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Consequences of Exploration: Learning from History Part 1
Editor's Note: This is the third in a series of
essays on exploration by Steven J. Dick.
If
it is true that a creative society must explore, it is also true that the same
society must consider the consequences of its exploration.
One could
argue from history that exploration has led to the subjugation or decimation of
cultures, and that is undoubtedly true. Historians have documented the often bad
effects of culture contacts: there is no whitewashing the history of Cortez and
the Aztecs, Pizarro and the Incas, or the eventual effects of exploration on the
American Indians, to mention only the effect of European exploration on the
Americas. But surely exploration and discovery do not have to equate with
conquest.
 Image above: When the Apollo moon missions
sent back photos of "Earthrise" over the lunar horizon, our perspective on our
home planet was forever changed. Photo credit: NASA.
The past is
not necessarily prologue. We can learn from history, and explore with
sensitivity to the environment, life and culture. That is where planetary
protection protocols enter, for example, in the case of a Mars sample return.
That is where we need a deep and serious discussion of the ethics of
terraforming Mars or changing the environments of other moons or planets. And in
the ultimate case -- though we may have some time on this one -- that is where
we need to consider the impact of a successful Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence (SETI) program, if we actually do make contact with
extraterrestrial cultures.
Exploration and World View
Another broader consequence of exploration is that we will all be
changed by it, both as cultures and as individuals. Some people comfortable with
their current world view oppose exploration for that reason -- that it may
change the world view to which they have become accustomed. To me this is a poor
reason indeed. In this I follow Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote in his 1951 volume
The Exploration of Space that some people "are afraid that the crossing
of space, and above all contact with intelligent but nonhuman races, may destroy
the foundations of their religious faith. They may be right, but in any event
their attitude is one which does not bear logical examination -- for a faith
which cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many
regrets."
| Just as the voyages of discovery changed the human
world view, so will space exploration. Indeed, it already has ...
| One need not discover extraterrestrials for
that to be true; anything that cannot survive collision with the truth is not
worth many regrets. Just as the voyages of discovery changed the human world
view, so will space exploration. Indeed, it already has, with the view of
Earthrise from the Moon, the view of Earth as a pale blue dot photographed in
1990 by the Voyager 1 spacecraft from the edge of the solar system, and the
increasing awareness that space science gives us our place in cosmic evolution.
I will remind you again of what Carl Sagan said in his book "Pale Blue Dot":
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it
everyone you love, everyone you now, everyone you ever heard of, every human
being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and
suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines,
every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of
civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother
and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every
corrupt politician, every 'superstar', every 'supreme leader,' every saint and
sinner in the history of our species lived -- on a mote of dust suspended in a
sunbeam."
The astronauts and cosmonauts have had similar, if not quite so
poetic, sentiments. That is a view of Earth that we did not have before the
Space Age, and though I admit it seems not to have had widespread impact so far,
it cannot help but have such an impact over the long term. The societal impact
of space exploration at many levels is a subject that the NASA History Office
intends to explore in more detail in the coming years as we approach the 50th
anniversary of the Space Age.
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