Our species future has many opportunities and constraints. We will evolve, our society will evolve. While we remain fixed to Earth's gravity well, we are limited to material that is available on Earth and anything that transcends from space into our lower atmosphere. Given this, our future on this planet is constrained by the amount of available energy.
The following table provides a scale of energy consumption for any species (human or other) given different energy availability.
Type 1 |
a civilization that harnesses all the energy on one planet |
Type 2 |
a civilization that harnesses all the energy from one star |
Type 3 |
a civilization that harnesses all the energy from one galaxy |
To push our civilization past Earth's lower atmosphere, we need to maintain and extend our spacefaring capability. Our next step after the International Space Station encamps people upon the Moon's surface. The encampment has people living self-sufficiently on the Moon, growing their food and leading productive lives. Extending our civilization like this will require a significant amount of energy but will also be the first non-terran extension of our species resource acquisition potential.
by Mark Foster Mortimer
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