Why we’re still on the couch

Thumbing  (well, clicking actually) through an old issue of SEED, I ran across “Why We Haven’t Met Any Aliens” by  Geoffrey Miller. He’s come up with an interesting answer to Fermi’s Paradox. (That is, if there’s such a high probability of intelligent life in the universe, why haven’t we met anybody yet?)  Basically, Miller is saying that intelligences like ours develop technology beyond their ability to deal with it. That’s not a new argument. But he’s not saying we’d necessarily blow ourselves up. No, it’s more like we’d self-stimulate ourselves—like pleasure seeking lab rats—through games, books, movies, Facebook—into never leaving the proverbial couch. (Or, according to him, even reproducing.)

I won’t get into his explanation of fitness faking—which has nothing to do with cheating at your Wii cardio-boxing—but some of what he says is true.  We have become so wrapped up in consumerism and simulated realities that we may forget (or just don’t see the need) as a society to boldly go.  What Miller forgets, though, is that only a few individuals ever really boldly go into new territories. They lead the way for the rest us.

And, where do these intrepid few often get their inspiration?  Movies. Games. Books. TV shows.  Sure, it’s far easier to make Star Wars than actually explore the galaxy. (Anyone remember Capricorn One?) But Star Wars [or insert favorite sci-fi movie/book/TV show] perhaps opened up the narcissistic, self-gratifying public’s mind to the possibilities of life on other worlds.  It certainly inspired many, many scientists, engineers, and astronauts to work for NASA or some contractor or university.  (NASA employees are a deep well of movie, TV, game, and book geekdom. Ask me about Code 7R some time.)  These intrepid folks devote their lives to finding life out there and / or finding a way off this lonely rock.   I bet similar intelligences out there have their own inspirations driving them toward us as well.

However, it takes more than few intrepid explorers to boldly go.  To quote Gus Grissom [as interpreted by Gordon Cooper] from one of my favorite movies, The Right Stuff: “No bucks. No Buck Rogers.” For bucks, you need either political will and/or the prospect of even more bucks.  We got to the moon in 1969 because the US government pumped ungodly amounts of money into the Apollo program—because we wanted to beat the Soviets. There was a perceived military advantage to going to the Moon—hence the political will (and money) to get there. We got there first and haven’t been back since 1972.  There wasn’t a reason stay—other than scientific curiosity. (Heaven forbid that should be enough to motivate us.) Both the US and the USSR decided satellites were more effective than a military base on the moon.  We haven’t found a sufficient military or monetary reason to leave low Earth orbit since then.

However, if someone found gold or uranium or [insert valuable commodity here] on asteroids, for instance, you know we’d throw boatloads of cash into making it profitable to go get it.  Right now, though, the cost to get something off the Earth is, pardon the pun, astronomical. We’ve hit this technological-fiscal-political barrier that we don’t have a sufficient reason or will to overcome. Yet.

Maybe all intelligent species hit this plateau—then they go back to their X-boxes and Star Wars equivalents and get comfy on the couch. (Hopefully, not too comfy, though.)