Humankind is a pestilence--an unhealthy malignant growth, ravaging and destroying everything that it touches. For the sake of the rest of the universe, we must confine the vile infection to the single planet that it now inhabits.

That's the attitude of surprisingly many people (though not of your humble weblogger).

I got an email this week from one of them--a "Lori M.":

Forget "practical and affordable"- space travel is not ethical. Let's face it: We cause problems here and we would just take them somewhere else.

Humankind consistently demonstrates a strong lack of the integrity for such a venture. History foreshadows the cyclical injustices of the past played out anew on some poor, unsuspecting ecosystem. Space travel/colonization would be irresponsible and sadly consistent with the thinking that got us to the state of informed depravity we are in now.

I'm not saying we should trash space travel- just table it until human societies show more promise. We do best to spend more time and effort developing character before technology.

"Space travel is not ethical."

My, my, where to begin?

I don't know where my correspondent was when she sent me the email, but I'll bet it wasn't the African savannah. I wonder if she thinks that the human race had the "integrity" to leave that place where we evolved and expand into what is now Europe? Or that those who had spread further east, into Siberia, should have had second thoughts before crossing the Aleutian land bridge and thus despoiling the Americas?

Is she of the school of thought that those descendants of the Africans, having developed the technologies of sail and navigation, should have then stayed in Europe, until they had attained some kind of societal perfection, by her (no doubt lofty) standards? Well, perhaps she is, though, of course, had they done so, she probably wouldn't be here to so helpfully (if not specifically) point out to us our myriad failings. And wouldn't that have been a tragedy?

Human beings "cause problems here..."

Indeed we do. Of course we cause lots of other things as well.

We often cause solutions to those same problems.

We also cause scientific theories. And symphonies, and majestic works of art, and gardens, and laughter, and joy. But apparently she would insist that all non-terrestrial existence remain empty of these things, because we're too "depraved" and insufficiently "ethical" (by whatever unexplained standards of ethics she uses). To paraphrase the kid in West Side Story, as he told Officer Krupke, she wants to "make the universe deprived on account of we're depraved."

And she's concerned that we will attack some "unsuspecting ecosystem." Here's a newsflash, Lori--not only are ecosystems off the earth "unsuspecting"--they're non-existent, as far as we know. There is no solid evidence for life in the universe anywhere other than on our planet (which isn't to say with any certainty, of course, that it doesn't exist).

If this remains the case, our role in expanding into the universe will not be to ravage ecosystems, but to create them. We can, and will, make our dead solar system flower, filling it with life (and not just human life), and love, and beauty, and laughter.

And unfortunately, because we're human, we will indeed take along many of the uglier things that our emailer deplores. But we will do it regardless, and we won't wait to develop the "character" that she demands--to do so would, I suspect, postpone the next step of our evolution forever. Because I suspect that that's how long it will be before the "Lori M"s of the world finds our flawed race up to their hypercritical and unrealistic muster.

Fortunately, the decision will not be hers. She is welcome to stay behind. As the old tee-shirt says, the meek will inherit the earth--the rest of us will go to the stars, and do so with a clear conscience.

I have noticed that the Lori M's of the world don't include their own sterling characters in their assessment of their fellow humans. Oh sure, some of them pay lip-service to the "I am but a fellow sinner" notion, but they don't really mean it. That "until society improves its character" really means "until society is just as good as _I_ am."

I can't stop laughing long enough to write anything coherent...

There is a virulent strain of eco-fanaticism that truly believes that humans are a plague, or as Agent Smith said in the "Matrix," a deadly virus on the earth. It isn't a great jump for people of this ilk to believe that there is only one answer to a virus like humanity: extermination. Except for the holy, self-righteous, and oh so correct, few.

Lori M. should just take the grape Flavoraid now. If that's the way she feels about the human race, she should just check out and leave this universe to those who think we deserve to exist on our own merits.
Jim

I wonder what "Lori M" is she going to do about it? Is she going to use force to keep mankind on Earth? If so, she's going to lose that fight.

FWIW, I don't see many proxies interested in fighting on her behalf. I suspect that she'll have to shoulder arms herself if she wants to fight.

WOW!!! Well I guess Lori M. has the world all figured out. I think I will end it all now seeing as humanity has no chance...PLEASE. Seriously, the arrognace and self-importance of my fellow man never seems to amaze me. She is probably the same person who believes abortion is wrong but then goes and kills an abortion doctor. Great.

Bill Hicks called mankind "a virus with shoes." Then again, he also advocated the colonization of space. You never could tell with that guy.

Actually it is more likely that Lori is one of those who thinks abortion is great, probably because abortions actually do kill human beings. But whatever her stance on that subject she seems to be one of those who are trending towards totalitarianism for the sake of The Environment. The totalitarians are always with us it seems, and in the West Environmentalism is becoming the credo of choice, the Working Class and the Race not having worked out very well as causes to push for totalitarian goverment. The Environmentofascists can cooperate towards the goal of totalitarianism with the Islamofascists.

"Bill Hicks called mankind 'a virus with shoes.'"

Mike-G (Mike Gonzales), perhaps he was being ironic when he said that. Coming from a man who has also said "...we are all one, and there is no such thing as death," it's somewhat unlikely that he would have been 100% serious about mankind being a "virus with shoes."