dand@tekigm.UUCP (Dan C. Duval) (01/12/84)
There are many reasons someone might want to leave the Earth and set up housekeeping elsewhere-- the farther the better. Besides religious fanatics, there are the bold, the selfish, and the self-agrandizing, among others. The mythology of the Norse said that the Midgard (our Earth) was surrounded by icy mountains peopled by the Frost Giants, who were mighty and ate people. Yet Eric the Red and his son, Leif Ericson, sailed beyond what was to them the known world, reaching Iceland and Greenland (and maybe Vinland). They were bold to so such a thing when all they could expect was to meet Frost Giants and a land of eternal ice. Viceroys of the Spanish King in the New World left Civilization for the wilderness of the Americas to line their pockets, and live like kings themselves. Lord Baltimore established a sort of Kingdom in North America. Many people came from Europe to seek their fortune in America, knowing they would never return -- most of the Irish, Italian, German, French, and Chinese came to America in just such a state. Selfish is a bad term to use for this, but essentially it is to find a better life than the one you left. As far as self-agrandizement goes, there is that old saying, about the Big Frog in a little pond, and, 'Better a prince in Hell than a servant in Heaven.' I personally feel no need to establish an empire, but can you say the same about, say, every politician you've ever seen? How about Hitler, Napoleon, Caesar, Tumujin(Genghis Kahn), Tamur the Lame, etc.? I know I wouldn't complain if someone insisted on naming the first colony on the planet of another star after me, and I have no doubt there are those who would be willing to put out a lot more effort than I would to get THEIR name on the colony rather than mine. History is full of outrageous projects with little more purpose than to make a name stand out in history (such as the building projects behind Hitler's Thousand Year Reich.) Lastly, let's think about pure survival. There are people out in the woods teaching their children to shoot people, because of the Comming Collapse of Civilization. How many more people are there that would take the chance to live, even if it means living in a steel and aluminum box with a bunch of other people for the rest of your natural life. I will accept a ticket on that run if the alternative is vaporizing at the end of World War III, choking to death in air filled with noxious fumes, starving, or slowly being poisoned with heavy metals. As to whether a government would really sponsor such a project, how many of you got to vote on the MX or B-1? Only one charismatic leader is needed to get a country to extend itself far beyond anything thought possible, WW II Germany, for example, which followed Hitler right into the ashes of his Reich. Thus, interstellar colonization is more a matter of degree than a different proposition that has never been done before. Personally, I think mankind has a lot of exploitation to do within our solar system before we have to annoy the rest of the galaxy, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be thinking ahead to the next step after Titan is full of villas for the political elite, or the orbit of Earth is full of space cities. I, too, believe that probes will head for the stars during the next century; whether any people are on them or not is going to be up to whomever builds them, and whomever volunteers to go. Dan C Duval Instruments Systems Integration Tektronix, Inc tektronix!tekigm!dand
dand@tekigm.UUCP (Dan C. Duval) (01/12/84)
There are many reasons someone might want to leave the Earth and set up housekeeping elsewhere-- the farther the better. Besides religious fanatics, there are the bold, the selfish, and the self-agrandizing, among others. The mythology of the Norse said that the Midgard (our Earth) was surrounded by icy mountains peopled by the Frost Giants, who were mighty and ate people. Yet Eric the Red and his son, Leif Ericson, sailed beyond what was to them the known world, reaching Iceland and Greenland (and maybe Vinland). They were bold to so such a thing when all they could expect was to meet Frost Giants and a land of eternal ice. Viceroys of the Spanish King in the New World left Civilization for the wilderness of the Americas to line their pockets, and live like kings themselves. Lord Baltimore established a sort of Kingdom in North America. Many people came from Europe to seek their fortune in America, knowing they would never return -- most of the Irish, Italian, German, French, and Chinese came to America in just such a state. Selfish is a bad term to use for this, but essentially it is to find a better life than the one you left. As far as self-agrandizement goes, there is that old saying, about the Big Frog in a little pond, and, 'Better a prince in Hell than a servant in Heaven.' I personally feel no need to establish an empire, but can you say the same about, say, every politician you've ever seen? How about Hitler, Napoleon, Caesar, Temujin(Genghis Kahn), Tamur the Lame, etc.? I know I wouldn't complain if someone insisted on naming the first colony on the planet of another star after me, and I have no doubt there are those who would be willing to put out a lot more effort than I would to get THEIR name on the colony rather than mine. History is full of outrageous projects with little more purpose than to make a name stand out in history (such as the building projects behind Hitler's Thousand Year Reich.) Lastly, let's think about pure survival. There are people out in the woods teaching their children to shoot people, because of the Comming Collapse of Civilization. How many more people are there that would take the chance to live, even if it means living in a steel and aluminum box with a bunch of other people for the rest of your natural life. I will accept a ticket on that run if the alternative is vaporizing at the end of World War III, choking to death in air filled with noxious fumes, starving, or slowly being poisoned with heavy metals. As to whether a government would really sponsor such a project, how many of you got to vote on the MX or B-1? Only one charismatic leader is needed to get a country to extend itself far beyond anything thought possible, WW II Germany, for example, which followed Hitler right into the ashes of his Reich. Thus, interstellar colonization is more a matter of degree than a different proposition that has never been done before. Personally, I think mankind has a lot of exploitation to do within our solar system before we have to annoy the rest of the galaxy, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be thinking ahead to the next step after Titan is full of villas for the political elite, or the orbit of Earth is full of space cities. I, too, believe that probes will head for the stars during the next century; whether any people are on them or not is going to be up to whomever builds them, and whomever volunteers to go. Dan C Duval Instruments Systems Integration Tektronix, Inc tektronix!tekigm!dand