Every day we're approaching the time when we'll outgrow this planet. The human race's desire to expand is so great that it will force us to starve long before we curb it, so the next step after we overpopulate Earth is somewhere else. We're looking at Mars but without a source of liquid water or much atmosphere, that's going to be hard. If we do find a new planet, we'll probably be unable to reach it. Have you ever seen the size comparison videos of space? Mars is about half the diameter of Earth and its a REALLY long ways to get to anywhere else outside our solar system. We can probably shoot something in the direction of another solar system but we just aren't there yet. Plus there are more than a thousand languages on this planet alone? Cut that down to the top 10% and its still a lot of different translations. 10% of that to languages from countries able to go into space? Still 10 languages to decipher and work with. Who gets the first new planet? America? Who governs it? All this stuff can't happen till we figure out problems here on Earth. That's not saying we need to make the world language English and take over space. How do we govern colony worlds? Do we set them free from all influence? It's not exactly the British colonizing the new world but it's very similar. Do we establish a world government at some point? If Mayor Bagodonuts is corrupt in big town X of state Y, then how can we expect a reasonable chance at a worldwide government? All these questions with so few available answers.Hope you've enjoyed the last few days of space related posts!
Also, if you believe the moon landing was fake then we're really screwed!
Other neat size comparison video about space ships for nerds like me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Loc7qX7FI
-Michael
That's always been my mother's favorite line. "If you're siblings and you can't agree, how can we expect peace on earth?" As much as it annoys me when she says that, she's right. It's hard to think about a future where humans legitimately expand past the borders of planet earth when we're still working on our problems here.
ReplyDeleteThis is such an interesting perspective on expanding from Earth. Most people when discussing or thinking about this topic are mostly just concerned about the science of it and how to actually make it happen. But how can we make it happen, even with the correct science, with so many different languages and governments and opinions around the world?
ReplyDeleteThis was an interesting post. I agree with you, how are we supposed to get everyone on board with something if we are still dealing with other problems like what you mentioned above. It would be fascinating to actually expand from Earth.
ReplyDeleteThat's the other side of the conversation that is always really interesting to me. Just because we can, does that mean we should?
ReplyDeleteAt some point the human race will have to. People are so concerned with starvation but that's how Earth regulates the population it can support, it kills them or evolves them. Humans have kind of grown to resist both of those so we either self regulate (no one in their right mind would agree to genocide) or we expand. I don't think we can just "make less babies."
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