Day 391: Interplanetary Purchasing

http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/27/technology/enterprise/paypal-galactic/index.html

PayPal said Thursday it will launch inter-planetary payments -- yes, a system for buying things in space.

It sounds like a PR stunt, but PayPal is dead serious about getting into the burgeoning field of space tourism. With companies like Virgin Galactic and Space X bringing the go-to-Mars dream much closer to reality, PayPal said its goal is simply to start thinking about the complicated issues concerning space commerce. - CNN

Of all the things this world needs, an interplanetary payment system is pretty much at the bottom of the (very long) list.

There is no denying that the human race is a curious one, nor can one claim that our innate curiosity is "bad" or "good" - but what is certain is that until we create a global equality of living standards (at the very least), our curiosity is best suited to improving said living standards.

We have a long way to go before we should let our curiosity loose on the stars.

Our society is spiraling into a cataclysmic event that will surely bring about the destruction of Earth. We are a society that wants instant gratification, without regard or an understanding of the processes involved with creating products. We go to McDonald's and order a Big Mac Meal - all we see and care about is the burger, chips and drink - we do not consider the battery farms producing the meat, the mechanisation of factories that makes thousands upon thousands of people essentially obsolete in their jobs, we do not consider that for the tiny price we pay we are fueling a system that does not value the one thing we have in abundance and that we all rely on in one way or another: human labour.

We do not know how to safely dispose of the mountains of waste we produce daily. We do not know what the consequences are of stripping nature of trees, animals, rivers, swamps, aquifers, mountain sides - or anything for that matter. We do not know how to safely dispose of all of our toxic scientific experiments, like nuclear waste. We do not know how long the resources we mine from the Earth will support our consumer culture. We do not know what we will do when we run out of resources. We do not know what the long term effects of pollutants are on us, our children, or on nature.

We are essentially crashing through this life blindfolded, crushing and smashing everything in our way because we must get what we want now. We cannot even maintain a healthcare system that effectively maintains our health - everything is focused on suppressing symptoms and extending lives so that the drug manufacturers can make more money. May we were not even aware that this was how we designed our system, but you can go and ask any successful business or financial trader: What are humans to them: equals or potential profit? and you will hear for yourself what it takes for this twisted system of ours to function, broken as it is.