According to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the key
to saving Earth is making space accessible
– and industrial.
Jeff Bezos did an interview at Code Conference
2016. It’s a sort of who’s-who of the
tech business sector, and this year featured
interviews with industry heavies like Elon
Musk, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Sheryl Sandberg
on topics ranging from artificial intelligence
research to artificial meat startups. Bezos
discussed– well, lots of things, and we’ll
put a link to the hour-plus interview in this
video’s description. But the part that caught
our attention, being the specific type of
nerds that we are, was when he spoke about
his rocket manufacturing and spaceflight company,
Blue Origin, and the future of business in
space. Bezos says that he wants the space
industry to be open to upcoming entrepreneurs
the way that the internet industry is open
to startups today. Part of that reason is
his genuine excitement about space exploration,
and his frustration that government-run programs
like NASA have been, by some measures, in
productive decline since the heyday of the
space race. But the other part of his reasoning?
He says that space will save the world. Bezos
discussed how pollution and energy drain from
heavy industry are starting to put limits
on our society – how many people our planet
can support, and what their quality of life
can be. Here’s my favorite cheeky quote
from the interview: “We know about the solar
system now. We’ve sent robotic probes all
over the solar system. Let me assure you:
This is the best planet.” His answer to
saving the world? Moving heavy industry off
Earth and powering it with solar energy, which
would be more efficient than solar systems
here on Earth. That way, he says, we can devote
our resources and efforts to bringing the
developing world up to the increasing speed of the developed world. It’s a lovely and lofty goal.
Because, as of right now, as Bezos admits,
it’s way too expensive to do stuff in space.
Although the thriving private space industry
has helped, over the past decade, to drop
the cost of sending stuff up there from 10
thousand dollars per pound to one thousand
dollars or less, there are so many other
factors. No one knows how an increased number
of rocket launches will impact the energy
industry and the environment. We're still
researching how to protect squishy, delicate
humans from the rigors and dangers of space.
Asteroid mining is still in the concept stage.
And the infrastructure necessary to make it
easy for a person to start a space company
is far vaster – and more potentially explosive
– than the infrastructure involved in the
internet. But, as Bezos said, creating that
infrastructure – from reusable rockets to
microgravity safety measures –
could save us all.
So what do you think: Is it worthwhile (or
even possible) for private businesses like
Blue Origin and Space X to build up space
infrastructure and move heavy industry off-planet?
Or should we be concentrating our efforts
here on Earth? Get in touch and let us know.
And for more about what’s going on in the
world right now,
visit now.howstuffworks.com every day.
