No argument there, I’m afraid. What about taking the longer view on this. Do these people realize the planets they’re finding may eventually be targets for something like the 100-year Starship Project? If humanity lasts long enough, these will essentially be analogous to the first maps of the western world.Yes, that’s something that keenly, achingly informs their work and their thoughts, the things that keep them up in the dark moments of the night. To a person, these researchers realize they are part of what may be a much greater, grander story that begins but does not end upon the Earth, and perhaps even extends out beyond the solar system into the vast frontier of interstellar space.
There was, without question, an almost spiritual sentiment, a muffled sense of transcendent longing, that was a powerful undercurrent in many conversations I had. The planet hunters know that in some sense they could be at the fulcrum of a profound turning point in history, and, what’s worse, for about a decade now they’ve had to mostly just sit back and watch it slowly slip away from them, perhaps past the horizons of their own personal longevity.
Maybe that’s melodramatic, but, well, I do think that this quest for other living planets, for evidence of life and intelligence beyond the solar system, is intimately connected with our own possible long-term future.
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