As a lifelong Science Fiction fan, as well as a believer in God, I've often pondered
the long and tumultuous interaction of Faith and Science. In this article I present
a future where that interaction won't be antagonistic, but instead bears wonderful
fruit.
First published in the Unification News in its June and July 1997 issues.
These are the updated versions from January and Febraury 2005.
Part One
FULL EARTH
In this article well examine humanitys situation on this busy planet Earth, and
also the potential of other planets. In a second installment well discuss the best
ways to reach, and settle, alien worlds.
An earlier version of this article appeared in 1997.
POPULATION
In 1798, Thomas Malthus wrote an essay on population. He believed that God, as
a method of punishment, strikes lazy humans with famine. In 1838, Charles Darwin
read Malthus essay. He decided it was partially correct, but with natural causes
only, such as inadequate food supplies.
In the two centuries since, the worlds population has increased dramatically.
Scenes of hunger in Biafra and elsewhere galvanized many people. By the 1970s, books
such as The Population Bomb were predicting massive starvation, plus dire
shortages of virtually every resourcein the 1980s. Zero Population Growth became
a popular cause.
That alarmist mindset has since fallen afoul of political correctness and multiculturalism.
The concern remains, largely unspoken, in the background of many sociopolitical debates.
The American government is always debating whether to fund birth control programs
in poor nations. In fact, prosperity is the surest brake on population growth. Where
children have an excellent chance of reaching healthy adulthood, couples will plan
their family, and provide their kids with the best upbringing possible. Including
college, each American child requires almost half a million dollars; a huge investment,
but well worth it.
In the poorest countries, most women bear numerous children. In part, this is
because her kids will cost relatively little to raise. Typically, shell consider
herself lucky if half of them survive, and grow up to labor in nearby fields.
Is the world overpopulated, or even close? Anyone whos flown across the United
States knows just how vast, and largely empty, this nation really is. Some areas
of the Great Plains are actually depopulating, as farming towns decline, and the
land reverts to prairie.
Parts of Asia are far more crowded. Still, the Green Revolution has enabled China
and India to feed themselves. Ocean farming is opening up a new source of food, and
genetic engineering another. How much further can humanity increase?
There are limits. Roughly, the Earth has fifty eight million square miles of land
area, and seven billion people. That comes to about five acres per person. But this
includes Antarctica and Greenland, mountain crags, sand dunes, Arctic tundra, and
other inhospitable areas. On average, then, each family of four has about ten livable
acres.
To a family with a minuscule city dwelling, ten acres may sound big. However,
that includes parkland, industries, and the farms which provide their food. Modern
agriculture, not to mention timber and mining, requires large tracts.
Futuristic tales depict an Earth covered by towering structures, the bedrock
honeycombed and the oceans mastered. Several trillion people could fit into such
a world city. (Think of Star Wars galactic capital Coruscant, or Asimovs
master planet Trantor.) Assuming you could sustain that many people, in reality,
such a planets waste heat would be difficult to get rid of.
FAMILY PLANS
The family is central to human existence. Every traditional faith holds the
marriage vow sacred, and honors mother and child as the closest bond of all.
Most faiths encourage large families. There are many reasons for this. At best,
every person is seen as a unique expression of Gods nature, and each new child brings
that much more beauty and joy into the world. At worst, organized religions are beset
by rivals, and thus, seek to outpopulate them.
Zoroastrians are not known for large families, and some insist they dont even
want new converts. Israeli Jews face a local Arab Muslim population with a much higher
birth rate, yet most have small families. While Israel does accept converts, as recounted
in Jerusalem Report magazine, their leading Orthodox Rabbis make it a very
difficult process.
Catholics are subtle, rejoicing in motherhood, while forbidding all but the oldest
(and least reliable) method of birth control. The Mormons are out front with their
ambitions, quoting Daniel 2:35, and comparing themselves to its world-filling rock.
True Father applauds large families. He explains that, in nature, animals raise
all the offspring they can, as best they can. Outspoken Unificationists, such as
John Godwin, have encouraged all our Blessed couples to have a dozen children.
This call has sparked lively debate, here in the Unification News and
elsewhere. Some women have medical problems, and rare is the couple without financial
concerns. Korea has long been a source of adoptable babies, and just recently, this
has become true in Unificationist circles also.
Theres more to it than having babies. True Father says its unhealthy, physically
and spiritually, for children to grow up in cities. He teaches that kids should come
of age surrounded by nature, on a farm or in a small village. The Internet can facilitate
a good education, and sophisticated careers, for even the most remote family.
There is one problem. If every family headed into the countryside, then rural
areas would vanish, blanketed by a sea of humanity. Empty stretches only remain
because of the crowding in urban areas. Thus, the Earth is already too small.
How would a Heavenly government deal with this issue?
NEW HORIZONS
Historically, when things got too crowded at home, folks would migrate. Its
only been a hundred twenty years since the wild frontier days of the American West,
South Africa, and Australia. In Brazil, theyre still expanding into the Amazon basin.
