A philosophical view of the development of the universe and mans' place in developing his cultural conditions are presented. The effects of population growth on the ecology are analyzed. Propositions for improving the conditions of mankind are presented. The influence of cybernation and automation on the development of space exploration are described

Hubbard, E.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

THE PATH TO GLORY UNTOLD 
By Earl Hubbard 
Space Philosopher 
Lakeville, Connecticut 
I would like to speak to you about freedom. 
Freedom means the right to choose. To 
choose, you must have 8ome sense of direction. 
You must know where you are  going. To have a 
sense of direction, you must have some sense of 
meaning. To have a sense of meaning, you must 
have some sense of purpose. 
Mankind today has no sense of purpose. Man- 
kind today has no sense of meariing. Mankind today 
has no sense of direction. Mankind today is not 
free but is a prisoner of his own despair. 
The challenge we face is how to emancipate 
mankind, and to do this we must discover a sense 
of purpose. If we can do this, we can then under- 
stand the meaning of our age, and through this 
understanding we can then discover a sense of 
direction, and in so doing, make mankind free to 
choose. 
To do this, we need a new concept of genesis. 
Today there is revealed in the theater of mankind's 
awareness a new concept of the genesis of mankind 
a s  revealed by science. This genesis begins with 
a super nova. 
A super nova is a large s tar  exploding. Prior 
to this explosion, and after it has consumed most 
of the hydrogen and most of the helium of which it 
is composed, it collapses toward its center. It 
is in this collapse that there is created a crucible, 
and within this crucible there is evolved 1 percent 
of the elements that comprise the material universe. 
So far as we know, the material universe is 
comprised of 90 percent hydrogen, 9 percent 
helium, and all the other elements make up 1 per- 
cent. This 1 percent is created in the crucible of 
a collapsing star. 
There is ,  then, the explosion which radiates 
out into the universe in all the colors of the rainbow. 
In this majestic moment there is heralded a new 
event. The universe is, in effect, told that some- 
thing new and something that is needed is coming. 
We are  aware we a r e  witnessing a cosmic 
conception, for the debris of this ecstasy fertilizes 
the recumbent figure of a hydrogen cloud which can 
stretch for trillions of miles long and may be tril- 
lions of miles wide. 
A s  we watch, we see, condensed out of this 
hydrogen cloud, cottony balls of gas which then 
further condense into a sun with orbiting planets. 
One of these planets, the one we call earth. 
appears to be covered with water. If we were to 
follow a beam of light from the sun into the depths 
of this primeval sea, we might see quaking at the 
end of this point of light, provided we had a micro- 
scope, something that looks like an amoeba. Then 
if we could compress eons of time into seconds, we 
would see this amoeba-like cell divide and subdivide. 
It might appear to join other cells to make larger 
bodies that swim. 
We would see one of these bodies crawl from the 
water onto land, and walk, and run, and climb, and fly. 
W e  would see land masses heave up and buckle 
into ridges of mountain ranges. We would see large 
glacial ice masses sculpt valleys and lake beds out 
of the surface of the earth. 
Then we would discern a form of energy we 
would recognize, identify with, and call man. 
Remember, all that has occurred has occurred 
with the same basic building blocks of energy. The 
building blocks have not changed, but the forms 
which are built with these building blocks have 
changed and have changed constantly. 
This final form of energy on this earth, man, is 
the first form to speak. We do not understand its 
first words, but they appear in elegant drawings on 
the wal ls  of caves. The first words we do under- 
stand a r e  in the writing of cuneiform and hieroglyph- 
ics, and what they say, they say clearly. They say 
we seek God, meaning, and purpose. 
Within the brief span that we call history, this 
form of energy pursues this search, and in the proc- 
ess develops all that we call culture. 
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19730005106 2020-03-17T07:55:06+00:00Z
The effect is synthesis, for it takes dl the other 
forms of energy of which this earth is  comprised, 
such a s  iron, coal, water, wood, and synthesizes 
them into steel, homes, and books. 
Up until now, we have seen this highly motivated 
form of energy build this culture. We have heard 
it speak, but still we do not understand the meaning; 
what is the purpose? Finally at one point, if we 
watch very closely, we might see something leave 
the earth and land on the moon. At that point, the 
meaning is clear, for the meaning i s  birth and the 
purpose of all that has occurred on this earth is 
clear. The purpose has been to build a body capable 
of birth. 
