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If You Build It Up And They Might Come
Dec. 13th, 2011 10:58 amI'm sure everybody's at least run across this article about the discovery that another exo-planet may be Earth-like. (Most articles about Kepler 22-b don't add the maybe part, but I think that's jumping the gun a bit.) I'll just skip the debate about the potential accuracy here (either with the announcement or journalism) and skip to the more philosophical part.
It's possible that within another generation--or perhaps even within the next generation of telescopes--we'll be able to get such a good look at these planets that we really will be able to tell if they're Earth-like. Suppose we find one that we realize beyond the shadow of a reasonable doubt could support human life. Then what?
What I'm wondering here is about humankind's propensity to try doing something once they know it can be done--or in this case, once it knows there's a goal. There are, for example, numerous instances throughout history where when Culture A saw that Culture B had a Cool New Invention, Culture A got to working on it immediately once it saw that C.N.I. was possible. Right now interstellar travel seems like a pipe dream, or at least beyond the capabilities of what the world is ready and willing to commit to. But if we locate a new Earth, would this change? Would we suddenly start staring into the night sky with an overwhelming restlessness?
Of course, restlessness alone canna change the laws of physics--making our way to the exoplanets we've discovered wouldn't be like sailing to the New World, or flying to the Moon. My inner science fiction-loving sociologist has also wondered if the possibility of human beings escaping the confines of the planet might make some of Earth's governments even more tyrannical, or turn others into tyrannies once their populations started shrinking. Even the best governments can still be control freaks, and leaving Earth entirely would be the ultimate way of getting out from under their thumbs. (My inner conspiracy theorist keeps trying to convince me that this is why we haven't progressed any farther with manned space flight.)
Nevertheless, my gut tells me that if we knew for a fact that another planet could support us, people would work on a way of getting us there, and sooner or later someone would figure it out. There's a saying I learned last year that goes "We want what we see every day". If Kepler 22-b or any other extrasolar world turned out to be truly Earth-like, I have the feeling that a lot of humanity would be looking at it every day.
It's possible that within another generation--or perhaps even within the next generation of telescopes--we'll be able to get such a good look at these planets that we really will be able to tell if they're Earth-like. Suppose we find one that we realize beyond the shadow of a reasonable doubt could support human life. Then what?
What I'm wondering here is about humankind's propensity to try doing something once they know it can be done--or in this case, once it knows there's a goal. There are, for example, numerous instances throughout history where when Culture A saw that Culture B had a Cool New Invention, Culture A got to working on it immediately once it saw that C.N.I. was possible. Right now interstellar travel seems like a pipe dream, or at least beyond the capabilities of what the world is ready and willing to commit to. But if we locate a new Earth, would this change? Would we suddenly start staring into the night sky with an overwhelming restlessness?
Of course, restlessness alone canna change the laws of physics--making our way to the exoplanets we've discovered wouldn't be like sailing to the New World, or flying to the Moon. My inner science fiction-loving sociologist has also wondered if the possibility of human beings escaping the confines of the planet might make some of Earth's governments even more tyrannical, or turn others into tyrannies once their populations started shrinking. Even the best governments can still be control freaks, and leaving Earth entirely would be the ultimate way of getting out from under their thumbs. (My inner conspiracy theorist keeps trying to convince me that this is why we haven't progressed any farther with manned space flight.)
Nevertheless, my gut tells me that if we knew for a fact that another planet could support us, people would work on a way of getting us there, and sooner or later someone would figure it out. There's a saying I learned last year that goes "We want what we see every day". If Kepler 22-b or any other extrasolar world turned out to be truly Earth-like, I have the feeling that a lot of humanity would be looking at it every day.
