I am reading "Leviathan Wakes" by James Corey and it is really good- it reminds me why I started reading science fiction as a kid- it makes me think that things are possible. In his world we don't have the stars, but we have the solar system- which my mature self thinks is a lot more probable, but still very optimistic.
I grew up reading science fiction. I loved it. And then I learned about relativity- and I didn't love it so much anymore. If there are other civilizations out there it doesn't really matter, we will never meet them. The distances are too vast and no hyperdrives are going to beat the speed of light.
Even my concern with peak oil and global warming has dampened my enthusiasm for exploration of our solar system. There is too much going on at home and we don't have the resources. NASA's mission should be defending us from comets and asteroids I have told people. And now preventing the Kessler syndrome- a cascading effect of colliding space debri in earth orbit that could wipe out most of our satellites.
But man cannot live on bread alone- or on reality alone in my case. I need my sci fi, I need my version of the future in which we survive the next couple hundred years and make it off of the planet. We make to to Mars and beyond.
If we are going to make it past the next couple of hundred years, we will have to find another source of energy- because we will run out of fossil fuels and because of what they are doing to the planet. Maybe it will be thorium reactors. Maybe it will be fusion. Renewables will not get us there alone. And if we do find new energy- who knows what is possible?
I'd like to be optimistic. I tend not to be.
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