[TDF Newsletter] [TDF-2007-01] - Newsletter 2007 - Colonize the Near Earth Space
Dear Co-planetaries,
one year has passed, since the last newsletter, and many of you perhaps
have thought that TDF has closed, or given up, overcome by events. Yes
and no.
Yes, we are overwhelmed by events, both personal and general. No, we
havenât given up voicing our opinion, since we maintain the illusion
that it can contribute, modestly, to sorting out the problems. Many
things have happened, in this 2007, and at an ever faster pace. The
impression is that thereâs no more time to explain, to deduce, or to
"educate", as the kindest, open and democratic institutional slang
suggests. It is easy to be democratic, kind and smiling, when one
occupies jobs sustained by public money. But no, I didn't want to start
with such a hard antibureaucratic attack. The bureaucrats will have to
help too, in the coming times, and we will not make them see reason, if
we keep on calling them a "caste", though they deserve most of the
accusations. Yes, I said âreasonâ. Apart from reasoning, only violence
can exist, and we already have seen too much of that. A thousand times
we have seen that violence doesn't resolve problems; rather it creates
new and worse ones, as soon as the illusion of an easy victory fades
into long slaughter. Therefore letâs tell things as they are, in few
lines, because a newsletter has to be short and essential.
While in Italy we discuss the mediocrity of an endless Middle Ages, 500
years behind the times on reform, the world, or the human civilization,
is facing problems of great severity. Planetary ideological crusades on
climate change are carried on, claiming human responsibility in this
crisis. Even if none of it was true, and if, as it seems, the rise of
the CO2 level follows the rise in global temperature, and not
vice-versa, and if however the CO2, as greenhouse-gas, it is laughable,
do we think that we are to enjoy centuries of boundless development on
this planet? Will the dreamers please immediately wake up!: their
ideological sleep puts civilization in serious danger. We have in fact
to consider a looming menace, which is almost insoluble with traditional
strategies: the finite nature of available energy resources, of raw
materials, and of the water and food resources of our mother planet. The
fact of our population, now almost 7 billion, seems to be neglected by
the majority. The development of China and India is creating the
enormous growth of the Asian markets. A benediction, for the course of
the world economy:it offers the best possibilities for everybody to have
job opportunities, to create enterprises, to develop businesses,
scientific and technological research. However, the finite nature of the
resources of this planet leads to the indiscriminate growth of the
prices of oil, of copper and other metallic raw materials. These
recently started enormous processes are causing upheavals of massive
scope, of which media are giving a few cryptic signs, for those who know
how to find them.
The crisis of the globalized subprime mortgages is a clear symptom of a
more and more claustrophobic culture, built up on illusions of
superstructural self-sufficiency (communications, entartainment,
financial self-targeted speculation). Such a culture no longer succeeds
in valuing the always essential industrial base. It ends up therefore
mired in avarice, in a renewed form of slavery, in the creeping Nazism
of the green philosophies, and in the naked return of the Holy
Inquisition, which was was never truly beaten, no reformed from within
(proof is the recent beatification of 498 Spanish franchist torturers).
In this environment workers' deaths on the job only make news when a
terrible fire happens, like that of Thyssen Krupp in Turin, but they
continue silently, in Italy, at the horrible rate of 4-5 deaths a day.
Sharks, hyenas, vultures and other lovers of war as an instrument for
development, are proceeding with their goal to impose their very simple
doctrine on the whole world: the poor have to resign themselves to serve
as slaves or to be exterminated without pity, in the name of a claimed
moral superiority of western civilization (but how is it moral, if we
are the worse assassins and slave drivers??).
Once more, if Astronautics has a possibility, it seems to be fully in
military hands: the USâ Pentagon is exhuming the project of space solar
power, and the Moon exploration plans are entirely due to the fear that
their Chinese competitors, and the revived Russian ones, can arrive
perhaps first, to plant their flag on our pale natural satellite. Only a
few months ago I was considering a question: will the West be able to
understand and to decide the priority of the space option? Nowadays this
question is already obsolete. There was an opportunity to take an
evolutionary footstep in name of human and humanistic principles,
understanding the urgency to realize the space option. But we have
already missed this option. In the world thereâs a new rattling of
swords, and similar noises will be propagated into our extraterrestrial
neighbourhood. However, if we go to space for these primitive reasons,
it will still be better than if we didn't go there at all. It could also
be that, once the frontier is open, whatever motive that provoked its
opening , warfare can be avoidedâ. You know: the exasperated husband
goes out, takes the car and drives for a ride to the sea-side. This way
he forgets to actually attack his wifeâ a one less news about violence
on women in the newspapers. This is what we need: to open the doors, to
take a breath, and to reduce the tide of death in our newpapers. Maybe
even a smile will return to our faces, and we won't be depressed and in
decline anymore. If we simply remain Earthbound, I have doubt that we
would soon come to blows.
The road is simple and almost inevitable: we colonize the Moon, start
exploiting its resources, and start using the Near Asteroids as source
of raw materials, to build the Space Infrastructure. Only this can truly
relaunch economic development, making the cake return to growth, and
therefore to replace the swords in their scabbards. To garrison Near
Space is also the only way to defend ourselves from possible asteroids
or comets, which could strike our planet. To take possession of near-
Earth Space is essential, today, not the next century. The greater our
growth in population without having opened up the solar system, the more
our chances of settling outside our planet will be decreased. Probably
we are nearing a critical point, a make or break-event, beyond which the
situation of our civilization will be so difficult, fractious and
desperate that we won't be able to expand into space anymore. Perhaps
many more people, nowadays, are noticing the approach of such a critical
event, even than only one year ago: this greater number of aware and
concerned people is our only hope. The moratorium on the death penalty,
adopted by the U.N., is another small flame of hope, in the correct
direction.
On June 7th 2008 TDF will hold its second international convention, the
title is:
"A new Renaissance: Colonizing the Moon and the Near Earth Asteroids"
(http://www.tdf.it/IC2/TDF_IC2_Home.htm)
at Belgirate, on Lago Maggiore, for people who are awake and concerned,
and want to roll up their sleeves and start working for this concrete
and simple goal, to focus again on the absolute priority of development
and growth.
Subscription are already open, the registration fee is free (according
to eachoneâs possibilities and sensitiveness), tickets for food can be
purchased on site. As soon as possible the other information will be
available on the conventionâs site (in progress).
In this number of TDF (http://www.tdf.it/english/homeen.html):
- Newsletter 2007 - Colonizing the Near Earth Space by A. Autino
- Service: Climate Change: real threat or political bugbear? by ZappalÃ,
Autino, Cavallo, Spairani, Martin-Smith, and others
- Climate Changes and the Limits of Science by Vincenzo ZappalÃ
- Global Warming or Global Stunning? by A. Autino
- Solar Energy from Space: a good reason to start colonization of nearer
space by A. Cavallo
- Venezia and the Future of Science a reportage by L. Spairani
- The Dalai Lama in Italy by A. Cavallo
- Notes from the Festival of Science of Genova by L. Spairani
- In memory of Joe Zawinul by A. Autino
- And, more, brief stories, reviews and other briefs
We will be waiting for you, on the TDF web site http://www.tdf.it/, and,
in sound presence, the day of the Convention in Belgirate!
Aim High!
Adriano Autino
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Technologies of the Frontier - www.tdf.it - adriano.autino@xxxxxx
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