1,756,000,000,000$ Lets go to space.

I have a proposal, one that has the potential to bring some measure of peace on earth and bring us the stars. Let’s take our government’s science budget, all of the science budget, and switch it for our military budgets. Next we get all of the governments on the planet that have a larger military than science budget to switch them. After we have done that, let’s set a goal, like this “We are an interstellar species.” If one hundred and ninety six countries decided put the efforts of the seven billion people that they represent towards that goal we could not be stopped.

The United States currently budgets between six hundred billions and seven hundred billion dollars to military purposes, and only just over seventeen billion dollars on NASA. We have devoted hundreds of billion dollars to killing people from other countries, and not even twenty billion to meeting our galactic neighbors. I have heard the claim put out there that we should focus on “problems down here”, perhaps spending six hundred billion dollars on fighting the problems down here is only perpetuating them, perhaps we are searching for ways to justify not only the expenditure, but also the loss of life. I think it’s time to let go of the silly childish conflicts that plague our species, to stop trying to justify our fears, and to embrace a new struggle; A struggle against our ignorance, a species wide struggle to adapt to an interstellar environment. If seventeen billion dollars can get a robot to mars, where can we go on six hundred billion?

Six hundred billion is just the US, what if the whole world did this? If we all came together and told our governments to stop shooting at us, and start aiming for the stars, how much money could we put forward? 1,756,000,000,000$ That is what we as a species could start spending tomorrow on the greatest quest ever. Ask yourself, what is more important killing the other guy? Or going out there, and seeing a sunset on a planet that your ancestors could never even have dreamt of?

Keep looking up.

Side note and completely unrelated, at the request of a co-worker I am putting this on the internet. Deer are just wild forest goats.