BookWire - Meet The Author - Dr. Michael Martin-Smith

Dr. Martin-Smith has been a Doctor of Medicine in General Medical Practice in Britain's NHS for 23 years. He is also an amateur astronomer, and has been fascinated with space exploration and its potential since the age of 8. (1956-7)

Neela Sakaria: Thank you for joining us Dr. Martin-Smith. Please tell us about your background and early interest in science. What motivated you to approach the subject of space and the universe?

Dr. Michael Martin-Smith: My father was a diplomat and, for my 8th birthday, gave me a book called Travel to Distant Worlds by Karl Gilzin, of East Germany. I later realized that this work was based on the early ideas of Konstantin Tsiolkovski. I went on to read Jules Verne's works, Homer's Odyssey and other works of fantasy and exploration. Imagine my amazement when, barely a year after reading the Gilzin book, Sputnik 1 was launched and I understood that much of this fantasy could come true in my own lifetime!

NS: Tell us about the research that went into writing MAN MEDICINE and SPACE . How long did it take you to complete the book?

MMS: In 1969, with the success of Apollo, like many space enthusiasts, I imagined that the further development of a space based civilization was inevitable, and would happen quickly. I came across the ideas of Gered O'Neill, who advocated free space settlements, not for scientists, supermen, and astronauts - but for ordinary if enterprising citizens. These would be based on he idea of clean solar power generaing satellites as a green alterntive to nuclear and fossil fuels at a time of early concerns about global warming and exhaustion of resources here on Earth.

I applied myself to learning astronomy, attended conferences and lectures on spaceflight and related subjects, seeking all the time an unopposable rationale for human expansion into Space. In 1984, I found one - I came across the Alvarez discovery that an asteroid impact from Space had annihilated the dinosaurs along with over 75% of the species then existent on the Earth, and that other mass extinctions had occurred in the history of Life. The idea is that human intelligence, so far from being a liability as some supposed or an irrelevance, is but the latest stage in the growth of the Universe from simplicity to complexity. Humanity literally is chosen whether by a God or by an ordering force in an embryonic Universe to take Life and Mind beyond the threat of mass extinction which will beyond doubt destroy us and all our works at some future date.

By this time I realised I had formulated an important Idea, backed by contemporary evidence, which if adopted by people at large would ensure a space based future. I also had learned a good deal about space programmes and aspirations world wide and some of the little known international implications of space flight beyond the scientific and exploratory. If this Idea were in fact adopted, it would irreversibly alter and enlarge the course of human history - even, perhaps, the development of the Living Universe.

Many authors will know what I mean when I say that I was driven to write this book- and so I did, in 3 months, at breakneck speed! I achieved no success in finding a publisher thereafter, and so learned more and gave many lectures and talks in my locality.

By 1996 I had proposed a project called the UK Humble Space telescope, which led me to further conferences and activities, and emboldened me to transcribe my manuscript, much updated, onto computer disc; this meant that I could continuously update it, and begin again the search for publication. In 1999, after almost giving up, I succeeded - but in Italian - and finally, last fall, in English with the Print on Demand publishers iUniverse.com.

NS: You refer to the emergence of life on Earth as requiring so many various factors that it "appears less like an accident, and more like a conspiracy!" This statement seems to imply that there is room for a more spiritual belief for life's origins, within your scientific explanations. Is that the case? Do you think there is room for such an explanation amidst the scientific?

MMS: This is a very difficult question for a scientist, but yes I believe that a reconciliation of religion and science in their broadest senses is one of the greatest challenges we face. It seems that, while science shows an inevitable rundown from order to chaos, we nevertheless have a subtle counterbalancing force for order and complexity as shown by the fitful and fraught emergence of Mind and civilization from simple beginnings. There is a sublime irony in the fact that science thought by many to have banished the idea of purpose from the world has conferred a powerful one upon Humankind as the sole possessors (on Earth at least!) of the means (Mind, Science and Technology) to avoid mass extinctions and take life further.

