We, the humans, despite the constant development of the knowledge about surrounding us world, still do not know the answers to a lot of fundamental and existential questions.
Since our beginning, we try to discover, get to know, and eventually conquer other lands. One of the examples we can find in Medieval times. It was the time when the Europeans discovered America for themselves. Of course, it is only one of the thousands of proofs that people want to conquer and rule the world. Today, a lot of genuinely inspirational people (with the inventive Elon Musk as a leader) dream about conquering Mars. For me, Musk’s visions are distinct; symbolically prove that human civilizations never give up in finding new perspectives in our life. I honestly admire this kind of visioners.
On the other hand, in a symbolically way, all our doings to conquer the world could be compared with dreaming by the North Sentinelese tribe to capture the Indian subcontinent.
I wrote about this tribe in one of my previous posts. Now, let’s assume that this primitive tribe knows that there is something like the Indian subcontinent. Let us remind ourselves that India is placed more than thousand of kilometers from the micro North Sentinel island.
For me, conquering Mars is a similar challenge for the humankind, as it would be for North-Sentinelese to conquer India. Is it possible for the primitive tribe to subjugate India? Theoretically, yes, but in practice, no.
Ok, but let’s assume that human civilization conquered Mars, and North-Sentinelese conquered India. What would be the next step? For our culture, it would undoubtedly be conquering the subsequent planet. For the tiny ethnic group from the small island placed on the Indian Ocean, the next step would probably be conquering China. In both cases, all these doings in achieving their goals could go on forever. Practically, without the end.
Now you know what I mean by writing that we know that we know nothing? Landing on Mars would be a giant milestone event for the humankind. But for our galaxy or even our solar system, this event would be unnoticed. I can’t compare it to the farting by the solar system. The same with the primitive tribe. Reaching the Indian subcontinent would be a historic day for North-Sentinelese. But, what would that mean in the perspective of the infinity?