What gives us the right to colonize space?

Don't get me wrong, I am an advocate for my own species, but as I progress into adulthood I'm starting to loathe humans in general more and more..

Our race is notorious for being belligerent, selfish, and a rather barbaric species. We constantly engage in self destructive behavior and have no real regard for what we are doing to this planet (I mean really folks).

All these people talk about how it is our duty to "ascend into a higher state of being". I honestly don't have that much faith in the human race. In order to do this we would have to uproot the deeply set corruption and ignorance of the population as a whole. This seems like a feat too great to take on by our kind alone.

Perhaps we need a boost from another space faring race (provided they have actually visited this backwater world).

but tell me people, what the hell gives our species the right to spread our influence beyond the solar system?

[edit on 27-10-2008 by zetamafia911]

Who are we supposed to get permission from? We colonized North America and killed all the Native Americans, and look how well things are going today. At least if we colonize our solar system, we won't have to kill millions of aliens to do it. We can sleep well at night in our stasis pods at least.

Who are they to force people to pay for land, TINY amounts at that, and call everything else "crown" land when there is enough land on Australia alone for everyone to have an acre each?

Something is seriously wrong here. You pay all the taxes, but "they" own all the land, and even if you "buy" it they dictate what you can or cannot do with it.

They have stolen from Gods children, but he will make them pay....SOON.

an example of my point. The savageness of our species was exemplified by our willingness to just consume without question or consent. I'm worried about this on an interstellar level. Humans seem to fall along the same traits and characteristics and im just wondering if the pattern can be broken.

Ahahahahaha this beautiful. Well yeah pretty much what that guy said, the Colonies came over and took.

However, exactly -- what is to stop anyone from going to space and taking over.

I mean hell, if I had a space ship, a good looking girl, and some food and water, i'd be searching everywhere. That'd be nice, little devices to tell you if there is oxygen or not in the air outside, gravity levels, life detectors, yeah I hate Earth, or atleast what we've done with it.

I don't see how we are taking over anything in space. On top of that, anything in space we do take over is ours (humanity I mean) if we say it is.

I see no exception to this rule except if we, in the future, attempted to colonize a place that was already being inhabited by another intelligent race.

That said, I am fully against the notion that we "own" anything; all anybody does is borrow, or hold on to, something for a short period of time that we call our life. But why shouldn't we colonize space? Only if there was another intelligent race that occupied an area would it be wrong to colonize, in my opinion. All we'd be doing is using nature for our own survival; just because humans live on this planet doesn't mean we have to stay here forever.

Space is public domain and as a result gives us privilege to have some kind of manifest destiny.

I agree with your OP, however what’s to stop a bigger fish from setting us right?
We may find that space expansion is more a game of survival rather than conquest, us being on the short end of the stick.

reply to post by zetamafia911


We have the right because we need a New World Order in space too. Think of it, it will be great, just like Star Trek! I think the kitties with their legs/tail/head chopped off are cute!

reply to post by Alexander_Supertramp


I agree with your point completely. Im just loosing confidence in our species like any upcoming adolescent I guess..


I see potential for unneeded aggression toward another sentient race is all though.

[edit on 28-10-2008 by zetamafia911]

Reply to zetamafia911
(Reply button's not working..)

Ah, I see. Then in that case, I know where you're coming from. Humanity has shown its greediness in almost every culture throughout every era ever known. Based on our history (and present for that matter), if we had the ability to travel from galaxy to galaxy in search of a place to colonize, we would no doubt take over a planet ruled by a lesser intelligent and less powerful people.

Let us hope that is not, nor ever will be, the case.

reply to post by zetamafia911


Don't forget we are already a colony in space.

Peace

Our survival will require it one day, simple as that. We have to.

That said, our colonization of space shouldn't matter to other intelligences for a long, long, long time. Space is pretty freakin' big. Our moving out into space would be like a family of ants moving from one anthill to another somewhere in Asia. It just doesn't matter.

reply to post by TheRealDonPedros


Ah, as it did slip my mind hah

Originally posted by pluckynoonez
I think the kitties with their legs/tail/head chopped off are cute!

You have made me sad, plucky.

reply to post by Evasius


There is a shred of elegance in this statement,

So the answer is out of necessity, not luxury.

I don't think the concept of rights enters into it. Unless anybody has a better claim on the other bodies of the solar system, or of any nearby stars, there's no reason not to exploit them to the best of our abilities. Hell, I'd rather have humans exploit any other body in the solar system than the earth; there are things living on earth.

Without life, the other planets are just rocks, really. They posses a certain beauty, yes, but nothing too spectacular compared to what we have on earth, what with the flora, medium density atmosphere and the liquid water and all.

Is there some kind of right you need to earn to mine for materials on earth? Or to go exploring? I wouldn't see space as any different.

