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From: hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Why bother? (was Re: Terraforming, sun shield)
Message-ID: <7573@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 10 Mar 91 15:08:03 GMT
References: <1991Feb22.164032.16901@zoo.toronto.edu> <1991Mar8.185043.21138@linus.mitre.org>
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In article <1991Mar8.185043.21138@linus.mitre.org>, sokay@cyclone.mitre.org (S. J. Okay) writes:

			......................

> As I've pointed out to several others on this newsgroup, the one thing most
> people fail to consider is time.  We will either have solved or hopelessly
> failed to solve our problems in this area by the time we have gotten deep 
> enough into space to actually have to worry about this. If we can keep
> the planet livable to all life that currently inhabits it, then we will
> obviously have found the solution, and will know well enough to carry our
> wisdom with us as we expand in a controlled fashion through space.
> 
> If not, then it will most likely be due to the fact that we have screwed our
> current world up so much, that we can only concern ourselves with eeking out 
> what meager existance we can scrape from the remains of our planet. In this
> case, we won't even have to worry about whether or not we deserve to expand,
> we'll be too busy choking to death in our own decay.
> 
> One way or another, we'll have the answer by the time we actually have to 
> worry about it.

But there are other alternatives.  We can expand before we have the supposed
utopian solution, and not require humanity to achieve what I frankly hope is
never done.  If the resources are there, and we will never know except by
finding out out there, I see no reason why most of humanity could not live
elsewhere in the solar system in the reasonably near future.

We need to get into space now, before we either decay to badly or become too
totalitarian to allow the nonconformists to dare.
--
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
Phone: (317)494-6054
hrubin@l.cc.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet)   {purdue,pur-ee}!l.cc!hrubin(UUCP)