In this new spirit of collaboration, we may just learn to focus our untapped energies and vast intelligence in a way that will allow us to figure out how to visit distant parts of our solar system, our galaxy, and the far-flung universe. It will surely be a new and bold era for the human animal. It is exactly the kind of moment that makes us so prone to believing our own hype. Mastering space travel will be just the kind of moment that gives us inflated egos and allows us to presume that we are somehow masters of all the realms. Again.
To be fair, in the past we have often considered this planet to be our own personal sandbox. Wherever we have gone we have shaped and cajoled and generally done as we've pleased without regard for why, or if, we should. We have rarely asked the permission of the colonized if we could come ashore and start mixing it up. If we dare to leave this planet and travel through space, crossing galaxies to distant stars, it really will be a daring risk worthy of admiration, even if it is self admiration. At that time, how could we not look upon our future creation as anything but marvelous and maybe preordained in some way? It would be easy to assume we are the top of the heap. Of course, we would be wrong.
With a little luck, this great future human moment will be a much greater success than merely taming physics and jet propulsion. In that moment we will harness our greatest strengths, abandon our most glaring weaknesses, and step into the role of intergalactic ambassadors. We will absolutely have to work together. This will be an endeavor requiring complete dedication and effort from all of humanity. We will need to quell our raging egos. It will require us to think and act altruistically.
But, I mean, let's be honest, a lot has to happen before then. This is assuming that we don't completely obliterate ourselves and our safe-ish little home, which is even right now, hurtling precariously through space. Let's just agree that there are a lot of moving parts. This is also arrogantly assuming that we will be the first to cross the stars. There's just as much likelihood that we will be visited by some technologically advanced species before then. If that be the case, one can optimistically hope they will regard us kindly and treat us gently, like a favored lapdog. (Pessimistically, of course, there is a not un-large fear that an alien visit would result in what could only be described as a certain kind of karmic equalization.)
All that aside, when we go, and knowing humans as I think I do, we will go, (given the opportunity and proper motivation, as well as the actual technological advances this necessitates), we will need some guiding mission statement. We will require a set of agreed upon norms to help us navigate not only the vast distances of space, but also the (hopefully) inevitable interactions with other intelligent beings. It is necessary that we shall not venture forth until we have some very sound laws or principles governing our behavior and exploratory adventures.
Essentially, what I'm saying, I think, is that we can't just cavalierly strut onto the surface of another planet and bend the inhabitants to our will. (I mean, unless that's our thing, which, come to think of it, the sweep of our history kind of leads one down that path... Hmm?)
I believe we will be a better species by then. We will have to be, if we are to learn anything from the previous seven or eight near-annihilations we will have lived through by then! We will have a better sense of how to build a world that values everyone. We will know that imposing our demands on others rarely works for long. We will have learned, by the grace of all the gods, how to care for Earth's flora and fauna as though it were an extension of ourselves, because it is. We will have to understand that trying to trade a few glass beads for an entire planetary body just ain't going to cut it this time! The colonizers of the past are no example. We will have to be at an elevated level of intelligence by then.
Or Heaven help us!
So, that is why, even as we are generations away from this potentiality, I offer my own two cents to sort of get the ball rolling. Who knows how long it will take to come to some sort of agreement on how to interact with intelligent life on other planets. In short, we need ground rules for whatever ground we touchdown upon. Afterall, no matter what we want to believe, the universe is not our personal oyster ripe for the shucking!
More importantly, as we prepare to make this leap we will (eventually) no longer identify as Earthlings for this will surely be a one way trip. We will have need to stay in touch with what makes us human. As we venture beyond the limits of our imaginations, forever severing the bonds that tie us to this planet, our humanity will be the only thing we have left. Hopefully it will suffice. I'm not sure what these guidelines will be called, but I am calling them:
The Interstellar Travelers and Expeditionary Laws on Encountering Planetary Life
1. Be not a conqueror, but tread lightly as a friend.
2. Stand not in judgment, but seek knowledge and understanding.
3. Act not to exploit, but to trade fairly with other worlds.
4. Remember that it costs nothing to be kind.
5. Always keep in mind that advanced technology is not a license for subjugation or oppression.
6. Give no pretense of divinity, but act with humility as a mortal should.
These are just a start. Not a bad batch of ideas in my opinion. One could even adapt and apply them to our interactions here on Earth while we wait for our rockety future. Sure couldn't hurt!
See you after the next cataclysm.
12-13-19
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