Dear Yuri,
The world is fine, it always will be. In fact, for most, it’s better than yesterday because humans are in it less.
I am stuck at home. I can sit in the sun; warm, and comfortable. I have no worries about shelter, money, or my next meal. There will not be a rap at dawn on the door demanding my home or allegiance. I am not going to war. I can manage this.
I do not fear for my loved ones, maybe I should. They know what to do and are extremely unlikely to need a hospital visit. Perhaps I lack the vision or imagination to foresee what could happen, like nearly all the leaders of the world. Paralysed by indecision when the pandemic was looming, fearful of inconveniencing an electorate accustomed to quick fixes and cheap luxuries. It seems so obvious from here what would happen, it wasn’t.
There is worry. There is fear. There is change. There is real suffering. There always is. At the moment It feels more visceral, immediate and shared than usual.
People fear change. I do not. I think you cannot. You are changing the world, probably not in any of the ways you imagine. You have a unique perspective on us down here, completely lost on those who sent you. We will make it to the moon but, within a generation, governments will crumble or find different priorities.
They’ll be amazing space telescopes and probes bristling with technology sent to all the planets but, for the most part, the only visitors to space will be satellites for spying, communication, or the internet (you’ll learn about that later). They will send endless images into peoples’ homes as they fawn ever more over the stars on TV than the ones out there.