5 Books I Read in 2022 That Helped Me Think About Our Future in Space
Plus the ones I'm looking forward to in 2023
Humankind: A Hopeful History, by Rutger Bregman
When you spend your time thinking about all the ways that humans can screw things up and hurt each other in space, based on our history of doing just that here on Earth, it’s easy to get discouraged about the future of our species. So I really enjoyed this book from 2020 that challenges the common modern belief that we humans are just intrinsically terrible people, especially the parts where Bregman debunks well-known “proofs” of said terribleness, like the murder of Kitty Genovese or the Stanford Prison Experiment.
The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet, by Leah Thomas
I had the pleasure of seeing Leah Thomas speak at South by Southwest in early 2022, and I immediately went home and ordered her book on how to approach environmentalism from an intersectional perspective. This primer was very useful to me as I worked on learning more about environmental justice in 2022 and thought about how to apply it to space. There are a growing number of space scientists and workers who are worrying about how to protect the space environment— which is great!— but it’s vital for us to learn from experts in terrestrial environmentalism, especially communities who have been most impacted by environmental injustice on Earth.
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist, by Kate Raworth
The promise of supposedly infinite resources and unlimited growth in outer space sure does get certain people excited about building a space economy, but I much prefer Kate Raworth’s model of how to build a society that’s both just and sustainable. Raworth rejects the current obsession with GDP growth as a measure of economic success, and instead focuses on how to balance our civilization between a social baseline (the lower limit allowing everyone to have enough food, clean water, housing, etc.) and an ecological ceiling imposed by our environment.
The Expanse series, by James S. A. Corey
I usually keep up with popular sci-fi series pretty well, but The Expanse (the books and the TV show) had been lingering on my to-read list for a while when I noticed in 2017 that every third conversation I had about ethics, human rights, and space settlement included my conversation partner saying something along the lines of “Oh, like in The Expanse!”. So I finally watched the show, and in 2022 I read the entire 9-book novel series.* I highly recommend it for anyone working on or thinking about the extension of our human economy into space, for two reasons: (1) Because it’s so popular, it’s a great tool for talking to the public about societal challenges we’ll have to deal with in space, including economic inequality, labor rights, resource conflicts, racism, etc., and (2) It’s just really enjoyable science fiction.
*Also, sorry, yes, this is a series, not a single book, but “Thirteen Books I Read in 2022 That Helped Me Think About Our Future in Space” wouldn’t have been as catchy.
Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race, by Mary-Jane Rubenstein
This came out in November 2022, and my only regret is that I wasn’t able to read it while I was doing my own book research in 2020 and 2021. Rubenstein is a professor of Religion and Science in Society, and she draws fascinating lines between Christianity, American imperialism, and the emergence of the NewSpace industry. I especially liked the chapter on the rights of nonliving environments and what she calls “antimineralism”.
Books I’m Looking Forward to in 2023
Original Sin: Power, Technology and War in Outer Space by Bleddyn E. Bowen was released in the US on January 1, which means I’m probably reading it right now as you’re reading this post. Bowen is a space policy expert and I expect to learn a lot from this book about the history of military power in space and implications for the future.
Worlds Without End: Exoplanets, Habitability, and the Future of Humanity by Chris Impey will be out on April 11, and sounds like it’ll be a great update on the state of the field of exoplanets and astrobiology, with an emphasis on the search for habitable worlds.
Speaking of exoplanets, Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Universe by Phil Plait promises descriptions of what it would actually look like to stand on the surface of a planet in a stellar cluster or orbiting a red dwarf. It comes out April 18, and it sounds gorgeous.
And of course I’m excited for the release of two books I have coming out in 2023 (even though I’ve already read them):
Off-Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space, by me, will be out March 7, and will explore the ethical and human rights challenges of creating communities in space.
Reclaiming Space: Progressive and Multicultural Visions of Space Exploration is an anthology I co-edited with James S. J. Schwartz and Linda Billings, and includes 27 chapters from an amazing collection of contributors on topics from Afrofuturism to posthumanism. It’ll be out in late March.
What books are you looking forward to in 2023? What did you read in 2022 that got you thinking about how to build a better future for all of us, on Earth and in space? Let me know!