In the 19 seventies, he was able to develop some ideas that he had while teaching physics and engineering classes. He wanted to sort of rejuvenate and rehabilitate the reputation that physics had for providing the good. So one of the projects that he says came out of his class was to build these giant, free floating, spinning cities in orbit for a first ousands,. but eventually millions of people. That started to attract the attention of people in space science generally, and people in the counter culture too.
Paris Marx is joined by Fred Scharmen to discuss Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos’ visions for space colonization, the inspiration they draw from the work of Wernher von Braun and Gerard O’Neill, and what’s wrong with basing our future on those ideas.
Fred Scharmen is the author of Space Forces: A Critical History of Life in Outer Space. He teaches architecture and urban design at Morgan State University’s School of Architecture and Planning and is the co-founder of the Working Group on Adaptive Systems. Follow Fred on Twitter at @sevensixfive.
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Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.
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