Nor far enough

Remember what happened in 1492 ? 1666 ? Easy, right ?

The actual history may be more tricky, but the historical cliches of schooldays stick indelibly in the brain.

A date of similar import, though maybe not recognised yet, will be 25 August 2012, let's say 2012 for short.

Last year Voyager 1 left the solar system. Nobody really knows when, as we are not sure where the edge is.  But August last year is the best guesstimate.

The numbers are staggering, and the achievement of the thing stupendous. Launched 1977; now 12 billion miles away; signals take 17 hours to reach earth, even travelling at the speed of light (which is pretty fast); a computer on board with a tiny fraction of the power of a smart phone; travelling at 38 000 miles and hour; 40 years through interstellar space before it reaches it next rendezvous.

Think of that.

Even if you hate science, this is a phenomenal achievement, and if it doesn't make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end, you must have shaved recently.

Voyager was equipped to meet alien life, and tell them something fundamental about us, meaning people.

The scary thing is that if those aliens beings ever pick up Voyager, and, admiring our primitive technological achievement, decide to visit, they will see not the peaceful scientific and anthropological messages we wanted to project on Voyager, but the grim reality: the hideous truth that we continue to wreck the tiny planet on which we force so many to merely exist, that we are still at the stage of spending scarce resources on bombing, gassing and repression, usually about some minuscule patch of uninviting real estate.

Those hovering aliens, before they turn tail and head off horrified into interstellar space will see that we allow ourselves to be governed by barbarians and are content that the few have too much while the many enjoy not even the necessities for life.

Voyager and its fabulous achievement should lift our eyes to the stars. Is it atavistic complacency rather than powerlessness which keeps us in our gutter ?