The long-term quest to build a 'galactic civilisation'

• The discovery of the atom’s inherent power provided hope to many scientists that they could build powerful rockets that can reach beyond our solar system.
• Russian rocketeer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky wrote about using nuclear-powered devices to settle inside asteroids, migrating to other solar systems.
• In 1902, Nikolai Fedorov predicted 2021, by stating that rich people may infect other planets by their exploitative zeal.
• Many such texts were almost religious, pushing for our species to spread life in a lonely, infinitely empty universe.

Billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are trying to provide a solution to an inevitable problem: Humanity’s thirst for growth and the endless exploitation of natural resources will eventually ‘finish off’ our planet and there is a chance we may become extinct(not to mention the 8.7 million other species).

According to these wealthy men, if our species is present and thriving on other planets, it won’t be filtered out by evolution after some time.

Climate change is real, but as it is slow and poses less of an existential risk right now, it is mostly ignored. We forget that by turning a blind eye to the climate crisis, billions of people will suffer in the coming years due to floods, hurricanes, wildfires and many other natural calamities.

• In our quest to conquer space, we have messed up and ignored our home planet, which is a great vessel by itself.
• Planet Earth is a big spaceship with millions of species, plenty of water, plant life and heat from the nearby sun.
• We still don’t know much about the millions of life forms already present here, who form a complex network of behaviours to provide us with food, herbs, water, air and beauty.
• Nature’s balance and sophistication are unparalleled, and it is us who have been exploiting and eroding our planet for many centuries.

Before we venture into colonizing the galaxy, pushed by overzealous, egocentric billionaires, we could fix urgent problems on our own planet.

Problems like the climate crisis, social justice, human trafficking, hyper-capitalism and inequality can only be solved by humanity-wide projects and not by whimsical, rich men.