I don’t read or watch much science fiction, because it can be so cheesy. But there is actually some serious science fiction out there, and serious science fiction can be very serious. Science fiction is about the only mode of literature (other than philosophy) that can ponder the biggest questions about humanity and its future.

The biggest question, in my opinion, is this: does our race have much of a future? Will we learn to get past our ape-like urge to gather into battling tribes, and instead adapt a one-world point of view? Can we learn to cooperate more and compete less? Can we avoid throwing our planet’s ecology totally out of whack and shutting down its capacity to sustain us? Can we stop recklessly gulping down all of our available energy resources, handing future generations an IOU promising that “we’ll come up with something” to replace it? (Politicians and corporations talk about the promise of hydrogen as a replacement for oil, but I’m old enough to remember when nuclear power was the energy miracle of the future). Can we do something about the horrible distribution of wealth in this world, where the richest 1/10 of 1 percent live on 10,000 times the annual income level of the bottom 1/3 of the world’s population? Can we see the ridiculous contradiction of a business economy that ties all the people of the world closer and closer together so as to better exploit them, and then thinks that it can just walk away with the profits and not get stabbed in the back (e.g., through terrorism?).

Some of the more optimistic science fiction writers seem to think that we will learn the lessons in time, such that the human race will be around for eons to come. Wars and strife will eventually go out of fashion, and humanity will get down to collectively solving the problems that would otherwise make us go the way of the dodo bird. In a few centuries, as our planet runs out of usable resources, we will be able to find new homes for ourselves out amidst the stars (“ad astra”, as the NASA motto goes). Human kind might then become a unending seed of consciousness and intelligence that will broadcast itself throughout the Milky Way and eventually beyond, to the “billions and billions” of galaxies out there (remember Carl Sagan?).

Wouldn’t that be something. Ideas like that one are good for battling depression. It’s nice to think that we’re here for something after all, that we’re all part of some grander plan for our species that puts our messy, seemingly irrelevant lives into context. Problem is, no one can say if it has a real shot of coming true. There are so many things that could overcome humankind; some unforeseen super-plague, an ecological collapse, a war that gets out of hand and spreads too quickly, a comet or asteroid crash that darkens the planet. Oh, and here’s another interesting doomsday possibility: a gamma star burst somewhere in our corner of the Milky Way. (As though tsunamis weren’t enough).

Astronomers and biologists have recently done research on why some stars suddenly throw out stupendous amounts of energy, mostly long-distance gamma rays. Our own sun couldn’t do it; it’s about 15 times too small for that kind of event. But there are still plenty of big stars out there within range of our solar system that potentially could go blitzo one day. And when they do, they wipe out just about all life forms on any hospitable planet within five thousand light years or so, by stripping away the protective upper atmosphere. Unlike most of the other scenarios, there ain’t a darn thing we could do if it did ever happen (thus, it won’t make a good summer movie). Some biologists think that such a starburst may have caused a big extinction (Ordovician) that happened 450 million years ago (way before the dinosaur extinction, which seems to relate to an asteroid impact near Mexico).

As with the comet and asteroid scenarios, the chances of a near-by gamma burst happening anytime soon is incredibly small. Nothing to stay up at night worrying about. But the chance is always out there lurking, causing grounds for existential doubt.

So . . . . Are we the ambassadors of the Universe’s destiny? Or are we just smears on a cosmic petri dish, ready to be trashed at any time? Ponder that one after you’ve been entertained by Revenge of the Sith.