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3 Relationships with our outreach campaign for civilization expansion into space |
| video/audio | contents | date |
|---|---|---|
| Paul Ziolo (UK, Psycho-historian, Professor of Psychology at Liverpool University), and Adriano Autino (SR International President) discuss the future of civilization in 200 years | July 9th 2017 | |
| Howard Bloom (Founder of the Space Development Steering Committee, NSS Board of Directors, USA) and A. Autino (President of Space Renaissance International) discuss the future of civilization in 200 years | July 2nd 2017 | |
| Daniela De Paulis (Independent Artist, Founder of Astronomers Without Borders, NL) and A. Autino (President of Space Renaissance International) discuss the future of civilization in 200 years | June 26th 2017 | |
| Steven Wolfe (Deputy Executive Director of SpaceCom, USA ) and A. Autino (President of Space Renaissance International) discuss the future of civilization in 200 years | June 22nd 2017 | |
| Roberto Paura (Italian Institute for the Future, Italia) and A. Autino (President of Space Renaissance International) discuss the future of civilization in 200 years (Italian language) | June 18th 2017 | |
| Al Globus (National Space Society Board of Directors, USA) and A. Autino (President of Space Renaissance International) discuss the future of civilization in 200 years | June 15th 2017 | |
| Tsvi Bisk (IS, Head of the Center for Strategic Futurist Thinking) and A. Autino (President of Space Renaissance International) discuss the future of civilization in 200 years | June 7th 2017 |
…
INTRODUCTION
by A. V. Autino
1 OPPORTUNITY
the James Corey’s books of the series “The Expanse”.
1.1 The books
The books are very good, a real piece of modern, post-distopic, science fiction, worth to be subject of discussion.
In the books one can find, almost in each page, reflections on ethics, destiny of humanity, moral problems, faith in the people capability to use the information
for the better and not for the worse.
In the books a humanist reader can find some signs of a possible evolution, following the diaspora in the solar system, though with the contradictions that i tried to make evident in my questions…
My favorite characters are Jim Holden and his girl-friend Naomi: they are
idealist, romantic … and humanist.
Easy for a humanist reader to love them and to identify with them… Characters that could have opportunity to raise very much more, in a solar system civilization…
maybe 200 years is a long enough time to show some signs of a new culture?
This is an important work, since it is the first one (maybe?) trying to draw a near future scenario, basing on a 21st Century vision…
1.2 The movies
sci-fi series was derived: “the Expanse”… distributed on Netflix.
The movies are very much more “space western”. “The Expanse” tv series is a poor reduction of this work.
2 SYNAPSE
2.1 When
it is a vision of the future in about 200 years.
2.2 Social and economic conditions
At least humanity didn’t destroy itself by its own technology (!), and the general vision is that all contradictions existing now on Earth will continue in space… (it is something, of course, we could define it our minimal goal, as astronautic humanists? :)).
Humanity is colonizing the solar system, up to the Neptune orbit. Commercial
enterprises capture icebergs in the Saturn’s rings, and tow them to the communities living on planetoids and moons as Ceres, Ganimede and other small celestial bodies.
Earth owns 30 billion inhabitants, the unemployed ones get a survival subsidy, the employees have a salary.
Earth and Mars are superpowers, the Alliance of the Outside Planets a frontier almost anarchist agglomeration, on the path of becoming the third superpower.
UN governs Earth. Earth and Mars hold powerful space fleets, have Marines and the military setup is nicely derived from the terrestrial Navy…
There are wars, crises, violence, massacres, murders ( 🙁 ).
Some kind of order is keeped on the colonies by private corporates, but a law system doesn’t really exist…
Diaspora in the solar system has given rise to obvious physiological differences among those who grew up on the bottom of a more or less deep gravitational well and those who grew up on planetoids or asteroids subjected to minor gravity, often artificially generated by rotation.
The Terrestrials are tangled and muscled, the Martians a little less, the Belters are very tall and thin. There is also some idealism, featured by some protagonists: Jim Holden and Naomi Nagata, a pair of honest and romantic adventurers, who stick to a kind of humanist code…
Threats to humanity: the perceived dangers seem to be coming still by other humans, more than by the environment. And a very big danger will come from an unknown alien entity, that was dormant on Venus, and wakes up, showing
a terrific technological power… but such huge menace will not push humans to
join their efforts.
Opposite, some faction will try to take profit from the alien technology, increasing the danger for the whole humanity.
