The universe is infinite in it's complexity. Yet it is my unshakable belief that one day the human mind will comprehend it all.

The human mind can contain the infinite, the unbeginning neverending processes of a universe so vast we can't see the edges, because only the human mind is adaptable and scalable enough to match that complexity in equal measure. We have the capability. But do we have the courage?

Once we did, or at least we took the first faltering steps toward it. Our future as a species and as an emerging intelligence lies in the vast cold darkness of outer space. Greed, fear, indifference, ignorance, have locked us under the invisible dome of the sky. Now our ships and our astronauts circle the world like airtight rats on a racecourse, circling, endlessly circling, retracing orbits that were old hat thirty years ago. We belong in space. Our time as a people divided by fear and prejudice should have been past us long ago. We inhabit a world so vanishingly small in that eternal darkness that even our star cannot be seen from a thousand lightyears away.

We are not the center of the universe. It will not hold back the asteroids flying toward us, nor turn aside the black holes or defuse the supernovae while waiting for humanity to get it's act together. Whatever we have done, our greatest or most vile accomplishments, have value only to ourselves. There is a sublime and beautiful terror in the predator -- but you won't be thinking of that when a black hole is devouring your planet.

We're the top of the food chain here on Earth. Unless we learn to swim in larger seas we'll still be minnows in the path of the shark.

It's time we broke out of the chrysalis. We've been lazy long enough. The path to the stars should be open to all who have the courage to walk it.

It's time to begin.