Quote:
Originally Posted by Moontanman
We get there from here by using nuclear energy to help us develop space travel. Once we get into space in a big way we can start to exploit the resources of space and develop ways to colonize the solar system and eventually other stars. We need to get past the idea of needing planets and become a truly space living/fairing culture.
Once we colonize space controlling our numbers becomes a problem for the people who choose to stay on the Earth.
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Yes, certainly. I agree, but what we want to happen and what "can" happen are not necessarily what will happen. Really, do you see any evidence that it is going to happen? What I see is that interest in space exploration is dying in the general public. Many people resent the "waste of money." They are increasingly only interested in the pocketbook. When oil prices go up, there is talk of atomic energy, but oil prices go down, and the atomic energy plant idea fades. NASA has big plans, but funding is so small that they have to stretch out the plans decades into the future.
To me, what the human race does in the long term is important, but to most people, they give it no thought. And how can we blame them when our system praised "the pursuit of happiness" as the goal? The human race has no goal of expanding out into space. The space effort is just a scientific enterprise as far as the public is concerned. Why would people want to live in a space colony when they have more room here? If it takes two or more or thousands of years to reach another habitable planet, who would want to pay for a "space travel junket" there? If there is no money in it, no one will go and it won't be turned into a profitable business.
If we really think about our long term future, we have to think space colonizing because, here, we are running out of room. Even if we miraculously found a way to limit to one the number of children each couple could have, it would take decades for the population growth to begin leveling off. We are running out of time. Cutting down our numbers has to begin real soon and cannot wait until we have colonies out in space!
What we need is a whole new secular belief system that replaces "the pursuit of happiness" goal with "the conquest and colonizing of space," as well as population birth control, equality of the races, and world government. We would need an improved moral system as well. Such a belief system would have to be scientific and gradually replace all the old religions.
charles
