Humans may become interplanetary humans within 200 years

Either we develop the technology to safely harness the energy needed to escape our planet, or we kill ourselves in a cataclysm, a new study says. Humanity will face a pivotal moment in human history.

However, a new paper argues, if we can develop technology that can avoid destruction in a cataclysm, we could become an interplanetary species within at least 200 years. again.

"Earth is a small dot surrounded by darkness. Our current understanding of physics suggests that we are trapped on a tiny rock with limited resources," the author said. lead researcher Jonathan Jiang, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said.

If we develop powerful technology, we will be able to live on many other planets, escape the cataclysm on Earth.

For our planet to be good, people need to strongly increase the use of nuclear energy and renewable energy, and protect those energy sources from being used for bad purposes.

If humanity can safely transition away from fossil fuels in the next few decades, this could be a hit, the study suggests.

The danger posed by increasing energy consumption may explain why scientists have found no evidence of advanced alien civilizations.

If Earth were not so special and the development of life and intelligence were not unique, the galaxy would be filled with intelligent beings. Astronomically speaking, the Milky Way is billions of years old, and humans have not appeared on Earth for long. That means, by the time humanity becomes intelligent, someone will have to be there to meet us, or at least leave a welcome gift.

Life, and especially intelligent life, seems extremely rare. So perhaps some process removes intelligent life from the scene before a civilization can reach higher stages of development. Most of the so-called "great filters" are various forms of self-destruction of the species.

Having a human presence on many planets acts as a bulwark against self-destruction. But achieving multiplanet status requires an enormous amount of energy, not only to establish short-term colonies, but also to maintain full-fledged and self-sustaining cities.

The researchers followed the recommendations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which outlined clear consequences for continued unabated fossil fuel use. In short, if humanity does not quickly switch its energy supply to alternative energies such as nuclear and renewable energy, we will cause too much damage to our biosphere.

The scientists' calculations include a lot of assumptions, and the uncertainty in the estimate can be around 100 years. The calculations assume that we will be able to identify safe ways to dispose of nuclear waste, and that increasing energy extraction will not lead to disaster. However, if we can maintain this process, we can set the stage to be able to protect humanity for generations to come within the next few hundred years.