One day my co-worker’s grandson said, “This is my drawing of the universe. We are the dot.” That dot, my friends, refers to our galaxy within the universe. Big stuff.

Last night when I saw Stephen Hawking, he spoke about why we should go into space. He mentioned a multitude of reasons, but one of them was because we might have to go to space. Because we are ruining the planet. Which is fair. He also mentioned that we have to remember that intelligent life might be out there, but it is highly probable that other planets have not develop as intelligent life as we have.

I find this hard to believe. I find it hard to believe that no where in this entire vast universe are there anything nearly as smart as humans. I find it hard to believe that there is no “Earth” in the multitude of other galaxies that swirl around us. I feel as though somewhere out there we are surpassed. I feel like we kill each other and ourselves and cause pain and strife and think the only things that are important are man-made. Like…whenever I get into a long discussion about the economy or money, I am always like…”But we made it up. We made UP economy and money. We could have a world without those things because we did.”

Granted, everyone states the reason we have man made things in the first place is because we’re so intelligent. But I’d like to think maybe somewhere out there, way out in the universe, there might be some species that has figured this stuff out. That has figured out how to get rid of poverty and violence. I feel like maybe it’s our destiny to find those people or those things and be BFF.

I was watching this program on the sun, and it basically said the sun is slowly expanding and eventually will kill all things on Earth. Granted, this will be in a while, so I am sure I’ll get to see all the movies on my Netflix queue and still get those cute sandals I want, but it’s happening none the less. I am also sure it’s not going to happen between now and the time the new Third Eye Blind CD comes out, but maybe it’ll happen when my great-grandchildren (to infinity) are young and waiting for the latest who-knows-what-technology latest version comes out.

So the sun is expanding. We’re ruining the planet. We’re going to go to space to see if there is intelligence, and because we have to. We could have space stations on Mars, the Moon, Titan (if Saturn doesn’t mind), and who knows what other planets. Maybe I can have Pluto to myself.

All I have to say is that I hope that these other planets that may or may not have intelligent life on them have grass or something like it. And a sun that is as warm as ours. And a beach with water to swim in. I’ll make my own hat, and I’ll be good to go.

If so, sign me up for Trip 1. I’m doing my part, Stephen. I’m going bravely where no wo(man) has gone before.

Intelligent-space-life, here I come.