I see this moon launch as an exorbitantly wasteful, nationalist project. No money for healthcare and housing, but plenty of money to boldly go where man has gone several many times before.
When I bring this up with liberal friends and family, they give me a sort of incredulous look and talk about how wonderful and scientific and non-political it is. I don't mind being the "you've gone too far left" guy, but you talk to the same people about military spending and they're right on board.
Is someone here able to diagnose my crankiness and explain why this is actually a good use of resources? (Will also accept echo-chamber validation and ways to use this to increase class consciousness, if offered.)
Was it imperial expansion when the first humans left Africa? Or got to Australia 40,000 years ago? Or walked across the Bering land bridge to America? Or when Polynesians sailed east across the Pacific? Humans need to explore past what they know. It's fundamental to the human condition.
Think about what you're saying. If walking from one place to another is biological then what is settlement in those places? If walking from Asia to N America was the biological necessity, then what was settling in N America after the walk? Why is one a biological necessity over the other? We're working backwards from the assumption that walking is the special part, not examining the things that exist alongside walking. Humans walked and settled and either both of those are a biological necessity or neither are.
If we're talking about culture, then I agree that walking long distances became cultural. Sagan specified biology though.
Some people get discontent with where they are and want to try their luck elsewhere. It's the same drive that makes some people leave their hometowns to try and make it in the city while others want to give up the rat race and move out to the country side. Sure there some people use imperialism as the tool for said exploration/roaming, but I genuinely believe that some people just need to see what is out there. I think it's the same thing that makes some people want to create their own art/music. A lot of people just want to know what is possible, what is out there, or what they are actually capable of doing once they push themselves to the extreme. And that drive is common across pretty much all cultures across all ages, so I have to assume it's biological to some degree. Just like how everyone with a cat or a child will tell you they are constantly trying to see what is in a restricted area.
And obviously that's not for everyone. Plenty or people live and die in the same place they grew up, watch the same handful of TV shows/movies over and over, or listen to the same playlist every day. But I believe that exploration of the unknown should always be encouraged, and for some people images from a probe won't be enough and they want to go out and see it for themselves.
I'll have to stick to the specifics of the argument and context on this one. We're talking about biology and now you're talking about individual personalities wistfully dreaming of greener pastures. We're slowly drifting from the point to something far beside the point. The point was that Sagan is conflating a more modern historical and social condition with human nature. This is something that people have done for hundreds of years and part of why capitalism is sticky. The innovation of Marx is that this modern social condition is not the eternal state of humankind, but something that has changed over time and must be changed. Everything has a social and historical context. The only way to make "people just want to explore new ideas" fit in with "traveling to space is a biological imperative" and "because people long ago traveled long distances" is to have no regard for either social or historical context. You have to remove context in order to flatten it out and make it all seem on the same level.
This isn't an argument about the indomitable spirit of mankind or whether people dream of possibilities. I'm trying to view this through a socialist lens not a romantic, literary one.