Is Space Colonization Our Moral Obligation?
Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 17 Οκτ 2015
"Right now all of our eggs are in one basket," explains meta-geneticist Christopher E. Mason. "And the basket is called Earth."
Read more at BigThink.com: http://bigthink.com/videos/chris-maso...
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Our
home plate and solar system are not tenable long-term locations for
humanity's HQ. The first step to moving beyond this place is to learn
how to colonize extraplanetary bodies, specifically Mars. If in the next
500 years we've developed a species-wide strategy for living
off-planet, we'll greatly improve the chances of maintaining humanity
beyond the limits of Earth's capacity to keep us happy.
But Dr.
Mason also grapples with another testy subject: There have to be limits
to how far we can go, right? At some point the universe is bound to
collapse in on itself. No matter how spacefaring we are, humanity will
be in deep trouble at that point. That's why the Mason Lab's extra-long
term goal is to figure out whether there's some sort of preventative
option for humanity to prolong the universe, assuming we manage to keep
ourselves alive long enough to use it.
Transcript - Right now all
of our eggs are in one basket and the basket is called earth. we can't
stay in the solar system forever. It's just a fact. So if we do stay
here we would essentially, you know, the sun would essentially engulf
the inner planets. And even if we've achieved perfect world peace and
there's no hunger, there's no poverty, there's no disease, it will all
be gone if we're still here.
So some of the first missions to
Mars, obviously we have multiple satellites already in orbit, and so
some of the first missions are really planned for within the next 15
years. But there are active and long-term plans in NASA to have people
get colonies there, living there whether it's either asteroids, moons or
potentially Mars. The timeline goes up to 200 or 300 years out is when
we start to begin some of that work of actually not just sending
exploratory missions but people actually living there. I think this is
not only sort of what is the natural next step of really human evolution
and exploration but I would even argue is our duty as a species because
we're the only species that has an awareness of extinction. So I think
it's the responsibility to preserve not only our species but actually
all species.
If you keep going further out eventually you go to
Mars, you go to other solar systems, it's really the question just begs
the question back on itself. You can't keep going and going and going.
At the end of the time eventually the universe will either keep
expanding, and so they'll be too far apart, or it may collapse back in
on itself. And so I think there the last question of my long-term plan
for the laboratory is, which of course we'll all be long dead before,
but is do we prevent the universe from collapsing back in on itself in
the hopes that life will arise a new or do we actually use our ingenuity
and technological acumen to prevent the universe from collapsing and at
that point maybe we'll be controlling gravity.
I think we would
have to probably prevent it and maybe carve out a small area of the
universe that wouldn't collapse or would somehow survive, which we have
no idea how that's going to happen. I think the ethical question we can
think about today is how much and to what degree do we literally alter
the universe to preserve ourself? And I think life and gravity are the
only two things that prevent expansion of matter in the universe and
decrease entropy. And so I think we have a responsibility to try and
maybe keep ourselves alive. So I think not only should we keep ourselves
alive even at the end of the universe, but we may have no choice
because I think that's what we usually do as a species.
Read more at BigThink.com: http://bigthink.com/videos/chris-maso...
Follow Big Think here:
YouTube: http://goo.gl/CPTsV5
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BigThinkdotcom
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigthink
Our
home plate and solar system are not tenable long-term locations for
humanity's HQ. The first step to moving beyond this place is to learn
how to colonize extraplanetary bodies, specifically Mars. If in the next
500 years we've developed a species-wide strategy for living
off-planet, we'll greatly improve the chances of maintaining humanity
beyond the limits of Earth's capacity to keep us happy.
But Dr.
Mason also grapples with another testy subject: There have to be limits
to how far we can go, right? At some point the universe is bound to
collapse in on itself. No matter how spacefaring we are, humanity will
be in deep trouble at that point. That's why the Mason Lab's extra-long
term goal is to figure out whether there's some sort of preventative
option for humanity to prolong the universe, assuming we manage to keep
ourselves alive long enough to use it.
Transcript - Right now all
of our eggs are in one basket and the basket is called earth. we can't
stay in the solar system forever. It's just a fact. So if we do stay
here we would essentially, you know, the sun would essentially engulf
the inner planets. And even if we've achieved perfect world peace and
there's no hunger, there's no poverty, there's no disease, it will all
be gone if we're still here.
So some of the first missions to
Mars, obviously we have multiple satellites already in orbit, and so
some of the first missions are really planned for within the next 15
years. But there are active and long-term plans in NASA to have people
get colonies there, living there whether it's either asteroids, moons or
potentially Mars. The timeline goes up to 200 or 300 years out is when
we start to begin some of that work of actually not just sending
exploratory missions but people actually living there. I think this is
not only sort of what is the natural next step of really human evolution
and exploration but I would even argue is our duty as a species because
we're the only species that has an awareness of extinction. So I think
it's the responsibility to preserve not only our species but actually
all species.
If you keep going further out eventually you go to
Mars, you go to other solar systems, it's really the question just begs
the question back on itself. You can't keep going and going and going.
At the end of the time eventually the universe will either keep
expanding, and so they'll be too far apart, or it may collapse back in
on itself. And so I think there the last question of my long-term plan
for the laboratory is, which of course we'll all be long dead before,
but is do we prevent the universe from collapsing back in on itself in
the hopes that life will arise a new or do we actually use our ingenuity
and technological acumen to prevent the universe from collapsing and at
that point maybe we'll be controlling gravity.
I think we would
have to probably prevent it and maybe carve out a small area of the
universe that wouldn't collapse or would somehow survive, which we have
no idea how that's going to happen. I think the ethical question we can
think about today is how much and to what degree do we literally alter
the universe to preserve ourself? And I think life and gravity are the
only two things that prevent expansion of matter in the universe and
decrease entropy. And so I think we have a responsibility to try and
maybe keep ourselves alive. So I think not only should we keep ourselves
alive even at the end of the universe, but we may have no choice
because I think that's what we usually do as a species.
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