(2019 Archived) [Outdated] THE EXODUS AND THE RISE OF VENUSIAN CLOUD- ARCHIPELAGOS
Commercialization
and Rise of a phase-III Venusian Colony
Now,
how exactly are we to give rise to a phase-III Venusian colony? Well, for a
colony to be self-sufficient it must be self sufficient via exports to the
Earth. We’ve achieved the self-sufficiency part, now we have to work on the
export of material back to the Earth. But, interplanetary trade is
impractically expensive; the interplanetary ocean that divides Venus from
Earth, where even when the launch window opens at low tide, the distances are
simply just too large for practical trade.
We’d
have to rely on something better: We must either get governments or even
investors, to invest in the mass manufacturing industries in Venus for
undreamed-of economic returns, or for even governmental organizations or
business lords to have their own joint-ventures with the colonists.
As
for governmental organizations involving in colonization, we have our own
historic example: the VOC (Dutch East-India Company) which ought to be well
known for its colonization of Asia, and its notorious unexplained craze for
cinnamon. Our history lessons tell it to be funded by the Dutch government
during its peak years, and it grew to be a powerful company. I mean; when the
VOC dictated some parts of Sri Lanka (my homeland) during the 17th
and 18th centuries AD, they had the power and weaponry, to declare
and fight wars with our Rajahs! A governmental organization or even a private
entrepreneurship, having adequate capital, would be able to invest on Venusian
enterprises, colonization, perhaps even the entire affair!
The
Commercialization of Venus
In
order to regain government funding, or investments from governmental
organizations, or even rich-enough NGOs and private entrepreneurship, we would
have to create an economic drive worthy of the interplanetary voyages to Venus.
This would require making Venus ‘economically attractive’; it should be very
tempting to invest in, with no second story whatsoever. But how exactly are we
to make a planet economically attractive?
With
consideration to any commodity-manufacturing planet, being similar to an
industrial zone; I believe that it would have to mass-produce a commodity more
easily than in the Earth. If the
mass-production is feasible on the Earth, to least a single degree; investing
in its mass production in an alien world would not be as economically
stimulating. It is unfortunately the case for many manufacturable material and
commodities.
But,
if we were able to increase the quality and quantity of mass-produced materials
by several orders of magnitude, then the economical attractiveness would rise
exponentially. Other than average quality, I believe that quantity would be the
most crucial factor in gaining that attractiveness: I mean, if the quantity of
manufactured material produced compensates for the price of the interplanetary
journeys, the investor would get the required material in large quantity as a
bonus. And if the mass production is done consistently with a cheaper expense,
the trade might turn out to be quite a feasible and practical procedure. Plus,
the Venusians would an equally large return from the investor; a double bonus!
For
example, if rocket fuel were found to be made cheaper on the moon, there would
be more reason to invest on it, thus making the moon economically attractive [a].
But
it isn’t just rocket fuel that could easily be produced on Venus; I’ve
identified 22 others. Ideally, it must be noted that, the 23 things I mentioned
aren’t the only ideal resources which could be produced on Venus. Based on the
creativity of the scientific community, the Venusian colonists or even the
investors; far more things could be mass-produced, perhaps far more than I
would have ever imagined. But, what I do know is that, Venus will become a
commercial and industrial hub.
Before
the Exodus
After
sometime, the population of colonists would have a slight twist in the
profession-ratio. The population would be of far more than scientists and
engineers. With experimentations turned into industry, and mass-manufacturing
on the move, Venus would seem far more than not a place to live-in.
Private
contractors (doesn’t necessarily have to be private, though) would arrive to
get rich out of resources, with construction-in-progress, robotic mining and
mass-production. Venus would have become commercially active and economically
productive [A].
More
and more, people would want to get into doing business with Venus and perhaps
join-in the race. I believe that, a new space-race would begin, and many have
their eyes on Venus; The Exodus to Venus had officially begun.
