The expansion of civilization beyond the limits of our home planet is the moral issue of our time.
This book represents the author's reflection about the state of civilization, some possible futures and the deep moral implications of the great choices that civilization has to make. It is hard to overcome the old paradigm of space exploration for its own sake, which has characterised the strategy of the world's largest and most advanced space agency, NASA. Why not to state clearly that, should we not expand into space within this century, our civilisation would be prematurely terminated? Why not acknowledge that the expansion beyond the limits of our mother planet is an absolute and vital necessity for a civilization that will soon exceed eight billion individuals? The multiple reasons for such a failure includes philosophical ones, deeply rooted in what I call the pre-Copernican paradigm of the “closed world”. However, the main aim of this work is not to denounce those responsible for a very regrettable delay of half a century, but rather to put together, in a coherent and integrated way, the deeply moral reasons of a finally mature expansionist strategy.
The expansion of civilization beyond the limits of our home planet is the moral issue of our time.
