Last Wednesday, the world’s eyes looked to the skies (well, via streaming, natch) as the four astronauts of the Artemis II mission departed Earth to swing around the moon at a distance farther than any Terran has been from home. It’s pretty remarkable what humans can do when we put our minds to it and collaborate. So what’s next? There’s talk of moon bases, trips to Mars, asteroid mining, and more. Or we can stay here and focus on terrestrial matters.
You can check out a debate on some of those options (or listen here if you prefer):
While I’ll admit to not knowing the ideal path to get there, count me among those in favor of boldly going where no one has gone before…as far as we know. Sure, growing up on sci-fi probably gave me a certain leaning. And I recognize it will not be easy, cheap, or without the possibility of exploitation. Nevertheless, for me it boils down to this: Life is the most interesting thing we know of in the cosmos, and the more life there is in more places, the more interesting it will get.
And since we just observed Easter, I can’t help but think that goal is consistent with what we were celebrating (along with the astronauts). Of course, there are many layers to the culmination of the gospel that is Jesus’ death and resurrection. I hope you don’t think it diminishes any other aspects to observe how the life God gives is so abundantly overflowing that not even death could contain it. Why not do what we can to magnify that life even further?
Now, we don’t know there isn’t life already out there in places other than Earth. Maybe just next door on Mars, maybe under the ice on Europa, or maybe nowhere closer than MoM-z14 (although the concept of “already” gets a bit fuzzy talking about something 33.8 billion light-years away). If life is already abundant in the cosmos, great! Still, the work needed to figure that out has a lot in common with the work needed to take life from Earth elsewhere. We can plan for both scenarios and pivot as needed once we get out there.
Of course, “out there” is very, very far. Even just Mars is over 100 times farther away than the record that was just set. There are those who see the vast distances and inhospitable space in between as evidence that the cosmos is not meant for life, or that life is an insignificant part of the cosmos. Personally, I think there are other ways to measure significance besides physical volume occupied.
For example, we can consider the idea of the adjacent possible, as introduced by Stuart Kauffman. The realm of the actual consists of all the things that currently exist, from quarks to water and oxygen to you and me and our digital watches. We can then take various objects that actually exist and combine them to make new objects. Many of those will be duplicates of things that already existed, but some of them will be never-before-seen novelties, like the Orion spacecraft hanging out by the moon. Everything that could exist which is one step away from what does exist is the adjacent possible. And once new things from the adjacent possible become actual, some things which were previously two steps away are now just one, adding to the current adjacent possible. From what we can tell, the adjacent possible of life is much larger than the adjacent possible of interstellar space. So why can’t we consider that evidence of the cosmic significance of life?
While we contemplate expanding the sphere of life in the physical space of the cosmos, we can also consider expanding the adjacent possible of life on Earth. That can be innovating or bringing more living beings into the world. That can also be creating opportunities for others, or perhaps even just not eliminating opportunities for others. That can be a grand, global effort, and it can be an every day habit of creativity, of collaborating, of leaving the world with a little more potential that it had when we woke up. After all, if we are going to bring life to more of the cosmos, we want to bring the best of what we have to offer. Might as well working on bringing our best to everywhere on Earth too and keep the winning streak for life rolling.
Andy has worn many hats in his life. He knows this is a dreadfully clichéd notion, but since it is also literally true he uses it anyway. Among his current metaphorical hats: husband of one wife, father of two teenagers, reader of science fiction and science fact, enthusiast of contemporary symphonic music, and chief science officer. Previous metaphorical hats include: comp bio postdoc, molecular biology grad student, InterVarsity chapter president (that one came with a literal hat), music store clerk, house painter, and mosquito trapper. Among his more unique literal hats: British bobby, captain’s hats (of varying levels of authenticity) of several specific vessels, a deerstalker from 221B Baker St, and a railroad engineer’s cap. His monthly Science in Review is drawn from his weekly Science Corner posts — Wednesdays, 8am (Eastern) on the Emerging Scholars Network Blog. His book Faith across the Multiverse is available from Hendrickson.
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