Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI; Processing: Judy Schmidt; Text: Anders Nyholm
I was born a Navy brat. That's U.S. Naval lingo for being born in a military family. I moved around a lot. Living in Sicly around 1980 was my over-seas highlight; but, I moved cross-country almost every two years. Living in W.S.M.R.(White Sands Missle Range) New Mexico was probably my favorite highlight in all these moves. I didn't go overseas again till I did what I like to call a four year stint, coming out of high school.
One of the crazy reasons I joined is because I thought the nano-era was coming. I thought I'd join the Navy to experience the industrial past. And, that when I got out, I'd be living in the Nano-era!
I can't help linking the Platoon documentary. The film maker of Platoon went in the Marines to experience the Vietnam war!
Well, my family moved from W.S.M.R. New Mexico to Poway around 1988. One of the first things I'd do is hike four miles to the local shopping center. There was a small private bookstore that is no longer in existence. This was before Barnes an Nobles bookstore that had many stacks of science books. It had one stack of science/nature books, and really, there was only one shelf of science books which was pre-dominantly nature collection books - birds/flowers and such. The one shelf of science books had moslty "how to observe the night sky" type of Astronomy books. But, there was this Eric Drexler's "Engines of Creation."
I did not buy that book at first. It said something about technological revolution. But, I was like what does biological cells have to do with spacecraft and space colonies? I had associated advanced technology with space technology. If it wasn't space technology, it's not advanced technology; it's not futuristic technology. I put the book down and went and read Alvin Toffler's Future Shock and The Third Wave and Powershift. I came back like two years later, and "the book" was still there. Nobody had touched it or picked it up in two years . . .
This time, something hit me. I don't really remember what hit me this time. But, I bought it this time, and the rest is history as they say!
I'm not gonig to review how Eric Drexler's nanotechnology works and the implications here. People like to quote Eric Drexle, which I paraphrase here "if you can pattern atoms to molecular precision, than you can make anything according to physical law." What more do you need to know? Part one of the point I wanted to make was made above. I had associated advanced technology with space technology. If it wasn't space technology, how could it be advanced technology?
In the space age revolution, the energy crisis is solved by beaming solar energy from orbit. The population problem and environment problems are solved by moving industry to orbit or the moon or some place that pollution doens't matter. You could get rid of nuclear waste by throwing it into the sun! Nanotechnology can make all this obsolete.
Eric Drexler's nanotechnology can make space rockets that will make SpaceX's rocket above look like a Ford model-T. And, it can do it for the price of pennies. You grow a rocket just like you do a potato! Eric Drexler's nanotechnology can solve the global environment problems by making products that don't pollute. And, it can do all this without going to space. But, here, I get to part two of the point that I want to make . . .
Despite Eric Drexler(and Richard Feynmman before him. Richard Feynman had actually presented a lecture in 1959, two years after Sputnik, on Nanotechnology. But, he dropped it and went back to physics. He then thought of Quantum Computing in the early 1980s.) Nanotechnology making the industrial era look like the stone age, Mankind going to space still has its place.
Humankind going out to space requires every aspect of life to be based on science and technology. Whether that technology is nanotechnological or not. Living out in space means mankind is no longer dependent on mother nature in any kind of way. From the taming of fire and the use of stone tools, mankind has always been able to go back to mother nature if the science and technologies limitations failed.
The early agricultural cultures could go to being hunter gatherors if the agricultural methods failed them in a given year. And, this happened quote often in the beginnings of agricultural civilization. Out in space, that isn't going to happen.
Everything in space, from the air you breath, to the food you eat will be science and technology based. Going to space also means Mankind will be dependent on knowledge of Astronomy and Physics and Mathematics.
Going out to space means a cultural Renaaissance, and that social forces that try to prevent doing science cannot take hold. Kind of like how agricultural societies could always go back to being hunter gatheror, people often cling to old beliefs because of social power forces. Religion is about social power. And, the growth of science has always met social resistance. Somehow science threatened those who were popular because of religious beliefs. Religious ideas are notr allowed to be questioned because of the social power they will be denied if they do so. I've often hypothesized to myself, but have never put down in writing, till now, that groups moved and migrated due to established social forces that refused to change their thinking. I'm talking back in the stone age. People would pull up sticks and go somewhere else because some established social structure would not allow for new ideas.
Certainly, the first space colonists, whether on the Moon, Mars, or O'Neil colonies, will have people that will bring their previous cultural ideas with them. But, the dependence on science and technology is so total, that they cannot get rid of it. They can only apologize and make their beliefs fit their space exploration reality. The extremists who have to fight for the holy land back on Earth will not go very far out in space.
