Legacy is a word used a lot when we talk about
Gene Roddenberry, but we're going to use it again: When the creator of
Star Trek died 16 years ago today, he left behind a legacy that transcended a simple TV show. He had presented to the world a scenario of a future where human beings actually do all the right things to achieve their innate potential. Overly optimistic fantasy, to many. But we die-hard fans latched on to this show not just because of great storytelling, but because this product of a man's imagination (with help from other highly talented minds!) elevates us above the myopic affairs of present-day existence into a world that we know we can achieve ... if only, if only...
Certainly Gene Roddenberry is not the only person to have offered such a vision, but with Star Trek he created an iconic mythology which has succeeded in providing popular culture with a common reference point for all things futuristic and achievable. ("Achievable" being what distinguishes Star Trek from "Star Wars.") Because Star Trek has become so firmly planted in our collective consciousness, far-reaching ideas can more easily bubble to the surface and gain acceptance, as the optimists among us push forward to realize that vision of the future. Replicators, tricorders, bio-beds, cloaking fields, transporters, and even warp drive are all concepts being pursued today by scientists and innovators, even when overwhelming conventional wisdom would dismiss them. Truly humans can make the impossible possible, with enough persistence and creativity.
Terrestrial inventions — such as the cellphones we all carry around which are largely inspired by the Original Series communicator — are really cool and do advance life on the planet. But the most essential component of Star Trek that stimulates our imaginations is that great perilous venture called space travel. Reaching into the vast unknown and discovering the rich complexity of our universe. Nothing represents the highest order of human accomplishment than the exploration, development and settlement of space. Is it possible to argue with that statement?
But this very obvious fact seems lost on the general populace. Americans were thrilled to be the first on the Moon, and we mourn deeply when we lose a group of shuttle astronauts, but other than that we are very lackadaisical when it comes to the space program ... relative to how important that item in the federal budget is to our future and to our long-term survival.
Fortunately, there are some very passionate people speaking out and reminding us of what we are capable of as humans. In an editorial last month for Ad Astra magazine, a publication of the National Space Society (NSS), Russell Prechtl and George Whitesides argued on behalf of NASA's manned spaceflight program, first by pointing out that Dr. Stephen Hawking himself has called for the human race to "spread out into space for the survival of the species." But secondly, "Many of us were inspired when we saw the astronauts walk on the Moon, and realized that if mankind could do that, we could do almost anything. The achievements of NASA's unmanned spacecraft are phenomenal, and deserving of acclaim, but they don't lift people's spirits to these heights." (Related link.)
Earlier in the summer, noted physicist Lowell Wood suggested something even more far-reaching, perhaps even quixotic: the terraforming of Mars before century's end. "A workable plan can be scripted to raise the average temperature of Mars and rid the world of excess carbon dioxide, as well as generate soil to support agriculture," Wood said, according to this Space.com article. "After roughly one to three decades of such warming ... the 'Great Spring' literally erupts all over Mars. It's all a matter of trimming-and-tailoring a thawed Mars to the 'biospheric optimum.'" (After all, he points out, we're already terraforming the Earth, just not in a good way.) Wood said that such an endeavor is not a matter of money or even technology: "The pacing ingredient is marshaled will." In other words, another whole livable world could be created within a generation or two if we really want to make it happen.
What a remarkable contention. Is it even remotely realistic?
Consider another recent editorial in Ad Astra, published online at Space.com. Al Globus of NASA and the NSS analyzes the reasons why we fight wars, and proposes an alternative to them: the colonization of space. "Territorial and resource wars can be made obsolete by space settlement because of one simple fact: the vast majority of the resources available to mankind are not on Earth, they are in space," Globus writes. "While exploiting space resources will be monumentally expensive, this cost is minor compared to the cost of war. A really first-class space settlement program might cost $100 billion a year, whereas the U.S. military budget is about $600 billion." (Just yesterday a news headline read: "U.S. Loses Track of $1.2 Billion in Iraq." Jeez.) "Moreover, space settlement can deliver far, far more resources than even the most successful imaginable Earth-bound military."
Globus points out that just one of the thousands of asteroids that cross Earth's orbit can contain roughly 20 trillion dollars worth of precious metals. Among other things, those resources can be used to construct orbital habitats large enough to provide every single nation as much territory as if they conquered the entire Earth. And then there's the vast energy output of the Sun which we pretty much already know how to exploit if we would just do it.
He continues, "The U.S. has spent far more defending oil access in the Mid-East than it would cost to build space settlements. Perhaps it's time to change direction. Perhaps it's time to make Earth a bit healthier for children and other living things. Perhaps it's time to choose life over war. Perhaps it's time to start building space settlements."
It is entirely consistent with the canon of Star Trek laid out by Roddenberry and all those who came after him: When humanity resolves itself to becoming a spacefaring society, war, intolerance, and many other ills of the human condition go away. It's not just optimism, it's logic. And it's completely attainable. Right now.
To again quote the final words of the final episode of the Original Series: "If only ... if only..."
