January 28, 2010: "The Egg and The Earth" Space Fable Inspired by PHE Warns on Urgency of Space Funding
The Earth and the Egg is a space fable inspired by findings from the field of Physical History and Economics (PHE) that portrays human civilization as an embryo and the Earth as its egg. Continuing the anology, the Earth has a yolk comprising exhaustible resources such as fossil fuels that once consumed cannot be replaced. So just as an egg must hatch before it consumes its yolk, humanity must allocate the resources to emerge from the Earth into a sustainably spacefacing civilization before such resources are exhausted, or likely miss the chance to do so forever.
Perhaps the answer to the Fermi paradox is that most extraterrestrial civilizations consume their exhaustible resourcesin a hedonistic manner without regard to space exploration development and miss their limited window to expand beyond their home planet. This is speculation, yet certainly pluasible.
To view or download the fable and graphic, go here (pdf).
(Permission is given to freely distribute this fable and its accompanying graphic for noncommercial purposes as long as credit is given).