Rather than build a boat, the inhabitants of Easter Island (who I’m sure thought of themselves as a bunch of savvy, high-tech individuals) decided on a policy of burning the last of their trees in order to build effigies aimed at presumably, appeasing their God.
Faith is an ideology based on ignorance. I have faith that my sail-boat won’t sink next time I put her in the water, but there are dozens of things that can send me to bottom faster than I call for help on my (trusted?) VHF radio.
And just in case you’ve failed to notice – our species is very definitely in danger of floundering.
Of course there are life-lines still available to us. The burning question is; will we ever get to build that boat before we either exhaust them, or more to the point, fail to utilize them on ideological grounds.
Millions of people have died using public transport systems; most of us would claim it’s our human right to drive to work each morning, and we do so (mostly) without interference from organization that might try to stop the practice on the basis of morality. How then do we get to the point that it is a human right to explore space?
Because one thing is certain; unless we are all happy to live in a bubble on Mars, if we want (or need) to find a new home for our species, we are going to have to change!
The cost in human life will eventually become a matter of perspective; but the change in ideology that’s necessary to cross the vastness between habitable planets, is something that needs to be addressed long before we ever take that first trip.
Genetic editing and manipulation, along with artificial human development and artificial intelligence will need to be every-day parts of our future existence. As will the downloading and even transferring of neural data.
Why? Because human beings, as messy and as fragile and as loveable as we are, will (probably) never be able to make such massive journeys. However, data (particularly entangled data, when we eventually invent it), will.
So… whilst a subject like the use of condoms, is a still contentious issue, how is the concept of firing off a bunch of genetic potential at a supposedly habitable planet, and then exchanging neural information with those artificially created and designer engineered beings, going to go down with certain factions within our global community?
As Gustav Frank – the Father of the Frank Organization, the technocracy at the centre of the Mathew Unoi trilogy – puts it….
‘The time has come to make a claim… a vital stake in the future of our kind.
We have that right.
The right to live our lives in a society free of religious influence. The right to live in a society liberated from the uncertainties of religious conflict and dogma. We have the right to eclipse the boundaries of human ignorance and the right to fight for a civilization that will carry the banner of humanity into the future and into all unoccupied regions of our universe.’
The FO goes about exerting that right in a very interesting way. First of all, it hordes vital technologies that would otherwise serve as life-lines for all of humanity.
And then it waits.
It stands by as does nothing as the world races towards the precipice of self destruction; it waits until socio-economic pressures are such that countries begin to close their borders and vying ideologies become more isolated. They use their technological arsenal to bribe their way to independence and thus gain the freedom to exploit industrial space in a window of opportunity that has been carefully crafted to suit their needs; and then they create and unleash Mathew Unoi to protect their unique position.
Sadly, if there is one element of human nature that is more open to corruption than our need for ideological support, it is the often devastating influence of the human ego.
Personally, I think the word Homocentricity should be included in all modern dictionaries.
Mathew Unoi’s mentor, Ho Yun-Fat’s very first piece of advice to him is;
‘Individuality and consciousness are possibly the rarest and most precious commodities in the Universe. However, if that is true, then the human ego is the most malignant form of delusion to have ever existed. You are about to be dealt many, many painful blows my young friend and while you endure, I am going to show you that, what you consider to be your consciousness is actually your ego. Your real consciousness lies somewhat obscured beneath thousands of years of dogmatic teachings. Our entire world is driven by the egos of the men and women who all jostle for position upon it, like Vultures fighting to get their talons on the best piece of meat. Understanding your own ego and how it influences your each and every thought and action is the key to being a more successful human being… and understanding and manipulating the egos of those with whom you are about to interact, will be the most powerful tool and weapon I can ever give you.’
After all – how can we ever hope to reach a harmonious ideological consensus, when we must first deal with the egos of all the men and women who reside at the heart of those ideologies?
Hmmm… we’re doomed, aren’t we?
Bio
John V Kernaghan is the author of the Mathew Unoi Trilogy.
Yes, we are all doomed, so might as well have fun while we’re still around. 🙂