Astrotopia - The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race

"We are in the midst of a new space race that pairs billionaire space barons with governments in an effort to exploit the cosmos for human gain. While Elon Musk and SpaceX work to establish a human presence on Mars, Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin work toward mining operations on the moon, missions to asteroids to extract resources, and millions of people living in rotating near-Earth satellite dwellings. Despite the differences in their visions, these two billionaires share a core utopian project: the salvation of humanity though the colonization of space. But we have already seen the destructive effects of this frontier spirit in the centuries-long history of European colonialism. Philosopher of religion and space enthusiast Mary-Jane Rubenstein wants to pull back the curtain on the not-so-new myths these space barons are peddling. In Astrotopia, she explains why these myths are so problematic and offers a vision for how we might approach the exploration of space in ways that don't reproduce the atrocities of humanity's previous colonial endeavors"--]cProvided by publisher.

About the author

Mary-Jane Rubenstein is dean of the social sciences and professor of religion and science in society at Wesleyan University. She is the author of Pantheologies: Gods, Worlds, Monsters; Worlds Without End: The Many Lives of the Multiverse; and Strange Wonder: The Closure of Metaphysics and the Opening of Awe, and coeditor of Entangled Worlds: Religion, Science, and New Materialisms.

Product details

• Authors: Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Rubenstein Mary-Jane
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.2024
• EAN: 9780226833385
• ISBN: 978-0-226-83338-5
• No. of pages: 224
• Dimensions: 230 mm x 155 mm x 15 mm
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Physics, astronomy > Astronomy; NATURE / Sky Observation, space exploration, Space Science, Popular astronomy & space, Space, planets and extraterrestrial locations, Popular astronomy and space, SCIENCE / Space Science / Space Exploration