[ExI] Three books - The case against humans in space

[BillK]

Book Review     The case against humans in space
Three books push back on a rising tide of optimism about space settlements.
By Becky Ferreira     August 22, 2025

<https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/22/1121428/case-against-space-travel-book-reviews/>
Quotes:
The Weinersmiths puncture the gauzy fantasy of space cities by asking
pretty basic questions, like how to populate them. Astronauts
experience all kinds of medical challenges in space, such as radiation
exposure and bone loss, which would increase risks to both parents and
babies. Nobody wants their pregnant “glow” to be a by-product of
cosmic radiation.

Advocates for human space exploration reject the zero-sum framing and
point to the many downstream benefits of human spaceflight. Space
exploration has catalyzed inventions from the CAT scan to baby
formula. There is also inherent value in our shared adventure of
learning about the vast cosmos.
Those upsides are real, but they are not remotely well distributed.
Mandel predicts that the commercial space sector in its current form
will only exacerbate inequalities on Earth, as profits from space
ventures flow into the coffers of the already obscenely rich

All these authors ultimately conclude that it would be great if humans
lived in space—someday, if and when we’ve matured. But the three books
all express concerns about efforts by commercial space companies, with
the help of the US government, to bypass established space laws and
norms—concerns that have been thoroughly validated in 2025.
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They support the case for robots and AI to do space exploration on
behalf of humans.
The future may belong to our AI children.

BillK