There are 1.2 billion people alive today who were born before the molecular basis of life was discovered
This is for those who claim that some of the questions we ask today will never be answered.
(Population data from here. Using the central dogma of molecular biology, articulated in 1958, as a somewhat arbitrary cutoff point.)
If we fail to complete a manned mission to another celestial body by 2037, we will have gone one average human lifespan since the last moon landing. Sstimated delta population since the last moon landing is about 3 billion. This doesn't account for death, and so implies that in excess of 3 billion individuals were born after the last moon landing. It seems a shame that, for over half the population of this planet, the moon landings are a history lesson. Suggestion : exists optimal population for extracting high energy high cost results from human innovation. We have surpassed this by approximately 3 billion individuals. The resources that once went into scientific research and species level endeavors must now be used just to keep things sensibly stable. Its a shame that our inability to control our society, our population, and our environmental destructiveness, is sapping life from the few projects that might distinguish us from the rest of the species on this planet.
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