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         title="Permalink to Why astronomy is important">Why astronomy is important</a></h2>
 
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    <abbr class="published" title="2012-09-20T20:02:00-06:00">
      2012/09/20
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    <address class="vcard author">
      By <a class="url fn" href="https://keflavich.github.io/blog/author/adam-keflavichgmailcom.html">Adam (keflavich@gmail.com)</a>
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    <p>Preface: This is not a good argument for why astronomy is important now.
But it may be in the future.
Earth is a limited habitat. Bacteria in a petri dish show the same
growth curve as humanity: exponential growth. An exponential curve grows
very quickly, but we are in a finite (non-growing) environment.
If humanity is to continue its growth, we must find new worlds to
inhabit. There is always a moral question of whether we should continue
our growth and attempt to conquer significant portions of the galaxy,
but we probably won't (and maybe shouldn't) start examining the morality
of our survival until it's ensured.
Consider what happens if humanity stops growing. Our current economic
system is completely dependent on continued growth. The financial
markets can't survive unless more wealth is constantly being generated.
Interesting calculation to try: Divide the total solar energy input to
Earth by the average energy consumed per person, or the minimum energy
(theoretically) per person. It's probably not as large as you think when
you take into account efficiency factors.</p>

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