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From: animal@ihlpa.UUCP (D. Starr)
Newsgroups: net.space,net.columbia
Subject: Re: Why does everyone want to leave this planet?
Message-ID: <1136@ihlpa.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 20-Feb-86 15:11:31 EST
Article-I.D.: ihlpa.1136
Posted: Thu Feb 20 15:11:31 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 21-Feb-86 06:22:56 EST
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> 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.
> 

So you think the people who will leave this planet will be the "adventurous"
types, huh?  What a quaint notion.  I suppose a few of them will be needed
for the initial exploration, but beyond that...

You can meet the people who are going to colonize space today; they're
training for it already.  In downtown Chicago there's this building called
Water Tower Place; it's a complete self-contained world where you can live,
work, be entertained, shop, eat--in fact, live out your entire life without
stepping outside.  It's just like a space colony.  But people don't live there
because they're adventurous.  They live there because they're *afraid* of
the outside world.  They're afraid of the muggers, the rapists, the poor
people, the punk kids, the wierdos, and anybody else who
isn't just like them.  And they've got the money to move into their own little
private world, with guards and security gates and the highest of high 
technology to keep the Bad People out so they can feel *secure*.

THESE are the people who are going to colonize space.

They're training now all over the country.  Just about every major city in
the country has some of these self-contained worlds in it.  The people in
them aren't just learning how to survive in the limited environment that
will be found in a space colony; they're developing the *desire* to be 
physically isolated from the Bad Old World and all its Bad Old People.  And
they have money, so their wishes may come to pass.

Most of the "adventurous" people don't have that kind of money, and probably
would find that kind of a life pretty boring anyway, so they'll stay here.
Which is okay with me.  This world is a pretty good place to have adventures,
and if we can get rid to the people who would try to make it safe, secure 
and dull it can only get better.

That might be the best argument yet for space travel.

Dan Starr