[net.space] The Exodus

allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery) (02/28/86)

Expires:

Quoted from <515@cisden.UUCP> ["Re: Why does everyone want to leave this planet?"], by phillips@cisden.UUCP (Tom Phillips)...
+---------------
| In article <2960@ut-ngp.UUCP> cgeiger@ut-ngp.UUCP (Charles S. Geiger, Esq.) writes:
| >Well, why?  While I am very interested in astronomy and all that
| >sort of thing, I don't understand why anyone would want to
| >permanently migrate to another planet.  There's just so much *here*
| >to see and learn, certainly enough to last a lifetime!  Most
| >importantly, this is our home.
| >Frankly, I hope all of you gung-ho types will get the opportunity
| >to leave and will take advantage of it.  That way all the
| >exploiters, conquerors, or, to be charitable, "adventurous" types
| >(what's so unadventurous about staying here and learning about your
| >own planet?) will leave, and I can be at peace here.
+---------------

"What space travel does do is drain off the best brains:  those smart enough
to see a catastrophe before it happens and with the guts to pay the price --
abandon home, wealth, friends, relatives, everything -- and *go*."

				L. Long (R.A. Heinlein, TIME ENOUGH FOR LOVE)

If you're a ``Childe'' or another who's willing to go out there, fear not
these.  We can go and leave them behind, and be better for it.  (I dislike the
implication that I am an exploiter, a conqueror -- my drives are deeper than
the superficial desire for power.  I desire knowledge, gained in the only way
that means anything -- going out and wrestling it from the universe.  I desire
freedom -- the freedom of limitless space.  I desire to see humanity out
amongst the worlds -- this one DOES have a selfish cause:  I know that my
chances of survival are between infinitesimal and zero without the rest of
humanity, and I truly believe that humanity is doomed if it doesn't get itself
spread out so that no planetary disaster (not just nuclear war -- consider
the Ice Age we should be in, except for a warm spell whose end is due soon)
can wipe it out.

Will the ``Childe''s of the Net please stand up?

--Brandon
-- 
In mid-winter, all of us Midwesterners would *love* a taste of California...
	(r-r-r-rumble) (SHA-A-KE!!!)		      ...but not *that* badly!

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