Going Outward：The Structural Necessity of Human Civilization and the Only Path——Why "Going Outward" Is Structurally Determined, and Why "Understanding the Nature of Spacetime" Is the Only Means of Realization

Abstract

This paper argues for two propositions: First, human civilization must go outward. This is not a "choice" based on aspirations or ideals, but a "necessity" based on the structural characteristics of human civilization itself. Human civilization is a dissipative structure; Earth is a finite system. Their coexistence within closed boundaries mathematically necessitates collapse. Furthermore, the evolutionary demand of human beings as cognitive agents—the intrinsic connection between civilizational expansion and cognitive transition—further reinforces this necessity. Going outward is the only path to preserving structural continuity and cognitive evolution. Second, the only path to going outward lies in understanding the nature of spacetime. All existing and foreseeable technologies—nuclear fusion, antimatter propulsion, genetic engineering, AI—fall within the "flight paradigm": conquering distance with speed. However, the speed of light is the limit of physical quantities, not the limit of spacetime quantities. On the scale of the Milky Way (100,000 light-years), the flight paradigm is mathematically ineffective. The only way to overcome this barrier is to transcend the flight paradigm—shifting from "moving through space" to "manipulating the structure of space itself." This requires humanity to understand the nature of spacetime and to engineer it. This paper further suggests that the window of opportunity is approximately 300–500 years. This is not a precise prediction, but a time interval converged upon by multiple independent structural constraints.