Some Favorite Books on Future History

A call to arms for the Baby Boom generation. A scientist by training, George Elias trys on the mantle of orator. This is well-thought out book. It begins with the thought that the ideals America stands for were truly found on the frontier, and that without a frontier those ideals will eventually lose out to societies which focused more on stability, such as Imperial China. It then takes us through the steps we will need to take for America to tackle the frontier that is the solar system. An undertaking not for the faint of heart or those wedded to the comforts of civilization, "Breakout into Space" describes the coming era which will renew the spirit of self-reliance at the core of the American soul.

This is a fun book. It dares to examine not only our civilization's colonizing of the solar system, but the entire galaxy. With such an extended reach, Marshall Savage can't help but screw up on occassion. But all in all, he makes a good first approximation on a number of truly difficult problems. Mainly, though, he challenges our narrow views of what the future brings, as well as asking us to participate in it. I got to have dinner with Marshall at a space convention in New York, and found him to be a quiet, profoundly thoughtful fellow. He was willing to give on the exact technical details when his proposals were not in line with what might be most optimal. Yet he retained both the near-term and long-term goals that will see Earth's decendents spread life and intelligence throughout the universe.

I bought two boxes worth of this book, I was so excited. It is not that is all that well-written, but that the idea is so powerful. What it advocates is a simple modification to the current Space Shuttle launch configuration that would result in an extraordinary transformation of Man's presence in orbit. Currently when the shuttle is launched, the large orange fuel tank gets 95% of the way to orbit, only to be discarded into a convenient ocean. The idea is to keep them in orbit, and to utilize the vast pressurized space they provide as space station modules. Gene Meyers is popularizing this idea which has been around since day one of shuttle operations, because although it is technically quite feasible, it doesn't have any political backing. Strange, because America's first space station, Skylab, was a converted fuel tank.

Want to have a little fun with your mind? Just wait a few years. With the progress being made in micro-electronics, materials science, medicine, and genetic engineering, we'll soon be able to create true cyborgs and even artificial entities which possess consciousness. These guys don't mince words. They boldly toss much of the genre of science fiction (space opera) into the trash. We're on an exponential curve with respect to creating machine intelligence, and this train isn't going to stop even when humans are made obsolete. This book argues our fleshy days our numbered, but that our cyber future is brighter than any of us can imagine.