Elon Musk has made news after tweeting his opinion that colonizing space is the way to protect the light of consciousness. Now that Crew Dragon has delivered two astronauts to the International Space Station, SpaceX is likely to receive NASA certification to continue flying as part of NASAs Commercial Crew Program. Soon, Starship, Musks prized rocket, will shine.

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Back here on Earth, Musk has touted his Crew Dragon progress as the return of spaceflight from American soil; before now, astronauts have relied on Russian rockets for some time. We may live in a golden age of satellites and low Earth orbits, but that hasnt translated to sustained investment in human spaceflight.

What SpaceX has accomplished is huge, but its the bunny hillits the chalet next to the bunny hillof Musks ambitions for interplanetary travel and long-term colonization of the Moon and Mars.

Thats where the light of consciousness idea comes in. Yes, Musk has really been on a tear of hot takes straight from the Volcano vape. But the search for extraterrestrial life, and the seemingly astronomical odds of finding intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, makes the idea much less trivial and more existential. And until we know for sure that someone is out there, humans are the only known sentient and conscious beings.

In a way, the debate over consciousnesswhat it is, what it isnt, and how it distinguishes humans from other animalsmirrors the age-old debate over souls. Whether you think of higher consciousness as a soul or just a mind, no one can say for sure if its separate from your body, which mind-body dualists believe, or part of your physical body, which materialists believe.

And we live in a moment when scientists are attempting to turn these millennia-old debates into measurable experiments. In 2019, the Templeton World Charity Foundation, a big-questions nonprofit with global interests, announced a plan to shorten the research cycle on beginning to untangle questions of consciousness. To do that, they began funding scientists and philosophers who can work together to start designing experiments that may answer existential questions.

If this sounds like underwater basket weaving, think again. Whether or not someone is conscious, and what that term means, threads through our society from the most cutting-edge science to simple legal questions of human rights. And what Musk calls the light of consciousness is, as of today, still an almost complete mystery. Hes just the latest space travel enthusiast to voice the opinion.

When NASA first sent probes into space, the agency included date and location for anyone who might eventually find these bodies in space. Then, with Voyager I and II, NASA included the legendary Golden Record, which is filled with descriptions of mathematics and world languages as well as images of scientists, musical instruments, and daily life around the world. Even thinking about these items traveling through space fills us with wonder.

And what is wonder if not, as philosopher Jesse Prinz wrote in 2013, the most human emotion? Other higher primates feel it, too, but only humans capitalize on it to build institutions and artwork and entire ways of life. Why is that? As Prinz explains:

Indeed, it could be that an ambitious plan to live in space is as much a symptom of the light of consciousness as a means to preserve it.

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Elon Musk: Starship Will 'Protect the Light of Consciousness' - Popular Mechanics