Forward: A Space Economist's Perspective

I am grateful that you have taken the time to read this far into the book. I have seen statistics that claim most people start reading about 7 books per year and only read about 4 completely. So whether this is one of your 7 or 4, thank you. The good news is that you will not be harmed greatly by jumping around a bit to whatever topic you find most interesting or by enjoying it cover to cover.

What Samson and I hope to do in this book is open you up to the possibilities of our future in Space. This book is not meant to be an exhaustive account, nor an introduction to aerospace engineering, nor an exercise in amazing you with astrophysics. Instead we aim to introduce you to a new way of thinking about the technologies, advances, and new systems that we find ourselves surrounded by and the very real possibility that many, if not all, of them are pointing us towards a future in Space.

I will look at this through the lens of a Space Economist, not because that lens is superior to any other but because it is what I have discovered best lets me forecast the behavior of people. Samson brings a mastery of understanding humans, risks, and how they always seem to find each other. He is an anthropologist by training (and spirit) with over a decade of success consulting in operations, emergency and crisis management. He is also a master educator, listener, and explainer. I say that not just because we teach a class together but because you are missing out if you have not seen him yet at a conference or in front of a room full of experts explaining something in terms that everyone can understand and engage around.

It will be important for your understanding of the Space Economy to appreciate the convergence of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies — such as blockchain — with existing economic systems, businesses, and humans. The types of changes that new innovation has and is providing right now is occurring at a pace rarely seen in all of human history and we believe that because of it, the future of human history is in Space.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution will be marked by our advancements in AI, blockchain, cloud computing, genetics, big data, energy, and more. Some of these advancements will converge with existing systems, others will disrupt or displace the legacy businesses we are comfortable with, and the thing we will have to try hardest to envision is the way all of these technologies can also interact and build on each other to form our future.

Most economists might not tell you but I am happy to let you in on a secret: God invented economists to make weatherman's forecasts look good. What is important are the models that economists develop to think about systems, complicated problems, and the future. I hope you enjoy the time you spend with us exploring those models from the perspective of an anthropologist and economist excited about the Space Economy.