answer. Most people seem to agree that if terraforming eventuated the annihilation of an exoecosystem then it would be unethical. As a whole, however, I think that the intrinsic xenophobia and selfishness of the human species would inevitably lead to such an annihilation given that our technology was significantly superior. If what society considers acceptable is also considered ethical then terraforming another planet is certainly ethical; a direct consequence of human selfishness.

I personally find the idea of terraforming another planet with life on it appalling. Human beings are like a plague to our own planet's ecosystem. I certainly hope that the plague never becomes infectious.

Even otherwise, I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable with the idea of terraforming a planet. I find that there is inherent beauty in the way nature set things up. The human plague would only tarnish this beauty, with or without life. However, the spread of the human plague is a necessity for the progression of science. In my personal opinion, our quest for knowledge transcends any question of ethics unless we are harming living beings.

College education ftw!

Terraform jupiter we'll have like 50x as much space! jk =P.

You can't terraform that which has no terra to form, Willkill. Although we don't know Jupiter's mass 100%, all signs indicate that it honestly has no solid mass to it, and given its temperature, some scientists believe that it was a star that simply didn't quite get the mass needed to ignite.

Mj pretty much summed up my feeling exactly, it's really difficult to decide between natural beauty and making ourselves infinitely more comfortable. I suppose the decision to terraform would depend upon what we intend to DO while we occupy the planet and if we truly intended to populate the entirety of it.

I can only hope we'd have learned how to lessen our negative impact on the planets by the time this is a consideration, otherwise we'd just be destroying planets in our wake.

Heh. So many future shows with a scene where a character looks up at the moon and remembers what it looked like before colonization, or looks up at it during a trip to the past and remarks at how pretty it is.

Exactly, this was precisely the type of discussion I was looking for. I suppose it boils down to human progress vs. environment seniments.

I guess you didn't see my "jk =P". Not just that ...even if it retained its current size and it were a rocky planet we would be crushed by the gravity.

I think the possibility for a solid surface deep within Jupiter still exists, though. Not entirely sure about that.

I did some brief studying of Jupiter a few years ago while working on a Sci-fi novel which never actually materialized, and that sounds about right. The outer layer is gaseous and comprised mainly of Hydrogen and Helium, but there is indication of some sort of solid core within based on the gravitational forces present. We just have no way of probing that deeply into the planet.

Actually, according to wikipedia, Jupiter may have a solid core. Interestingly, the acceleration of gravity on the surface of Jupiter may be much less than the acceleration in orbit, since you'd have about 95% of it's mass pretty much evenly distributed arround you and canceling itself out. Not to say that the pressure and heat wouldn't kill you...

Unfortunately, the colonization of the moon is almost inevitable. We need a cheap way to supply space docks for longer range exploration and exploitation. Really, the view of the moon is so polluted by Earth-shine these days, that I don't think it'll makes much difference by the time it'd be noticable.

Jupiter is theorized to have a small, solid core or a gaseous core of dense materials.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter#Internal_structure

They just don't have all the info to know for sure yet, WW. The temperature near the core is believed to be 36,000 degrees Kelvin and under 3,000–4,500 GPa of pressure. I don't know enough about chemistry to formulate a real guess, but wouldn't the molecules be flying EVERYWHERE under the excitement generated by that insane amount of heat, or would the immense pressure cut down on some of that?

The pressure would cut down on some of that but 36,000 degrees...I don't know. That is a really high temperature.

I'd think it'd be inevitable that there'd be some sort of "solid" core considering the pressures etc. involved but I'm definitely no expert.

Unless I converted wrong, the interior temp would be ~64,000 degrees Farenheit for something more comparable for those of us who aren't fluent in Kelvin.

I don't think anyone has a true idea of what the interior could be like because the temperature and pressure are so much greater than we could hope to witness the effects of. Can you imagine trying to build a probe that could stand up to those conditions?

It's really weird to think about. I mean, if your not religious and you believe that everything was made from molecules...then shouldn't that happen on the other planets as well...but creatures that are already adjusted for the planets culture? Earth may have been just like Mars or Jupiter way back when....and evolved with everything else on it...or is there some proof that's not possible :P.

Ok, so if we were to start moing to different planets tomorrow...(IF)...who would go from her. I personally would stay on earth.

Earth is a lot more like mars than Jupiter ...for sure.

From what we can tell, Earth would never have been like Jupiter simply because of the mass difference and of course the vastly different atmospheres, the best comparison to Earth would be Venus.

The general question would be if we were to have a breakthrough tomorrow and be able to change Venus or Mars into a habitable planet for human life, do you think it would be wrong to do so? I think everyone agrees that exterminating an alien life form would be horrendously wrong, so I don't intend really to include that as a consideration.

I personally would think seriously about a move to Mars, I would love to set foot on another planet. It would truly be a moment to remember.

Any natural beauty of Mars would be out of range of the masses unless we colonize it.

Not necessarily, as Phobos or Deimos would be fairly acceptable way-stations as well, as would be a station at Legrange points.