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The Impact of Science on Society

The region that we now call the United States was being settled for nearly two centuries before this country came into existence. We've celebrated our bicentennial as a nation, but in a little over 20 years we're going to have to celebrate the tetracentennial of our existence as a community on American soil, from the establishment of Jamestown in 1607. If it took nearly two centuries to settle the United States to nationhood, it might take that long to establish a space community strong enough to be independent of the Earth. On the other hand, things move more quickly now; we're more advanced. It may take less than a century to do so if we really try hard. As for the effects that prospace organizations might have, I'm not a sociologist so I just don't know. I'm in favor of prospace organizations doing their best to persuade human beings to support space exploration. I don't know how that can be bad.

Question: Assuming that we do not annihilate ourselves, what is your view of how life on Earth will evolve, both humans and other life forms?

Answer: You must understand that evolution naturally is a very slow process and human beings can well live for 100 000 years without many serious changes. On the other hand, we are now developing methods of genetic engineering which will, perhaps, be able to wipe out certain inborn diseases, or correct them and improve various aspects of the human condition. I don't know how we will develop or what we will choose to do; it's impossible to predict.

Question: How long do you think it will be before people live in outer space?

Answer: That's entirely up to us. In a way, we've had people living in outer space already, ever since the first Russian cosmonaut spent 1 1/2 hours in space. We have now had people living in outer space for 7 months at a time; in fact, one Soviet cosmonaut lived in outer space for 12 months over a period of 18 months. So we've had people living in outer space already, and I'm sure we'll have more and more of them for longer and longer periods of time.

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☆ U. S. Government Printing Office: 1985—470-563
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