From the Starship Latke Gravis

I know it’s inexplicable and defies understanding, but somehow I received an email from the distant future yesterday! From what I’m told, it’s traveled 36 light years (roughly 212 trillion miles) to reach my desktop, from the constellation Vega. As I said, it’s inexplicable. It’s from a young woman who claims to be my impossibly distant descendant. She doesn’t say how she found me. I can’t pretend to understand how such a thing could happen, but here’s what she said:

“Hi Larry Barnett,

I don’t suppose you’ll believe this, but I am writing to you from the future! My name is Xana Jinzang Barnett-Sinha, and though we are separated by more than 3.405 x 10 to the 17th meters, I feel like I know you. We future Barnett-Sinhas have been traveling at near light-speed, so though we left Earth many, many years ago, I’m still in my mid-thirties. You gotta’ love relativity!
Life onboard the starship Latke Gravis has been a bit confining, but comfortable. We left Earth in 2311. Between 2075 and 2200, things got pretty tough for planet Earth, I’m told. Global warming had finally taken full hold, and Earth’s population fell to just over 1 billion. I can’t imagine how horrible that was, to witness that much suffering and death. I’ve seen visual records of the period, and dreadful does not come close to describing it. But you’ll be glad to know your granddaughter Isabelle helps sire a powerful and wise clan who in the future join others who eventually fly off to the stars.

We’re nearing our new home planet, which we have named Gaia. In your time you dubbed it “Super Earth.” You might recall scientist James Lovelock, who coined Gaia Theory towards the end of the 20th Century and warned humanity. Well, we don’t want to make the same ecological mistakes twice, so naming our new home Gaia just made sense to us. It’s a large, rocky planet in orbit around a sun-like star, with an atmosphere much like Earth’s. The year is shorter since Gaia orbits closer to our sun, but day’s are around the same length. Lot’s of water, and the views from here in space show white, fluffy clouds and complex weather patterns. What kinds of plant and animal life we’ll find remains a mystery. We’ll hang in orbit for a while and study Gaia from afar before we 12,000 explorers venture down. Larry, is this cool or what? (Is that a phrase you still use on earth?).

I want you to know that no matter how bleak things look to you right now, how intractable and crazy, people do make it through and create a good society. We’re more like one family or a clan than anything else. When we left earth I was just a baby, but others who are older explained that nationalism, private property, even money itself was set aside in recognition of the interdependent nature of living things and the world itself. Despite the misery of centuries, our clan studied and trained in working with others with compassion, generosity and putting the needs of others first. These were the original essentials to human and planetary survival, and they again offered refuge from too many years of fear-based habits that placed Earth and all its inhabitants at risk.

This is the positive message I want to send you: have confidence!”