From one of my many information sources upon the Stoa I have come upon a very interesting story. The article was written by a fellow that is about 20 years older than me.
This means that he is old enough to remember the energy of the space race, the pride of Apollo, and promise of Skylab. I was only two weeks old when man landed on the moon for the first time, so my joy was the Space Shuttle program that Obama took the axe to last year.
"They" promised much in the way of the future. "They" being the SF writers of the 40's through 90's. Those novels were written by GI, Silent, and Boomers who all had that initial spark and drive for the stars. They understood the perils and the wonders of leaving our home behind.
This article was not about the energy of yesterday, but the letdown of today. If space exploration had continued on its spending path, we would have been launching manned missions to Mars from the surface of the moon by 2000. We would already have manufacturing and fabrication plants in orbit producing the materials that we would need to further colonize the moon and Mars, not to mention taking care of our people back on Terra without having to dig up the mountains (do you hear me, hippies, in West Virginia?).
Instead, our efforts were squandered in an attempt to take care of those who were deemed unable to take care of themselves. It all sounds so altruistic until you realize that government dependency is just another form of servitude. Not so altruistic after all.
Carl Sagan and others used to use the argument that for the cost of a single ICBM you could send several unmanned missions into space, and if Defense spending were reduced, that money could go into further manned exploration.
For such intelligent people, who already had a collective (i.e. Socialist) bend, I'm amazed that they overlooked the obvious.
Defense spending was also space exploration. The military needed satellites in orbit for the Internet, GPS, weather prediction, missile defense, and also just good old fashioned spying. They also failed to notice that small reductions in the rate of GROWTH for social programs could have funded the same space exploration missions. No reductions in spending, just the growth of spending. The entire 30 year Shuttle program cost less than 300 billion dollars. A fraction of THIS YEAR'S Medicare spending. A FRACTION!
Now, lets get all Socialistic, but from a more altruistic angle.
We will have to agree on certain foundational agreements:
1. Humans are polluting the Earth with our very presence, let alone the residue of our technology.
2. To save the Earth for the other life forms, we must either commit mass suicide, in such a way that we become food or fertilizer for the animals; or we leave.
3. No other countries, other than the US and/or Europe need to participate, though ALL will by the end, and I'll tell you why.
Rather than bending our national will towards "solving" a social problem that has been with us since time immemorial, we bend our national will towards evacuation. Yes, evacuate the Earth to save the Earth.
We reorganize society to the needs of evacuation. Over time, the Federal government may have to nationalize certain industries or create a nexus where corporate coordination can occur. We need to give ourselves a window, like 50 years or so to vacate the property. Nothing motivates like a deadline. Socialists would love this plan.
Our schools begin to graduate the skill sets needed for Genetics, Metallurgy, Aeronautics, Astrophysics, Astronomy, Geology, Biology, Xenobiology; the spectrum of science and industry must be ramped up at all costs. Those without jobs are GIVEN a job in this new mobilization. If you can only drop a seed packet into a preservation capsule then that is your job. No idleness. If you are uneducated, then you will have a job commensurate with your skills, whether it is decontaminating the Uranium ore processors or cleaning out the biodegrading sump pumps (think poo pumps) then that is what you will be doing.
Gangs? Forget it. Drugs? Nope, no time, those dealers will be busy working. Criminals? They will be put to work, be it in forced labor mining camps (not as bad as it sounds...this isn't the Soviet Union after all) or the assembly lines. Heck, how many people will actually realize their potential in this new, driven society? Many, I promise you.
All consumer spending will be geared towards providing useful items for colonizing the planets of our Solar System, with the full expectation of building near-light speed vessels within 50 years. Not as far fetched as it sounds. Ion propulsion drives have that ability NOW. Bet you didn't know that. How much better would we be if we funded it with full mobilization in mind? Your Xbox 360 would not have useless games, it would have simulator programs, teaching children how to control thruster nodules, control magnetic fields, and understand the dangers and hazards of stellar radiation. Fitness programs would ramp way, way up as millions volunteered for pilot and crew positions on the hundreds of missions that will be flown EVERY YEAR. Participation like you've never seen it. The creation of the infrastructure, the Star Ports, and the Terran industry required to build this endeavor will be breath taking.
Space is not just the final frontier, it is the ultimate high ground.
By building hundreds of space stations, manned and ARMED, we will have uncontrolled supremacy not over just the orbital tracks, but everything beneath it. We don't have to drop nukes on cities to destroy them...that is messy. We can just shoot orbital debris or small asteroids at targets on the surface. End of story and no radioactive fallout.
Countries will be forced to sign on with US, to merge their resources with us, since we will have the insurmountable edge in space technology. Religious fundamentalism? Keep it back on Earth, pal. No time to rail against the infidel when there is a deadline to meet.
Eventually, every nation will have full employment, geared towards evacuation.
By the 25th year, the moon will have robust facilities and launch bases to push out on to Mars. Some may head towards Venus with solar harvesters, intent on filling energy cells and capacitors or setting up robotic manufacturing and refining facilities. Automated and manned facilities in the asteroid belt, slinging rocks back to Venus for processing (don't want to miss and hit the Earth...Venus won't care or notice that we nuke it by accident once in a while).
Before long we will be around Jupiter and Saturn, colonizing moons nearly the size of Mars and the Earth. What wonders will we discover or uncover? Technology will advance in leaps and bounds. New discoveries fueling the expansion. Lessons learned will lesson the amount of life lost in the journey and make our expansion more effective and efficient. The quality of life will rise for everyone and not just a few.
Back on Earth, things will be winding down. A cold calculation will have to be made at one point. As teams of people return to the surface to dismantle the infrastructure, harvesting what we need in terms of salvage, a decision will have to be made by those that insist on staying behind.
In my estimation, they will either have to be eliminated in cold blood, or told that they have to live in the absence of technology. Period. Mankind has risen out of near extinction on more than one occasion to dominate the planet. Monitoring stations will have to be left behind in orbit. In fact, we should maintain extensive colonies around the Earth indefinitely. If the ones that are left behind begin to re-discover fossil fuel technology then they will have to be interfered with. Perhaps even recruited to join their older brothers in space. After the first few generations, the inhabitants should be given the option of joining the movement into space, though their education will take longer if they don't start until their teenage years.
Perhaps over time, everyone will leave home and join the rest of the species in space. We will take animals and plants with us and seed them wherever they may take. The Earth will be free of us and free to evolve new forms of life, which we will watch over and keep safe from asteroid strikes (though would that not be interfering?).
We must bend our will towards leaving the Earth and realizing our potential as a race, instead of plumbing the DEPTHS with reality TV and tax/government servitude.
Think on all that and the implications on culture, society and technology.
With those thoughts, I leave you. Hello, Irene.
Live well.
--Zavost
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