Introduction 1

Manifesto of the Committee to Abolish Outer

Space 5
Sam Kriss

The Conquest of Space in the Time of Power 17

Eduardo Rothe

The Space NDN's Star Map 23

Lindsey Catherine Cornum

An Illegalist Space Program in Four Parts 36

anonymous

Mars First! 43
Don LaCoss

Connecting to Place in the Land of the Lost:

Questions for the Nomadic
Wanderers in All of Us 55
Sal Insieme

Our Generation Ships Will Sink 74

Kim Stanley Robinson
Published by Aragorn Moser
Layout by Leona Benton
Printed at "The Compound"
1818 Carleton St. Berkeley, CA 94703-1908
 Is Space the Place? No

We have been confused by science fiction. Fiction

in general lies to us, persuading us that princesses
can be saved, that endings are happy, conflict can
be resolved in an hour, and stories end on the last
page. This is not the case: stories go on, endings
are usually permanent, conflict lingers in con­
fusing and contradictory ways, and princesses . . .

They have their own plans . As for the fiction that

is science fiction, its particular lie is to convince
us that that something totally different is ours for
the taking. There need be no transition, no con­
text, no politics, no compromise, just a blink of
an eye and we are there. Pure imagination. It is
the motivational speaker, the preacher, promising
that all we have to do is believe.
There is a huge gap between the fantasy of
science fiction and the reality, not just logistical
but existential, of traveling to, living at, and mak­
ing a new home on another planet. There is some­
thing both escapist and Marxist about the idea
that merely putting ourselves into new material
situations will make us different, better people.
Instead of playing with the toys that might get
our bodies into another gravity well, we would
do well for ourselves to confront whether our
heads are capable of being elsewhere. How will
we keep from replicating the society we live in
now? Is that even on the agenda of companies
like Space X or proj ects like Mars One? Those
projects seem to be about toys, reality TV stars,
and a strange story about how the Military Indus­
trial Complex owned space travel before it even
began.
Precious metal extraction, advanced chemis­
try, metallurgy, physics, and industrial-scale pro­
duction are among the ecological tragedies that
are necessary to leave the earth. Science fiction
has few conversations about how much resource
extraction we should (or can) do for fantastic pur­
pose. So few words about fairness, balance, jus­
tice, or why (or how) we have created a place so
toxic that we feel the need to leave.
Science fiction itself has been known to
raise the question of too much information. Fred­
ric Brown's short story "The Weapon" is a case in
point. While to speak of this is controversial in a
culture that values knowledge as the tool of liber­
ation, there is something to be said for embracing
limitation. While some argue that extreme power
(the power to destroy the world) should only be
in the hands of reliable, trustworthy people, as
anarchists we know that power corrupts, and one
response is to limit the power that any of us have.
Pushing the button is not something that should
be wrestled with every day: no amount of bureau­
cratic protection keeps accidents from happening
or could save the lives of the people ruined by the
 3

stress o f the responsibility Pushing the button is

.

not something that should be possible.

No one can deny that new places do allow us
to think new things, but without confronting and
changing the things that make us want to leave
here in the first place, we will merely be trailing
the worst kind of pollution throughout our pre­
sumed refuge/escape.
There is an argument that progress has been
a story of the consequences of human behavior
getting more and more dire, that the terrain of
our actions has only gotten bigger and the con­
sequences of our actions only more decisively
lethal to more and more life. Will we only stop
when we can destroy galaxies? How far can our
destructive reach actually get before we pause
and look at ourselves?
The answer to the question posed must be
obvious to anyone, at this point. Is space the place
for our dreams to run free, for our lives to finally
gain the kind of significance and leeway that pre­
vious generations have taken for granted? No !
Manifesto of the Committee
to Abolish Outer Space

There's nothing there already.

We have been lied to, subjected to a cruel and
chilly lie, one so vast and total it's no longer
fully perceivable but has turned into the unseen
substrate of everyday life. It's a political lie.
They told us that outer space is beautiful.
They showed us nebulae, big pink and blue
clouds draped in braids of purple stars, always
resolving themselves at the pace of cosmic infin­
ity into genital forms, cocks and cunts light years
wide. They superimposed puddle-thin quotes
over these pictures, so that the galaxies could
speak to you in the depths of your loneliness,
whispering from across a trackless infinity that
you' re so much better than everyone else, be­
cause you fucking love science. The words are
lies, the colors are lies, the nebulae are lies. These
images are collated and pigmented by computers;
they' re not a scene you could ever see out the
porthole of your spaceship. Space isn't even ugly;
it isn't anything. It's a dead black void scattered
with a few grey rocks, and they crash into each
other according to a precise mathematical sense­
lessness until all that's left is dust.
Schopenhauer said that we live in the worst
of all possible worlds. As ever, he thought he was
being far more pessimistic than he actually was.
If things were any worse than they are, he wrote,
the universe would be impossible; it would
collapse into a state of total emptiness and decay.
In his cheery sun-soaked self-delusion he didn't
seem to consider that the world is not possible
and never was, that this fall into nothing has
already happened.
It's now known that our era, the stelliferous
era of galaxies and stars and colorful nebulae that
don't really exist, is vanishingly short. This
whole stupid dance will last for, at most, a few
trillion years; it was winding down as soon as it
started. After that, after the stars have faded and
the planets have all fallen from their orbits, there
will only be black holes, and even these will
decay over time. For unimaginable eons there
will only be a few scattered particles sailing
across a total void. If two happen to meet, a single
positronium atom might form, float briefly, and
decay again, and this single atom might be the
first thing to happen in the entire universe for
millions of years. This is where we're all headed­
in the grand scale of things we ' re already there-­
and it will go on for so long that the age of light
and warmth and stars and trees and people will
seem like a brief flash around the time of the Big
Bang. Already, in the short time since
Schopenhauer, the entropic rot has spread, the
 1

uniformity, the blanketing, the pollination, the

strewing of electronic debris across the void, the
people on the moon, the tin-can probes on Mars
and Venus and comets.
The Committee to Abolish Outer Space
(C.A.0. S.) does not despair at all this. We do not
hate outer space, because it's impossible to hate
something that doesn't exist. When the universe
is already in the process of unmaking itself, when
this unmaking of itself is the first condition and
the final truth of its unreal existence, abolishing it
means something very different from destroying
it. Our slogans are short and rousing ("Fuck the
moon!"), but we intend to abolish outer space out
of love.
****

You can float in gravity, if you know how to navi­

gate the tiny eddies of air, divine the nanocur­
rents, become as weightless as a dandelion seed.
C.A. O . S . travels the world on light summer
breezes; this is how we watch our enemies. Some
of us burned to nothing in the fires of space-shut­
tle launch pads, some of us were battered to death
trying to wrest Galileo 's telescope from his hands.
The unluckiest of us were sent to Texas, to spy on
the 1 7th annual convention of the International
Mars Society.
What will Mars look like in ten years, fifty, a
hundred, five hundred? It's a question that breeds
monsters. Maybe domed cities, maybe tidy spa
resorts on the shores of the Hellas basin. Or there
could be dark and vast robots there, colossi
wreathed in smoke and fire striding across the
planet's surface, digging deep scars into the rock
with metal jaws, stripping out the useful minerals
and burning the rest in an atomic blaze. We might
see the streaming furrows of a dust storm on the
horizon, while the last colonist gnaws at the
bones of her fellow adventurers, driven mad by
that tiny dot in the night sky that was once her
home. The whole thing might have been blasted
into fragments and melted down for slag. Still,
the worst outcome might be for Mars to end up
looking like the area around Clear Lake, south of
Houston, the site of NASA's Johnson Space
Center, where our planet faintly touches the blank
idiocy of outer space. This is where they held
their convention; this is where we flew; this is
why we were forced to write this manifesto.
Nobody should be surprised that there's an
international conference dedicated to promoting
human settlement of Mars. Evil has always been
with us. What shocks us is the extent to which this
ugly and stupid idea has been absorbed into soci­
ety, twisting itself into a positive inevitability.
Much of the blame for this must go to Robert Zu­
brin's book The Case for Mars. The colonization
movement brings together people of all back­
grounds, disciplines, and psychoses (one talk at
the convention advocated "Marscoin: a crypto-
 currency exploring private funding to bootstrap
space colonization," another proposed a space­
ship powered by black holes that could reach
Mars orbit in 60 minutes and the Andromeda gal­
axy in 20 hours)-but they share this one scrip­
ture. Just mentioning Zubrin's book at a conven­
tion panel was enough to prompt spontaneous,
raptured applause. Our movement has never had a
single founding text, until this manifesto: We de­
spise all singularities. To show why, it's sadly
necessary to read the Bible of our enemies.
It's a strange and unnerving text. Despite the
title, most of the work isn't so much a case for
Mars as a pedantic argument for the feasibility of
Zubrin's own Mars Direct program. Only in the
final chapters does something like a reason why
we should want to go to Mars emerge: Space
colonization should be read as an exact analogue
to Christopher Columbus's . pillage of the
Americas. (Columbus is mentioned four times in
the book, Marx only once; this is always a bad
sign.) By opening up the Americas to settlement,
Columbus created something new and unique
called "Western humanist civilization." Out of
stifling feudal ignorance grew a society in which
"human life and human rights are held precious
beyond price," a world of restless dynamism
where scientific innovation is upheld and every
effort is made to improve the quality of life for all.
This society depends for its existence on the
presence of a frontier, a blank homogeneous
space to be settled and transformed by the desires
and fantasies of an entrepreneurial libidinality,
one whose open freedom can't help but transform
in tum those settled societies back East. The old
frontier has been closed for a long time, and the
results are clear to see: "the spread of irrationalism;
the banalization of popular culture; the loss of
willingness by individuals to take risks, to fend
for themselves or think for themselves." Our
manly vigor has been sapped, but we can regain
it if we take a new lover. We must inseminate
Mars.
Already in this argument you can smell the
blood and slaughter, feel the slow tugging
dispersal that leads to an utterly empty world.
Our uniquely enlightened society in which human
life is valued beyond measure could only achieve
this feat through the free labor of tens of millions
of slaves. That blank gaping frontier was,
inconveniently, also someone 's home; tens of
millions more had to be brutally exterminated.
Still, Mars is different, Mars is lifeless. (They
think. Its underground oceans could hide giant
pale sea-monsters, their kindly faces arranged on
rotationally symmetrical tentacles; extremophile
prokaryotes could form a dispersed consciousness
that thinks its slow thoughts in the fading heat of
a molten core, that rocky face could open its
mouth and howl at the colonists ' approach.) But
 11

even if they' re right, and even if all of us on Earth

represent the Europeans in this farcical historical
mimesis, the outlook still doesn't look so great.
Every struggle against oppression is at heart
a revulsion toward space. Once the members of
our Committee stood on the barricades of cities
under siege, framed by smoke and halberds; we
died fighting those who would tum homes and
communes into empty space. We know that
Europe in the period around contact with the
Americas wasn't a cloistered prison crying out
for a frontier, it was alive with revolt. When
Columbus disappeared into the Atlantic, the
Spanish throne was struggling to put down a
peasant army of the pagesos de remem;a; similar
fires were burning all across the continent. It was
always a matter of orientation toward the future:
Whether we were Cabochiens in Paris or
Anabaptists in Munster, our call was for common
property and the abolition of class society. Often
it worked. By the end of the 1 5th century,
feudalism was dying, while workers, peasants
and artisans had higher wages and a higher
standard of living than ever before. In response
the ruling classes, unable to extract enough of a
surplus from the restive peasants to reproduce
their society, conquered the Americas.
The vast quantities of precious metals
shipped back over the Atlantic were a means of
social repression. They overturned the economy,
leading to massive inflation, skyrocketing grain
prices, a collapse in real wages that wasn't
recovered until the 19th century, an enclosure of
common property that has still never been
reclaimed, and formed the seed of what would
become industrial capitalism. The opening of the
American frontier wasn't an opening onto the
future but a foreclosing of it, a desperate attempt
to save the ruling class that has prevented any
significant reorganization of society, prevented
any future, right up until the present.
It's a truism that capitalism never solves its
problems but only moves them around. Finally
it's running out of space. The conditions necessary
not only for social but biological life are being
eroded. It's running out of minerals; it's running
out of value (the amount of debt on the planet
now exceeds the total value of everything on
Earth). And all this is accompanied by ghastly
mocking nebulae and the idea that the greatest
possible course of action for humanity is for us to
go about exploring the galaxy, turning void into
value, giving capital an infinite field in which to
work its sinister magic.
We should be very afraid. In outer space
there is no relation to nature, only antagonism.
We think the world is being treated carelessly
now; we haven't seen anything yet. As Silvia
Federici showed, the process of primitive
accumulation took place not only across the
 13

ravaged terrain of the Americas but across the

territory of the female body, using technologies
of power acquired through colonial conquest.
Any new capitalist feeding frenzy will bring with
it not only immiseration and slavery but new
techniques of discipline, unimaginable today but
perhaps not unlike those claws that will drag
mineral-rich asteroids into the waiting maws of
the machines. Marx wrote that "capital comes
dripping from head to toe, from every pore, with
blood and dirt." In the first phase of primitive
accumulation it arose as a monster out of the
stolen earth. What new tentacled horrors could
arrive from the dead blackness of outer space?
****

The Committee to Abolish Outer Space has ex­

isted for a long time-possibly forever. The
movements we founded over the centuries had
different names and different leaders, but all of
them were in some way part of our war against
the stars. Only now are we making ourselves
public-behind frail masks-because the danger
is almost upon us. For all our great age and our
knowledge of certain secrets, we are not power­
ful. We are few, and hunted, and scared, but in
our weakness we will conquer. C.A.O.S . sets out
these five guiding principles:

1 Humanity will never colonize Mars, never

build moon bases, never rearrange the
 asteroids, never build a sphere around the
sun.
2 There will never be faster-than-light travel.
We will not roam across the galaxy. We
will not escape our star.
3 Life is probably an entirely unexceptional
phenomenon; the universe probably teems
with it. We will never make contact. We
will never fuck green-skinned alien babes.
4 The human race will live and die on this rock,
and after we are gone something else will
take our place. Maybe it already has,
without our even noticing.
5 All this is good. This is a good thing.

We have a program, closely guarded through the

centuries. At one time it was the hidden book of
the Sumerian heresiarchs, later the mystics of Eu­
rope were dimly aware of it as the Holy Grail:

1 First we will abolish the moon, that smug

sack of shit in the sky, our constant
condescending stalker. This should be the
easiest step: People have set foot on its
surface, and come back, and eventually
they stopped going there; they realized
how utterly dull it is.
2 Next we will overthrow the fascist institution
of the sun, finally achieving the dream of
 15

all great revolutionary movements in

history.
3 We will disestablish the planets, one by one,
leaving them to vanish with Pluto into
death. We will sweep up the dusty
nebulae, plug up the black holes, drink up
the Milky Way, tear down the Great Wall
brick by brick.
4 Comets, asteroids, space dust, quantum foam:
no more.
5 Finally, when our victory is almost complete,
we will abolish low earth orbit, the black
depths of the oceans, the wildernesses of
the poles, the pulsing core of the human
psyche.

We said earlier that for us to abolish something

does not mean to destroy it. Once the cosmos was
thought to be painted on the veil of the firmament,
or to be some kind of divine metaphor, a flatness
inscribed with thousands of meaningful stories.
Since then it's become outer space, a grotesque
emptiness. Space is a site of desecration, an emp­
tiness in which one moves, and moving into
space means closing down any chances for Earth.
C.A. O . S . is not interested in setting up limits. We
want to create a future, not one of tin cans dodg­
ing rocks in a void, but a future for human life. To
do this we must abolish outer space with all its
death and idiocy, and return the cosmos to its
proper domain, which is mythology, so that when
we look up it will be in fear and wonder, and the
knowledge that we live in a world that is not pos­
sible.
Join us. There's no need to find us; we will find
you. One morning you might step outside to find
a tiny bird staring at you intently from the shiver­
ing bones of a midwinter tree, or a drab curtain of
rain creeping slowly from the end of your street.
Maybe the bodies on a crowded train will sud­
denly release the smell of damp cool caves, may­
be thin strands of grass will sprout from the
cracks in your tile grouting. Maybe, with increas­
ing regularity, you' ll start to see our initials on
walls and underpasses, not spray-painted, but
emerging from the patterns of ripped fliers and
mossy stains. Whatever it is, you' ll know. In a
movement as strange and senseless as the spin­
ning of the stars, you will have been elected to
j oin the Committee to Abolish Outer Space.

Sam Kriss
 11

The Conquest of Space in

the Time of Power

1
Science in the seivice of capital, the commodity
and the spectacle is nothing other than capital­
ized knowledge, fetishism of idea and method,
alienated image o f human thought. Pseudogreat­
ness of man, its passive knowledge of a mediocre
reality is the magical justification of a race of
slaves.

2
It has been a long time since the power of knowl­
edge has been transformed into power 's knowl­
edge. Contemporary science, experimental heir of
the religion of the Middle Ages, fulfills the same
functions in relation to the present class society: it
compensates for people's everyday stupidity with
its eternal specialist intelligence. Science sings in
numerals of the grandeur of the human race, but it
is in fact nothing other than the organized sum of
man's limitations and alienations.

3
Just as industry, which was intended to free peo­
ple from work through machinery, has so far
done nothing but alienate them in the work of the
machines, so science, which was intended to free
people historically and rationally from nature,
has done nothing but alienate them in an irratio­
nal and antihistorical society. Mercenary of sepa­
rate thought, science works for survival and
therefore cannot conceive of life except as a me­
chanical or moral formula. It does not conceive
of man as subject, nor of human thought as action,
and it is for this reason that it does not compre­
hend history as deliberate activity and makes
people "patient(s)" in its hospitals.

4
Founded on the essential deceptiveness of its
function, science can only lie to itself. Its preten­
tious mercenaries have preserved from their an­
cestor priests the taste and need for mystery. A
dynamic element in the justification of states, the
scientific profession j ealously guards the laws of
its guild and the "Machina ex Dea" secrets that
make it a despicable sect. It is hardly surprising,
for example, that doctors - those repairmen of
labor-power - have illegible handwriting: it is
part of the police code of monopolized survival.

5
But if the historical and ideological identification
of science with temporal powers clearly reveals
that it is a servant of states, and therefore fools no
one, it was not until our own time that the last
 1�

separations disappeared between class society

and a science that had professed to be neutral and
"at the service of humanity." The present impossi­
bility of scientific research and application with­
out enormous means has effectively placed spec­
tacularly concentrated knowledge in the hands of
the ruling powers and has steered it toward statist
objectives. There is no longer any science that is
not in the service of the economy, the military and
ideology. And the science of ideology reveals its
other side, the ideology of science.

6
Power, which cannot tolerate a vacuum, has nev­
er forgiven the celestial regions for being terrains
left open to the imagination. Since the origin of
class society the unreal source of separate power
has always been placed in the skies. When the
state justified itself religiously, heaven was in­
cluded in the time of religion; now that the state
wishes to justify itself scientifically, the sky is in
the space of science. From Galileo to Werner von
Braun, it is nothing but a question of state ideol­
ogy: religio n wished to preserve its time, there­
fore no one was allowed to tamper with its space.
Faced with the impossibility of prolonging its
time, power must make its space boundless.

7
If the heart transplant is still a crude artisan tech-
nique that does not make people forget science's
chemical and nuclear massacres, the "Conquest
of the Cosmos" is the greatest spectacular expres­
sion of scientific oppression. The space scientist
is to the smalltime doctor what Interpol is to the
policeman on the beat.

8
The heaven formerly promised by priests in black
cassocks is now really being seized by white-uni­
formed astronauts. Sexless and superbureaucra­
tized neuters, the first men to go beyond the atmo­
sphere are the stars of a spectacle that hangs over
our heads day and night, that can conquer tem­
perature and distance, and that oppresses us from
above like the cosmic dust of God. As an example
of survival in its highest manifestation, the astro­
nauts make an unintentional critique of the Earth:
condemned to an orbital traj ectory-in order to
avoid dying from cold and hunger-they submis­
sively ("for technical reasons") accept the bore­
dom and poverty of being satellites. Inhabitants of
an urbanism of necessity in their cabins, prisoners
of scientific gadgetry, they exemplify in vitro the
plight of their contemporaries : in spite of their
distance they do not escape the designs of power.
Flying billboards, the astronauts float in space or
leap about on the moon in order to make people
march to the time of work.
 21

9
And if the Christian astronauts of the West and
the bureaucratic cosmonauts of the East amuse
themselves with metaphysics and secular morals
(Gagarin "did not see God"; Borman prayed for
the little Earth), it is in obedience to their spatial
"assignment," which must be the essence of their
religion; as with Saint-Exupery, who spoke the
lowest imbecilities from high altitudes, but whose
essence lay in his threefold role of militarist, pa­
triot and idiot.
10
The conquest of space is part of the planetary hope
of an economic system which, saturated with com­
modities, spectacles, and power, ejaculates into
space when it arrives at the end of the noose of its
terrestrial contradictions. Functioning as a new
"America," space must serve the states as a new
territory for wars and colonies-a new territory to
send producer-consumers and thus enable the sys­
tem to break out of the planet's limitations. Prov­
ince of accumulation, space is destined to become
an accumulation of provinces-for which laws,
treaties and international tribunals already exist. A
new Yalta, the dividing of space shows the inabil­
ity of capitalists and bureaucrats to resolve their
antagonisms and struggles here on Earth.

11
But the revolutionary old mole, which is now
gnawing at the foundations of the system, will
destroy the barriers that separate science from the
general knowledge that will be accessible to ev­
eryone when people finally begin making their
own history. No more ideas of separate power, no
more power of separate ideas. Generalized self­
management of the permanent transformation of
the world by the masses will make science a ba­
sic banality, and no longer a truth of state.

12
Humanity will enter into space to make the uni­
verse the playground of the last revolt: the revolt
that will go against the limitations imposed by
nature. Once the walls have been smashed that
now separate people from science, the conquest
of space will no longer be an economic or mili­
tary "promotional" gimmick, but the blossoming
of human freedoms and fulfillments, attained by
a race of gods. We will not enter into space as
employees of an astronautic administration or as
"volunteers" of a state project, but as masters
without slaves reviewing their domains : the en­
tire universe pillaged for the workers councils.

