Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 1, 1990 TAG: 9004010254
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by PAUL DELLINGER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Don't be misled: This book is mostly earthbound. Elias talks about the generation born between 1946 and 1964 in this country as enjoying more opportunities than any before it, and blowing them on drugs, sex, laziness and the tearing down of traditional values.
He then covers the various catastrophies from nuclear war to overpopulation facing our planet, and suggests that growth and progress require a new frontier to bring out the best in us.
The only frontier left, he says, is space. And he feels that, at least in our galaxy, we are the only intelligent life around to expand into it. There is no evidence that the complex circumstances giving rise to intelligent life here were duplicated elsewhere. Ninety percent of the other stars in our galaxy, for example, are "double stars" revolving around each other and therefore are unlikely candidates for planets where life could develop.
Elias argues that the human-made "space colonies" proposed by Gerard K. O'Neill point the way to our expansion into space. That would at least prevent the extinction of all life in case of a nuclear exchange leaving Earth uninhabitable.
The solar system also offers mineral and energy wealth that could improve things on Earth. The expansion will, in effect, enlarge the habitat for humanity now limited to this one little planet, he says. And he says mobilizing the political will and space program reform to accomplish all this is less daunting than the engineering work involved.
The author blames government mismanagement of the space program for keeping launch costs too high for American business to become involved in the space effort. He comes back to that "gifted generation" mentioned earlier to place the responsibility for providing an outward direction in the 1990s and after, since its numbers alone make it dominant. Just as it created a youth culture in the 1950s and 1960s, he says, it can transform the America of the latter half of its lives.
Although much of what Elias advocates is oversimplified, it would be hard to fault his goals. It remains to be seen if his gifted generation is up to achieving them.
by CNB