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To Boldly Go

Entry 2302, on 2023-11-01 at 13:29:00 (Rating 4, Philosophy)

I have always liked science fiction. That genre is often criticised because it doesn't concentrate on character development as much as others tend to do, but I don't see that as a weakness, because SF concentrates on something that I think is more important: ideas.

Famously, many technologies we have today were first discussed in science fiction. Maybe the most well known example is the geosynchronous satellite, which was included in the work of Arthur C Clarke before it was a reality. And many future technologies, which are technically possible but not currently feasible, like space elevators, are also in this category.

As well as potential future technology, science fiction is also good because it is inspirational. The stories often focus around moving forward, for example, in the famous Star Trek quote: "Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before!"

Do we do anything boldly any more? Modern trends seem to be more inward looking. The debate over whether spending money on space technology and exploration is worthwhile has been around as long as space programs have, but the objections to inspirational exploration seems to have become more intense recently.

We are now being asked to concentrate on climate change rather than colonising Mars. OK, climate change is worth taking seriously, but is more about not doing things rather than doing them. We are told that colonising Mars is a waste of time and that saving Earth is far more important. There is even a Toyota advertisement based around this idea. And yes, it has very little to do with cars, and yes again, advertising used to be about excitement and innovation, now it's more often dreary virtue signalling.

What good is a planet Earth, a few degrees cooler than it might have been, when an asteroid arrives and destroys most of the life on the planet? Climate change will not, under any realistic conditions, eliminate human life or civilisation, but a genuine global disaster like an asteroid impact might.

But a disaster of that sort could be millions of years away, you might say, and you would be right. But it might also happen in ten years. We just won't know until the killer asteroid is just a few years away from collision with our planet.

But saving humanity from a major disaster like that isn't even the main reason we need a space program. We just need one because exploration and discovery is just what humans do, at least when we are at our best. If a civilisation isn't moving forward at its best pace it might as well be reverting to the Dark Ages.

The Dark Ages were primarily the result of religious dogma which repressed new discoveries, and today that same "religion" is politcal correctness, including climate hysteria, equity nonsense, and rejection of the value of science and technology.

We seem to celebrate mediocrity and failure now. The successful institutions of the past are denigrated as the patriarchy, toxic masculinity, and white supremacy. Our new heroes are failed minority groups and the allegedly underprivileged.

I'm currently reading some classic science fiction: you know, they type which celebrates the brilliant individual maverick who makes things happen, despite the pressures of political interference and the inanity of the masses, and it's hard not to recognise something which is relevant to our current era, despite the stories being written many decades in the past.

Political trends go through cycles, and there are already signs that the current ideology of woke-ism is in decline, but it has done a lot of damage, and it will be decades before its remnants are eradicated from some parts of society, such as universities.

We need a new Enlightenment, where we realise that the new "religion" is holding back progress just like conventional religion did during the Dark Ages. We need to celebrate genuine progress and value, instead of the fake versions of it we have now.

If progress comes from the patriarchy or white supremacy, or the Western hegemony, or whatever other nonsensical terms people create to disguise the essential vacuity of their beliefs, then maybe it's about time we celebrated those things instead of denigrating them.

I am tempted to offer a new revision of Godwin's Law. For those of you who might not have heard of it, it is this: "as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 100%". My revision would be something like this: "as a woke person loses a debate online, the probability of an accusation against their opponent involving words like patriarchy, white supremacy, or homophobe (insert your "-phobe" of choice here) approaches 100%".

The biggest sign of a woke ideolog I have detected recently is the celebration of weakness, mediocrity, and alleged victimhood. This is exactly the attitude we should avoid. Feel free to criticise people like Elon Musk if there is a genuine reason to, but don't do it as a knee-jerk reaction just because he is successful. I disagree with some of what he says, but I also recognise he is one of the most important humans on the planet.

Musk is successful and important (the two don't always go together) because he is bold. He goes boldy into the future. He is driven and unafraid; just like Captain Kirk of the starship Enterprise. We need more boldness!

And, by the way, I know the quote, and the title of this post, contains a split infinitive, and should technically be "to go boldy", but in modern usage the classic version is considered correct, and I'm not going to change it!

Comment 1 (7520) by Pat Wheatley on 2023-11-01 at 17:24:03:

Excellent essay Owen, you cheer me up! I don't agree with every single opinion of yours as you know, but as long as there are even a few people that think like, and as well as, you, I retain a glimmer of hope for the species... Onya!! no need to reply - cheers, Pat

Comment 2 (7521) by OJB on 2023-11-01 at 20:33:32:

But I always reply! Thanks for the support. I think there is hope: every ideology, no matter how irrational, outlives its usefulness and is supplanted by the next one. although it is sometimes just as bad, to be fair, but at least different!

Comment 3 (7522) by OJB on 2023-11-01 at 20:38:15:

And anyone who always agreed with me would be pretty boring. The best people are those who can disagree but still maintain a level of respect and fairness. Many people with my political views don't have my religious views, for example, but I don't see that as a negative. It's fun more to debate (respectfully) this stuff with people who disagree than just say "oh yeah, I think that too" to someone who does agree.

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