Views from Crestmont Drive

Today some more substantial links from the past week or so.

• Going into space for art;
• Why detox treatments are nonsense;
• Our obsession with cleanliness.

There have been thoughts recently about the very plausibility of mankind living in space, or settling on Mars (let alone traveling to the stars). Just in November, there was a book called A City on Mars: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through? by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith. The idea is not new in science fiction; the likely unsuitability of planets around other stars for human beings was the central theme of Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel Aurora in 2015. (My review here.) Other SF writers have acknowledged that visions of interstellar empires — including the variations of Trek and Wars — are likely complete fantasies. They are stories we keep telling ourselves, because they appeal to our nature. We project our local circumstances onto a vast universe we don’t actually understand.

Here’s an essay that suggests there might well be other reasons for going into space. Recall the effusions of William Shatner after his SpaceX trip. Recall the book The Overview Effect by Frank White (now in a fourth edition!) about the “profound shift in worldview they experience when viewing the Earth from space and in space.”

Washington Post, Bena Venkataraman, 26 Dec 2023: Opinion | The best concert of your life might not be on Earth

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