This time, we take it from no one: Why opening the High Frontier of space can be different (op-ed)
As we move closer to the greatest revolution of all time, the opening of the High Frontier of space to humanity, some assert this is somehow a bad thing. Based on inaccurate understandings of history and misplaced projections of those misunderstood times to the future, they are spreading ridiculous and possibly dangerous ideas that what is happening in what I call the Space Revolution is a repeat of the conquests and colonization of history. Wrong. Aside from the fact that we are not taking space from anyone, this time, for the first time, if we do it right, we have the chance to give it to everyone.
In the movements and expansion of civilizations and peoples of the past, it has often been the case that, as one group expanded, it was at the cost of another. We have been driven in the past by changes in climate, the pressures of our populations, the collapse of our economies, the oppression of our ideas and beliefs, or the greed of those with a lot of stuff to gather more stuff under their control. Societies have also been forced to move to new lands by the movements of others being driven by others moving into their own, and so on.
Contrary to current mythology, all of human history, everywhere on the planet has been an unending story of conquest. Around 2,000 years ago, Roman legions brutally conquered the indigenous tribes of Spain, France and the British Isles. One thousand five hundred years later, their progeny then slaughtered the indigenous tribes of a half dozen continents. In the time between, the Aztecs, Incas and Mayans slaughtered and enslaved the smaller tribes and kingdoms around them to expand their domains, while the Mongols conquered China and parts of eastern Europe. A bit later than that, the Zulu swept across southern Africa, conquering their neighbors, only to run into the British, who tried to conquer them. And while some groups may rise in righteous anger over the more recent takings and injustices faced by their ancestors, if one looks far enough back, it becomes clear that, in many cases, their ancestors or ancestors' ancestors took what they had from someone else.
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Too often, we have witnessed the death-rattling chagrin of peoples being "discovered" by others arriving in their "New Worlds." Too often, we have characterized the progress of one society by the decline of another or its usurpation as a conquered nation. It has become almost axiomatic to some historians that this is just how things are and will always be. After all, we live on one planet and have done so for millions of years, and the odds are that, at some point, someone from somewhere else has been where you are going, and if they are still there, they will be in your way.
Not so on the High Frontier of space. So far as we know, there is no one out there for us to conquer, no one whose lands we will steal or confiscate for our own. There is no one to displace, no one to eliminate, and no one nearby upon whose ashes we will build our own civilization. And so, at last, this ugly aspect of human history has a chance to end.
Rather, it appears that the solar system is empty of intelligence except our own. It is in that sense ours, as it belongs to no one else, not in the way that greed and the grabbing of finite resources and wealth have been taken or possessed in the past, but in the sense that we are responsible for it, We, All of Us — the entire human race. It may be possible there is primitive life to be found under a frozen rock on Mars or beneath the under-oceans of the Jupiter moon Europa or Saturn's Enceladus. In that case, we are obliged to treat it with care, treasuring it and protecting it, even as we move on and around it to fill the immensity of what remains of our neighborhood. The solar system is ours. It is our responsibility. To explore, inhabit, harvest, share and protect — or to pillage, destroy, covet and command.
To some, this need to take, dominate, and control is a human trait. I agree that, especially in the beginning stages of opening the Frontier, it will be hard to imagine what some call "human nature" changing. But if you stop and think about it, there is no set "human nature" regarding greed or the need to conquer and own other peoples and their lands. I believe it to be more of a historical social norm or even a socially acceptable habit. Domination culture is based on control of technologies and resources, fed by the "have and have not" dynamic and used by power-hungry individuals with traumatic pasts, who have the ability and tools to gaslight and manipulate the elements of society around them, like governments.
As we open the High Frontier, these habits and tendencies will come with us — at least at first. The constant conflicts and geographic games of the nations of Earth will follow us into space. They already have. Keep in mind that the first space race was between rival governments. The next, already underway, is also between ideologically and territorially competing powers. The first was largely symbolic, resulting in little more than flags and footprints left behind by the winner. Today's is far different, and the stakes nothing less than domination of the solar system. From low Earth orbit to who will control the resources of the Moon, the game is afoot, so to speak.
