Although the world’s nations and cultures vary hugely, we all have one thing in common: We were born on Earth. However, that could change if humanity ever becomes a galactic civilisation.
Science philanthropist Yuri Milner believes this can happen if people everywhere embrace the same mission: to explore and understand our Universe. He outlines this mission and the rationale behind it in his short book Eureka Manifesto: The Mission for Our Civilisation.
Why We Need a Mission
In Eureka Manifesto’s opening chapter, Milner explains that every successful organisation needs a mission to guide its efforts and inspire progress.
This principle applies at every scale, from local communities to multinational corporations and even the largest organisation of all: the human race.
A company’s mission might focus on increasing profits, while a non-profit’s mission might focus on saving lives.
Milner believes humanity’s mission should enhance our quality of life and ensure our survival. He concludes that exploring and understanding the cosmos is humanity’s fundamental mission, as it taps into our innate curiosity.
If we succeed in embracing the mission, our civilisation could fully realise its potential. We could develop technology to help us solve anthropogenic climate change, energy scarcity, and so-far incurable diseases.
This tech could also enable us to avoid extinction threats from space, such as an asteroid collision, and improve quality of life on a global scale.
Expanding Our Reach Beyond Earth
Aside from improving life here on Earth, advancements in fundamental science could lead to new space travel technologies that might one day see humanity become a galactic civilisation.
To date, the furthest in space humans have ever travelled is 248,655 miles from Earth. The crew of Apollo 13 set this record in 1970, and no one has surpassed it — yet.
Milner believes that, by pursuing our shared mission, our descendants might reach the stars and the planets orbiting them. “Far into the future, our descendants… can explore these wonders and settle on some of them,” he writes. “And beyond the worlds we could actually land on, there are countless other extraordinary places and exotic objects to visit.”
Becoming a galactic civilisation would require technology that we don’t have today. However, with a concentrated, united effort to drive progress in space travel, we could develop the relevant tech.
Government organisations like NASA and entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are already laying the groundwork for humanity’s future in space.
How Discoveries Transform Our World
Embracing our shared mission isn’t solely about space exploration. As Milner explains, greater investment into fundamental research in general is a wise move if we want to reach the stars.
That’s because any discovery, however abstract, might spark the kind of change that irreversibly alters how we live.
Take Albert Einstein’s abstract equations describing his theory of general relativity as an example. Einstein discovered that the closer you are to Earth, the slower you move through time.
Thanks to his understanding of gravitational time dilation, we now know that clocks in orbit tick faster than clocks on Earth.
This knowledge enabled us to develop the Global Positioning System (GPS). Without GPS, our modern world would lack precise navigation, timing, and location services. Moreover, NASA uses GPS to make spacecraft more autonomous and improve space science and Earth monitoring.
In the 110 years since Einstein published his theory of general relativity, GPS has transformed our world beyond recognition.
If we all come together to encourage more discoveries like Einstein’s, who knows where humanity might be in another hundred years?
In Eureka Manifesto’s postscript, Milner writes that Yuri Gagarin delivered “our civilisation into the galaxy” when he became the first human to travel into outer space.
“The next step is for our civilisation to grow up,” Milner concludes. “To mature into a mind far beyond what our own minds can dream of. Then, perhaps, our descendants will see that higher mind spread among the stars.”
About Yuri Milner
Billionaire Yuri Milner is a signatory of the Giving Pledge and a co-founder of the Breakthrough Prize, which rewards scientific achievements, and the Breakthrough Junior Challenge, which encourages young people to think about science and maths. He also funds space exploration and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) through his Breakthrough Initiatives
