While this argument isn't untrue, I personally prefer forward-thinking positive arguments like:
- Expanding into a new environment drives evolution.
- The technological innovations that will be needed to sustain a settlement on Mars will be hugely valuable back home.
- There is presently no frontier where new political or social ideas can be attempted without interference. Again -- the results of these "experiments" can be exported back home.
The last two are huge. The main exports from a Mars colony would probably be ideas and technology. Those also have the advantage of being able to be transmitted wirelessly and having no mass.
We could likely skip some of that via genetic engineering and other medical methods. But I'm also referring to cultural and technological evolution.
BTW... if we don't transition off fossil fuels in the next 50-ish years we are going to experience some of Ye Olde Tyme Evolution here on Earth. Personally I think Mars would be a better place to be in that scenario. There was a sci-fi film called Alternative Three made about that.
- Expanding into a new environment drives evolution.
- The technological innovations that will be needed to sustain a settlement on Mars will be hugely valuable back home.
- There is presently no frontier where new political or social ideas can be attempted without interference. Again -- the results of these "experiments" can be exported back home.
The last two are huge. The main exports from a Mars colony would probably be ideas and technology. Those also have the advantage of being able to be transmitted wirelessly and having no mass.