TTBOOK GEMS

Robert Zubrin (GEMS - from program # 04-01-11-B: THE RED PLANET)

The King of Wishful Thinking

From Robert Zubrin's interview with Jim Fleming on the Public Radio International program To the Best of our Knowledge. Zubrin is the president of the Mars Society and author of THE CASE FOR MARS: THE PLAN TO SETTLE THE RED PLANET AND WHY WE MUST. This excerpt comes at the end of the interview after Zubrin has already described in detail the scientific and budgetary details of his and NASA's Colonizing Mars plan.

Fleming: Why should humanity care about colonizing Mars?

Zubrin: I think human societies are like individuals. We grow when we're challenged and we stagnate when we're not. And a humans-to-Mars program would be a tremendously healthy and embracing challenge to every nation that participates. But the real reason is not at all about us. It's about the future. The most important things you do with your life are not what you do for yourself but what you do for the future. If we do what we can do today, which is establish the first human foothold on Mars, then 200 years from now there will be a new branch of human civilization on Mars. And it will have its own culture, its own dialect. It will have its own literature. It will have made contributions to human social thought and certainly technology and invention. It will certainly have created a history of epic deeds that will be used to inspire those who would push out even further. And that is something glorious. That is something wonderful. And if you have it in your power to create something wonderful, then you should.

Fleming: So you don't see your plan to colonize Mars as simply a utopian vision. It's a necessary extension of humanity's vision.

Zubrin: Yes, and it's a necessary aspect to the activity of a healthy society. A healthy society doesn't just deal with its own needs. It deals with opening possibilities for the future.

Fleming: In your book you say only in a universe of unlimited resources can all men be brothers. That is kind of a utopian vision, isn't it?

Zubrin: That is somewhat utopian but it is also a warning of its converse. Because in a world of limited resources, men will not be brothers. In a universe of limited resources, where there is only so much to go around, men become enemies. And the prospect of a Malthusian future of limited resources where people compete for the shrinking pie is a dismal one indeed. The expansion into space of humanity does not open up a utopian future because humans are humans and we are capable of plenty of nasty things. But that expansion offers a hope not of a perfect future but one filled with hope.

Robert Zubrin (GEMS - from program # 04-01-11-B: THE RED PLANET)

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