THE CRUX OF IT: We can and must evolve as well as endeavor.

 

 

 

 

The thought of space exploration is both intriguing and baffling.

To begin, let’s examine the amazing and intriguing aspect of it.

The wondrous Sci-fi lover in any of us would probably clamor for the chance to become a real-life Han Solo, Lando, Leia or Picard.  Scenes of “Space Pioneers” may flash in our minds reminiscent of the show Firefly. Well, it seems like that is a future that is quickly being brought into reality.

The plans to send tourists into space with the intent to colonize Mars are solidifying rapidly. The company SpaceX is leading this massive undertaking here and now in the present by planning unmanned supply missions to the red planet in 2018. Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla Cars and head of SpaceX, stated that manned missions would follow by the year 2024 if things went as planned. The prospect is intriguing.

Wealthy passengers are already lining up to be our first space colonist cousins.

Wealthy passengers…

So begins the baffling aspect of this undertaking.

It may simply be the way of things, but future frontiers seem to be reserved for the elite.

I can imagine a vast divide between those few with means and the majority of others that can only experience things on a small screen. In a very few years, people may be living a science fiction adventure while too many others starve, die of preventable diseases, kill innocents because some god demanded it of them, or revel in some deep-seated prejudice.

The goal of innovation should be to uplift and propel forward rather than to turn a blind eye and desert. That is potentially what could happen if the affluent continue to outpace the masses.

The scientific mind can be expansive. The advancements that a mind like that are capable of bringing about can be transforming. But, I also submit that great achievements can also possibly mimic that hated Republican “trickle-down effect” and leave the majority as spectators to what’s possible. That’s profoundly undesirable.

We would also greatly benefit from a encompassing coming of age.

I am not suggesting in any way that boundaries shouldn’t be broken or that limits shouldn’t be surpassed.

I’m simply recognizing that the median human maturity level is, objectively, stagnating somewhere around the equivalent of an adolescent.

All of the technological advancements in the realm of imagination won’t compel the average hairless ape to grow and renounce baseness. To take an unexpansive mindset into a vast expanse seems ill-conceived.

 

There needs to be a collective and comprehensive evolving of our species as a whole.