Discussion Of A Conflict Of Morals

[quasarrgames]

I've heard a lot about why people want to go into space, and why people aren't doing it, but those discussions always lead to politics, money, and other complicated things, so let's not talk about that. Aside from all the boring things, there's also a question of morals about going to space.

Some might argue that Humans were meant to reach beyond our pale blue orb and explore

while some might argue that we should clean up the mess on our own planet before messing up others

while yet others might argue that we can go out and explore and start anew as a better civilization

while yet other others might argue that we will cannibalize and destroy anything in our way in the universe and it's better for everyone if we stay here.

I'd like to know what side people take on this issue.

[pebble_garden]

By the time we could be an actual menace to the universe, we'd be an entirely different species. I say we go for it!

[astropapi1]

As Zubrin said, they had many problems in XVth century Spain, and they still do. This didn't stop Columbus from sailing off to trade with indians discover America.

Of cpurse, he didn't have to protect from radiation and the vacuum of space, but they had it worse than astronauts these days.

Those who prevent space exploration are signing a death sentence for our species.

[sal_vager]

We were never "meant" to go to space, we're the descendants of apes, our life's goal being little more than to perpetuate the species, eat, drink, find a mate, try not to die too soon in the mean time.

And yet...

We have grown beyond that, we have the ability, the potential for so much more, not due to any grand design or plan, but through sheer luck we have the chance to go beyond mere survival.

We can learn and understand what's going on around us if we choose to do so, and we do choose, we make machines to help us learn, we wonder, we discover, we think.

Why limit this to just one world, one way of knowing? We won't, we can't, there's a whole universe of wonder and it's calling to us, our species will go to space not because it's moral, but because we are curious, because we want to learn.

[astropapi1]

That was beautiful, Sal.

[Othuyeg]

while yet other others might argue that we will cannibalize and destroy anything in our way in the universe and it's better for everyone if we stay here.

We simply need to implement a prime directive.

[Skyler4856]

To place moral dilemmas above the continued expansion of mankind is unjust, and frankly idiotic

[Legendary Emu]

Why limit this to just one world, one way of knowing? We won't, we can't, there's a whole universe of wonder and it's calling to us, our species will go to space not because it's moral, but because we are curious, because we want to learn.

New siggy!

And as to the discussion... Humans were born curious. So let us be curious.

[Lukaszenko]

That's one thing we were definitely "meant" to do: be curious. Exploring space is simply a manifestation of this basic human trait.

[NASAFanboy]

I've always wanted to rant about this issue, and now I got the chance.

Earth is not our only home. It is a world, one of the many that we will one day inhabit and own. It is a world, one of the many in which we will exploit. Why should mankind constrain our visions, constrain our technologies and sciences, and limit our very survival onto Earth? It is our home world, our cradle, our nursery, but is it our final destination?

Yes-there are those dying everyday from cancer, starvation, sickness, and such. But as long as humanity exists, there will be third-world nations suffering from these vices. To stay and help is to limit our technologies and sciences. We must realize-there are some we have to try to forget, to leave behind on our blazing odyssey to the stars. Yes, we should provide them with aid and try to ease their suffering, but we should never, ever limit our own technologies and sciences, for any reason and for any cause, unless the fate of mankind as a whole be at stake. And while they make up an considerable of the human race, we cannot, ever, limit our horizons and technologies by trying to uplift them. You can feed them for a day, certainly, but a year of research will stay with humanity and aid us forever, while tomorrow they will come back hungry.

While some might find this as a "cruel" standpoint, I have to argue otherwise. When you colonize a new planet, when you explore new star systems, when you land on new planetary bodies, you carry the spirit of humanity. In doing so, you are helping to save an entire race, freeing humanity from the constraints of our cradle. Earth, as I said, is not a limit. It is a starting ground, a "testing place" for our new technologies that will help us colonize the planets in this system and at interstellar destinations. Earth. It is our cradle, our mother, our very world that we have known for our entire history. But it is time for Earth to say farewell to her children. It is time for us to leave the Earth behind, develop new technologies, find new Earth's, and colonize and expand our horizons, past the boundaries of our home system, past Mars, heading outward to the stars.

[KerbMav]

Something in our programming lets us be curious and go out to explore, humankind left its cradle in Africa and it might well leave Earth at some point in the future. Evolution did not kill us for being curious, it favored those that were bold but foresighted as well.

