At this time, let’s depart behind the dismal headlines on this planet and take a run as much as the moon, the place the information is happier — or no less than funnier.
Lunar probes from each Japan and the US have in latest days landed on Earth’s barren satellite tv for pc to collect scientific knowledge. The landers are the most recent signal that we earthlings are resuming lunar exploration after a half century of neglect following the tip of the U.S. Apollo program that put the primary people on the moon.
That’s the completely satisfied information. The humorous half is that the Japanese lander is caught the other way up within the lunar mud, whereas the American lander is resting on its facet. It’s a new starting, however a less-than-auspicious one.
The 2 mishaps present how very far we nonetheless are from the fictional worlds of “Star Wars” and “Star Trek,” the place intrepid house vacationers within the distant future, or in a galaxy far, far-off, zip round from planet to planet like it’s a drive to the shopping center. In comparison with these dashing adventurers, we appear to nonetheless be not all that superior past the stick-tossing primates within the opening scenes of “2001: A Area Odyssey.”
The one one that is presently pushing humanity most urgently towards the celebrities is Earth’s richest man, Elon Musk, whose SpaceX firm has developed the primary rockets that may shoot into close to house after which return to terra firma and make a exact touchdown. Musk is keen to get to Mars earlier than he dies as a result of the gazillionaire firmly believes the one hope for preserving human consciousness within the universe is to search out folks a brand new planet.
Musk is satisfied of this, partly, as a result of he fears synthetic intelligence will very quickly turn out to be omnipotent and inclined to exterminate homo sapiens. He is likely to be proper about AI. (If that’s the case, why is he serving to deliver it to life?) However salvation could not lie on the Pink Planet.
As my favourite caustic, contrarian comic, Invoice Maher, has famous greater than as soon as, Mars just isn’t our form of place. The skinny Martian ambiance consists largely of carbon dioxide. If that doesn’t kill you, the intense vary of temperatures will. There aren’t any animals, no birds, no fish, no dolphins. There aren’t any lakes or oceans, no apple bushes or grass or blueberry bushes. Mars is Loss of life Valley with out air to breathe.
Musk and different alleged geniuses insist that, over time, human settlers on Mars will develop methods to deal with all of that. Nonetheless, I’m wondering if human consciousness is price preserving if we stupidly screw up this pretty planet so badly that we’ve got no survival choice left aside from escape into the frigid void of house.
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