Eduardo Rothe

This is a direct reprint from Ken Knabb's excellent website

http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/12.space.htm
The Space NDN's Star Map

The creation story is a spaceship

The first time I saw a space NDN was in The 6th
World, a short film by Dine director Nanobah
Becker that extends the Dine creation story into
outer space, where humanity's future is made
possible through ancestral corn crops on Mars.
The movie was released in 2012, the same year
Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous
Science Fiction was published, the first-ever
anthology of its kind. This was the official
inauguration of indigenous futurism. The
movement is in part about speaking back to the
SF genre, which has long used indigenous
subjects as the foils to stories of white space
explorers hungry to conquer new worlds. Given
these continuously re-hashed narratives of "the
final frontier," it is no coincidence that western
science fiction developed during a time of
imperial and capitalist expansion.
Science/speculative fiction author Nalo
Hopkinson, known for her use of creole languages
and Caribbean oral stories in her works, writes
that people of color engaging with SF "take the
meme of colonizing the natives and, from the
 experience of the colonizee, critique it, pervert it,
fuck with it, with irony, with anger, with humor
and also, with love and respect for the genre of
science fiction that makes it possible to think
about new ways of doing things." Perhaps
because science fiction is so prone to reproducing
colonial desires it has become seductive to the
"colonizee" who finds pleasure and power in
reversing the telescope's gaze of who is exploring
whom. This reversal is no mere trick, though. It is
a profound deconstruction of how we imagine
time, progress, and who is worthy of the future.
Following in the rocket trails of black
authors such as Hopkinson, the space NDN is
also in a long tradition of NDN interstellar
exploration, using technologies such as creation
stories and ceremony as her means of travel. For
some, she is a startling and unsettling figure. As
Philip Deloria argues in Indians in Unexpected
Places, settlers are upset and confused when the
seemingly contrasting symbolic systems of
indigeneity and high-tech modernity are put in
dialogue, as demonstrated in the shocked
reactions to a 1904 photograph of Geronimo in a
Cadillac. This estrangement arises from "a long
tradition that has tended to separate Indian people
from the contemporary world and from
recognition of the possibility of Indian autonomy
in the world." In the colonial imaginary,
indigenous life is not only separate from the
 25

present time but also out of place in the future, a

time defined by the progress of distinctively
western technology. If colonial society cannot
accept Geronimo in a Cadillac, it can hardly
conceive of him in a space ship.
The Indian in space seeks to feel at home, to
undo her perceived strangeness by asking: why
can't indigenous peoples also project ourselves
among the stars? Might our collective visions of
the cosmos forge better relationships here on
earth and in the present than colonial visions of a
final frontier?
Many of the ideas deemed strange or new­
fangled in Western sci-ti come naturally to the
space NON. The all-pervasive "force" or similarly
the super brain connecting all beings. The
animism and agency of cyborgs, AI systems, and
other non-human people. Alternate dimensions
and understandings of non-linear time. These are
things the space NON knows intuitively. This is
not the future but historical knowledge. The
future is reclaiming these technologies not for
domination but for new organizations aimed at
better worlds. I am reminded of Octavia Butler's
words, "There is nothing new under the sun, but
there are new suns." Instead of imaging a future
in bleak cities made from steel and glass teeming
with alienated white masses shuffling under an
inescapable electronic glow, indigenous futurists
think of earthen space crafts helmed by black and
brown women with advanced knowledge of land,
plants, and language.
Indigenous futurism seeks to challenge
notions of what constitutes advanced technology
and consequently advanced civilizations. As
settler colonial governments continue to demand
more and more from the Earth, indigenous
peoples seek the sovereign space and freedom to
heal from these apocalyptic processes. Extractive
and exploitative endeavors are just one mark of
the settler death drive, which indigenous futurism
seeks to overcome by imagining different ways
of relating to notions of progress and civilization.
Advanced technologies are not finely tuned
mechanisms of endless destruction. Advanced
technologies should foster and improve human
relationships with the non-human world. In many
indigenous science fiction tales of the futures,
technology is presented as in dialogue with the
long traditions of the past, rather than representing
the past's overcoming.
In the recent iteration of the constantly re­
packaged tale of white men planting flags in space,
Interstellar's all-American space boy Matthew
McConaughey stares into the distance and
announces, "We are explorers, pioneers, not
caretakers." As if one cannot be both an explorer
and a caretaker . . . For the space NDN the two
roles are intertwined. The advanced technology of
the space NDN does not separate technical from
 21

natural knowledge. Technology is not divorced

from or forced upon land but develops in relation
to lands and the many beings land supports.
The space NDN's disavowal of western
progress makes clear the difference between
indigenous futurism and early 20th century forms
of futurism, which were compatible with the
interests of fascist and oppressive governments.
Unlike those futurists, who were in an antagonistic
relation with their literary and cultural
predecessors, indigenous futurism is centered on
bringing traditions to distant, future locations
rather than abandoning them as relics. Indigenous
futurism does not care for speed so much as
sustainability, not so much for progress as balance,
and not power but relation.

God is the Red Planet

For many the image of the Indian in space is
j arring not just because of the settler perception
of indigeneity as antithetical to high tech
modernity, but because Indian identity is tied so
directly to specific earthly territories. What
happens to indigeneity when the indigenous
subject is no longer in the location that has
defined them? This is not just a question of outer
space. Already the majority of Native people in
the US and Canada live in cities away from their
traditional territories. Of course at one point these
places would also have been viewed as indigenous
territories. While many nations have worked very
hard to dispel the notion of nomadic Indian tribes,
there is a history of movement among many of
our peoples. Colonial forms such as reserves,
reservations, nation-states and borders have
made these traditions of movement nearly
impossible. And the need to defend our rights to
live on our lands without harassment has created
the political necessity of claiming our land-based
political and cultural identities.
But land-based does not have to mean
landlocked. This insistence on indigenous people
having to always be located on or closely
connected to one particular area also erases those
who are unable to return to their traditional
territories, such as Mohawk women who are
kicked out of their tribe for marrying non-Mohawk
men or Afro-Indigenous people stolen from their
lands. There is also the simple fact that NDNS
may want to move around. There's an old cliche
that every Indian story is about going home. But
what about the Indians who can't go home, or
simply want to go away? I sometimes describe
myself as a diasporic Dine in order to bring the
often disparate ideas of indigeneity and movement
into closer proximity. Those we consider diasporic
are often violently robbed of their indigeneity and
those we consider indigenous are often on the
move. The space NDN looks into the void and
knows still who they are.
 2�

Nanobah Becker shot the Mars scenes in

The 6th World in Monument Valley, one of the
sacred territories of the Dine. The red rock
canyons and cliffs make a convincing Martian
backdrop. They also offer a symbol of dynamic
sacredness. These distant lands are connected.
Just because the Dine have not lived on Mars
since time immemorial, it does not mean our
plants and teachings cannot take root there. I am
reminded of the time before a ceremony on a
college campus when we washed our hands in a
drinking fountain. I am reminded of B etonie, the
medicine man in Leslie Marmon Silko 's novel
Ceremony, who makes medicine bundles from
trash heaps. I am reminded of pow-wow regalia
ornamented with semiconductors. I am reminded
of the descendants of slaves telling and re-telling
their stories on new, bloody ground. Finding
ourselves in new contexts, we are always adapting,
always surviving. This is the seed of many
indigenous technologies: the ability to continue
and sustain ourselves against all odds.
The challenge of the space NDN is how to
apply knowledge of the worlds toward non­
destructive ends. Any form of travel or exploration
comes with the dangers of exploitation and
upheaval. Nobody knows this better than the
inhabitants of those places constantly divvied up
between colonial nation-states. The figure of the
space NDN is not an attempt to simply put an
indigenous face on the outer space colonizer.
Indigenous futurist narratives try to enact contact
differently. Not all encounters with the other
must end in conquest, genocide or violence. The
space NDN seeks new models of interaction. We
do not travel to the distant reaches of space in
order to plant our flags or act under the assumption
that every planet in our sights is a terra nullius
waiting for the first human footprint to mark its
surface. Robert Sullivan's poem "Star Waka"
captures the complexities of indigenous space
travel. Waka is the Maori term for a canoe and
Sullivan's epic poem relates the journey of this
star waka to outer planets to find new homes for
the Maori people. The crew of the ship wonder
how their prayers will work in the cold vastness
of the stars and how they can approach these
distant worlds in a good way. The Indian in space
does not abandon their home, their people, or
their teachings. Dynamic traditions, themselves a
type of advanced technology, help the space
NDN to understand how to foster the kind of
relationships that make futures possible.

All Our Interstellar Relations

For indigenous futurism, technology is inextrica­
ble from the social. Human societies are part of a
network of wider relationships with objects, ani­
mals, geological formations and so on. To grasp
our relationship with the non-human world here
 31

on Earth, we must also extend our understanding

of how Earth relates to the entirety of the cosmos.
We live on just one among millions of planets,
each an intricate and delicate system within a
larger, increasing complex structure. For the in­
digenous futurist endeavor, striving to understand
the ever-multiplying connections linking us to
the beginning of the universe and its constant ex­
pansion also entails unraveling the intricate rela­
tions that make up our Earthly existence.
Zainab Amadahy, who identifies as a person
of mixed black, Cherokee and European ancestry,
grounds her writing practice in illuminating and
understanding networks of relationships: "I
aspire to write in a way that views possible
alternatives through the lens of a relationship
framework, where I can demonstrate our
connectivity to and interdependence with each
other and the rest of our Relations. " Her 1992
novel The Moons of Palmares examines the
relationships, both harmful and collaborative,
between indigenous peoples and descendants of
slaves in an outer space setting that merges
histories of the Black Atlantic with the colonial
frontier. In a provocative bit of plotting, she casts
an indigenous character, Major Eaglefeather, as
an oppressive foreign force in the lives of an
outer space labor population that has shaped its
society in remembrance of black slave resistance
in North/South America and the Caribbean.
 The story follows Major Eaglefeather 's
decision to reject his ties to the corporate state
and support a rebel group of laborers. The name
Palmares is taken from a real-world settlement
founded by escaped slaves in 1 7th-century Brazil,
which is also known to have incorporated
indigenous peoples and some poor,
disenfranchised whites. In a chronicle written in
the late 1 7th century, these quilombos are
described as networks of settlements that lived
off the land and were supplemented by raids on
the slave plantations where the inhabitants were
formerly held. It is said that in Palmares the king
was called Gangasuma, a hybrid term meaning
"great lord" composed of the Angolan or Bandu
word ganga and the Tupi word assu. The word
succinctly captures the mixture of cultures that
banded together in Palmares to live together on
the margins of a colonialist, slave-holding society.
While Palmares was eventually destroyed in a
military campaign, it lives on as a legend of slave
rebellion and utopian possibility that Amadahy
finds well suited for her outer space story about
collaborative resistance to state power and
harmful resource extraction processes.
Outer space, perhaps because of its appeal
to our sense of endless possibility, has become
the imaginative site for re-envisioning how black,
indigenous and other oppressed people can relate
to each other outside of and despite the colonial
 33

gaze. Arnadahy's work is crucial for a critical

understanding of the space NDN. The space
NDN cannot allow him or herself to fall into the
patterns of domination and kyriarchy that have
for too long prevailed here on Earth as well as
speculative narratives of outer space. Afro futurists
have looked to space as the site for black
separatism and liberation. If the space NDN is
truly committed to being responsible to all our
relations, it is imperative for our futurist vision to
be in solidarity with and service to our fellow
Afrofuturist space travelers. Our collective
refu sal of colonial progress (namely, our
destruction) means we must chart other ways to
the future that lead us and other oppressed
peoples to the worlds we deserve.
The Moons of Palmares works toward this
end by revealing the strong connections between
indigenous and black histories, narratives and
ways of living. Indigenous futurism is indebted
to Afrofuturism: Both forms of futurism explore
spaces and times outside the control of colonial
powers and white supremacy. These alternative
conceptions of time reject the notion that all tra­
dition is regressive by narrating futures intimate­
ly connected to the past. SF and specifically the
site of outer space give writers and thinkers the
imaginative room to envision political and cul­
tural relationships and the future decolonizing
movements they might nourish. This focus on re-
lationship, especially as posited by Amadahy,
also accounts for those forms of indigeneity that
persist among peoples either stolen from their
lands or whose lands have been stolen from them.
As the writer Sydette Harry recently posted
on Twitter, "Black people are displaced indige­
nous people." However, because of the processes
of forced relocation and slavery and continuing
anti-black racism, black people are often denied
claims to indigeneity. There is also a pernicious
erasure of black NDNs in America and Canada.
In exploring outer space, black authors are also
able to assert their own relationship to land both
on Earth and in the cosmos. The Black Land Proj­
ect (BLP), while not an explicitly futurist organi­
zation, fosters the kind of relationships to land on
Earth that futurist authors and thinkers envision
in outer space. In a recent podcast, Blacktracking
through Afrofuturism, BLP founder and director
Mistinguette Smith discusses how walking over
the routes of the Underground Railroad brought
forth alternate dimensions and understandings of
time outside the settler paradigm of ownership.
These are aspects of relating to land that the Af­
rofuturist and the space NDN (identities which
can exist in the same person) bring with them on
their travels.
This focus on relationship rather than a strict
idea of location speaks to the way in which the
space NDN can remain secure in their indigenous
 35

identity even while rocketing through dark skies

far from their origins. This is not to demean the
work of land protectors and defenders who risk
serious repercussions for resisting corporate and
state encroachment on indigenous territories. The
space NDN supports those who are able and
choose to remain on the land, while also hoping
to broaden understandings of indigeneity outside
simple location. Locations of course are never
simple. It is the settler who wishes to flatten the
relation between place and people by claiming
land through ownership. Projecting themselves
forward into faraway lands and times, the space
NDN reveals the myriad ways of relating to land
beyond property.

Lindsey Catherine Cornum

An Illegalist Space Program
in Four Parts
science-to learn
communism-to share
nihilism-to begin
anarchism-to be

1. This is the Planet of Sadness.

(Nihilism-To Begin Again, Always.)
Fuck Earth. Industrial capitalism has put shoes
on all our feet, and now our toes are permanently
fucked up. Look it up. I was born in a domesticated
place, at the beginning of the end of American
hegemony. I was all tuned up to give an honest
try at revolution or liberation or whatever, and
then Occupy collapsed into it's obvious
conclusion. Prison support makes me want to
shoot myself, because I can never do enough, I
forget things, and I ' m just not ready to die for
people I haven't met yet. Primitivism is
embarrassing. I lived with some people who only
wore skins that they tanned, and stole bison meat
from Whole Foods. It smelled, and little kids
thought they were LARPing. The cops keep
shooting people. Perhaps in response, people
keep shooting themselves.
 37

I live out of my truck. I am not trying to save

the world. The world is constantly trying to save
me. The priests of science want to give me pills.
Patriarchy wants to get me laid. Racism wants to
give me a nice new house in Nairobi, and capital
wants to give me a j ob. It is funny to me that they
have all failed. The Earth is covered in humans
like ants, and they all drag their ideologies and
stupid tribal wars around like trophies. People of
every nationality and creed waste their breath try­
ing to push the Earth this way or that way, trying
to fake like there is some where to go. They have
nothing to push off of, no leverage. Would you
like to watch the last forests become toilet paper?
Would you like to contact and destroy the last in­
digenous tribes, to tell them "I 'm sorry, but we
figured out how to tum pig farts and air into fertil­
izer, and things got out of hand. Here's some fried
chicken and an eviction notice." I ' m not trying to
take over, save the world, and steal the bacon. I
just want to build a new world somewhere else.
I bought a $7 microscope at Good Will, and
a lOX loop with lights on it that make me look
like a mad scientist. I ' ve made whi s key. I don't
believe that rocket science is more difficult than
insurrection. Let's get the fuck out of here as
soon as possible. You' d be surprised to learn that
hippie dippy shit like ecosystem management
actually makes sense when you live in a built
environment. Theoretically, at least, it makes a
hell of alot more sense than what they do in the
I S S. We can probably make it work.
Are you seriously gonna sit back and let
fuckin Elon Musk tum Mars into a reality TV
show? Earth is a tiny blue dot covered in troubles,
and the endless wild universe isn't responding to
state sponsored attempts to communicate.
Perhaps aliens don 't know what to say when we
beam Kirn Kardashian and I Love Lucy into their
rnotherships. More importantly, space is SPACE.
Distance between you and the cops. Distance
between you and the church, the courts, the great
failure that is Terran society and all of its stupid
gravity. Instead of pounding the pud and waiting
to die, why don't we get our shit together and
make a break for it?

2. Learn to Direct Your Inner Napolean

(Communism-To Share)
Space exploration seems to cost an incredible
amount of money. However, anarchists have
some very important advantages over govern­
ment or corporate attempts to build a new Irnpe­
riurn. For one thing, what government does best
is launder money. They pay incredible salaries to
idiots just because some dipshit has a friend in
the DoJ or whatever. The Apollo missions had
the computational power of a student's calculater.
It's really just alot of hard work. I ' m teaching
myself calculus, and hope to shoot an lpod around
the world sometime in the next couple years. You
should join me. It'll be fun.
The other thing is that they really would
love it if we left. They' ll try to stop us for a little
while, but then they' ll get it in their head that
THE ANARCHISTS ARE LEAVING, and we ' ll
have all the funding we ' ll ever need. The
Pinkertons have been praying for it since the
1890s. That is, if we need funding at all. Maybe
we could just tell them we are leaving, and would
you please just fuck off while we do our thing?
Maybe we' ll have to twist some elbows on that
one. Eithor way, we start where we are.
Put down your beer, or crack a new one.
Pick up a book about Maslow's hierarchy of
needs, and start creating lists of materials
necessary to human life on Mars, on the Moon, or
in orbit. It is indeed a very long list. There is alot
to do. (A space program is the perfect front! )
Call your friends. Who knows how to weld?
Who's got the internet connection? Who 's got the
keys to the biology department? Fuck mink.
Liberate the electron microscopes. Who 's grows
weed? NASA did a study where they measured
gas exchange and plant growth given a controlled
amount of light, soil, and heat. They only studied
com, soy, wheat, potatoes, tomatoes, and lettuce.
If you want kale and avocados up there, you' ll
have to divert a grow light or two and figure it out
yourself.
 Tor is great and all, but pirate radio is still
using technology from the 80s. Where are the
pirate cell towers? Where is the pirate internet? I
heard some people in Germany want to launch
satellites to give everybody free internet. Better
them than Google, right? Why don't anarchists
build things that anarchists use? (bicycles,
vegetables, fireworks, X-Ray spectrometers) . . .
People recently released from prison need
shit to do, a place to . live, and a community that
supports them as they deal with getting out. We
can provide this kind of support by creating
spaces that double as labs, storage units, or
production facilities for everything from Stirling
engines to vermicompost. By starting from
nothing, and building up to a gigantic goal, we
can direct our hopelessness into something that
builds serious counter power in the process. A
space program is an excuse to do anything. Who
cares if we succeed? At least we blew up the shed,
and feel like we learned something !
Do you feel me? This endless TV show
sucks. We are steadily salting the only known soil
in the universe. We are trapped here with billions
of desperate lunatics and megalomaniacal
sociopaths. You wanna save the Earth? Leave it.
You wanna build a better world? Do it. But not in
the shell of the old world. Not even in its shadow.
Space is the place, buddy.
Imagine a thousand asteroids hollowed out
 4-1

and squatted. Imagine a queer commune orbiting

Uranus. Imagine a million bickering communes
on Mars. Seed bombing the home planet with en­
dangered species. An endless opportunity for
failure and the occasional success. Imagine being
able to talk without worrying who 's listening.
Imagine free housing, free food, and chickens
learning to fly in zero gravity. Imagine the sky is
a great big blue window and it's breaking. News
paper boxes are falling from the sky and smash­
ing to pieces in the street. We can make it happen.
(A space program is an excuse to do anything ! )

3 . A Tight Rope Over the Void

(Science- Figure it out your damn self.)
I love my mama. However, I live with my friends.
If there are future generations of humans, they
will probably have drifted even farther from the
old tribalism, and less-old atomized family of our
time. To them, we will be dumb artifacts of his­
tory, like all the black-and-white people in Char­
lie Chaplin movies. What do we owe to the future,
if anything? What a stupid question! The future
will take everything we have, and everything we
have ever cared about will become nostalgia, then
shit, then dust. You've no more choice in this than
anybody else, so there 's no excuse to go grieving
about your loss. You didn't earn any of it in the
first place. All we can do is avoid blowing up the
spot for the little ones who come later on. Imagine
their chubby little cheeks, crying out, "Oh, papa!
Oh, mama! Why are you such fucking breeders?
Why must I eke by on this paved rock? Why must
I sell myself, my labor and my bl ood, to gain my
daily bread?" For crying out loud, can we get out
of here now? This whole place is a sleazy theater,
and the show is over, and it's time to go.
Let's gather our things and leave, we've got
better things to do then watch an empty stage.
Anything would be better than this. (A space
program is an excuse to do anything ! )

Coming Soon : A Thorough Analysis Of Materials and

Technologies Involved in The Production of HSOF
(High Standard of L iving) Extraterrestrial Habitats,
Utilizing Current ISR U (In Situ Resource Utilization)
Technologies and Disregard For International
Copyright and Patent Laws
Mars First!

The tighter that our humanity closes ranks to

conquer nature on Mars, the tighter the elements
close theirs to avenge the victory.
Aleksandr Malinovskii Bogdanov
Red Star (1908)

It's easy to laugh off the Bush-Cheney regime's

plans for "establishing an extended human
presence" on the Moon and Mars. "We will build
new ships to carry man forward into the universe,
to gain a new foothold on the Moon," said Bush,
a man who constantly fails to correctly pronounce
the word "nuclear" and whose own scientific
wisdom has had him publicly defending
creationist fairy tales over Darwinian evolutionary
theory. "We choose to explore space because
doing so improves our lives and lifts our national
spirit." Coming out of the mouth of such a
cowardly, belligerent, and proudly ignorant
obscurantist like Bush, talk of interplanetary
missions sounds as unbelievably silly as the
music on a Christian rock CD.
But the issue of Bush Administration's ten­
dency towards faith-based foreign policy deci­
sions and other deeply creepy manifestations of
conservative Judea-Christian supernaturalism is
reason enough to take this ninnyhammer's threat
to the lunar and Martian wilderness very seriously.
Take note, for instance, of how Bush concluded
his NASA talk : "Let us continue the j ourney. May
God bless." Compare this to Bush's remarks at
the memorial for the space shuttle crew killed
when the Columbia blew up while coming in for a
landing in February 2003 - Bush quoted from
the ranting, spittle-flecked Old Testament prophet
Isaiah, adding "The same Creator who names the
stars also knows the names of the seven souls we
mourn today. The crew of the shuttle Columbia
did not return safely to Earth; yet we can pray that
all are safely home." Ah yes, once again the fetid
illusion of Divine Providence has been conjured
up; like the fifteenth-century Portuguese Catholic
explorers who built a huge crucifix on an estuary
of the Congo River before inaugurating the slave
trade, and the crazed, paranoid Puritans who mur­
derously came to North America on the Mayflow­
er, the miserabilist God and His pox-ridden bless­
ings which have consistently ruined environments
and ecologies in every corner of the world will be
expected on board Bush's armada to Mars.
Christianity, of course, is at least as befouling
to wild regions as soiled, disposable diapers in a
landfill that was once a forest glade, choking
clouds of carbon monoxide smog in the summer
wind, and wretched, stagnant pools of Superfund­
ready water. The religious pollution of outer space
 lf5

by the US military and defense industry has been

going on for decades, beginning on December 24,
1968 when the astronauts aboard Apollo 8 took
tams reading from die Bible in worldwide
broadcasts as their capsule entered lunar orbit.
Even more horrifying, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz
Aldrin self-administered Holy Communion before
making his "one small step" into the Sea of
Tranquility in late July 1969. Astronaut-turned­
evangelical minister James Irwin described his
1971 moonwalk as a revelation of "the power of
God"; astronaut Charles Duke returned from the
Moon to become a Christian missionary, and
frequently sermonized about "walking on the
Moon and walking with the Son."
The regularly-scheduled space shuttle
missions over the last decade seemed to have led
to a renaissance of monotheistic mumbo-jumbo.
Astronaut Tammy Jernigan talked about her blind
Christian faith during a live broadcast from
aboard the shuttle in 1995; likewise, Shannon
Lucid, the daughter of missionaries, took sermons
with her on the shuttle to the Russian space
station Mir and reportedly held daily Bible
studies with the cosmonauts. Senator and
Presbyterian Church elder John Glenn, who went
back into space on the shuttle in 1998 at age 77,
said during an in-orbit space capsule news
conference that he prays every day and warned
that "everybody should."
 The space shuttle m1ss10ns have also
inspired some especially grotesque outbursts of
military-industrial theology. USAF Colonel
Jeffrey Williams had a six-hour space walk while
flying with the Atlantis shuttle in May 2000, and
he has since repeatedly explained that deploying
top secret military spy satellites while being
suspended four hundred miles above the Earth's
surface helped him to see how "we are all an
infinitesimal speck in light of the Creator
Himself. " This realization "amplified my belief
in the Creator," he crowed, and it led liim to
conclude that "apart from Christ, we are
insignificant." As for the search for extraterrestrial
life-forms, Williams says that his "gut feeling
based on studying the Scripture is to doubt the
existence of life elsewhere, as Earth and mankind
are described in God's revelation."

