Perhaps the
best way to think of terraforming is as a
general part of human development, a
logical step on our way out through the
solar system and beyond. Then the project
has no special urgency, and it will
compete with other great enterprises for
human attention and resources.
We
must also recognize that the priorities
of our remote descendants, 5,000 years
hence, may no more resemble ours than we
reflect the urgent concerns of our
earliest ancestors. The terraforming of
Mars is a possible, but by no means an
inevitable, part of humanity's future.
