Humankind's Mission
We have one clear and unmistakable significant next step.
It’s the only next step we have.
Get off this rock we call Earth
In the short term (100 – 100,000 years), the goals are to avoid species-ending catastrophes on this planet while we learn to travel to other places. But sooner or later, we are going to need to build an arc. An arc that travels through interstellar space. A bunch of them.
Foxes Are Smart
A fox has several dens scattered about, with tunnels generally leading to multiple entrances/exits.
If one den becomes compromised, momma fox moves her pups to another pre-prepped den.
She’s intent on ensuring her offspring’s safety.
Dodo Bird's - Not Smart
The volcanic island of Mauritius, located in the Indian Ocean about 500 miles east of Madagascar, remained uninhabited (by humans, at least) until 1598, when Dutch explorers took possession of it. Long before that, however, the island was the only known habitat of the large, flightless birds known as dodo birds (Raphus cucullatus). Having never seen humans before, the dodos on Mauritius showed no fear of the newly arrived sailors, and were easily hunted or herded onto ships and used as a readily available food source. By 1662, the dodo bird was extinct.
Earth is Only a Temporary Home
Our den, Earth, has a limited amount of time existing in this Goldilocks zone where everything is just perfect to sustain our existence. It will become uninhabitable one day.
[Yellowstone National Park is a beautiful and idyllic place, but it hides a literal ticking bomb under its surface. The park actually sits on top of enormous supervolcano tens of kilometers in diameter. The volcano is still active and is due to erupt anytime now. The last eruption was 630,000 years ago. That sounds like a long time ago, but volcanologists have discovered that this volcano tends to erupt every 600 - 700 thousand years.]
Science predicts our planet’s doom in less than 2 seconds on the “Cosmic Timeline”. That’s roughly 100,000 years. By then, 2-5 massive comets will have struck the Earth, several massive volcanoes will have erupted, and natural cycles of the planet will produce extreme climate changes. Those planetary dooms are inevitable. Other catastrophes, such as global pandemics, global war, famine, or an alien invasion, may be manageable. Regardless, as a species that wants to survive, we’re going to need to get off this rock.
Humankind, and our use of science and technology, arise only in the last second on the cosmic clock. In the blip of our existence, we’re the only species to learn how to become self-extinct.
We don’t know the timeframe, so we better be prepared. We may have generations; or we may not. If we detect a massive comet coming our way, the window of opportunity gets really small. Rumblings of a super-volcano may not allow for the technological developments required to accomplish this feat. Pandemic(s) and climate change are today’s focus (and that’s good) but tomorrow’s planetary doom will come.
Don't be a Dodo bird!
Monumental changes in the way the world thinks will be required to undertake this mission. However, the strategies invoked to achieve this epic mission are the same strategies that should be invoked for everything!
Primal Objective
The survival of the human species is the primal objective. Like momma fox, we are tasked with a mission - to prepare more dens. If our species perishes at any time, it’s game over. (Ask any Dodo bird!)
The mission is epic; we may need global resources and cooperation.
No species known has ever accomplished such a mission. Yet, it is clear. Populate other planets or moons, then the galaxy, then other galaxies. If we do not accomplish that mission, our days as a species are numbered.
There is no alternate plan!
Hindsight
Hindsight doesn’t teach; It scolds. We should have been doing this all along is the lesson - always taught too late. However, you can beat that phenomenon! It’s called preparing for the future.
We know that at some point in the future, we are going to need to find another home.
We know that quest is so monumental, it will dwarf any mission ever undertaken.
We know there is no other choice.
Our Mission, at least the next significant step in survival, is to populate other planets and moons. Anything short of that, is insignificant.
In the last minute or two, you’ve read a very significant thing you may have never contemplated.
Earth cannot be our permanent home. This needs to be common sense (just like we know we need water and nourishment). The mission is crystal clear. The mission is indisputable.
We must find a way to populate other places (off this planet). It is indisputably the next step in furthering our survivability.
Roadblocks
There are reasons why you haven’t recognized that fact.
You see it now, right, the mission? (to boldly go…)
If you understand the mission now, great. Now ask yourself, why didn’t you see it before? And if you still don’t understand the mission, read on to learn why.
YOU HAVE BLINDERS ON:
1) Your senses and internal filters
2) Your Ego
3) Your Religion.
Your senses fool you. Consider ancient mankind's sense of sight without the use of telescopes. The sun and moon appeared to be the same size and distance. Consider the sound effects in a movie clip - that fire you hear is just somebody crinkling cellophane.
You have pre-existing filters and pre-conceived notions. Collective consciousness stifles us. (the moon is female?). Furthermore, your brain is translating those external inputs (sound and sight) into electronic signals from the ear/eyes to the brain. Those signals get translated again when you communicate your thoughts. There are so many translations, filters, misconceptions, etc., everything you say is pretty much a lie - your best attempt to summarize all that buzz. It's fake new.
