MMM Classics Year 10: MMM #s 91-100 - Moon Society

heard by pups?
There are legends and books about “ancient astronauts”
or ancient visitors to Earth from out beyond. Here, by
ancient we are going back only a few thousand years. That’s a
moment ago on the time scale of the galaxy. On the Moon,
where the landscape is billions of years old, not millions, let
alone mere thousands, we will see the sweep of time in better
perspective. On the Moon, truly ancient traces of past visits
would not so easily be erased. That visitors may have come our
way once every few hundred million years is a far easier
expectation to justify than that they just happened to come
along at this particular moment when we are first beginning to
wag our tails. Again, since the lunar environment is so preservative,
the earnest search for such possible traces and relics
would be much more respectable. Either finding sapient relics
or catching the sound of sapient whispers from out in the night
of space time, would forever change our view of ourselves. We
would remain special, even unique, but no longer alone.
On the lunar and space frontier, those interested
could expect a quantum level increase in the job opportunities
to pursue this wonder in more than meditative and mystical
fashion. The expectation of success may begin our transformation
in advance of any detection event.
The Cheshire Smile
Jews, Christians, and Muslims have all had their
“mystical” periods. The presence of whole, sizable communities
beyond Earth will sooner or later give birth to a renewed
mysticism. For in truth we need not wait for electronic signals
to establish “contact”. We can each, inside, look out into the
depths of the universe and say “Hi, I know you are out there.”
And we’ll know that out there in many places and in many
times, others like us are looking out and saying hi as well.
Mystically, we can look into each other’s souls and smile. To
some that will seem like nothing. But in truth it is a lot. There
can be a mystical bond of fellowship based on our common
“creatural condition” - we all know “how it is”. No amount of
biological, social, historical, or technological difference can
change that. The golden key to the Cosmic Club may be a
mystical one. Together we can sense the awe, beauty, and
wonder of it all, together in a cosmic church.
Recall the fable of the Cheshire cat which vanished
except for its smile or grin. Perhaps this is an apt metaphor for
mystical C.E.T.I. - [mystical] communication with extra
terrestrial intelligence. For there is here no transmission of
data. As fellow creatures, we fully share the creatural
condition. We are born, we live, and we die, and against many
hurdles we are called upon to make personal sense of it all.
Life will have its joys and sorrows, pleasures and pains,
triumphs and tragedies. These things are transcendental the
character of being a creature in a universe - no differences in
biology, culture, technology, or economics can touch that. And
since these are the only significant things when all is said and
done, that leaves us an enormous amount to commune about, to
feel kinship through, with which to exchange Cheshire smiles.
Alike we share the reproductive vocation of the life stream of
our cradle worlds, alike we strive to transcend individual and
communal death. In comparison with this, all the data we might
hope to learn from radio communication or actual contact with
alien species becomes trivia. Here on the Cheshire plane we are
mutual siblings of Creation, not mutual aliens. We may have
different Mother Natures (in the sense of womb-world life
streams), but share one and the same Father Sky, the tidal force
of all the universe and of everything within it through all the
ages towards a Beatific Vision. Everything really significant to
commune about is right here.
The social character of personal frontier vocations
Each man is an end unto himself, says Ayn Rand. Yet
nothing is more true than that the self-involved never find
themselves nor learn who they are. Identities are not given;
they cannot be found looking inward. Identities can only be
forged in finding a role to play in community with others. Yes,
we must develop our own talents, but they will find fruition
only in the context of others. The hermit will be forever lost
and forever “no one”.
On the lunar and space frontiers, the need of everyone
to play a part against the tremendous odds will be more keenly
felt. Despite the hardships of the frontier, the incessant sacrifices,
the dangers and the pressures, the ratio of those who have
come to learn who they are in comparison to those who haven‘t
a clue, will be high. Tanstaafl (“There ain’t no such thing as a
free lunch” - Robert A. Heinlein in The Moon is a Harsh
Mistress) will become a mark of the Lunan soul.
It will be characteristic of the Lunar frontier, as of all
frontiers before it, that there are too many things needing to be
done by too few people. For the young, this will bring a total
and most healthy turnaround from the depressing situation of
today’s world in which it is in contrast stubbornly ever more
difficult to maintain the belief that one can make a difference.
It is much easier to make a mark in a community starting fresh.
Getting in on the ground floor, it is called. The opportunities
for all, and the young especially, will be significant. For us, in
our age here on Earth, the most many of us can hope to achieve
is to “tweak” something trivial. In terms of personal satisfaction
in the face of death, there can be no better place to have
lived than on a real frontier.
Here too, those with innate undeveloped artistic and
craftsman abilities and aptitudes will be much more likely to be
motivated to develop them, alongside other talents that on
Earth we’d be more likely to consider economically irrelevant.
The need for variety, for the personally custom, will provide an
insatiable market for the one-of-a-kind creations of the artist
and craftsman. This will usher in a veritable renaissance.
In practice this does not mean a higher ratio of artists
to engineers, for example, but rather a higher incidence of
those who are engineers, mechanics, repairmen, construction
workers, agricultural workers, mining and manufacturing
workers, managers, and teachers, and on and on who are also,
in their off time, blooming artists and craftsmen and musicians
and so on. This means a higher percentage of citizens with
more fulfilling lives, with greater sense of creativity and
accomplishment, with more for which to thank the Lord, and
with more ways to express that gratitude.
On Earth, with a little resourcefulness and some carefully
chosen tools one can survive on one’s own - thanks to our
generous biosphere. Of course, it is less of a challenge to do so
in some climes than in others. Here it is comparatively easy to
Moon Miners’ Manifesto Classics - Year 10 - Republished January 2006 - Page 71