A front-page feature story in Monday’s NYT describes the efforts of scientists to find an answer that’s bugged us for a long time: is there anybody else out there?
Such efforts can seem agonizingly slow. Sending out probes and studying the prospects for life-sustaining planets is pretty much a crapshoot when you consider the vastness of the heavens. Which is why I think the whole undertaking is a monumental waste of resources.
Supporters have a rationale: “as astronomers keep reminding us, humanity will eventually lose Earth as its home, whether because of global warming or the ultimate plague or a killer asteroid or the Sun’s inevitable demise. Before then, if we want the universe to remember us or even know we were here, we need to get away.”
That rationale, I believe, contains two flaws.
First is the notion that if we screw things up we can always move to a new neighborhood. Talk about setting an example for the kids! Let’s just pack it in and head for someplace where climate change, microbes, or vagabond space junk can’t find us. What if the brainpower being devoted to space exploration were directed instead toward solving the very problems they’re suggesting we run away from?
Second is the idea that we’re worth the universe’s recognition. We think of ourselves as a pretty nifty outcome of natural selection, but in the big picture we’re hardly a blip. And if all the UFO sightings have any basis in fact, it seems likely that no space-faring race that’s cruised by has considered us worth contacting yet (except of course for the random abduction and anal probe). Maybe the fact that we’ve got our eye on the cosmos while we haven’t cleaned up after ourselves has them a little concerned. Face it, we’re just a teeming mass of bad karma.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big sci-fi fan, and am even now juggling DVD re-viewings of Babylon 5 and Farscape while reading an Ian M. Banks “Culture” saga in between. But one thing seems clear to me: to venture out into space, a species needs to be not only technologically capable but also worthy.
When you think about it, humanity’s worthiness leaves a lot to be desired. So let’s not waste our own time and money on this search. If they’re out there, they’ll let us know – if they want us to know, that is. Wouldn’t it be more worthwhile to give them a reason?
Such efforts can seem agonizingly slow. Sending out probes and studying the prospects for life-sustaining planets is pretty much a crapshoot when you consider the vastness of the heavens. Which is why I think the whole undertaking is a monumental waste of resources.
Supporters have a rationale: “as astronomers keep reminding us, humanity will eventually lose Earth as its home, whether because of global warming or the ultimate plague or a killer asteroid or the Sun’s inevitable demise. Before then, if we want the universe to remember us or even know we were here, we need to get away.”
That rationale, I believe, contains two flaws.
First is the notion that if we screw things up we can always move to a new neighborhood. Talk about setting an example for the kids! Let’s just pack it in and head for someplace where climate change, microbes, or vagabond space junk can’t find us. What if the brainpower being devoted to space exploration were directed instead toward solving the very problems they’re suggesting we run away from?
Second is the idea that we’re worth the universe’s recognition. We think of ourselves as a pretty nifty outcome of natural selection, but in the big picture we’re hardly a blip. And if all the UFO sightings have any basis in fact, it seems likely that no space-faring race that’s cruised by has considered us worth contacting yet (except of course for the random abduction and anal probe). Maybe the fact that we’ve got our eye on the cosmos while we haven’t cleaned up after ourselves has them a little concerned. Face it, we’re just a teeming mass of bad karma.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big sci-fi fan, and am even now juggling DVD re-viewings of Babylon 5 and Farscape while reading an Ian M. Banks “Culture” saga in between. But one thing seems clear to me: to venture out into space, a species needs to be not only technologically capable but also worthy.
When you think about it, humanity’s worthiness leaves a lot to be desired. So let’s not waste our own time and money on this search. If they’re out there, they’ll let us know – if they want us to know, that is. Wouldn’t it be more worthwhile to give them a reason?
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