Lunar Ark
Have you ever seen the picture called "Pale Blue Dot"? It's a photograph of planet Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1 space probe from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers. Seen from that astronomical distance, Earth appears as a tiny dot within the blackness of deep space; the picture acts as a reminder of how vulnerable Earth, and all life on it, really is...
source: PxHere
It's a small miracle that we haven't managed to destroy ourselves yet, but chances are we don't have to. There's a "supervolcano" lurking beneath Yellowstone National Park in America; who knows what'll happen to life on Earth if that erupts? We know one of the Krakatoa eruptions was responsible for dramatic global climate change. But the threat of supervolcanos pale in comparison to what an impact of a big asteroid could cause. When the asteroid Apophis was first discovered in 2004, it was given a 2.7% chance of hitting Earth in 2029; additional observations and calculations have set our minds at ease though. There was also a small chance it would hit us in 2036, but that's now off the table as well.
But... A new report suggests that there's a chance Apophis will hit our planet in the year 2068. Also, when it swings by Earth in 2029 it'll come so close that its trajectory will pass between our planet and a network of communication satellites, and, this is the unsettling part: the 1,000 foot wide asteroid will be visible to the naked eye! Here's an article on this life-threatening space-rock: A 'God of Chaos' Asteroid Could Hit Earth in 2068.
I actually believe it's a good thing that Apophis will be visible to the naked eye when it passes us by in 2029, and I hope it'll scare the bejesus out of us. You see, there's a scientific project underway with a very ambitious goal; Scientists Are Planning to Build Noah's Ark on the Moon. The plan is to store cryogenically frozen reproductive cells from 6.7 million Earth-species as sort of insurance policy against cataclysmic events. But we're so consumed with our daily Earthly quibbles, and we have an economic system that doesn't allow for investments that don't yield immediate monetary gains; with our current collective state of mind we'll never make that Lunar Ark a reality, we'd much sooner destroy ourselves. The below linked very short video illustrates perfectly the fundamental disconnect I'm talking about; please watch it, and may Apophis come close enough to cultivate in us a sense of urgency, but not close enough to kill us all... Yet.
Let's talk about Dr. Seuss and the Moon....
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STOPThe moon also has a stigma. it is called Pale Blue Dot.
We are gonna jizz on the moon.
I'll never look at the man in the moon the same, again.
Wonder how that selection process will go?
Here I have another view to offer: It is questionable, I say, to spread as urgent something that seems to spring more from a primal human fear: the fear of the tides, of storms and cold, heat or cosmic influences.
My reality is that for fifty years I have inhabited what is probably the best of all cosmic habitats, a flying Earth ship, that is, this planet that we count as part of the Milky Way, which stretches its silver band high above our heads. Fifty years then, I don't know how long it is with you, I experience here and yet, and yet, so shall I only be afraid all this time?
The urgency, it has been preached to me since I was a child, by intrusive messages or voices that have just decided that one should be particularly afraid of this or that. How I look back on a life in which I tried to resist many voices and messages shouting "Hurry, hurry, it will soon be too late!" and I wondered after ten, twenty, thirty years that all the catastrophes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, accidents, crashes, plagues and pestilences never once descended on me. How strange ... I must be a downright lucky darling. Me, still alive, completely unharmed, my friends, my family, somehow all grown quite old, but sure, some of them have probably even been afraid of growing old for more than twenty years! That impresses me on an awkward level.
But I say "the little dot that Voyager photographed from afar", that to me is the biggest, best, most amazing, most impressive thing there can be. This Earth with everything I don't know about it, have never seen, will never be able to go to, have only stepped on a small patch of it here and there in this life, that I shall fear because a gamma flash from space or a comet could wipe everything out? No, I do not choose to fear such things and be frozen into cryptogenic sleep, I would never do that "just in case", but just for fun in my imagination.
If something powerful comes along, then I am not prepared. Never. So I'd rather live now without fear than follow the worried ones who imagine a better life out there. If I were from out there, I would probably shake my alien head in incomprehension, because this, the earth, is a paradise. Only those human fears suck out the joy of their lives ...
Now then, IF a catastrophe happens right where I live and breath, I, of course, would do what would be necessary.
So... You act as if "fear" is a bad thing... I'm sure you know this, but I would retort that "fear" is what keeps us and lots of other species, alive on an individual scale. It's why we naturally always assume the worst and why we act irrationally scared when we hear a rustle in the bushes: it's probably just the wind or a rodent, but it could be a tiger...
On a species-wide scale we've evolved into social creatures who are naturally attracted to that which promotes survival of the species, like the opposite sex or edible fruits, and are repelled by that which is detrimental to the survival of our species. "Trans-phobia" isn't an easy thing to eradicate, and I bet that the above has something to do with that. But we still try. And if technology gives us the tools to enhance our chances of survival, why wouldn't we at least try?
I do agree 100% with your opinion on the marvel that is the photograph taken by Voyager :-)
You are smart. Why then do you appear as if you don't know what I was talking about?
;-)
So... You act as if "fear" is a bad thing... I'm sure you know this, but I would retort that "fear" is what keeps us and lots of other species, alive on an individual scale. It's why we naturally always assume the worst and why we act irrationally scared when we hear a rustle in the bushes: it's probably just the wind or a rodent, but it could be a tiger...
On a species-wide scale we've evolved into social creatures who are naturally attracted to that which promotes survival of the species, like the opposite sex or edible fruits, and are repelled by that which is detrimental to the survival of our species. "Trans-phobia" isn't an easy thing to eradicate, and I bet that the above has something to do with that. But we still try. And if technology gives us the tools to enhance our chances of survival, why wouldn't we at least try?
I do agree 100% with your opinion on the marvel that is the photograph taken by Voyager :-)
The post reblogged and upvoted by me
Thank you @zyx066