Colonizing Space, Issue 4: Hubris, Greed, and Naked Ambition Are Essential
The first three issues of Colonizing Space were nuts-and-bolts discussions of what is required for true long-term habitation in space. But as hopeful as one might be for humanity’s future in the Final Frontier, it’s not going to happen without the proper motivation: the dominating hubris of the Mongols, the bottomless greed of the East India Company, and the merciless ambition of the Roman Empire.
Hubris, Ambition, and Glory
Indeed, none of the thirteen space stations humanity has placed in orbit did not have its genesis rooted in at least one of those three factors. The Space Race was all about national glory during the darkest days of the Cold War. The Soviet Union had launched the first satellite, the first animal in space, the first man in space, and the first woman in space. America had to answer, and did so beginning with JFK’s 1962 “Moon Speech” wherein he declared that America would land on the moon before the end of the decade:
There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb…
