If all is not what it seems — a person is not his/her looks, a policy’s purpose becomes clear only after it’s implemented — then creating an autobiographical sketch is neither more nor less than what its contents imply.

Despite attempts at illusion, there is no me.

Despite the feeling that the author of this blog is uniquely different than seven billion others capable of interacting with an online interface, difference is relative.

One can align oneself with others who share a subset of similar traits/habits.

One can speak intelligently about the Quaternary extinction event.  One can yell and shout incoherently about one’s favourite sport.

One may fill one’s room with polyester-filled cloth objects one believes resembles living creatures.

One may drive one’s vehicle at speeds most others consider unsafe.

One may order one’s troops to bombard suburban neighbourhoods to quell a rebellion.

One may minimise one’s engagement with one’s immediate surroundings.

And yet, here we are at the end of the day, a species talking to itself.

Rare is the individual of our species that, except for birth, never has contact with another one of us in its lifetime.

We are social beings.

It seems inevitable that we represent our planet in expanding some version of our lifeforms into the solar system and behind.

Make it so.

Does a motivational speaker ask you to question your intended purpose or get you excited to overcome every obstacle to make your intended purpose reality?

Sometimes, the whirls and eddies caused by bumping into others who strongly seek goals or create a purposeful direction in their lives interrupts the author of this blog from moving forward toward achieving the inevitable.

Death is inevitable, too.

Does a set of states of energy have to have as strong an imprint on others as the set’s desire to motivate others to achieve a goal greater than all other goals combined?

As social beings, are we only inspired when we see a social being similar to us in some way encouraging us to embrace a vision we would not normally call our own?

How many inventions are more famous than the inventors?

How many social movements are more famous than their creators?

How many works of art exist separate from the artists?

If you can recall a single judicial decision, can you remember the judges and/or their arguments that led to the decision?

Do you know the name of any one person who was involved in paving the road over which you’ve traveled?

How about the person who packaged a can of food from which you’ve eaten?

In truth, we are isolated from most of the people who have the some of the greatest influences on our daily lives.

Sure, we say our friends and family are most important.

And we should.

However, we owe a large part of our lives to people we’ll never see or know.

I don’t know any of the people who invented the words I’m using here.

I don’t know the people who wrote the code to allow me to type on this notebook computer keyboard and post a blog entry.

I don’t know who designed the desk on which the notebook computer lies or the chair in which I sit.  I don’t know who created the factory in which either was made or the worker who boxed them for shipping to the point where they were purchased.

This set of states of energy, this “I,” does not remember every person, place, thing or idea that influenced the changes to the set of states of energy in the moment.

The eyes wander.

The fingers feel.

The thoughts spark from one synapse to another.

The “I” that existed — its autobiographical sketch — is neither wholly a truth nor wholly a lie.

Just a few remembered points on a curvy path.  Mileposts.  Signs.

Could one not also say that one’s autobiography contains the moments when one opened a door for someone else for no particular reason and let the door slam in front of someone else for the same nonparticular reason?

Is an autobiography the attempt to make our bumping into each other more than coincidental?

A skyscraper looks like it was designed for a particular purpose in mind but its uses change with time and the interpretation of its form moves with social opinion.

We rarely notice change as it happens because we treat most of the objects/people we meet as unchangeable — they are what they are in the moment.

So it is with the idea that we, or our representatives, branch out into the galaxy.

If asked, we’d create a version of the vision of populating outer space that would contain many components shared with others.

Some would want to spread peace.

Some would want to spread war.

Some would want to spread commerce.

Some would want to spread communally shared space.

No single person will get there alone.

We will carry our global cultural heritage with us, including inventions, social movements, art and judicial decisions.

A few people will stand out as strong personalities but most will never be know or will be forgotten who helped get us there.

Here, at the end of this blog, the inevitability of our species exploring the solar system is directly tied to our species’ ability to survive socioecological change on this planet.

Regardless of the reasons for general warming of Earth, the cost to us to adapt to these changes is ever-rising.  In other words, the value of scarce resources makes us increase the careful consideration of the use of those resources — inequality is a hot buzzword right now in many parts of the world.

So, yes, there are millions of starving people, millions more underemployed, and a few thousand who have more resources than they’ll ever be able to use in a lifetime.

That doesn’t stop the inevitability of populating places outside Earth’s ecosystem, simply changes the motivational speeches we give each other to stay on course, even if we have to tack with the prevailing winds of social change or get caught in temporary eddies.

Time is irrelevant.  Names and numbers on milestones fade, all of us forgotten eventually.

We’re getting there, slowly but surely, one autobiographical sketch piling on top of another like steps leading to our new homes on celestial bodies both natural and artificial in comparison.

Enjoy the journey because the definition of our destination and how long it’ll take to get there changes with each successive generation.

The way it is and the way it’s always been…