Stargazing Guy

– Isaac Asimov 2 January 1920 – 6 April 1992

As quoted by Gerrard O’Neill:

In a roundtable TV interview, Isaac Asimov and I were asked why science-fiction writers have, almost without exception, failed to point us toward that development. Dr. Asimov’s reply was a phrase he has now become fond of using: “Planetary Chauvinism.”

Gerrard O’Neill, The High Frontier: Human Colonies In Space (p. 30). Space Studies Institute, Inc. Kindle Edition

Planetary chauvinism is the belief that human society will always be planet-based (even if extended beyond Earth), and overlooks or ignores the potential benefits of space-based living that can be achieved in space, usually by an O’Neill cylinder-type structure.

Why bother escaping Earth’s gravity well, just to sink back into the gravity well of Mars or another ‘Earth-like’ planet?!

Explore, sure. Mine, of course. Visit, sounds great. Live?! No way. Too dangerous.

Asteroids, solar flares, volcanoes, hurricanes, blizzards – no way. Not for me.

Give me a controlled environment to live in – orbiting some LaGrange point in some solar system in some galaxy – ready to move on as needed.

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PS: I love coffee. BuyMeACoffee, leave a message with a date and time and we can share it, remotely, at the same time, and think about the Cosmos.

In the meantime, take care of yourself and if you can, someone else, too, because as Adam Smith said, “we naturally desire not only to be loved but to be lovely”.

Remember, hope lives here.

Opening image Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spacecolony1.jpg

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