The issue discussed here came up again when I reread one of the quoted works. I still think that it makes no sense to claim that mankind has been reaching for the stars. However, we have certainly been cutting ourselves off from the Earth. Sometimes, living in an almost completely artificial environment, we might as well be inside a spaceship. This is expressed in sf not only by characters travelling in spaceships but also by almost completely urbanized future Earths in, e.g.:
A Torrent Of Faces by James Blish and Norman L. Knight
The Caves Of Steel by Isaac Asimov
A Stone In Heaven by Poul Anderson
Is our destiny among the stars? Do we have a destiny? We certainly have better or worse ways of living. The best way to live, I suggest, is to realize our oneness with reality, which includes with each other. This can be done anywhere, on or off Earth. Our role as reflective, intelligent beings is to know the universe and such knowledge would be facilitated by being able to move around more freely within that universe, preferably without exporting militarism or imperialism beyond the Solar System.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Don't worry, I fully expect human beings to export off Earth all the things you don't like because the drives, urges, desires, propensities leading to them are innate in all of us. These are qualities which can only be managed, not eliminated.
That said, I completely believe in the rightness of mankind colonizing other worlds, in and out of the Solar System.
I assume you have the de facto world girdling city centered on Archopolis on Terra that we too briefly, alas, see in A STONE IN HEAVEN.
Ad astra! Sean
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