Billionaires in space….space…space…space….
Most weeks I’m not sure what I’m gonna write about until I situate myself in front of the old computer keyboard and am ready to type. This week, though, I’ve had a pretty good idea what I’d be writing about for most of the past week. I mean, what else is there to write about but our merry band of billionaires and they’re journeys out into the great beyond. Billionaires Sir Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos – and there might be another one – are launching “spaceships” into “space” with them aboard. And there have been plenty of cracks on Facebook that maybe they should just keep right on going – perhaps Bezos more than Branson…..
There has also been a lot of chatter about the cost of doing these little “space” shots, mostly for the publicity they generate, when there are such huge and pressing problems happening on good, old Planet Earth….places where large amounts of cash could really come in handy – like feeding people….like providing health care for the people of the world….like solving the climate crisis…like just a whole whack of issues that are kind of crucial to the survival of humanity these days. These billionaire guys aren’t really going anywhere any time soon. Even with their vast fortunes, they will come up short as far as accomplishing very much meaningful in terms of space exploration. It’s going to take more money than even Bezos the Bozos has gathered up - mostly by exploiting other folks.
You know, I do think it’s important that we venture out into space if we can figure things out sufficiently to make that happen. We’re not even close right now. We’re just sort of bumbling away sort of in our sleep and accomplishing sort of piddly all. Some of it might seem important, but at this stage of the game, it’s really not. What we need most as a species is a new type of energy source that could lead to some new type of propulsion system so we can fix many of the problems on this planet and really get out into space where the action is. Some type of new energy source that could be used cleanly and renewably would go a long way toward helping to clean up the planet, plus if we got out into space, it would provide a much-needed frontier for humanity. Throughout our history, the frontier has been valuable for us because it forces us to innovate.
You know, I don’t hate what the billionaire guys are doing with this space stuff….we need to push in that direction for sure. But it’s going to take the united governments of the world to make any serious space stuff happen. Sort of like in Star Trek, where everyone on planet earth is working together and pulling along in the same direction. Of course in Star Trek, earth was engulfed in a huge eugenics war in the 1990’s before everyone started to get their act together. And maybe that’s what it’s going to take for us – something truly catastrophic and planet-changing, whether a really big natural disaster or another really big pandemic or something like that. I really just think that we will need the combined resources of the whole planet before we’re going to accomplish much in space.
Another thing is that I’m not real keen on expanding capitalism out into space – at least not the way it works here. If we use our capitalist system to drive our journey out into space, that journey will be chaotic and haphazard and filled with uncertainty and inequity of truly galactic proportions…..just the way our history has gone on planet earth. And it will also be brutal and filled with death and destruction – even without the Borg. When and if we do make the big plunge out into space, it would be good if there was some sort of advance planning done so we could make that plunge with some type of coordination and dignity.
The only way we’ll ever get the billionaire guys to do the right things with their money is if we take some of it away from them and spread it around ourselves. And by “ourselves”, I mean society or government if you like. If we’re ever going to solve any of the serious issues facing our species in the here and now, we’ll need some type of functional world government looking out for the best interests of all concerned. That ain’t likely to happen. So I guess life will continue to be one interesting situation after another…until we’re all dead…..