We recognize that within this brief span of his- 
tory we have watched man synthesize all other 
forms of earthly energy into a body capable of birth, 
and that this synthesis occurred through the search 
for God, purpose, and meaning. The effect of this 
search has been that a cultural body, mankind, has 
been built and has now outgrown this earth. 
All  mankind's problems are  growth problems. 
Pollution is a growth problem. 
Population is a growth problem. 
War is a growth problem. 
Drug addiction is a growth problem. 
The problem is mankind has outgrown this 
earth. The meaning is mankind is being born. Man- 
kind is not sick. Mankind is  being born. 
The effect is that mankind is no longer needed 
on this earth, any more than a baby is needed in the 
womb at birth. Mankind must now know that the 
meaning of the present is birth, that the meaning 
of the past was to build a body capable of birth. He 
must be aware that there is a sequence that preceded 
his birth, a nonrepetitive sequence of unique events 
that stretch from a super nova fertilizing a hydrogen 
cloud, to Armstrong's foot on the moon. Each event 
differs from those that flank it and each event is a 
synthesis ofthose that precede it. We see no repe- 
tition - no circular sequence. What we do see is a 
consistent purpose made manifest in a sequence of 
constant change. 
Mankind may, therefore, have a sense of pur- 
pose, for he is part of this ever-evolving purpose. 
He can understand the meaning of his age as being 
birth. 
To have a sense of direction, mankind must 
understand the difference between a prenatal exist- 
ence and a postnatal existence. This difference can 
be best described in one word - conception. 
A baby in the womb cannot conceive, but once 
born, it gains this capacity, not only to conceive 
sexually, but culturally. 
Mankind, today, is between prenatal history 
and postnatal history, and before him, there is  the 
Moon and Mars, two planets which await his capac- 
ity for conception, the conception of new worlds. 
In accepting this capacity for conception, man- 
kind will be accepting a range of choices inconceiv- 
able in the womb, inconceivable in prenatal history. 
Mankind, in accepting his birth, will be accepting 
a freedom of choice beyond anything he has ever 
dreamed of o r  imagined. 
If freedom means the right to choose, then 
accepting his own birth will be accepting a new 
freedom of choice - the awe-inspiring freedom to 
conceive. 
Can there be a choice between accepting or  
rejecting our own birth? No. To reject our own 
birth is to reject freedom of choice, this cosmos 
as a purposeful universe, the meaning of the pres- 
ent as being birth, the meaning of the past as being 
the building of a body capable of birth, claiming 
mankind has no sense of direction, and claiming man- 
kind i s  not needed in the universe. To reject our 
own birth is to accept death. And the process of this 
acceptance on this earth would be dictatorship, 
devolution, and death. 
WHY? 
In our recent studies of ecology we have dis- 
covered that to have clean water we have to  clean 
up not only Lake Erie  and the Mississippi, but also 
the Thames, the Seine, the Volga, the Yangtse, the 
seas around Japan, parts of the Mediterranean, 
indeed, parts of most of the bodies of water on this 
earth, because all bodies of water on this earth a re  
part of one body of water. Therefore, to pollute 
part is, in effect, to pollute all. To have clean 
water on this earth, we must have some form of 
total control. 
The same holds true for clean air and popula- 
tion control. We must have some form of total 
control. 
The issue is not whether there will be some 
forms of total control, the issue is whether these 
forms of control will be voluntarily accepted by the 
peoples of this earth or  whether they will have to be 
imposed. This issue is dependent on what you have 
to exchange for voluntary self-restraint. If you 
have a future to offer mankind, you can expect a 
voluntary acceptance of seif-restraint. If you do not 
have a future to offer mankind, you cannot expect 
voluntary acceptance. Therefore, to have total 
control in a world without a future, you must impose 
these controls, and the method would be that of a 
dictatorship. It might begin as something like 
Plato's Republic, but it would quickly degenerate 
into a Stalinesque form of tyranny, for the objective 
would be devolution. 
The objective in a world without a future would 
be to maintain a dying species on a dying planet, 
which would mean mankind would have to devolve. 
No police force or armed services could hope 
to control a world population successfully. The 
method of control would have to be more insidious. 
Tranquilizers and chemicals for sterilization would 
be placed in the water system, and pacification 
programs would be carried by the communication 
system. 
In a world without a future, the enemy is hope. 
To destroy hope, we would have to rewrite our 
histories, for the thread that runs through all history 
is the thread of hope. 
The effect of this devolution would be the meta- 
morphosis of man into a vegetable, and the ultimate 
goal would be death. 
