I’ve read a lot of history, including the darkest, worst parts of it. Despite all that, I still love humanity. This is why I care about us becoming a multiplanet species, a spacefaring civilization—because I love humanity. I wish to see it prosper and be happy.915
I’m troubled by the question, “Why have we not seen any aliens?” It could be because intelligence, or even just life, is incredibly rare. Maybe we’re the only life in this galaxy. We should do everything possible to ensure this tiny candle of consciousness does not go out.916
Life on Earth hasn’t been around very long, and it can easily disappear. Clearly, we need to extend life beyond Earth and become a multiplanet species.917
If we make life multiplanetary, there may come a day when some plants and animals die out on Earth but are still alive on Mars.918
Q: Wouldn’t it be better to use all these resources and try to resolve problems on Earth?919
About half my money is dedicated to help solve problems like climate change on Earth and half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure the continuation of life of all species.920
The point is not to move from Earth to another planet and let Earth die. That’s not what I’m saying at all.921
To put this into perspective, the amount of resources I’m talking about for making life multiplanetary would be much less than 1 percent of all resources on Earth.922
Think of it as resource allocation. Do you think it’s worth spending half a percent of Earth’s resources to ensure we extend consciousness to Mars and other planets, so that no single event can be the end of our civilization?923
Redundancy of life is the defensive reason to go to Mars. But also, going to Mars is the grandest adventure I could possibly imagine. I can’t think of anything more exciting, more fun, and more inspiring for the future than to have a base on Mars.
Great and terrible things will happen along the way, just as they happened in the creation of the United States. It will be difficult, and some people will probably die. But it will be incredibly inspiring.
Ultimately, if you care about life on Earth, you should want that life to become multiplanetary and ultimately multistellar. Otherwise you’re signing the death warrant for all life as we know it. It’s inevitable.924
Think of us being a multiplanet species as taking out insurance for life itself.
Life insurance, for life.925