If you think about it, it sounds quite bizarre. Humans have spent billions of dollars in the quest to study the space. In expeditions that involve sophisticated technology and enormous risks; while our ocean waters remain largely unexplored.
However, my layman’s guess (at the very worst) would be to take submarines and sink them down into the deepest parts of the ocean’s floors for exploration. Such expeditions will save humanity billions of dollars that can be better used elsewhere.
Given global warming is threatening our survival here on Earth’s surface. Maybe it would be cheaper and easier to learn how to build cities underwater than trying to flee to another planet millions of miles away. Conquering a new planet seems a daunting task compared to adapting to living at the bottom of the oceans’ waters.
To get to the deepest parts of the ocean’s floors, (again my layman’s guess at its worst) we can tie weights to the submarines and let gravity do the rest; well, to the extent these submarines can withstand the pressure. Getting back up to the surface should be the easiest part; just pump some gas into floaters and up, up, up you go. Yes, there are potential health risks if you rise to the surface too fast, but it certainly less risky than falling from space to Earth’s surface after a space expedition.
At one point in the future, humanity may be forced to seek new homes because Earth’s surface has become unbearable thanks to global warming. I think it would be easier and cheaper to transport millions of people down to the ocean floors than lifting them up to Mars, Moon or whichever celestial body we would have conquered by then.
According to science, life began inside the ocean waters and given that the human species has been destroying Earth ever since we started living on the surface. Maybe a trip back to where we (and life in general) came from, will give Earth the opportunity to heal and repair itself and us to reevaluate how we want to conduct our industrial revolution.
Sure, there will come a time when one or a few men’s trip to the Moon or Mars and other stellar bodies is a routine thing, but it is more feasible to take hundreds or even thousands of people to the ocean floors provided we learn how to live under water. By underwater, I am not implying growing gills to breathe water; I mean underwater houses filled with packets of air that we can breathe, grow crops, heat things among other things.
I suppose by then the Earth’s surface will be experiencing extreme weathers like excessive sunshine. Solar panels can be installed on the surface to create electricity and have cables running down to the deep waters where human civilizations have set up new homes. Sunlight itself can be channeled down using fibre optic cables or similar type of technology of light reflecting cables to be used warm up the underwater human established ecosystem and sustain crop growth under water.
Innovations can come up cheaply to support human existence under water compared to supporting life out there in space. Take, for instance, in Mars we would require far more sophisticated technology to generate oxygen, water, humus in the soil, fight radiation from space and not to mention we will have to leave so many back on Earth to die from extreme weather created by global warming.
However, the best solution would be to stop global warming altogether. By cutting down on the greenhouse gases emissions, afforestation, reafforestation, population control and preserving natural wildlife habitats. Then, there will be no need for seeking a second home for humanity in the first place.