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. We are aggressively pursuing
the promises of these new technologies within the now-unchallenged system of
global capitalism and its manifold financial incentives and competitive pressures.
This is the first moment in the history of our planet when any species, by its own voluntary actions, has become a
danger to itself - as well as to vast numbers of others.
It might be a familiar progression, transpiring on many worlds - a planet, newly formed, placidly revolves around
its star; life slowly forms; a kaleidoscopic procession of creatures evolves; intelligence emerges which, at least up
to a point, confers enormous survival value; and then technology is invented. It dawns on them that there are such
things as laws of Nature, that these laws can be revealed by experiment, and that knowledge of these laws can be
made both to save and to take lives, both on unprecedented scales. Science, they recognize, grants immense
powers. In a flash, they create world-altering contrivances. Some planetary civilizations see their way through,
place limits on what may and what must not be done, and safely pass through the time of perils. Others, not so
lucky or so prudent, perish.
That is Carl Sagan, writing in 1994, inPale Blue Dot, a book describing his vision
of the human future in space. I am only now realizing how deep his insight was,
and how sorely I miss, and will miss, his voice. For all its eloquence, Sagan's
contribution was not least that of simple common sense - an attribute that, along
with humility, many of the leading advocates of the 21st-century technologies
seem to lack
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