Turning points…
SpaceX’s success with the capsule with Ripley inside (the dummy filled with sensors, not Sigourney Weaver, star of the Alien trilogy) might represent a turning point for the US space program. Since the cancellation of the shuttle program, NASA has depended on the Russians to get astronauts into orbit. After the SpaceX success, that dependence might soon end.
In the bigger picture, another turning point has already occurred. When private companies began launching successful space missions, a paradigm shift occurred: NASA became the science group with astronauts and payloads as passengers, and private enterprise became the transportation agencies.
I’ve always assumed this change was inevitable. Let’s assume it is. Will it be good or bad? Tech companies grow bigger, more arrogant, and more international as time goes by. Capitalism without controls is always bad, but only Europe seems to be reining in the abuses of tech companies. The opportunities for space exploitation, i.e. exploration of space for financial gain like big petroleum companies exploring for oil, offer potentially great rewards and seem boundless, so the same might happen to the space tech companies. They could get rich by spinning off lucrative enterprises that have wonderful products made extremely expensive because of their origins.
Is this pessimism unjustified? Hopefully yes. But pessimists have the advantage that, if things turn out better than expected, they can rejoice. Yet Murphy’s Law, or its extreme version, Sturgeon’s Law (look it up), justifies being pessimistic.
I explored corporate domination of outer space in the future with my novel Survivors of the Chaos (now part of The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection, a bargain ebook bundle of three novels). This is not uncommon in sci-fi or dystopian literature or movies (Avatar and Elysium are recent examples of the latter). My novel starts in a dystopian future where multinationals have their own mercenary armies controlling the chaos on Earth an their surrogates in space sponsoring all space projects and exploiting their findings. The book ends with three starships fleeing the chaotic Earth to colonize three planets in other star systems.
Such visions of the future are warnings created by pessimists, and these warnings are possible extrapolations of current conditions, including science and technology, of course. These stories are as old as sci-fi itself, but I find them more interesting than utopian drivel. Humans don’t have a good track record for creating utopias; they have a terrible one for creating dystopias and apocalyptic events. And, as science and technology progresses, the latter can become even worse.
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Comments are always welcome.
Dystopia:
The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection. The three novels take the reader from a futuristic worldwide dystopia to the stars and far into the future. The second novel answers Fermi’s question, “Where are they?” The third shows how Humans and their ET friends battle a mad Human industrialist. The whole trilogy can be considered an homage to Dr. Asimov’s Foundation trilogy with ITUIP (International Trade Union of Independent Planets) playing the role of the Foundation, and the mad industrialist playing the role of the Mule. Lots of enjoyable sci-fi reading await you. Available on Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc).
Post-apocalyptic:
And don’t miss The Last Humans. Last man alive? What about last woman alive? Penny Castro, LA County Sheriff’s Deputy and forensic diver, finds she isn’t alone, though—there are a few others who survive the contagion and want to kill her. And the remnants of a US government could be the greatest danger for her and the family she’s adopted. This post-apocalyptic thriller (yes, it’s also sci-fi) will be released by Black Opal Books in both ebook and print versions on March 30 and available at the publisher’s website, online retailers like Amazon and Smashwords and the latter’s affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc), and bookstores (if they don’t have it, ask for it!). You can pre-order on both Amazon and Smashwords.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
