The Offworld Agenda: "Oblivion," Elysium," And Hawking's Warning

Running Man: Cruise in "Oblivion"

I've written several times on this blog that the big "theme" to be pushed through pop-culture and the media for the years to come will be that of "offworld" colonization (a.k.a. "Starseeds").

The latest confluence of news and entertainment mirroring the same message was this week, when physicist Stephen Hawking declared that that humanity was essentially "doomed" unless they get off the Earth and colonize space. From a recent Mother Nature News article:

Discussing the Earth's most troubling concerns in an email interview with The Canadian Press, Hawking described space exploration as humankind's most urgent mission. Predicting a planet soon made uninhabitable, he says that our only chance of long-term survival as a species is to “spread out into space.”

"Our population and our use of the finite resources of planet Earth are growing exponentially, along with our technical ability to change the environment for good or ill. But our genetic code still carries the selfish and aggressive instincts that were of survival advantage in the past. It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million,” he wrote.

By some great coincidence, this week also marked increased hype for two science-fiction movies about off-world space colonization by humans, "Oblivion" and "Elysium." The former will be released next Friday, and the latter, in August.

Elysium: Hawking's utopia?

"Oblivion," which I've covered a bit already, concerns a humanity who has supposedly left Earth for Saturn's moon Titan. A rag-tag band of humans remain on Earth: "The Resistance."

"Oblivion": the human, Earthbound Resistance

"Oblivion": the cold, offworld Elites

"Elysium" concerns an increasingly awful, overpopulated Earth, and the Utopian "cloud world" built in space where the rich flee and live in comfort. While not about colonizing a specific planet -- Elysium is essentially an orbiting space station -- the same message is there. GET OFFWORLD.

"Elysium": the human, Earthbound Resistance

"Elysium": the cold, offworld Elites

But as the plots for "Oblivion" and "Elysium" indicate, acting on Hawking's warning may not have the same benefit for the elite as it will have for the masses. Will humanity as a whole go offworld as the Earth continues to decline -- or only those rich enough to score a valuable place on the theoretical space stations and colonized planets?

But the clone workers of "Oblivion" bring up another possible dystopian development -- that of corporations using human "drones" or "clones" to "harvest" and terraform these planets. On one hand, this might create more jobs. On the other, this could be very dangerous, potentially health-damaging (radiation?) work -- taken up by the unemployed, desperate masses.

The expendable, offworld worker drone of "Moon"

We see this scenario play out quite clearly in the movie "Moon," in which Sam Rockwell is essentially an expandable "drone" sent to Earth's satellite; his employers having him work there while knowing he is doomed.

While it has been said that it's "impossible to own the moon" -- I believe that is is quite damn possible. If the future of humanity is offworld, this "offworld" will most likely be bought and sold; our future being less the egalitarianism of "Star Trek," and more a carbon copy of the colonization of Earth through the many centuries.

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"Escape From Planet Earth" Finally Released as Asteroids & Meteors Buzz The Planet

Zeitgeist Anxiety: "Must Get Offworld!"

In development since 2007, the animated movie "Escape From Planet Earth" is finally set to be released in American theatres today -- on the same day a meteor crashes down in Russia, and the so-called "largest close-call" asteroid buzzes by the planet. Escape from planet Earth, indeed.

The movie involves the all the usual tropes regarding extraterrestrial visitors -- lovable wise-cracking aliens (from a NASA parody called BASA) that seem Disney-ready for stuffed animals and video games, Area 51 shenanigans, The Evil CIA/NASA/Mr. Smith dude with the suit, and the idea that all of our current technology (including iPhones) have been re-engineered from off-world creations.

I just love the synchronicity of imagery here...by an incredible coincidence, this movie, held in legal limbo for over a decade, finally makes it to the big screen the same day all this cosmic flotsam and jetsam impacts our planet.

From "Escape From Planet Earth":


Dialogue: "I thought this movie was supposed to be in 3-D" (then the flying object crashes through the screen)

From today's Drudge Report:

Drudge Report headline for 2/15

Also, there is simply the stark relevance of the title: "Escape From Planet Earth" -- during a news cycle filled to the brim of stories wondering what we will do in the event of a real asteroid emergency or other somesuch galactic emergency. As I've written in a previous post, this push for "offworld" exploration and colonization will dominate the pop-culture and overall media landscape for many years to come.

Read also: "Starseeds, Star Wars, and Krypton Found: The New Space Narrative"

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Starseeds, Star Wars, And Krypton Found: The New Space Narrative

Space Ark

The only solution seemed to be a boat. A new society of  timeships, sailing the high seas. The Noah myth. Premonitory preparation for the emigration from planet earth.
-- Timothy Leary, "Starseed: A Psi Phy Comet Tale" 

Update: Immediately after publishing this post I found the following article: astronomers apparently just announced yesterday that they have found a "Super-Earth" (their term, not mine) "that may be capable of supporting life as we know it — and it's just a stone's throw from Earth in the cosmic scheme of things." The planet is nicknamed "Lenny." So start packing, folks! And expect more articles like this one filling up your news feed every week, as we're methodically "prepared" to accept the inevitable fact of off-Earth colonization.

