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Neil deGrasse Tyson - We Stopped Dreaming

Abandon thought and theory for a moment and reflect on the facts:

    ◊ Earth is the only planet known to harbor life.
    ◊ If a model of the Earth were built to the scale of an apple, then the whole biosphere of Earth would appear in the model as being thinner than the skin of said apple.
    ◊ Homo Sapiens is the only species to have broken free of Earth’s gravity to explore the vast, inanimate cosmos.

So with the exception of spacefarers, every man and woman, every sage and fool, king and serf, Othello and Iago, has fretted away an hour of existence within the confines of a film clinging to a dead iron ball hurtling through an indifferent universe. One final, vital fact:

    ◊ Four billion summers from today, our sun will exhaust the hydrogen that fuels it. Helium fusion will begin. The sun will swell to a diameter about as large as the present orbit of the Earth. The seas of Earth will boil away. Life will end.

When I reflect on these four facts, I do not see the exploration of space as a luxury. I see the exploration of space as our species inherent, manifest destiny. If life should not perish, then it’s up to humanity to carry life out of its cradle and into the cosmos. Meeting this destiny will be the single most difficult task our species has ever undertaken. Neil deGrasse Tyson sharply reminds us that at present we are failing to work toward our destiny—an unacceptable lapse of imagination and nerve.

(via joost5)