I think it's time that the human race starts deciding what it wants to accomplish in the future. For far too long goals have been limited to individuals, groups, and rarely entities as large as countries.

Even when these small groups make future plans they are limited to a few years or at most decades. We as a species need to establish just what we want to make happen and point out a time line for this to happen. Some of the things I think the human race needs to do will have to be done in parallel with other things, some are long term and others are short term.

#1. We need to decide exactly how much of the Earth needs to be left wild and untouched. Once we have established a goal for this we can decide how much population control is necessary.

#2. Addressing pollution is a priority, pollution control is at the root of global warming, industrialization, energy production, natural resource exploitation and general standard of living for everyone.

#3. Reduction of the need for and size and scope of the military, weapons, weapon spending, widening the power of the United Nations (especially the need to intervene in natural disasters)

#4. Development of energy other than oil, gas and coal. Oil, Gas, and Coal, often known collectively as "fossil fuel". These resources should have been allocated to industrial feed stock long ago but instead we increasingly rely on them as the center of all our energy needs even though they are limited in both areas where they occur and in amounts. These fuels, especially coal, also release tons of radioactive waste into the air every year.

Solar, wind, wave, and geothermal power are good examples of clean energy but they are limited in where and how much they can supply the necessary energy to maintain and expand our standard of living.

We must embrace nuclear power. Yes I spoke the name of the ultimate evil, NUCLEAR, nuclear power has been both cursed and venerated ever since it was first developed.

The bad thing is that we have suppressed nuclear power to the point that we have failed to allow the advancement of the technology. Even new reactors are more like 1950's technology than anything modern. It's like damning air travel technology because we don't allow anyone to travel in anything but DC3's.

To really use nuclear power widely we need to use new technologies. Modern reactor designs are practically error proof and do not pose a danger to anyone. Really advanced reactor designs not only produce much less waste they produce waste that will become safe in a far shorter period of time than current reactor waste. Even better these new reactor designs actually use what we call nuclear waste as fuel. Even more advanced designs use fuels that cannot be perverted into nuclear bombs!

So a large amount of nuclear power backed up with as much solar, wind, wave and geothermal as possible is where we need to go.

So far these ideas have been short term things we should already be doing or at least starting. The most important goal is to decide whether we as a species intend to expand or to allow ourselves to slide into extinction.

If we wait too long to expand then expansion will be impossible. If we expand then we will be able to both save us and the Earth. So with this in mind lets explore the fate of humanity.

#5. Space exploration, to really justify the exploration of space the exploration must have a reason. The best reason of course is the quest for knowledge, such a quest is always a good thing but seeking knowledge for it's own sake is difficult to justify when people go hungry, the environment is being destroyed and people are suppressed by tyranny.

So another reason must be found or we should concentrate our last resources on bettering the plight of humans everywhere. Luckily for everyone space exploration provides not only knowledge but a source of all the things we need to allow the human race to expand without destroying the Earth in the process. Not only raw materials but the ability to manufacture things we cannot make in a gravity well, things that have the potential to revolutionize our entire civilization.

The resources of space have the potential to be the saving grace of our planet and our species. Exploitation of space resources is the first on our agenda of long term goals of the human race.

#6. Orbiting Space Colonies, to access resources in space it is necessary to have people living in space near the resources we plan to use. Orbiting space colonies are the best and most economical way to do this.

In the bargain we get not only resources but an insurance policy that will protect the human race from extinction by natural disasters we have no control over.

Eventually we can see thousands of space colonies containing billions of people living in conditions few can dream of today. Just as the people of today enjoy wealth that would stagger the kings of old people in space will enjoy similar gains in life style that cannot be supported on the Earth.

#7. Terra Forming other planets, in our solar system the only planet that could be Terra formed with reasonable efficiency would be Mars, it might take thousands of years but mars is the best choice for this idea.

No matter how great life in an orbiting colony is there will always be people who want to live on a planet. There are things we will want to take along that either cannot live in a reasonable sized space colony or need vast oceans to live and I think that taking the life of the Earth with us will be an important part of justifying expanding the human race.

#8. Interstellar colonization, if as many experts and I are correct in that complex life is very rare in the universe then not only will interstellar colonization allow the expansion of the human species this colonization will also allow us to spread the complex life of the earth to other stars and planets.

Since orbiting colony worlds will be the heart of all colonization we do not need planets to spread to the stars. Orbiting debris (asteroids, comets) will be all we need to expand.

Our own solar system will provide us with enough resources to live and expand for thousands if not millions of years so the idea of spreading complex life may well be the motivation and guiding principal of interstellar colonization.

We can spread life as we spread our selves and provide for the possibility of the evolution of other intelligent creatures long after we have passed on to other stars in other distant parts of the galaxy.