Vested Interests vs Space
Vested Interests vs Space
Contents
The Elephant In The Room
Forty Suns
Vested Interests
Greatest Good
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Forty Suns is a look to our space future.
But wait.
Shouldn’t we (not the ‘royal’ we, but the ‘we the people of this Earth’ we) be concentrating on things here at home?
Of course.
That will always be true.
However, should we ever allow ourselves to become so consumed with local problems that we don’t look out?
That we don’t dream of, and work toward, more?
Absolutely not.
The Elephant In The Room
We don’t dispute:
Space is hard.
Space takes incredible resources.
There are problems here on Earth.
You, us — everyone needs resources too.
There’s no question “doing” space takes a lot of effort.
Sacrifice.
But we must be doing it.
For all our sakes.
And so Forty Suns is pushing for that near-term — and mid-term, and far-off — future. The advances that will ensure we never collapse under the weight of our local problems.
Yes, someone needs to tend the farm. But at least a few of us need to be out, exploring and settling that next horizon. Finding the things that will make tending the farm easier.
This is us.
Forty Suns
And so, though focused exclusively on positive energy — and with a purpose of inspiring the same — any of the things we talk of, whether on the Forty Suns site, in the book, in our newsletter or anywhere else, like all things, will find detractors.
After all, it’s easier to complain than to innovate.
Therefore it’s worth a moment to touch on this rather silly subject.
CAVE People
It’s inevitable that someone, somewhere, will oppose absolutely anything.
Think of the most perfect, most worthy thing, and someone will be against it. The idea of people living in caves brings to mind a funny term, which sums up the idea of general opposition:
CAVE people.
Or, “Citizens Against Virtually Everything”.
There have been CAVE people throughout time.
As an exceedingly small minority they were rarely heard from. Primary reason for their silence?
There was no platform for them, and
They were so few in number.
Their numbers have not grown.
However the availability of megaphones and soap boxes has.
Now, with the advent of a subset of the very technologies we’re pushing to expand, in particular social media and broad internet access, anyone and everyone is afforded a voice — including the CAVE people.
And sometimes they’re the loudest.
An illusion, to be sure, but because of this relatively new opportunity to amplify their opinion these “dissenters against all things” can make it feel as if they hold more influence than they actually do. As if there’s more of them than there actually are.
They don’t, and there aren’t.
Their voices reach an audience only to the degree we bother to listen. (So stop listening, would seem to be the solution.)
Today they’re called trolls. Rest assured they are not a new thing. They’ve always been around, and will always be.
“But,” you might ask, “How could anyone be against …”
A question with no answer, to be sure.
Someone, somewhere, will find a basket of puppies repulsive. Or at least say they do, probably just to get a reaction from others.
There’s no accounting for it.
So no worries. If you’re here you’re here, presumably, because you believe in a brighter future. Which means you most certainly are not a CAVE person. If you just happened on Forty Suns and are checking it out … the odds are, again, very much against you being a CAVE person.
Again, there just aren’t that many of them.
In short, if you have any concern whatsoever that you might be one of these progress nullifiers, you most definitely are not.
We bring this up only to point out that, no matter how cool any of this space stuff might seem — and it is cool — someone, somewhere, might complain.
Feel free to ignore them.
Vested Interests
Which brings up a potentially larger threat, one that’s far more real.
Vested interests.
These aren’t restricted to large entities. We all have them, and they certainly aren’t always a bad thing, but they can, in some cases, get in the way.
Tagging onto the reality of CAVE people, then, it’s worth pausing to note the additional challenge of inertia.
Specifically the challenge of these larger, more organized sorts of resistance groups, those with vested interests that run contrary to the greater good.
Inertia
Whether overcoming existing infrastructure, people or companies making a living at something they can’t afford to lose, or any other “ongoing concern” that would be threatened by advance, the potential disruption caused by massive change creates its own obstacles to progress.
As an extreme example, say cold fusion was discovered tomorrow, and it was easy to implement.
Everyone could get their hands on a power source that would plug in and power their car, their home, their business and anything else, only needing a little water now and again. It was easy, it was available, and it could be installed right away.
Imagine how many economies that could ruin overnight.
No more powerplants needed. No more coal and oil. No more gas stations, no more green energy initiatives, no need for solar or wind or nuclear or anything else.
A huge part of our global infrastructure rendered obsolete.
The details of such a scenario are absurd, of course, but the contemplation of it drives home a point:
We need to be ready to accept change for the better.
Things We Don’t Need
A cultural example. The rage mongers we seem so drawn to. Radicals on this or that side of the aisle, feeding our fury at the terrible things the other side is doing, claiming to want one thing yet ...
What if suddenly we were cooperating? What if the thing they hated was no longer true?
There would no longer be any use for them. They’d be out of a job.
That would be great, of course, for the rest of us, but could we count on them to step aside? Or would they find some other way to continue stirring up rage, pointing out faults in order to cling to their livelihood rather than enjoying the wins with the rest of us and finding some new, more useful thing to do?
As we advance we’ll encounter these sorts of contrary purposes, both great and small. Vested interests that find themselves misaligned with the greater good.
Your neighbor might begrudge you your pristine lawn, for instance, though it in fact benefits the neighborhood. America might try to stymie scientific advance in China (ahem), simply to keep them from getting ahead — though most of what they discover will mean advance for all, not just for the Chinese.
Greatest Good
Many factors go into these considerations in every case. It’s not always as simple as better = better.
But we need to be ready to make those hard choices for the greater good.
New advances tend to upend industries and even cultures.
That will always be true.
We have to account for the effects of those advances, as they will oftentimes be resisted.
That will also be true.
When it comes to rapid change we should look always to the greatest good, the thing that provides the greatest gain for us all, then do that thing.
Even as we watch for those unwilling to step aside and let (or better yet, help) progress occur.
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Every Friday we send a recap of the week in space.
#FortySuns