We don’t have to talk about 1000 years into the future. We just talk about NOW!
Didn’t you say ...
rockypath 發表於 2010-10-5 09:04 
Very good point. If China and India actually have it's population rise to the quality of living that western society has, the burden on the Earth's finite resource will be astronomical. We should expand our capacity through technological advancement before expanding our consumption.
There will always be inadequacy on this planet. Using this as an excuse to delay space exploration further is short-sighted, and will just mean that we will never be able to populate beyond this finite planet. It's kind of like buying insurance, the probability that you'll stop dead tomorrow is very low, but it only need to happen once and the consequences are disastorous. Same thing for the Earth and human species. We have been long overdued of an ELE (Extinction Level Event), which have been plenty numerous throughout the history of Earth. All it takes is once to put the human civilization, if not human species all together, into jeoporady. Repeating what Hawking have said, human need to escape the earth's gravity and be able to live in a seperate biosphere sooner rather than later. You never know when it's going to happen. Given the consequences, is it really justifyable to not put ANY resource at all in addressing this risk? It's only prudent policy that we invest appropriately into this risk, and it is every countries' interest to take part in it.
Aside from misconceptions put up by your favorite Hollywood movie, the worst part about space is, you can't wait until it is actually urgent before action is taken. Even if we continue to put in what we are putting in today towards this effort, I would think it will take at least 200 years or more before we can actually put up any sort of semi-permanent, self sustainable biosphere into space. Keep in mind that we have been living in the most prosperous 50 years of human history ever. All it takes is WWIII to take us all the way backwards. We should put even more resource into this direction when we can afford to and before it's too late. |