Musings

If we deem it fitting and proper to ‘worship’ life on planet earth, the only place in the universe where life is known to occur, then we must pay attention to the underlying ‘value system’ that governs life on earth.

One of the features that captures our attention is that all life is cyclic in nature. It has its beginnings and endings. And, out of those endings, new beginnings grow. Patterns of life and death emerge. Over eons, change is evident. Random mutations give rise to new solutions to the equations for survival and extinction. There are maximums and minimums for each species in each ecological niche.

Humans, too, are held captive to this system of thriving and withering. Emergence and extinction. As fast as we adapt, we die. Countless versions of human beings have emerged from common ancestors a million years ago, and new and improved versions will follow. Those to come will have survival skills we can only dream of.

In our recent past, humans have endured environmental extremes in habitats that were formerly very bountiful and benign. These extremes were primarily the result of the onset of cycles of global glaciations.

Most glacial cycles are believed to occur because of changes in planetary motions known as Milankovitch cycles. All across northern Europe, Russia, and China, ancient peoples were likely to have followed the advance and retreat of the ice sheets, scientists say. Our current warm interglacial period is about over. The ice sheets will once again move to cover North America and Europe. Perhaps the onset of this cyclical event will be delayed somewhat by the artificial ‘global warming’ caused by industrial civilization.

In any event, environmental extremes should be seen as the ‘norm’. And this situation presents us with several choices: Do we adapt ourselves to fit in to the natural world, and be subject to its cycles, or do we engineer our own environment, optimizing it for use by human beings? If we choose to adapt to the natural world, then we must expect that as the ice sheets advance, the human population will shrink and consolidate.

On the other hand, if we choose to engineer our environment, do we do it by sequestering sections of the planet’s surface for use by human civilization? Or, do we make the giant leap to constructing completely artificial habitats off of the planet’s surface?

It seems to me that the moral imperative we established in the last monograph regarding the worship of diversity, dictates that we remove ourselves as a species from the cycles of life on earth. Life on earth must be allowed to continue on its journey of evolution to some obscure future without the inclusion of humans.

The foregoing suggests that we apply nearly all of our resources to the development of artificial human habitats that are self sustaining and self-regulating. These may be of some sociologically relevant optimal size, such as a dozen or so ‘villages’. They may take the form of hollowed-out asteroids or moon bases. They would be scattered all over our solar system, and near mine-able resources of cosmic detritus. The extent of the task ahead of us requires that we commence this effort immediately, while we are still relatively ‘rich’ in fossil fuels. We certainly have the technology to make it happen. Now all we need is the will.