Oct 28 2021 - Space Tourism vs Space Colonization

 

There are two themes in the race to space.  The first is the space tourism race.  Titans of private industry are racing each other to space.  It sounds so fun and glamorous - take William Shatner's reaction:  “What you have given me is the most profound experience," an exhilarated Shatner told Bezos after emerging from the capsule. “I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now." That sounds like a lot of money to be made to get a life experience like this. CNN says that the big three are "not the only players in the game, and they may not be the only space barons for very long. There are hundreds of space startups across the United States and the world focused on everything from satellite tech to orbiting hotels." Space race articles often compare the current one to the space race of the last century. Except it isn't Western governments racing Eastern governments in a cold war scenario for military dominance as expressed through scientific and technological superiority.  And these led to increased industry and profits and economic growth.  A double win for the countries. The second goal of the space race is colonization. That's Elon Musk's goal - colonization of Mars.   Colonization is something that humans know a lot about.  In our recorded history, there have been three waves of colonization from the 1400s to the late 1800s.  From Wikipedia:  "The first wave of European expansion involved exploring the world to find new revenue and perpetuating European feudalism. The second wave focused on developing the mercantile capitalism system and the manufacturing industry in Europe. The last wave of European colonialism solidified all capitalistic endeavours by providing new markets and raw materials."   I notice that Wikipedia has no mention of human impacts - they do that in the entry on colonialism. Interesting that we're trying to sort through colonialism in our current era. With this facing us, the question is being asked in advance in relation to Mars colonization:  Is it ethical to go to the red planet?  There's more emphasis on questions like:  how will we get to Mars, who will build the rocket, can we get astronauts, and how to build habitats and live in them.   The question around ethics was investigated in a CBC series:  People may contaminate Mars. We can bring our microbes there and contaminate the indigenous life that's there. This topic is discussed in a CBC series HERE.   Currently the concern is that the answer will come from the billionaires who will be the first to get to Mars. This is a very big topic.  I expect we'll be doing a lot more "soul-searching" on it in the months and years to come. Our image is named Rocket Ship Ride.  I found this decay on a guard rail.  It seems perfect - leaving the planet behind in a trail of dust.

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Pinecone Invasion Reaches Toronto

I was in Toronto in the week, and my first stop was the Brookfield Plaza.  It is the atrium space between Bay and Yonge Street close to Front Street. It is a magnificent space, serene and soaring.  Jonah in the Whale is the metaphor that seems to describe this space for me. What would draw me to this space?  It has an art exhibit that I was looking forward to experiencing - Floyd Elzinga's Pinecone Exhibit.  It was a delight.  The space is so vast that some of the pinecones appear small.  But this is not the case - they are large.  I found these natural forms to be beautiful and enchanting in the space. I find out that I would clearly fail Art Appreciation 101.  And I got a lesson in how an artist gets good press with interesting stories.  Floyd's intent is the opposite of what I see.  Here's what he says in an article about the pinecones. 'These “Colonization Devices“, as Elzinga has dubbed them, illustrate and explore the dichotomous nature of seeds — simultaneously seen as innocuous and aggressive. With that in mind, Elzinga sought instead to aim attention at the threatening, almost hostile nature of the seeds, using the ordinariness of steel and its commonplace use to liken them not to the organic yet geometricized form they resemble, but to machinery and artillery; in turn, equating them to hand grenades. This juxtaposition of the seeds’ reason for being – colonization — and the sculptures’ shape emulating a hand grenade or bomb inserts an irrefutable political agenda into the artwork and fouls the pine cone’s purity. By comparing the potential of both seed and bomb, Elzinga insinuates that the pair possess the innate desire to stay alive — to invade and colonize.'