I believe it is humanity's ultimate destiny to evolve into an interstellar society!

[Zuben]

There was this interesting sci-fi board game I played that featured multiple alien factions... and multiple human factions. The alien factions each represented one race, while humans were divided. The lore of the game pretty much stated that humanity would overrun the rest if it wasn't divided by ideologies and infighting. Like in the real world. I think the space frontier will open and be going on for a good while before humanity abandons tribalism. If it ever will.

[Ashnazg]

What would you think of a person who believes that democracy and freedom will ultimately triumph over tyranny and oppression and then humanity will expand into space? Humanity will abandon failed outdated ideologies like fascism, communism, and unequal greedy capitalism.

That's silly, communism is the true end-game/utopian ideology. Whether humanity will ever be evolved enough to accept it, is a different story, but to call it "outdated" is ridiculous

Isn't Star Trek an example of communist interstellar society?

[Yunru]

Well just wait till moon blows up due to overmining:

32.20 (also spoiler)

This is reference to humans and their ignorance of the planet nature.

[Dhrizzle]

That's silly, communism is the true end-game/utopian ideology. Whether humanity will ever be evolved enough to accept it, is a different story, but to call it "outdated" is ridiculous

Isn't Star Trek an example of communist interstellar society?

The ultimate society is a post-scarcity anarcho-communist utopia where humanity's needs are all met by benevolent machine overlords.

[Shadowferal]

The ultimate society is a post-scarcity anarcho-communist utopia where humanity's needs are all met by benevolent machine overlords.

I for one will welcome our Borg overlords.

[Volatilis]

Pop culture often reinforces those views.

Well then where is my commercial hoverboard.

It was in the movie back to the future!!

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Sadly we will likely throw it all away and kill ourselves before that. After all.. coal works need jobs so we need to keep putting that shit into the air so they have a reason to dig it up.

[Ashnazg]

The ultimate society is a post-scarcity anarcho-communist utopia where humanity's needs are all met by benevolent machine overlords.

True..

Damn, that makes me wanna play Stellaris again

[Queen of Hamsters]

Ah yes, the current political climates in our world sure spells out greatness in our future.

[PC2]

Ah yes, the current political climates in our world sure spells out greatness in our future.

The overall metrics seem to be positive. "political climate" is a feeling, it's not really a good way to analyze progress.

[Sunseeker]

It's gonna take some serious emotional evolution for humanity to venture into space in any manner that looks anything like Star Trek. "Great explorers" exploring for the sake of knowledge and exploration. BULLLLLLSHHHIIIIIIT.

We'll go into space for the same reason we crossed the oceans: wealth and conquest.

[Shadowferal]

We'll go into space for the same reason we crossed the oceans: wealth and conquest.

"Conquest?"
ya...nothing to see there.

"Wealth?"
Good luck with that investment.

[PC2]

"Conquest?"
ya...nothing to see there.

"Wealth?"
Good luck with that investment.

Space investment is not really a matter of luck it's a matter of how many centuries and millenia of advancement it would take to make investments worth it.

[Shadowferal]

o..not going to happen then. At least not as it pertains to "today."
Hell, likely not even going to happen in the next century...not that anyone will give a shit since we'll all be dead anyway.

[Endus]

It's gonna take some serious emotional evolution for humanity to venture into space in any manner that looks anything like Star Trek. "Great explorers" exploring for the sake of knowledge and exploration. BULLLLLLSHHHIIIIIIT.

We'll go into space for the same reason we crossed the oceans: wealth and conquest.

It's never gonna look like Star Trek. Roddenberry had some neat ideas, his idea of a society that's without internal conflict of basically any kind is . . . laughable, really. You could make it prosperous enough to stem petty crimes, but not really reduce crimes of passion or crimes by the mentally ill.

It's gonna look more like The Expanse. There'll be a lot of corporate backing, there'll be a factionalization as the forces of Earth proper fail to be able to exert control over the further reaches, etc. Even if it's stable in the outset, like the British Empire, it'll balkanize into politically independent planets and/or stations.

The only thing that'd unite humanity in the sense that Star Trek's vision provided, would be a massive external threat that was seeking to wipe out humanity as a whole. Even if it were just jockeying for status/resources, we'd find a way to negotiate and we'd try to play them against other human factions.

[PC2]

o..not going to happen then. At least not as it pertains to "today."
Hell, likely not even going to happen in the next century...not that anyone will give a shit since we'll all be dead anyway.

Hundreds of millions are being lifted out of poverty and the population could easily go up to 9-10 billion in the next century. Yet we're going extinct...

[Masark]

The ultimate society is a post-scarcity anarcho-communist utopia where humanity's needs are all met by benevolent machine overlords.

So, The Culture.

[PC2]

@Shadowferal

Oh maybe you just meant the people on this forum will be dead. Which of course we'll be dead, but we should still try to imagine what the future could look like for future gens.

Without being "prophetic", of course.

[Sunseeker]

"Conquest?"
ya...nothing to see there.

"Wealth?"
Good luck with that investment.

There are a great deal of raw materials floating around space. The trick is obviously getting to them and transporting them somewhere for fabrication (or transporting fabricated products to their final destination). Even if there aren't aliens to fuck/conquer we'll do just fine setting up colonies and then fucking/conquering other humans.

Yeah exactly, material resources or just more space on more planets is the only reason to expand. Star Trek was about a kind of exploration that doesn't make any sense.

It would be about "knowledge" though, it just doesn't matter where knowledge is created. Technically people could be in cubicles on Earth and still deduce what we will find in space up to some increasing amount of accuracy over time. Unless there's other advanced lifeforms out there, which they would really botch our ability to model the universe from anywhere.

Sure, in the same way that early scientists often accompanied merchant vessels or were sent out explicitly at the order of Kings and the wealthy. There will always be some exploration for the sake of exploration, but it will be as "Something that nerd does while the troops fight the giant bugs."

It's never gonna look like Star Trek. Roddenberry had some neat ideas, his idea of a society that's without internal conflict of basically any kind is . . . laughable, really. You could make it prosperous enough to stem petty crimes, but not really reduce crimes of passion or crimes by the mentally ill.

It's gonna look more like The Expanse. There'll be a lot of corporate backing, there'll be a factionalization as the forces of Earth proper fail to be able to exert control over the further reaches, etc. Even if it's stable in the outset, like the British Empire, it'll balkanize into politically independent planets and/or stations.

The only thing that'd unite humanity in the sense that Star Trek's vision provided, would be a massive external threat that was seeking to wipe out humanity as a whole. Even if it were just jockeying for status/resources, we'd find a way to negotiate and we'd try to play them against other human factions.

Exactly, humans gonna be humans. Be it on the land or sea, or in the sky and space. If we don't find aliens to screw over, we'll screw over ourselves.

Frankly, the Klingons are probably the most accurate representation of what a future space-faring earth would look like. Lots of factions. Lots of rogue individuals. Lots of guns and a typical approach of an RPG "shoot first, loot the bodies, damn the questions".

[LastRide]

While it might seem like space travel is the future, we really ought to be spending our time and resources cultivating life on Earth so that we can evolve as a collective consciousness.