The
Exodus to Venus
The
most prominent question regarding the exodus is of its scale. Well, it would
happen at a grand scale, unparalleled to any other interplanetary voyage ever
attempted by mankind. It would be so meticulously
planned and organized, that it would be nearly flawless. I believe that it
would be an unfathomable feat relative to present-day spaceflight and it would
truly live up to its name, in the halls of history. It would likely be done with the collective
effort of governments, organizations, and rich entrepreneurships. Still, it
wouldn’t be as ambitious as anything seen in the sci-fi movies; but in a way,
we would be able to draw parallels to it. It would be an expensive start, but
us here on the Earth would be able to obtain resources in undreamt-of
quantities, similar to the prospects of asteroid mining. I believe that, the
exodus to happen in a launch window or two. Still, any more than that wouldn’t
make it less of an exodus, in terms of spaceflight; it would still be a
gargantuan collective journey across the Earth-Venusian Interplanetary sea.
The
Aftermath of the Exodus
The
exodus would end steeply, but still gradually relative to the abruptness of its
beginning. Afterwards, more-and-more people would still continue to go to
Venus, but not anywhere near the scale of the exodus. On the contrary, I believe that the Venusian
import-export economy would flourish as never seen before, with spaceships
going to-and-fro in every single launch window.
The Birth of Venusian
Civilization
Now,
with an exploding population and capital, the Venusian colonies would grow
exponentially with an ever-increasing number of habitats, farmlands, schools,
hospitals and factories [A].
The amount of cloud-cities would increase at a hitherto unseen pace, and
new colonies would be formed quite faster.
The Format of Venusian
Civilization
Every
single cloud-city doesn’t necessarily have to be for habitation; I believe that
some of the cloud-cities might specialize to perform a certain function. There
could be industrial cities with factories and assemblies, cities dedicated for
agriculture and storage, warehousing and growing meat from stem-cells, and
spheres dedicated for exporting-to and importing-from the Earth.
Venusian Cloud-Archipelagos
I
believe that in the more distant future, many colonies would tend to cluster
together in a dense agglomeration in what I like to call an archipelago (which
is technically the collective noun for islands or islets). I would imagine a
cloud-archipelago almost smoothly circumnavigate Venus like a plague of
locusts, a swarm of budgerigars, or a school of herring. It would be quite
satisfying to see such collective action in fast-forward.
I postulate that the archipelago would attempt
to control itself as a whole, regardless of whether they come-up with a system,
or not. A capital cloud-city might be designated, with the common agreement of
the archipelago, and lead it in similar fashion to a shepherd leading his flock
of sheep. In such a scenario, the capital cloud-city would be common to all
cities, and all cities have the right to the capital city. Or, the
cloud-archipelago might be collectively controlled by every colony and city
equally, as that of a colony of ants or termites.
Industrial Extraction and Mining
during Phase-III
With
much adequate funding and advanced technology during phase-III, I believe that
mining processes would be done by enormous, complex, and profound systems of
machinery which would withstand the conditions of the surface. The systems as a
whole might run with Artificial Intelligence, but the scenery at the surface
would be quite industrial-looking;
I’d
imagine it as some mega-industrial revolution were going on, in an incarnation
of hell. I would imagine rovers, scaled like large dump-trucks scuttling
to-and-fro. Similarly, high above or slightly below the cloud-tops, I imagine
seeing similarly large factories, which are fully automated and very much in
line with each other. I’d imagine the factories and mining machinery to be
quite reminiscent of the black smokers that hide in the deep-abysmal ocean
trenches, and they would be connected by strong long ballooned cable systems,
with hoppers ascending and descending in-and-out of the hazes of the Venusian
atmosphere. The utter amount of them would make it seem as an escalator to
heaven. The industrial gamut of Venus during phase-III colonization would
simply be a well-organized chaos which would manufacture unfathomable
quantities of resources.
Exploration of the Venusian
Atmosphere and Transportation Between Colonies.
I
believe that the exploration of the Venusian atmosphere would still be done
with solar-powered aircrafts and airships, like those in HAVOC. They would most
likely be used for the scientific research of the Venusian atmosphere. A
similar likely usage of them, are for the transportation in-between colonies.
During phase-II transportation using aircrafts or airships would be seldom and
only when mandatory. But afterwards, I believe it would turn-out to be
commonplace. Again, they work on solar power, but I believe that Silane would
be the equivalent of petrol, on Venus.