The most daunting blinder is the ego. That ego is what sets us apart from other species. It enables us to achieve incredible feats. It is also a formidable foe that has clouded our vision for thousands of years.
Ego can override reasonable thinking. It wants to survive. It has to survive. It is selfish, value’s its own individual survival, and loses sight of the primal objective. It manifests fantasies to preserve itself, creating notions of life-after-death. That’s thousands of years of handed-down brainwashing commandeering your thoughts.
Mankind’s ego created religion, created the afterlife fantasy, created god, and manufactured this perspective where it’s all about me. Belief in the supernatural acts as societal glue. It motivates people to follow the rules of their society. Belief in the afterlife gives the ego a fantasy of survival, and helps people grieve. But to get to the next step, we must let go of the fantasy of an afterlife, and we must put to rest our religion. None of those notions have any merit.
Your ego likes the fantasy of the afterlife that religion promises. There is no rational to it, certainly no evidence. Yet, for most, that belief governs their life.
We cannot remove our ego; it is part of us. It is what makes humankind special, perhaps the only species to question its purpose, meaning, objectives, and survivability. Perhaps the only species to attain survivability.
Religion is a huge obstacle to the mission. False gods and goddesses, protocols hundreds of years old that serve some ancient ruler’s self-interest, divisiveness, intolerance, wasted time, misguided focus, and untapped resources are what our religions give us. Religion has taught us we are the center of the universe, and that this world is all about mankind and god’s relationship with mankind. Those teachings are flawed. Resistance will be enormous and costly, but one day, religion will die off, like the ancient worships of the sun and the moon.
If mankind goes extinct, it would be difficult to validate any of those religions that made mankind the reason for this world’s existence.
Note: I don’t expect this document to change anybody’s beliefs overnight. My god, you’ve lived your whole life under a false concept. This is a huge change; too much to be absorbed in one sitting.
Religion without Religion
Monumental changes in the way the world thinks will be required to undertake this mission.
A New Master Plan for Humanity
Religions as we know them today, will exist only in History books and replaced with a master plan for humanity. This master plan has no need for worship, no bible studies, no prayers requesting intervening assistance, no promises of an afterlife, and no saviors.
The plan will teach:
Everybody's purpose is to help as many other people as you can.
Everybody's role is unique; callings, found in life, to achieve that purpose.
The species' mission is to further survivability by finding new homes.
Countries will collaborate, pool resources and knowledge to support the mission. Weapons and wars are put aside. Intolerance matures into acceptance and cooperation. It is one planet united, focusing its resources on one epic mission.
"We should have been living this way all along”, they’ll say.
They’ll be right!
Marble Thought Experiment
I've lost my marbles!
Try this mental exercise:
Imagine a simulation with the physics of our real universe. In this simulation, you hold a marble in your open palm. Something reaches in and touches that marble with a magical charge that removes the effect gravity has on the marble.
What would happen to the marble? Would it move? Where? How fast?
Hop on that marble - it's a fun ride. This is an important thought experiment that demonstrates our poor knowledge of our world's rules. You will struggle with an answer. No worries, so would Albert Einstein. There are a lot of factors at play. Identifying those factors is a crucial achievement in our survivability. Don't cheat! Think about it..for hours, days, or more (like I do - still).
Are We Alone?
The preparation of other planets/moons would be required far in advance of any inhabitation. Atmospheres and oceans may need to be groomed and cultivated for hundreds or thousands of years. We would seed the lands and oceans, build structures, grow agriculture.
Q. Wait a minute! Did another species seed our planet?
A. That explanation seems more likely than other theories of the origins of our existence.
Q. But if some species achieved interstellar travel (and seeded our planet), wouldn’t they have returned?
A. There may be restrictions on the “directions available” even within my theoretical physics. I'm still working those details out.
Regardless, it takes a lot of "Goldilocks zones" for a species to even have a chance of evolving into a thinking society. It's not just the perfect orbit around the perfect star, surrounded by the perfect mix of planets and moons. There's the chemistry too, and so many other factors that have to be just right. Every planet, solar system, and galaxy has a lifespan - so another place will be needed at some point. The technological advancements (or other means) then required to achieve the Interstellar travel needed for continued survivability, may be the same advancements that lead to self-elimination. Even the most advanced civilizations might only last a second or two on that cosmic calendar.
The limited duration of existence of a species, more than the mind-boggling distance, would make contact with any extraterrestrial civilization like finding a needle in a haystack, in a fraction of a nanosecond, with your eyes closed!
You can't say we're lucky - based on our requirements —because our requirements for living here are the result of living here. That circular thinking occurs because we’ve never met life beyond Earth, so we don’t know exactly what the full range of possible conditions for life are.
But, back to the question...Unless some extraterrestrial civilization happened along in the exact same "2 seconds" as we are existing in right now, we are alone. Now, if we can survive another second or two (100s of thousands of years), I might increase that probability. Other civilizations may have existed, and may in the future, but there is little chance of contact. Still, lets get working on those panels!