Further than Before- Pathway to the Stars

by Matthew Opdyke

  We know there have been several extinctions throughout Earth's history, but whether they were a result of a natural or a sentient-made reset button, who knows? We surely ought to know that we are not the only sentient and innovative hominids to have ever walked this Earth. Given our increasing knowledge of cosmic biology we also know we are certainly not alone in the Universe—perhaps separated, but not alone. One need only to look at the great structures we've only recently begun to discover, which are "prehistoric" throughout the world that could not have been built nor shaped by any simplistic or tribalistic cave-dwelling ancestor, no matter how wondrous their era.

  These megaliths required collaboration; they could not have matured to completion without the union of effort, respect for leadership, and possession of intellect which resulted in the durability of such detailed and magnificent findings many millennia later. What happened to these great civilizations? Where did they go? Did they leave our Earth for another planet? Did they err in one way or another through war or were they smitten with famine? Did they simply fail to evolve and fail to adjust to a new environment? Did they become lost in violence, torture, and greed? Did they simply drift into unprotected simplicity? Did they not develop further? Did Nature see through to their extinction for untold reasons? Did the Universe see an eternal end with them? Why don't we have any archived or communicative records of the technologies used?

  No matter the reason, the conjecture, or theory, we forget that just like it was for these great civilizations, life and all we know about it from our vantage point in the Universe can be over, snap! Like that! Be it via a large asteroid or any known or unknown phenomena from any of a vast array of unfortunate events—life on this planet can end quickly without any warning if we do nothing to mitigate the effects of natural disaster, aging, or disease. Or, by demonstrating wisdom and resilience we can go on despite the challenges we’ll no doubt face along the way.

  We're still here, you're reading this, and while we're still here we can work to overcome our own extinction or the desolation of the land, by evolving beyond the scope of mere existence and survival which has resulted in death in every example throughout history. We can do many things more than we as a whole are doing right now that can lead to more enriching equations to our survival, with a legacy that is indeed beautiful, unique, filled with learning, and bursting with enjoyable ups and downs like a thrilling roller coaster where we’re actually there to enjoy it.

  We can learn how our Universe works and enjoy the endless bounty it can provide, beautify our surroundings, and enrich the land and our minds. We can do more than we do now if we but take our natural yearning for challenges and channel our energies, working to overcome the challenges of life and thereby increase the talents and abilities afforded to us by Nature. Nature has gifted us with so much, allowing us to do more than ever before, by increasing our knowledge, using our minds, and doing so many things that lead to achieving our full potential. We can carry out our knowledge into innovations that if done with the right focus, will help to preserve life, rather than end it.

  We need to overcome our apparent fixation toward and acceptance of suffering, misery, and death—many argue to the contrary. We need to rise up and fight against senescence and death, and if necessary, until our own ends. Doing so will fill our lives with purpose and lead to much more than a dismal and silly existence. Life will be a greater reward if we carry on with the spirit or thought of enabling the future of humanity for the long-haul.

  While realizing that reality is brutal and when it’s time, it’s time, is okay, accepting the fact that struggles will come no matter our endeavor can be a balanced way to understand our reality. We can also prosper more and advance much further, however, if we can realize that we don’t need to operate from a juxtaposition of strife for the sake of strife, complications for the sake of complications, or change for the sake of change alone. If we operate from a foundation of well-being instead and overcome strife while focusing on beating the perceived odds, we may have more promise than we think.

  While we are here, we can still work toward overcoming death and find the wondrous advantages of healthy and enriching lives and even indeterminate lifespans. I'm sure I am not the only one who hopes we can be and achieve more throughout added and extra time, rather than become awash in a mediocre and brief existence throughout the history of the Cosmos. Imagine how the intellect and the wisdom could be compounded as our prolonged and healthy lives give us many more opportunities to learn and experience so much more!

  Everything most assuredly has a purpose and even a meaning if we dig deep enough, even if it seems the only purpose is to help us carry on to a better day. Enabling the capacity of living long lives, for example, will allow us to travel out for thousands, even millions of years, and then we will still be able to return to our home planet and visit old friends and family.

  With fantastic goals of preserving humanity, before venturing out into space for a long journey, we must consider what can be done about long-term life, the preservation of our own planetary biosphere, and the expansion of the length of the Earth-friendly warmth and life of our very own star—our Sun—the life-source of our bountiful solar system. As the heavier elements accumulate at its core and threaten the existence of life on Earth, we can find ways of extracting and using them to raise the quality of life here and in other locations where we have made life possible, while ensuring orbital balance, and extension of the life of our Sun.