But,
what about transportation within a city? Well, Silane isn’t a good option, as
it creates particulate silica matter when inhaled. I believe that, Eco-friendly
means of transportation, such as solar and electrically powered transportation
means are quite feasible. In fact, considering the size of an individual city;
even a bicycle might qualify to be a feasible means of intra-city
transportation. Transportation between
Archipelagos might prove to be more difficult, with more travel time and risk,
but it could still be done when needed.
Venusian Independence
On
the longer run, the concept of sovereignty might ebb itself into Venusian
society. Afterwards, perhaps the Venusians might declare a bill of
independence, which would undeniably be accepted by everyone here on the Earth.
On the Sovereignty of Venusian
Archipelagos
I
predict that one day in the distant Venusian future, there would be many
cloud-archipelagos hovering above the Venusian cloud-tops. Well, would the
cloud-tops be littered by dense agglomerations of hyperpolises, which would
cover one’s field-of-view even beyond the horizon? Would Venus appear as an
intricately-planned metallic-world, with a patterned light-display at night and
day-side made blue with solar arrays? One day, it might be the case, but not to
that degree.
My
best estimate would be that there would be cloud-archipelagos which would
noticeably cover Venus and slightly change its appearance, perhaps in 3-5
decks. How would such large populations be controlled? Well, I believe that
every archipelago or mega-archipelago would recognize their sovereignty, and be
the Venusian equivalent of nations.
The Venusian Socio-Economy
I
believe that every archipelago or mega-archipelago might evolve their own
unique languages and cultures. Yet, as in the present day Earth, they would
work united and get a lot of work done. They might even have their own
space-missions and try to exceed their own cosmic horizon, perhaps as if they
were to prepare for some global catastrophic risk, as we’re trying now.
As
for the economy, they will still be ‘self-sufficient via exports to Earth’. But
I believe that after longer periods, it would recede to a situation like the
Earth: The individual cloud-archipelagos or mega-archipelagos would
individually run on an import-export economy with one another, with Venus still
being collectively self-sufficient as a whole.
On Venusian Healthcare
As
for Healthcare: I believe that the Venusians would be free from the
communicable diseases, as the bacteria, viruses and protozoa that cause them
would be absent in our artificial Venusian biospheres, due to our careful
filtering and caring for forward contamination. Still, I believe that they
might have to deal with the non-communicable diseases or even simply accidents
and fractures. I believe that, the Venusian systems of healthcare and First Aid
would be to the standard, or might be modified to deal with some
constraints.
Constraints?
Well, there is the possibitity of potential aerial life being pathogenic, and
if that slim chance were to be reality, healthcare would have to be modified to
deal with them. Also, over the generations without the necessity for dealing
with absent threats to immunity, evolution would degrade their immune system.
That constraint might have to be dealt-with.
Other Aspects of Venusian Life
Well,
the other aspects of Venusian life would include its system of education,
entertainment, (edutainment?), governance, law, and order. The topic could be
dealt with deeper, but it isn’t as much a priority for this book’s purposes.
Still, I believe that it would turn out to be quite fine!
The
Birth of the First True Venusian
Someday
in the newborn Venusian civilization, two people would make a social
breakthrough; a breakthrough that would shape the course of humanity’s future
in space and beyond. The breakthrough is the birth of the first
extraterrestrial child (Let’s assume them to be twins, for a more humane usage
of pronouns in the uncertainty of its gender).
Their parents would get the hitherto impossible opportunity of raising
them. They are special not only for being the first to be born on a foreign
world, but for a deeper reason. That is;
Unlike
any other children from across the inner solar system (Except the Earth), they
are much more well suited to live and be-raised. They are born free from the
sorrows of being-raised in an inappropriate gravitational field, and the
constraints that hinder life unavoidable.
I
believe that their birth would be celebrated in a duality of worlds: The
Venusian colonists would rejoice over the fact that, the seeds that would sow;
a new Venusian population are not only fertile, but independent from the Earth.
