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There is a line in the film “Interstellar” that stuck with me: “We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. Now we just look down and wo

There is a line in the film “Interstellar” that stuck with me: “We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. Now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.” Now the film plays in a dystopian future, but I think the quote is still appropriate for us as a civilization. If Elon can change that, all the better.

Brakenshire 10y ago
Honestly, the quote is a reflection of a distorted understanding of reality transposed over from utopian science fiction. The stars are incredibly far away, and are overwhelmingly utterly hostile to human life. The 'dirt' is one of the very few places in the galaxy, perhaps the only place, actually well suited to human life, and the ecosystems that support it. If our understanding of fundamental physics is correct, there will never be an interstellar civilization of the sort that sci fi depicts. Only balkanized civilizations separated by many decades of travel. Within a solar system, no doubt interplanetary colonies will happen, but the conditions for life on other planets within our solar system are overwhelmingly harsh, difficult, and expensive. Most of the work that needs to go into making either of those things happen will occur here on Earth. Although a Mars colony could help, if there was some economic imperative which could sustain and drive it.
- saiya-jin 10y ago
  it's rather about dreaming beyond our current situation rather than trying to just get over this day to get to tomorrow and repeat. as for physics - we don't have even standard unifying theory that would work in all situations, so there is some room to grow our knowledge. we observe a lot of powerful and strange stuff happening in cosmos, but these are natural things - matter seems to be doing couple of variations of same cycle - group by gravity till planet/star is born, exist for some time, explode/die slowly/collapse/go exotic. who can say what will happen when we literally take matter, energy and spacetime into our hands? But before we will reach these situations, our society will change completely, probably many times. implants, prolonging life endlessly, going completely into digital existence and who knows what. why would inter-galaxy travel matter if we would exist in endless sea of some data banks?
  - oldsj 10y ago
    Someone's been reading Gary Egan
    - saiya-jin 10y ago
      honestly never heard that name, short googling incoming
  - gohrt 10y ago
    It's a childish dreaming that imagines we can must our home to find somewhere better. Powerful visionaries dream of making our home better.
    - simonh 10y ago
      Where do you live? Is it Odluvai Gorge? The reason humans don't all live in Africa and in fact have colonized almost every inhabitable corner of the planet is because as a species overall we don't think like that. In fact it's the reason we as a species still exist. Life naturally expands to colonize new environments. That's essential because environmental change is inevitable whether it's climate change, volcanic activity, excessive predation or disease. Diversity of location, genetics and culture are essential tools of species survival. Diversity in every way possible is in our Genes. Even within our own cultures, if it's possible for people to live a certain way you're highly likely to find at least some people living that way. Some of these ways of living seem pathalogical. Travelling people, isolationist survivalists, even homeless people but if civilization were to collapse, as it has many times in many places in the past, some of these people would be superbly adapted to survive it or even thrive. For any given place, eventually catastrophe is almost inevitable. We are all the descendants of people who survived some catastrophe or other by moving out before it struck. All of us. In fact that's true of every surviving species on Earth. It's a strategy that works. Let's keep doing it.

Brakenshire 10y ago

Honestly, the quote is a reflection of a distorted understanding of reality transposed over from utopian science fiction. The stars are incredibly far away, and are overwhelmingly utterly hostile to human life. The 'dirt' is one of the very few places in the galaxy, perhaps the only place, actually well suited to human life, and the ecosystems that support it. If our understanding of fundamental physics is correct, there will never be an interstellar civilization of the sort that sci fi depicts. Only balkanized civilizations separated by many decades of travel. Within a solar system, no doubt interplanetary colonies will happen, but the conditions for life on other planets within our solar system are overwhelmingly harsh, difficult, and expensive. Most of the work that needs to go into making either of those things happen will occur here on Earth. Although a Mars colony could help, if there was some economic imperative which could sustain and drive it.

saiya-jin 10y ago
it's rather about dreaming beyond our current situation rather than trying to just get over this day to get to tomorrow and repeat. as for physics - we don't have even standard unifying theory that would work in all situations, so there is some room to grow our knowledge. we observe a lot of powerful and strange stuff happening in cosmos, but these are natural things - matter seems to be doing couple of variations of same cycle - group by gravity till planet/star is born, exist for some time, explode/die slowly/collapse/go exotic. who can say what will happen when we literally take matter, energy and spacetime into our hands? But before we will reach these situations, our society will change completely, probably many times. implants, prolonging life endlessly, going completely into digital existence and who knows what. why would inter-galaxy travel matter if we would exist in endless sea of some data banks?
- oldsj 10y ago
  Someone's been reading Gary Egan
  - saiya-jin 10y ago
    honestly never heard that name, short googling incoming
- gohrt 10y ago
  It's a childish dreaming that imagines we can must our home to find somewhere better. Powerful visionaries dream of making our home better.
  - simonh 10y ago
    Where do you live? Is it Odluvai Gorge? The reason humans don't all live in Africa and in fact have colonized almost every inhabitable corner of the planet is because as a species overall we don't think like that. In fact it's the reason we as a species still exist. Life naturally expands to colonize new environments. That's essential because environmental change is inevitable whether it's climate change, volcanic activity, excessive predation or disease. Diversity of location, genetics and culture are essential tools of species survival. Diversity in every way possible is in our Genes. Even within our own cultures, if it's possible for people to live a certain way you're highly likely to find at least some people living that way. Some of these ways of living seem pathalogical. Travelling people, isolationist survivalists, even homeless people but if civilization were to collapse, as it has many times in many places in the past, some of these people would be superbly adapted to survive it or even thrive. For any given place, eventually catastrophe is almost inevitable. We are all the descendants of people who survived some catastrophe or other by moving out before it struck. All of us. In fact that's true of every surviving species on Earth. It's a strategy that works. Let's keep doing it.