An enthusiastic tourist on the Moon says:
"'I'd be a spacer myself if I'd had a chance when I was young. The future is here.'
"Rydberg wondered. How much of mankind would ever live off Earth? Aside from science and industry, how much would it ever mean?" (p. 181)
But both science and industry mean a great deal! It will be a long time before most people live off Earth but, meanwhile, space science and industry will transform the planet and give everyone who remains here a high frontier.
At an sf con, a naive woman, sounding like a Trekkie, gushed, "We're going to the stars!" as if we were all about to sign up to the crew of the Enterprise. Of course, we as individuals are not going to do anything of the sort. Most of us are not even going to go to Mars which is currently being hyped. But we need some people in space just as we need some people exploring the Poles, the oceans, the depths of the Earth, the microcosm, the human mind and everywhere between.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
But I don't expect most people to ever leave Earth to settle other planets. Far more plausibly, small groups will leave to found colonies elsewhere in the Solar System or the planets of other stars. Then, as time passes, we can expect some of these new worlds to become populous themselves. It may end with the totality of these colonies outstripping Old Earth in numbers.
Ad astra! Sean
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