In every case, the aboriginals were driven back, or worse . . .
Now those frontiers are gone. However, in this same time period, weve developed
aviation, then space flight. New worlds beckon.
A famous scientist once said, The Earth is our cradle, but humanity cannot remain
in the cradle forever. There are many reasons to spread out. Deadly plagues have
swept the world. The dinosaurs were wiped out by a gigantic asteroid. Tsunamis, and
other natural disasters, affect entire regions. These can happen again.
Mars is relatively close, but no one could live on its surface without substantial
protection. The twin Mars Rovers have found that water once flowed there. Microbial
life may yet survive, deep underground.
Buck Rogers and Captain Kirk have been visiting alien worlds for a long time,
but only in the past decade have astronomers confirmed the existence of planets around
other stars. Gradually theyre refining their methods, and spotting smaller planets.
When better telescopes are developed (and funded), scientists will be able to
observe Earth-sized worlds. If liquid water and oxygen are detected, we can be fairly
certain that life exists there also.
LIFE
It may be that, under the proper conditions, life will arise quickly on any
planet. Possibly those conditions are quite broad. Imagine animals with plastic bones,
breathing a chlorine atmosphere. Or creatures living in ammonia slush, where different
types of snow can fall upward and downat the same time. How about fish with silicone
blood, happily swimming in sulfuric acid? It gets even more bizarre. (Read Stephen
Gilletts book World-Building, and Robert Forwards novel Dragons Egg.)
Is life common in the universe? Well soon know! Yet life does not imply intelligence,
much less technology. After all, the Earth itself was without both for %99.999 of
its history. (If you posit that dolphins, chimpanzees, and maybe giant squids are
intelligent, its still recent.)
Astronomers are listening carefully for extraterrestrial radio messages. They
have detected nothing. Despite the Hollywood hype, there is no solid evidence that
alien spacecraft have ever visited this planet. Modern claimants are either confused,
or frauds, or they have a screw loose. They may have had spiritual experiences.
(Also, the Air Force is testing classified wingless aircraft.)
If there are technologically advanced beings out there, theyre leaving us humans
the hell alone. Perhaps rather literally . . .
Barren, lifeless worlds wouldnt be very appealing to prospective settlers. Neither
would planets with poisonous air or inedible plants. We could terraform such worlds,
making them habitable, and even pleasant, but that would require centuries at least.
As noted above, well soon be looking directly for verdant, earthlike worlds.
Any such worlds are extremely distant. Next month well discuss how we might reach
them, and how best to settle there once we do.
Part Two
NEW WORLDS
In the previous article we discussed how crowded this planet Earth is becoming. Ideally,
children should be raised amidst nature, yet rural areas only remain because almost
everyone prefers to live in cities.
Humanity needs more room! Fortunately, new worlds beckon. An earlier version of
this article appeared in 1997.
PLANETS
Astronomers have found more than one hundred planets around other stars. So
far theyre all big ones, Jupiter-sized and larger. No one knows whether any of those
solar systems bear life. We still havent found any civilized aliens out there.
Humankind may settle on the Moon, and then Mars. Eventually, millions could dwell
there. Once settlers get established, those worlds could fill up quickly. To really
have enough room, well need to expand into the galaxy.
Trouble is, the stars are immensely far away. How far? It takes several days to
drive a car across the United States. The Apollo spaceships reached the Moon in several
days. But it took years for the Cassini probe to reach Saturn.
Yet Saturn is nearby, compared to the stars. The fastest existing probes, the
Pioneers and Voyagers, would take tens of thousands of years to reach the
nearest star, several light years distant. (They are aimed in a different direction.)
Presumably, wed like to complete such a journey within our own lifetime.
Past explorations were carried out by hardy pioneers, as were the first jet and
space flights. (As depicted in the novel and film The Right Stuff.) It wasnt
long before air travel became routine. Soon, space will be opened to regular travel.
The successors to Burt Rutans amazing Space Ship One will likely provide the means.
However, those private ships (also NASAs troubled space shuttles) can only reach
low Earth orbit, a mere fraction of the way to the Moon. Better ships must be built
for routine flights there, much less to the Suns other planets.
STARSHIPS
Enthusiastic scientists are already planning genuine starships. Most of the
starships in popular fiction depend upon imaginary propulsion systems, such as warp
drive, that might as well be sheer magic. The actual plans take many forms. Most
would accelerate a craft to a substantial fraction of the speed of light, and still
their journeys will take years.
The first starship might be unmanned: a tiny, swift Starwisp. Or crewed:
a fusion-driven Daedalus. Even a populous space ark: a lumbering ONeill
Colony. Several web sites have good information. (See, www.centauri-dreams.org)
The universe has a built-in speed limit, the speed of light itself. Nothing material
can reach, much less exceed, that velocity. The universe does provide one helpful
advantage, first taught by Einstein, called time dilation. Crudely put, the faster
you go, the slower time passes. Above 90% of lightspeed, time slows dramatically.
