4 ms·
>Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group. Initially our loyalties were to ourselves and our immediate fa
by wu-ikkyu 8y ago
>Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group. Initially our loyalties were to ourselves and our immediate family, next, to bands of wandering hunter-gatherers, then to tribes, small settlements, city-states, nations. We have broadened the circle of those we love. We have now organized what are modestly described as super-powers, which include groups of people from divergent ethnic and cultural backgrounds working in some sense together — surely a humanizing and character building experience. If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth. Many of those who run the nations will find this idea unpleasant. They will fear the loss of power. We will hear much about treason and disloyalty. Rich nation-states will have to share their wealth with poor ones. But the choice, as H. G. Wells once said in a different context, is clearly the universe or nothing.
-Carl Sagan
- JumpCrisscross 8y agoI think we’ll get there. But not overnight. People must be willing to put down their parochial concerns. My guess? Interplanetary travel will do this. Unification is intrinsically linked to transportation and communications breakthroughs.
- forapurpose 8y ago> Interplanetary travel will do this That's optimistic. Do you mean when the first person steps on Mars (or orbits Venus!) or large scale travel?
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago> Do you mean when the first person steps on Mars (or orbits Venus!) or large scale travel? Interplanetary capabilities will rapidly collapse the list of releveant societies. Reducing then number of parties in the room facilitates agreement.
- mrep 8y agoNah, then we will end up having interplanetary strife between earth, mars, and the belters.
- JumpCrisscross 8y agoA unified Earth fighting a unified Mars is still a unified Earth.
- GW150914 8y agoPeople a few hours away can have different cultures and languages, but you think people literally months away from each other will somehow be more united? Why? How much in common will a third gen asteroid miner who can die if his environmental controls so much as hiccup have in common with someone living in a functioning biosphere? A coal miner and s Wall Street banker already see each other as practically from different species, just wait until they more or less are.