I would like to take this opportunity to write a little bit about the realities of our current space endeavors and ambitions, in light of the dreams and predictions of past science fiction authors. Forgive me if this becomes too personally reflective, but I have been thinking about the topic a lot lately and for a couple of reasons. First, President Obama’s recent announcement of his revision of NASA’s moon plans got me thinking about my childhood dreams of being an astronaut and the prospects of venturing into space in my lifetime. Secondly, after reading “The Martian Chronicles,” which were written by Ray Bradbury back in the 1940s and pinned humanity as having already been to Mars by 1999, I began to feel the elementary pace with which we are moving in regards to space exploration. These two observations really made me disheartened about the prospects of current and future space travel.
I sometimes regret being born in this era – perhaps only one hundred years later and I could have the opportunity to really travel and see the universe – close but no cigar. I would love to be on the Star Trek Enterprise traveling through the “Final Frontier.”
To me the current era feels a little bit stale. The repetition of history has brought us to a time where everything is “corny,” nothing seems unique, post-postmodern movements attempt to tear apart the movement that was deconstructionist itself, or bring back the unity of the modern. Not much seems truly new, untouched and unseen – except of course for space. Yet the real plunge into the mysteries of space look quite unreachable for the lifetime of all those living today.
As Anders Stephanson captures in “Manifest Destiny,” the “new world” provided the Europeans not only with an exciting adventure but the prospects of advancing an intellectual curiosity, namely the idea of a pure society, “a city upon a hill.” Someday when space travel becomes feasible, and perhaps in a more secular world, this excitement will take us into a new “frontier” where our intellectual and philosophical longings can grow. They certainly will mature the closer we come to a realization of the most essential questions: why are we here? How are we here? And what is the meaning of it all? From a purely philosophical perspective, it would behoove us to explore space and seek out the answers to those questions because that is where we may actually find them.
I would be interested in hearing all of your thoughts. Is anyone else disappointed? I mean look at “Back to the Future 2,” which is set only five years from now and has everything from flying cars to moon travel. Or are we actually a lot more advanced than past science fiction writers predicted we would be by today, and am I being unfair? (Certainly with the internet and telecommunications). Do you think we will be able to travel through space in our lifetimes? What is it going to take for us to advance in this area in a significant way? (It took the Cold War last time, no?)
I've also thought occasionally about this topic. Like a lot of people, I like to look up at the stars and imagine what it would be like to be in space. And I think that pretty much every little kid has had the brief fantasy of being an astronaut. I can only imagine how amazing it must have been in the heyday of the "space race" and the day when we finally achieved the goal of reaching the moon.
ReplyDeleteNow, I don't know if humanity is anywhere close to achieving space travel. I don't often read up on the technological achievements in this area, but even if I did I'm not sure that developments in this area would be announced publicly until a significant advancement had been made. I mean, it would be pretty exciting if NASA just suddenly announced, "We've been working on developing warp engine technology and we just figured it out!"
But anyway, it is pretty amazing to see the advancements that our society has made. And I believe that almost anything (emphasis on the almost) that can be imagined within science fiction, can eventually be made a reality. The only question is when.