A species which denies certain basic rights can not become a spacefaring species. Imagine, if you will, a species as a a supercomputer and each member of a species as a processor. If you deny permissions to a processor that processor can not participate in the task.
What if reporters in America where denied the freedom of expression and where blocked from reporting on Sputnik? Would NASA exist? Would humanity have landed on the moon? Would we have a generation of engineers who want to school to fill a "brain gap" and where motivated by Sputnik? Would we have the technologies and interconnectivity brought on by spaceflight? Would we have had a space race?
A species which denies certain basic rights can not become a spacefaring species.
How can this biological supercomputer solve the huge boatload of problems, most social problems, that spaceflight if certain processors are not "loaded" with basic programming to analyze problems. How can we become spacefaring if people can not participate in and understand an increasingly scientific world? Space takes no prisoners, it will find a species' weakness and take advantage of it to prevent it from entering space. Someone denied the right to education may have been the one with the insight we need to become a spacefaring species.
A species which denies certain basic rights can not become a spacefaring species.
With such a massive task, how can one deny the right to participate in a culture? How can you not ask every member of a species their opinion on the group's path; give each member the ability to shape the culture that leaders in the space field will derive the goals of spaceflight from? How can you expect a member of a species to feel excitement for space when they can not participate in the thrill of a launch? When they are too scared to express their excitement for anything? When they can not speak about their passions in public?
A species which denies certain basic rights to any member of that species can not become a spacefaring species.
How can anyone dream of space or look up at the stars if they are denied housing, food, water and health care? What then does the whole species miss by their inability to participate, not only in space, but in all of that species' goals. How can a species survive in space, a place which tests everything to it's breaking point, when it is unwilling to provide for every member?
A species which denies certain basic rights can not become a spacefaring species. When we give every human these basic things, we will be ready; this species will then be mature enough to become spacefaring. Now, looking at how much suffering humans cause one another, I doubt we can inhabit space.
Reactions
Am I right? It it possibly for humanity to move to space while making members of this species second class world citizens? One a scale of one to ten, how much is lack of human rights holding back humanity?
Resources
Photo by riacale
In Case You Skimmed
-A species which denies certain basic rights can not become a spacefaring species
-Denying a human their rights removes their perspective from all the problems we must solve
-Denying a human their rights removes any chance of them becoming inspired by space