The Speculist

James Pinkerton has written an excellent article over at Tech Central Station entitled "The Ultimate Life Boat."

Hawking believes that human destructiveness, combined with bad luck, could destroy [civilization and]... the entire ecosystem...

If Hawking is right about this impending risk, then we have a duty to listen, and to act -- even if that means going where no man has gone before. That's how we can keep the partnership between the generations in force; we don't have to keep faith with the past and the future only from the platform of this planet.

We've written about some of these risks here and here at The Speculist.

Humanity can take steps right away to improve our chances in the event of a global disaster. Pinkerton mentioned the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. This arctic "doomsday vault" will be the largest and most diverse collection of seeds in the world - a Fortress of Solitude - for food.

But Stephen Hawking and Pinkerton are right about the ultimate answer to this risk - permanent off-world colonies. Such colonies would serve to protect humanity from extinction in most disaster scenarios.

Pinkerton thinks there is a danger of humanity turning inward to virtual reality without having a physical presence elsewhere. While it might be nice to plug in to a virtual heaven-on-earth, it wouldn't save us from a meteor strike.

I think it will go the other way. VR can promote the possibility of settling off-world. You'd think that settling an inhospitable planet like Mars would be no day at the beach - but with VR it could be exactly that. Settlers could live in their own virtual Malibu mansions by the sea while physically being in places that most people would never choose to be.