Roderick R. Nash's Island Civilization

In the presentation, Island Civilization: A Vision for Human Occupancy of Earth in the Fourth Millennium, published on October 16, 2008, Roderick R. Nash presents the idea of four possible courses of which the human race could follow in the future. These paths, termed the wasteland, garden planet, future primitive, and the Island Civilization scenarios all take extreme viewpoints and present controversial hypotheticals, that do not seem very practical. It is with these thoughts in mind that I present another situation, one that Nash fails to acknowledge in his essay— the concept of human expansion into space, or in other words, space colonization.
Before one even dismisses the idea, to quote Nash, “Rarely do humans make plans more than a couple
There are two paths in which we could take, one being, of course, the stereotypical view of a colony on Mars or the Moon, but on the other hand, it is feasible to have humans living in orbit with the advent of new technology. There is a general argument to be made for both, for example, colonization on a planet, although extremely expensive, could have that issue overlooked through alternative means. In Kelsey Tollefson’s, author of Asteroid Prospects II: Between a Rock and a Hard Place, own words, “The United States, for one, has set its sights on the Red Planet. NASA’s Journey to Mars initiative hopes to achieve “Earth Independence” by the year 2030. NASA’s estimated budget for 2017 is set at $19 billion, much of which would go towards developing technology capable of sending humans to Mars” (Tollefson). One may wonder why Mars is the center of attention for many researchers, and the answer to that is quite simple. As Edward McCullough, lead scientist for the Boeing Company, mentions, “Mars is a user-friendly world, rife with many industrially useful minerals for construction and manufacturing purposes. It has a suite of ‘ates,’ ‘ites’ and ‘ides’ of common metals with common non metals. The red planet is also wrapped in abundant carbon dioxide which will be fairly easy to condense” (David). McCullough was also quoted as saying, “There is abundant evidence of past
As already said, in terms of research, lots of progress has already been made, and numerous new studies are published yearly regarding the matter. According the Space Settlements: A Design Study, “The focus of the system is a space habitat where 10,000 people work, raise families, and live out normal human lives” (Space Settlements: A Design Study). That is to say, space colonies won’t affect our normal lives in any ways, except for ensuring our survival as a human race. Afterall, it is indisputable that we will eventually run out of space on Earth, and space colonization is just a proviso to the genetic desire to thrive. Unfortunately, the focus of many endearing individuals lies in the wrong path, as “Much like eager prospectors in the early days of the Yukon gold rush, space programs are on the hunt for the best mining locations” (Tollefson). Yet, even then, this can be seen as a positive, as “asteroids would represent a source of capital that could enable the next step in deep space exploration” (Tollefson).
In conclusion, the prospects of space colonization appear to be very promising. Although Nash does address a future in which technology makes humans the master’s of nature, he fails to recognize the possibilities that humans can attain in space. Space is the wild west of the future, that will only bring more riches and expansions