The book Rendezvous with Rama contains many interesting aspects in how the future might be. Will we be able to colonise Mars, the moon or even mercury? Will we be able to develop advanced spaceflight, capable of travel between planets relatively fast? Interesting questions indeed, but the best part as I see it is the family relationship in the book. It seems to be completely normal to have two wives, as commander Norton has. It is also mentioned that two of the crew members share the same wife. We see that the number of partners in a relationship is not limited to only two, as the normal case nowadays. This is kind of interesting.

Often when I hear the word polygamy, I think of fat, ugly and very rich men in their sixties who want a new, young, good-looking wife while their old one stays to do the house work. Like a maid who demands no salary, except for free food and a place to stay. It’s therefore easy to dismiss polygamy as a disgusting dreamworld for men whose greatest idol is Hugh Hefner. But is this really the case? In the book everyone seems happy with their lives. Sharing the same wife or the same husband looks like the perfect solution to avoid infidelity, but in our time you may instead get jealousy as a side effect. Somehow the characters in the book seem to have put this feeling aside and live in perfect harmony. I wonder how?

Maybe it’s because of our desire to collect and own things, a feeling buried deep down in our genes. We are physically the same humans that lived in the Stone Age, and back then, the one having the largest collection of food before the winter surly was a popular guy. This feeling is still active in our brains, making us buy fashion clothes, expensive sports cars etc. We want to own something no one else has, something that make other people admire us.

In the same manner, we want to have the perfect partner, good looking, and smart, someone that everyone else wants, but no one can have. Today our partner is one of few things no one else can buy or own. This is probably the problem with partner sharing, that we see our partners as owned property. The questions is, will this change? Will we be able to give up our deepest desire to own objects and willingly share our sports car or partner? I certainly hope so, maybe not the sports car but the partner. A human being can not be owned and should not be controlled in the way that is done today. This is probably some old leftover from different religions that ruled the world in the past and twisted people’s minds. I can not see an evolutionary or a social advantage in the way we live today. It’s one of many bad things introduced by religion. A relationship should make people happier, not trap them inside limited boundaries. Maybe we will be able to drop this silly religious feelings forced onto us as children, grow up and be able to not consider our partner as owned property as they are able to in the book.

In the last fifty years, a few people have dared to abandon the old way of forming relationships, a wife and a husband. Now most people accept two persons of the same sex having a relationship. Maybe a majority will accept polygamy in another fifty years?

This decision would not be a hard to make. If I’m going to die, I want death to be swift and painless. I can not possibly imagine a more horrifying death then being trapped in space shuttle with a slowly depleting oxygen supply. Probably there would not even be a rescue attempt. The only thing to do, would be to stare at the O2 gauge as it’s slowly decreasing towards zero. I’m sure that wouldn’t be a pleasant experience. Suicide would be an option of course, which probably wouldn’t be pleasant either. It’s not death that scares me, it’s the fear of knowing that my time has come that is really horrifying. If I crash my motorcycle into a dump truck, the knowledge of a certain death would only last the split second before my head deforms against the front bumper. Somehow, that sounds much better to me.

Another reason for not going into space is that there is nothing to see out there; a sterile, cold and empty world without anything interesting. I’ve never understood the eager that some people have for a space flight. I see it as a more dangerous version of going to Antarctica, a trip without possibilities to abort and go home if you have second thoughts. What’s the interesting thing about finding some dead bacteria in the ice on Mars’ surface or under the Antarctica ice cap? Both things are uninteresting and completely useless. Both places are hostile, unable to support human life without life supporting gear. Living there is dangerous and requires that all of the crew and all of their equipment are top notch. The breaking down of an important part of equipment is not an option. This is not a risk I’m willing to take. Besides, why would I ever want to leave all the fun things here at home? Like the DVD collection of the 6th season of The Simpsons which I’m currently watching instead of finishing this English blog.

Well, I might come up with one reason to go on a space flight. The feeling of weightlessness would be kind of cool, but not worth the risk of actually going. It would be much cheaper and safer to book a ticket to the “Zero-G A300 Airbus” (http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEM8WZ8YFDD_research_0.html), I’m sure that the 20 seconds of zero gravity would be enough for me, at least until there is a risk free alternative to the zero G experience.