Shoot the Moon: Apollo’s inspirations

Earthrise

Forty-eight years ago, two astronauts took the most expensive selfies ever shot – on the Moon. Those now-famous pictures of two Americans posing with their flag on the lunar surface were the key deliverables of a program started by President John F. Kennedy only eight years before to prove the American democracy was superior to […]

Deep Space: The Philosophy of the Overview Effect

Earthrise

When the shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986, the nation entered a period of intense soul-searching. We had become accustomed to these spacecraft routinely lifting off from Cape Canaveral and going into orbit for a week or more, then safely returning to Earth. The process seemed so routine that Christa McAuliffe, a schoolteacher, was on board, […]

Why am I here?

humanity in space

This question, of all questions, is the most important of all questions ever asked. It is the most important question we ever ask, that you ever ask, no matter who you are. And like all of the deeper questions of life, although it is central to your being, it is not one that actively consumes […]

Simply-Goodspace

Simply Goodspace

Leonard Cohen passed away last year at the age of 82. Perhaps no other musical artist brought together more musical genres in their lifetime. Considered by many to be the Godfather of alternative rock, his tribute albums include artists as varied as U2, Nick Cave, Tori Amos, Don Henley and Elton John. In one of […]

Cosmism and Cosmocentrism

As I have been exploring the notion of cosmocentrism, I have been drawn to a group of space philosophers I discovered while writing The Overview Effect. These Russian thinkers in the 19th century developed the idea of cosmism, an idea that included not only the exploration of outer space but also the perfection of humanity. […]

The Question

humanity in space

The future of humanity in space will be dramatically impacted by the answer to a very simple question. What will occur first: the first combat fatality in space or the first human born there?

Does the World need a declaration of Space Opportunity?

International Space Station

In 2013, while attending a module at Harvard for the Young Global Leader’s program within the World Economic Forum, I was speaking with my good friend and classmate Lucian Tarnowski about my passion for space. Lucian is a gifted “big thinker” and as he often does he asked me the thought provoking questions about the […]