Long Voyage Home

Long Voyage Home

There are no Sacred Truth

Science is, so far, entirely a human invention, evolved by natural selection in the cerebral cortex for one simple reason: it works! There is no other species on Earth that does science. A few millions years ago there were no humans. Thus, there was no science. Today we have it, but there are to rules to follow: First: There are no sacred truth. This means that arguments from authority are worthless and all assumptions must be critically examined. Second: Whatever is inconsistent with the facts must be discarded or revised. That means that we must understand the world as it is and not confuse how it is with how we wish it to be.

In all the 4.5 or more billion-year history of the Earth, noting much ever left it. But now, tiny exploratory spacecraft from Earth are moving, glistening and elegant, through the universe. The humans have made a preliminary reconnaissance of two dozens of worlds, among them all the planets visible to the naked eye, all those wandering nocturnal lights that stirred our ancestors toward understanding and ecstasy.

The obvious is sometimes false, the unexpected is sometimes true. We have come from the Cosmos and we were born ultimately of the stars and now for while inhabiting a world called Earth, we have begun our long voyage home. Photo: © Elena

The human species is now undertaking a great venture that if successful will be as important as the colonization of the land or the descent from the trees.

This planet is a tiny, fragile, blue-white world, lost in a cosmic ocean vast beyond our most courageous imaginings. Only a tiny world among an immensity of others. This planet may be significant only for us, whose kind of life arose and evolved here. In the cosmic perspective, this world is rare and beautiful, and it is also unique.