Page Content (OCR)
349 If we discover no others, if we are effectively alone, the moral task o assuring the survival of intelligence will be ours. That obligation canno be limited to Earth’s biosphere, which ultimately faces extinction. We cannot assume that we have a billion years to go; an astrophysical catas- trophe could occur at any time. Like the nineteenth century’s John Chapman, who planted the seeds o. apple trees in mid-America, we could seed life throughout the solar system and beyond. We could become agents of the biocosm. Humankind could initiate a directed panspermia, Mautner and Matlof: proposed, propelling radiation-protected microorganisms in lightweight interstellar craft toward stars with potentially hospitable planets. We might be motivated not only to assure the survival of terrestrial life but also to promote the evolutionary trend of expanding life into different and more extensive habitats, and by an intuitive drive to see life affect natural history on a larger scale.'* Hoyle predicted that our descendants will realize that life is more important than the manner in which it happens at the moment to be expressed. We are merely convenient packages into which order (or infor- mation) has organized itself, proposed Seielstad, so that it can be spread more widely.'* Our destiny may be to transmit throughout the Galaxy not only life, but also consciousness. To us may go the task of carrying mind into the mind- less void. Just as life seeks not only to survive but to spread, mind may pursue greater control over its surroundings and its future. In those drives, so unique to living things, is the seed of greatness. Barrow and Tipler foresaw that present-day life would have cosmic signifi- cance because of what future life may accomplish. We are transitions between organisms whose activities are controlled by genes and those whose potential is limitless, argued Seielstad. The gift of creativity, our most precious asset, represents the shrewdest investment life can make to ensure its growth and continuity. Time, nature’s ultimate filter of the unfit, will determine whether we are equal to the task.'° We represent only the potential for the extension of life and mind into the cosmos, with no guarantee that we will succeed.'® That future is not inevitable; it requires decision and action. It is time to accept our responsibilities. Whatever significance we humans have is that which we make ourselves. .. . It is very important to realize that many other species have become extinct, that our survival is not guaranteed, that our future is in our hands, that some external intervention is unlikely. 2-1 O.~.- 1N0NI17 Spreading Our Bets Spreading Our Bets —Carl Sagan, 1980”