My father was Roman Catholic and my mother Jewish, so that a religious sense is almost inevitable.I have proposed elsewhere that the Jewish ideas of Destiny and Diaspora can be adapted in the third millennium into a human creed of cosmic Diaspora and Development; away with the Chosen People - forward the Chosen Species! But Man himself must accept and make the Choice his own, admitting that it carries adult responsibilities of a vast order.

The religious impulse is strong and almost universal in humans - like hunger or sex; so it must serve some evolutionary purpose, or confer a benefit. Several intensely non-religious scientists accept this as a genuine puzzle. My answer is that religion allows people or individuals to undertake longterm, difficult, or hopeless tasks which offer distant benefits for the larger group - even if they give nothing to the individual in the here and now. An example might be the apparently lunatic procreation of Jews in the shadow of the gas chambers on the grounds that the Chosen people would somehow, and must, survive. Any sane person would have deemed such procreation a reckless and wasteful indulgence when faced with the SS. And yet Hope springs eternal ... I point to the enterprise of expansion into Space as a costly and longterm venture which apparently (though not so absolutely) has little to offer the man in the street, here and now - but which offers immense potential for the survival and further development of Mankind and his successor species. Such a vast goal is essentially a religious quest, but backed by the aspirations and studies of science . It could unite and dignify our species as little else seems able to!

NS: You discuss various archetypes in literature, and suggest that they are evidence of man's subconcious drive towards a "journey" of space exploration. Can you elaborate on this for our readers?

MMS: I suggest that many heroic figures and philosophies convey the idea that Man is not perfect - ie) not fully developed, and that wisdom and power reside in the Sky.

Stories and legends of flight, and visiting gods in heaven, are widespread in many cultures. Great civilizations have studied the skies and used them to guide their monuments as well. We have projected our imaginations into the Sky almost since we could think and articulate at all, and elaborated myths about heroes such as Rama, Daedalus, and Gilgamesh at a time when such voyages can only have been fantastical dreams.

I suspect that Man has had a preview, as it were, of future aerial/cosmic adventures as an ideal state, rather as a reflective caterpillar (were it endowed with imagination and foresight) might have flashes of precognition about its future life as a butterfly, if you will forgive my fancy!

MMS: Both views are consistent; exploration and expansion could well be a sine qua non of intelligence, while I contend that expansion into Space is a necessity for our continued survival and development, at least as a species endowed with Mind and civilization.

These attributes have not always been kind to Mother Earth and the rest of her inhabitants. The damage we have done would be unforgiveable if we do not achieve something beyond the reach of any other creature. The expansion of Mind beyond the bounds of Earth to develop itself further and indeed the mostly barren wastes out there would seem to be the only task big enough and unique enough to justify our many failings of youth. Curiosity is to Intelligence what sexual pleasure is to procreation, or the taste of the Gourmet is to eating. In all cases, the expansion of the species is the ultimate prize .

NS: Your writing style allows for your explanations to be understood by someone who may not be as well versed in the scientific. Who do you consider the audience for your book? Is the book used for academic purposes or readers who are simply interested in space?

MMS: Principally, the educated layman - the kind of person who wants to understand the whys and wherefores of things, and also the type of person who wants to find a meaning beyond the nihilism or dogmatism and sectarianism of much of modern thought. So, for undergraduates, sixth formers, or simply the kind of person who watches a TV show, and sees yet another space mission, and asks "Fine, but what does it really mean for us all?" Also it is for those who want to restore a sense of value and purpose to Humanity and mentality .

MMS: I continue to write magazine articles, and am awaiting news of possible success in gaining support for the UK educational Humble Space telescope project. If we can gain support for it to become a funded part of the UK Smallsat programme, in the next year I will undoubtedly be very busy apart from my medical practice!

NS: Thank you for your time. Is there anything else you'd like to share with our readers?

MMS: May I close with a paraphrase of a quote from Oscar Wilde's "Ballad of Reading Gaol:"