While the rise of the barbarous Islamic State and the spread of the modern day plague of Ebola has many concerned about the state of civilization here on earth, some at the White House are turning their attention beyond our planet. A Tuesday entry on the White House blog solicits ideas for “massless exploration and bootstrapping a Solar System civilization” and “how the [Obama] Administration, the private sector, philanthropists, the research community, and storytellers can further these goals.”

“Bootstrapping” is a term employed by Dr. Phillip Metzger, former NASA research physicist now on the University of Central Florida faculty. Metzger explains:

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