Columbia's God Squad

Most recently and most egregiously, God was the
copilot for the crew aboard the doomed space
shuttle Columbia. After the spectacular Colum­
bia explosion spewed debris over a wide swath of
Texas and the southeastern US, one major mass­
media conglomerate put a remarkably bizarre
story out over its newswire about how the dead
crew members could be linked to "an extraordi­
nary variety of faith traditions" ("extraordinary"
in this case meaning five different flavors of
 '+1

Christianity, one Jew, and a conservative Hindu

Sikh). Shuttle commander Rick Husband was a
fanatical Charismatic evangelical Protestant who
had been active in a small church in Texas. In a
video that Husband recorded for the congregation
before the fatal flight, he had declared that his
achievements in space were possible "only in
America" and "only by the grace of God." Hus­
band had failed the NASA physical exam four
times before he was accepted into the shuttle pro­
gram; during that time, he said, he dedicated him­
self to "learning what it's like to live life as a
Christian, the way God would want us to live."
When h e signed autographs for space shuttle
groupies, he would also add quotes from his fa­
vorite Biblical verses. Husband had left a note
with his church's reverend to be opened in the
event of his death aboard the shuttle that instruct­
ed the minister to "Tell them about Jesus. He
means everything to me." He was remembered as
"a model church member" who sang in the choir
and who even went as far as to offer to donate his
vintage Camara to the church building fund.
Also among the dead was a Roman Catholic,
an Episcopalian, and a relatively godless Unitar­
ian Universalist Columbia's science officer, as it
turns out, was a Baptist; after the explosion, his
father was certain that his vaporized son was "in
a better place than where he would be on Earth."
And then there was Israeli Defense Force Colonel
Ilan Ramon, another godly celebrity killed aboard
the Columbia. Ramon was the State of Israel's
first astronaut who kept kosher while in orbit and
brought Holocaust relics with him into space, in­
cluding a Torah that had been used at a concen­
tration camp Bar Mitzvah and children's art from
Auschwitz. He prayed aloud when the shuttle's
orbit took him over Jerusalem.
But Islam was involved, too. The fact that
one of the towns below the Columbia explosion
was Palestine, TX was not lost on one of Lon­
don's most notorious extremist Muslim clerics,
Abu Hamza. "It is a punishment from God," Ham­
za railed, since Hinduism, Christianity, and Juda­
ism are
a trinity of evil against Islam. It is a strong
message for the Israeli. He spoke about
the Holocaust and tried to make some
religious advancement from outer space
and gain some moral high ground, hence
you have seen this message over Palestine.
Such revolting and empty-headed remarks
should serve as a warning of things to come if we
do not take steps to stop plans for the US's re­
newed extraterrestrial imperialist adventurism.
Are we going to stand by passively as the mad­
ness of monotheistic religious wars, witch hunts,
fundamentalist terrorism, genocide and concen­
tration camps are imported onto Luna, Mars, and
beyond? Isn't it enough that these military-indus-
trial-statist gangsters have already played golf
and erected a US flag on the Moon's surface?
Isn ' t that enough interplanetary poisoning and
humiliation for one civilization?
Mars and the star-fields of our galaxy are a
wilderness that must always remain uncivilized,
free territory. We should begin to adamantly resist
any and all attempts by corporate capitalists,
technocratic militarists, and dangerously
narcissistic statists to further their monstrous
plans to despoil and colonize celestial bodies.

Praise the Lord & Pass the Ammo

There can be no mistaking the putrefied stink of
US Christian triumphalism wafting from the
alarmingly pernicious project to militarize and
colonize outer space. The matrix of the overlap­
ping motivations of God, capital, and bombing
superiority are what frames the future objectives
of the US space program, and to not take seri­
ously consider the ramifications of such a patho­
logical perspective is a grave error. Most interna­
tional commentators sim y giggled and dis­
E
missed Bush's January 14 speech at NASA as
an election-year distraction designed to divert
attention away from the latest spastic convul­
sions of the terminally-ill capitalist market's
downward spiral. (Bush actually hailed US astro­
nauts as "spacial entrepreneurs" and openly in­
dulged in lusty flights of fancy about the Moon's
"abundant resources" of "raw materials" that will
one day "be harvested and processed"). Other
critics suggested that vainglorious visions of a
massive military-industrial operation to some
faraway place without a heavily-armed indige­
nous resistance movement might help Americans
to forget the daily follies and atrocities of the Af­
ghanistan and Iraq quagmires. But a few sharp­
eyed antimilitarists were quick to contextualize
the proposed Mars mission as a new, interplane­
tary Manifest Destiny that would include weap­
onizing outer space with a multi-layered "shield"
of Star Wars humbuggery and dangerously poi­
sonous nuclear-powered rocket engines.
Secretary of Offense Donald "Strangelove"
Rumsfeld and his Pentagon bully-boys have been
nursing on the undead fantasy of Reagan's
rayguns (and the flimsy pyramid schemes needed
to pay Big Business aerospace death merchants
for building them) for more than twenty years,
and a manned mission to Mars by the year 2020
coincides nicely with their own pet project, the
USAF Space Command's "Vision 2020" agenda.
As antimilitarist critics have pointed out, the
Space Command's ambitious, self-proclaimed
aims of "global vigilance, reach, and power," of
dominating "the space dimension of military
operations to protect US interests and investments"
and of integrating "Space Forces into warfighting
capabilities across a full spectrum of conflict" are
 51

congruent with the recent bureaucratic regime

change at NASA executed by a presidential
advisory "refocusing team" that recommended
that the agency be re-organized away from a
State-sponsored scientific-experimental
orientation towards privatized and even more
explicitly military-commercial ends.
In so many respects, the knotting together of
God, capital, and weaponry calls to mind count­
less other examples in human history when,
armed with missionaries and artillery cannons,
European and US military-commercial expedi­
tions "explored" and ruthlessly colonized other
lands. Bush 's diktat for a US invasion and occu­
pation of Mars is not some visionary notion or a
freak aberration, but rather one more point on a
continuum that began when Columbus and his
crewmen pillaged, enslaved, Christianized, and
infected the Tainos in 1492. Knowing what we
know now, what would have green anarchists
done when they learned the news of Francisco
Pizarro's military mission for gold, God and glo­
ry in the Andes? What would have been the anti­
civilization anarcho-primitivist solution in 1805
to the problem of the Lewis and Clark expedi­
tion? How would have radical, deep enviromnen­
talists reacted to what was going on in the Wright
brothers' crude aviation workshop? These ques­
tions about the abominations of long-lost yester­
days may seem foolish to ponder in the midst of
what we are all fighting against today, but we
cannot lose sight of what our struggles might
very well be tomorrow, regardless of whether or
not such schemes seem feasible from a techno­
logical, scientific, or budgetary standpoint. Rath­
er than shrugging off the Bush-Cheney regime's
audacious plots to militarize, annex, strip mine
and contaminate the lunar and Martian wilder­
ness, we should begin considering it to be a sick
outrage no less loathsome as their wet dreams for
a metropolis of police barracks, oil rigs , banks
and churches built in the heart of the 19 million­
acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

No Compromise in Defense of Sister Mars

In the name of wilderness, wildness, and possibly
wildlife, we must work together to put a stop to
the US occupation of the Moon and Mars. We
need to prevent any further capitalist-productivist,
imperialist, and Judea-Christian contamination of
the solar system's open, untamed spaces. For de­
cades, there have been climate orbiters, polar
landers, and Mariner, Viking, and Pathfinder
spacecraft sent to Mars. In the last year alone,
Martian missions have included Nozomi, the Jap­
anese-built Martian orbiter, the European Space
Agency's Mars Express (which carried the ill-fat­
ed British explorer called Beagle 2), and two
NASA current explorers Spirit and Opportunity.
As you read this, plans are well under way for
 53

launching an even more advanced expeditionary

flotilla of NASA Mars craft, such as a reconnais­
sance orbiter for 2005, the Phoenix lander in 2007,
and a science laboratory rover for 2009. The
moons of Jupiter-Ganymede, Callisto, lo, and
Europa-are under attack by the US as well, as
was illustrated by the eight-year Galileo mission
that ended last September. Laden with fifty
pounds of plutonium 238 (an isotope 300 times
more radioactive than plutonium 239, the four­
and-a-half pounds of fissionable material used by
the US government against civilian targets in Na­
gasaki), the still-functioning Galileo space probe
orbited Jupiter 's moons before it was deliberately
plunged by NASA into the dense Jovian atmo­
sphere where it exploded as spectacularly as a hy­
drogen bomb detonation on a South Pacific atoll.
It is not too early to develop autonomous,
non-hierarchical, anonymous cells of anti­
authoritarian individuals willing to take responsi­
bility for stopping the exploitation of off-world
natural worlds. We cannot afford to wait to help
educate the public about the vile crimes being
committed against the wild spaces of outer space.
Nor can we expect others to halt those who will
profit greatly from ravaging and destroying outer
space.
The rape of the Red Planet by the US armed
forces, industry, and the apparatuses of the State
is the worse kind of ecological corruption and
greedy capitalist speculation. But it is not inevi­
table or unpreventable. The use and abuse of the
Martian wilderness by the US is not a natural out­
come - it is not like the rise of the Sun or the fall
of rain, or the inescapable effects of those things
falling under the jurisdiction of the laws of grav­
ity. For those us stubbornly opposed to imperial­
ism, militarism, and ecocide, we must take our
fight against these colonialist butchers to yet an­
other distant land. The further invasions of Mars
can be stopped.

Dan Lacoss
 55

C onnecting to Place In the

Land of the Lost: Questions for
the Nomadic Wanderers in All
of Us

Livin ' on the road my friend, was gonna

keep you free and clean. Now you wear
your skin like iron and your breath :S as
hard as kerosene.
Townes Van Zandt, Poncho and Lefty

I've been traveling so long. . .How 'm I ever

going to know my home. . . when I see it
again.
Joni Mitchell, Black Crow

Ah, my friends from the prison they ask

unto me, 'How good, how good does it feel
to be free ? '
And I answer them, most mysteriously, 'Are
birds free from the chains of the skyway ? '
Bob Dylan, Ballad in Plain D

As I gather up my rambling scribbles, wandering

emphasis, and drifting thoughts into a (hopefully)
more coherent and communicative form, I refl.ect
upon the place I am becoming a part of. .. I have
just returned from a hike up the mountain with
some of my neighbors to a spectacular waterfall
high atop our watershed. It triggered in me a re­
invigorated contemplation of the concept of con­
necting to place and motivated me to finally wrap
up this piece (for now). You see, this aqua-delight
is only revealed to us in the middle of winter, a
time when many abandon the dank and saturated
northwestern lands for sunnier and drier ground.
To me, the beauty of this cascading water is a cel­
ebration of the essence of this place, of the sea­
sonal shifts and the cyclical nature of its patterns.
It reminds me of the vital and tangible substances
which we are all comprised of (quite literally, as
this is part of my water source). For me, it is only
after weeks of pounding rain that this place
comes alive again in a certain sense. It is rejuve­
nated and revitalized for another year of birth,
growth, and death (and all the life in between).
And it is only through sweat and time, joy and
sorrow, warmth and frigidness, that I will grow to
be a part of it and understand it and add my influ­
ence in a balanced, yet distinct way. It is from this
learning and unlearning, disconnecting and re­
connecting, that I grow and explore. With my
roots planted firmly in the ground, dreams flow­
ing from there, and passions freely explored . . .
****

We 've all seen the bumpersticker: All Who Wan­

der Are Not Lost. True enough, but does this in-
 51

herently imply one knows where they are, have

been, or are going? Sure, there is an intriguing
element of romanticism to it (something I ' m not
sure I want leading me around). S ome of my fa­
vorite songs, images, and stories are about the
spontaneous and freewheelin' traveler serendipi­
tously flowing and colliding with unexpected
situations, characters, and experiences. The al­
lure of this archetype suggests something pro­
found, perhaps the longing to connect to some
missing or repressed sense, or possibly a distinct
yearning for something intensely deviant from
the crap put before us, possibly it's never fitting
into a grossly disjointed world, or maybe simply
a response to boredom. It does seem necessary to
be physically in motion to chase our dreams (if
chasing them is how we wish to live them), and
conceivably, for some, this also applies to
location(s) of habitation. There are many lessons
to be learned and inspiration to be gained from
the drifter's and mobile adventurer's narratives
for sure, but there also seem to be many limita­
tions, trappings, and delusions, often poetically
realized in the terminal chapters of their j ourneys.
But I don't necessarily have the desire to be a
ragged road-worn wandering sage-like phenom­
enon, I just wanna live, here and now. But hey,
the travelin' is the moment, so why worry about
any presumably more fixed context or situation?
Well, here 's the dilemma as I see it, in this
post-modern reality where most of us are all so
dislocated and separated from our world (to more
or lesser extents, without a doubt, but those who
claim they are not are rarely honest with them­
selves), many of the more radical and inspiring
respond to this condition by surfing the waves of
displacement, and perhaps at the expense of
deeply connecting to a place and bioregion. To be
clear, for me, place is not merely a physical local­
ity or abstract spot on a map, but a context or situ­
ation which includes plants, animals, land forma­
tions, climate, patterns, narratives, people, etc
(and, unfortunately in most places, culture, poli­
tics, and other hyper-socialized phenomenon).
And, by deeply connecting, I don't presume to
know for others what that specifically means, nor
do I limit this to a mere "biological" understand­
ing. There is much to be explored on this topic,
and this initial exercise is not meant as an explic­
it call for people to run to the forest or create a
community of any particular type, nor am I sug­
gesting any specific bioregion as ideal, as con­
nection to place is possible almost anywhere,
provided we are open and enthusiastic. I am cer­
tainly no proponent of unnecessarily fortifying
positions, in ideas, methods, or physical locales,
but for me, so-called-temporary autonomous
zones or touring around between the margins is
unsatisfactory and incomplete compared with a
life of ongoing and deepening connection to a
place. I hope to begin a larger discussion that can
ask some questions and attempt to distill from
them some strategic momentum for myself and
for those whose visions may generally overlap in
places. This feels essential to me for deep recon­
nection and healing from an ongoing domestica­
tion process that subtly disconnects and brutally
tears us from belonging anywhere.
Now we all have abundant reasons for what
we do, hopefully derived from a symbiotic com­
bination of critical thought, practical consider­
ations, and unobstructed desires. So, I am not
judging those who choose more nomadic ways, I
am just hoping to examine the strategic motiva­
tions and consider the ramifications of the pat­
terns of our lives as we attempt to move towards
a wilder existence as we each may see it. Born
into the armpit of industrial and social hell (New
Jersey), I have spent what would statistically be
half my life, wandering and searching for a place
to call home, where my roots can take hold,
where I can actively be present without over­
whelming thoughts of unsettledness and dissatis­
faction moving my mind and body elsewhere. I
feel I have found that place for myself. No, I have
not discovered a mythical paradise or "perfect
place", just one that I feel I can grow in, in a
somewhat healthy way despite any inevitable
drawbacks. I have found a place to explore, un­
derstand, and become part of. But mostly, I have
found this place within myself. It is possible that
I may be subconsciously idealizing this (at least
enough to allow myself to propagate some roots),
and I understand well that people travel to live
temporarily or seasonally in various regions for
many reasons: financial, family, opportunities,
novelty, change, and comfort, to name a few, and
there are obviously benefits for some to live in
this manner. But what is traded for these benefits?
How does one connect beyond a superficial ap­
preciation or tourist-like perception if their roots
never intensely penetrate? How do we develop
communities based on deep affinity, trust, and
understanding of one another if we are always
transient in nature? Without some level of long­
term engagement with each other, without a place,
how do we maintain combined mutual projects
and ongoing explorations that help us to achieve
greater autonomy and self-sufficiency as commu­
nities with less and less dependence on the sys­
tem? How might we explore the balance between
change and constancy, between motion and still­
ness? These are just some questions which ini­
tially come to mind when examining the differ­
ences between a more nomadic and a more fixed
reality within the context we currently inhabit
and possible future situations. Questions for the
nomadic wanderer in all of us ...
Often, the contemporary nomadic wanderer
claims to have a freer life by not being bogged
 lol

down by the baggage of a more sedentary exis­

tence (commitments, accumulation of things,
perceived limits of the area), that they can spon­
taneously decide to go anywhere and do anything
at anytime based solely on their desires. This, be­
yond being a generally rhetorical position, does
not acknowledge the baggage of the wanderer
and sets up absolutist straw arguments and false
dichotomies. It does seem that the more seden­
tary a life becomes, the more potential there is for
certain dynamics that one might view as prob­
lematic, but this is certainly no given, and per­
haps a partial trade-off for other dynamics that
might be seen as more desirable. Personally, I
aspire to a bioregional-centered existence, one
which might include shorter seasonal travels be­
tween more permanent nodes, areas, or encamp­
ments, rather then a sedentary one, which implies
a passive, inert, and inanimate existence too rigid
for integration into organic ebbs and flows, not to
mention personal desires. But to be placeless
surely has its drawbacks. Regardless of the level
of independence, the wanderer typically needs to
rely on those with a more permanent situation for
many basic needs, ones that often require a more
fixed situation like shelter, grown food, storage,
stability, and the intimate knowledge of local re­
sources, to name a few. Also, the continuity of a
localized social dynamic is often supported by
those who remain, offering the wanderer situa-
tions to enter into with little responsibility for
making them happen. They become consumers
and spectators of a living community. Often, they
become the biggest critics of these situations,
while risking very little to change them since
there is little ongoing connection. These critiques
can be a useful detached perspective, but they of­
ten lack a deeper understanding of ongoing dy­
namics. For many who wander, there seems to be
a perpetual dissatisfaction with wherever they are
and what they are doing, stemming partly from
their context, and perhaps, a lapse of creativity,
confidence, or motivation. Others desperately
fear being "out of the loop" or "missing out" on
what is occurring everywhere else, creating an in­
ability to focus attention on where they currently
are. This, perhaps, somewhat explains "scene­
hopping", and the massive influx of "lost souls"
and people who wanted to be where the action
was when Eugene was a hotspot in the late '90s
and early ' 00s, and similar spots since then, rath­
er than creating something unique where they
were. Then there is, of course, always the overly­
generous suggestion that the traveler brings a
unique perspective and the stories and songs of
other places. This can surely be a positive thing,
but it also tends to become a specialized role for
those either unwilling or unable to take responsi­
bility for their own nourishment and needs and to
deal with the perceived ups and downs of being
 lo3

part of a living community and a place.

