Boxy
07-22-2009, 03:57 PM
In mankind's roughly 150,000 year history, we've stayed roughly the same. Shaped by evolutionary processes to thrive in the East African savanna environment, we have been defined by exploring, wandering, and going over the next horizon, and the next after that.
As we lived in East Africa, we were subject to much the same dangers that affected any other species -- drought, famine, and disease. It's estimated that during the last ice age, the global human population fell to about 100,000 -- within sight of complete and total collapse. Yet, we rebounded and thrived.
When we left the savannas, we brought with us the tools and ideas of our forebears. Using them in new environments, we learned to adapt to support ourselves and use the local resources to not only eke by but to thrive. With the advent of agriculture, we learned to truly change our environment to fit our wants and our needs.
Yet, as we look into space, we find only a cold vacuum bombarded by harmful radiation millions of miles in-between clumps of rock and space-dust. Our dreams of finding verdant wildernesses on Venus and Mars dashed, we dreamed of surrounding spaceborne civilization in giant glass bubbles. If it can be said that humans are defined by exploration and adaption, we are just as much defined by wide-eyed innocence and naivete as the enormity of the task of entering any new environment is placed before us.
As we stretch our arms into space, we will embrace a very different environment. As our tools and know-how have taught us for lo these many years, we will bring what we need to change the environment to fit our needs. Asteroids will be blasted to feed our lust for ore; lunar regolith will be heat-melted to form concrete for our houses. Once again, human ingenuity and technical heritage will prove invaluable.
Yet, we go into realms uncharted by even our microbial forebears. We bring with us into space life -- the children of Earth, our mother and cradle. As we stretch into the stars beyond the solar system, we break into virgin new territory, with literally astronomical sizes, distances, and masses -- to shape and mold literally new planets with devices of such genius and creativity which will become just as commonplace and "ordinary" as the backhoe and the dump truck -- the very Titans of Industry and Development.
This is not just humanity spreading to the stars, but life itself. To our knowledge, no life exists outside this third rock from Sol. This is not so much our first step out of Ethiopia, but rather the first germ in the primordial soup. This changes the very makeup of galactic matter and forever alters the course of galactic history. Every star and rock from one end of the galaxy to the other will sing the songs of Earth -- those old notes of Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine, and Thymine.
But what does it all mean? Why must mankind aim ever higher, walk ever further, dream ever deeper? Philosophers and churchmen have debated this question doubtless for as long as humans dreamed of higher meaning. The only answer we have to cling to is that there is some reason. Or perhaps not after all. As with many human matters, it all depends on who you ask and how they look at it.
The only benchmark we can look to is not as things ought to be, but as they truly are. What is the purpose of humanity, and life itself? To grow and to spread. This is what life has done for the past 3.8 billion years, what humanity has done for the last 150,000 years, and what life and humanity will continue to do for the foreseeable future.
Perhaps it's best that we occasionally refer to this one last question, which all inquiries ultimately come to. Our brains are marvelous correlating machines -- constantly evaluating, comparing, questioning, probing, and making connections. It has served us well, and doubtless it will continue to do so as we seed the stars with the genius of Earth.
As we lived in East Africa, we were subject to much the same dangers that affected any other species -- drought, famine, and disease. It's estimated that during the last ice age, the global human population fell to about 100,000 -- within sight of complete and total collapse. Yet, we rebounded and thrived.
When we left the savannas, we brought with us the tools and ideas of our forebears. Using them in new environments, we learned to adapt to support ourselves and use the local resources to not only eke by but to thrive. With the advent of agriculture, we learned to truly change our environment to fit our wants and our needs.
Yet, as we look into space, we find only a cold vacuum bombarded by harmful radiation millions of miles in-between clumps of rock and space-dust. Our dreams of finding verdant wildernesses on Venus and Mars dashed, we dreamed of surrounding spaceborne civilization in giant glass bubbles. If it can be said that humans are defined by exploration and adaption, we are just as much defined by wide-eyed innocence and naivete as the enormity of the task of entering any new environment is placed before us.
As we stretch our arms into space, we will embrace a very different environment. As our tools and know-how have taught us for lo these many years, we will bring what we need to change the environment to fit our needs. Asteroids will be blasted to feed our lust for ore; lunar regolith will be heat-melted to form concrete for our houses. Once again, human ingenuity and technical heritage will prove invaluable.
Yet, we go into realms uncharted by even our microbial forebears. We bring with us into space life -- the children of Earth, our mother and cradle. As we stretch into the stars beyond the solar system, we break into virgin new territory, with literally astronomical sizes, distances, and masses -- to shape and mold literally new planets with devices of such genius and creativity which will become just as commonplace and "ordinary" as the backhoe and the dump truck -- the very Titans of Industry and Development.
This is not just humanity spreading to the stars, but life itself. To our knowledge, no life exists outside this third rock from Sol. This is not so much our first step out of Ethiopia, but rather the first germ in the primordial soup. This changes the very makeup of galactic matter and forever alters the course of galactic history. Every star and rock from one end of the galaxy to the other will sing the songs of Earth -- those old notes of Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine, and Thymine.
But what does it all mean? Why must mankind aim ever higher, walk ever further, dream ever deeper? Philosophers and churchmen have debated this question doubtless for as long as humans dreamed of higher meaning. The only answer we have to cling to is that there is some reason. Or perhaps not after all. As with many human matters, it all depends on who you ask and how they look at it.
The only benchmark we can look to is not as things ought to be, but as they truly are. What is the purpose of humanity, and life itself? To grow and to spread. This is what life has done for the past 3.8 billion years, what humanity has done for the last 150,000 years, and what life and humanity will continue to do for the foreseeable future.
Perhaps it's best that we occasionally refer to this one last question, which all inquiries ultimately come to. Our brains are marvelous correlating machines -- constantly evaluating, comparing, questioning, probing, and making connections. It has served us well, and doubtless it will continue to do so as we seed the stars with the genius of Earth.