More and more I wonder if the human race can actually live on this earth without destroying it and/or each other. Steven Hawking suggests we colonize the moon or other planets. Although stepping out of his realm a little, his words still manage to frighten me just a bit:
“The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there’s an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy Earth, world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking said.”
Interesting. though space settlements may be able to continue without support from Earth, Worldbound sponsors will want returns on their investments. The settlements will be answerable to Earth authorities. Soon there will be interplanetary war as the settlements attempt to separate. In the resulting power vacuum many settlements will be destroyed. Earth will have to save those remaining only to rule more harshly than before.
Well, I dreamed I saw the silver spaceships flying
In the yellow haze of the sun
There were children crying and colours flying
All around the chosen ones
All in a dream, all in a dream
The loading had begun
Flying Mother Nature’s silver seed to a new home in the sun
Flying Mother Nature’s silver seed to a new home in the sun
You know, the front man dude for the Eels bought the piano Mr. Young played on that particular song for rather a large sum of money. One of my favorites (the song, not the Eels).
“Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of.”
I admit to being ignorant of the aftermath of a nuclear attack by, say, Iran. How much “earth” can they destroy in the attack itself and the fallout afterward? Are we looking at total death of the planet (a la "On the Beach)?
Perhaps this should have been placed in the controversial forum, but I don’t know how to move it.
Well, Iran doesn’t have a bomb yet, nor the means to use it. China or
N. Korea probably could, and we would lob some bombs their way,
and there’d be enough fallout to really destablize society, but that’s
Cold War thinking, and probably not realistic in the forseeable future.
I think the virus thing (ala “The Stand”) or some natural disaster
(think dinosaurs) is more possible, but still there would probably still
be someone left to carry on.
I’m sure Nano would be glad to do what becomes necessary.
We always look for the spectacular, like the giant earthquake, the giant meteor, the gigantic cosmic this-or-that, always something that will do us in all at once. I suspect the reality will be something more like global warming. It happens too slowly for us to notice anything spectacular, so we do little or nothing to save ourselves. It is more likely to be our limited attention span and short-sightedness that will cause us to slowly fade away, and never quite … um … clue in while … this … er … is in … progress … what was I saying?
I guess the idea of colonizing planets or the moon so we would have a lifeboat for when life on Earth falls apart seems pretty unrealistic to me. Sending a few guys in spacesuits is one thing, but it seems like a different deal if you are talking about a lot of people living someplace with no water, air, plants, animals, etc. Who would be chosen to colonize the place? Would more people be moved there in the case of disaster? Which people would those be?
There does seem to be a tendency for humans to ponder the end of the world. My grandmother always used to tell me she was sure that the “end of the times” had come. And there have been people who have been in terrible places at terrible times. The “end of the times” surely did come for them—I’m thinking of the Plague, Pompeii, WW II, Hiroshima and Nagasaki just to name a very few.
I do think, perhaps incorrectly, that there are some real incentives for everyone to avoid nuclear war.
Colonizing other planets seems like tryng the geographical cure for what we are. It isn’t going to work on other planets if we can’t make it work here. We’ll just be taking ourselves with us.
I guess I think the most brilliant minds would contribute a lot more if they concentrated on dealing with the problems on Earth rather than reinforcing the paranoia that people naturally feel when things don’t seem to be going well.
Our strenth is our ability to escape into fantasy rather than deal with the ugliness of reality. Space colonies are not going to be a reality. We don’t have the technology to be able to make them sustainable within a budget we can afford. We could change the way we use our planet’s resources, but only at the cost of diminishing our quality of life and/or making ourselves vulnerable should one nation/culture choose to take over where we left off.
