<div dir="ltr"><h2 id="gmail-a-failure-of-the-imagination" style="margin:0px 0px 0.7em;padding:10px 0px 0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:30px;font-family:"Open Sans",Arial,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;width:602.031px;color:rgb(51,51,51);clear:both"><font size="4" style="font-weight:normal">A history professor weighs in on the current approach to industrializing and colonizing our solar system... He sees similarities with 17th century European expansionism...</font></h2><h2 id="gmail-a-failure-of-the-imagination" style="margin:0px 0px 0.7em;padding:10px 0px 0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:30px;font-family:"Open Sans",Arial,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;width:602.031px;color:rgb(51,51,51);clear:both"><font size="4">"A failure of the imagination"</font></h2><div id="gmail-bordeaux-static-slot-8" style="margin:auto;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:"Open Sans",Arial,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);display:flex"></div><p style="margin:0px 0px 1em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:1.5;font-family:"Open Sans",Arial,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51)"><font size="4">"The techno-utopian visions of Musk and Bezos betray some of the same assumptions as their early modern forebears. They offer colonialism as a panacea for complex social, political and economic ills, rather than attempting to work towards a better world within the constraints of our environment.</font></p><div id="gmail-bordeaux-static-slot-7" style="margin:auto;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:"Open Sans",Arial,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);display:flex"></div><p style="margin:0px 0px 1em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:1.5;font-family:"Open Sans",Arial,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51)"><font size="4">And rather than facing the palpably devastating consequences of an ideology of limitless growth on our planet, they seek to export it, unaltered, into space. They imagine themselves capable of creating liveable environments where none exist.</font></p><div id="gmail-bordeaux-static-slot-6" style="margin:auto;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:"Open Sans",Arial,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);display:flex"></div><p style="margin:0px 0px 1em;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:1.5;font-family:"Open Sans",Arial,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51)"><font size="4">But for all their futuristic imagery, they have failed to imagine a different world. And they have ignored the history of colonialism on this one. Empire never recreated Eden, but it did fuel centuries of growth based on expropriation, enslavement and environmental transformation in defiance of all limits. We are struggling with these consequences today."</font></p><div><font size="4"><a href="https://www.space.com/billionaire-space-race-colonial-mindset">https://www.space.com/billionaire-space-race-colonial-mindset</a></font><br></div></div>