Us here on the Earth would rejoice over the fact that, the survival of humanity
isn’t in the indifferent hands of the Earth, but in ours; Humanity would still
be able to sail the cosmic ocean, and become a space-faring civilization independent from the worlds, if
ever the mother Earth were to be gone.
In
simpler terms, the birth of the first Venusian would be a milestone in our
species’ pursuits to become a space-faring civilization. Venus which began as a haven; a harbour of
human life, is now its progenitor and nurse. Even if the Earth were to see its
demise by some natural disaster or artificial cataclysm, the human race would
continue to prosper on Venus. The cosmos would still be calling, and humanity
would respond and spread its seeds elsewhere. Perhaps, colonizing the Earth for
a change? Whatsoever, Humanity would again be sauntering along yet another
cosmic shore, still trying to see beyond the horizon; the horizon we are yet to
see till then. Every odyssey in the
cosmic oceans will bring us new horizons to look over. It is the prospect of
nearly all the greater civilizations of the future-past, some fail to look
beyond the horizon and succumb to their fall. Islet by islet, island by island,
archipelago by archipelago we must sail. Venus is just our first islet: And
considering all we’ve done in the islet named the Earth, this would be one of
our greatest achievements, yet. Perhaps if the islet Earth were to be engulfed
by its volcano or tsunami, or even by some large explosive; humanity would still
thrive on the islet of Venus. There is much promise to the birth of the first
human on that islet of Venus, as humanity will now be firmly established on it.
Our odds of surviving in the cosmic jungle would have been increased to a great
extent, and it is something to happy about for a long time to come.
EPILOGUE:
A Wish from the Evening Star: the Genesis of a New Space-Age.
We
are on the verge of planning our next cosmic move; which would be our current
priority, as a planetary civilization. We have to spread our seeds in other
islets; we have to colonize another world. Now again back to our two
candidates; Mars and Venus. Don’t misunderstand me: Mars is an amazing place
for exploration and research. It might prove to be an archetypal fundamental
component on our understanding of life, our origins, Mars itself, the fragility
of worlds and a diverse group of other vast areas of science. Mars could even
be a potential place of a breakthrough, which might revolutionize humanity. But
based on our current repertoire of extraplanetary colonization, it might not be
our most ideal option; we’ve seen that Mars isn’t good for human habitation
yet, but everything else would be quite fine.
Yet,
it’s distressing to say that, the colonization and manned exploration of the
red planet is widely accepted to be our next cosmic move, at the present time
of my writing. Again, if we ask, why is that so well accepted? It is mainly
owing to Mars’s indissoluble popularity, which it got since the canali scandal
along with the almost-immortal impact created by the thoughts of intelligent
Martian life in vintage society. Mars’s popularity has its roots deeply
embedded in our contemporary social milieu. Knowing Venus to be a better home,
something would have to be done about it: Swimming against the currents of our
social river will never work; it’s simply too strong.
Instead,
a better strategy would be to induce a new popularity for Venus; a popularity
lost since the 1980s. In some form of Neo-Venusianism, which
would grow into the roots of the common mind; and lead the fallen star back on
the red carpet? Nevertheless, Word on the hospitality of the Venusian
atmosphere would have to spread, regardless if it were from mouth-to-ear or by
mass media. The thing that matters is that, more-and-more people become aware
of it day-by-day. Something worthy to be happy of is that, it is actually going
on at an accelerating rate. And if it were to reach a population large enough,
to change the wide belief of Mars being our next home;
I
believe that it would drastically change our future in space, as we’ve taken
the proper cosmic step. The sky before and after sunrise from where I live, is
rather vague and cloudy; But, if I were to see the evening star, in either of
its twice-daily incarnations, I would wish for humanity to take our proper
cosmic step. I would wish for scepticism over Mars’s popularity overriding its
cumbersome reality, and cynicism over the fetters of surfacism. I would wish
for humanity to prosper in a multitude of worlds, with a miscellany of
opportunities from the grand cosmic ocean we call home. But, it will all
begin with a relatively small step of colonizing Venus first; or rather to
start colonizing Venus to begin with. The Venusian cloud-cities, colonies and
archipelagos will have to undergo a cumbersome process to become reality, like
the growth of any other civilization from scratch. Yet, it is still the most
feasible path to laying the foundation for humanity becoming an interplanetary
civilization, relative to any other planet in the solar system.
