This year, several low key conferences have been held about the colonization of Mars. Billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have been quietly gathering the brain power needed for such an ambitious project. Their goal of having humans live permanently on Mars is not a secret. How they will go about achieving it is another matter. Scientists, engineers, and other experts are being brought together to identify and solve the problems that must be overcome. The technical obstacles are enormous. It will take every bit of human expertise and ingenuity to get humans to Mars and sustain them.
It’s refreshing to know who was not invited to these conferences. There were no government officials and even better no religious figures. Government red tape and religious obstruction will be confined to an earthly setting. The best hope for the survival of mankind is the creation of a godless place, such as Mars, in which human evolution can occur. Unencumbered by medieval superstition, genetic and robotic enhancement of people will occur with a rapidity unparalleled in history.
Humans are, historically speaking, their own worst enemy. War, famine, and ecological disasters are all avoidable if people and their governments made rational decisions. But emotions, such as greed and pride, drive people to do things that are not in their short term or long term self-interest. Governments manipulate people’s feelings using rhetorical techniques that are thousands of years old. Throw in religion, which uses fear derived behavior codes, and it’s a wonder that humans have made any progress at all.
The human brain is hard-wired for irrational thinking. Exhibit A is confirmation bias. All of us tend to reject information that does not conform to our belief systems. This was useful to our survival in our past. Strangers were a source of danger, so we rejected people who we didn’t see as part of our tribe. We also hold on tightly to what we learned as children even when we learn new information as adults. Four hundred years after the discovery of the connection between germs and disease, people still think one can get pneumonia by going outside with wet hair or without a hat. All because mama and grandma told us so.
Hard work and training can overcome a certain amount of our brain’s limitations. Otherwise, science could not have arisen and become such an important aspect of daily life. But even scientists struggle with issues such as confirmation bias. More troubling is that science is under attack. Religion, government, and other forces that benefit from ignorance are on the rise.
For those who think that science will certainly win, I offer Baghdad as an example of how powerful religion can be. Baghdad, in 1000 AD, was the intellectual capital of the world. Science, math, and multiculturalism flourished. Then a Muslim cleric declared that math was the work of the devil and all infidels (non-Muslims) must be barred from economic, social, and governmental power. The Islamic world never recovered. Now, all too many Muslims embrace a ridiculous ideology. They commit suicide and perpetrate terrible atrocities in exchange for mythical virgins in a mythical place. Or they wallow in their intellectual and economic wasteland because “It is God’s will.”
One can argue for better education to deal with our irrational issues. Indeed, I have spent my entire life in support of this endeavor. But how much easier would education be if teachers had better students? If all human brains were capable of following logical thought? If all humans rejected that which is not rational? As we map the human brain and genome, we get a better understanding of why we think the way we do. For example, we know which portion of the brain engages in spiritual, i.e. wishful, thinking. How long will it take us before we are able to eliminate this appendix of the brain?
It seems likely that Mars will be colonized by corporations rather than nations. This will be due to cost and the ambition of certain billionaires to leave a permanent mark on humanity. Leadership of such colonies will be, by necessity, confined to the philosopher kings of Plato’s imagination. A Martian colony will be much more like a sea-faring ship than an earth-based government. Neither democracy nor dictatorships will be successful at keeping a colony alive in such a hostile environment. Leaders will have to have great power but must always have the “Good of the many” in mind as they make decisions.
Corporations demand return on investment. Colony leaders, and the corporations that sponsor them, will have to figure out ways to make money. Investors will profit from the new technologies created only on Mars. Longer life spans and genetically enhanced humans will be one possible source of income for the Martians. Free from government and religious restrictions, they will create new humans, and the rich on Earth will buy. Most wealthy people want the best of the best for their off-spring. Better brains, better bodies, and mechanical enhancements will elevate humans into a whole new species. Maybe then, Homo sapiens will live up to its name.
