THE
FUTURIST A Journal of Forecasts, Trends and Ideas About the Future
Vol. III, No.5
October 1969
The Need for New Worlds What should be man's long-range goals? A Space Age philosopher proposes that man should move out from the earth and colonize the uni verse. He believes that in exploring and develop ing new worlds, man will find the means of uniting the world, dealing with problems on earth, and opening up a future of infinite possi bility for mankind. He calls his statement, "A Declaration of the Right of Mankind to Have a Future." It was written just after the landing of men on the moon. by Earl Hubbard. Earth-bound history has ended. Universal history has begun. Mankind has been born into the universe. The long-range goal for mankind should be to seek and settle new worlds for the race of man.
The United States is now building the first public stairway to the stars. It is this nation's destiny to help find new worlds for man and so bring to all men on earth a new hope, a new future in
a universe of infinite diversity and opportunity. The option of unlimited opportunity is ours to offer the world if we choose to seek new worlds now. But if we choose to remain on earth and try to solve our problems here first, mankind's accel erating capacities to grow-such as the population explosion, the prolongation of life, and the cybernation of repetitive work-will threaten our survival. With cybernation and automation, there will be less for man to do. With a prolonged life-span, there will be more time to do less. Thus there will be mare people doing less for long periods of time. But, by investing now in the means of developing new worlds for mankind, the United States will invest in the only hope of solving the problems on this earth and in the only hope of pro viding a future for mankind. The requisite industry to find new worlds and convert planets into life-support systems can provide the men and women of this earth with jobs, a sense of united purpose, and a sense of human dignity. To produce a race that has the energy to act and the power to dream without the means of moving out would be to create an explosive situation. For we have created an energy on this earth that is too great for earth to contain. We have created a popula tion which is expanding at the same time that we have created, through education, a means of translating this energy of popula tion into an energy of awareness, of aspiration. We will solve most growth problems in direct proportion to our capacity to find new worlds. In accepting the need for new worlds, mankind can bring a new sense of proportion to earthly problems. We will see earth as a beginning, not as an end. We will conceive of our function not as a curator of a dying earth in a dying solar system, but as a potential participator in universal affairs. If man stays on this earth, however, his extinction is sure even if he lasts until the sun expands and destroys him. There is no element of doubt in the prediction of man's extinction if he remains only on earth. Meaning of Life May Lie Elsewhere in the Universe We have unknowingly arrived at a point where it is no longer reasonable to assume that the meaning of life lies on this earth alone, for if earth is all there is for man, we are reaching a foreseeable end of man. This means that in the long run there is no rational basis for education, for urban renewal, for integra tion, for world union, for justice, for freedom, for morality. This means that all man has done in the past he has done for nothing. If, on the contrary, we assume that the greater meaning of man must be sought in the universe, we recognize that the meaning of the past and all we know of life lies forever in the future, and
THE FUTURIST, OCTOBER 1969
Earl Hubbard, artist and philosopher, this year published The Search Is On, a book emph osizing the importance of space exploration for man's future.
with each step we take we gain some broader understanding of the past and a greater urgency to seek the future. It is my hope to demonstrate that the effort to seek new worlds will provide the basis for meaningful employment for all; a peace ful approach to the population problem; the encouragement of world union; a future for democracy; meaningful education; the further release of the human potential, and an increcsed aware ness of the creative intention. Space Exploration Will Offer Meaningful Employment to Everyone Within 10 years aerospace has become the single largest industry in the United States. If we expand aerospace industries and begin to train youth and the unemployed and those who so desire in developing nations for these industries there will be jobs for most people in the world, and there will be evolutionary jobs that require men of aspiration, capable of change. Most men have had to do repetitive tasks in the darkness of oblivion. Most men never have been free to do their best. If we choose to seek new worlds most men would be concerned with evolutionary tasks which demand the best from all. New stand ards of excellence and craftsmanship will be set. We could have Americans, Europeans, Asians, Africans, all peoples working together on the new frontier. Thus, if we commit ourselves to this great goal of seeking new worlds, we can go now into the ghettos, rich and poor alike, that is to all who have a sense of hopelessness-roll a red carpet from their feet to the stars, and say, "Mankind needs you." Accepting evolution into the universe as the business of man offers a larger perspective to such challenges as urban renewal and job training. It brings to these tasks the possibility of parti cipating in this glorious event. The effect would be to tap the pride that all men possess. To tap that pride is to release the fundamental energy of the transcendent force itself. To accept the search for new worlds as the challenge is to release the transcend ent spirit of man. New Worlds Would Help Solve Population Problem Those who seek to solve earth's problems before seeking new worlds must regard children as the biggest single threat that contemporary man now faces. For it is predictable that if we stay on this earth with a growing population, there will be less room, less food, and fewer opportunities. The peaceful means of solving the population problem is a combination of voluntary birth control and finding new worlds. Our gateway to the future is the National Aeronautics and Space Agency. It should change its name to the Agency for New Worlds.
