How Humans could evolve to live in space-Lisa Nip-TED talk review
You can view this talk by clicking on the link or by visiting the TED.Com, site
The Introduction to the Talk
Before we could give our critical review on this talk we wish to draw the attention of our readers to a Proverbial story that is mentioned in the Bible.
There was once a rich man who one day summons his 3 faithful servants and thus said he.
Oh! My faithful servants, I am heading on a distant journey and it would take a long time for me to return and so to keep your enthusiasm to work alive, I give to you’ all the following resources.
Thus saying these, the rich man, to the first servant gives 4 Talents of gold, to the second, 2 Talents of gold, to the third servant, 1 Talent of gold, and departs on his journey.
The first servant who had received 4 Talents of gold, makes a worthy investment and thus multiplies his 4 talents to 8 Talents of gold.
The second servant also does the same way, multiplies his 2 Talents of gold through his enterprise.
While the third servant goes to the garden and buries his 1 Talent and heads and sleeps.
Now the day comes when the rich man returns. Upon his return, he summons his servants to ask what were their enterprise was during his absence.
The first servant meets his master and shows forth his productivity, the rich man was very happy at his industry and gives him back his profit, with a word of accolade.
To the second too does he likewise.
Now the third servant hurries and meets up his master and thus says he,
“Oh! Ye master, I know how thrifty thou art, how cunning is your money game, you reapeth at places where you have not sown, earns interest on monies which were not thy own, hence, I know a day shall come when thou wilt ask for thy Talents, so have I buried them safely behind thine house, here is thine one Talent”
The master fumed with fiery anger and thus said he to the third servant,
If you had known well that I reapeth where I have not sown, and earneth interest on the money which is not my own, then why have you not loaned my money to some and had earned an usury [interest]?
With these, he banishes the third servant.
The moral from this story is not that hard to learn, which here would be,
What have you done with this planet Earth which was given to you in all brilliance and prosperity?
The Speaker here talks about how Humans could evolve to live in space, but the burning question to many today is Survival.
The Unemployment Ordeal
The first question to pose to the Speaker here would be, Do all have the right to work on this planet?
We need not have to give an answer to this much obvious question since all of us know the answer. Unemployment is soaring high, people are losing their livelihood overnight. The man who had a roof over his head and a university position last week is now on the streets and what is more alarming is the fact that he has a Ph.D in physics.
Yes, we know this is hard to believe, just head to youtube.com, you will find stories of untold miseries.
AI and Robots have made life even more Challenging, but the Speaker says, humans are complacent, not sure to whom is she making this remark?
With the dawning of AI and robots, insecurity has increased. In 2017 alone, Amazon which was hailed as the lifesaver for the weak, hired around 75,000 Robots to do its chores.
Guess what? Each of these robots can perform at least 10 persons jobs, that would mean, 750,000 jobs already into the bin.
Over a week period, Ford, the Automobile giant, benched 10,000 of its employees without an explanation. Where, 100 people ran a unit, just 2 are managing.
With driverless driving coming on full swing, Truckers who were considered the lifeline of America, are next on the firing line.
Humans are leading a life of Complacency- Who?
The talk begins with the Speaker stating that Humans have all grown complacent with our comfortable lifestyle on Earth.
Well, this would only mean that she is talking about herself and those around.
The reported facts that could open the sleeping eyes
About 1.1 Billion people have been living their lives without Electricity.
Does the speaker ever know what it means to live without electricity for a Month, for a day or maybe for an hour? She should try it out.
1 Billion people have no access to water, leave alone clean drinking water.
2.5 Billion people do not have sanitation facilities
3.5 Billion people are forced to live their lives without medication
1 Billion people are forced to spend at least 15% of their livelihood on medication to sustain themselves.
1 Billion adults are illiterate
100 Million children just couldn’t reach schools, for their parents couldn’t afford the transportation cost.
And here we have a speaker telling the world that Humans have become complacent with our Bread butter and TV.
Primitive ancestors moving for better lives-try it now
We hear the speaker talking about primitive ancestors moving about in search of better opportunities and environment for their families. And then goes on to say, that we have the same nomadic blood coursing, thus encouraging people to have planet Mars as the next destination.
There are few things that the speaker has lost sight off apart from the ones that we had mentioned above. Now with regard to the nomadic wiring which the speaker claims is running in each of us, just consider the present state the world is with regard to the immigration policies adopted by the countries which have resources against the people of the countries which have not these resources.
The immigrant woes
To see the predicament that immigrants of the third world countries face on their pursuit for happiness, thinking that the Developed world will help them, finally get to face the harsh realities of life. All resulting in nothing more than squashed dreams and lives.
You don’t have to go further to look at their woes. Just head to any social media sharing sites and search for the troubles and plights and the harsh realities that fleeing immigrants are facing. The only jobs that are available according to reports for these immigrants is body trade.
The resources are finite, the sun is finite, according to the Speaker, but who owns them?
