When Humanity Unites

Sparked by this hub, another hub! No, not from me, but from RDSPhD! They raise more questions--and provide deeper insights into "why" we aren't on mars, and beyond. I strongly recommend you view the hub, linked right here. It's kinda like Peanut-butter and Jelly, except I'm both the fruit and the nut. RDSPhD will give you something more to nosh on. I promise.

Ever since I was a child, I have always been asking questions. (I was a born philosopher!) As I grew up, I learned to re-phrase those questions into statements of opinion so people wouldn't constantly disregard me.

But now it seems fruitless to continue with such behavior.

When I was told as a youngin', that the sun was a big nuclear reactor, and that it would some day blow, my next question was--"What are we doing to ensure our survival?" (of course, I'm sure I didn't use such heady words--or make such a clear question.) The short answer was of course all the moon landings and space exploration.

But really, even given 3.5 billion years, has anyone asked themselves what the technological advancements would have to be? Or did they assume someone else would create them down the line?

I don't know about anyone else, but I never did my homework unless Mom pressured me. I was never the "homework" kind of person. I go to school to learn, and then I go home to live, introspect, and process what I've learned. Homework seemed to train me at the very least to prepare for real life where you're required to do more and more, from home, off the clock.

But when I wasn't learning at school, I was learning at home. Occasionally I'd get bogged down in fads and fashions, like many kids, but for the most part--I was constantly aloof. It wasn't that I was opposed to such things--I do recall those days I pined for a (SEGA) Genesis, over a Super (Nintendo). It really struck me as insipid some years back, but instead of rationalizing and introspecting, I took it for what humans were supposed to value.

How far are we to get with these values, then?

Going back to my original question--"What are we doing to ensure our survival?"

It appears to me very little. Some may counter that we have computers, internet, cars, that we're at the pinnacle of civilization--so when's your next trip to Mars?

I'd really like to point you towards renowned physicist Michio Kaku. He explains three types of civilizations. (Listen closely for what type we are.)

For those of you with little time to spend here's a quick recap:

• Type One: Planetary civilization that harvests it's energy from it's own planet. (We're not even doing that, just utilizing dead plant material.) This civilization has worked towards mastering it's environment planet wide, and now controls much of the process' its planet goes through.
• Type Two: Stellar civilization. This civilization is in some respects, "immortal." They've harvested stars. They can control, predict, and react to these energy sources, and get out of the way if a star is too unwieldy.
  
• Type Three: Galactic. Galactic civilization wouldn't necessarily be us flying around, exploring strange new worlds--no, most efficiently, we would send out mechanical "feelers" to moons and await for a type 0 civilization to become type 1. (Thus explains Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey")

If you did watch the interview in total, you will find Michio is himself leaning towards both joy that we've begun to transition from Type Zero to Type One, but also, mathematically speaking, it appears this transition may be the most deadly. (For, if they're right, there should be many more civilizations detected.)

He mentions a few things, namely "terrorism" and "weapons of mass destruction" and also "germ warfare." He also says that "the elite speak English--in a Type One civilization, you may speak your own language, but there will be a second language universal to all."

With this attitude, I can see why many would be afraid myself. It is in a sense succeeding control to those in power in hopes they have the best interests in mind for everyone.

My last piece explains why I doubt this is the case.

But before too many tangents are doled out, allow me to get back on track. Here's Michio again--talking about the 5% of UFO cases that seem to be completely unknown to the laws of physics we have today. Keep in mind, this is a review of a book--a book filled with reports from government officials and military eyewitnesses.

In this review, Michio opines that while we've yet to come up with a single shred of tangible evidence (alien DNA, microchips, etc.) "this is as close as you're going to get to a smoking gun." He says, rather astutely, that there is numerous people who are supposed to know what is out there--in the interest of protecting their people--and they simply can't explain away 5%.

I am not showing you this, or even continuing this line to prove to you that there are extraterrestrials. When I am confronted with the possibilities of such wondrous phenomenon, I long to understand what it is, what makes it, where it comes from.

But this doesn't occur because we're still at the point convincing each other this phenomenon exists.

We do this through out history. I could reference Christopher Columbus, and the flat earth, but even in his day there's little evidence people believed the earth was flat. It was never about superstition, more so about the conditions that initially lit a fire under him were extinguished: the fall of the Mongol empire in Asia made once peaceful land routes treacherous.

He thought that the earth was smaller than scholars at the time were predicting, and that the landmass they inhabited was also much larger than what current scientific evidence gave them. Someone else, Bartolomeu Dias began to solve the problem with a much simpler solution than to Mr. Columbus': Sail around Africa!

And that's exactly what they begun to do.

But Christopher was ambitious, and had to prove his validity. He sailed off for a first time, after convincing the Spanish crown to several unfathomable accords for that period: if he was able to find new islands or main land, he would be given high rank in the Spanish navy, an Admiral of the Oceans, and be further rewarded with the honor of governing over new said land.

He set sail, and the Spanish crown thought they had finally gotten rid of him.

But even though his calculations, like they repeatedly told him, were way off, Mr. Columbus got lucky. Upon his return, he had declared he was right--and that the other side of Asia had been found. The King and Queen of Spain now had to pay up or shut him up.

So he was arrested in 1500, and later stripped of any titles, while his sons repeatedly tried to get the courts to hear their case and to get the Spanish crown to adhere to their word. Meanwhile---HOLY HELL! THE WOLRD IS BIGGER THAN EVERYONE FUCKING GUESSED!

But no one cared. No one cared to test the claims of scholars, instead, they just sailed around Africa in a (logical?) attempt to shorten any distance, so that trade could resume unhampered.When they found new people--strange new civilizations--who weren't like them--what did they ask? Did they ask "Who are you? Where did you come from?" "Why do you hold the beliefs you do?" or was it more "What shit ya got to trade me?"

It's 2011, and I fear that is the question most people have on their minds.

I personally think, yes.

• How much are we using?
• How much do we have?
• How much does another nation have?
• Why would they want to share it with us?
• How can you arbitrarily take resources from another nation?
• How do you avoid the mentality of doing such a thing?
• How much licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?
• Should I even care? The Owl, like me, says three.

Humanity is already united in the quest for individual prosperity. With everything we have today, why aren't we bothering to get it done? Why will we eventually take off from this planet? Will it be because we've exhausted our resources? Will it be because there's a perceived monetary value to such exploits, still? Why would McDonald's build a base on the Moon if there's no consumers to purchase their products?

When humanity unites, asking it's self questions instead of tossing around opinions, will it be any closer to peace? How do you breed out animosity and contempt for an entire species, separated and arbitrarily divided by culture and ego?

That last one, is perhaps the mystery of the ages. But if we want to truly go to the stars--and see our lineage flower out across the vastness of space, progress must first come from within.

Until our next intersection in space-time,

Namaste!