The Rise of Humanity as a Galactic Experimental Pilot: In Tribute to Kurt Vonnegut

Abstract

This essay uses Kurt Vonnegut's novel 'The Sirens of Titan' as a starting point for reflecting on the place and prospects of humanity. In the novel, a spaceship of a highly developed civilization, stuck during an intergalactic voyage, chooses to raise an intelligent civilization nearby that could eventually produce the missing part, so that human history can be read as an alien attempt to construct a spare part for a spaceship. The author argues that this fiction may be considered as credible as unproven religious accounts of creation, and that the existence of more advanced civilizations is plausible given the almost endless number of galaxies, stars and planets. Comparing humanity to a bacterial culture in a laboratory flask, with lag, logarithmic, stationary and declining phases of growth, the essay suggests that humanity may be approaching or already in its stationary phase. It points to population growth that may outstrip food supply, clashes over territory and energy, overexploitation of resources, environmental contamination, climate change, species extinction and threats of weapons of mass destruction, together with public apathy and the gap between proposals to evacuate humanity to other planets and the actual technology. The essay concludes that humanity is unprepared for cosmic enterprises, in line with Vonnegut's criticism of the human race, and pays tribute to his work and ideas.

Abstract prepared by the editorial office from the full text of the article; the authors did not supply one.