re: #289 Guanxi88

It’s an interesting theoretical exercise. If we regard the planet as a space station, we immediately begin to view certain people and activities in a different light. If this is all there is, then we have to protect the place and its inhabitants from those who would do harm.

As a practical matter, though, I don’t know if I’ll live to see permanent human dwelling in space or off-planet. The distances involved are too far, and we just don’t know if we could ever find a suitable place.

The human race and everything will end if we don’t go to the stars.
This is said much better in the Babylon 5 episode “Infection”:

“Is it worth it? Should we just pull back, forget the whole thing as a bad idea and take care of our own problems at home?”
“No. We have to stay here and there’s a simple reason why. Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics and you’ll get ten different answers, but there’s one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on. Whether it happens in a hundred years or a thousand years or a million years, eventually our Sun will grow cold and go out. When that happens, it won’t just take us. It’ll take Marilyn Monroe and Lao-Tzu and Einstein and Morobuto and Buddy Holly and Aristophenes .. and all of this .. all of this was for nothing unless we go to the stars.”

— Mary Ann Cramer interviews Cmdr. Sinclair in Babylon 5:”Infection”