“We’ve done it. Congratulations. We’re off-planet now and heading off out into the stars. Now the question really becomes – what happens next?” This is ethics analyst Gordon Young, of Ethilogical Consulting, speaking.
Young says the future hangs in the balance: “Will the problems of humanity simply fade away? Or have we just given them room?” Clearly, the potential of being an interplanetary species is enormous.
“Surely, space travel is going to go a long way towards addressing our problems … abundance of resources takes away the competition, right?” Young asked a Space Association of Australia gathering earlier this week.
The application, however, is the issue: “As soon as you get down to the nuts and bolts, things get a little bit ugly.”
Human nature won’t suddenly go away, Young says. It will still be a problem. And a solution. But he adds that humanity’s venture into orbit and beyond is almost inevitable.
“I’m a big supporter of getting off this planet and building up a bit of redundancy. I’ve got a lot of work around climate change. I’m pretty keen for an alternative right now.”
But how we get there will determine what we get, Young warns.
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