In a world without a future, we would have a 
death-oriented society, for death would mark the 
threshold to the future. All hope would lie beyond 
death. 
In a world without a future, there would be no 
freedom, there would be no sense of direction, no 
sense of meaning, no sense of purpose, and no 
need for man. 
In accepting our own birth, the reverse i s  true. 
In accepting our own birth, there is  the freedom to 
build new worlds. There is the need for man to 
build them. There is the acceptance of the meaning 
of our age as birth, the sense of being part of a 
larger, ever-evolving purpose. 
To conceive of new worlds on the Moon and 
Mars, we will need all and the best that people have 
to give, 
Cybernation and automation can do any repeti- 
tive task, no matter how complex. Most industries 
on this earth a re  consumer industries and mainte- 
nance industries, and all these industries are repet- 
itive. All these industries will one day be cyber- 
nated and automated. This means there is now a 
declining need for man to do repetitive tasks. 
In a world without a future, this would be but 
one of many manifestations of a declining need for 
man. But for a world that is building new worlds, 
it is the emancipation of man to do this task. 
Machines can do what has been done, but on this 
earth only man can do what has never been done. 
The meaning of cybernation and automation is  
the emancipation of mankind to assume the task of 
conceiving of new worlds on the Moon and Mars .  
This i s  comparable to our own bodies. 
Our own bodies a re  cybernated and automated 
s o  that we do not have to say, "Eyes focus, ears  
listen, or  heart beat." This is done for us by cyber- 
nation and automation. The effect is  that our aware- 
ness is emancipated. We can look out and concern 
ourselves with other tasks. 
This effect is  now apparent for the body of man- 
kind, for the maintenance tasks, essential for this 
body to turn its attention to the conception of new 
worlds, is now being taken over by cybernation and 
automation. 
In accepting our own birth, in accepting our 
capacity to conceive of new worlds, we are  accepting 
the need for man. No other challenge on this earth 
can make that claim. 
If you go to the people of this earth and say we 
need you for pollution and population control, you 
79 
must remember that they are the pollutants and the 
population. There are too many of them for this 
earth to  sustain. 
If you go to the people of this earth and say we 
need you for war control, you have to remember 
that in a world without a future, war would be the 
only dignified way of life and death for a proud peo- 
ple that would rather die fighting than die as a 
vegetable. 
And you cannot go to the people of this earth 
and say we need you for drug control, for in a world 
without a future you do not need people. 
Not to be needed is painful. Not to be needed 
for anything, for a capacity to procreate, to work, 
and to create, is unbearable, and drugs might 
assuage some of that pain. 
But in a world without a future, what difference 
does it make? In a world without a future, what 
difference does anything make? It does not. For 
in a world without a future, life is  meaningless. 
This is not only the greatest age in the history 
of mankind, it is the greatest age in the history of 
this earth. It is the culmination of a cosmic con- 
ception. It is the birth of something that i s  new 
and needed into the universe. 
We are  that something, and we are mankind. 
We a re  being born. We a re  between two worlds, 
between a prenatal and a postnatal existence, and 
between this earth and new worlds. 
In this passage of birth, we require the faith 
that we are  needed. In seeking birth, we seek some 
manifestation that will affirm this faith. Our faith 
must be that it is there waiting for us. This must 
be the faith of all babies. 
Looking back from Armstrong's foot on the moon 
to the super nova that fertilized the hydrogen cloud, 
we see that all that was done, was needed, and all 
that was needed was done. 
Could Armstrong have gone to the moon without 
the super nova; the hydrogen cloud; that first amoeba- 
like cell; that life that crawled from the sea, then 
walked, ran, climbed, and flew; those glacial masses 
that sculpted many of the valleys and lake beds of this 
earth; those land masses that heaved and buckled into 
ridges of mountain ranges; that early manifestation 
of energy we identify with and call 11man;7t those 
cave drawings, cuneiform, and hieroglyphics ? 
Looking back, our faith in a purposeful universe 
should be affirmed in witnessing that all that was 
done was needed, and all that was needed was done. 
With birth, we will enter a new community, a 
galactic community. Like all babies, we can expect 
to be needed and to be loved by some part of this 
community. That i s  enough. For now we must 
rededicate ourselves to the search for freedom, 
and those that seek freedom, seek God, purpose, and 
meaning . 
Let us continue this search on this path of 
glory untold. 
I 80 


The path to glory untold

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