We can now imagine life on other planets, and just 40 quick light years away!

Imagine for a moment if one of them (Planet X) had a vibrant and thriving culture with vast expanses of inhabitable land, a healthy economy and so many opportunities for jobs that they could not find people to fill them. A planet like Earth but many times larger. Plenty of clean water and air. So much room that most people on Planet X live in mansions with acres of land.

And what if us Earthlings screw up our planet through a combination of short-sighted environmental policy and use of nuclear weapons (not as far-fetched as it seems)? The skies grow dark, the surface temperature cools, the oceans rise and there is widespread famine. The air is so bad in places, that people have to stay indoors or wear special masks to prevent lung disease. Drinkable water becomes difficult to find and the price of bottled water increases 10 fold. There is a constant state of war as conflicts over the scraps of resources that are left escalate. It is a dark age for planet Earth.

But in the midst of all that, what if we figure out space travel? We are able to travel at (or near) the speed of light and perfect cryogenic sleep so that trips of 100s of light years are made possible.

A ray of hope: Earthlings work most of their lives and sell their possessions to scrape up enough money to buy a one way ticket to Planet X. Their entire life savings to get themselves and their family, their children, to a better place.

And what if the people of Planet X welcomed us with open arms? Or instead, they saw what a mess some of us had created on our home planet and decided to ban all Earthlings from landing on their planet, regardless of circumstances…and deported us back to our dumpster-fire of a planet.

What would that be like?