S ome present the life of the traveler or sea­
sonal dweller as closer to how many gatherer­
hunters live(d) outside (or before) civilization,
but beyond mostly superficial aspects there really
is no comparison. The resemblance is poetic if
nothing else. Not to idealize any life-way or flat­
ten those with very unique characteristics, no­
madic gatherer-hunters do not typically travel
outside of a larger bioregion - moving up and
down valleys and rivers, from coast to mountains,
wetter weather to drier, etc - but rarely to an­
other side of a continent, across vast spaces, or to
dramatically divergent terrains, climates, and cul­
tures. This is most likely for a number of reasons,
not the least of which is the lack of modem tech­
nological transportation systems, as the perime­
ters of their world is determined by their own feet,
something any post-civilized (non-massified) ex­
istence would also entail. It makes sense to me
that long-term strategies might want to take this
into account. Terrain, plant species, animals, cli­
mate, and other localized patterns surely have
variety in pedal route, but more along a gradual
shift or gradation, in which much of the make-up
and life of an area remains relatively congruous,
or at least fairly predictable as one understands
and moves within it. Gatherer-hunters don 't seem
to just wander around and stumble upon nourish­
ment for sustaining their life, but instead, they
appear to mostly follow ancestral routes and
techniques passed on through annual journeys
and procedures (not that dissimilar from other
migratory animals) and through an instinctual un­
derstanding of place. Specific treks might be var­
ied, but they are usually modified more by things
like the foods available based on that year's
weather than any particular whim (not that this
might not be a factor as well), but still along the
same general recognized route. Their j ourneys
seem to be about their survival and understanding
of the patterns around them, not merely thrill­
seeking. They know the foods, medicines, dan­
gers, and crucial places along the way. There is a
perpetual nature and connectedness to their trav­
els, not haphazard drifting or scene hopping. This
may not jive with some purists of anarchist dog­
ma who wish to do anything at anytime, regard­
less of petty physical limitations like eating, but it
does have very important relevance pertaining to
taking responsibility for our own survival and
living with other patterns of life, from which our
unique beings may thrive in connection to others
in a shared home.
But enough about gatherer-hunters, as we are
not them (at least not in practice or in socialized
mindset) . While I do believe gatherer-hunters are
humans in their most animalistic form (that I have
yet to see or understand, but certainly not limited
to), and thus how we evolved as part of the natural
 lo5

world in a connected and sustainable way, their

situation is not exclusively relevant to us right
now. Unfortunately civilized humans have signifi­
cantly altered the planet and our current footprint
(carbon and otherwise) does not match that of a
gatherer-hunter. Although I may slowly move
more in that general direction, this mode of living
offers only a nugget of inspiration and wisdom,
within a larger context, to the ways we might live
healthier, less oppressive to other beings, and free,
both now and in the near future. Considering the
immense destruction that civilization has unfurled
on the planet, with forests turned into deserts,
oceans serving as toxic dumps, rivers fashioned
into dammed irrigation ditches and power plants,
thousands upon thousands of species relegated to
the domains of tales and history, and humans con­
verted into production equipment and consuming
implements, it is hard to imagine a foraging life­
style for many, at least not until a prolonged peri­
od of recovery has ensued and a dramatic reduc­
tion in human population occurs. The agrarian
lifestyle, however, offers too many of the traps
that we are currently entangled in, with consider­
able manipulation and control of almost all envi­
ronmental factors, tremendous resource extraction
and displacement, not to mention surplus and the
social institutions which seem to inevitably come
along with it. The turn to an agrarian based life­
style seems to be at the elemental stages of civili-
zation, which may have introduced the develop­
ment of social stratification, taboos, subjugation,
religion, cities, and government. Also, as a step
away from living within a symbiotic relationship
with the rest of one 's environment, it may have led
to a disconnect and psychological shift, not to
mention a dramatic increase in population and re­
source depletion.
To me, one of the more interesting and real­
istic possibilities for humans wanting to reinte­
grate into the patterns of life in a more sustain­
able and less manipulative way is a life as forag­
ing-horticulturists, combining the most useful
and least controlling methods of both. Obviously,
its parameters are extremely site specific, depen­
dant on plant and animal species still remaining
and the climate and terrain of an area, and has a
limiting factor as far as scale, thus prioritizing
small-scaled environmentally connected commu­
nities. It is also a very practical entry into a more
connected reality, one that could transition from a
more garden-dependant practice to a more wild
one, but existing somewhere on that continuum
or consisting of a thoughtful blending of strate­
gies for sustenance and self-organization. Perma­
culture is but one concept that offers some inter­
esting ideas on a transitional space between these
methods of food procurement and interaction
with the world. This approach is not too dissimi­
lar from certain native peoples who minimally
 lo1

planted or seasonally altered their landscape as

compensation for temporary or long-term defi­
ciencies in wild foods, and as populations began
to increase, or as a method of dealing with the
beginning stages of or recovery from coloniza­
tion. To me, this exploration makes more sense
for our situation then any ideologically driven
absolutist purity about returning to our "true na­
ture" . Approaching this delicate balance with
critical thought of our impacts, tendencies, meth­
ods, and mindsets, and with abundant creativity,
we could begin to live as autonomous communi­
ties that value individual freedom, collective vi­
sion, and ecological balance. Rather then end­
lessly and exclusively study gatherer-hunters,
who admittedly offer extremely vital examples of
humans thriving within the balance of wild areas,
it might be more advantageous to put some em­
phasis on understanding and learning from those
who live(d) healthily on more marginal lands and
situations (those who are active participants in
their world, in a balanced way, without develop­
ing unhealthy social dynamics often attributed to
others who plant food.) and utalizing the appli­
cable lessons, combined with our own particular
desires, to a specific place.
But this is beginning to turn into a different
essay. So, briefly contemplating the concept of
the foraging-horticulturists, or really any small­
scale earth-based community, how do nomadism
and sedentism relate, and how might we explore
the balance between change and constancy?
There are so many levels to these questions, com­
pounded with individual and collective perspec­
tives and priorities, but it seems to me that the
more time spent in a relationship (if that time is
spent in open, active, honest, and inquisitive inti­
macy), the deeper it may become, the more inter­
twined and supportive it can be. Where nomad­
ism (in its most positive sense) can accumulate a
wide variety of experiences, lessons, and sub­
stance for living, it tends to be restricted in other
ways. What do the nomadic wanderers, perpetual
travelers, and the generally unsettled trade for the
benefits of a less attached and consistent exis­
tence? There is an intimacy with place (or at least
there can be, and seems to be with uncivilized
peoples, and less civilized earth-based cultures)
that feels too deep to grasp without not only
weeks, or seasons, or even years in a place, but
with generations upon generations of people who
share their stories, techniques, and perceptions.
There is not only the dynamic experience of liv­
ing with a place that could contain in it all aspects
of sustenance (on many levels), but also the col­
lective experience of living with others in con­
nection. These relationships connect us to life.
These seem to be what have been most severed,
isolated, distorted, and alienated in the modem
human experience.
 Our relationship with climate, seasons, local
foods and medicines are important factors in con­
necting us to place. Again, relationships connect
us, and the more we have with a place, the more
connected we may become. Living thro u gh sea­
son upon season with a place offers us a wide
variety, and yet similar experiences, to create
connection. Our interaction may become more
fluid, interactive, and organic as we transition
into a place. Whereas, the transient perspective
on "ideal climate" is odd to me, one I believe has
much to do with our socialized needs to be "con­
ventionally comfortable" with as little effort as
possible. Rather than allowing our bodies to ad­
just to changes around us and challenging our
mind's trained expectations, we tend to drasti­
cally alter our surroundings or relocate to an en­
tirely different place to keep the dry and 72 de­
gree supposed "ideal" condition for human com­
fort. While some wish to go where the sun is al­
ways shining, this seems to be a somewhat cur­
sory and one dimensional aspect of place and re­
minds me of the fictional safety of New Agers
who only want to think "positive thoughts" or a
Beach Boys record, two things I just can't seem
to develop a taste for. This endless summer men­
tality is, in my opinion, a disconnected perspec­
tive. The cycles of a season inform much of what
a place is. For instance, where I live, the green
summers are directly related to the wet winters.
Specific life has developed here because of the
particulars of the place. This is the case every­
where. There are essential factors of a place
which make it what it is, and understanding them
and moving within (rather than against them or
placing value on them) connect us. When we
continually rip ourselves from it, recontextualize
ourselves, we become dislocated, and possibly,
neurotic, obtaining a virtual "high" from this dis­
location, and philosophically rationalizing it as a
"more free" existence. We may even develop an
addiction or perceived need for this perpetual re­
location. But, except for migratory birds that nat­
urally have the ability to fly and have evolved
over time in this unique way to travel great dis­
tances seasonally, civilized humans are the only
terrestrial creatures that move such great distanc­
es and complete transformation of setting with
the seasons. This has only been an option, to the
scale, amount, and frequency that currently tran­
spires, with mass society and technology.
I think most anarchists, including myself,
tend to prioritize the "breaking away from" ten­
dency. A necessary and understandable response
to our condition as civilized humans. But, I think
we are often intimidated and lost when we at­
tempt to advocate for, and even more so, connect
to, anything. We become hyper-critical of every­
thing. While it is essential to move with constant
critique, if it is at the level of paralysis and abso-
 11

lute pessimism, it is ultimately useless. Hyper­

anything is typically a sign of overcompensation
concealing an emptiness, rather then an open­
ended, yet clear and precise understanding and
actualization. The concept of "rewilding" can
bridge this gap in theory and practice. I tend to
think that "rewilding" has much to do with deciv­
ilizing our minds. Allowing ourselves to open up
to situations and experiences without the cease­
less baggage of civilization (or at least conscious­
ly minimizing the unhealthy appendages) is es­
sential in initiating the experience of going feral.
For many, however, it remains solely an intellec­
tual and rhetorical procedure, with most practice
avoided because of its impurity, or effort required.
If it does get physical, it typically repeats certain
survival skills over and over. Practical skills like
starting fires, building shelters, skinning roadkill,
etc, are significant, but more involved explora­
tions and connecting to the world we inhabit
seem to require a long-term immersion into liv­
ing in a place and with people. Beginning to
know our world is a slow process, one we are
corning into damaged. Those who are born into
connected relationships do not learn through scar
tissue, but through eyes which have never starred
blankly upon a computer screen, or maybe even a
printed word. They develop relationships with
their world with ears that have never heard a
jackhammer or the beep of an alarm clock, but
instead, the sound of wind approaching, a critter
chewing, or a fire crackling. They explore their
world on feet that have never walked on the un­
forgivingness of concrete, with hands that have
not been trained to push buttons and type on key­
boards. They kiss with mouths that have never
uttered useless rhetoric and digest foods in stom­
achs which do not know processed sugars or
mass produced starches. They come into the
world whole and, hopefully, remain there. De­
spite our impediment, we too can connect. But
we need to start somewhere, some place.
New questions arise, only to suggest even
more, and none of them are easy or cut-and-dried.
How do we assess our negative impact on a
place? Can we be a part of healing wounds hu­
mans created and be a part of restoration? How
do we begin to heal and reintegrate? Where do
transitional concepts fit into an anti-civilization
practice? How do we balance a perceived deep
understanding with the dangers of thinking we
know what is best?
We are living in the land of the lost, where
we are shattered and disconnected from the per­
petuity and endless cycles of our existence, im­
mensely constant, dynamically in the midst of
radical change, and subtly growing and dying;
one of being. We can be lost anywhere; far away,
down the road, where we reside, or in our heads.
It might be enjoyable if anywhere we hung our
 13

hat was home, and maybe some can live that, but
to me, it seems, that a deep connection to place
brings a wholeness with it, one of being at home.
One of belonging, or at least trying to belong, to
something different, something alive, rather then
one of perpetual collisions and temporarily coin­
ciding with things springing from the motiva­
tions of civilization. Maybe for some this is hold­
ing up in a forest canyon with some folks figuring
out how to live with the place, for others it may
be forming relationships with a few places, and
for some, never embracing any place. But the
road has its own chains, because chasing free­
dom, seems to me, leaves you running on the
chase rather then the stuff of life . The grass is not
usually any greener despite our continuing fickle­
ness. I don't want to be a transplant forever. I may
never be indigenous to a place, but I can be part
of it. I ' d rather be fully present, plant roots, and
live and create where I ' m at, than always hoping
its just a little better down the road . . .

Sal Insieme
Our Generation Ships
Will Sink
The Earth is the cradle of humanity,
but one cannot live in a cradle forever.
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Humanity traveling to the stars is an ancient

dream, and a late 19th and early 20th century
proj ect, proposed quickly after the first develop­
ments in rocketry. The idea spread through world
culture, mainly by way of science fiction. Count­
less stories described people visiting planets or­
biting other stars, and by a process of cultural dif­
fusion, space travel became one part of a plausi­
ble and widely-held consensus future for human­
ity, a future we seemed to moving into with ac­
celerating speed as the 20th century progressed.
With the enormous successes of Star
Trek and Star Wars, the idea was firmly planted in
the popular imagination: if we survived as a spe­
cies, we would be moving out into the galaxy.
This awesome diaspora would mark our maturity
or success as a species, and would enable us to
outlive the Earth itself, should it suffer a natural
disaster or be destroyed by some human folly.
The thought of long-term galactic survival for hu­
manity was comforting to some, and in any case
it seemed inevitable, humanity's fate or destiny.
 15

When we landed people on the moon in 1969,

and robots on Mars in 1976, it seemed we were
already on the way.
But in the same century the idea spread, we
were also learning things that made it seem less
and less likely that we could do it. When the no­
tion was first broached, we didn't even know how
big the universe was; now we do, and it's bigger
than we thought. Meanwhile, the tremendous in­
crease in our knowledge of biology has taught us
that human beings are much more complicated
than we thought, being in effect complex assem­
blages interpenetrated with larger ecologies.
These and other findings make a contempo­
rary evaluation of the starfaring plan rather star­
tling: one begins to see it can't be done.
Oh no ! For some people this is a disturbing
and deeply pessimistic conclusion to come to.
Then when you combine that new judgment with
the recently discovered problems concerning the
plan to terraform and inhabit Mars (presence of
perchlorates and absence of nitrogen), and we
come to an entirely new realization about our
species: there is no Planet B .
Earth i s our only home.
Oh no again!
This conclusion, startling to some, obvious
to others, has ramifications that are worth pon­
dering. If it comes to be a generally agreed on
view, it might change how we act as individuals
and a civilization. These changes in behavior
might tum out to be crucial for our descendants.
So although this entire discussion consists of
speculations about hypothetical futures, which is
to say, science fictions, still they are worth think­
ing about, as useful orientations in our sense of
our own history as a species.

****

The problems that will keep us from going to the

stars can be loosely grouped into categories:
physical, biological, ecological, sociological, and
psychological. One could add economical, but
economic problems are trivial compared to the
rest, as economics is amenable to adjustment on
demand. Reality is not so tractable.

****

Physically, the main issue is that the stars are too

far away.
This problem has been finessed in many sci­
ence fiction stories by the introduction of some
kind of faster-than-light travel, but really this is
not going to happen. It's a convenience employed
to get us out into a great story space, a magic car­
pet that gives us the galaxy. I like that story space
very much, but any realistic plan for getting to the
stars will require slower-than-light travel, proba­
bly quite a bit slower. The usual speed mentioned
in these discussions, as keeping a balance be-
 11

tween the fastest one can imagine accelerating a

spaceship while still being able to decelerate it
later, is one tenth of l i ght- speed.
The closest stars are four light years away,
although now we know that this Centauri group
has no planets we can terraform. Among other
nearby stars, Tau Ceti, twelve light-years away, is
now known to have planets in its habitable zone;
they are too massive for human inhabitation (five
or six g), but they might be orbited by habitable
moons. Traveling at one-tenth light-speed, a voy­
age there would take 120 years plus the time
needed for acceleration and deceleration, so that
people speak of approximately two hundred
years transit time.
Thus a crossing to even the closest stars will
require a multiple generation effort, and the
spaceship will need to be a kind of ark, carrying
all the other animals and plants the humans will
carry with them to their new world. This suggests
a very large and complicated machine, which
would have to function in the interstellar medium
for two centuries or more, with no possibility of
resupply, and limited possibilities for repair. The
spaceship would also have to contain within it a
closed biological life support system, in which all
the flows of energy and matter would have to re­
cycle as close to perfectly as possible, minimiz­
ing catches or clogs of any kind.
Here is where the biological and ecological
problems come to the fore, but sticking for now
to purely physical problems, the starship would
be exposed to far more radiation than we are on
Earth, where the atmosphere and magnetosphere
protect us to an extent. Effects of that extra radia­
tion are not fully known, but they won't be good.
Cladding would help, but would add to the weight
of the ship; the fuel carried for deceleration might
serve as cladding en route, but that fuel will get
burned as the starship slows down, increasing the
starfarers ' exposure, already higher than it would
have been on Earth.
Lastly, in terms of purely physical problems,
if the starship runs into anything substantial (like
a couple of kilograms) while moving at a tenth of
light speed, the impact could be catastrophic.
These physical problems, especially those
concerning propulsion and deceleration, are the
ones that have received the most consideration by
the starship discussion and advocacy community.
As engineering problems they can can be given at
least hypothetical engineering solutions, using
equations from physics that we know to be true.
Thus they are, in effect, the easiest problems that
starships will face, being relatively straightfor­
ward. But they aren't that easy.

****

Biological problems are harder for humans to

solve than physical problems, because biology
concerns life, which is extraordinarly complex,
and includes emergent properties and other poor­
ly understood behaviors. Ultimately biology is
still physics, but it constitutes a more complex set
of physical problems, and includes areas we can't
explain.
We do know that things go wrong in bio­
logical system, because this happens all the time;
living things get sick and die. They also very of­
ten eat each other, or exist as diseases for each
other. These realities mean that biological and
ecological problems are much more intractable
than physical problems, and are unsolvable in the
enclosed context of a multi-generational starship.
It's a matter of size of community, and its
isolation from new inputs. A starship would be
something like an island, but an island far more
isolated than any island on Earth. Processes iden­
tified by island biogeography would apply inside
a starship, and many of these processes would be
accentuated by the radical isolation. As genera­
tions of people, plants and animals passed, repro­
ductive and evolutionary success would be
harmed by genetic bottlenecks, also disease, lim­
its on resources, and so on. The super-islanding
effect might cause more species than usual to be­
come smaller, and to mutate in other ways, as one
sees on ordinary islands. And because bacteria
tend to evolve at faster rates than mammals, com­
plete isolation may lead to the development of a
suite of bacteria quite different from what the
spaceship was sent off with. All mammals in­
clude huge numbers of bacteria living inside
them, either symbiotically, parasitically, or with­
out significant interaction, so this more rapid ge­
netic shift in the bacterial community could be­
come a big problem to all the larger creatures. On
Earth there is a constant infusion of new bacteria
into mammals, which sometimes can lead to bad
results, as we know; but overall, it's a necessary
aspect of healthy existence .
We are always teamed with many other liv­
ing creatures. Eighty percent of the DNA in our
bodies is not human DNA, and this relatively new
discovery is startling, because it forces us to real­
ize that we are not discrete individuals, but bi­
omes, like little forests or swamps. Most of the
creatures inside us have to be functioning well
for the system as a whole to be healthy. This is a
difficult balancing act, and does not work per­
fectly even on Earth; but divorced from Earth's
bacterial load, and thus never able to get infu­
sions of new bacteria, the chances of suffering
various immune problems similar to those ob­
served in over-sterile Terran environments will
rise markedly.
Because we need a broad array of bacterial
companions, one would want to bring along as
much of Earth as you could fit into a starship. But
even the largest starship would be about one-tril-
 '31

lionth the size of Earth, and this necessary minia­

turization would almost certainly lead to un­
known effects in our bodies.

* * * *

This leads us to the ecological problems, or per­

haps we were there all along, because biology is
always ecological, as every living thing is a min­
iature ecological system. But focusing on the
level of the community brings up the problems
created by the metabolic flow of substances in a
closed biological life support system. These
flows, of both living and non-living substances,
would have to stay balanced within fairly tight
parameters, and they would have to avoid any
major rifts or blockages. Cycles of oxygen and
carbon dioxide, nitrogen, phosphorus, and many
other chemicals and elements, would have to oc­
cur without maj or fluxes and without catch-points
along the way where the element is getting
clogged in the system. Earth experiences large
ecological fluxes over time, with build-ups of
certain elements (oxygen in the atmosphere, car­
bon in sedimentary rocks) that force evolutionary
processes: whatever is alive has to adapt to the
new conditions or go extinct. Both often happen.
These fluxes and build-ups would happen
inside a starship too, but as the starfarers would
be interested in keeping themselves from going
extinct, they would have to manage or finesse all
the flows to keep from being harmed by them.
This would require supporting almost every other
living component of the system, except the dis­
eases they would inevitably carry with them; and
if chemicals like phosphorus were bonding to
substrates as they cycled in the water cycle,
which is something they tend to do, this would be
bad for the system as a whole. There would never
be a chance for exterior additions to the system,
nor any good way to stop the cycles, clean up the
substrates and release clogged chemicals. Nor
would it be easy to fight or escape diseases that
would have piggybacked their way onot the ship;
or to deal with any newly evolved aggressive mi­
crobial species suddenly feeding on plants, ani­
mals, or humans.
In short, a perfectly recycling ecological
system is impossible; Earth is not one, and an iso­
lated system a trillion times smaller than Earth
would exacerbate the effects of the losses, build­
ups, metabolic rifts, balance swings, clogging,
and other actions and reactions. All that could be
accomplished by starfarers in such an ark would
be to deal with these problems as well as possible,
minimizing them so that they might hang on long
enough for the starship to reach its destination.
But if they do manage that, their problems
would have just begun.

****
Before discussing the problems caused by arrival
at the destination, we should finishing sketching
the problems during the voyage that could be
called sociological and psychological. Here
things necessarily get more speculative, but for
sure it can be said that the people inside the star­
ship will constitute a small and isolated commu­
nity compared to the population of Earth. And
they will be trapped inside their spaceship, and
will have to keep the spaceship functioning in or­
der to survive. So whatever their political organi­
zation, whether it be military or anarchic, hierar­
chical or democratic, the situation itself can be
called totalitarian.
By this I mean that their situation will de­
mand certain behaviors to ensure their survival.
They will have to tightly control their population;
both maximum and minimum human numbers
will be necessary, and whatever system they de­
vise to achieve this stability, it will not include
individual unconstrained choice. Also, there will
be quite a few j obs that will simply have to be
filled in order for their life support systems to be
maintained. Again, however they manage this is­
sue, people will not be free to do what they want,
or to do nothing. So in these areas of reproduc­
tion and work, generally regarded as basic to hu­
man meaning and political freedom, the society
in the starship will have to rigidly control them­
selves. No matter their methods for achieving
this control, they will end up living in some ver­
sion of a totalitarian state. The spaceship will be
their state, and to keep the spaceship functioning,
the state will rule.
****

The psychological effects of all these constraints

and problems, including the knowledge that
Earth exists light years away, with a population
millions of times bigger than the ship 's, and a
land surface a trillion times larger, cannot be
known for sure. It might very well feel like exile;
it might feel like being born and living one 's en­
tire life in prison.
Add to this inescapable isolation and con­
finement the effects of an entire life spent indoors,
and it seems likely there would be some bad psy­
chological effects. Indeed it seems like a recipe
for psychological disaster, a veritable witch's
brew of alienation and resentment. If anyone
were to lose their sanity in this situation and de­
cide to escape from it, it might be possible to
sabotage the starship itself, destroying it and thus
killing everyone aboard. Guarding against such a
violent act would be necessary, thus adding to the
totalitarian nature of the state, also to its stress
and pressure. There would be not just alienation,
isolation, and resentment, but also fear.
Of course people are adaptable, and humans
tend to take their surrounding for granted. As
starship life would be all they had ever known,
the starfarers might indeed adapt to their situa­
tion. But they would know what that situation
was, and know the situation on Earth. They would
know that their fate was created for them by an­
cestors who made the choice to enter the starship,
a choice they could never unmake. That might be
irritating.
****

But say all these problems get solved somehow.

Say the starship reaches its target star system, and
goes into orbit around the planet the starfarers
hope to inhabit. What happens then?
The planet or moon they hope to inhabit will
be either alive or dead. It will either harbor indig­
enous life, or it won't. Both possibilities repre­
sent terrible problems for the settlers.
There is a third possibility, of course, which
is that they won't be able to tell if the planet or
moon is alive or not, just as we can't tell now
whether Mars is alive or dead. In that case they
would still have a problem, they just wouldn't
know what kind of problem they had. Finding out
could be hard.
****

If the planet harbors indigenous life, then how

that life would interact with Terran life would be
impossible to determine without experiment. It
might tum out to be no problem, or a small prob­
lem, or a fatal problem, but for sure it would have
to be investigated before the settlement could
safely proc ee d. If the indi g enous life proved to
interact badly with Terran life, this would have to
be dealt with, if possible. But dealing with it
might not be possible. And at what point would
people decide that it was safe to come in contact
with an alien life form, much less coexist with it
over the long haul? That would be a hard call to
make.
****

If the planet turned out to be a dead rock, that

would remove the problem of coexisting with an
alien, but the planet would then have to be terra­
formed to make it habitable for Terran life, in­
cluding humans. This would take many years,
possibly centuries, possibly even thousands of
years, depending on conditions and resources.
Recall that the settlers will only have their single
starship to power the effort, and planets or moons
with gravity anywhere near Earth's gravity will
be large. Terraforming any such body will defi­
nitely require a huge application of energy, and
thus take a long time. And for most if not all of
that time, the settlers will either have to wait in
orbit in their starship, where all the starship's
problems will still obtain, or they will live in
shelters constructed on the surface of the planet,
shelters that would be a grounded equivalent of
the starship, still harboring most of the problems
of a closed biological life support system. Either
way, in space or on the new planet, they would
still be experiencing most of the problems that
the starship gave them during the voyage. Having
survived a couple hundred years, could they con­
tinue that success much longer?
Hard to say; but for sure, arrival at the desti­
nation does not end their problems.

