Minus Ten and Counting 14 - One Way to Go [HQ]

Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: archive.org/details/filk_minu...
Find more of Julia Ecklar's excellent music at: www.prometheus-music.com/
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Lyrics:
Throughout history, man has sought prosperity
By daring to challenge the unknown
Through the ages he’s discovered, exploited, and recovered
All the riches of this planet for his own
Thus improving his condition, he’s confronted with decision:
What to do about the future on a world that he’s outgrown?
Chorus:
Well, there’s only one way to go from here,
One way to go.
It’s logical, it’s clear,
There’s only one way to go from here.
Without a doubt,
The only way to go from here is out!
Overpopulation, unemployment, and inflation
Destruction of the Earth’s ecology
And limited supplies of energy deny
A base for developing third-world industry
Starvation and poverty, or wealth from technology?
Expansion is the key to a healthy world economy.
(Chorus)
Cars replacing horses, now petroleum resources
Face depletion 'fore the century is through.
And they're under the assumption that our energy consumption
Can be met by synthesizing fossil fuels.
Solar power's the solution, when considering pollution,
Or someday we might be frying in a cloud of CO2.
(Chorus)
Breaking free of gravity, moving industry
Beyond the planet’s surface into space.
Lunar mines and factories, Lagrange point colonies,
Total productivity and nothing goes to waste.
Solar sailing ships deployed to mine the asteroids
While Earth becomes a paradise, her ugly scars erased.
(Chorus)
Throughout the solar system, man will spread and requisition
All the elements of the planets and the moons
More than just surviving, flourishing and thriving
Until some future day when again he faces doom
In a thousand years or two, he’ll lament: “Now, what to do?
We’re exhausting our resources and we’re running out of room…”
(Chorus)
So reach for the stars, they’re not that far
Without a doubt,
The only way to go from here
The only way to go from here
The only way to go from here is out!

[@Ultrawup]

When I was in the car with my parents today we talked about the energy crisis (because that's the kind of smalltalk my family has), and I rounded off the discussion by playing this song

[@willparry530]

An excellent conclusion to such a discussion

[@r.connor9280]

"The city was a marvel of engineering an Eighth Wonder of the world
Except for one small, troubling problem
It was inhabited by actual human beings". -Disgruntled Civil Planner

[@spacecorpse3212]

someone asked me how to fix all the worlds problems I just pointed up at the moon

[@Ultrawup]

That, and the energy crisis... Fusion, when...
But that'll spur space exploration, I guarantee it. Easiest place to find deuterium is Venus, after all.

[@spacecorpse3212]

@@Ultrawup the easiest way to fix the worlds energy crisis is to cordon off a piece of the Sahara desert and just place a giant square of solar panels but still that would be supremely expensive and tedious. we could go full nucellar but yea that would take years of convincing people that its safe and working opposite of antagonistic activists and finding a place to put the waste we do make.

[@khoshekhthecat]

@@spacecorpse3212 that might destroy Earth's ecology

[@willparry530]

@@spacecorpse3212 we already have places we aren't using where we could put the nuclear waste, though in the end the bigger problem is even nuclear energy is finite compared to any form of renewable source

[@spacecorpse3212]

@@willparry530 i never said the nuclear option was permanent or the Sahara dessert idea was a good one

[@justsomeguywithahandlebarm2456]

for teh algorithm because this album slaps ass

[@MercilessSunGod]

Underrated music.

[@seamusrichardson6011]

you see, there's only one way to go, but this is less about how do we keep the economy right, and instead, "We are living on a timebomb, everywhere is a timebomb, but, if we spread out across several thousand light years of timebombs, we'll eventually re-colonize the old dead worlds before the places far flung from those worlds die" Like, I'd like to get to a point where a nova that takes out earth can't take out all of our outposts, even if what lives there is human only in the sense that they inherited their knowledge and useless bits of dna from us.

[@millitron3666]

The world's real problems aren't Malthusian, they're moral and social. Colonizing space may solve our material worries, but the real crisis is the one in our hearts.

[@r.connor9280]

The city was a marvel of engineering an Eighth Wonder of the world
Except for one small, troubling problem
It was inhabited by actual human beings

[@AnthemAnimation]

I'd argue that most of our current problems come from people not having enough room, countries vying for every mile of territory/ natural resources, and social problems with different groups of people not getting along, crowded into cities. Space colonization could help

[@user-vz3xv8kb3x]

I agree. The material worries are only there _because_ of us, and what actions humans as a whole have been taking. If we'd just been more considerate of Earth, climate change and over population wouldn't be as much of a crisis--or at least, they would be much less of one. If we went to the moon and beyond, wouldn't we just ruin that eventually, too? Like you were saying. It's human nature to want more, more, more; and if we continue to expand, how much farther could we go--and how much harm could we cause?

[@willparry530]

@@AnthemAnimation no, a lot of these problems have been around for longer than modern civilization. war and conquest, ethnicities not getting along, competition for resources or territory, those have existed since recorded history, and probably before, when there was a lot more of it to go around per person.

[@gnaskar]

The "real crisis in our hearts" would be a lot easier to solve if people weren't starving to death at a rate of millions per year. It's a lot easier to fix moral and social issues when we no longer have material worries.

[@AlmightyDoubleHelix]

It's hilarious that the song lists a ton of problems caused by unrestrained capitalism and suggests that the obvious solution to insatiable greed is to harvest more resources.

[@kspkreations3342]

The law of conservation of mass is not a capitalist invention.

[@ohnoes3084]

it’s not like Marxist countries have done it any better, it’s not exclusive to capitalism

[@gnaskar]

Here's the thing. There are over 8 billion of us. I want all of those 8 billion and their descendants to enjoy at least the standard of living I currently enjoy, or preferably a much better standard. Regardless of economic system, that requires resources. That isn't greed, nor is it a capitalistic phenomenon. Certainly, there are a lot efficiencies we could leverage by getting rid of capitalism, but not enough to make the difference. So we are still left with the choice: expand our available resources or accept a shittier existence (or the capitalist option: force most people to live a really shitty existence so that a few people can enjoy insane luxuries).

[@eggisfun4217]

If we adopted socialism we would have the same problems, I am anti-capitalist but its either we go back or go out, nobody is ever gonna accept going back, but we can go out

[@AlmightyDoubleHelix]

@@eggisfun4217 the problem isn't a lack of resources, it's a class of wealthy despots commodifying everything they can get their claws in. We've been moving backwards for generations