I mentioned in my last post some thoughts about the cultural heritage value of the planet Venus. To recap, I argued that Venus has been noted throughout history as one of the brightest objects in the night sky, prompting names such as the Morning or Evening Star. This distinguishing brightness has furthermore given Venus a special place in the mythology of many human cultures. According to Wikipedia, Carl Sagan was the first person to propose terraforming Venus in 1961. Terraforming is, of course, the process of altering a planet to make it earthlike. There are other reasons to think twice about undertaking such a project, but here I’ll consider the cultural side of things. I’d argue that the cultural significance of Venus for much of human history arose from its brightness in … Read entire article »