What If There Were 2 Earths? | Unveiled

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What If There Were 2 Earths?</h4>

Of all the planets in the universe - potentially upwards of two trillion at the last count - we’re all pretty lucky to have wound up on this one. Earth, it seems, has everything we need. And yet, from some perspectives, cast as we are, seemingly alone, in this particular corner of the cosmos… some bemoan how actually limited and isolated we are here. If only we had just a little bit more of this world that works really rather well.  

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; what if there were two Earths?

Life on Earth is pretty spectacular, when you stop and think about it. It’s predicted that there are around 8.7 million species of plant and animal alive on this planet right now. Of those, only around 1.2 million have been properly cataloged by us, human beings… showing that the true diversity of this place is pretty much beyond us even from the outset. But the numbers get even more staggering when we consider Earth not just today, but over the entirety of its history. Now, while the predictions do vary more widely, it’s thought that there have been more than four billion species alive at some point. That’s a lot of life passing through, and remember those numbers are for whole species groups; were we to count every single individual member of every single species alive and extinct, well, we’d literally be here for longer than the Earth is old!

One stark realization, however, is that the very vast majority of species that have ever lived have also died out. There may be almost nine million species alive today, but that’s just a tiny, tiny fraction of the total number that there’s ever been. And clearly, in the modern world, this business of species extinction has taken on all new meaning as we, ourselves, wrestle with various, seemingly existential threats. So, on the one hand, planet Earth is pretty great… but, on the other, we are busily trying to work out how to move off of it, if the need should arise. And we are increasingly aware of just how fragile the greatness of our world really is. In an alternate reality, something that could really help is if we had another Earth to fall back on. So, let’s look at exactly how that would work. And also, if it ever could be possible in this reality, as well.

First off, although there are various alternate theories concerning a so-called “planet five”, “planet nine” or “counter Earth” in the solar system, we do know with almost certainty that there is no second Earth orbiting around our sun. True, the vast majority of the solar system is still unknown and unreachable for us. Move beyond the orbit of Pluto and out towards the Kuiper Belt, and much of what we think we know still amounts to educated guesswork. But scientists and astronomers generally judge that if there were another Earth-like world so close then we would have clocked it by now. Plus, we’re almost one hundred percent sure that there’s nothing else of note in our sun’s habitable zone; so any kind of “Earth 2” would need to be bucking all expectations on what a liveable world should be and look like. 

All of which means that our hypothetical second Earth would most likely be outside the solar system and so, immediately, we’re imagining a time when humankind is so much more advanced than it is right now. To even have a second Earth we’d need to be an interstellar species, probably somewhere between levels two and three on the Kardashev Scale, and generally upwards of 10,000 years more developed than today. In the here and now, we’re slowly beginning to chart potentially Earth-like worlds from afar, ranking variously discovered exoplanets based on things like their probable surface temperature and the likelihood of liquid water. In a future, two-Earth time, though, we’ve progressed immensely so that we’ve meticulously combed all of the nearest surrounding space… and visited a great number of the Earth-like worlds we’ve recorded, in order to have decided which was the best of all. From there, we’ve mounted the largest and most complicated evacuation plan our species has ever seen, to move people, plants, animals and general Earthliness - our Earthliness - to this brave new world. Already, then, this clearly isn’t something that’s just going to happen tomorrow, in anyone’s lifetimes, or even for many, many generations to come.

Nevertheless, what if you were alive when it was happening? The prospect of a second Earth is massively intriguing from a social point of view. The questions come thick and fast. Who stays here, and who gets moved to there? Who are the first to set foot on the new Earth, and who are the last to have a say in how Earth 2 is managed? Would we even use Earth 2 for living space, or just solely as a place to harvest resources?

In terms of who goes and who stays, perhaps there would be some kind of vote or lottery in the run up to the first few mass evacuations. Would that be a lottery that you’d want to win or wouldn’t want to win? It all depends on context. Say this Earth was failing, maybe it’s become a wholly dangerous and volatile place thanks to environmental breakdown or the onset of large-scale war… then, clearly, any serious route off of Earth would be something that many people would desperately need. However, say this Earth was still stable and the second Earth was being billed as only a place to redirect industry and energy efforts… now, a lot of people would probably rather stay put than get sent to a remote outpost without all the comforts of home. 

Of course, the influence of money could shape a lot of what the second Earth becomes. If it’s found to be better than Earth (as we know it) then it’s easy to envisage a scenario where only the rich ever get the opportunity to go there. Where everyone else is immediately priced out of getting on even the slowest ships to this new “promised land”. That said, and again picturing the wider situation for these hypothetical circumstances, if humanity really is an interstellar species by this point… then money might not have a great deal to do with it, after all. Because, to make proper use of a whole new planet, this has to be a moment in time when we’re so advanced that we’ve overcome the kinds of structure and inequality that currently exist. At the higher levels of the Kardashev Scale (and others like it) we almost always encounter plans for a hive mind - effectively a shared consciousness and knowledge. That might be the level that we’ll need to have reached, if discovering and colonizing another Earth were to be possible. And, at this point, humans would work less as individuals and more as a collective, with no rich/poor divide to speak of.

Finally, though, and perhaps more likely than anything else, we have the rise of machines to contend with. Right now, in the twenty-first century, we’re much more open to sending probes and rovers to other planets in just the solar system, rather than crewed missions with real life people. There are a number of reasons why, not least how tricky it is from an engineering and propulsion point of view to get people off the ground and into space. But arguably the biggest reason why we send probes first is because it’s infinitely safer. With only robots in tow, when a mission goes wrong it means that no one needs to die. So, really, why would it be any different in the case of Earth 2? It’s not exactly romantic or exciting, but the first settlers on any other world will almost certainly be machines. Advanced artificial beings that can do one of two things: either pave the way for humankind to visit in the future, or just make the place their own. In fact, in the ongoing search for alien life, many believe that we are much more likely to find artificial life than organic, for exactly this reason.

But, what’s your verdict? How would you choose to use Earth 2, if the decision were yours? Do you think that this is something that could ever happen? Or are humans destined to live and die on this world, only? Let us know in the comments! Because that’s what would happen if there were two Earths.