Well, this is a bit disappointing – according to an interview with BBC News World Edition, Patrick Stewart’s a bit of a “wet blanket” about space travel. (via ***Dave Does the Blog)
He and others raise a valid point – “let’s solve the problems of this world first before venturing away from it” – but still it’s hard to hear this commentary coming from the man that inspired the newsgroup alt.sexy.bald.captains
“I would like to see us get this place right first before we have the arrogance to put significantly flawed civilisations out on to other planets – even though they may be utterly uninhabited.”
Perhaps – but to be inspired to fix our planet’s problems, we need to be able to have a global perspective… and strangely enough, one way to get that perspective is to go to space, and look back at the Earth.
And then sit and think about it for a while, until we come up with the solutions.
We’re all citizens of this Earth, although we often forget this fact.
Sometimes we need a reminder that we’re all alone in the dark, with only each other to rely on.