People believe we can just snip humans out of their ecosystemic context to colonize space for the same reason they believe in rugged individualism: they don't grasp how inseparably interconnected each human is. With our ecosystem, and with our society. Separation is an illusion.
We are not separable from our ecosystem. We ARE our ecosystem. We're so inseparably one with our ecosystem that, as Alan Watts once said, we need to send astronauts into space with a little box of it or else they will die. Space colonization will never happen.
People assume space colonization is part of our future primarily because science fiction takes this as a given. But science fiction is fiction, written to entertain and appeal to the same ego which imagines it is separate from the rest of the world. It's an illusory premise.
Space colonization is largely a capitalist perception management op promoted by the likes of Musk and Bezos to strengthen the narrative that it's okay to continue rapacious capitalism because we can just go to space when we destroy our ecosystem. It's a lie. They know it's a lie.
We know how to build rockets, and how to keep a human alive in space for a short time as long as they bring part of their ecosystem with them, but there's no scientific evidence that we can live separately from our ecosystem, and we've barely begun exploring our ignorance here.
Thinking a human can be snipped out of its ecosystemic context and permanently transported across the desert of space is like thinking you can snip a ripple out of a pond and place that ripple in a teacup on the other side of the world. The ripple IS the pond. It's not separate.
No, our survival does NOT depend on our getting off of this planet. That's false and toxic thinking, because it won't happen. Our survival depends on collectively waking up and learning to collaborate with each other and with our ecosystem. We must change. https://twitter.com/Demcytheater/status/1390487797392240640?s=20
"I must change" is always the first possibility an ego rules out when evaluating a dilemma, and it's the same ego which says we are separate individuals, and it's the same ego which created our dilemma in the first place. But we MUST change. We MUST transcend the ego.
The myriad ways in which we are connected with the ecosystemic context in which we evolved boggle the mind. Science is barely even beginning to explore those connections. There are tons we know about, but that's just scratching the surface. We don't know how much we don't know.
I mean, we're only barely beginning to understand our own gut bacteria, and how those mini-ecosystems relate to our health. Those mini-ecosystems have their own relationship with our greater ecosystem. We know next to nothing about any of this. Most of the picture is missing.
And Elon thinks he's going to ship humans to live on MARS? What, because we have the technology to get there? Our bodies can get there, sure, but the whole staying alive part is a riddle that science is not even the tiniest fraction of a percentile close to solving.
And he knows this. And he doesn't care. It's not about colonizing Mars, it's about making money and justifying an economic/political paradigm which will necessarily destroy our ecosystem.
"Ecocidal capitalism is fine, we'll just go to space before it kills us!"
We need to change. That's always the last thing anyone wants to hear, but it's true. We'll either collectively change our minds in a way that enables us drastically shift the way we operate on this planet, or we'll go extinct. It is evolve or die time. We either make it or not.
ET will never hit. Other life forms are just as bound to their ecosystems as we are. We've got an infinitely better chance of developing the technology to deal with an asteroid than we do of developing technology that will allow us to colonize space. https://twitter.com/FriedrichFiles/status/1390493336247676933?s=20
There you go, again taking it as a given that humanity is incapable of changing its collective behavior. Change your thinking. We absolutely CAN change, in our commercial, industrial and reproductive behavior. Anyone who has drastically changed knows this. https://twitter.com/Demcytheater/status/1390493814779891716?s=20
There's literally zero evidence for that belief. We're essentially as close to knowing how to live separately from our ecosystem as we were ten thousand years ago. https://twitter.com/daysofnoa/status/1390495709980409857?s=20
This is our home. It is our only home. I really, really wish we could stop treating it like a womb we plan on leaving or our parents' house we plan on moving out of. There is nowhere else to go. This is it. https://twitter.com/JonasFornaro/status/1390497654648582147?s=20
The earth is not some temporary transit station. We ARE the earth. We are inseparable from it. We are all indigenous terrestrials. We need to stop trying to move out, and start moving in.
Terraforming runs into the same problem: not just humans but ALL organisms are dependent on earth's ecosystem for survival. You couldn't begin creating an earth-like ecosystem without snipping out all the organisms which give rise to it. This can't be done https://twitter.com/FriedrichFiles/status/1390498660434202627?s=20
A tree can't be snipped out of its unfathomably interconnected ecosystemic context any more than a human can. You can't terraform without trees and an infinity of other ecosystemic building blocks, NONE of which are separable from their terrestrial ecosystemic context.
Forget colonizing space, try colonizing part of the Sahara desert. Get everything you need, then seal yourselves in a bubble completely separate from the rest of the ecosystem. Even on earth, with many of the terrestrial connection factors till intact, you will fail.
(The fact that the "Mars colonizers" have never tried the above is another sign they are not serious, by the way.)
We can still explore space, but it will be done via satellites and other tech, not by living organisms. Our astronauts have been nothing more than glorified scuba divers, entirely dependent on boxes of earth's ecosystem, no more separate from it than a guy holding his breath.
It's so, so beautiful here. We should be willing to change to keep it alive, like we would if a loved one's life depended on our changing our behavior. Because that really is the case. I hope we see this before it's too late. https://twitter.com/acryland/status/1390508966615076864?s=20
I disagree. I think looking around at our vast planet and saying "Meh, I hope there's more" is indicative of a malfunctioning mind. You could spend entire lifetimes exploring one other person on this planet, or one forest. It's only ego that gets bored. https://twitter.com/mugenx86/status/1390529990551248897?s=20
https://twitter.com/caitoz/status/1390664035239043082?s=19
You can follow @caitoz.
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