The risks of privatising space

Half a century after humans left footprints on the Moon space exploration, and exploitation, have entered a new era. Private space companies are developing new launch vehicles and spacecrafts, there is a sixth branch of the US military called “Space Force”, and international cooperation in space – whose greatest symbol...

Reinventing liberal democracy in the age of intelligent machines: a talk

[slideshare id=239806582&doc=conwayhallslides-201206081152] Transcript of my talk at Conway Hall Ethical Society of London, and London Futurists. Let me start with the word “democracy”. If you think that you are citizens living in a democracy you are mistaken. You, I, are citizens in a constitutional republic – or monarchy, as is...

Space republics: how to democratise space exploration and accelerate colonisation

I have vivid memories from the hot July night of 1969 when the Eagle landed on the Moon. I was nearly five then. I was woken up[1] and hurried by my parents, still dressed in my pyjamas, to our next-door neighbour who owned one of the very few, black-and-white, television...

Abandoning the metropolis: space colonisation as the new imperative

The year 2019 began with news of the most distant object ever visited by a spaceship and the landing of a probe on the far side of the Moon. On New Year's Day[1] New Horizons, a robotic spaceship launched in 2006, was transmitting photographs of a bizarre, snowman-shaped object called...

Citizen Assemblies: a TEDx talk

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKQmKlxytkI] Do you trust your politicians? The people who represent you, and take decisions on your behalf about vital things, like health, education, national defence, and importantly where your taxes are spent Research data show that trust in politicians is at an all-time low across most liberal democracies. In...