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.@philipcball: all the people with whom I work developing space technology are convinced, and are performing peer-reviewed science and engineering studies that show, thriving beyond Earth isn’t fantasy and is coming soon. Failure to grasp it could undermine the best outcome...1/3
2/3...but won’t stop it because the technological barriers are dropping fast. The best outcome is to have all humanity engaged & participating in space. Pieces like this are hurtful because it draws the public away from what the experts are all saying is true, hurting the public.
3/3 If you want to make claims that go against a large body of experts in a field, you need to find a large body of other experts in that field who provide real data and arguments to prove your claims, including published research. In this case it doesn’t exist, so you can’t.
Appendix: I need to amend this by saying I recently saw a tweet by @mikamckinnon that it is too difficult to maintain stability in small, closed ecologies such as off-Earth space habitats. Mika is an expert in this related field so it would be awesome to see discussion on this...
...because really engaging experts is how we make progress and as scientists we should never be afraid of reality. My problem with the piece is that it doesn’t engage experts, but it threatens to turn people off from an economic revolution at the time they need to be engaged.
