I had a thought yesterday about
the meteorite that hit middle Russia and the asteroid that flew by later that
evening last Friday. Imagine we find out
that an asteroid the size of the one that wiped out the dinosaurs was on a
collision course with Earth. It would
hit Earth in seven years’ time, we have roughly five years to figure out the
plan to either destroy the asteroid or manoeuvre it out of our path. Instead of the usual way of imagining this catastrophic
event, I thought how quickly humanity would put aside its differences, its
petty fears, its misgivings, and all work as one, quickly and efficiently to
find an answer that would prevent the end of the world, and the extinction of
our species.
How far would humanity progress
in those five years?
We would have to find a better
solution for propelling objects into space.
Improvement of fuel efficiency, find answers to questions at this time
no one seems to be able to find answers too.
We would need to spend our energies on improving the International Space
Station, so it can handle many people working on space related solutions, in
space. Many problems would need solving
immediately, it would focus the greatest minds of this world, it would move us
away from thinking of ourselves in a counterproductive way and everyone would
have to work to solve the worst problem that humanity ever had to deal with.
I know we have seen plenty of
films that show this kind of disaster, but this is not only an American catastrophe,
it is a world one, and the world would have to work together to solve it. I would imagine many of the countries that at
present cause the world more grief than their size or influence demands, will
have to put their petty differences aside and think if they do not do this,
they will die. It’s amazing how quickly
one can put aside petty insignificant differences when you realise you are
going to be dead if you do not act in a more mature and professional way.
It is hard to say how many
improvements to society and life, as well as many other benefits to life that
would come from solving such a problem.
There would be a reason to make every effort to create artificial
gravity in space. This may seem like a
small benefit in the grand scheme of things, but imagine the advantages if we
could create artificial gravity. If you
have many people working in space, it has to be one of the top priorities so we
can build the device to manoeuvre the asteroid away from our orbit. We would need to create a quick and efficient
way to get into space. I know I have
read about space elevators, if this were plausible, it would need to be a top
priority. If not other means, we would
need to invent quicker and cheaper ways to reach space, rather than solid fuel rockets;
I bet we would have a solution in time.
As well as improvement on how to
get to space and making a suitable space device to send to the asteroid, we
would have to decide whether to make it a manned mission or not? We would also need to improve infrastructure
on Earth. If all countries are finding
solutions, we need a quick and efficient way to move everything to the launch
sites or elevators. Greed and profit
would have to take a back seat and any hidden patents that perhaps will help in
creating let us say better energy solutions, so that fossil fuels would become
redundant. We would need to seize them
immediately to help solve these problems.
The way the world works would
have to chance for at least the time until we have either destroyed the asteroid
or moved it. Large companies would have
to change their ways from making many useless consumer goods to putting their
collective knowledge to help stopping the asteroid from killing us all. What is the point in making profit if we are
all going to be dead in seven years?
I believe we could do this, stop
an asteroid from hitting Earth if we had five years to solve the problem. The reason I say five years and not seven is because
I feel you would need probably two years to send the device to where the asteroid
is in space, waiting until the last minute should not be plan A, that should be
plan Z. In a strange way, being so close
to disaster might be the best thing that could happen to this planet, to the human
population. Yes, there would be the
doomsayers, the ones who will not help and think it is the end of days, but I
think most people want to live, whatever they may say. Humanity wants to have a reason to survive,
and finding out humanity is seven years from extinction would be a massive
incentive to work hard to solve the multitude of problems we would encounter.
Now I think about it, we
subconsciously and sometimes deliberately try to create doom events that
perhaps will springboard humanity onwards to another level. Climate change is an example of this, the war
on terror is another, and its antithesis the religious fundamental terrorists
themselves. Nuclear weapons and the
impact it may have on the world is a major doom event. Probably the greatest doom event so far has
been the Second World War, though this was not a subconscious attempt to
improve society, it had a massive effect on society, not just in the
devastation it caused, but also the many improvements, inventions, the
progression forward humanity made. Our
attempts to cause doom across the world are not attempts to improve society
directly, but sometimes they do have that effect. However, they are small or not seen as a
definite problem or issue that will cause total destruction. An asteroid hitting Earth would have that
effect destruction would be inevitable unless we solved the problem of moving
it.
Perhaps this is a heartless way
to look at things, but I see it as trying to see the positive in bad or
catastrophic situations. Not to think,
oh god this is the end we are all going to die, instead to think no we are
human beings with amazing gifts, we have the ability and the resolve, the
ingenuity and courage to work together to solve the greatest catastrophe to
ever befall our planet in our era. Its just
a shame we need some kind of catastrophe to have this sort of affect.
Imagine Hollywood making a film
about that, instead of a wildly inaccurate film like Armageddon, to make a film
or series about how we found a way too effectively move an asteroid, the brains
a skill behind it. No one would watch it
because it would seem boring, unless it actually happened, as even if Hollywood
did make it, it would still be wildly inaccurate. We can never fully know what we would
discover because of our human genius.
