Space and Man
When Columbus went on a quest for a sea route to India, they were most likely guided not so much by the thirst for knowledge as by the desire to obtain wealth. As you know, spices, seasonings, incense at that time were valued above gold, and India was one of the main suppliers of spices.
When the polar explorers one by one stormed the North and South Pole, they least of all thought of wealth. What kind of wealth is there in the permafrost?
Man differs from an animal first of all by a constant desire to cognize. No living entity will change his place of residence unless he is forced to do so by the changed conditions of existence. It can move only in search of food or escape from a bad climate. A man is looking. New knowledge, like it, the truth.
Only at first glance the conquest of outer space is started by the military. They only financed the work of scientists, hoping to threaten each other with missile strikes from the airless space. And they thought (and still
Lush tombstones over the graves of marshals and generals will be blown to dust. The memory of those who gambled with sword, and now shakes with an atomic bomb will disappear. The names of scientists who paved the way for space will remain forever.
Descendants will respect the memory of the modest teacher Tsiolkovsky, the servant designer Korolev, the first cosmonaut Gagarin. As we honor the memory of Einstein, Niels Bohr, Landau, Academician Sakharov, completely without linking their names with weapons of destruction. They did not create weapons! And it’s not their fault that inventions got into dirty hands.
Man learns the world. And the more he learns about the world, the more remains unknown. “The more I learn, the more I become aware of my ignorance,” Democritus wrote. A few centuries ago a person did not know what was on another continent. And what is the continent, he did not know. But humanity is moving into the future with constant acceleration.
Did not have time to invent a radio, how it
Man has already learned and mastered the cosmos in his dreams. Thousands of books, which are still considered fantastic, explore the behavior of man in the universe. Man’s dreams are not dreams, but foresight. Conditionally speaking, this is a plan of action for the near future.