In its last issue, THE FUTURIST invited readers to submit suggestions as to what should be man kind's long-range goals. This unusual article was written in response to our invitation. Other ideas on long-range goals would be welcome. 117
Its function will be to explore and develop new worlds for man kind, to evolve life-support systems on other planets, and to perfect the means of transporting life to them. NASA is mankind's Noah's ark. The flood is a people-flood. We cannot get millions of people off this earth now, but we can get millions of people working in the aerospace industries to get millions of people off this earth in the future. Nothing less than large-scale involvement in a common endeavor can turn men from mutual self-destruction. Space Might Unify Mankind The basis of union for man is the acceptance of the infinite possibilities that the universe holds. In accepting the universe as the frontier of man's survival through evolution, the attitude of all men becomes magnetized towards a united effort. It taps the natural resources of each man and urges him to build a better futu re fa r his ch ild ren. The discovery of the New World (America) had the effect on Europe of a conversion from despair to hope. A new option was offered to the despised and depressed. Hope had found a new home. Here was a place where one could start anew. The devel opment of the new worlds in this solar system will have the same effect. If the people of this world are convinced that the United States is building a bridge from this earth to new worlds for all men, they will seek to [oin in this effort. If this Old World is convinced
of the need to find new worlds for its grandchildren, we will have a basis of union and peace that is valid. Democracy Might Be Revitalized Democracy is being challenged to channel the rising transcend ent urge of man into a physical means capable of emancipating man from a world without choice to a universe of opportunity. Affluence of opportunity and material well-being are accelerating man's urge to transcend. This urge cannot be pacified or sup pressed but it must be directed. The challenge for a democratic world leader is to direct energy of transcendence toward a new future on a new world and a greater meaning for mankind in the universe. Education Could Become More Meaningful Education traditionally has trained the next generation to carry the race of man one more step. Our survival now depends on our capacity to unite our total energies to move into the universe. What is outmoded about our educational system is not so much the system but the goal: providing new consumers or producers of things. The primary goal of education now should be to provide the world with those capable of making decisions favor able to the evolution of mankind into the universe. We must train our youth to take on the awesome responsibility of finding a means of survivaL for mankind on new worlds. The frustration of youth is the frustration of no future. Youth need a challenge that demands the best they have to give and more than they yet know they have to give. If the youth of the world rally to the tasks of evolution and transcendence, the world could be transformed from a ghetto of despair into a sphere of hope, aspiration and joy. The search for new worlds means more than engineering. It means a new way of thinking about an old aspiration-the urge to do better, to build better, to think better. Human Potential Could Be Released Mankind has been born into the universe. All previous defini tions of man have been as premature as those we might make for a child in the womb. No one knows what mankind can do. The prenatal history records the building of a body capable of moving into the universe. With birth, mankind is moving from a passive past in the womb of earth toward a participating future in universal affairs. The revelation of our capacities awaits our setting foot on other planets. Each step we take, from planet to planet until we emerge from our solar system, will be a step of growth, of maturation. 118
We will begin changing the environment of the moon, and it is conceivable that we will learn how to make Mars or Venus habit able. These are small acts for a child of the universe, but they are essential acts of growth. Each planet will be a key to unlock the successive chambers of man's estimated 85-900/0 untapped mental capacities. The meet ing of our unmeasured capacities with the immeasurable possibil ities of the universe exceeds our present powers of imagination. To say that we are a child of the universe is to proclaim the infinite possibilities for the human potential. Space Travel May Lead Man Towards Greater Awareness of the Creative Intention If we live in a random universe, we live in an irrational universe and nothing we sayar do matters, as unacceptable as that might seem. If we can be guided by appearances, we live in an extra ordinarily well organized universe. To see order is to assume intention. Through science, the sensory system of mankind, we are be coming dimly aware of the architecture of the universe in terms of laws. laws appear to represent an intentional arrangement of energy. laws appear to represent intentional acts. We live in a lawful universe; it is full of laws. We seek now to be a law-abiding member of the universe, with the realization that implicit within this lawful universe there appears to lie an intention. Since this intention appears to be ever-evolving, the word creative is rightly attached to it. As a child of the universe, our survival depends on our understanding these laws and seeking to discern what the creative intention is insofar as it applies to us. We will be either a law-abiding species or an extinct species. Before us and beyond these words stands the rocket, man's means of going to the planets. Looming now in our awareness is the next frontier, the moon, and beyond it, in vague outline, Mars. On these worlds and beyond we will learn more of the laws of the universe and words right and wrong, good and bod, God and man, will find their new definition. But if we stay on this circular, closed-system earth, with no future beyond the earth, these words will cease to be meaningful as they are already becoming in some areas. Without a future, these words will become meaningless noises on a dying planet. But as we learn to live first on the moon and then on the next planet and the next, the meaning of these words will evolve with every step. The full grandeur of the creative intention includes more than this earth, the solar system, the galaxy, and perhaps even the universe. To know this intention, we must have the faith and fortitude and essential joyous spirit to go a!1 the way. (The foregoing orticle is bosed on 0 work in progress, olso entltled The Need for New Worlds. Eorl Hubbor~'s newly- published book, The Seorch Is On, is reviewed in this issue. His address is: Wells Hill Rood, lakeville, Connecticut 06039.)
o New Aspirations for Man in in the Space Age Earl Hubbard's book, The Search Is On, is re viewed by a lawyer who has actively sought to solve the social problems of New York City. by Richard A. Givens The Search Is On by Earl Hubbard is a slim 169-page paper back which may turn out to be one of the most important docu ments of the newly emerging age. Written with majestic simplicity, it points to new challenges that can provide a stimulus for re building the earth while we seek to explore the stars. It is written in a style that anyone can understand, yet it contains ideas of inexhaustible significance. In the past, according to Hubbard, man's chief task was-and had to be-to remain alive. The ideal for the future therefore THE FUTURIST, OCTOBER 1969