Faith — Space's Final Frontier
Part II — The Space Economy Series for Concordia University Wisconsin's 2nd Annual NSSC Strategic Space Summit
In order to have Hope in a better tomorrow, we must have Faith that achieving the impossible isn't impossible — but necessary.
In order to have Hope in an idea, a person, a place, a possibility or outcome, you have to be aware that Hope exists as a possibility. For Hope without awareness of deliverance is despair. When you're down on your luck, depressed or feeling emotionally isolated, how will salvation find you, if you have no idea that redemption is possible nor nigh? That lack of awareness of Hope, as a thing and fundamental concept of liberation, leaves a person spiritually and emotionally afloat in an ocean of uncertainty — devoid of the core values of conviction that there is a way, a path to safety, happiness or help.
And so, in order to have Hope in a better tomorrow, we must have Faith that achieving the impossible isn't impossible but necessary.
Of course you may be wondering, “What does this have to do with Space and The Space Economy?” Which is a valid question. To which the answer is: Faith in The Space Economy is what enables us to pursue the audacious dreams of Space because we are fueled by the Hope in a better future for all.
Faith in The Space Economy
The majority of young people in today's global economy have desperately little hope. How has Hope come to wither on the vine of humanity? Millennials, Zoomers and Gen Alpha didn't inherit an economy of prosperity; rather they were born into an economic system of debt peonage, inflation, de-dollarization, and the gamification of healthcare, retirement and the American Dream. And then there is the Global South — where over half of the global population lives on less than US$6.85 per person per day.
However, The Space Economy need not be a clone of today's inequitable global economy. From this anthropologist and newborn father's perspective, if we colonize space duplicating the sins of financial inequity and social injustice, someone will have to kill the masters. When a generation has no Hope, they cling to despair as the fuel and reason for which they rise each day. Throughout human history, hopelessness is the fertile ground from which revolution is catalyzed against those in power.
In short: Hope is only possible when we believe. Hope is, in fact, the process by which belief solidifies into action. The first accomplishment of taking action is the personal internal discovery of a seed the size of faith — and with that infinitesimally small grain of devotion, rendering the impossible not impossible but necessary.
It is necessary that this generation and the next generation and every generation subsequent have Hope in a better tomorrow. And the beautiful thing about Hope in a better tomorrow is that it is the reflection of what gets us to the Moon, Mars and beyond. We venture into the heavens and beyond because we believe. While it is the science and the tech that transports us out of Earth's gravity well, it is Faith that will push the human experience to the edge of the known universe — and Hope that enables us to make that great leap off of it.
See you in orbit.
Samson Williams is a Senior Partner at MilkyWayEconomy LLC, an adjunct professor at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, and instructor at Columbia University in NYC. He lectures on the space economy, the 5th Industrial Revolution, and deep tech.