Mr. Write's Page

When I was a kid, and finally old enough to think in abstractions, a realization formed in my head. It was a big-picture, philosophical concept. I trot it out and think about it now and then, and it still seems valid.

For the record, it is a serious observation; don’t expect a punch line.

This is my insight…

We humans are approaching a significant milestone in our history. Although we likely won’t be aware of it until many years hence, we will be changed in a profound way.

Furthermore, in the far future, this milestone will be looked back upon as a notable landmark in the story of homo sapiens, no matter where we go or what we do.

Do I have your attention?

Consider this: fewer than 500 people have left the Earth and gone into space. None of them kept on going. Every human ever born has lived and died right here. Our entire history is linked neatly and cleanly to Planet Earth.

But someday soon, a century or so from now, a spaceship full of explorers will set out to go someplace else.

I’m not referring to a trip to Mars or elsewhere in the neighborhood. I mean a journey of decades, maybe centuries, to reach another star system.

To make it, the spacecraft will have to be a closed and self-sustaining system. The explorers themselves are unlikely to return. But their descendants  might. At first, they probably will.

But as more explorers embark to new destinations, and as we progress scientifically and technologically, the time will come when we begin to lose track of them.

After years with no word, an occasional band of travelers may come home. But some will never be heard from again. They could be dead, they could be lost, they could be traveling still. We simply won’t know.

And that is the milestone. Peoplekind will have scattered at last into the unknown.

No more links to one planet, no more contiguous history, no more knowledge of where humans are and what humans have become. The awareness we have today of ourselves and our story, that will end.

Clearly, this won’t happen in our lifetimes. But it will happen soon. Maybe sooner than we expect.

One more wrinkle to this observation. As I thought about this scenario over the years, a further possibility came to mind:

The possibility that it already happened.