Off-World, Because We Can
AI makes space cheap. Humanity has to decide why to go.
Autonomous manufacturing, robotic construction, and cheap heavy-lift launch turn the Moon and near-Earth space into an industrial zone within a generation. Whether that becomes a new commons or a new frontier of extraction is a political choice.
The near term
Lunar bases, orbital data centres, and asteroid prospecting all become financially plausible before 2040. The engineering is difficult but no longer science fiction.
The governance vacuum
The Outer Space Treaty was written for nation states. It has very little to say about a mining consortium or an autonomous swarm. We are heading into that vacuum without a plan.
The philosophical case
Space forces us to ask what humanity is for. Backup civilisation? Cosmic tourism? Scientific pilgrimage? Different answers imply very different futures.
Questions worth arguing about
- ◆Should any single company be allowed to own an asteroid?
- ◆Is a self-sustaining Mars colony a moral necessity or a distraction?
- ◆Do AIs go to space instead of us — or with us?