Did you forget utopia?
Jeanna Kolesova
From our ancient past, starting with the Babylonians to the Roman Empire and lasting until the modern world, ideas about The Cosmos have shaped our way of living. They shaped our parliaments, churches, galleries, clocks, and maps. But today our connection to the cosmos is weakening: light pollution envelops the Earth - people living in the US and Europe can't see the Milky Way anymore. We are glued to our phones and laptops, concentrated on our daily routine.
In 1962 President John F. Kennedy in a speech at Rice University announced the Apollo program. On 20 July 1969, the US landed two men on the Moon. It was dubbed "The most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked". An utopical idea came true. This ambitious idea brought with it technological and organizational innovations that affected life on Earth. It was a huge exercise in problem solving and required collaboration between the government and the private sector. These efforts were possible because they were part of a mission - led by the government and achieved by many. Now as never - in the age of pandemic, global warming, and social and material inequality - we need an Utopia; an ambitious and visionary mission-oriented approach to everyday policy-making.
Can ideas about the cosmos - many which are part of something bigger - be the source for our Utopia? Surely yes.