****

There have been many science fiction stories

about starships published, and some have sug­
gested various solutions to the problems outlined
above.
One is to send small ships filled with frozen
embryos, which would be automatically thawed
and birthed on arrival. But this solution ignores
the issue of the microbiomes existing inside us;
these too would have to be brought along, and
even with suites of intestinal bacteria perfectly
preserved, calibrated, and introduced into the
newborns, there then remains the problem of ed­
ucating and socializing the new youngsters. Of­
ten, if the problem is mentioned at all, the idea
seems to be that robots and films and libraries
could do the job. Good luck with that!

****

Another suggestion involves what is often called

hibernation, or sometimes cold sleep, or cryonic
suspension. In this scenario, an adult population
is put into some state of suspended animation,
then awakened or reanimated when the ship
reaches its destination.
This seems promising at first, and indeed I
used the idea myself as an emergency rescue
method in my starship novel Aurora, so I ' m fa­
miliar with the suggestion. But if this solution is
not to become yet another version of the magic
carpet, then it has to be remembered that these
suspended passengers would not be completely
frozen and inert, for then they would be dead.
They are hibernating only; chilled and/or chemi­
cally slowed down, but not completely stopped;
because we don't know how to restart humans
who have completely stopped. The passengers
would therefore be living some minimally-active
form of life. They would still be alive.
That being the case, they would be aging.
Physical problems that they had before being sus­
pended would continue to etoliate; new physical
problems might crop up, and proceed slowly
along their course. This is what aging means, and
slow or fast, it would happen in any living sys­
tem. It's simply entropy again, rearing its head as
it always does.
Because of this unavoidable process, even if
we had a very successful method for slowing our­
selves down, it would still not stop the passen­
gers from aging and then dying, and that would
set a limit on how far they could get. And the
distances to the stars are so great that even if the
bubble of the area that we could reach were ex­
panded by a hundred times over what a normally
living population might reach, that would still
represent a small portion of the galaxy. A thou­
sand light-year trip, taking over ten thousand
years, would still only get us out to a bubble rep­
resenting one percent of the Milky Way. That
would include a lot of stars, but how many have
just the right planet to fit our needs? And how
would we know which ones those might be, in
advance of a close examination of them? We
would never know where to try to go in the first
place, and wouldn't have the luxury of stopping
to look around along the way.

****

So it won't work. But people want to believe in it.

And it has to be admitted that all the problems
combined together, still don't add up to the sheer
impossibility of faster-than-light travel. Multi­
generational starship travel is simply very, very,
very unlikely to succeed. If the odds are some­
thing like a million to one, should we try it?
Maybe not.
Should we stop telling the story?
Maybe not. One of the best novels in the his­
tory of world literature, Gene Wolfe 's Book of the
Long Sun and Book of the Short Sun, a seven­
volume saga telling the story of a starship voyage
and the inhabitation of a new planetary system,
finesses all these problems in ways that allow
huge enjoyment of the story it tells. The novel
justifies the entertaining of the idea, no doubt
about it.
But when we consider how we should be­
have now, we should keep in mind that the idea
that if we wreck Earth we will have somewhere
else to go, is simply false. That needs to be kept
in mind, to set a proper value on our one and only
planet, so that a moral hazard is not created that
allows us to get sloppy with our caretaking of it.
There is no Planet B ! Earth is our only pos-
sible home !
Oh no !
But wait: why is that so bad?
Here everyone has to answer for themselves.
I ' m saying it's not bad at all; it just is, and it can
be regarded as a good thing. And good or bad, it
just is. That's reality. We are not gods, and any­
one who thinks of science as a magic wand, or
even as a verb, is making a mistake, a category
error sometimes called scientism. Drill down a
little harder on these issues, look at the evidence;
use the scientific method properly. Limits to what
we can do will quickly appear around you.
I ' m not saying we shouldn't go into space;
we should. We should send people to the moon,
and Mars, and the asteroids, and every place we
can in the solar system, putting up stations and
swapping humans in and out of them. This is not
 �1

only a beautiful thing to do, but useful in helping

us to design a long-term relationship with Earth
itself. Space science is an Earth science. The so­
lar system is our neighborhood. But the stars are
too far away.
****

After all that's been said above, I see one possible

remaining starship story that could be believed:
Hibernating passengers are sent on a small
fast starship to a likely-lool.<lng nearby planet,
with a load of frozen embryos. Most of the hiber­
nating passengers die en route, but some survive,
aging and getting weaker, but alive when the des­
tination is reached.
These ancients proceed to thaw, birth, and
raise a cohert of embryos, successfully getting
them to the stage of babies and toddlers. But now
the hibernators, fully awake and alive, and thus
aging at the usual rate, begin to die off. It's a race
to get the youngsters raised and educated while
there are still any elders alive to do the j ob. Even­
tually nine decrepit post-hibernation survivors
find themselves caring for seventy-six five year­
olds. Interesting times ! This is the heart of the
novel.
The planet they landed on luckily seems
dead, and has ice on its surface, and even a breath­
able atmosphere (not likely but not impossible).
The elders spread Terran bacteria on the surface,
then release all the plants and animals they
brought with them, hoping to terraform the place
as quickly as possible. The planet has nearly one
g, which is a good thing for all Terran creatures '
health, but means the planet i s about a s big as
Earth. Terraforming will take a while, perhaps a
few centuries.
They all move into a habitat on the surface
built by their robots, near a frozen sea. After a
couple of decades pass, all the hibernators have
died, and the youngsters, all twenty-five years
old now, have this new world to inhabit.
Good luck to them ! Great story! It could
j oin Joanna Russ's We W ho Are About To . as . .

one of the truly memorable planetary romances

in science fiction. Like that great novel, it would
be both interesting and believable--indeed not
just believable, but the only starfaring scenario
one could possible believe !
If you can.

Kim Stanley Robinson

1 I ntroduction

5 On Beco m i n g a n Autonomous Astronaut

John Eden

1 0 I nterview on G reater London

Radio Broadcast 6. 1 2.96

1 9 W h o Owns Outer Space Ra ido AAA

24 Sex i n Space Luthor Blissett

28 Off the M a p ! AAA Maya

3 0 M us i n g s o n t h e M eteorites

33 Raido AAA Vie n n a Conference Report

Luthor Blissett

41 Bologna I nterg a l a ctic Confere n ce Report

52 AAA Rosko Last Appeara n ce Report

67 M ission Acco m p l ished but the Beat Goes O n :

the Fantastic Voyage o f t h e AAA Neil Disconaut

73 It's t h e End of t h e AAA as We Kn ow It a n d I

Feel Fine Ra ido AAA

77 333 Riccardo Balli

81 The Final Decla ration 23104100

Published by Aragorn Moser
Layout by Leona Benton
Printed at "The Compound"
1818 Carleton St. Berkeley, CA 94703-1908
 I s S p a ce t h e P l a ce ? Yes
Every ch i l d has experi e n ced the wo nder of a
sky fu l l of stars u rg i n g them to fl i g ht. Loo k­
i n g u p one i m a g i nes every sort of adventure
a n d d e l i ght j ust a g i a nt leap away. Then, the
p romises a re cofi rmed by movies that dem­
o nstrate, spectacu l a rly, that the future, pos­
s i b i l ity, a n d even spi ritu a l co m p l eti o n are as
cl ose as the nearest sta r. If we are h e i rs to
M a n ifest Dest i ny then our futu re is a G a l actic
Desti ny.
For a n a rchists the hope represe nted by
the sta rs is eve n m o re specific. I n this world,
where i l l usions more convi n ci n g t h a n h u m a n
rel ationsh i ps tra nsfo rm cap ita l ism t o a way
of l ife, o u r ideas do n ot seem to h ave the
roo m to sprawl out and be tested . Every i n ch
of this p l a net seems to serve pre-existi n g
gods, most o f them armored a g a i nst exa ctly
the kinds of proposa l s we reco m m e n d . Try
out neol ith i c ways of l ife? H ow a bout gender
equ a l ity a n d/or destru ction? Passions and
Desires? It seems l i ke a l l of our experi me nta­
tion is co nstra i n e d to our own h eads and to
m o m e nts of crisis. This l i m its our opti ons to
a ctive dre a m i n g (wh e n we confuse dreams
with the rea l) or to bei n g adre n i l i ne j u n kies
(wh o become irre l eva nt as soon as we ca n 't
ru n a s ix-m i n ute m i l e) .
 N ew p l a n ets, space, represents a rea­
son a b l e response to th is co n u nd ru m . We
ca n a l ig n o u rse lves with uto p i a n s of oth e r
fl avors a n d togethe r, w e ca n leave this p l a ce
that seems to h ave n o ti m e o r energy for ex­
peri m e ntation a b o ut what exactly we mean
by, a n d h ate a bout, society.
Beyon d a criti q u e of th e Space/M i l i­
ta ry I n d u stri a l Com p l ex there is a n exciti n g
( b u t tro u b l i ng) n ew scene o f people (co m pa­
n i es a n d entrepen e u rs) attem pti n g to reach
space o n the ch e a p and with out the gov­
e rn m e nta l bea u ra cra cies that h ave a l ways
been seen as n ecessa ry to reach space. Ad­
d ition a l ly there a re oth e r co u ntries that a re
re-i nventi n g space travel : at the ti me of this
writi n g there is a C h i n ese rover on the moon
that isn't being d i scussed i n the Ang l o p h o n e
m ed i a at a l l . The grim ace-a n d-bea r-it n eces­
sa ry to work with these peo p l e/co m pa n i es is
p robably m o re th a n most a nti-a uth o rita rians
ca n take but the work is there a n d a nyon e
involved today is partici pati n g i n t h e early
sta ges of a futu re worth l ivi n g i n .
Science Fictio n , as a category, demon­
strates what wil lfu l a n a rchistic sorts of peo­
p l e a re ca p a b l e of (at least in the i m a g i n a­
tion of th e i r a uth o rs) . The M a rs series by Kim
Sta n l ey Robinso n (a m o n g many oth ers tbh)
demonstrates that a n ew world beyond the
 3
States a n d a uth orities of Earth wi l l be a p l ace
of more ope n i n g s a n d d ifferent poss i b i l ities
th a n we ca n i m a g i n e when reform, com p ro­
mise, a n d negoti ati on seem to be th e a l pha
a n d omega of l ife on th is p l a n et.
T h i s q uestion " I s Space the P l a ce?"
p ro poses sci ence fictio n . It assu mes we h ave
th e power to a ct freely a n d that with this
power we beg i n to ask q u estions a bout h ow
we wi l l i nfl i ct o u rselves u pon the worl d . Wi l l
we b e bou nd to th e a g reements that m a ke
sense i n the context of th is world a ro u n d
i d entiti es a n d h i stories o f co l o n izati o n , wi l l
we m a ke n ew a g reements based i n the u l­
timate lack of space (of a breath a b l e atmo­
sphere for sta rters), o r wi l l we create a n ew
set of eth ics a n d va l u es once we l eave orbit
that ca n n ot be i m a g i n ed wh i l e one n ewton
of force presses d own on us, every day, a l l
the ti m e .
The a n swer is obvi ous. Yes, yes, YES!
As wild-eyed uto p i a n s we h ave a lways seen
the sta rs as our b i rth rig ht, but as sober sci­
entists of the futu re o rd e r we m ust put o u r
b o d i e s where o u r m o uth s, a n d m i nds, a re . I f
w e ca n 't create that w h i c h is worth l iving i n
h e re, w e m u st go th e re ! Space is t h e p l ace
for us to spread o u r wi ngs a n d put o u r ideas
i nto p ractice.
PS: N ote that these essays a re from a
U K o rg a n ization ca l l ed the Association of Au­
tonomous Astro n a uts. They were fo u nded i n
1 995 with a five yea r m i ssi on t o esta b l ish a
p l a n eta ry n etwork to end the monopoly by
corporati ons, govern m e nts, a n d th e m i l ita ry
over travel i n space. One aspect of the proj­
ect was i nfrastructu ra l m a p p i n g , identifyi n g
the sate l l ite h a rdwa re that l i n ks u p the world
co m m u n i cations n etwo rk. But a n other was
what Kon rad Becker ca l l s " e-sca pe " : " C rack­
i n g the doors of the future means masteri n g
m u ltidimension a l m a ps t o o p e n n ew exits
a n d p o rts in hyperspace; it req u i res pass­
ports a l l owi n g voyages beyond n ormative
g l ob a l rea l ity towa rd para l l e l cultures a n d in­
visib l e n ations; supply depots fo r nomads on
the roads ta ken by the revol uti o n a ry practice
of a i m l ess fl i g ht. "
The i nfl uence of the S ituation ist I nter­
n ation a l s h o u l d be a pp a rent.
 5

O n Beco m i ng an
Auto n o m o u s Astronaut

Th is man spends h is life wonderfully! Wh ile

still a boy, he reads with interest books and
stories on astronomy. With h is first earned
m o n ey he buys a n astronomica l te lescope . . .
th e n a m e o f h is da ughter is Astra, the name
of h is son Mercury. Every th ought, every
step, man ifests h is aspira tion for interpla ne­
tary flight!
Pravda ed itori a l 1 934

24th May 1 962: John G lenn, a US Marine

Corps pilot, becomes th e second America n
in orbit. He uses up m ost of the Aurora l 's
fuel supply getting in to a g o o d position to
photograph sunrises. For th is he is severely
repri m a n ded b y NASA.

To become an Autonomous Astro n a ut

you don't j u st n eed to u n d e rstan d the h is­
to ry of i n d e pe n dent space expl o rati o n a n d
a ct accord i n g ly. You m u st a lso be someth i n g
d ifferent from t h e attitudes a n d va l u es o f th e
society we want to l eave be h i n d . We m u st
be o u rse lves fi rst a n d foremost--wherever
that may ta ke us. The " m i l ita nt" postu rin g
so adored by so m a n y pu rita n ica l pol itica l
a ctivists i s of n o use to th e AAA It is a m i nd­
.

set that spl its the i n d iv i d u a l i nto two , sepa­

rati n g people's rea l i n d ivid u a l and soci a l
n eeds-th e reasons w h y they ca n n ot sta n d
l ife on p l a n et earth , from th e i r actions-th e i r
attem pts t o l eave th is world beh i n d . If the
A.AP:s p rogra m m e tu rns i nto a n other job,
even for o n e person , th en we wi l l h ave fa i l ed
utterly.
The m i l ita nt as a n i n d ividua l , a n d
po l itica l g ro u ps as org a n i sations, suffer from
a sort of d ispl acement of person a l ity-wh at
they want a n d h ow they try to get th e re a re
two com p l ete ly diffe rent th i n g s . Th at is why
o u r p a rties a re j u st as va l u a b l e as our texts.
That i s why we m ove in severa l d i recti ons at
once.
The AAA is n ot a p rogra m m e that one
p uts i nto p ractice or m a kes oth ers put i nto
pra ctice, but a soci a l movement. Th ose of us
who deve l o p a n d defend the AAA's ideas do
n ot h ave a n y advanta g e over othe rs except
a clearer u n d e rsta n d i n g a n d a more ri goro u s
expressi o n ; l i ke everyon e wh o i s n ot
especi a l ly concerned by theory, we fee l the
practica l n eed for esta b l is h i n g a utonomous
co m m u n ities i n outer space.
We a re n ot leaders o r experts-a nd
n ever wi l l be. Peop l e who expect everyone
 on beco m i ng 7
i nvo lved with the n etwork to be a b l e to know
a bout every aspect of space travel a re
d e l u d i n g themselves. We cherish the learn i n g
process, t h e d i a logue between i nterested
i n d iv i d u a l s . That is h ow a l l of o u r ideas h ave
deve l o ped, a n d that is h ow we wi l l ach i eve
o u r a i ms. Our tra i n i ng methods reflect this
a pproach-th ey a re as m uch a bout socia l
i nteraction as they a re a bout acq u i ri n g ski l ls.
Those who project thei r h opes a n d desi res
o nto us must u ndersta n d that they a re
invo/ved--t hey a re astro n a uts too .
There i s n o p o i n t i n s o m e ki n d of " e l ite "
g ro u p of a uto n o m o u s astro n a uts g etti n g
i nto space, o u r trajectories m u st be o p e n to
a l l . We a re n ot p ropos i n g some sort of zero
g ravity h i pp i e d ro p-out com m u n e that
excl udes everyone else.
We d o n ot h ave th e futu re m a pped
o ut, waiti n g to fa l l off th e shelf when the
ti m e is right. We only h ave a l i m ited idea of
what com m u n ities in o uter space wi l l l ook
l i ke at th e i r beg i n n i n g , l et a l one after a
h u n d red yea rs. F i n d i n g o ut is often the best
bit, the wh o l e p o i nt of th e g a m es we play.
We a re concerned with poss i b i l ities a n d
experimentati o n , n ot with h a v i n g the
" correct l i n e " , o r b e i n g rig ht in retrospect.
The d ifficulty l ies i n the need to g o beyo n d
tra d ition a l n otions of space trave l wh i l e n ot
rejecti n g rel evant concepts. It is not e n o u g h
t o u n dersta n d t h a t NASA, The ESA, a n d
th e i r co u nterpa rts i n Eastern E u ro pe h ave
n oth i n g in co m m o n with what we a re trying
to a ch i eve. One m u st a l so see what has
a ctu a l ly chan ged over the l a st 60 yea rs, a n d
w h i c h aspects o f th e i r tech n o l ogy c a n b e
a d a pted i n t h e l i g ht o f t h e present situati o n .
Zero g ravity com m u n ities a re at h a n d , o n l y
the i n ertia o f society prevents t h e m from
fo rm i n g . B ut th e i r b a s i s i s th e re , a n d we wi l l
d eve l o p th e propu lsion to reach th e m .
The fi rst step is t o consider the issues,
to engage i n d i a l o g u e with l i ke-m i nded
peo p l e . The A.Ms n etwork of g ro u ps is a
refl ection of this stage. Anyone read i n g this
ca n contri b ute . We h ave been cond itioned
by the med i a over the l a st sixty years to
p l a ce o u r h o pes a n d aspirations i n outer
space, but it is o n l y the AAA that has taken
up th is c h a l l e n g e seriously. As i n d ivid u a l s we
a re isol ated, atomised . B ut if we ca n come
tog ethe r and pool our ideas and ski l ls the n
co m m u n ity-based space trave l wi l l becom e
n ot j u st a poss i b i l ity, b u t a necessity. We
h ave been fooled, con ned i nto l etti n g
g overn m ents a n d a rm i es get i nto space on
o u r beha lf. Occasion a l ly they will d a n g l e
l ittl e tit b its i n front o f u s l i ke " l ife on M a rs "
o r " i ce on the M o o n , " b u t n oth i n g rea l l y
 9
c h a n ges. It m ust be a p p a rent that the i r
i nterests a re n ot o u rs. N ow is t h e ti me for
everyon e , for a l l of us h e re to do it fo r
o u rselves-a n d for each oth e r.
Every m a n a n d every woma n i s a n
a utonomous astro n a ut.

J o h n Eden
Ra ido AAA
 I ntervi ew on G reater
Lon d o n Rad i o B road cast
o n The Ro bert E l m s S h ow
6/12/96

Today we have a member of the

Association of Autonomous Astronauts.
Wh at?
Chris S u l l iva n : What?
What? ( l a u g h i ng). Yea h . Th e Association of
Autonomous Astrona uts .
Who a re what?
Wel l , we' re a world-wide n etwork of loca l ,
com m u n ity-based g ro u ps, a l l dedicated to
b u i l d i n g o u r own space sh i ps.

Seriously?
Yea h , very seriously.

'Cause when, e r, it h a d on my bit of pa pe r

" C h ris S u l l ivan co m i n g i n wit h a spacem a n , "
which is t h e sort o f t h i n g t h at they t e n d t o
write o n my bits o f pa per.
Rig ht. Wel l , what we wa nt to do is d estroy
the present day monopoly of space
exp l o ration which is m a i nta i n ed by th e
govern m ent a n d corporate or m i l ita ry
i nterview 6/12/96 11
i nterests.

Right.
And basica l ly open it up so th at a nybody
ca n--

0: N ot Chris!
Yea h , Ch ris if h e wants . . .

C : N o , no.
No?
C : N o . ( l a u g hs)

So co me on, Chris, tell me a bit about the

literature and stuff you have i n front of yo u .

C : Wel l , it says at t h e beg i n n i n g , h e re t h at you

often get asked by media h a cks if the AAA is all
a b i g j o ke. But then i n you r thing h e re (poi nts at
the 1 st An n u a l Re port) you h ave this thing a bout
" Roaches i n S pace, " where you sent two, e r,
cockroach es i nto s pace a n d it says that practica l
details such as toilets a n d p hysical exercise fo r
the i n h a bitants of the ca b i n lead to del ays a n d
problems.
Wel l , the Roaches in Space p roj ect was some
peo p l e in Fra n ce; I rep resent a London­
based g ro u p , so I ca n 't rea l ly spea k for ev­
e ryon e .
B ut yo u a re serious a bout it?
Oh yea h , we a re seri o u s a bout it, a n d when
peo p l e ask if we're a joke or if it's a meta p h o r
for someth i n g else w e h ave t o tel l t h e m " n o "

So i f there's a g ro u p you m u st have meetings?

Wel l , as I 've sa id it's a n etwork, and we h ave
a five-yea r p l a n that sta rted on Apri l the
23rd , 1 99 5 , which was a lso the offici a l l a u nch
of the AAA . And th at five-yea r plan is to
esta b l ish by the yea r 2000 a world-wide
n etwork of loca l , com m u n ity-based g ro u ps.

B ut what 's the a i m o f the organ isation? To get

you up in rockets?
We l l , the i m m e d i ate a i m is to set up th at
wo rl d-wide n etwork. And as a n etwork it
a l l ows to travel in severa l d i rections at once.
I n othe r words we don't h ave a fixed agenda
for h ow we a re g o i n g to esca pe from g ravity.
If you look at oth er o rg a n i sations l i ke NASA,
they h ave to h ave a very fixed n otion of h ow
to travel i nto space.

They also h ave to h ave about 80 b i l l i o n po u n d s !

(laug hs)
C: Th at's wh at I was sayi n g-it's the spondool icks
which will get i n the way, somewhat-I wo u l d
h ave t h o u g ht?

I s it a n expensive b u s i n ess-space t ravel?

We l l it can be, and at the moment it is. But
our response to that is that if you look at the
interview 6/12/96 13
way that tech n o l ogy has deve l o ped over the
20th centu ry, these th i n g s eventu a l l y beco m e
chea p e r a n d more a ccess i b l e . If y o u loo k a t
co m p uters fo r exa m p l e ; when the fi rst
com p uter ca m e out i n the forties or fifti es, it
cost h u n d reds of thousa nds of pounds. B ut
n ow you ca n buy a com p uter for a fraction of
the price a n d it's fa r more powerfu l as wel l .

You can n i p d own t o Dixo n s .

Exactly.

What do you do to furt h e r y o u r a i m s ? do you

design ships? What a re you r specific kind of . . .
We l l th e n otion o f b e i n g a b l e t o trave l i n
severa l d i recti ons a t once m e a n s that we' re
n ot o n l y con cerned with the tech n o l ogy.

