- Question
- Should we explore space?
- Position1 of 2›
- "Yes, we should explore space"
Knowledge is the cornerstone of life. Knowledge has progressed civilizations and made them better. If humankind wants to improve the way everyone lives, as much knowledge should be obtained as possible.
The argument
The case for space exploration here is made on the grounds of what curiosity has already produced. Human beings have shown a longing for freedom and a bountiful curiosity for as long as there have been human beings, and the record of that curiosity is the record of how the world became navigable and intelligible. Compasses were made long before anything like GPS existed, giving travellers a way to orient themselves when nothing else could. Electricity was harnessed to the benefit of society while almost nothing was understood about what it actually was. Even an instrument as simple as a magnifying glass changed what could be seen, opening up a view of the world at closer range than the eye alone allows. What these examples share, on this argument, is that none of them announced its value in advance. Some of the most consequential inventions and theories were dismissed at the time as strange or as a waste of effort, and were pursued anyway by people who could not have demonstrated what would come of them. The pattern is consistent enough to be treated as a lesson: the usefulness of an inquiry is generally visible only afterwards, so the absence of an immediate justification is a poor reason to abandon one. The application to space follows directly. Individual discoveries can tell us enormous amounts about our world and about ourselves, often in ways unrelated to what the discoverer was looking for. Space represents the largest remaining domain about which almost nothing is known at first hand, and it therefore offers a great way to gain knowledge about the place outside our own world. Because humanity should expand its knowledge, this argument concludes, we should explore space.
Premises
Counter-arguments
Space doesn’t deserve the time and attention it already has. Nonprofit organizations struggle to get funding from their communities and begin to get weak in their area of impact. Since there’s nothing that is known about space, there’s a gamble thinking that there’s something worth exploring.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P4] Humanity can gain knowledge on Earth. It would benefit humanity better than gaining new knowledge from space.