Spaceship Earth

The false idea that the Earth in its natural state already provides everything humanity needs to survive and thrive so long as we don't modify it too much.

Any environment can kill. Safety comes through Knowledge-based solutions, not through preservation of natural conditions. The biosphere is not a life-support system — it is a set of problems that universal explainers must solve.

Connections

• •A form of Pessimism — romanticizing stasis and fearing change
• •Contradicted by Resource — resources are created by knowledge, not provided by nature
• •Related to Precautionary Principle — both assume the status quo is safe
• •Opposes The Principle of Optimism — which holds that problems require solutions, not passivity
• •Denies the role of Knowledge in creating habitable conditions
• •Wealth comes from knowledge, not from nature's "gifts"
• •Progress is the process of making the environment safer through knowledge