Here we have a Speaker talking about how complacent the world has gone and that the resources are finite, the sun’s life is finite. But the saddest fact is that the Speaker is not aware that according to reports, 1% of the world’s population is controlling 90% of the world’s resources, while 50% of the world’s population is sharing 5 % of the world’s resources. The question to ask here would be, who has grown complacent?
The Harsh conditions that the Speaker mentions in Mars and outer space is nothing new, people all the time are experiencing, if not the same but a similar condition
The question of how humans would be able to survive harsh winters, water crisis, untamed wildness, and whole lot of things that the Speaker mentions could have better put by specifying the group that she is targeting her talk to.
For the majority of the world, these conditions are their everyday habitat. To get a feel of it, just walk through the poor neighborhood of LA, it would be pouring dogs and cats, and people would be cuddled up in their flimsy tents, all drenched and shivering.
the Speaker should take a walk during those Chicago harsh winters where rail lines ought to be put on hot coals just to enable their functionality, and we had people all the time in street corners and shelters with barely a sheet to cover.
We have 14 months of outer Space experience
Then we hear the speaker talking about the longest time spent in space being around 14 months. The results of spending such time in an microgravity environment would be a whole lot of psychological and physiological conditions from long term disability to permanent vegetative states.
The question to ask here would be, of the 6000 years of recorded history, we merely have a 14 month space time experience, in terms of reality comparison that would mean an experience smaller than the smallest point you can plot on a graph and view to next to a boulder which has weight of 6000 lbs. Do you think anyone with that minuscule experience can consider themselves to be the authoritarian on the Space travel?
The answer lies in Synthetic Biology-Oh yeah!
Then we hear the speaker claiming that through advancement in Synthetic biology, how we could edit genes of any organism, and more so compensate for the human physical inadequacies and to ensure our survival in space.
The above mention is laughable,
you know why? muscle wasting diseases such as Amyotrophic lateral Sclerosis and Progeria, have no defined treatments to aid and alleviate the patient’s suffering.
Prof Stephen Hawking was given a mere 2 year time to live after the disease was diagnosed, but he lived on for 40 more years serving humanity through his academia. It is not the medical marvel but the power of the human mind.
Muscle wasting disease, Progeria is ruining the lives of many and there is no recorded treatment to recovery.
But here we have a Speaker who is talking through her hat about Synthetic biology and gene manipulation. What good are these when it cannot alleviate the suffering of those who are enslaved by these sicknesses?
Concluding Remarks
In the interest of time and the money spent on writing this review, we wish to end here by mentioning to our readers this popular story titled,
“Acres of Diamonds”
This was the story that noted Philanthropist, Public speaker and Clergyman, Prof. Russell Conway, delivered on his mission to raise funds to build a University for the poor but deserving students who otherwise couldn’t afford tertiary education.
Prof. Russell Conway, delivered 6000 such lectures and raised around 6 million dollars for his mission work.
The story involves about an African farmer who had a beautiful farm that grew pears. He had a lovely wife and two sons. The family lived happily and they enjoyed every bit of this blessings.
One day there came to his house a distant relative, a traveller from the Northern part of Africa, who had tales to tell him. You know he had to stay in his house for a week,
as Ben Franklin once said, “fish and company stinks after 3 days”, and also this, that, “men grow weary of guests after 3 days”
Of the many tales that this guest told, one that captivated our African farmer was the abundance of large diamonds freely scattered along the great farms of Northern Africa.
Unheeding to his wife and children request to stay and watch over the farm, the African farmer went to the old village head to hear of the power of Diamonds.
The village head thus replied, “Oh! Boy, diamonds are so powerful that merely possessing one would change your life altogether. You would become the boss of the village just by having one.
You would be able to dictate and command anybody and everybody you like” [this adoration from the village head is in sharp likeness to the talks that we always hear when it comes to habituating Mars. Oh! Life would be great, fantabulous and what not. The question here would be, How do they know?]
Thinking and Dreaming, our African farmer sells all of his land, gives away his wife and children to his neighbor, and heads to Northern Africa, to search for Diamonds.
There he spends his hard earned money, falling prey to looters and scoffers and tale bearers, finally disappointed and dejected, leaps to his death from a mountain top.
Then one fine day, a man to whom our African farmer had sold his farm had threaded upon a dark looking ruddy stone along the river bed and found it to be amusing.
So he took it with him and put it up by the fire place to dry. With time, the dirt melted off, showing the flamboyance of the stone shining all brilliant.
Seeing the brilliance of his room, the village headman rushes in, asking whether the African farmer had returned with Diamonds.
But the man with whom, both the house and the farm were in possession, replied, No! but the stone that you see was picked up by me, from one of those streams in the farm, and there are countless in each of those 20 streams that flood the farms.
Truly shocking and aptly titled, “Acre of Diamonds”
The earth we are living is special and wonderful, instead living in dream land, let us work to make it a better place to our Children and to those who are less privileged. Let us leave a legacy.
Final words: The talk is qualified to be a Good science fiction fable to kill one’s productive time