Three rather interesting space-related items from the last week or so, all shaping one larger narrative:


Possible NASA Manned Moon Mission Announcement

Don't worry, there will be plenty of new jobs waiting for you on the moon

Space.com reports that we might soon be hearing about a manned mission to the far side of the Moon -- and that such an announcement was timed for a President Obama post-election victory. Space.com quotes their sources as saying "a big announcement may indeed be in the offing before too much longer." This announcement might include word of building a base on the moon and working toward sending people onto an asteroid and Mars.


"Krypton" Located By Famed Astrophysicist

Most of the mass media picked up this story about how Neil deGrasse Tyson "locates" the universe in which Krypton existed. Whether he has done so only in the comic book DC is set to promote, "Action Comics" #14, or in "real life" is made rather unclear...witness the story in the esteemed New Scientist website:

"Now famed astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson has used his power of scientific reasoning to help pin down a real-life red star that could have hosted the home of the Man of Steel. Red stars can scale from dim dwarfs to mighty supergiants. But as astronomer Phil Plait explains, the lifetime of a red supergiant would probably be too short for the advanced Kryptonian civilisation to emerge, while known red giants are too far away from Earth to fit with Superman's back story. That means Krypton had to orbit a red dwarf, which can be older and closer."

Note how the language here deftly mixes fact (there was a star and universe found) with fiction (THERE IS NO SUPERMAN OR PLANET KRYPTON!). Both fantasy and reality have been woven together in a meta-narrative that a respected member of the scientific community has endorsed.

Now, who am I to say that there isn't/wasn't a Krypton? Isn't this mythology-woven-into-fact happening as I write this? Don't we really want a Superman to really exist? And look: now we might have a human-friendly planet to go to...the next logical step after all those initiatives in the theoretical imminent NASA/Obama announcement is made.

Further, as I've pointed out on this blog several times -- President Obama has been "cast" as -- sometimes by his own self/handlers -- as a Superman-type icon. Heck, only a few issues back in "Action Comics" #9, there was a whole issue that (metaphorically, of course) explored this. And Obama himself quipped that he was born on Krypton:



New Star Wars Movies Announced

Lastly, to the item that kicked this whole news cycle off: hold on to your hats, fans, there is going to be a new Star Wars movie! And another one after that. And another one after that. And, as NASA sends some hapless souls to cling on an asteroid, another Star Wars movie after that.

We'll have plenty of fun space operas to keep our eyes to the stars over the next decades, thanks to Disney buying out Lucasfilm and forcing them to pump put more creations on a regular basis than the Duggar Family. "Star Wars" has also shaped our political landscape in the past, most particularly with the Star Wars Defense Initiative in the 1980s.

It will be very interesting to see what narratives these new movies spin out, and how they will both reflect and shape the larger world narrative. But the overall "message" of these films will be space travel, exploration, and planets beyond our own. Imagination-fuel for generations who will most likely witness -- and perhaps eventually train for -- these issues in real life.

"Young Jedi" at an actual "Jedi Training Academy"

So here's the story so far. A NASA announcement about a manned moon mission (among other things) might be immanent, held back only to be revealed after an Obama victory. At the same time, we have apparently "discovered" Superman's birthplace, Krypton -- this is "legit" because Neil deGrasse Tyson told us so. This newly-discovered universe might, conveniently, sustain human(oid) life. Also: Superman might be real. Lastly, our hopes for continuing the Space Program has been metaphorically rekindled now that it's been announced that -- contrary to the previous protestations by George Lucas -- there are going to apparently be new Star Wars sequels into perpetuity.

Why all these narratives now? It's because we're being prepared -- albeit very slowly and methodically -- for off-planet colonization. THIS -- this is the dominating narrative as the years and decades go by. This is it. Tim Leary was right with "Starseed" -- we have to get off the Rock. 'Cause another part of the narrative might be -- we're Krypton.

BUT

Leary also told us the real key is to travel into the universes within. Where is the official narrative for this, our map studded with friendly pop-culture landmarks for easy consumption?

Folks, that part of the journey -- there is no official plan, no NASA "innerspace" exploration announcement coming. We gotta do that ourselves. However, as always, pop-culture has many keys available to us to light up that way, as well.

(Also, is it time for news of some sort of ill-conceived "2001" reboot movie with state-of-the-art CGI effects? I'm thinking it is.)

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