We Live in a (Space) Society
The New York Times continued its hit-and-miss coverage of outer space stuff today, with a quick overview highlighting upcoming space launches and events in 2023. The preview focused on splashy tech and science stuff, which is unfortunate.
While the Times does write stories that cover the human and social aspects of space like this one about SpaceX retaliating against employees, these types of stories are still relatively marginal in mainstream media coverage. I suspect that’s a significant reason why there’s not so much debate about space policy in the public discourse in spite of the acceleration of major happenings on many fronts. I often think that “we’re so unprepared for what’s happening to us,” to paraphrase Isabelle Stengers on climate change.
So here are a few institutions and people that are outside the primary discourse or that present what I think are important perspectives that folks should probably pay some attention to vis-à-vis space. This list is by no means exhaustive.
Institutions:
The Santa Fe Institute’s Interplanetary Project
The MIT Media Lab’s Space Enabled group
My own contributions have mainly come by way of public programming for a student club, New School Policy and Design for Outer Space. I also organized and facilitated a few panels for 1014, a cultural institution that engages in transatlantic discussions on pressing global issues. And finally, I wrote a paper on the origins of the US Space Force for a class during my MA; it definitely has its warts, so be prepared. In my view the creation of a sixth military branch is one of the least appreciated dynamics in US policy today, and receives far too little public scrutiny given that Congress consistently appropriates more funds for it than the DoD itself requests and so evidently sees it as a crucial domain in current and future conflicts.
In the future, I’d like to continue to pursue these various topics though I’m not quite sure how. One idea is to bring together software operations research and space technology at sites like the JWST. We’ll see what opportunities present themselves…