Science fiction is fighting a doctrinal war. Between those who believe that humankind’s future is still the stars, and those – like Kim Stanley Robinson – who believe interstellar travel is a fantasy of religious belief. The science is clear, travel to other stars may well be forever beyond us. So why do we keep telling this story?
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Damien Walter 
No one will ever sail west and arrive at the East! It is but a fantasy, unrelated to objective reality!
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You’re confused. In the past the superstitious fantasists were against progress. Now you believe it will deliver your fantasy.
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https://uncannymagazine.com/article/sticks-and-string/
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I don’t believe myself or my colleagues to be ‘superstitious fantasists’. I think we’re well informed of the realities.
Let me also say, I met Kim Stanley Robinson. We were at a signing together, at Balticon in 2016. He’s a good guy, and though he may have strong opinions, I don’t remember him being flippant or dismissive of other people’s views.
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Nobody ever does believe themselves to be the fantasist. But that’s what interstellar travel is. A religious fantasy that serves all the social and psychological needs power fantasies always serve. You’re not being dismissed you’re just hearing something you don’t like.
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So, what it will take is a fascist theocracy coming up with huge works-projects, moving people off-planet, mining and occupying asteroids… Religious groups will set off in their asteroid ships on hundreds’-years journeys to nearby stars with possibly inhabitable planets. .
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No religion survives more than a few centuries. Religious zealots might set off on this missions, but with travel times seven thousand years minimum to any star with planets, they would never get there.
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You sound like a very intolerant person.
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This is a very cheap and common place rhetorical tactic. Not agreeing with your fantasy does not make others intolerant.
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