East, west, north, south, meaningless concepts really, we simply go around, the end of one being the beginning of the other, the directions are merely a suggestion.
So what then do the directions suggest?
A state of being, an orientation, a way to look at something that is a little bit beyond your ability to capture it fully.
Reduction is a great tool, if and only if you realize the map is never the territory, the universe cannot be encompassed in a set of rules.
If we can use inherently meaningless concepts, then why do we need true meaning at all, if the sun is not the object that really moves to make it set then how come you need to know the ultimate truth about the universe?
We can pretend that we are not making it, but the reality is that we are on the precipice of becoming a spacefaring civilization.
If we could bullshit our way to here, why then should we not bullshit our way forward?
It seems the pragmatic answer is the most efficient answer, and that a pragmatic answer grounded in a Darwinian endeavor would be the most profound thing we could do given the data we have collected. If we are talking about human survival, and we are taking serious the propositions of postmodernism then the real answer is for us to create our own story, one that works good enough.
We have found ourselves here in the 21st century confused only inasmuch as we refuse to take serious the idea that we can and willingly tell stories to get through our lives.
And that we need to come up with a story that gets as many people as possible through the gateway of our present so we can become the future selfs we profess with-in that story.
Star Wars seems like a start, but the leap between our current mode of life and that story seems impossible but I personally feel that is the lazy answer, here is how we can get from here to there:
First, in the words of Douglas Adams, Don’t Panic!
A deep breath and a look around you’ll see that the world is the safest it has ever been for humans.
You can try to convince yourself that when air conditioning was not around humans had it better but just think if you needed you would be able to be taken in a helicopter to the nearest hospital.
After we remember our safety in the comfort of our air-conditioned and artificially heated lives, we simply need to ask ourselves if life’s worth living.
This is the most serious untouched proposition, if life is worth living, then it should be apparent what we should do, which is the work necessary, a sacrifice to ourselves.
You show me where life is supposed to be easy and I will understand why creating desalinization plants capable of making fresh water for all of Humanity is a stupid endeavor.
The tools we have created once combined allow for us to handle the complexity of such a problem.
And as we work on giving humanity water it seems we will run into other major issues, but again this is the way of life, no matter what we do there is the possibility of death and suffering, however it’s hard work and planning that we can guide our deaths and our suffering, guide it just like we have to get here.
The march on planet earth is not complete, the taming of ourselves is merely in its primordial days, we have just begun to grow a species.
We have learned the truth about ourselves, that we are animals whom by the grace of something have found out how to read and write and think.
Animals who are violent, manipulative and jealous, and as we gave each other safety and reduced suffering we amplified these problems.
Humans used to be far too busy to have to work on their internal feelings, but now it’s the most important endeavor if we are to power the world and give everyone unlimited transportation hate for each other can prevent anything real from happening.
See, it’s not so much the technology that is the issue, humans are only now being able to understand the most important truth about ourselves, that the first thought that comes to the mind is the wrong answer every single time.
Yes, the initial reaction to a sensory stimulus is given our rapid change of environment wrong, it is only with work and diligence and understanding of self that the modern human is actually a human.
Even if you can only come to the initial conclusion it was in thinking about it that was the important part.
Most of us are still very animals, the higher cognitive abilities are forgone for the gratification of the lower ones.
Angry?
Did you think of how to harm someone or something?
Think right now if you found your significant other in bed with another person, them fucking the shit out of someone you do not even know.
Is what you thought really the right answer?
Think of the consequences, is there a better way to achieve the same results?
It’s only inasmuch as we can teach each other this truth that we will be able to navigate our own future, well, the future where humans leave earth as a civilization.
As we make large moves to provide everyone with water, electricity, and food, the primary issue is getting humans to calm down to utilize the opportunity.
It is the cultures that we have created outside of ourselves that have guided our behavior away from animals and towards humanity, and it is only in the failure of those cultures that we find our modern problem.
The concept of humanity itself is something we created for ourselves to live up to.
And it’s living up to that self-made concept that we can achieve the future.
The story that this is the end of time is on the lips of so many.
If we supplant the nihilism inherent then we achieve if we do not believe we will simply react, and our reactions given the new environment are not enough, as always given the new environment there is a need for new behavior.
And in this environment, one we created for ourselves by ourselves, cursing it is exactly where we are failing.
So our story?
We have given ourselves a chance to be something, a civilization of the stars, however, we are spending no time convincing ourselves of such an opportunity.
What we are doing instead is giving in and complaining when given the past everything is beautiful.
We were never going to save everyone, but what we were going to do is give those of us who want to be saved the chance to not be an animal, to be a human, and we finally have the technology to make serious that promise.
With kindness and a strong security apparatus humans who want to journey beyond earth, and humans who just want to be animals can coexist only if the humans who want to journey beyond earth do the work, and more importantly, start telling that story.
If it was tales of invisible entities that got us this far then it will be tales of similar magnitude that will take us forward, however that story, unlike the past, must be clear.
Animals called humans are trying their absolute hardest given the profundity of the situation and that there are there is definitive work to be done if humans are to reach their theoretical potential.
Our story is in the stars, their remnants the elements make us up, literally compose our being, it almost seems like a challenge, can stardust rule the cosmos?