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But suppose we can get past this first phase of government's trying to use space to dominate Earth and establish the first viable communities in the beyond. These can be based on underlying principles that focus on caring for life, evolving humanity and exploring the cosmos, and yes, funded by new industries and vast resources we no longer have to rip out of the MotherWorld. In that case, we may have a chance to move to a new level of human culture, where war, conquest, and control make way for more peaceful, collaborative efforts to expand the domain of life for all.
I am not speaking of a naïve utopia here but an opportunity that will be forced on us by pragmatic realities. The vast distances, the availability of endless supplies of materials, resources, and energy, and the susceptibility of fragile humans and their constructs to destruction all mitigate for mutual support and against war and conquest. In addition, the rise of our ability via additive manufacturing, robotics, and AI to transform those vast resources and energy into everything we need will eventually mean we don't need to take it from anyone else. After all, if everything I need is provided by the resources around me, I have unlimited clean energy and the machines to convert those resources into anything I need or can imagine, why do I want to take it from someone else? Why go to the trouble?
Again, to be clear, I am not ignoring the dark motivations of humanity's biggest enemy, those (mainly male) aberrations from the good citizens who play on their society's insufficiencies to feed their own bottomless needs for power. Indeed, it has been these damaged humans who have driven much of our history. But to succeed, or at least to undergird their mobilization of entire nations on their behalf, they have most often had to rely on a base of people lacking in comfort or angry at the inability of their states to provide economic or social stability. Even many of what appear to be religious conquests, when examined closely, boil down to control of resources and the fight between haves and have-nots manipulated by very specific people to feed their own spiritual insufficiencies.
On the other hand, most people are good. 99.9% of people on the planet just want to enjoy life. They just want a place to live, meet their needs, and have some fun along the way. Within that group are the 1% who always seem to have far more than the rest, and the 0.1% who seek control of everyone else — almost always by controlling their government. This is a societal problem, not a geographic one. It results more from issues of morality and control of governments than from resources or locations. Take scarce resources and limits on opportunities to engage in risk-reward mobility out of the equation and you've removed their biggest tools.
Speaking of haves and have-nots, I cannot write this without acknowledging what some outsiders see as an entitled group of "super haves" leading the way off the planet that older generations of "haves" nearly destroyed. Fortunately, in this case, that negative assessment is wrong — perhaps for the first time in history. While it is convenient to cast the billionaires building the rocketships as space-based colonialist conquerors, it is also both lazy and wrong.
It is lazy because any deep examination of their histories or the motives of the movement they are part of would reveal a core benevolence and love for humanity and life driving them forward. For example, Jeff Bezos was, like me, a young disciple of Prof. Gerard K. O'Neill. O'Neill's groundbreaking 1973 book "The High Frontier" was built on his early predictions of the need to fight climate change by creating space solar power satellites, while turning Earth into a garden planet. That's Jeff's plan for his space company, Blue Origin. Meanwhile, he's also donated billions to the environment and other causes. Richard Branson is a leading environmentalist and champion of humanistic causes. Even Elon Musk (whose recent political utterings include many I do not share) has helped bring electric cars and solar powered homes into the mainstream, and began his quest for space by wanting to place a symbolic terrarium of Earthlife on Mars.
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It is wrong because, at least in the case of the three most well-known billionaire rocketeers, even their more well-informed critics admit they are not opening space to make money. They made their money to help open space. The recent attack made by President Obama (whom I revere) — using the tired refrain I will paraphrase as, "Why spend their money out there when we have so many problems down here" — highlighted how ridiculous this dogma is. Had I been there, I would have asked him which of his favorite professional basketball teams (funded by billionaires and taxpayers) should be shut down and the savings donated to the homeless. Love them or their terrestrial business practices, or hate them, these people are trying to do something for the good with at least some of their profits. They are not the robber barons or conquistadors of bygone eras, and it is a cheap exercise of absurdist eco-populism to cast them otherwise.
Of course, this doesn't mean that ego isn't involved. That is part of human nature, to be sure. Be it an artist, athlete, architect, surgeon, chef or scientist, we want to be the best, and if possible achieve great things. At the level of a multi-billionaire, it means, for some, applying that skill they have — accumulating and investing vast sums of money — into something they see as having the most significant impact on the future of their society. For Bill Gates it may mean fighting today's diseases. For these, it means helping build a tomorrow worth living into. In other eras, they might have been underwriting Arctic explorers, funding the first telescopes, or being patrons for a Michelangelo or Da Vinci. We have to separate debates about the system that enables the accumulation of such wealth from what they do with it. For my part, I'll take the fact that what they are funding is not about taking anything for themselves, but giving future generations the chance to have it all.