  As difficult as this may seem and as simple the antidote, we can begin small by quite simply being kind. With an attitude of kindness, we will find ourselves taking measures that lead to eliminating disease, toxicity, senescence, and death in a manner that considers both well-being and individual consent. We will then be able to progress into a level of understanding and shared knowledge that will allow us to control weather patterns, prevent wildfires, understand and control volcanic and seismic activity, and perhaps understand how fusion works as it will open up even more avenues of progression and quality of life.

  We should also consider quick-paced adaptation to whatever environments we find ourselves in as well as the development of a diverse set of space travel options and capabilities. From there we should, ought to, and could consider and develop so much more, to include complex shielding that can absorb, deflect, and direct the necessary components toward our star that give our Sun an indeterminate lifespan—functioning as it does now. By doing so, we could also find ourselves with the capacity of creating protective zones enabling life on each planet and each moon throughout the solar system.

  Ultimately, in order to attain optimum results, we must be willing to help each other out, and that begins with kindness.

  As I have previously asserted, one way in which we can start down a promising pathway is to have a healthy focus that is more toward the well-being of others as well as ourselves and less toward accepting misery in life. We must think beyond the assumption that our need for challenges is based solely on malevolent happenings or rely solely on the dismal and litigious complexity of economic advantage and disadvantage.

  As we are driven by true ethics, we’ll mature and evolve as we simultaneously find that there is plenty for us all and challenge enough to appease our psyche, if we can challenge ourselves instead to overcome what threatens the existence of humanity.

  As we work together in a disciplined manner, we’ll find there are so many positive and even abundantly enjoyable ways to sate our neurological needs that lead to longevity and true happiness. Humanity is resilient, and time has proven that over and over again. However, we can look back and see that no matter what problems we have resolved, there will always be plenty more that will come our way—that we can overcome—plenty of even more intriguing areas to focus our energies.

  Wisdom and experience can be gained from a more resolute determination to gain a profound knowledge of the sciences, a renewed respect for another person's personal choices, shared knowledge, and fine-tun
ed intuitive abilities as a whole.

  Well-being—when examined more closely, we’ll discover that this is actually such a big phrase, but it begins with something as simple as an attitude of kindness. Kindness includes the idea of caring for others as well as ourselves. While we're making astronomical breakthroughs for those we care about most, we must also consider that there are many among us who suffer from fates unimaginable, diseases, murderous tyrants, natural disasters, and meager resources that we may never experience or even comprehend in our own lives.

  No matter the issue, there is always a solution (and, perhaps there are many solutions we may never be able to conceive of alone) which will work to reduce the misery that many others have experienced and will continue to experience through scientific negligence. In altogether too many cases, those solutions take a society to resolve, or in other words, a lot of studies, networking, dedication, and shared knowledge, if we desire to increase the speed in which we resolve those problems. We need to do so, and we need each other, so we can preserve more lives, while embracing and truly appreciating those who are here on this Earth with us now, share the enjoyment of life, and compound upon our collective wisdom—because there will always be so much more to understand.

  As we readjust our focus toward kindness, creativity, art, objectivity, science, and even the wonders of life, we will then find that we can reach out to attain any among the highest of our lofty dreams.

  Throughout life haven’t we all heard entirely too often the preposterous justifications by far too many, whom we can rightly deem as the "unhealthy of mind," for the “need” for misery, for death, for loss, mourning, or uncontrolled damage and destruction?

  Yes, there are healthy ways to build our cognitive frameworks despite those issues, but can we all agree that life presents enough of a challenge of survival itself and that instead of creating issues that lead to any kind of unnecessary suffering we can resolve issues to reduce just that. If we do, we know we certainly don't need to go out of our way to make life even more miserable for anyone.

  We must work to reduce misery, so let’s do this, please.

  In order to do so, we must make ourselves aware of what it is that can be done, act with purpose in our hearts and become more productive, innovative, and filled with aspirations toward progress and then evolve. Let us engage in healing each other rather than harming each other as well as the planetary environment that drives our physiological and neurological health. By doing so and by starting with compassion and solutions to problems, we will quickly find that rather than expending our energies on witch hunts or casting an unnecessary fear of science or technological advancements, or by ceasing with wasting time away by unnecessarily creating enemies, we will be able to make good decisions that help others to enjoy a healthier and happier life, just as we do for ourselves.

  Let’s look for the good in those around us and give them a chance for heroism no matter where life has led them up to at this point in their lives. Let’s allow everyone or as many as would like to come along on the journey of promise, to be a part of it and give each individual a chance to participate in creating a legacy worthy of preserving indefinitely.

  Many people underestimate the value of educating ourselves on every aspect of science.

  In many cases, this is due to religious misunderstandings that no doubt whomever the Deities are that we may believe in would prefer we understood the great Universe they created for us. In other cases, whether or not we have any religion at all, or are divested of spirituality in any form, I would ask you, wouldn’t it be rewarding to have the ability to live long and healthy lives, so we too could explore the vast Universe and understand even more with regard to the various sciences, to find the truths that the scientific process can provide, and then share it with others?

