72. SHAPING THE FUTURE

The future is unknown but is shaped by the actions of humans each day. However, the complexity of our modern world makes it seem as though our individual concerns and voices are too puny to make a difference. So we tend to live for the moment carpe diem, dream about what might be, and assume somebody else, somewhere else, pulls all the strings.
 
Yes there are movers and shakers but they are flesh and blood like everyone else. All they did was decide to make a difference and then act.
 
Each of us can, too.
 
Technology and machines have brought us so much comfort and security that it is easy to believe that is where our hope for a better world lies. But technology has no conscience and is not deserving of our faith. If anything, technology devoid of conscience has become the number one threat to our very survival.
 
The degree to which development of technology has been given precedence over development of character is exemplified by the hopes tied to the space program. As I write this, the famous astrophysicist, Stephen Hawking, received headline news because of his warning that the only way we may survive as a species is to colonize space. After we turn the Earth into a gigantic paved landfill, or just before the Earth is vaporized by modern weaponry, we would just hop on spaceships bound for a new planet to plunder. It's like hoping to move to a new house when the grass gets too long and the stinky dishes pile up too high at the kitchen sink.

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There is no sci-fi paradise in our solar system. The nearest hope, the star Alpha Centauri, is over 25 trillion miles away. If we tried to make that daunting trip at anything much less than the speed of light we'd die of old age long before we got there. Even then we might be foiled since that star may not have any planets that are just right. Not just any rock orbiting a star will do. We are finely tuned biological machines designed for this specific Earth habitat. The size of the planet relative to the size of the star, and the distance from it all combine to make the right conditions. The air, water, food, solar and lunar cycles, magnetic forces, and climate of Earth determine our health. Vary them and disease and death result. Protracted time in space, or on a planet not exactly like this one, would either be lethal or a miserable, disease-ridden sojourn.
 
It's fun to dream about greener pastures somewhere 'out there,' or visitations from superior aliens who will coach us to a better world. But a better life is not about quick fixes, salvation by aliens, or by 'experts.' A better world and a better us is an internal–not external–thing. Our best space program is one directed at making spaceship Earth the paradise it could become. It's about us picking ourselves up by our own bootstraps, reaching inside to listen to the inner voice, and doing things right. It's work and it takes thinking, but that is what all good things require and is our only true hope for the future.