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I like the space. I am very happy that humans are exploring more space, and I am even willing to return to the moon to begin. Space is a vast frontier of scientific discoveries waiting to be made; a chance for us to probe the mysteries of the universe and learn more about ourselves.
What is not and will never be space is the key to saving our species.
And yet, this assertion – that we must boldly venture into the last frontier to save humanity and perhaps the Earth itself – has become the prevailing dogma among a certain cohort of technology specialists in the world. Cosmic spirit. In 2016, Elon Musk unveiled his vision of establishing a permanent human presence on Mars, describing the project of making humanity a "multi-planetary species" as the best and the only way to protect yourself from extinction. Yesterday evening, Jeff Bezos went further in this reflection in a speech of 50 minutes supposed to announce the new lunar lander of Blue Origin. In fact, the speech was a general overview of Bezos' vision of freeing humanity from Blue Marble's limited resource chains.
"For all human history, the Earth has felt great for us," Bezos told the assembled public. "It's no longer true. The Earth is bigger. The humanity is great. It sounds great, but it's over. "
After quickly getting rid of poverty, hunger, homelessness, pollution and overfishing, it is "urgent immediate problems", which allows the population to to get an idea of the real crisis that humanity is facing.
"A very fundamental long-term problem is that we will run out of energy on Earth," Bezos said. "We do not want to stop using energy, but it's unsustainable." According to Bezos, the only way to prevent us from having to cover "the entire surface of the Earth with solar cells" is to strike beyond our home. world.
"If we enter the solar system, we have virtually unlimited resources," said Bezos, explaining that we could have "one trillion human beings," including "a thousand Mozart and a thousand or so". ; Einstein. " As if to stimulate the human population Two orders of magnitude were not ambitious enough, Bezos then suggested doing so by throwing millions of people into empty cities, also called cylinders O Neill, in which we would have cities , cultures and national sites recreated. parks. Presumably, a volunteer company will provide continuous air supply.
The Amazon says that the Earth will eventually become a "home and light industry," while all damaging industries will outgrow the blue reflections of our planet.
"We have both," said Bezos. The Earth will be preserved for future generations, but humanity will not have to give up "a future of dynamism and growth".
Listen, I understand. All this looks very exciting, and there is nothing more than a billionaire from Silicon Valley loves a bit of technical optimism. But are not we may be take some advance on ourselves, just a little bit here? You should not try, you know, to live sustainably on the one and only planet that supports human life before thinking about how to recreate a million pocket versions in a cold, dark emptiness?
Bezos evacuates many of the problems of the 21st century, but they are real crises facing real humans. If we do not control uncontrolled climate change and do not find a way to prevent the extinction of a million species, there is a good chance that we will never be able to exploit at all. maximum the "finite resources" of the Earth, because, you know, Will all be dead.
And frankly, we are far from using the resources of the Earth. Bezos acknowledges this in his speech by noting that we could turn all of Nevada into a solar farm and fuel the entire human enterprise. The US Department of Energy has calculated that it is blowing enough wind energy off the US coast to provide more than just energy to every US household. The rare earth metals we use to support the energy transition are abundant in the earth's crust. Although we currently only have access to small parcels of them, the development of new sources on Earth or the development of our technology to use them more efficiently are both far more reasonable solutions than harvesting the same metals from the rings of Saturn. We could devote a fraction of the resources needed to develop O'Neill bottles to a solid fusion energy program and, in a century or so, supply entire cities with seawater.
Maybe Bezos could even invest some of the resources that Amazon currently uses to automate oil extraction?
Amazon is actively pursuing its oil business with clean energy
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And let's not forget that the most critical and most limited resource of all is here on Earth and nowhere else: biodiversity. We can not exist without the complex and delicate web of life that our species belongs to – trillions of micro-organisms that maintain and recycle nutrients in the soil and sea, the plants that produce our oxygen and feed us. 39 have developed new pharmaceutical products or taken inspiration from new technologies. We have not found a way to prevent a significant fraction of this absolutely irreplaceable biodiversity from disappearing here on Earth, and we want to try to rethink it from the ground up, in the void?
Our species is currently playing God in easy mode and we are failing. Detaching from a planet with abundant water and oxygen that is right in the Goldilocks area of our solar system does not make things easier, but makes them easier. a lot harder fucking.
Jeff Bezos and I have one thing in common: we both love the L & # 39; extended, a sci-fi series inscribed in the centuries-old future in which humans have spread in the solar system. Millions live on Mars, which is in the process of developing an intergenerational terraforming project, and countless small colonies are scattered throughout the asteroid belt. The series is excellent, but I guess we have somewhat different ideas about his basic message. I imagine that in the show, Bezos sees a model for humanity to be released by permanently escaping the gravity of the Earth. I see humans struggling to survive on a hostile frontier, their bodies changing unpredictably and dangerously, just a steel hull and a few square meters of air away from a painful death in a dark void and cold.
We could grow beyond the Earth one day and it would be incredibly exciting. But this planet will always be our home. And we need to find a way to keep it habitable before we think of venturing elsewhere.
If we lose it, there is no compromise.
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