Mars has the potential to carry the sort of civilization we have now; it's another planet, we make it like Earth, we get another Earth, we colonize it and live like we do on Earth.

Mars will never by just like earth. Different gravity matters. Culturally the process of building up Mars likely won't produce a culture that matches earth.

Earth's patent law likely won't be enforcable on Mars. Genetic engineering might be legal on a much wider scale than earth.