Space and Sci Fi (Off-Topic)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Monday, October 07, 2013, 09:47 (3852 days ago) @ Grizzlei

As a kid I was really into space. Everybody else was interested in Dinosaurs (especially with Jurassic Park coming out), but I loved the planets, stars and Galaxies. I thought that one day I'd be able to explore them, and that eventually humanity would be able to take themselves out into the universe for discovery.

I wanted to be an astronaut so badly.

I'd say the majority of Sci-Fi views space this way: as adventurous, as a frontier for discovery. Certainly Destiny will. Hop on a ship, and you're on Titan. Ain't no thang.

Much rarer is the view of space that I reluctantly have to agree with being correct: It's desolate. Unexplorable by man. Inhospitable. Deadly. Terrifying. A prison really.

As much as I believe there is probably life out there, the laws of physics being what they are probably makes any contact impossible. Manned travel significant distances is impossible. When our Earth is rendered inhospitable in 800 million years, all of humanity's knowledge, art, culture and creation dies with us. On a tiny spec unnoticed in the picture of the universe where each supercluster of galaxies is but a pale white dot.

It's understandable why a lot of sci-fi doesn't go there. It's the most depressing thing about existence. It's one of the main themes of Policenauts, which isn't the first thing to explore that idea, but it was one that really resonated with me.

Maybe that's why Gravity connected with me. It brought that back.