Is exploration good in its own right, or is it only justifiable if it yields actionable research?
First of all, good morning not only to this amazing jury, but also to everyone in the audience. My name is Verónica Ortiz and I'll be presenting the topic entitled as "Is exploration good in its own right, or is it only justifiable if it yields actionable research?
We live in a world where humans only search for their own benefit, without thinking or considering anyone else's interests. And maybe that’s one of the biggest problems with human kind, their insatiable hunger of being the only ones that matter, which will slowly consume not only the minds of who think differently and in peace, but also Earth, the source of all those goods and riches for which they kill, pollute, and corrupt themselves. History has been very clear about the consequences of human greed, the everlasting thirst for wishing more, creating new necessities, and at the same time, twisting the meaning of this word into money and influence over the masses.
What is truly a necessity? It can be defined as something crucial, that can be determinant in life or death: Clothes, home, heat, food, even pleasure, in a certain sense, could become a necessity.
Now, at this time we found ourselves in a big moral and ethical dilemma, space and its exploration. Regardless of all the criticism, the truth is that whenever we talk about, even relating to something that may bring benefits to us, it appears to turn into a moral debate. To illustrate this assertion, Zachary J. Goldberg says in his essay about ethical responsibility in space exploration, that “The ethical questions arising in the context of current and future space travel and exploration are as abundant as they are complex”, so he couldn’t be more correct, technology advances, for instance, as it continues developing, so are our questions, and discussions about their right use, we definitely, need to put this crucial topic on the table.
In the same document, Goldberg asks, “Do we have an ethical obligation to limit our activities on celestial objects such as asteroids, comets, moons, or planets? Or are they there for us to research and exploit? Are we ethically permitted to take resources from the moon or other planets for use on earth? Should we preserve pristine space environments? If we discover extraterrestrial life, including microbial, would it deserve our moral consideration? For what reasons? To what extent? If long duration space flight becomes technologically feasible, would it be justifiable to send humans into space for years or decades? What are the risks involved?” All those prior stated questions deserve to be considered before taking a posture in this debate, but here we are not only talking about exploration for research, for scientific purposes, we are also talking about the ethical obligation we could have, as human kind, to exploit resources from space just for fun or because wey can. Furthermore, what about space tourism? or private investigations that are made by rich people, if we don't question their true intentions, until what point can we really trust them?
Despite every single advance disguised as a necessity, why has extreme consumerism been declared to be a true necessity? Why influencing others over several makeup branches and videogames to sponsor your videos is a necessity? Why is this now transformed into an apparent necessity?
Is it justifiable then the fact that all those trends, fads, whims, and chaotic choices at sight nowadays, are later going to be rotten in the darkness of the immense universe? When are we going to realize that the evasive way of thinking about our planet’s environmental reality might be simply too late to fix because leaving the planet, as soon as it shows signs of the damage that we have conveniently instilled on it, could be a reminder of how destructive a civilization can be, but always looking for the betterment of our investigative mankind.
By Verónica Ortiz, Step 9
