Friday 21 November 2014

Interstellar -- virus!

I watched the movie Interstellar recently.

The reviews emphasised the real science that was depicted in the movie. My beef is not with the science. My beef is with the ethics. Here it is in a nutshell: If mankind is responsible for the "destruction in process" of the earth environment, is it then ethical to export the virus homo sapiens (this was proven in Matrix) to yet another planet? The conclusion of the movie showed a glowing Interstellar colony -- but what assurance do we have that the colonists are only "good" guys, that no "bad" guys were exported?

The morally responsible thing for mankind to do is to let homo sapiens destroy themselves on this planet -- and thence give Planet Earth a chance to recover (though this may take some millions of years). I'm hoping this happens before we find a way to colonise some other planet -- and spread the virus homo sapiens. Intelligent life is nature's latest experiment gone wrong. I hope we are smart enough to realise that -- but I fear we are not.

Here's an indicator: The great benefit of the melting Arctic ice cap is the opening of a new sea route.

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