More to the point what gives us the right not to...


...if we just stay on this planet our race will die out, maybe for the better but in the end our race will face two undenable facts stay here or die.

We need to expand our race for survival and as long as we do not affect other life on other planets to a great extent I see no problem.

Also because we see the universe on such a small scale sometimes it's easy to forget that the universe is actually one large ecosystem with processes for creating and destroying matter, e.g. black holes, white holes etc.

Far far in our future, if we don't destroy ourselves in the process, I expect we will have a huge empire of many solar systems and many more worlds, I belive it is then and then only that we will need to consider our implications and rights on space colonisation

Klain

When it comes to colonizing "rights" don't really have much to do with it.

Say there is an empty patch of land (like our Aussie friends kindly pointed out) and there is nobody there to defend it and i need a place to build a home. Well to hell with it, I'll take that land and call it mine. Now when some one comes along and says 'hey dude, your on my land'... well i shoot that guy becasue his land is really my land and he has no right to say it was his. Thats the(or my) definition of what creates a colony... sort of.

What i'm really trying to get at is the powers that be don't give a rats whisker about "RIGHTS". All they care about is who has the biggest gun and who can boss who around. Colonizing empty space and/or the moon is just another way for them to control everything within reach. Hell if they can get to it then they're gonna claim it for themselves. Every one else be damned.

Nothing short of being wiped out by a natural disaster or culled by a superior alien race will stop us from exploring.

I'm not very proud of some of our history and I'm not very proud of some of the evil greedy men living today, but at this point I know of no better species to live amongst.

Maybe we'll find places where there is not much greed or evil someday. Maybe where we could live without some wanting a piece of our labor for so little in return.

I would be happy just to live comfortably without interference from others. Where I could just live, love and enjoy the experience of being alive. Instead you want to tell me how to live and if I don't live like you, you want to destroy me.

It's no wonder so many turn to drugs or the bottle in order to escape reality, when the reality for many is not so pleasant.

Even for those with money on Earth they have to constantly fight off those wanting to take the money that buys their comfort.

While greed may be taking hundreds or thousands more resources one needs to live comfortably, it is not greed for those who only seek peace, security, and comfort.

Originally posted by TheRealDonPedros

Don't forget we are already a colony in space.

Indeed - while we're searching for all the answers to what's out there, lets not forget to enjoy our time here.

If we do have genetic origins elsewhere it would indeed by nice to know where that might be.

[edit on 28-10-2008 by verylowfrequency]

Originally posted by zetamafia911

Our race is notorious for being belligerent, selfish, and a rather barbaric species. We constantly engage in self destructive behavior and have no real regard for what we are doing to this planet

[edit on 27-10-2008 by zetamafia911]

Yes and we should embrace what we are!

we are going to make a Great Conquering Species!

The whole problem is we like to lie to ourselves about our nature and desires

If we simply admit what we are and with the wisdom of knowing remaining here and fighting with each other will doom our race, we can finally ascend to our true purpose... Conquering The Galaxy in the name of G-d and the human Species

Look

We can't breed with aliens, Two species in competition for the same niche will almost always destroy one or the other, there actually isn't much sense to not going off Earth fighting, stay we kill each other, fighting is in our nature

Don't fight and our species is relegated at best to being some backwater tourist dig

at worst to extinction

But if we simply Embrace our nature and learn to accept ourselves for who we really are, Then we have Billions of worlds in which we can excel at what we do best, conquer things... and Fight

You have identified our purpose

Why feel terrible about it? this is our direction our destiny

We are prolific breeders, with a natural urge to explore and wander, w eare instinctual fighters it's built right into our basic biology via mating and hunting, we are in part at least Carnivorous and that quality can with a bit of practice be greatly enhanced, we are naturally territorial, have a strong frame, very easily manipulated genetics, adapt to new environments with ease and have great survival instincts

Rationalization of our actions via a sense that is innate to us that we are divine comes easy to us, creative thought which is always a plus when you want to be destructive is natural, a pleasure and enjoyment of combat is very natural for the bulk of the males of the species...

So whats wrong with walking the road that will make everyone happy and prosperous and fulfill our needs?


We leave Earth like, The Dominion not the Federation

(we all know who would have really won that fight) Even in our fiction, there is always some g-d that makes it our divine right to win or ancient ones or whatever... LOL, even when we pretend in entertainment we noble and just, it's all about our victory as manifest destiny at the hands of some divine inspiration

This is what we are built for

Just relax and self accept, bond with your fellow man for the purposes of conquering the stars...

all these wars have just been basic training until now, at this level of technology we need room to keep fighting and we need each other for the numbers, economics and technology to start the process

It's time

Time to make peace on Earth and take the fight to the Stars where it belongs