This page is for a relatively brief (only a few sessions) working group on the topic of “astropower”— that is, on social power and outer space. The focus will be more on emerging configurations of power and the social and political categories we may use to describe them, rather than on anything specifically or scientifically about outer space per se. This summer, there will be IRL sessions in Berlin at Trust and URL sessions online, likely in conjunction with The Future Left.

This is not so much a reading group, primarily because the big critical texts on the “Second Space Age” are scattershot or forthcoming, and most of us are starting from various levels of ignorance (including many of the people actively involved in the industry itself). Instead, we’ll be working from shorter texts and articles, listed below from less-to-greater thickness, and asking ourselves the following questions:

What will the extension of humanity into space do to terrestrial configurations of power?
How might governance, property, and law in space work differently (or not work at all)?
What would it really take to democratically mediate this transition, in order that it might really be for the benefit of humanity?
How are we going to get, or currently getting, screwed?

Minimum Reading (very short):

Article: “The final frontier – 21st century space race”
Article: “The rocketing significance of space”
INFO-PDF: “Main trends and challenges in the space sector”

Extra Credit:
(Recommended) Examining Outer Space Utopias of Silicon Valley: “Sociotechnical Imaginaries and Techno-Optimism”
Critical Article on the billionaire space race: “Why Billionaires in Space are not Going to Make the World a Better Place”
On Luxembourg and the Space Economy: “The Luxembourg Space Agency: Enabling the In-Space Economy”
The Outer Space Treaty of 1966: “The Outer Space Treaty of 1966”

Deeper Reading/Viewing:
Video: Kosmos Law
Carl Schmitt’s Shorter Land and Sea
And his much longer, and much denser, The Nomos of the Earth
Everett Dolman’s Astropolitik
The “Astrosociology” Virtual Library My opening notes on Astropower:
Astropower Notes 1
Astropower Notes 2