A Thought for the Weekend

by | Dec 18, 2004 | Culture and Society

“We hesitate about where to go from here in space. Yet our delay in exploiting this window of opportunity could close off choices for our descendants if the no-growth paradigm–or a failure of nerve–should come to dominate the industrial nations… Because of our technologies, and the scales of our political and economic organizations, we now have the option of taking a conscious evolutionary step, expanding the presence and influence of humanity beyond the biosphere that evolved us–and possibly beyond the limits that otherwise would constrain our future… Our generation is the first to have this choice. It may be up to us to prove that intelligence armed with technology has long-term survival value.”

— Michael Michaud in Life in the Universe (AAAS Selected Symposium 31, 1979). Found in the online repository Space Quotes to Ponder.

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In Centauri Dreams, Paul Gilster looks at peer-reviewed research on deep space exploration, with an eye toward interstellar possibilities. For many years this site coordinated its efforts with the Tau Zero Foundation. It now serves as an independent forum for deep space news and ideas. In the logo above, the leftmost star is Alpha Centauri, a triple system closer than any other star, and a primary target for early interstellar probes. To its right is Beta Centauri (not a part of the Alpha Centauri system), with Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon Crucis, stars in the Southern Cross, visible at the far right (image courtesy of Marco Lorenzi).

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