It is instinct to believe that all human life is valuable. We have spent centuries perfecting medical techniques, developing methods of justice and capitalizing on natural resources to improve our modest existence. There is something inside of each of us that works a special and unmatched animal magic. Our race has consciousness, which functions as a delicate balance between creativity and logic in both hemispheres of our brains. This precious self-awareness is a gift from nature itself, for we are the eyes and ears of the universe. As far as we know, the only matter capable of comprehending itself exists exclusively in the collective human body. For this reason alone we find it worthwhile to preserve ourselves and our species.

But, we have recently encountered problems with our knack for self-preservation. As our lifespans extend through the efforts of a cushioned society, our numbers have ballooned to enormous proportions. We constantly fight over limited territory or resources, a problem that has literally exploded in the years since industrialization. All lives lost in the name of land or wealth scream in defiance of our urge to perpetuate ourselves. Think of all the imagination, creativity and ideas lost in the name of gold or oil over the years. We are living paradoxes.

All our problems radiate from a single dilemma: limited space. There has never been enough room on Planet Earth for the tribes of humankind. Our history shows that we have no qualms exterminating our peers for the sake of useful inanimate resources, from the sacking of the library of Alexandria, to the pillaging of the Incan Empire, to today's wars in the Middle East. For the first time in history, we have the opportunity to reverse the trends of our hypocrisy. The freshly privatized space industry has blown open the doors of interstellar access to the race as a whole. Expeditions and colonies on extra-terrestrial planets and satellites have moved from the pages of science fiction to the proposals of XRD companies. And one thing is certain about the heavens: space is anything but limited.

What happens to our wars when we're finally able to glean resources from the near-infinite heavens? Who bothers to fight when there's a new, hospitable planet for each human on Earth? These questions may only be answered in the distant future, but it's important to ponder them now. For in their imagined answers we find motivation to move outward from the blue speck we call home. Our planet has offered itself as the launching pad for an intergalactic species. But instead, we treat it like a piece of spherical real estate so that our centuries-old cycle of destruction can continue to go round and round. The goal of unifying the human race so that we may all benefit from outward expansion may seem lofty and impossible, but its seed has already been sown in the human subconscious. Will you keep your feet on the ground and crush the helpless sapling? Or will you look to the sky and help it grow?