I'd be very happy never to see "manifest destiny" used again

theconversation.com/for-too-long...

Thank you for sharing Rami, and your comment!

Rami, you may be interested in reading and sharing our opinion piece below in The Conversation yesterday on this and changing the narrative around space (pinging @drspacejunk.bsky.social too!) bsky.app/profile/artc...

How we talk about outer space shapes the futures we imagine and build. Indigenous perspectives offer a better way forward. Out today: collaborative piece by myself and William Grant, promoted by the revival in rhetoric of space as the “manifest destiny” of the US. theconversation.com/for-too-long...

Good to be interviewed about plans to setup nuclear power reactors on the Moon by the US and China and Russia, and why we need int’l cooperation rather than launching global rivalries and inequalities off-Earth: www.news.com.au/technology/s... @anuregnet.bsky.social @acsg.bsky.social

Yesterday, when the page was live:

Lynch explores another chain reaction in ep 8: the atomic test unleashes Bob, seen as the show’s embodiment of evil. A golden orb containing Laura Palmer is then released in response to this, seemingly reflecting the need to balance good & evil and the power of tech to give rise to both outcomes

This test, that occurred a month before Hiroshima, reminds us of the devastation & destruction that followed, particularly since it is set to Krzysztof Penderecki’s Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima. Worth reading a great article by Reba Wissner on the use of this powerful musical piece here.

Let’s look at Twin Peaks: The Return. In ep 8, we’re taken back to 16 July 1945 in White Sands, New Mexico, to witness the first atomic bomb test from the Manhattan Project. We approach the mushroom cloud from afar, then enter it, where the frenetic imagery seems to evoke a nuclear chain reaction

As a #DavidLynch fan and someone interested in how we come to understand tech via pop culture, Lynch’s use of the atomic age to comment on the told & untold consequences of tech, and how tech reflects humanity’s power to both create & destroy is worthy of attention as many reflect on his work 🧵

Great to see ICOMOS and the heritage community entering the conversation! Does cultural heritage also encompass intangible heritage on the lunar surface? Thinking about that important piece by Bawaka Country.

Announcement of the new UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies reminded me that the first resolution of the UN General Assembly in 1946 was on tech governance, in response to what was then the recent discovery of nuclear energy and the existential threat posed by nuclear weapons

United Nations starting the year with a new Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies. Mandate to implement the Global Digital Compact from last year’s Summit of the Future. GDC centres tech for the benefit of all, with a focus on digital cooperation, and AI and data governance to achieve this.

Congratulations to Tate and his new post-doc! 🎉

Since I wrote this in Oct on the need for opening dialogue on space governance between the US-led Artemis and China-led ILRS frameworks, Thailand has just become the first nation to join both. Interesting to see if any others follow now this ‘first’ has occurred. theconversation.com/space-isnt-a...

I'm glad he's happy!! But not only is that metric Not a Thing - if the COPUOS definition of 'consensus' was 'a 51% majority', it would be a *very* different room.

And, even if we did go by that metric, only 48 Artemis signatories are COPUOS members - and Liechtenstein is not one of them.

‘Space mainstreaming’ - what is it and why it matters to advancing national priorities. My latest policy piece published by @acsg.bsky.social proposes this new concept to better integrate considerations of space tech’s benefits and risks across govt policy-making spacegovcentre.org/_files/ugd/e...