The Nutshell Kings: Roots of Resistance to Human Space Exploration and Settlement – Milan M. Ćirković

Abstract

We should face the fact that in promoting a vision of human space exploration and settlement we face not only natural obstacles and technological challenges, but also active human resistance. Recent years have seen both a revival of space programs, mostly propelled by private industry’s increasing interest, and the (re)emergence of strong resistance to human space activities on several levels. This is partly a manifestation of a wider counter-Enlightenment Zeitgeist, as detectable in other sectors of public life in the West, and partly a reaction against the widespread engagement of the private sector. While it still does not dominate the discourse on space issues, space scepticism/space resistance is surprisingly wide-ranging and decentralized phenomenon, gathering together such heterogeneous strands of thought from anti-Enlightenment postmodernists and critical constructivists to rabid “deep ecology” activists to philosophical pessimists/nihilists to antiglobalist activists of all colours. There has been precious little in way of actively opposing this cultural trend so far, however. The present talk will review major strands of thought within this “big tent” cultural movement and offer a taxonomy of their ideological roots. Some suggestions as to the important cultural, educational and public-outreach work which needs to be done to balance the scales as given as well.
Keywords: #spaceexploration, #spacesettlement, #geocentrism, #antiliberalism, #STEMeducation, #publicoutreach

Milan M. Ćirković, a short bio

Milan M. Ćirković is a senior Research Professor at the Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade (Serbia) and a research associate of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University, Oxford (UK). He obtained his PhD at the Dept. of Physics, State University of New York in Stony Brook in 2000 with the thesis in astrophysical cosmology. His primary research interests are in the fields of astrobiology (habitable zones, habitability of galaxies, SETI studies), philosophy of science (futures studies, philosophy of cosmology), and risk analysis (global catastrophes, observation selection effects, epistemology of risk). He co-edited the widely-cited anthology on Global Catastrophic Risks (Oxford University Press, 2008, with Nick Bostrom), wrote four research monographs (the latest being Cosmic Microwave Background: Philosophical and Historical Aspects, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2024, with S. Perović), as well as five popular science/general nonfiction books, and authored about 200 research and professional papers. He is currently working on The Terrors of the Earth: Why We Ought to Leave this Planet – and Soon, to be published in 2025 by Penguin Random House.

Milan M. Ćirković – Astronomical Observatory, Volgina 7, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia – e-mail: mcirkovic@aob.rs

Links

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