Article Space is dead. Why do we keep writing about it? (anti-space campaign) - Printable Version +- Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum (https://www.scivillage.com) +-- Forum: Culture (https://www.scivillage.com/forum-49.html) +--- Forum: Law & Ethics (https://www.scivillage.com/forum-105.html) +--- Thread: Article Space is dead. Why do we keep writing about it? (anti-space campaign) (/thread-16736.html)

Space is dead. Why do we keep writing about it? (anti-space campaign) - C C - Oct 28, 2024 Space is dead https://longnow.org/ideas/space-dead/ EXCERPTS: . . . . In retrospect, Bush’s ambitions seem more like muscular nationalist posturing, shoring up our image at a moment of declining American popularity abroad. When Trump made the same promises and founded the much mocked Space Force, it felt like a naked appeal to the nostalgia of his aging Baby Boomer base. Nowadays anyone eager to put boots on Mars puts their faith in the increasingly noxious and incoherent Elon Musk. While SpaceX has become a real player in the rocketry sector, at this point I trust Elon’s grand plans and promises even less than Trump’s. [...] We should consider the possibility that, to quote Sam Kriss’s “Manifesto of the Committee to Abolish Outer Space”: Humanity will never colonize Mars, never build moon bases, never rearrange the asteroids, never build a sphere around the sun. There will never be faster-than-light travel. We will not roam across the galaxy. We will not escape our star. Life is probably an entirely unexceptional phenomenon; the universe probably teems with it. We will never make contact. We will never fuck green-skinned alien babes. The human race will live and die on this rock, and after we are gone something else will take our place. Maybe it already has, without our even noticing.  All this is good. This is a good thing. (It’s very much worth reading this 02015 essay in full. It’s a potent corrective to the default attitude of heroic wonder with which we are usually encouraged to regard outer space.) And yet, space stories keep coming. [...] Let me just stress that all the works I’ve just mentioned are excellent. ... But I think it’s worth asking: Why? Why do so many of us feel compelled to write about a future that isn’t actually happening? And what does it mean for science fiction that its grandest, most prominent prediction doesn’t seem to be coming to pass? [...] Our climate is getting bad, but it’s not anywhere close to being Mars-bad or Vensus-bad. [...] We’ll send astronauts to orbit, maybe back to the moon — a little space race redux for the U.S.-China rivalry. We’ll send unmanned probes to every celestial body within reach, and learn a great deal from those. We won’t put a man on Mars or build a moon base — at least not in my lifetime. [...] The moon landing happened because capitalism and American empire actually had a rival. ... But such grand flexes are not necessary in our current capitalist realist status quo. When there’s no alternative, who are you trying to impress? [...] So maybe our best bet of finding out what’s Out There in the universe is to extend our reach not into the vastness of space but into the equally vast expanse of time: to make our civilization peaceful, stable, and sustainable, so we can keep listening. If we listen long enough, we might just catch a signal from someone else out there that’s achieved the same thing... (MORE - missing details)