Elon Musk’s ‘Multiplanetary’ Civilization Doesn’t Offer Real Hope – The Federalist

SpaceX called the Starships second test flight on Nov. 18 a success, andElon Muskpredicted that the interplanetary rocket would bring about a fork in the road of human destiny. The Starship has the potential to make all life multiplanetary,Musk wrote on X.

Some, especially in the media,have questionedwhether SpaceX can achieve its interplanetary aspirations. The naysayers focus on thetechnical troubles, but Muskconsiders them surmountable.

All 33 engines on the Starship fired. The main Starship stage detached from the booster and continued tofly for several minutes. Then its system activated a self-destruct mechanism above the Gulf of Mexico, despite a planned trip around the globe. SpaceX and the Federal Aviation Administration will investigate what triggered Starships Automated Flight Termination System.

All but a small few have no idea whether wecancolonize Mars. The technological subjects overawe most minds. But all must consider whether weshouldcolonize Mars and eventually other planets in distant solar systems.

We, indeed, face a fork in the road of human destiny, and we should consciously plot our course.

Musk has given a compelling philosophical defense of multiplanetary colonization. In an interview with Google co-founder Larry Page,Musk saidthat human consciousness is a precious flicker of light in the universe, and we should not let it be extinguished.

If current models of our solar system hold, then humans only have a few billion years left to prepare for the suns death. After those short years pass, the sun will no longer sustain life on Earth. Musk wants humans to get ahead of this calamity. Hes waking us all up to the idiom: Dont put all your humans on one planet. By spreading out, well become extinction-proof.

Unlikemany agnostic scientists, Musk regards human consciousness as something like a miracle. That has led some todescribe his viewsas compatible with Christianity. And theres certainly good reason to defend Musks stance, especially when prominent atheists want humans to understand their consciousness as a subjective illusion and its development as a random occurrence. Once we dive into the details, however, theres reason for skepticism.

The goal of his companies from SpaceX to Neuralink is to expand the scope and scale of consciousness and to help humans become more enlightened so they can better understand what questions to ask. This will require both mental and spatial expansion, hence the dual concern with biotechnology and space exploration. Abstract philosophical and theological speculation cannot answer fundamental questions. We need applied science to make philosophical progress.

Consciousness, though worth preserving for its own sake, is not self-sufficient. Without technological aid, consciousness will both fail to ask the right questions and to provide for its own preservation.

If we need to expand consciousness to answer fundamental questions about our nature, then we might take extreme steps to do so. Musk acknowledges as much.

It appears that consciousness is a very rare and precious thing, and we should take whatever steps we can to preserve the light of consciousness, Musk said in a 2019 speech at SpaceXs Boca Chica Launch Facility.

The whatever-steps-we-can framework might sound innocent, perhaps even like a courageous defense of the species. But the principle the preservation of consciousness by any means necessary unavoidably places mans actions beyond moral limitation.

InPerelandra, the second book of hisSpace Trilogy, C.S. Lewis described the motivation behind humanitys quest for interplanetary colonization.

It is the idea that humanity, having now sufficiently corrupted the planet where it arose, must at all costs contrive to seed itself over a larger area: that the vast astronomical distances which are Gods quarantine regulations, must somehow be overcome. This for a start.

He warned that if man ever had the power put into its hands to reach distant planets, then it would open a new chapter of misery for the universe.

When humans arrive on distant planets, they would disrupt the native ecosystems. Think of thedestruction that European explorersbrought with them beginning in the late 15th century. The island of Mauritius, as a famous example, lost its endemic dodos and giant tortoises in a few generations.

Even if there isnt life on Mars or distant planets, we might wonder whether humans have the right to change other planets. Andrew Coates, a physics professor at University College Londons Mullard Space Science Laboratory,calledit cosmic vandalism to change the environment of Mars from what it is at the moment.

Maybe we can tolerate some losses of native extraterrestrial species for the preservation of the human species. And maybe humans will perpetually land on worlds with nothing but raw materials. But we need to determine whether God gave us our native terrestrial ball to govern, as Lewis contended, or whether he gave us a universe to govern.

Our vision of human nature helps us determine how far the human empire should extend. If we, with Lewis, view man as a fallen species that brings sin and destruction, then we probably dont want his domain to increase. If we, with Musk, view man as essentially good as a civilizing and enlightening force in the universe then we should increase his domain in space and time as much as possible.

Lewis saw a problem in the hope that scientists placed on interplanetary colonization. It merely delays the inevitable. In an essay, On Living in an Atomic Age, Lewis argued that the whole story is going to end in NOTHING.

The astronomers hold out no hope that this planet is going to be permanently inhabitable, he wrote. The physicists hold out no hope that organic life is going to be a permanent possibility in any part of the material universe. Not only this earth, but the whole show, all the suns of space, are to run down. Nature is a sinking ship.

InPerelandra, he again described the absurdity of trying to resist mankinds unavoidable extinction:

But beyond this lies the sweet poison of the false infinite the wild dream that planet after planet, system after system, in the end galaxy after galaxy, can be forced to sustain, everywhere and for ever, the sort of life which is contained in the loins of our own species a dream begotten by the hatred of death upon the fear of true immortality, fondled in secret by thousands of ignorant men and hundreds who are not ignorant.

While we seek out ever-habitable planets over billions of years, innumerable cruelties might become necessary to sustain humanitys preservation for a few more precious years. Lewis warned that interplanetary colonization would increase the possibility of inter-species warfare. He seemed to consider extraterrestrial life a likelihood.

The destruction or enslavement of other species in the universe, if such there are, is to these minds a welcome corollary, Lewis said of those supporting space colonization.

Now, I dont think that Musk has Martian chattel slavery or extraterrestrial genocide in mind. But he will not captain the Starship forever. The terraforming of Mars would take hundreds of years. Other generations, with different aspirations, will lead civilization toward more and more distant planets.

These considerations run into the truth that Musk appears to act with regard to justice and the common good. And it clashes with the rights practical need to defend the man at all costs. In the past week, he hastrashed Media Matters,totalitarian security measures, andthe Anti-Defamation League, easily placing him among the worlds top defenders of free speech. He has gone thermonuclear against the regime.

Theres undeniable greatness in a man who can find a way to sustain life on another planet. His vision makes the heart swell with pride in the human race.

You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great. And thats what being a spacefaring civilization is all about, Musk said. Its about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I cant think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars.

Once we open the path to the stars, however, we set humans on a quest for eternity that this life can never fulfill. The only hope of eternally maintaining the light of human consciousness is in the Holy Spirit. Musks dream for mankind might turn into a nightmare that stretches across galaxies and millennia.

Joshua Paladino is a staff editor at The Federalist.

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Elon Musk's 'Multiplanetary' Civilization Doesn't Offer Real Hope - The Federalist