Right.
What m a kes us d ifferent to oth e r space
p rog ra mmes is that we' re fa r more i nterested
in wh at's g o i n g to h a ppen when we a ctua l ly
g et out there . We' re n ot j u st i nterested i n
tech n o l ogy itself, we're i nterested i n how
the tech n o l ogy is u sed . We're i nterested i n
t h e new possi bi l ities that a re g o i n g t o open
u p when we beg i n to form a utonomous
com m u n ities i n space. We' re i nterested in
the ki n d of l ives th at we're g o i n g to be able
to constru ct for o u rselves when we g et i nto
zero g ravity.

So is th ere a kind of po l itica l/m oral aspect to a l l

t h i s?-l s i t a n a rchists i n space?
It's not a n a rchists in space, as I 've said we
d o n 't h ave any kind of ideol ogy. We want
a nyone and everyon e to get invo lved . We
see it from the perspective of evo l ution as
wel l . We th i n k that the n ext stage i n h u m a n
evo l ution is t o go i nto space.

Chris has barely esca ped from the l ast stage . . .

C : Yea h . { M u m bles). I know y o u told m e t h at
t h ese a re very serious s u bjects, but havi n g
been sent t h i s t h i n g [th e 1 st An n u a l Report], I
m u st q u ote, it says t h at at o n e t i m e we wanted
to l a u nch some b a l l o o n s at the Copper H o rse
stat u e o utside of Windsor Castle a n d you
co u l d n 't at 3 p m beca u se of engine t ro u b l e of
yo u r cars. I d o n 't t h i n k B uzz Aldrin wo u l d h ave
been ca u g ht in t raffic!
We l l he obvi o u s ly d i d n 't h ave to d e a l with
the M 2 5 , d i d h e?

{ La u g hter) It's true, t h o u g h , he has a point, Ch ris.

B uzz d i d h ave a very d ifferent set of p ro blems.
C: And a n other pa rt of it-a l ot of it is on a bout
m a rita l re l ationshi ps in space. And I q u ote, one
of the t h i n g s t h at it says tried to d o here: " e l astic
belts a ro u n d the t h i g h s of the two pa rtners"
{ i n dist i n ct) " b uttocks a n d g ro i n "--
O o h ! This s o u n d s l i ke it's getting s a u cy!
i n terview 6/12/96 15
I h ave to exp l a i n that. Th e document that
yo u ' re referri n g to is o n e that we fou n d ,
a l legedly from NASA, ta l k i n g a bout h ow
th ey try a n d e n a b l e peo p l e to have sex i n
space . N ow, th is is a n i m porta nt aspect to
o u r p ro g ra m m e . As fa r as we kn ow, n o-one's
a ctu a l ly d o n e it i n space, a n d the document
yo u've j u st read o ut from is s u p posed ly a
NASA document. Th ey ta l k a bout
" conti n u i n g n o rm a l ma rita l re l ations" in
space.

C: What-arguing with your missus,

s u ppose? (laug hs)
We l l , we' re sayi n g that we're n ot i nterested
in g o i n g i nto space if a l l yo u ' re g o i n g to do
when you g et there is rep l i cate the same
kind of con d itions that cu rrently preva i l on
th is p l a n et. Y' kn ow-wh at's the poi nt? Our
sex i n space hypoth esis is that i n zero g ravity
it's g o i n g to be even better. Which is why it's
i m porta nt that we g et u p there a n d we
con d u ct certa i n experi m ents to test out that
hypoth esis.

I mea n , taking you seriously for a while­

a n d I ' m prepared to do that, how fa r away
do you t h i n k it is before there a re a lternative,
non-governmenta l forays into space?
We l l , it's a l ready h a ppen i n g .
(Utter disbelief) . N o ! It's not !
It is! In America there a re severa l p rivate
e nterprise projects a i m i n g to g et i nto space,
some of them ta l k a bout in the next five
yea rs. Recently there's been someth i n g
ca l led th e "X Prize Fou n d ation " sta rted u p ,
which is basica l ly $ 1 0 bi l l ion for the fi rst
p rivately-fu n d ed spacecraft that gets i nto
su b-orbita l fl i g ht. So that's not even fu l l
orbita l fl i g ht, but a bout 1 00 km .

Wo u l d you go, Chris?

C: I d o n 't even l i ke trave l l i n g on the tube.
Wel l , the point I ' m trying to m a ke is that
peo p l e a re th i n ki n g a bout these things, but
rath erthan it bei n g contro l led by govern ment
o r corpo rate o r m i l ita ry i nterests­
Pa rticu larly the American government.
-and a lso s i m p ly rathe r tha n it becom i n g a n
extension o f t h e tou rist i n d ustry or-
Because that's the other way it's l i kely to go,
isn't it? H otels i n space . . .
Yea h . There's a J a p a n ese com pany th at's
a l ready got p l a n s fo r b u i l d i n g h ote ls on the
moo n . And they did a recent s u rvey in J a p a n
a n d th ey reckon ed there'd be a bout 800,000
people that wou l d be wi l l i n g to pay a l ot of
mon ey-
C: Wel l , the J aps wi l l go a nywhere, eh?
i n t e rview 6/12/96 17
With th e i r cam eras, yea h . The point is th ere
is a l ot of i nterest, these th ings a re g o i n g to
h a p p e n , the tech n o l ogy is g o i n g to get
cheaper a n d m o re ava i la b l e a n d there is a
stru g g l e over h ow that tech n o l ogy is g o i n g
t o be used .

So, how many peop le a re taking pa rt i n the

struggle from your side? H ow m a ny
mem bers of the AAA?
At the moment ( l a u g h s) it's difficu lt to g ive
yo u a precise n u m ber. I can say that there's
a bout th i rteen d ifferent g roups a cross the
worl d , that's m a i n ly th is country, Fra n ce,
Ita ly. . . Scotl a n d as wel l . And , as I say, by the
yea r 2000 we hope to exten d that n etwork
a cross the world-a n d beyond .

So no-one's sitting at home building suits

out of tin foi l or anything?
N o-we're fa r m o re serious than that.
C: And what do you think about the whole
hypothesis that the whole space prog ramme,
the moon landing, was fa ked?

My G randma bel ieved that.

C: Because we had this chap i n who's a

photographic journal ist and he's absolutely
co nvi nced that it was a co mplete and utter
fa k e .
We l l , the on ly way is fo r us to b u i l d o u r own
spaces h i ps a n d go up there a n d check it out.

I'm not g o i n g .
C : No, there has to be a b i t more on t h e
moon f o r me.
Foo d !
C: Food, rather than d ust. A n d beaches.
N i g ht-cl ubs, clothes shops . . .
We l l , we've g ot a rave-i n-space p ro g ra m m e .

(laug hs). Rea l ly?

Oh yea h , defi n ite ly. We've a l ready got
people who a re research i n g the ki n d of
m usic that wou l d be the most appropriate
for th at kind of envi ro n ment.

I should rea l ly have chosen something l i ke

" Star m a n " o r something, shouldn't I ? But I
thought it wou l d be a chea p shot . So you've
got U B40 instead . . .
(fades t o t h e atrocious " 1 i n 1 O")
 19

Who Own s O uter S pace?

It is a tru ism that i n cu rrent soci ety y o u can

h ave anyth i n g you wa nt, as long as you ca n
affo rd to p ay the p rice. Everyth i n g is o n e big
sho p window on p l a n et earth, a n d for those
of us tired of sho pp i n g , with d rawa l often
seems l i ke the best so l ution . B ut i ncreasi n g ly,
even the aven ues of esca pe a re being
a u ctio n ed off to th e h i g h est bidders.
An org a n isation ca l l in g itself the Lu n a r
Embassy1 is a l ready sel l i n g t h e m o o n piece
by p i ece. $ 1 6 d o l l a rs ( p l us tax a n d sh i pp i ng ,
o f co u rse) wi l l b u y you a 1 ,7 7 7 acre patch o n
t h e l i g ht-side .
. . . probably th e most romantic and
origin a l present you could ever give to
a loved one. Sharing this gift under a
full moon has become th e pass-tim e of
many of our clients, roman tics and
visionaries from a ll over the world.
The Lu n a r Em bassy boasts 1 6 yea rs i n
busi n ess a n d / over 7 ,000 satisfied custom­
1

e rs, i n c l u d i n g two forme r U S Presidents!

11 •

Reg istered u n d e r th e U S H o mestead Act of

1 862, th e i r " ri g ht" to do th is is the a n cient
swi n d l e yet aga i n :
It's a bit like the old west: Who sta kes
th eir cla im on a piece of la nd get th e
best property. . . . as the Americans were
 th e first to wa lk on th e moon a n d pla n t
th eir flag o n it. . . it could be argued tha t
i f th e Moon b e lon g e d to anyone, it
certain ly b e lo n gs more to th e USA than
a ny oth er nation .
It is, a d m ittedly, e a rly days yet-a nd
we' re s u re that the l e g a l ity of th is ventu re
wi l l be c h a l lenged (not l east by the U n iversa l
Lu n a ri a n Society, who a re sel l i n g off ch u n ks
of th e l u n a r crater Copern icus for $50 a n
a c re2) . I t seem s l i kely that th e a rg u m en t wi l l
revolve a ro u n d who owns th e moon a n d
p l a n ets, rather th a n if s u c h a concept is
d esi ra b l e i n the fi rst p l ace .
The Association o f Autonomous Astro­
n a uts a re trying to ach ieve n ew ways of l iv­
i n g in o uter space. Ways that go way beyond
o u r con ceptions of existen ce on p l a n et earth .
Ways that a l l ow people to ach ieve th e i r fu l l
potenti a ls, exercise th e i r i m a g i n ations a n d . . .
wel l , we don't even know the rest yet.
We've been worki n g towa rds this a i m
for two yea rs n ow and we' re on ly beg i n n i n g
t o see t h e fu l l extent o f t h e possi b i l ities.
We' re a l so beg i n n i n g to see our ideas
beco m e co-opted by the powers that be. At
the end of last yea r NASA and the S pace
Tra nsport Association (a n a l l i a n ce of sixteen
a e rospace fi rms)3 s i g n ed a n a g reement
" with a view to esta b l ish i n g a space tou rism
 w h o o w n s o u t e r space? 21
b u s i n ess"4• D r J ack M a n sfi e l d , who sig n ed
the a g reement for NASA h a d this to say:
Up till now, spa ce has been a yo ung
m a n 's game, a n astronaut game, a
government game. Soon it will be
a nybody's game, as costs com e down .
From n o w on, NASA is in th e busin ess
of h e lping people to make money out
of spa ce.
We ex p ect to h ave o u r ideas ri pp ed off,
but we're fa r from h a ppy at h avi n g them
sold back to us at a profit afterwa rds.
S pa ce Tou rism looks l i ke the big th i n g
for the n ext decade, with e a r l y esti m ates
(both J a p a n ese a n d Ameri ca n) putti n g
fl i g hts a t t h e yea r 20 1 0. Don't h o l d yo u r
b reath , thoug h . It l ooks l i ke a n other d iversion
for the oh so world-weary rich . $4,000 d o l l a rs
a ticket wi l l g a i n e ntry to the pro posed
" space h ote l s " wh i ch wi l l i n c l u d e a l l the usu a l
con s u m a b l es l i ke sports fac i l ities, TV, a l ow
g ravity shower, ka raoke, a n d a window view
of th e Ea rth (S) . Even when the price i n evita b l y
decreases, the p ros p ect o f " B utl i n s " on t h e
moon is too d isg usti n g a waste to
contem p l ate . We don 't want to l eave the
p l a n et o n ly to fi n d a n other H i g h Street fu l l of
WH S m iths a n d B u rger Kings.
Th e moon i s a ba rren waste land . . . s u n ­
bath ing i s o u t beca use there i s n o ozon e
 layer to sh ield you from radia tion . 6
To u rism is a bout m a i nta i n i n g you r
com posure, a bout bri n g i n g yo u r h a n g u ps
a n d paroch i a l attitudes to oth er p l a ces. It is
a steri l e , p re-packaged adventu re to take
you r m i n d off the stresses of home. We want
to travel , to exp lore, to ta ke control of o u r
own l ives a n d s h a re o u r experiences with
th ose we encou nter. We wa nt to ta ke
c h a n ces, not h o l iday sna ps.
T h e Cath o l i c Ch u rch has a l so entered
th e pictu re . Fou r centuries after b u rn i n g p h i ­
l osopher G i o rd a n a B ru n o at th e sta ke fo r
having the tem erity to sugg est that th e re
may be a n i nfi n ite a m o u nt of p l a n ets, th e y
h ave a lso tea m ed u p with NASA7. Fath er
Georg e Coyn e, D i rector of th e Vatica n Ob­
servatory, is l ooki n g fo r l ife on oth er p l a n ­
ets-so h e ca n convert th em t o Ch ristian ity.
Words fa i l us!
As ever, the most i nteresti n g
d eve l o p m ents l i e outside o f the shopping
p reci n cts a n d boa rd rooms. Th e street fi nds
its uses for everyth i n g . There is a l ready a
n etwork of hobbyists b u i l d i n g rockets i n
th e i r g a rden sh eds a n d g a rages. A g ro u p of
h a ckers worki n g u n d e r th e name H 4G 1 3
m a n aged to bri n g chaos to NASA's WWW
server earl ie r th is yea r8 with a fraction of th e i r
com puti n g power a n d resou rces. The AAA
 23
doesn't n eed a business p l a n to get off the
p l a n et-the most powerfu l rocket fue l we
h ave is the p ower of i m a g i nation .
Smash the h otels! Sq uat the m oo n !

Raido AAA

1 http://www. m o o n s h o p . com/
2 " Space col o n i sts sta rt buying land on moon at $50
a n a c re " Sun day Times, 5/1 /97
3 Possibly the s a m e mysteri o u s sixteen fi rms i n volved
i n the H . 0 . M . E . proj e ct m e ntioned i n the Press Offi­
ce r's Report? Appa rently they i n cl u d e Lockh eed, H o n ­
eywe l l , American Express, N o rthwest Ai rl i n e , and H i l ­
t o n Hote l s .
4 " Book a Day Tri p to th e Sta rs " Observer Sunday Re­
view, u n d ated p ress c l i p p i n g ea rly 1 997
5 "Watch T h i s Space" Sun day Telegraph, 4/2/97 &
" J a p a n ese Tou ri sts to B l a st Off for the Fi n a l Frontier"
Guardia n, 1 1 /2/97
6 " O u t of th i s worl d " - a rticle on space tou rism in High
Life (u n dated a i rl i n e m agazine)
7 " But cou l d ET b e l i eve i n G od ? " Sunday Telegraph,
4/2/97
8 " H ackers P i e rce NASA N et " Wash ington Post,
7/3/97
Sex i n S pace

Of a l l the th i n gs peo p l e do, at h o m e and i n

p rivate, usua l l y with close friends, sex a l one
is s u bject to extrao rd i n a ry i nterference a n d
contro l fro m outside forces. Th is is n o
a ccident-everybody is awa re o f its power.
Even if on ly for a few moments, i n d ivid u a l s
ca n rel ease a power a n d e n e rgy from with i n
th at renders any system o f soci ety, or reg i m e,
m ea n i n g l ess. It i s a l i be rator. Even som e o n e
i n so l ita ry confi n ement ca n i n d u l g e i n it and
i n th e i r fa ntasies trave l i nto any situation or
poss i b i l ity unfettered , a n d , at the moment
of orgasm itself, to be both b l i ssfu l ly
vu l n era b l e a n d u n d e n i a b l y free, e lsewh ere,
fi l led with e n e rgy.
Th e rep ression of sexua l i n sti n cts fu n c­
ti ons to make peo p l e s u b m i ssive a n d in­
c l i n ed to i rratio n a l behaviour a n d th us pa­
ra lyses their potenti a l for rebe l l ion and l eav­
i n g the p l a n et.
Sexu a l ity is as fu nda menta l as it is
u n iversa l . We h ave, th erefore, fou n d it rather
sad that o u r researches i nto sex in space
have so fa r turned up very l ittl e. NASA's
poverty of thought is demonstrated yet
a g a i n when th ey push sex ri ght to th e
bottom of th e i r agenda a n d even deny it.
T h i s is h a rd l y surprisi n g when we co nsider
sex i n s pace 25
that the org a n isation is made up of e n g i n eers
a n d q u asi-so l d iers. It is a patri a rchy l i ke a l l
state-agencies. N i n ety p e rcent of a l l NASA
a strona uts h ave been ma le, even th o u g h
wom e n m a ke better o n es (by a n d l a rg e they
eat l ess, ta ke u p l ess roo m , n eed l ess oxyge n ,
a n d i n zero g ravity th e n eed fo r physica l
stre n gth i s m i n i ma l) . The fi rst fem a l e
a stro n a ut wasn 't even consu lted a b o ut h e r
m e n stru a l cycle b y t h e boys i n the
backroom-they j u st packed 2 yea rs' supply
of ta m pons on board a n d scuttled off!
Al l of the l iteratu re we have seen on the
s u bject repeats the d u l l p h rases of efficiency
a n d repression : " a stro n a uts face a workl oad
busy e n o u g h to e n s u re such matters a re not
a pri o rity. H owever a n y futu re fl i g ht to M a rs,
for exa m pl e , wou l d ta ke a very long ti m e ,
a n d the phys i ca l a n d psych o l o g i ca l we l l­
being of the crew may d rive t h i s s u bject
onto the agenda . " , " i n-fl i g ht i ntercou rse
wou l d h e l p rel i eve a strona uts of the
enormous a m o u nt of stress they u n d e rgo
d u ri n g m issions. " It is the l a n g uage of dead,
sexl ess l ives, of work making J a ck a d u l l boy.
We h ave been u n a b l e to come u p with
a n y refere n ces to mastu rbatio n in outer
space and have therefore surmised that ei­
ther a) it h a s occu rred but h a s been covered
up,
b) o n l y sexu a l ly repressed astrona uts a re
selected,
c) some kind of m i l ita ry equ iva lent to
bromide i n tea is being uti l ised .
H owever, sex is such a n atura l , vita l p a rt of
l ife that it wi l l emerg e reg a rd l ess . . .
Wh i l st NASA wi l l o n ly state that the fi rst
m a rried cou p l e to go on a m ission together
were on the space sh uttle Endeavo u r in
September 1 992, their cou nterpa rts i n the
for m e r Sovi et U n i o n a re n ot so bashfu l . We
have d iscovered that Svetla n a Savicka , a
Russia n cosmo n a ut, fucked freely i n J a lj ut 7
as fa r back a s J u n e 1 982. Wh i l st we a p p l a u d
t h i s , w e a re saddened b y h e r bosses'
response which was j u st to i n itiate a p l a n to
con ceive the fi rst c h i l d i n outer space, as if
sex was m e rely for procreati on
The Association of Autonomous Astro­
n a uts is eager to p romote a m eta a pproach
to sex i n zero g ravity. We rej ect utterly cu r­
rent space p rog ram m es a n d their prioritisa­
tion of work over play, of commerce over
pleasure . We bel i eve that sex wi l l be even
better in o uter space a n d th at it shou l d be
freely ava i l a b l e for a l l . One o n ly has to look
at any of the n u merous fetish magazi n es to
see the i m mense amou nts of creativity that
h u m a n ity h a s put i nto its sexua l ity, a n d we
expect th is to i n crease i n outer space as n ew
sex i n s p ace 27
d i mensions a n d possi b i l ities open u p .
E l a i n e Lern er, a n American i nventor, h a s
a l ready p atented a h a rn ess t o a l l ow one
pa rtne r to exercise control of the movements
of the h i ps of the other partner d u r i n g a
zero-g fuck. And many bondage enth usiasts
a re a l ready experi menti n g with g ravity­
defyi n g pu l l eys a n d ropes to e n h a n ce th e i r
orgasms. We pred i ct t h a t a who l e ra nge of
n ew sexua l expression wi l l beg i n when we
form a utonomous com m u n ities in outer
space. Not j u st the n ew positions that zero
g ravity wi l l a l l ow, but whole n ew ways of
re l ati n g to each oth er. Va ria b l e g ravity wi l l
m a ke extremes poss i b l e for S&M enth usiasts,
a n d we expect a whole range of n ew fetish ists
a n d pervs to emerge, once free from the
restri ctions and g u i lt of p l a n et earth . As we
adapt to l ife without a p l a n et, o u r bodies
and org a n s may evo lve i nto someth i n g else
enti re l y, either th rough n ew forms of body
mod ificatio n , or just fro m l ivi n g in new
enviro n ments. The possi b i l ities a re l i m itl ess.
The AAA is eagerly awa iti n g the c h a n ce
to take th e i r bod ies to n ew peaks of pleasure
i n the d e pths of space.
Down with restriction ! P l ayti m e forever!

Luth er B l issett
Ra ido AAA
 Off the Map !

On a recent tri p to Lon d o n , AM M aya were

p rivi l eged to pa rtici pate i n what was deemed
by certa i n med i a sou rces a s "the best d a n ce
pa rty i n h i story" 1 , a n d , by th ose l ess i nvo lved,
" ri ot frenzy " 2 •
It had b e e n advertised as a two day
festiva l of resi sta n ce a n d was partly org a n ised
by Recl a i m The Streets3 .
After a carn iva l l i ke sau nte r t h ro u g h
Lon d o n a n d a b i t o f excitement outside
Down i n g Street, we a rrived to a buzz of
a ntici pati o n i n Trafa l g a r S q u a re . The arriva l
of the sou n d system (expertly d riven i n , we
m i g ht add) sig n a l l ed the rush of raw energy
n estl i n g in the h e a rt of a l l those there,
b l asting them i nto a n ew space.
It is th ese tem pora ry l a u n ch pads that
we a re i nterested i n . Sound systems a re the
rhyth m i c rocket fue l that aid access i nto
spa ces where i nspirati on a n d ideas a re born .
T h e govern m e nt, u n kn owi n g ly, is assisti n g i n
th is evo l uti o n a ry step . T h e i r d e n i a l o f basic
h u m a n soci a l a ctiviti es has created a cu rrent
of resista n ce . Th is cu rrent is beco m i n g m o re
awa re that ideas a re masks that can be
 29
adopted for the pu rpose of adopti n g more
ideas. To sta ke cl a i m to a n idea is to be
tra p p ed by it. I d eas a re h e l d in ord e r to fi n d
the i r o pposite, or shadow. O n ce th is is
a ch i eved a n ew space opens a l l owi n g n ew
opportu n ities, ideas a n d feel i ngs. The o l d
ideas a re n ot j u st d isca rded, but m uch l i ke
a n o l d treasu red record a re put to th e back
of a pile and p layed "when the mood fits " .
T h e government's attem pt a t destroyi n g
the rave cu ltu re h a s b e e n responsi b l e for
what is p ro ba bly the l a rgest i l l eg a l pa rty th is
cou ntry h a s ever seen , s l a p b a n g i n th e
m i d d l e of fu cki n ' Lon d o n .
B ut as a l l a stro n a uts kn ow, l a u n ch pads
d o n 't h ave to be big or loud (space trave l is
often very q u i et) .
The setti n g u p of tem pora ry l a u n ch
pads a n d the recla i m i n g of o l d o n es, such a s
Sto n e h e n g e , is fu n d a menta l t o o u r evo l utio n .
D a n ce i n th e face of g ravity ! ! !