A voyage of a century might seem like only a year, but back home, the full time would
pass. Such voyages would require true pioneers.
The first starships will be risky, and the cost enormous. Nothing but wilderness
would await their lonely crew. Similar objections were raised when Christopher Columbus
headed across the Atlantic Ocean. He took tiny ships on a long and arduous voyage,
with no assurance as to their eventual landfall.
Columbus didnt imagine that, five centuries later, jumbo jets would routinely
fly thousands of people across the Atlantic, in a matter of hours. Or that bustling
cities like New York would receive them.
The best starship plans are entirely realistic. Any computer-company billionaire
could, if he wished, invest a portion of his wealth to back such a venture. What
a legacy!
There might even be better ways. Many science fiction writers posit a jump technology
that allows spaceships to leap across huge distances in an instant. Best of all would
be a stargate, a doorway that directly connects distant locations. (Theoretical
physicists call it an EPR bridge.)
It is said that the gap between the stars is too great. We shall see.
SETTLEMENT
Our Earth is covered by the works of humanity. Graded road and rail beds,
dams, mines, and canals leave marks that can be seen from orbit. Metal and wooden
pole lines crisscross the landscape. Factories and power plants occupy, and often
pollute, large areas. Farms require vast acreage.
Need a new world be scarred in this way? No!
Technology will enable its settlers to dispense with all those things. Many Third
World nations are already leaping ahead, installing cellular phone systems instead
of wires.
Flying cars, perhaps hydrogen powered, will be common. Graceful, elevated trains,
speeding along on magnetic cushions, will carry passengers and freight between cities.
These could supplant surface roads almost entirely.
Prodigious energy, whether from fusion or some other compact source, will be needed
to power a starship. That same source will also power the new worlds, so pole lines
will never be strung. Such energy could distill fresh water directly from the seas,
and pipe it, deep underground, across great distances. Dams and canals will not be
so important.
Robotic fabrication, perhaps nanotechnology, will bring clean, versatile manufacturing
into homes and business. Large factories will only be needed for special purposes.
Bulk facilities like warehouses could be located underground, as is already done
in several cities.
Genetic engineering will allow robust, customized food to be grown anywhere. Huge,
commercial farms and ranches would be nearly obsolete.
Hopefully, there are many verdant planets. If only a few are found, humans could
alter themselves to live on harsher worlds. Gills to live underwater, special
organs to neutralize alien toxins, blood that endures intense heat or cold; the possibilities
are endless.
There are ways to make more room. Asteroids, which are numerous, could
be converted into orbiting colonies, each housing thousands. Barren planets could
be terraformed. Robots could go on ahead to begin that work.
Ultimately, a stars Jupiter-sized planets could be dismantled, and a Ringworld,
or even a Dyson Sphere, built from their substance. Those fantastic constructions
would encircle a star, their entire inner surface made habitable. The living area
would equal millions of Earths!
EMIGRATION
Human society will have a fresh chance as well. To usurp an old communist
term, Earth societies host countless parasitic individuals and occupations. Investments,
advertising, and art can help a free society flourish. Bloated bureaucracies, violent
criminals, and financial skimmers contribute less than nothing.
Does that imply a planet-load of workaholics? Hardly! Ive had some interesting
discussions with science fiction writers, about how humanity might spend its time
(and feel its worth), once clever robots are doing all the work.
True Father speaks of an ideal hobby culture, and wed have many great places
to realize it.
Such paradises will be popular destinations. What agency would provide transit
to the new worlds? Today, many nations are embroiled in border arguments. Who, if
anyone, would regulate interstellar emigration? No doubt every nation, company, specialized
organization, and visionary religion, will feel that they are best qualified.
If there are many new worlds, all those entities will probably have a chance.
But if, at least initially, there are only a few available planets, this could be
a source of great contention. Wealthy people might want the utilize best places,
and penal systems the worst.
The initial landings will be tightly organized exploratory parties. The first
colonists will be scientists and pioneers, too busy to quibble. Soon enough their
populations will grow, and various factions (in the broadest sense of that term)
will arise. Each colony, or settled world, will have unique conditions, and differing
inclinations.
They will be starting with a clean slate. Internally, there will be no Providential
history to replay. Externally, rival castes and cliques can be left behind. The opportunities
for manifest wisdom will be great. Opposite this, familiar tragedies could unfold.
(Read Kim Stanley Robinsons Mars series.)
CONCLUSION
Will this new chapter of history be a triumph or a tragedy?
Spiritual restoration must take place first. The science mentioned above
could be turned into weaponry. An unbraked lightspeed ship, impacting a planet, would
shatter continents. Chlorine-metabolizing organisms, let loose in an ocean, would
convert the salt into poisonous gas. Nanotech devices could inflict bizarre tortures.
Everyone hopes that humanity will export its best to the stars. In this regard,
we Unificationists have our own special dreams. Perhaps our children will have an
opportunity to fulfill them.
© 2005 by Paul Carlson