Wanderers, a Glimpse of Humanity's Possible Future

Erik Wernquist has released a short film called Wanderers, featuring Carl Sagan's audiobook narration from Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. The film imagines a future in which humans have visited the rest of our solar system. Wernquist writes, "...the idea of the film is primarily to show a glimpse of the fantastic and beautiful nature that surrounds us on our neighboring worlds—and above all, how it might appear to us if we were there." Enjoy:

Wanderers - a short film by Erik Wernquist from Erik Wernquist on Vimeo.

And here's a transcript:

For all its material advantages, the sedentary life has left us...edgy, unfulfilled. Even after 400 generations in villages and cities, we haven't forgotten. The open road still softly calls, like a nearly forgotten song of childhood. We invest far-off places with a certain romance. The appeal, I suspect, has been meticulously crafted by natural selection as an essential element in our survival. Long summers, mild winters, rich harvests, plentiful game—none of them lasts forever. Your own life, or your band's, or even your species' might be owed to a restless few—drawn, by a craving they can hardly articulate or understand, to undiscovered lands and new worlds. Herman Melville, in Moby Dick, spoke for wanderers in all epochs and meridians. He said, "I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas...." Maybe it's a little early—maybe the time is not quite yet—but those other worlds, promising untold opportunities, beckon. Silently, they orbit the Sun, waiting.

Wernquist has provided an annotated gallery (click each image for a more thorough description) explaining what's going on in each scene/location.

If you like this stuff, you'll really dig Remembering Carl Sagan, a collection of videos I posted in 2011.