Space? Is it a Positive Human Future?
This post was written by a student. It has not been fact checked or edited.
“I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet but I am an optimist. We will reach out to the stars.”
- Stephen Hawking, astrophysicist
Space....is it truly the future for mankind?....or what kind of other things that are there we are yet unaware of.....is there any other planets discovered that can sustain us if Earth really gets unsustainable for life at a point...what about interstellar beings....
These are some of questions, I am sure, everybody thinks of on hearing the word “space”.
Space exploration is the key to our advancement. At a point of time all the minerals and resources will be over. Probably our generation will not be the one to face the judgement day but our next generations will leading to bloodshed for whatever minimal resources are left. We are so reliant on resources like electricity and other fuels that we cannot think of a life without that. With increasing global warming, rising of water levels and extinction of resources and animals will slowly lead to our Earth being nothing but a barren wasteland with a toxic atmosphere. So, we need an alternative, to be precise a habitable exoplanet is what we need. It is not very popular to suggest that the future could happen slowly, or that tomorrow’s scientific innovations might take as much time as they have historically. Futurists like Ray Kurzweil are fond of suggesting that the pace of discovery is “accelerating,” and that change will move at a blindingly rapid clip over the next century. While anything is possible, we should not expect immortality, superintelligence, and faster-than-light travel in our lifetimes. Anticipating instantaneous, radical change diverts us from investing time in long-haul projects like building safer, sustainable cities and planning for food security.
These are the kinds of scientific endeavours that can help us survive while we are waiting for somebody (or something) to invent upload technology. I am not suggesting that we should slow down the pace of scientific discovery. Quite the opposite. I am saying we should focus our scientific and technological energies on problems that are solvable in the near term, while always keeping our eyes on the long-term goal of exploring and adapting to worlds beyond our blue marble.