So here we are, with our big brain, an organ that consumes so much energy other animals might shake there heads in disbelief of so much wasted calories. What are we going to do with it? Find a way to survive and spread as a species by crossing one more, one bigger ocean?

If the goal of Life is to preserve Life by developing more and more survivable, successful manifestations of itself, who is to say that spreading to other planets, adapting to the environments not by biological changes but by using brainpower and tools, was not a viable way to achive this goal?

[Sanic]

Some say we should solve our problems before looking to the stars. There are problems in society that are never going to be ironed out, like poverty. But why limit human expansion to to try to take on problems that will never be solved?

I'm sorry if this is seen as necroposting/necromancing, but there's nowhere else to put this.

[Bill Phil]

Sometimes, to solve a problem in the house, one must go to the store.

That's not a great analogy, but just staying here won't solve anything. We're in a state of decay, or are at least on the path to one. If we stay, we will only be in a graveyard of dead civilizations. But if we live on, beyond Earth, our descendants, a further evolution, the next chapter for the hominids, will begin.

[InterCity]

We really should go for it. Earth, as beautiful, friendly and great as it is, is not going to sustain our population for much longer. Today, we're running low on oil, tomorrow we'll be running low on food if we remain where we are. We need surface area, we need resources and we need relatively friendly environment, and every single of those things awaits out there, just waiting to be claimed in the name of humanity. Someone in this thread (Can't remember his name, sorry) argued that we should never limit ourselves to save some suffering people, and I agree. Imagine the advancements we could achieve, and imagine how those advancements could help those poor people if we could only attain them. I think that the science and technology associated with space exploration/colonization will help the poor infinitely more than if we constantly feed them. There is an old Chinese saying:

Give a man a fish, you will feed him for a day. Teach him to fish, and you'll feed him for a lifetime.

Also, we should do it just for the sake of it. To show the rest of the universe that humans are not space-scared wimps who will keep hugging their planet and die with it.

[Sanic]

Well, we're not running out of oil YET. That's going to change pretty soon . But there's no reason to stay on planet that's being harvested, mined, and drilled to death. Sure, we can find huge deposits, but once they're gone they're gone forever. It's such a shame that humanity only looks inward, in fact NASA has to choose between New Horizons and the Mars rovers because they're poor as hell nowdays. PLEASE don't start a political discussion out of this. I just want to say that limiting human expansion because of PR is a bad idea.

[GeneralVeers]

Some might argue that Humans were meant to reach beyond our pale blue orb and explore

Uhhh......what does "meant" mean here? (lol at liniguistic shenanigans) If somebody is meant to do something, where does the meaning come from? Either from our own perception of purpose, or from a God. Neither of which can be verified with tangible proof.....

while some might argue that we should clean up the mess on our own planet before messing up others

Humans don't have the spine to do that. Cleaning up trash is easy; cleaning up problems such as terrorists is not. There are some problems that can only be solved by killing the people causing them, and that's where the human race has evolved a squishy and flexible backbone.

while yet others might argue that we can go out and explore and start anew as a better civilization

Definitely. That's how the United States got started.

while yet other others might argue that we will cannibalize and destroy anything in our way in the universe and it's better for everyone if we stay here.

Better for who?

If we're going to cannibalize and destroy Earth, then staying means certain extinction for humans (including you, the person reading this, and I'm going to make a completely random guess here, but I'm pretty sure you, Mr. Reader, did not cause the Chernobyl reactor to explode, or create the AIDS virus, or shoot President Reagan? it's very common for folks to make the logical leap from "some people are dirtbags" to "people are dirtbags" and that's a mistake).

If we're going to cannibalize and destroy all the other planets out there......well, when arguing/thinking about that topic, humans usually make the mistaken assumption that any other intelligent beings out there are smarter/cleaner/nicer/more technologically advanced than we are. There's no reason to make that assumption. If we go out into the stars, we'll likely end up displacing/conquering/exterminating aliens that are a lot nastier than us.

So there's my $200. (I contribute more than the proverbial "2 cents", lolz)

[Sanic]

We're all biased. We're KSP players, which means we share (for the most part) the love of space exploration. Of course we're all going to say that we should explore, and we all have our own reasons. Moving swiftly on...

We should explore space, because we have to at some point. No matter how much people fight against it, humanity will have to leave someday. Do you really think the people of the future (assuming the apocalypse hasn't happened) are going to stay here just because the people of the past chose to? Humans are explorers, and the next frontier is space. The only question is when.