That means us and our children. All of us. The new rocketships they and others in the revolution are building will finally unshackle us from the government's ownership of the heavens and give us the keys to our tomorrow. Be it an American billionaire's fleet or even one of the many clones being built by Chinese teams, the cost of going out there is about to plummet. This means that, within the following decades, most middle-class people won’t have to settle for science fiction or watching government employees perform space for them; they will be able to go out there themselves. It also means it will be within the means of even the poorest nations to send their scientists, explorers and entrepreneurs to participate in this new renaissance.
For better or worse, we will take who we are with us wherever we go. But things improve each time we go somewhere new — if we do so based on even the minimum of enlightened self-conceptualization. We improve.
History shows that, due to advances in technology, while the scale of the pain and devastation any single human or group can cause by a single act has grown dramatically, be it the pull of a trigger or the dropping of a bomb, the frequency and social acceptance of such crimes has dropped. It may not seem like it given our media inundation with scenes of violence and evil, but overall humanity is progressing. For example, today rape is a war crime rather than a routine part of battle, and as a male, you no longer have to carry a sword as part of your daily clothing. We improve. We grow. We will still have violence, greed and crime. They will follow us into space. But again, if we do it right, they will fade even more from their once central role in our society.
I have often been asked at my college talks why we don't wait until humanity is more mature before we go out into space. My reply: "When did you grow up the most? Was it while you lived at home with your parents? Or was it when you went out into the world?"
I do not propose perfection. I propose turning our focus in a new direction.
This new High Frontier gives us the chance to redefine our relationship to each other, to our Mother Earth, and to our future. We can use all we have learned of our history, all we know from science, and all we can imagine from our works of art and fiction and apply them to try to get it right this time.
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I propose hope.
Imagine a future where the goal of human society is not to grab as much of a limited pie as we can but to expand the availability of everything to everyone, because all can access an unlimited supply of all we need.
Imagine a humanity driven not by the accumulation of whatever we can accumulate in a limited system but by the desire to experience, explore and create new places to be — everywhere and anywhere we can.
Imagine a society that measures itself not on what it can appropriate from others, but what it can learn and create; not on what it controls, but on what its people can do with their lives, down here or out there, as part of a vital species ending its childhood and awakening to the possible.
The opening of the Frontier offers us the chance to move outward for any of these reasons or for any reason we choose, any reason You choose.
There will be dark moments in the years to come. Political games and power grabs have already begun among the government players. Land grabs will come next — again, not by the people, but by governments. Keep this in mind. This is why we need those who are willing to put their own lives and fortunes on the line for this cause to do so. So that you can. This is the biggest change we can make on this Frontier — giving it to you. By opening the universe to humanity as widely as possible, bypassing government gatekeepers and throwing open the airlock to everyone, and democratizing access to the possibilities offered by everywhere else beyond Earth, we can create the option of an endlessly expanding set of options for all.
Most will stay here. Most always stay. That's fine. Those who choose to move upward will do so because they are bored or excited, tired or seeking a challenge, seeking a fortune or wanting to share the opportunity, oppressed or not oppressed; it does not matter. We must make it possible for them to go — for whatever reason they choose. Within a framework built on our highest principles, we must ensure that as many of us have the chance to do so as we can. What does matter is that, as soon as possible, we begin, and as we begin, we do it right.
We must learn to trust ourselves, even as we use this incredible opportunity to reinvent ourselves. We must reach for what we can be, even as we recall and are informed by what we have been.
We've gotten so much wrong, so many times.
This time it can be different, if We decide to Be different.
Remember: This time we go as one humanity.
This time we take it from no one.
Instead, this time, we give it to all.
Rick Tumlinson is the founder of SpaceFund, a venture capital firm investing in space startups. He also founded the Space Frontier Foundation, Earthlight Foundation and New Worlds Institute and is a founding board member of the X Prize Foundation.