AAA M aya

Notes
1 M ixmag
2 The Express on Sunday
3 I n conj u n ction with the Liverpool Dock ers' march.
orted in the New York Times Dec 1 5th 1 960
 M u s i n g s o n the M eteo rites

"Is th ere life on Mars ?

IS THERE LIFE ON MARS?
Is th ere life in Peckh a m ? "

Alexe i Sayle-H a l l o J o h n , gotta n ew motor?

And so yet a n other wonderfu l chapter i n th e
h isto ry of the u n iverse opens. Th ere's l ife on
M a rs ! Rea l ly? Wel l , sort of. It's d ifficu lt to get
to g ri ps with a n y rea l a n a lysis amon gst so
m u ch noise, but we wi l l try.
Someone (NASA) fou n d someth i n g
(ma g n etite) i n a meteorite (ALH 8400 1 ) from
M a rs, o r somewhere . And it looks l i ke it
m i g ht1 be the sort of th i n g that a on e-ce l led
orga n ism m ig ht h ave l eft beh i n d it if it were
wi b b l i n g a bout m i l l i ons of years ago.
Th e day before C l i nto n stood i n the
Wh ite H o use h a rp i n g on a bout th e US's
" ag g ressive " space p rogra m m e being
"vi n d i cated " by the fi n d "in th ese h a rsh
eco n o m i c times"2, his com petitor Bob Dole
l a u n ched h i s " Re p u b l i ca n N ation a l P latform "
conta i n i n g a co m m itment to a m a n n ed fl i g ht
to M a rs if e l ected . (And we' re i n the m i dd l e
of p re-e lecti on fever a t t h e ti me o f writi n g . . . )
m u s i ngs 31
The g lo b a l media then whi pped up a
frenzy of feel-good reports-often n i cely
p a ckaged with H o l l ywood g l itz i n the s h a p e
of foota ge from the fi l m " I ndependence
Day. " J ust a s wa rs a n d d isasters i n oth er
co u ntries seem to m a g i ca l ly appear to d ivert
attention away from tro u b l e at home, the
fossi l on the meteorite a rrived s p l at i n the
m i d d l e of "th ese h a rsh economic ti m es " .
And before th e tests a re even com p l eted
Russia a n d the U SA a re a l ready com peti n g
with e a c h oth er t o get t o M a rs n ext yea r3, at
an esti mated cost of $ 1 50 m i l l ion per l a u n c h .
W h y did th is exciti n g revel ation occu r
th is yea r, when NASA was worryi n g m i g hti ly
a bout its budget? And h ow d oes th is fit in
with a 30 yea r old U S G overn ment Report4
that suggests that a n y d iscoveries of
evid e n ce of a l i en l ife s h o u l d be with h e l d
from t h e genera l p u b l i c for s o m e yea rs for
reasons of p u b l i c order?
G overn ment space agencies a g a i n
show th e i r co rru ption . The l ife on M a rs spec­
ta cle is j u st a n other cha pter i n a the h i sto ry
of j i n goism, oppression, self a g g ra n d ise­
ment a n d e l ectioneeri n g . Aga i n we see the
possi b i l ities for space exp l o ration used l i ke
cou nters i n the g a m e of g l o b a l pol itics, j u st
l i ke th ose oth er counters: wa r, poverty, sta r­
vation a n d every con ceiva b l e fo rm of torture .
 The AAA has said ti me and time aga i n
that i t is futi l e t o expect a n y steps towa rds
esta b l is h i n g com m u n ities i n space from
th ese agen cies. They req u i re a popu l ation
i m prisoned on th is p l a n et for their very
existence.
The point is not wh ether l ife existed on
M a rs m i l l i ons of yea rs ago. The point is
WHAT a re NASA a n d th e i r opposites in
Russia a n d E u rope going to USE that
knowledge for. The po i nt, as ever, is what
ki n d of l ife is there fo r the rest of us wh i l e th e
hypocritica l back-s l a p p i n g i n the Wh ite
H o use a n d the top secret m i l ita ry i n sta l l ations
conti n u es?
Ta l ki n g a bout l ife on p l a n et earth is l i ke
ta l ki n g about ro pe i n the h o use of a
h a n g ed m a n .
Raido AAA

1 " N ew doubt over ' l ife on M a rs' fin d i n g s " Electro n i c

Te l e g raph U K N ews Thursday 3 October 1 996
2 Speech at White House on Search for Life on M a rs
Conference August 7, 1 996, 1 :34 p . m .
3 NASA l a u n c h t h e " M a rs G l o b a l S u rveyor" 6/1 1 /96. Russia
to fol l ow with " M ars 96 " o n 1 6/1 1 /96
4 " Proposed Stu dies on the I m p l i cations of Peacefu l Space
Activities for H u m a n Affa i rs " , B rooki ngs Institute report
d e l ivered to the Comm ittee on Lon g R a n g e Stu d i es, NASA,
N ovember 1 960. Subm itted by NASA to the 87th Congress,
1 st Sess i o n , April 1 8, 1 96 1 . House Report #242, Serial Set Vol
#2, # 1 2338. Reported in the N ew York Times Dec 1 5th 1 960
 33

Raido AAA Vi e n n a
Co nfere n ce Report

I a rrived i n Vi e n n a with t h e representative of

S h effi e l d 's I n n er S pace Age n cy (I SA) after a n
e njoya b l e , b u t d e l ayed fl ig ht. A s the
u n derg ro u n d system had s h ut down for the
day we made our way to P u b l i c N etbase by
foot. We d iscussed 80s i n d u stri a l m usic,
math e m ati c m od e l l i n g a n d wheth er we were
l ost. We eventu a l ly a rrived at P u b l i c N etbase
fee l i n g p retty exh a u sted but exh i l a rated a n d
were welcomed b y severa l a utonomous
a stro n a uts from Lon d o n , Fra n ce a n d Vien n a .
We ta l ked for a wh i l e a n d th en g ot o u r heads
down i n p re p a ration fo r the m o rn i n g .
I slept wel l a n d d reamt of deserts, g i a n t
butterfl ies, a n d stra nge mach ines.

Satu rday m o rn i n g was spent p l a n n i n g our

a ctivities, we l co m i n g oth e rs a n d exp l o ri n g
the enviro n m ent. Vie n n a w a s a welcome
c h a n g e from Lon d o n . Some of u s had a
wa n d e r rou n d to get some s u p p l i es a n d take
it a l l i n . The verd i ct was " pretty, if over
reg i m ented . "
We returned to P u b l i c N etbase for
l u n c h . The com p l ex is situ ated i n the centre
of Vie n n a , with the rest of th e M useums,
wh i ch meant we were s l eepi n g with i n a
stone's th row of both the s u p posed Spear of
Desti ny a n d severa l Bosch paintings. N et­
base struck me as a p retty coo l p l a ce to be­
n i ce kitchen, loads of I S D N term i n a ls, n ice
peo p l e.
After eati n g , we h eaded over to the h a l l
where t h e conference was being h e l d . It was
i m p ressively big. A pyra m i d a l spaces h i p had
been co nstructed i n the centre of the h a l l
a n d loca l kids from th e Ki nder M useu m had
decorated it i n the weeks l ead i n g u p to the
conference. Th e decor inside th e sh i p was
su ita b ly psych ede l i c (in sta rk contrast to the
i nterio r of NASA spacesh ips which a re d u l l as
fuck) . Th e s h i p incl uded a n u m ber of moni­
tors and other a rtefacts, and a p latform for
va rious uses (th is was l ater used for ski n n i n g
u p b y s o m e del egates d u ri n g the rave i n
space tra i n i n g) . A representative from I n ner
City AAA had been workin g with some of the
kids to deve l o p a website outl i n i n g the i r phi­
l osop h i es for l iving i n space. I fo u n d the vi­
s u a l e l ements to be very i nteresting, but was
u n a b l e to deci p h e r m uch of the text beca use
it was (natu ra l ly) in Germa n . However Ra ido
AAA d e legates were p l eased to fi nd a n u m­
ber of para l l e l s with the kids' ideas to our
raido aaa v i e n n a c o n fe r e n c e 35
own . They had col l ectively decided to n a m e
th e sh i p "Achtu n g ! W i r Kommen ! " (AWK) ,
which transl ates as "Watch out! H e re we
come! " An a d m i ra b l e senti ment! Some of
the afternoon was spent ta l ki n g to the kids
a bout su bj ects as d iverse as l ife i n space,
skateboa rd i n g , m usic and going to school in
Austria and Eng l a n d . They were wel l i nto it.
Oth e r tha n the spacesh i p the h a l l a l so
conta i n ed
• A wa l l display of AAA propa g a n d a a n d
confere n ce deta i ls.
•
A Bar
• A n u m be r o f I S D N term i n a ls i n su ita bly
" a l ien " s h e l l s .
•
An i nformatio n , l iteratu re a n d m e rch a n ­
d ise sta l l .
•
A stack of video mon ito rs p l aying AAA
tra i n i n g fi l ms a n d oth e r m ateri a l ( l i ke the
Sun Ra fi l m)
•
A stag e with a n u m be r of screens, m ies, a
lectern , reco rd a n d CD decks a n d m ixers.

Public N etbase h a d excel l ed themse lves

with the confere n ce broch u re, a h ug e poster
with AAA texts p ri nted on the reverse . When
exploring the town we saw that many of
them h a d been fly-posted a ro u n d the p lace.
A specia l confere n ce edition of Esca pe from
G ravity h a d a lso been p rod u ced , a n d a
 n u m ber of specia l co nference t-s h i rts h a d
b e e n pri nted b y I n n e r City AAA with a
" S pace Trave l By Any Means Necessa ry"
slogan on the front a n d the conference logo
on the back. There were two cool kids from
the Kinder M useum wea ri n g th ese t-sh i rts
d o i n g door d uties. Th ey fl uctu ated between
we l co m i n g the parents of the kids invo lved
in making the s h i p , a n d skateboa rd i n g
a ro u n d l i ke demons.
Satu rday afte rn o on was the
offi ci a l
l a u nch of t h e AWK s h i p a n d some TV crew
a n d oth er med i a peo p l e sh owed up to check
it out. DJ Pita had been brought i n to provide
sou n d s for the occasion, w h i ch was g reat for
o u r own J o h n Eden beca use h e went to
sch ool with h i m . I n fa ct the ta pes Pita d i d fo r
J o h n a bout 1 2 yea rs ago probably p l ay a
l a rge part i n the poor b l o ke's twisted outlook
n ow. The kids d a n ced and ra n a bout l i ke
kids d a m n we l l shou l d , but some of the
rath e r more mature peo p l e p resent seemed
a l ittl e u n n e rved by the wa l l of sou nd, a n d
Pita 's set w a s cruel ly c u rta i l ed .
There was m u ch spec u l ation amon gst
the d e l eg ates on the l o n g term effects of
AAA ideas on such a brig ht, creative
sel ection of you n g astro n a uts-we awa it the
n ext few yea rs with i nterest!
ra i d o aaa v i e n n a c o n fe r e n c e 37
T h e eve n i n g saw a n u m ber of s p ea kers take
the sta g e . Th e p roceed i n g s we re i ntrod u ced
a n d com pe red by Kon rad Becker of P u b l i c
N etbase . The ru n n i n g order w a s as fo l l ows.
An I n n e r City AAA d e l egate gave a ta l k
i ntroducing the ideas a n d h i story of th e AAA .
It was wel l rece ived .
N ext u p was Fiore l l a Terenzi, who was
b i l l ed a s "a cross between Carl S a g a n a n d
M a d o n n a " . I fou n d h e r presentatio n style i n ­
teresti n g , b u t the content w a s o f l ittl e u s e to
o u r g ro u p . Fiore l l a is i nterested i n the vi bra­
ti o n s of the u n iverse. She ta l ked u s thro u g h
som e b a s i c a stronomy a n d p hysics with
some CD-Roms she had prod u ced as a vi­
s u a l a i d . The actua l sounds made by the vi­
bratio n s she has stud i ed were a g reat sel ec­
tion of g a rga ntu a n rum b l i n g a n d h a rsh fre­
q u e n cies. I was p l eased to h e a r that Fiore l l a
h a d been i n s p i red t o p ro d u ce h e r own m u ­
s i c b y t h e sou nds. U nfort u n ately t h e resu lts
were (in my o p i n i o n . . . ) cob b l e rs tin kly a m bi­
ent d o l p h i n crysta l-hea l i n g u n i co rn music. A
s h a m e . The rest of h e r ta l k took a sim i l a r
tu rn-a rathe r n ew-agey fee l . N evert h e l ess,
she has p resence a n d it was in good contrast
to the rest of the even i n g !
Professor Werner W Weiss from the
U n iversity of Vi e n n a spoke about the h istory
of science a n d space travel . I ' m not s u re
what h e made of the rest of it, but it was
q u ite fu n n y watch i n g h i m try to fra m e the
p roceed i n g s in som e kind of academic
context, even one presented to l ay-peo ple.
H e d ro n ed on a bit, but I l i ked h i m .
T h e I n n e r Space Age n cy del egate was
u n s u re wh eth er h e wo u l d present a ta l k at a l l ,
but ca m e u p with t h e goods after bei n g
bri bed with beer tokens. It was a n exce l l ent
d isco u rse that took in M a rxist theory, slag
h e a ps, (u n)e m p l oyment a n d space. H ea rtfelt
and to the point. An i ntroduction to the ta l k
a ppears i n issue 3 of Autotoxicity ma gazi n e .
D i e l n stitut fu r La ngstreckenfl uge
p resented a video report con cern i n g the
isolation of outer space trave l which was
enterta i n i n g and su rrea l .
A Ra ido AAA delegate gave a ta l k o n
the AAA a n d the media which was acco m pa­
n ied by d ru n ken exc l a m ations off stage from
oth e r people involved with the g ro u p .
C heeky buggers.
An East London AAA del egate g ave a
ta l k on h ow the AAA is h e ra l d i n g a n ew
cu ltu ra l ren a i ssance.
Some activists from a loca l rad i o station
presented a video of th e i r tra i n i n g activities
for g etti n g i nto space do broadcast th e i r
shows from a sate l l ite . This was a n excel lent
s u rprise-th ey j u st showed up and the video
r a i d o aaa v i e n n a c o n fe r e n c e 39
was a g reat m ixtu re of low budget h u mo u r
a n d creativity. A representative o f the g ro u p
gave a s h o rt ta l k expl a i n i n g w h at th ey were
trying to do. One of the d e legates
a p p roached them for a copy of th e video,
but th i s hasn't a rrived at the ti m e of writi n g .
They i nterviewed m e a bout t h e conference
for th e i r stati o n .
The rave-in-space tra i n i n g event
fol l owed the ta l ks a n d was j u st the right
com b i n ation of hedonism a n d confusion . A
speci a l mention s h o u l d be made h e re for
DJ 's Scud a n d Ch ristop h who were h a rdcore
e n o u g h to see the th i n g th ro u g h u nti l s u n rise.
I th i n k I crashed out at a bout 2, but t h i s can
on ly be a n esti m ate beca use of the i n evita b l e
tem pora l-d i stortions that a ccompany such
a ctivities. For this rea son I a m u n a b l e to
reca l l the s u bject matter of my d rea m s that
n i g ht.
S u nday m o rn i n g was spent recoveri n g
from t h e rig o u rs o f o u r hectic tra i n i n g
sched u l e . O d d s th i n g s were afoot. The I SA
d e legate n oti ced a n a bsol utely i ncred i b l e
n u m be r o f g ra n d pia nos b e i n g l oaded onto
trucks i n the courtya rd where we were
stayi n g . Closer exa m i n ation revea l ed that
they weren 't even rea l pianos anyway, more
l i ke p rops fo r some wei rd show involvi n g
masses o f pianos.
 We h a d p l a n ned to go to the moon on
S u n day afternoon but th is was ca n ce l l ed
after o u r hosts revea l ed that th i s sort of
a ctivity wou l d be h a lted by i n sta nt pol ice
inte rventi o n . Despite this, we were a b l e to
p l ay a fast a n d fu rious g a m e of th ree-sided
footba l l i n the cou rtya rd of the m useums.
The d e l egates that were u nfa m i l ia r with th e
g a m e got into it swiftly, and a l l attem pts at
bi-po l a r com petition were thwarted. Th e
rest of the afternoon wa s spent h avi n g a
p i c n i c a n d ta l k i n g to j o u rn a l ists. The Ra ido
AAA posse decided that th e proposed astra l
p rojection workshop wou l d be haza rdous
g iven the fatig u e of many of th e tra i n ees.
I n stea d , th e weeken d wa s rou n ded off by
ch i l l i n g out at a loca l resta u ra nt, swea ri n g at
Alec E m p i re on lV, a n d playi n g with
N etbase's rath er won derfu l techn o-toys.
There was a ch i ld-l i ke "fa i ry ta l e " variety
to my d reams that n i g ht. I reca l l that j u m pi n g
fri e n d l y fru it w a s i nvo lved , as was th e kid's
lV p resenter J o h n ny Ba l l .
I fl ew back to the U K a t some i ndecent
ti m e i n th e m o rn i n g th e next day.

