This last exchange makes some assumptions that I don’t think are well-founded:[ul]
[li]that the government of United Earth (please substitute any commie pinko hippie leftist term that you like for “United Earth”) will be democratic[/li][li]that the citizenry of United Earth will continue to be motivated by the hedonistic individualism that pervades fin de siecle Western civilization.[/li][li]Hi, Opal![/li][/ul]
Will the interstellar argosies that United Earth launches be built and staffed by forced labor? Well, we may certainly debate the examples provided by Pharaonic Egypt and mediveal Europe (I don’t think that there can reasonably be such debate about the “longest cemetary in the world”). However, we can certainly say that, even in our individualistic, capitalist society :rolleyes:, there is a widespread belief that the Feral…oops, I meant {i]Federal*, Government is entitled to a considerable portion of our incomes, and to spend it as it sees fit, without the fiddling limitations that p[rior generations tried to impose.
But what of democracy? I hear some cry (under the sound of the whetting of knives). Well, democracy is but the experience of a small proportion of humanity, in terms of numbers, time, and space. People have notably failed to rise up in revolt against undemocratic regimes in the past (and some of those revolts that have occurred have been very short-lived).
I invite the Teeming Thousands to consider…let us say, the rise of some ideology (perhaps, although not necessarily, explicitly religious) which holds out the prospect of a better worldly position for all but (of course) that evil minority who cruelly clutch the common resources to their chests; followed by a charismatic leader who preaches the absolute need for a ruthless vanguard to make that vision a reality, and his success in gaining a political base for his ideology; followed by a tyrant who keeps some of the outward forms whilst establishing his absolute power over as much and as many as he can; followed by a gerentocracy that are willing to allow some of the trappings of liberty whilst keeping an iron grip on true power…
Yes, I too am intrigued with the notion of interplanetary, interstellar, and intergalactic space flight–especially in my lifetime. After that, screw it. (Just kidding.) I just find it difficult to believe that taxpayers (sorry for the prosaic term) would be willing to finance an extravagant, speculative, rather Utopian mission to a star system, say, 30 light years from Earth–especially given that interstellar travel at even 80% of the speed of light would translate into as much as 80-100 years elapsing before that data returns to Earth, if it does at all.
Part of any public policy calculus re: initiating such a mission is the likelihood of reaping a major scientific payoff that would justify the exorbitant mission expenses and considerable R&D work. I would think that Earth would have to receive an extremely compelling message–actually, a warm, avuncular invitation–from this star system to justify what would be an enormous cost, and then explain to the taxpayers that the results of that message and mission would not be known until long after they are dead and buried…
And maybe never. How does one navigate through uncharted space at .80 SOL? Space may indeed be vast nothingness, but impacting even the tiniest wayward micrometeorite would basically ruin your whole day. (Not to mention running into a busted wing nut from a time-traveling NCC-1701-E.)
Getting taxpayers to finance something as speculative as deep-space exploration requires more political skills than I have ever seen. An international effort? Same issues.
Who knows about dictatorial regimes and the issue of space exploration? What seems evident is that high-tech R&D requiring the collaboration of many nations requires free communication lines–which seems anathema to dictatorship.
You speak of charismatic dictators and ruthless tyrants pushing us to the stars. Dictatorship is about control and suppression of liberty; aimless space exploration would not further these goals. To paraphrase Woody Allen: “Any planet that would have us as visitors, I don’t want to travel to.”
Frankly I think the notion of United Earth is more far-fetched than some future mission to Tau Ceti. If the earth can unite peacefully and stably under one government, whatever form that might take, then the rest is easy.
Also, long before we go zooming off to Tau Ceti or Barnard’s Star look to the United Earth to populate our solar system. First in near-earth orbit, then the moon, then (probably) Mars and then on to the asteroid belt and the moons of Saturn and/or Jupiter. Only after years of refining and understanding the issues surrounding space travel that comes best by being out there and doing it will you see a mission to jet off to a distant star. Easy access to raw materials in the asteroid belt and Jupiter’s atmosphere won’t hurt either.
All that said I hope I get to see at least some of this in my lifetime (ok…the international space station is getting going but I’m still hoping for a bit more).