  Let us not be driven by limitations imposed upon ourselves by ourselves or by others who are lost in the mediocrity that far too many have chosen for unhealthy reasons, due to their own social environments that have no basis in the improvement of the quality of life, the well-being of others as well as ourselves, or the reduction of misery. Instead, let us forge within ourselves the values of well-being toward others as well as ourselves, the quality of life, and indeterminate longevity which can be the foundation for collective ethics and even morality.

  Understanding what we need to in order to evolve includes comprehending and being well-versed in healthy lifestyles. Being aware of and practicing balance in all things, to include balance itself, will increase the enrichment and joy of our sojourn through life because there are so often far too many times that we will need to live life up a bit to do something extraordinary. Yet, sometimes rather than always being active, we may find that we need something as simple as rest and that no matter our capacities something different will be the refreshing aspect of life we need that will in-turn enrich our minds, our lives, and broaden our horizons.

  Understanding the laws of our Universe, whether through a short period of focus or through a broad scope of comprehension based on each of the arts and sciences is an amazing way to engage our energies. There is so much we can and yet have to understand. Anthropology, biology, cosmology, curing disease, and providing educational effectiveness and quality are paramount, each of which will help us to navigate the Cosmos in a prepared fashion. We need to understand how our genes work—we need to learn from nature and optimize our physiology and neurology with optimal results rather than wait for random or mixed results.

  We also need to search for an understanding of geology, seismic activity, gravitational dynamics, natural weather patterns to their core, and infrastructural integrity—so we can balance the necessary components for the enabling of life, with the environment that protects it and makes it even more enjoyable.

  Medical science, biotechnology, neuroscience, as well as improving our prison and correctional systems will raise the collective progress and collaboration that will breed the type of environment necessary for the innovations that will change the course of history into something we can all be proud of.

  Understanding all aspects of particle physics, having a sense of how we react or how we can react—given our psychology, and understanding how the environment we are surrounded with affects our physiological and neurological health will enable what is necessary to share the burden of moving forward and advancing as a civilization toward a promising future.

  Developing well-being-related and purpose-driven politics, innovating balanced forms of well-being-based economics and putting to rest controversial issues by creating solutions that afford each person their own individual consent based on beliefs is essential. With a more objective and proper education and through reaching out to the world with a broader understanding of the social sciences, we will enable the diplomacy needed to allow for an even more collective and collaborative mindset. This will in-turn allow any shared burden of uncontrolled chaos to diffuse and provide a redirection of energies for a more promising purpose. Life’s challenges will then become a joy to bear as successful results toward the resolution of many more problems increase our clarity to preserve our Earth.

  Understanding the most basic components of the Universe through quantum science and harnessing its power to preserve the lives of our star, our planet, as well as rendering other locations within our solar system livable and even understanding the roles played by the different creatures that inhabit our Earth and our bodies will all help us to go further than before by paving a promising pathway to the stars with a legacy that is worthy of preserving. We would find that we are bringing and protecting life throughout the Universe, through enabling the lush growth of nature that brings a pleasant quality to life, instead of finding ourselves becoming worse than the most vicious cancers, destroying everything in our wake.

  We should never forget to consider preserving all of the Earth’s and all of our Universe’s creatures, to include endangered species, as well as anything that may possibly lead to our goals of longevity
. Perhaps we can do this through databasing both the DNA and genes of every individual as well as every form of life.

  Many of the solutions to longevity, resilience in austere conditions, and the answers to an increase in places we can go to and enjoy life lay within the understanding of every gene and every location provided to us in the safety of our own home planet. Perhaps we should consider advancements that lead to instantaneous adaptation to whatever environment we find ourselves in outside of our own planet rather than terraforming these other locations. Perhaps we can build self-sustaining living environments where life would otherwise be non-existent so that no matter where we go we could bring life rather than take it away. Rather than “cull” the land and leave desolation in our wake we can revitalize it and bring calm, as well as an opportunity for abundance and beauty.

  To do all of this, we also need to consider space travel and methods for compassionate survival in all of their forms.

  It is currently possible to preserve full genome sequences of any helpful creatures, microbes, bacteria, viruses, and even human genetics via DNA databases by engaging in stem cell research and using CRISPR-Cas9 or BE4-like tools. Combined with databasing, automation, understanding and replicating intracellular and extracellular communication, and even nurture, we can preserve all species and populate the Universe compassionately, while building our resilience, our strength, and our wisdom to bring life back to all that we had thought was lost forever. We can create colonies throughout the Universe where sentient and helpful beings dwell, by working together, ensuring our leaders are not tyrants, and where people always know of and have access to the home world they came from.