Star Settlers by Fred Nadis
Author:Fred Nadis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2020-08-04T00:00:00+00:00
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While science writer James Gleick has dubbed space tourism “cheap thrills for plutocrats”—and how else can you describe a corporate retreat in Earth orbit?—proponents point out that sending the ultra-wealthy to hotels in space is an opening wedge. It was also, in a Chamber of Commerce sense of the phrase, all-American. As one advocate phrased it, “Space tourism is of the very essence of what it is to be American, in that it is designed for ‘the pursuit of Happiness,’ and involves taking risks, pushing back boundaries, and making a buck in the process.”7 The strongest argument against the “cheap thrills” argument: wealthy space tourists just might experience a spiritual transformation or cognitive shift termed the “Overview Effect.”
Author Frank White developed the concept of the Overview Effect after interviewing astronauts who reported experiencing moments of profound insight and transformation when off planet. They described a feeling of deep connection to an Earth without borders, to humankind, and to the universe. Several became deeply religious, while others found their space experience heightened their religious sensibility whether of the New Age or orthodox variety. Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who later founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences in 1973, described having an “explosion of awareness” and an “overwhelming sense of oneness and connectedness… accompanied by an ecstasy… an epiphany.”8 Soviet cosmonaut Boris Volynov, expressed an enduring psychological shift, “During a space flight, the psyche of each astronaut is re-shaped; having seen the sun, the stars and our planet, you become more full of life, softer. You begin to look at all living things with greater trepidation and you begin to be more kind and patient with the people around you.”9
White founded the Overview Institute in 2008, along with astronaut Edgar Mitchell (who died in 2016), 2001’s special effects creator Douglas Trumbull, New Age philanthropist Barbara Marx Hubbard, and other artists and space entrepreneurs. Its purpose, “From space, the astronauts tell us… the conflicts that divide us become less important and the need to create a planetary society with the united will to protect this ‘pale blue dot’ becomes both obvious and imperative.”10 They insist that space tourism should not be dismissed as mere diversion for the wealthy, but a tool for profound political change.
In the Right Stuff Tom Wolfe critiqued astronauts such as John Glenn as so thoroughly trained in simulations that the experience of being in space had no ability to inspire awe—yet if White was correct, spaceflight, rather as advocates of L.S.D. and psychedelic drugs once had promised, could turn engineers and military personnel into poets. The Overview Effect has become a big selling point in luxury space tourism. Paying millions to experience a shift in awareness—perhaps another example of therapeutic culture run amok, was, arguably, an opportunity for redemption for the privileged class. In addition to Bigelow Aerospace, many others were in the field, including Orion Span, which planned to open its Aurora Station luxury hotel in 2022 with twelve-day stays priced at $9.5 million. Its guests
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