Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization

Tyson suggests that people are free to disagree in a democracy but questions whether people would prefer a totalitarian society in which disagreement is not allowed. He targets religion and politics as the cause of conflict, including war. Tyson argues that evidence-based thinking, as opposed to groupthink, will result in fewer conflicts and lead to social and scientific progress, such as finding a way to harvest resources from space. Scientists may be able to maintain peace between nations because they share evidence-based thinking patterns. In a hypothetical situation, Tyson suggests that scientists from different nations would continue working peacefully together if their home countries went to war while they were working on the moon. Tyson experienced something similar while serving on a White House commission and working with individuals from Europe, East Asia, and Russia. Although the atmosphere was tense with the Russians at first, the social barriers eroded when they began discussing space exploration: “I felt like I had known every Russian in the room my entire life” (69). The building and maintenance on the International Space Station (ISS) is the second-most expensive act of international cooperation, surpassed only by war.