#afroscifi

[nayson-13]

My pride and joy. My books are my babies. Shelf full of magick and black authors

[darkartsgallery]

Artwork by Reine Dibussi https://m.facebook.com/reine.dibussi/?ref=page_internal ART IS WORK SUPPORT BLACK ARTISTS

[afroscifigirl-blog]

The ethics of space colonisation

So, big news from NASA. Not one, not two, but THREE Earth-like planets in a recently discovered solar system. To call this exciting would be an understatement - there’s even a Google doodle for it! I was staring at my screen, mouth agape, for a good 60 seconds when I read the headline. All those sci-fi stories of space exploration and human expansion across the universe are one step closer to becoming reality. Although we still need to figure out how to get to said planets, the fact that they exist and we know they exist opens up a treasure trove of possibilities.

But there’s one we need to have a serious conversation about. The question of establishing human settlements on other planets. Essentially, space colonisation.

Colonisation. Ugh. That word leaves a nasty after-taste in my mouth. The colonial era was a particularly nasty period in human history, mainly because it lasted so long, and even to this day, there are many who want to downplay the violence and damage it inflicted (David Cameron, Boris Johnson, I see you). Colonisation essentially gave the green light for white Europeans to bulldoze their way into Africa, Asia and both Americas, using brute force and religion to establish colonies and deny indigenous peoples self-determination. It’s still a painful reality for many people, and even though it’s now in the history books, the legacy of colonisation is very much alive and well.

So colonisation=bad, inhumane and unethical. But does that apply to space?

Let’s go back to those newly discovered planets (even the word ‘discovered’ harks back to colonisation: it connotes that the planets didn’t exist and didn’t matter before they came to our attention). While we’re excited about the possibilities, it’s important to ask: is it okay to create human settlements in a place that essentially doesn’t belong to us? This is all working on the assumption that these planets are empty and devoid of life, but what if they already have inhabitants? Is it right for us as humans to step in and create our own settlements? Because if we do, and let’s be completely honest, they won’t just stay settlements. Parties become settlements. Settlements become communities. Communities turn to fully-fledged colonies. Even those vintage-style posters promoting outer-space tourism are eerily similar to the posters that presented colonies as an exotic paradise. 

Another scenario: let’s say that the only way for the human race to survive is to create space colonies. After all, we’ve treated our Earth so badly, perhaps the time will come when it can no longer sustain life. Is that still a good reason to set up camp elsewhere? No, it isn’t. Just because we treated our own planet so poorly doesn’t give us the right to turn around and invade someone else’s. And the most important question of all: if there is indeed life on other planets, what do we do if they don’t want us in their space? Will we acquiesce to their request and ship out, or will we try strong-arm them into submission?

Make no mistake, colonisation is violent. It is violent, it is oppressive, and it is destructive. In many instances, science fiction fast forwards to when we’ve already established an inter-planetary human presence, with only glimpses of galactic wars and tensions here and there. Stories like Star Trek paint the dream of a brighter tomorrow, but at what and whose cost?

This is all hypothetical, of course. For all we know we may very well never expand human civilisation across planets. However, the Mars mission speaks to our intentions, and the discovery of these possibly habitable planets may ramp up our efforts. So, instead of waiting for the moment when we start moving beyond Earth, we need to ask ourselves if space colonisation is ethically acceptable, and why we believe we have the right to expand beyond our world.  

Photo sourced from Wikimedia Commons. 

[midwestplus]

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[furrnana]

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[houseofeferet-blog]

#Art #Sketches #Ink #AfroSciFi #HouseOfEferet #AfricaRise So I was sorting through some old stuff when this fell out of a book. I honestly have no memory of drawing this...

[houseofeferet-blog]

#Art #Sketches #Ink #Pencil #AfroSciFi #HouseOfEferet A work in progress, set in the same storyline as one of my earliest pieces. Can you figure which one?