But, when we get there or near-by the process
would have eased by several degrees. That is in a world many of us wouldn’t be
able to see. It would be a world which would outlive me, perhaps by centuries.
It wouldn’t necessarily have to be prepared now, there is time and the future
engineers could plan it. But, it would be our responsibility to initiate the
process; it must already begin, in order for them to work on it. And, as we’ve
seen, the initial pioneering steps would be of the HAVOC missions, which would
be ready to fly by the late 2020s. When Venus regains its popularity, the HAVOC
mission would too. The HAVOC missions are literally our lifeline to Venus,
which we would get to see in action within our lifetimes. I would also wish by
the evening star, that HAVOC would receive the necessary support needed for
achieving its goals, and that every mission would end successfully.
Then
what about the people who dedicated their entire career to Mars? What about the
crew and investment for the cause? What about the people who offered their
lives for Martian colonization? They would not be in vain; as a matter of fact,
it would give us the opportunity to colonize both world side-by-side (That
wouldn’t matter at all). In such a scenario, the Venusians would still fare
better at their circumstances, least relative to the Martians. As long as the
colonization of Venus begins, with or without Mars, I believe it to be fine.
And I anticipate that this would eventually be reality, which I’ll grow-up in.
It might also prove to be an act of spreading eggs over more baskets; the
stakes of a global catastrophe wouldn’t be our demise, even if two worlds were
to collapse!
I
hope that my book were helpful, and at least slightly contributed not only for Neo-Venusianism
or anti-surfacism, but in encouraging humanity to dive deeper into
the vast cosmic ocean, and to see potential beyond our cosmic horizon. I hope
that it would be one of the many inscriptions on the islet of Earth; that would
give the message of this worthy cause, which would lead to many-a-rafts with
our bold explorers, simultaneously to the islets of Venus and Mars. I would imagine that humanity would establish
a permanent presence on those three islets, as a blossoming inter-planetary
civilization.
Now,
even if one or two of these islets were to be hit by a tsunami or asteroid,
humanity would flourish in the remaining. Humanity on each world would have
diversified both by knowledge and socio-cultural backdrop, perhaps even by
evolution. However, no matter how far planetary civilizations of humans are;
the adjacent islet or light-eons away, we would still have three things in
common: For starters, the archangel of curiosity would still be following us
every step of the way. Secondly, the unexplained exploratory drive would still
float in our arteries, or whatever equivalent-of-it which might become of it.
Last, but certainly not least, we would still be strolling along the cosmic
shore, not of the Earth, but of many other islets suspended in the cosmic
ocean. We would see new cosmic horizons every lifetime, and travel up the
Kardashev scale putting a hard fight against the laws of Darwin, the great
filters, and the other constraints of the Fermi Paradox. Though still quite
unlikely, if we were to correctly take every decision with regard to our
species and survival, and take every correct cosmic step; One day, we might be
sail the cosmos with an armada of magnificently grand spaceships which are
complex to the extent of incomprehensibility. One day, we might divide the very
cosmic oceans themselves with mighty vessels, which could manipulate the very
waves of the universal seas; and undergo space-time odysseys which might go on
for eons. One day, we would get humanity to theoretical immortality.
I
would like to conclude my manuscript, with the message that humanity could grow
to a civilization of that calibre, only if we were to make every right cosmic
move. I believe that Interplanetarianism is one of the greatest possible
achievements for a planetary civilization. Once achieved, it would deserve a
pandemonium of plaudits; an uproar of applause which would reverberate the
halls of history, and resonate through-out the space-time continuum in waves
that would carry its wholesome message to infinity and beyond. Simply, becoming
an interplanetary species is a rare opportunity, which would boost our cosmic
lifespan by several millennia.
I also believe that, our first correct move
would be to colonize Venus (along with Mars). Tomorrow depends on the choices
we make today, and the future depends on what we do at present. In order to
begin Venusian colonization, we would have to support HAVOC. With your support,
we’d send HAVOC flying by the late 2020s, and see the humanity become
interplanetary!
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