explore or perish

With all this talk about a renewed interest in space exploration and changing the focus of NASA, one thing, one very important thing, is being left unsaid.

As human beings, we must explore or perish.  We must, because of three important eventualities:

1. self-destruction


2. global natural disasters


3. human stagnation

self-destruction

We've all seen what happens when urban areas become overcrowded:

• crime increases


• poverty increases


• counter-productive cultures arise

Over the years, countless psychological experiments involving rodents have shown that increasing their numbers within a fixed space (or decreasing the space available) makes them more aggressive.

In the case of humans under these conditions, political, social and religious disagreements tend to fuel increased violence.  Extremely dangerous factions can emerge from this soup and, given some of the nastier weapons we've designed, ultimately threaten man's very existence.

The world economy proves every day that it's not strong enough to properly maintain today's major population centers.  Where, then, will we find the added resources necessary to support the population of less habitable areas once the major centers reach their limits?  Overcrowding will cause society in general to degrade into madness.

Under these conditions, destruction at our own hands is a very real possibility and a likely outcome.

global natural disaster

As destructive as Mount St. Helens was, scientists have estimated that the eventual eruption of Mammoth Mountain in the Sierra Nevada will release around 150 times that amount of explosive power.  Several other large volcanoes have recently roused from their slumber to threaten life and property.  If indeed we are entering a period of renewed global volcanic activity, the effect on human life could be disastrous.

Were you aware that a cloud of gargantuan chunks of ice and dust - comets - envelopes our solar system?  The recent box-office hits dealing with terrestrial cometary impacts have actually painted a very realistic picture of the grave danger we face.  We have, in fact, experienced several recent near misses, and they've taught us something quite disturbing:  we sometimes don't receive warning of an approaching comet until it's too late to react.

We have still more problems:

• global warming


• deforestation on a massive scale


• air, water, soil and food pollution


• scientists tampering with genetics

... and the list goes on.

And if all this weren't enough, scientists now tell us that we're setting ourselves up for annihilation by overusing antibiotics.  The super bugs which manage to become immune to our drugs are a serious threat to the longevity of our species.

Human Stagnation

Man is at his best when he's exploring and establishing new habitats.  This has been shown repeatedly throughout recorded human history.

• the Romans created an empire that was the envy of all their contemporaries


• the British conquered the world and flourished far and wide


• America was at her best during the expansion across the Great Plains and the establishment of magnificent cities along the West Coast

We read heart warming and inspiring tales almost daily about the triumphs of the human spirit achieved by modern explorers and entrepreneurs.

But the majority of people, once they establish a local culture and successfully eliminate the struggle for survival, tend to lapse, eventually, into apathy and hedonism.  This, too, has been demonstrated by those very same world-conquering empires.

Just as with a withered human limb, the weakness brought on by lack of motivation leads finally to stagnation, atrophy and death.

what, then, shall we do?

Our only hope for long term survival is to begin now, today, to explore and colonize space and the planets.  Our seed must be spread and cultivated on as many worlds as possible, so that by sheer numbers we can outrun our certain fate here on Earth.

My challenge to humanity is to stop viewing science fiction as mere entertainment, and allow it to inspire and motivate us to reach for the stars.

There lies our last, best hope for survival.