A few weeks ago, I was invited to a gathering to hear the latest from Howard Bloom in downtown LA, but I had a conflict. But David Swindle attended, and has a report. (I did talk to Howard briefly a few days later, in San Diego.)
This –>
It became apparent again that I was the odd man out in the room. Most of the questions were phrased in explicitly secular terms.
Afterwards as Howard and a group of us sat around discussing, I raised my objection to the soulless, materialist focus. I drew a parallel between the groups who had sought to explore and settle the North American continent in the 1600s and those who should now seek to place their mark on the Moon, Mars, and the earth’s orbit.
I reminded Howard and the others that people came to the New World for varying reasons — capitalists eager to make money, the Crown eager to maintain power (primordial corporatists), science-minded explorers eager to discover what was out there, and one group unrepresented at the talk tonight, save for yours truly: the fanatical religious radicals wanting to live free of persecution as they built a godly, happy, counterculture community. It was this mix together that enabled the American experiment to begin and succeed.
People of faith — whether they interpret the Bible through Jewish, Christian, or mystic lenses — are called by God to transcend nature and rise upwards. The earth is not holy; it’s not our mother. As I’ve blogged about before, inspired by Glenn Reynolds’s An Army of Davids, the earth is just a rocky death trap. We can grow a better one ourselves.
To the degree that I have a religion, that’s pretty much it.
God posted angels so we would spread around the earth rather than go back to the comfort of Eden. Then he confused the languages because otherwise, “there would be nothing unattainable,” an amazing statement of man’s godlike qualities and abilities if properly focused. Building a great city was not spreading around the earth and taming it.
Taming space would certainly be spreading out. It is attainable regardless of the naysayers. We need to do it in a way that doesn’t produce colonies of slaves. Ideology is so much more important than technology. Individual liberty needs to be the presumption.
Yup. And one more thing: I am fairly convinced of two things. One is that one of the reasons for the growing disconnection between Westerners in general, particularly city dwellers, is the loss of any connection between us and the stars. How many stars does a New Yorker ever get to see?
The other is the inverse of the first. Nobody who has gone up there has ever come back unchanged in spirit, even with our clumsy technology that gets so much in the way. I wonder what it’s like wearing a fish-bowl helmet and a skin suit, and just walking out onto the surface of the Moon at night? Maybe someday a few people will get to find out.
I have a modest proposal for the religious. (I am in no way formally religious, though I believe in a nebulous Something.) What is it? Simply for churches to arrange and/or sponsor stargazing nights and/or observatory visits.
1. New Yorkers never see stars (he said from personal experience). But the good news is you don’t have to take them all the way to space. Much of the Mountain Time Zone would be good enough, or out far enough from shore on a boat.
2. I don’t think the Moon at night is a good place for a skin suit. Or, it would have to be a super-advanced nanotechnology skin. But I take your point. I’d like to lie down in a crater on the far side of the Moon, at night, and just stare upwards into forever.
Most people that I know who live in the MTZ would prefer the boat option. It’s not that a New Yorker’s money isn’t welcome, but if he falls in love with the place and brings along his Bloombergian ideas about civilization…
Not sure about that. I’m no expert, but I suspect that something looking like an emergency blanket (the Mylar sort), maybe made into a cloak, would reflect back enough heat to keep you warm enough in such a suit.
Brock – I would imagine that looking at the stars from (for example) the Moon at night would be even more overwhelming. I doubt, however, that I’ll ever get the chance to find out.
So do it! I would love to see someone write a sermon calling for the flock to take space colonization back from the secular heathens (or whatever). Sing it from the rooftops! Why does Howard Bloom have to support your agenda?
For anyone who wants to see the presentation he gave at ISDC, it’s here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBWC-8Vn7s8
I tried it out on a non-space-cadet audience of one and had to turn it off when we got to the Elon Musk love-fest. The eye rolling at the “if these microbes had listened to their wives or their mothers”, “if the flying dinosaurs had listened to the ground dwelling dinosaurs”, etc, was almost audible too.
I know preaching to the choir is the space cadet way, but it kinda seemed like Bloom was trying to make a generalist pitch here.. he failed.
Why does Howard Bloom have to support your agenda?
I’m pretty sure I never said he did. I’ve never really discussed this with him, though I suppose I could.
Howard is Howard.
It seemed to me that David Swindle did, but even if he didn’t, I’m willing to bet he’s not doing anything about it himself.
Bloom spouting religious viewpoints (any more than he already is) would be comical, I admit.