The settlement on many celestial bodies of course will mitigate the risk of a planetary catastrophe, but not the risk that some “god-like” entity decides one day to search and destroy the whole humanity, everywhere in the solar system.
3 RELATIONSHIPS WITH OUR OUTREACH CAMPAIGN FOR CIVILIZATION EXPANSION INTO SPACE
3.1 The positive aspects of the expansion
Of course there would be many other aspects to be considered, but so far i would limit myself to the above, as a spur to ignite our conversation.
Please note that these positive effects are what we are promoting, in our outreach campaigns to the people, when we talk about the urgence of opening the high frontier, and start settling in the solar system…
3.2 The best way to communicate what is at stake for humanity
Now, the way we communicate visions of the future to the people is paramount important…
People should be as much as possible aware of what is at stake when they make their democratic political choices… or decide where to invest their savings, or even only what to talk about with their friends in their communities…
And we know that a good book or movie is very much more effective than thousand excellent papers.
3.3 The current status of civilization.
My reading of the current civilization status is that we are approaching a break event, in 5 or 10 years.
If the world will remain closed, we seriously run the risk of a civilization implosion, ignited by a global conflict, sided by an endemic economic crisis,
environmental crisis, and resources crisis.
Opposite, if the first steps of civilian expansion into the outer space will be moved, a new hope in the future could balance the crisis, and contrast the crash.
Elon Musk reusable rockets, Jeff Bezos industrial relocation plans, ULA plans for high orbit and geolunar heavy transport system, and the development of additive manufacturing technologies are making that possible.
Should we use the new technologies just for another 40 years of space debris production (i.e. reinforcing the cage, instead of cleaning the orbit), we would loose the space train another time… but this time likely we don’t have other 40 years…
3.4 Our outreach task
Our outreach task, spreading awareness of what is at stake for humanity in two opposite futures: moving first evolutionary steps towards a multi-planetary civilization or implode back to a quasi-animal status.
So we should be “pushers” of the actions needed to ignite the civilian expansion into outer space, and thus generate a new hope in the future… Proposing the positive aspects of expansion means to design a new utopia…
4 QUESTIONS
Questions, from an astro-humanist evolutionary point of view.
4.1 from the sociological point of view
- why the demographic growth continued so strong on Earth, notwithstanding the diaspora?
- wasn’t the global economy boosted by the expansion process?
- why the Earth social situation was not benefited by the expansion into space?
- wasn’t the employment on Earth improved by the expansion process?
- the expansion process couldn’t take place, without a deep and large industrial development… who are the leader corporates? Or were the public agencies leading the industrial efforts?
- are there any positive effects of the relieved (industrial and demographic) pression on Earth?
- did any new brotherhood feeling raise among humans, faced to the dangers and harshness of the space environment?
- the books don’t talk about cultural activities, theater, music, but neither low and zero gravity sports are mentioned… are the pioneers still fully focused on survival in the harsh space environment?
4.2 From the evolutionary point of view
- would a time lapse of 200 years be enough, to appreciate any even minimal evolutionary effect of the expansion?
- or should we consider humanity, after 200 years, still in the middle of the evolutionary step, passing from a mono-planetary to multi-planetary status? (first Kardashev transition in the prof. Ziolo’s evolutionary diagram)
- which positive effects could we expect, on the anthropologic, if not evolutionary, layers? ethics, general decreasing of social fear, raise of welfare, employment opportunities on Earth and in Space
- 200 years is a long enough time to show some signs of a new culture, idealist, romantic … and humanist?
- a final question: what will the civilization look like, when its material and energetic problems will be solved?
4.3 Our interaction with culture and media world
- should we, as space philosophers, try to have an influence on the sci-fi writers and producers, suggesting to add a sociologic vision in their work?
- is the new-obscurantist age coming to an end?
- may we expect (or ask) to modern, post-dystopian, science fiction writers, if it would be possible to write some kind of new-utopian narration, adding a sociologist and anthropologist point of view in their work?
- are the books readers and movies audience enough of reading/watching evil-technology, space horror, noir, fully psychopath societies, where everybody are ready to kill?
- are the readers/watchers now starving for a new positive vision of the future, and a new confidence in human intelligence, that in the last 50 years was charged of “destroying the nature and the planet”?
- how could new sci-fi writers anticipate and support the civilian space development option, contrasting the stubborn closed mind of the de-growthers and of the space-for-earth supporters?
