The astronaut knows that the whole of the known universe has been documented. A vast artificial intelligence had been constructed in the previous century by other artificial intelligences and the greater machine had constructed a multi-galaxy spanning network of drones and observation platforms that had collected every conceivable form of data about the universe in the small span of half a century. Every star mapped. Every planet logged. The mysteries of black holes unpicked and every supernova predicted.
So why explore anything anymore? It’s a question she is often asked. Why go to all this trouble and expense when we already know everything about the universe?
Because, she tells them, when you step foot on a new world, look into a new sky, and see stars you’ve never seen before, no man or machine can tell you how that feels.
Paddy Dobson
15th June 2023