All the Arguments for Space Exploration Ever — Part 7
Burj Dubai was built not because of an engineering need, but because the country wanted a showcase project.
Space is a mystery, a problem to be solved. Questions like ‘How did the universe begin?’ have their rational answers hidden in the galaxies. Mysteries appeal to our deepest instincts. As Carl Jung puts it, “Even a scientist is a human being. So it is natural for him, like others, to hate the things he cannot explain.”When individuals attain self-sufficiency, they interact and form a society. And as a society’s lower needs are satisfied, higher needs replace them. As humans develop capabilities to survive in deep-space, they will evolve into a more complex life-form. Someone said that Earth is humanity’s cradle but this is not the place where we will go extinct. Imagine having evolutionary reasons for developing radiation tolerance and a memory capable of remembering all the books you have ever read. The development of human potential will experience higher dizzier levels of change to adapt to deep space. The first human migrants will have to pay for their travel and it is highly likely that they have mastered the lower needs such as survival and safety needs. Hence it is expected that motivations of the first passengers are driven by higher needs. Fulfilling their deepest desires, appreciating the idea behind the journey, first humans on Mars would probably achieve the contentment triggered by the psychology of the self-actualized. As wave of colonization takes us further, we shall be able to view Earth with more sympathy and love. The fact that there may exist life in deep space would be the discovery that truly changes our fate. The more complex the life form the more fascinating it would be. This is because that life forms existing in other entities in deep space have had a long duration to evolve and they could be our unseen masters.
Also read other parts of the series: