User:Basilides/On Spirituality, Pan-Architecture, and Transmigration

"Critical mass" can often be used to describe something that has reached a tipping point, and not merely as it pertains to physics. As I use it, in that metaphorical sense, when a situation reaches critical mass it is thus a polarized situation--an extreme situation--in which the actions of everyone involved must be treated as contributing to the problem or contributing to the solution. In its most basal sense, a critical mass situation is one where it has become "do or die" time.

I believe we're approaching that "do or die" time with the Earth. I believe that humanity and its effect on the Planet, its over-population, etc., has reached a point at which one of only a few extreme solutions can rectify the situation. Don't get me wrong; Earth itself is in no real danger because we could never destroy it even with our greatest efforts. No, what is in peril is nothing short of the future of humanity. The extreme solutions that will get us out of this frying pan are limited: In the short term, if something were to wipe out a large portion of the human population, we would actually stand a better chance of survival as a species. I'm not advocating this, and to propose that humanity do such a thing to itself is unconscionable. In any case, I doubt such an "easing" on an already over-taxed planet by population decrease in this manner would be a long-term solution to human survival. The other solution to human survival is something that I do advocate, and I think it increases our odds for survival by creating several populations exploring myriad possibilities, all towards optimal survival. That solution is interplanetary colonization. We need to take to the stars, enact a grand diaspora that vastly increases our resources, our available area for expansion, the possibilities for variation in the species (which comes of varied and extreme environments), and in general facilitates the next logical step in human intrepidness. I'm not saying that it would be utopian--Hell, it would be horribly difficult--I'm saying that the increase in potential for the future of our species, perhaps even because of the hardships we will face, is ideal. I believe that interplanetary migration will be the greatest thing to happen to mankind since Christ.

If this happens, I believe there will need to be a new field of study built on the investigation of the integration and interaction of impermanent architecture, alternative living spaces, nomadicism, ergonomics, aeronautics, sociology, and human spirituality. As a working title, I propose that this field be called "transmigratory pan-architecture", but that title really could be streamlined and specified.

Whatever the case, it is something that I am interested in exploring.