You can fly into space, but you can't hide
One of my favourite questions is 'why do we want the human race to survive?' People seem very keen on the idea, but when I question this instinct they either look blank or think I'm crazy. Quite possibly both.
So when Cobweb posted on escaping to another planet the question formed on my lips as predictably as a lemming walking off a cliff. (Some 1990s gamers seemed overly keen on our green haired friends living on, but I digress).
Why does it matter if we, as a species die out? I can understand why individuals take their own survival pretty seriously, but to worry about a 'lucky' few moving onto some far flung rock not particularly suited to sustain humanity in a few hundred years seems like a bad idea. The idea of my descendants eeking out some dreary existence away from earth seems...pointless.
The other arguments put forward for space exploration are generally two fold. Firstly that it produces spin off science that is useful for helping people on earth. Don't get me started on that one - it's basically saying that the best way to give clean drinking water to the world (estimated cost £1 billion) is to spend £60 billion on sending a probe to Mars. It's just that the second way is more fun.
Second is the curiosity factor, exploration, knowledge, the final frontier. This makes more sense to me and seems more honest - there is a curiosity and enterprise in the human spirit and I can see that collaborative space exploration edifying to the collective human condition. And at least it's not dressing exploration up as some gloriously ethical idea. Fairly sure it's not worth the money, but I see the argument.
We're on this planet together and on the whole it's a pretty great place until we started screwing with it. If we can't figure out a way of saving it then we shouldn't be so presumptious to assume that it's worth us homosapiens trying to run off somewhere else.
posted by Jonathan | 16:06
6 Comments:
I agree that we should work on not screwing this planet so that we don't wreck every other one we move to as well, leaving a trail of destruction through the galaxy that makes what we've done to the Amazon look like a light afternoon's work. But hey, maybe there's intelligent life out there that's been through that process and can help us. Granted, it's not likely to stop the current slide towards disaster but it might halt it before we drive ourselves all the way to extinction.
Plus, other cultures, religions and traditions are inherently interesting. How cool would it be to be able to learn about a whole other life form, belief system, culture, history etc. That's priceless (which is just as well, since it would cost...erm...an awful lot to get to the point where we can find them!)
Do you support a footbal/rugby team? Do you want them to succeed? That would seem more irrational than wanting the species you are actually a part of to succeed.
Do you care about other species of animal going extinct?
Rationality aside, most species instinctively protect (or at least dont eat) their own, and why should I fell less protective of a human being in a different time than I do of one stood next to me?
Xidia: I agree, interacting with an alien culture would be fascinating and definitely whets my curiosity. Possibly we'll bump into them without moving planets.
Mr Anonymous: I'm not being unprotective - on the contrary - it's because I can't imagine anything more miserable for individual people that moving to a planet/moon not suited to our existence that I don't think it's a good idea.
As a species I'm not sure our instinct for survival at any cost always takes us to the right places...
@Jonathan - we don't always live in places suited to our existence on this planet (inner city high-rises, smog-ridden Chinese cities, disease-ridden swamps in Africa) so who's to say that another planet would be worse? :-)
Jonathan - for someone with a new-born daughter, you seem singularly uninspired by the concept of the possibilities of the future! Is there really nothing of humanity that you consider valuable and worth preserving? Why did you become a father if there's no point to the continuation of human life?
"The idea of my descendants eeking out some dreary existence away from earth seems...pointless."
The same thing could have been said of the white people colonising America or Australia. Being a pioneer colonist may have been hard, painful and dangerous, but it surely wouldn't have been dreary?
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home