I asked my friend Mike the other day, “What’s going to happen to science fiction when readers realize that interstellar travel will be next to impossible, and no one will want to live on the Moon or Mars?” He answered back, “Nothing will happen to science fiction; it’s only stories.” But I replied, “But some people read science fiction because they believe that someday humans will colonize the solar system and eventually the galaxy.” And he replied, “Nobody really believes that. It’s just fun stories.” I thought for a few seconds, “Don’t you think Star Trek fans believe in their hearts that the final frontier is humanity’s future?” Mike said, “No, I don’t.”
I think Mike is far more realistic than most people. For most of my life, I’ve believed humans would colonize the Moon and Mars. I wasn’t sure about going further than that. When I was younger, I believed we’d find some way, maybe with generation ships, to reach the stars, but that was very iffy.
The reason I brought this conversation up with Mike is that I’ve been watching several documentaries on YouTube that argue interstellar travel will be so difficult it just won’t happen. I’ve also seen many videos that claim colonizing Mars will be so impractical that it won’t happen.
I assume the U.S. and China will return to the Moon and attempt to set up permanent bases there. But both countries will quickly learn that it’s too expensive and doesn’t offer enough returns. Plus, people will discover that living on the Moon will be miserable. I’ve always had a romantic notion about humans colonizing Mars, but when I study Mars, I realize that it would be a shitty place to live. Given enough time, I think humans will learn that space sucks for biological beings.
I’m not saying the U.S. and China won’t return to the Moon, or that Elon Musk’s Starship won’t reach Mars. I’m saying that the most gungho space enthusiast with the maximum amount of the Right Stuff living on the Moon or Mars will eventually say, “I want to go home.” That Mars will never be like Heinlein’s Red Planet, or even Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars.
Belief in the final frontier was imprinted early in my life, as religion is for most people. I’ve always believed that after I die, I will cease to exist, but humanity will go on for millions of years and spread out to other worlds. But as I’ve gotten older, I realize that’s just a childhood fantasy that I wanted to believe, like how some people believe they have everlasting life and will go to heaven. Human beings have a difficult time giving up cherished beliefs they embraced in childhood.
Science fiction has over-romanticized space travel. When people actually get to live on Mars or the Moon, they will discover that reality just doesn’t match their fantasies.
What will that revelation mean to humanity? What will it mean to science fiction? Can science fiction start imagining different futures for us? More realistic ones? AI is everywhere today. Can science fiction writers imagine futures where we coexist with intelligent machines? Space is perfect for machines. Will we resent our robots when they conquer the final frontier, and we don’t get to go?
Are Americans trapped in old, outdated science-fictional dreams? Science fiction has become a form of escapism from our decaying society. China is quickly transforming its present, which looks like science fiction to us; do their science fiction writers have better visions for tomorrow? Be sure to watch the last video below.
Star Trek always felt hopeful. Star Wars always felt like another Middle Earth, just a fantasy playground. The final frontier was always our highest aspiration. But if it’s unrealistic, what will new positive aspirations involve? It was a mistake to call it the final frontier. What we need are new frontiers that make us feel positive about the future. We will always need new frontiers. But more importantly, we need doable frontiers.
Personally, I think we need to come up with a form of capitalism that’s not so completely greed-driven. If we can’t, every society and civilization will repeat the past. We need to invent societies that coexist with the environment. We waste so much of our wealth on wars. If you think about it, humanity doesn’t really think about the future all that much. We thought science fiction was doing that, but it’s been consumed by too many black holes of fantasy.
James Wallace Harris, 8/20/26
Classics of Science Fiction 
Most early settlers of North America and Australia were prisoners who chose emigration over hanging. Many were kidnap victims, forced to become needed labor. Even the poorest of the poor didn’t see the wild lands far away as a second chance for a better life. The educated elite imagined it would always be so…until it wasn’t & those same people claimed it was always obvious the colonies had more to offer than gold.
That some day North America would become as good as & some ways better than Olde England was unfathomable.
Even after colonial living became safer, most European sailors were not volunteers.
Frontiers are dangerous, life threatening, miserable places that homeless street people would see as a downgrade. Anyone who values comfort would want nothing to do with them. Today’s Earth-bound Harsh Mistresses are deep ocean ‘apartments’ where people live for a week or more at a time, nuclear submarines that don’t surface for over a year, and an Antarctic base in the middle of winter. Life in those environments has a lot in common with interplanetary travel and bases on any hunk of rock that’s not Earth.
Those who value comfort over adventure, exploration and the opportunity to learn something not learnable any other way — the thrill of being the FIRST to know & experience will never understand the lure of the frontier.
Shackleton honestly described his proposed Antarctic expedition. He had volunteers.
I think the first Martian settlers should be people over 55 or better yet over 65 who are physically fit who plan to be buried there as they help prepare the way for younger, childbearing settlers who follow. There will be more than enough volunteers.
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