50 Years to the Day since Humanity First Walked On The Moon!
50 years to the day since humanity first stepped foot on the Moon. What hearlds in humanity's future? Will we live up to the inspiration of Apollo, or let the opportunity slip.
So, yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the first Moon Landings - today, July 21st 2019, is the 50th anniversary of Armstrong and Aldrin's first walk on the Moon.
The calendar flipped over in the 6hrs and 19 mins whilst they prepared inside their lunar module, after having touched down on the surface. And on July 21st 1969, they took humanity's first steps into the future.
As I mentioned in my post on the landing's anniversary yesterday, it's near impossible to sum up the specialness and the epic of this act of human achievement. But one thing we can do is use it as proof of what we are capable of as a species, as a society, and as individuals.
There are always possibilities.
And with the inifinte frontiers ahead of us, there's an incredible opportunity for humanity to build itself one hell of a future. Let's keep it real, though - either we do that, either we put aside our differences to solve the problems ahead of us fast and reach a futuristic utopia-like world, or we're going to have one Hell of a future.
There's opportunity for mayhem or marvel ahead. Honestly, as a scientist, as a strategist, and as an optimist, I really think we can achieve that future dream, of building a Star Trek like reality where we eliminate nearly all disease, all poverty, hunger, war, bigotry, hatred, lack of fulfillment, where nature is cherished and thriving, where we turn to each other in friendship, and to the stars with wonder.
We've got all the major ingredients technologically - within my lifetime, we'll have the medical innovation, the propulsion technology, the A.I., the revolution in construction, in food production, in communication, in education, and of course the science to provide for the sweeping change the Green Revolution will bring, to combat Climate Change.
All that and far more, well within my lifetime.
| As an aside, no article about the anniversary of the Moon Walks would be complete without touching upon the legendary and hilarious "Goodluck Mr Gorsky" story. Unfortunately I'll say upfront that the story isn't true, as funny as it would be if it were. You can however read the highly humours yet fictional account of what Neil Armstrong supposedly said right before he uttered the most famous words in history, right here. |
Will we have the political will, though? Honestly, that's a lot riskier a concept - we've literally got like 10 years to have a progressive revolution, to end capitalism, fix and heal society around the world, and begin the Green Revolution, and the rest of the change making processes. 10 years or it's too late, Climate Change wise. We'll have signed our death warrent, and everything else will begin to get at lot darker in the decades after that.
So, we have a choice to make. As a people. As individuals.
Let's make the right one.
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