Luth or B l issett
 41

B o l o g n a I ntergal acti c
Co nferen ce Re port
The Association of Autonomous Astrona uts'
second I nterg a l a ctic Conference was h e l d
on the 1 8th a n d 1 9th o f Apri l i n Ita ly. G ro u ps
from a l l over E u rope descended on the
zod i a ca l city of Bologna under th e a uspices
of conso l i dati ng th e i r p l a n s for com m u n ity­
based space expl o rati o n .
M ost of t h e d e l egates stayed i n a vi l l a
overlooki n g t h e city o n t h e fi rst n i g ht. It
turned out to be the l ocation where Paso l i n i
shot h i s i nfa mous 1 20 Days o f Sodom.
Fati g u e prevented us from re-enacting o ut
favo u rite scenes from the fi l m , with the
n ota b l e exception of one member of East
Lon d o n AAA who partied with a ven geance
unti l the ea rly h o u rs (but the l ess sa id a bout
that, the better) .
We spent a p l easant m o rn i n g i n th e
g ro u n d s o f the vi l l a , getti n g t o kn ow each
oth e r better and ta ki n g it a l l i n . Afte r a h ug e
l u nch that had b e e n p repa red b y And rea
MU B we got to the Li n k Centre and bega n
o u r p repa rations. The Li n k i s a n o l d ch e m i ca l
sto ra g e wa rehouse that n ow conta i n s
stud ios, infoshop, cafe a n d s o on .
 The confe re n ce poster was a l a rge
g l ossy affa i r with AAA texts i n Ita l i an on the
reverse. Wa l l d i s p l ays were put u p , i n c l u d i n g
D i sco n a ut AAA's rath e r wonderfu l A-Z of
space fl ig ht. We con structed a sta l l se l l i n g
AAA texts, t-s h i rts a n d records b y the
reg i stration ta ble, and a lso displ ayed some
a rtwork and oth er materi a l .
Some Luthe r B l issetts sh owed u p at
some point in th e afternoo n , a n d we d is­
cu ssed the controve rsy s u rro u n d i n g " th e i r "
l atest book Lasciate che i b i m b i i n wh ich
"they" expose the hysteria beh i n d a recent
Sata n i c Ritu a l Abuse tri a l i n Bologna wh ich
saw two peo p l e fa lsely i m prisoned after th e
u s u a l bog us accusatio n s of c h i l d a bd u ction ,
etc. Luth e r i s n ow being sued for l i be l a n d is
sta rti n g a cam p a i g n of so l ida rity.
Th e Conference offici a l ly began at 4 pm
with reg istratio n . Th is saw some of Ita ly's
fi n est a rrivi n g at the Li n k with ta l es to tel l
a n d q u estio n s to ask. A 28-page conference
reader had been p repared by Bologna AAA
wh ich i n c l u ded Ita l i a n tra n s l ations of the
Conference texts.
Ricca rdo B a l l i of Bologna AAA intro­
d u ced the p roceed i n g s a n d com pered the
event.
J o h n Eden (Ra ido AAA) l a i d down some
basic ideas on h ow to become a n
b o l o g n a i nt e rga l a c t i c c o n fe r e n c e 43
a uton o m o u s astro n a ut.
Lo l a C h a n e l (AAA Wien) spoke on the
(ti ny and toke n i stic) ro l e of wom e n in gov­
e rn m e nta l space exp l o ration p ro g ra m mes,
i l l u strating her ta l k with exa m ples from Tim e
magazi n e .
Ewan C h a rd ro n n et (Rosko AAA) ex­
pounded th e l atest strategies for e l l i ptica l
a cti o n .
And i Freem a n (Oce a n i a AAA) p resented
an excerpt from h is work " O n F i l m i n g La rge
Objects i n the S ky" which tore i nto post­
modern fl uffi n ess a n d pro posed a way
forwa rd with out it.
N ext up was a rep resentative of Rome's
M e n I n Red (M I R) g rou p-an u ltra-left
g ro u p i n g that h a d sto rmed the stag e of a
ufology confe rence the wee k befo re . The
ta l k put forwa rd th e i r ideas a bout j o i n i n g
with a l ie n s t o d e m o l ish ca pita l ism, but
degenerated i nto s n i p i n g at the AAA a n d
o u r s u pposed esca pism a n d reform ism . T h i s
m et with a certa i n a m o u nt o f a m usement
and i rrita n ce from the Ita l i a n AAA d e l egates
a n d a heated debate ensued . The non­
Ita l i a n spea king d e l egates pro posed that
th e a rg u ment be conti n u ed l ater (a nd a l so
tra n s l ated) .
Afte r the sched u l ed break, N e i l
(Disco n a ut AAA) presented a s u m m a ry of
pol itica l , c u l t u ra l a n d scientific events i n the
space race s i n ce th e l a st conference.
Kon rad Becker (Wien AAA) ta l ked on H a rry
H o u d i n i , m a g i ck, and l ock-picking the futu re .
J ason S keet-{ l n n e r City AAA) gave u s a
psych ogeogra p h ica l u pd ate on th e prog ress
of the G ru b Street l a u nch site .
And reas M U B-{AAA Trento) critiq ued the
d o m i n a nt scientific para d i g m . Fi n a l ly Patric
O' B rien (East London AAA) ro u n ded off by
te l l i n g us a b o ut t h e fo rth co m i n g Recl a i m
The Sta rs event a n d t h e G i o rd a n o B ru n o
co n nection .
The debate with the Men I n Red then
reco m m e n ced i n earnest. Ricca rdo did h is
best to tra n s l ate i n what was a fa i rly hectic
situati o n . Essentia l ly Ml R's position see m s to
be that h u m a n ity is ta rn ished with " m icro­
fascism " a n d wi l l s i m p ly take th is i nto space
u n l ess ca pita l ism is destroyed beforeha n d .
T h e i r prio rity is t o j o i n u p with a l iens a n d
fig ht t h e revo l ution on earth . To w h i c h the
obvious respon ses a re :
i) W h y wa it for a l iens t o a rrive when w e can
b u i l d our own spacesh i ps and go and fi nd
them?
i i) Why assu m e that some " other" type of
creatu re n eeds to h e l p us when we ca n
l i be rate o u rselves? (An d why assume that
a l i ens wi l l h ave ideas identica l to the Ita l i an
b o l o g n a i nt e rgalactic c o n fe r e n c e 45
a uton o m i st m ovement?)
i i i) Why bri n g noxious ideas l i ke " m icro­
fa scis m " i nto th e debate, which j u st sound
l i ke the C h ri sti an idea of Orig i n a l Sin?
The Men I n Red, l i ke all pol iticos, want
u s to stay fi rmly on p l a net earth u nti l the
time is " ri g ht" . In this they a re exactly the
same a s state agencies l i ke the ch u rch (wh o
want u s t o beh ave u nti l w e get t o " h eave n " ) ,
g overn ment (wh o n eed u s t o p a y taxes) , or
a rmy (wh o want u s to spectate a s they
destroy n ot on ly th is p l a n et, but a lso th e rest
of the g a l axy) .
I n astronomy, a revo l ution is what occu rs
when an object returns to its point of orig i n .
B a c k t o s q u a re o n e . T h e AM is n ot content
with the rh etoric of the past. We wish to
move beyond it, i nto an arena where
everyth i n g is possi ble, where we move i n
severa l d i rections a t once t o create a l ife
based on possi b i l ities rath er th a n
con stri ctions. A s part o f this process we
expect to deve l o p n ew ways of socia l
intera ction that wi l l suppress ca pita l i st
rel ations.
One of Ml R's pro b l e m s is that they treat
the AM as a s i n g l e th i n g . If we were some
ki n d of cult where everyon e s h a red exa ctly
the sa m e sort of viewpo i nt th is m ight be a
worthwh i l e p u rs u it (it wo rks with a l ot of
oth er g rou ps) . H owever, the AAA reve ls i n
contra d i ction a n d a d iversity o f trajectories.
To a ccuse us of esca pism is m i ssi n g the poi nt
enti re ly. Th e re a re fa r too many people on
th is p l a n et pissing th e i r l ives away wa iti ng
for th e " g l orious day" o r d rea m i n g u p n ew
ideologica l stra itjackets that prevent them
from o pen i n g even th e i r front door. Th at, fo r
us, is the rea l esca pism . We offer a practica l
way forwa rd .
We wo u l d l i ke to m a ke it c l e a r that it
isn't o u r i ntention to zip off i nto space to
form some ki n d of h i pp i e d ropout com m u n e .
O u r traj ectories m u st b e o p e n to a l l . O u r
m essag e t o t h e Men I n Red rem a i n s :
Revo l uti o n a ries p; o n e more effort to
beco m e a utonomous astro n a uts!
[Ed itor's note : Later on the waters were
fu rth e r m ud d i ed by ru m o u rs that the Men I n
Red were a ctua l ly noth i n g of the sort. We
h ave been u n a b l e to confi rm or deny the
sto ry that they a re rea l ly tra n svestites
sati risi n g th e Ita l i a n l eft, but th is does present
some i nteresti n g contra d i ctions to be
exa m i n ed in the futu re . We know that you
ca n l e a rn m o re from wea ri n g a d ress for a
day than a spacesu it fo r a yea r. Eith er way,
we wish th em wel l i n th e i r effo rts to introd uce
cl ass consciousn ess to th e foggy world of
ufo l ogy. But th e i r positions on autonomous
b o l o g n a i nt e rgalact i c c o n fere n c e 47
space exp l o rati on a re incoherent.]
The rave i n space tra i n i n g com m e n ced
at m i d n i g ht. There were t h ree s p a ces for
m usic, a n d many oth ers for d i scussio n ,
d ri n k i n g , or oth er m erri ment.
The Rave In S pace Room catered for the
m ost extreme of tastes. Parisian AAA DJs
Overki l l , Lo Lasca r, G o l g oth and The Li ner
wh i p ped u p th e crowd i nto a frenzy with
the i r a b rasive d a n ce sets. There was a l so a
l ive Am iga-core frenzy i n n a 8-bit stylee from
Xkvate .
London was wel l represented by The
Society of U n kn own s with a se l ection ta kin g
i n d ru m ' n ' noise a n d tech step . There was
a lso a su rprise g u est s l ot by B o ri s Ka rloff a n d
DJ J acka l who too k the ch a n ce t o play some
extra cts from th e i r forth co m i n g H a m mer
H o use of H o rror box set.
Bologna AAA hosted the Anti Am bient
Area and spa n n ed experi m enta l tech n o ,
speedcore, a n d e l ectro with g uest a ct S pa ce
Odd iti es-Cyber Zom bie 200 (Wien AAA)
who mashed the p l a ce · u p with th e i r
a cce l e rated beats.
The J u m p- U p roo m (h osted by M ix The
Lot) was dism issed by some of th e d e l egates
for be i n g "too com m e rcia l " . H owever, it d i d
p rovide a critica l mass o f peopl e ready for
ta ke off, and it m a d e a ch ange from being
p u m m e l l ed by the frequencies i n the oth er
rooms.
M a n y tra i n ees d efied g ravity as part of
the even i n g 's proceed i n g s . At 7 o'clock i n
t h e m o rn i n g , those rem a i n i n g on p l a n et
earth looked l i ke they h a d had a rou g h time
d u ri n g re-entry. Over one thousa n d peo p l e
h a d attended a n d the n i ght wa s considered
a g reat su ccess by a l l .
We stayed in a secret c h a m ber of a l oca l
a stro n a ut's fl at.
When we reg a i ned consciousn ess l ater
in th e day, the conference had a l ready re­
com m e n ced .
Ocea n i a AAA were conti n u i n g th e i r
Ra d i o Free E a rt h Project on t h e roof o f the
Li n k Centre :
A Tri l l io n Ch a n n e l s And N oth i n g On
Th e current failure of th e SETI project is un­
surprising. Loaded with techn ica l and exis­
tentia l assumptions it represents an icon of
cold war menta lity. Th e recent development
of th e trillion channel SERENDIP IV listen ing
supercomputer (of wh ich three are to be
made. On e of th em is to be deployed in Bo­
logna.) represen ts an open ing up of th is field
as teams outside of the SETI menta lity get
a ccess to the equipment. However, th e AAA
is not prepared to simply to sit, listen and
wa it. We propose an a ctive programme of at-
b o l o g n a i nt e rgalactic c o n fe r e n c e 49
tempts to commun icate with oth er planets.

P ROJ ECT Postca rds For 5 1 Pegasus

Ra dio Free Ea rth bega n its n a rrowcasts into
new spa ces on June 23rd 1 997. As part of its
summer season of broa dcasts to th e sta rs
(' 1 00 light yea rs of en terta inmen t') RFE
in tends to point its data transm itters to 5 1
Pegasus a s part o f th e AAA s 2nd G a latica
Conferenza in Bologna.
I m ages and sounds that had been
co l l ected p ri o r to the conference were
za pped i nto o uter space by the Ocea n i a
d e l egati o n . G ive the enormous d i sta n ces
i nvo lved , it is perh a ps to be expected that
n o responses h ave been rece ived as yet.
Further informati o n , tech n i ca l deta i l s and
u p dates a re ava i l a b l e from Ocea n i a AM .

The g a m e of th ree-sided footba l l was

we l l attended despite the u n ch a ra cteristi ca l ly
cack weath er. A certa i n I n n e r City AM
delegate m a n a ged to su rpass h i s l o n g
record o f down right sneakin ess (yea h , O K­
h e con n ed m e) by switch i n g sides on at least
five occasions. A few passers-by were
e n co u raged to j o i n i n , but th i s wasn't too
successfu l beca u se of th e weathe r a n d
l a n g uage d ifficu lti es.
A d i scussion fo l l owed the game, a l ong
with coffee a n d i ce cream . Some of u s ta l ked
a bout push i n g th e three-sided footba l l th i n g
forwa rd b y u s i n g i t in contexts that a ppea led
to peo p l e less confident (or physica l ly
ca p a b l e) of footba l l . There was con cern
a bout the AAA bei n g overly identified with
h a rdcore m usic-a broad e r approach was
h oped for at futu re events. Wh ich brought
us n i cely to the q u esti on of where to hold
futu re confe re n ces. As yet noth i n g is certa i n ,
th o u g h l ocati ons i n London , B ritta ny, a n d
Kaza khsta n a re b e i n g looked i nto.
Severa l delegates l eft that n ight to go
to Vien n a i n time to partici pate i n the
I nformation Terror event org a n ised by P u b l ic
N etbase.
The conference was very successfu l on
many l evel s . Th e con cept of a period of
co nso l idation has so fa r proved fa r l ess
d ifficult than many had thoug ht. Despite
movi n g in severa l d i rections at once, those
p resent were a b l e to a g ree on a n u m ber of
key issues, a n d get on soci a l ly. We
esta b l ished m a n y n ew contacts, fi rmed u p
l i n ks with existi n g ones a n d l eft Ita ly fu l l of
ideas fo r the future .
We a re focused on i nten sifyi ng o u r five­
yea r p ro g ra m m e to esta b l ish a wo rld-wide
n etwork of l oca l , com m u n ity-based g roups
dedicated to b u i l d i n g t h e i r own spaces h i ps.
We a re now wel l over the h a lf way m a rk and
 51
o u r su ccess has exceeded the i m a g i n ations
of even the most l ucid d ream e rs a m o n g st us.
We wi l l not stay on p lanet earth a n d be
restricted to its n a rrow possi b i l ities for
existence. We wa nt to forge n ew path s, n ew
ways of l iv i n g . The deve l o p m ent of
a utonomous zero g ravity com m u n ities is
o n l y the beg i n n i n g . The AAA is bored of the
city and, rea l ising that rea l l ife l i es e lsewh ere,
h a s set the contro l s for the heart of outer
space.
AAA Ros ko Last
Ap pearance Report

After th e l a u nch of th e G uyana Proj ect (and

AAA G uyana) on the 2 1 st of J u ne (su m m e r
solstice 2000), AAA Rosko sta rted t o debate
the i m p osed d i sso l ution by Seeyo u i n s p ace.
o rg . AAA Rosko s u cceeded i n its Fou r and a
H a lf Yea r P l a n a n d its so-ca l l ed self­
h i storificati on project. So, AAA R o sko gave
its l a st a p pearance on the 6 of J u ly, at th e
World-l nformation . org Event i n the B ru sse l s
2000 Centre, a n d th en d isso lved itself to
enter the G uya na Free Space Base of the
Autonomous Astrona uts.
We a rrived at Brusse ls M i d i Station at
1 6 H20 on Th u rsday 6th of J u ly, yea r 2000 of
th e Ch ristia n E ra . D u r i n g the tri p we h a d
ta l ked a bout va rious tech n ica l aspects of
that n i g ht's musica l performance . We ran
th ro u g h the use of two record tu rnta b l es,
two Am igas and a m i crophone con nected to
" spacevoice" m u lti-effects. We decided to
create a " S u perso n i c Space manoeuvres "
atmosphere t h a t moves i n severa l d i rections
at once, by givi n g an i m p ression of a l ways
c h a n g i n g o u r trajecto ri es.
AAA R o s ko 53
We a l so ta l ked d u ri n g t h e tri p about
various books and writers that dea l with the
new 4th d i mension strategy (which I wi l l
exp l a i n bel ow), l i ke Va l erio Eva n g e l isti from
Bologna (Ura n i a Prize in Ita ly, Eiffel Prize and
l ma g i n a i re Prize i n France) and h i s fou rth part
of N i ch o l a s Eymerich's adventu res, where
th e i n q u isitor meets Wi l h e l m Reich
somewhere l ost i n a space-time bubble
between the U SA i n 1 954 and th e Sardegna
six h undred years before. Orgone energy
and uchrony. Then we ta l ked a bo ut P. K.
Di ck's work on uchrony and h is surprisi ng
con clusion s a bout Parousy deve l oped i n h i s
last confe rences. U ba l d gave me a lso a book
from Abe l i o entitled "Theory of th e new
g n ose " o utl i ned by h i s own dead father. We
a lso l a u g hed a lot, ta l king a bout the G uyana
Project, Jean-Lo u i s Costes and Desir C l i n iq u e .
So, w e a rrived at 1 6 H 20 a t B ru sse ls
2000. We said to S i m o n Ara nzi (a ta l l and
d a rk- h a i red g uy with g l asses) from World­
l nformati o n . org , that we wou l d wea r 333
extension o ra n g e t-s h i rts to be easi ly
recog n ised . And so it came to pass.
We went q u i ckly to the 4x4 ca r outside
the statio n . D u ri n g the tri p to the B russe l s
2000 Centre, l isten i n g t o Leb a n ese m u sic,
we were su rprised to be asked th is q uestio n
a bout the AAA .
 So, th e AAA is dissolved, I don 't
un derstan d. Jason Skeet presen ts
h imself as a former a u tonomous
astronaut, a n d generally English
g uys wh en they've got something
new, th ey did it a second tim e to get
th e hype?
a nswered that the AAA wi l l n ot rea l ly
d isappear, th is is s i m p l y a n other Eng l ish
strategy to g et hype . We wi l l n ot stop, and
J a son S keet wi l l p ro b a b l y n ot sto p eith e r.
Then we ta l ked a bit a bout th e B russe l s
a rch itectu re and town centre a n d shortly
a rrived at the B russe l s 2000 Centre .
The Centre H a l l is q u ite l a rge, with an
i nfosh o p on the l eft, a bar on the right and a
scene at the front. Three big d i g ita l screens
p rovide a wel come m essa ge to World-I nfo r­
mation Exh i b ition, " B U I LD TH E N EW I N FO R­
MAT I O N O R D E R . "
We l eft o u r e q u i pment i n the exa ct
m i d d l e of the h a l l , near th e ta b l es and
monito rs th at were a l ready i n sta l led, centred
between the spea kers, a n d open under a
l a rg e wi ndow, 5 floors a bove, with a big
rocket th a n cou l d fa l l on o u r h eads. We saw
that the d o m i n a nt col o u r was orange (with
long sofa i n sta l l ed), the co l o u r of the 333
extension . We con c l uded that we were we l l
d ressed i n th e correct co l o u r sch e m e .
AAA R o s ko
55
We took t h e e l evator with S i m o n t o the
th i rd fl oor, to join the World-I nformation
staff office. A fa ke ONU fl ag is there , m ixed
with a tO logo. In the office va ri o u s Cu ltu ra l
I ntel l igence Agents we l comed us, especi a l ly
M a ri e Ri n g l e r, a ka Lol a C h a n e l from AAA
Vienna (th e tru e zero-G g i rl), with a big sm i l e .
We m et Soph i e, Rudy, S i m o n o f cou rse, a n d
beh i n d , oth ers persons, a n d o f co u rse
Kon rad B ecker from AAA Vien n a (a nd
D i recto r G e n e ra l of World-l nformati o n . o rg).
After we exch a n ged a few wo rds a bo ut
the j o u rn ey, Kon rad decided to ta ke c h a rg e
o f the tech n ica l aspects o f th e i n sta l l ation fo r
the n ig ht. The Futu re H e ritage M usic Event
wi l l p resent a son i c base fo r p i l ots, a big
screen beh i n d XKV8 with the AAA Rosko
l a u n ch site (http://espaceaa a . ctw. n et) a n d
a lso on two d i g ita l screens, o n e near t h e bar,
the oth er near the i nfoshop. After sorti n g
o u t a l l t h e tech n ica l aspects, w e retu rned to
the office. We h a d a ta l k with Lo l a a bout
Ricca rdo Ba l l i 's book, "Anche Tu Astrona uta " ,
a n d she sa id that she was very u pset a bout
the i m p osed d isso l ution of the AAA , a n d
that w e m ust ta l k q u ickly a bout th at. S h e
too k it very emoti o n a l ly. I gave h e r a n AAA
Rosko i ntern a l report, a n d she l a u g h e d ,
ta l ki n g a bout " self- h i storificatio n materi a l s " .
T h e n , Kon rad suggested th at we s h o u l d
have a q u ick l ook at the exh i b ition on the
fou rth and fifth fl oors .
We a rrived a t the fo u rth fl oor together
a n d went th ro u g h the te lesurve i l l a n ce
contro l (with fi nger pri nts a n d face
recogn ition), consideri n g that we are part of
the exh i biti o n . Fi rst, Kon rad sh owed me the
1 7th Centu ry Leibn itz ca lcu l ating mach i n e
(th e expensive object o f t h e exh i biti on) and
the genera l info rmation poster. Th en we
went t h ro u g h the g e o po l it i ca l posters,
l o o ki n g at the fi rst I B M ca l c u l ator, the
biotech n o l ogy i m p l a nts, various posters
a bout body attack, i nfo body, revo l ution i n
t h e m i l ita ry a n d contro l affa i rs (va ri o u s t h i n g s
t h a t AAA Rosko ta l ked i n Gravite Zero
b u l l etin 8), etc . . .
Then we entered a d a rk cu be ca l l ed 'pa­
ra-i nformatio n ' with va rious l eaflets a bout
sci e n ce, a ctivist g ro u ps, m i l l e n a rist revo l u ­
tio n a ries, occu ltism , conspira cies, etc . . . from
I nvisi b l e Co l l ege, U n po p u l a r Books, G ravite
Zero, etc . . . Then we a rrived i n the Futu re
H e rita g e Area, with va ri ous i n sta l l ations l i ke:
Ca pta i n E u ro from rtma rk (a n activist g ro u p
a g a i nst copyright) , Apso l utno, Cu lt o f the
N ew Eve by Critica l Art Ensem b l e (a bout ge­
nome resea rch), Earshot (a sou n d a p p l ica­
tion) by Andy Freem a n and J ason Skeet,
etc . . . That is the fo u rth fl oor.
AAA R o s ko 57
O n the fifth fl oor, {th e You ' re Always Be­
i n g M o n itored and G l obal Contro l fl oor) , I
was s u r p rised when Kon rad p resented m e to
the te lesu rvei l l a nce contro l (fi n g e r pri nts a n d
fa ce recogn ition) b y say i n g " h e's a fo rmer
a uton o m o u s astro n a ut. " B ut consideri n g
that i t is a contro l l ed a rea, I u nd e rsta nd I
n eed to be a "former" o n e to ente r the
a rea . . . So, we fou n d va rious s u rvei l l a n ce
screens, a n i n sta l l ation from Foton records,
from M onochrom (Au stria), a n old secret ser­
vice office as i n the fi rst J a mes Bond movies
with m i crophones and ca meras in the p l a nts,
u n d e r the tel eph one, etc . . . Then a vi d eo l i­
bra ry, a n i n sta l l ation of Ai rport s u rvei l l a n ce
a n d sate l l ite s u rve i l l a n ce on two b i g screens,
and the com p l ete base p i l oted by M a rko
Pelj h a n from Ato l Project (Lu b lj a n a , the per­
son who h e l ped AAA Vien n a to succeed i n
zero-G fl i g ht) . Then a n I rid i u m Sate l l ite Mod­
e l (I say to Kon rad that's a fa mous sca n d a l as
AAA tri ed to ta l k a bout it i n G ravite Zero 9),
a W- 1 spec i a l videoga m e on two big screens,
and fi n a l ly the AAA i n sta l l ation .
H e re is the E n g l ish presentation (th e
Fre n ch is b a d l y tra n s l ated) fro m the AAA
i n sta l l ation :
S E E YO U I N S PACE
The Association of Autonomous Astrona uts
(AAA) was a p l a n eta ry n etwork of peo p l e
dedicated to the deve l opment of th e i r own
i n d e pendent space exp l o ration program mes.
La u n ched i n Apri l 1 995, the AAA fou g ht
a g a i n st the govern ment, corporate and
m i l ita ry monopoly of space travel . With the
c l i max to the AAA's successfu l Five Yea r P l a n
for b u i l d i n g a world-wide n etwo rk o f loca l ,
com m u n ity-based g rou ps, a utonomous
a strona uts h ave been debati n g a proposa l
that th e AAA shou l d n ow d i ssolve itse lf.
A n ew phase of AAA self- h i storificati o n
h a s a lso been i n iti ated , i n which a uton omous
astrona uts can org a n ise for themselves AAA
docu m entati on and co nsider the co m p l ex
ach ievements of the AAA.
Contra d i ctory a n d dive rgent assess­
m ents emerg e that wi l l prevent a fixed
a n d static h istory of the AAA.

AAA self-histo rification m aterials incl u ded

at world-information.erg
•
AAA porta b l e dome tent for i n sta l l ation
i n any l ocati on
•
va rio u s AAA p ropaganda documents
h u n g from the i n side of AAA dome tent
•
AAA rave i n space d a n ce m u sic
•
AAA I nternati o n a l Space Station website
hosted by http ://www.seeyo u i n space.org
The Seeyouinspace website is coo l , th e m usic
is playing a l l th rough the day. Va ri ous b u l l e-
AAA R o s ko 59
ti ns l i ke: Escape from G ravity, Superfly, Sus­
pension i n Rea l ity, G ravite Zero, Ad Astra ,
etc . . . I add some French leafl ets l i ke " M i r Sta­
tion to the Autonomous Astrona uts! " , etc . . .
M y major problem i s that th is i nsta l l ation
represents a col lective effort on the monopo­
ly on space exploratio n . But the insta l l ation
uses the past tense and nobody signs it in
their own name . Exactly l i ke oth er insta l la­
tions, the dome tent is signed as AAA Jason ,

Skeet has a l ready h i s own Ea rshot project with

Andy Freeman in the exh ibition, Kon rad Beck­
er is part of W- 1 staff. So, there is a confusion
between a single vision and the col lective as­
pect. It looks l i ke a on e-way self-histo rification
project, and ki nd of hold-up of the exi sti ng
g roups-crypto-leaders took the decision for
us, maybe wa nted to create an effective
'shock' of the Autonomous Astronauts . . . I sti l l
plan to play music at the AAA n ight. . .
Anyway we decided to go back to the
office and to h ave d i n ne r before th e concert
and h ave a ta l k between AAA Rosko a n d
AAA Vien n a . We fo u n d a Tu rkish resta u ra nt
a n d ate h o u m o u s and pitas. Lol a C h a n e l
to l d u s a bout h e r tri p t o R u s s i a t o c l i m b i n a
zero-G tra i n i n g p l a n e . I ta l ked a bout futu re
strategies from th e poi nt of view of AAA
Rosko . I a l so ta l ked a bout AAA G uyan a . We
a g reed n ot to d issolve the n etwork.
 We then returned to the Centre a n d
q u ickly beg a n the concert. The crowd was
n ot so h u g e consideri n g that there was a big
rock a n d tekno festiva l i n Dour n e a r B russels . . .
Anyway we i ntroduced the con cert with the
Ra ve In Space CD, l isten i n g to the Des i r
C l i n ique, Noctu rn a l Em issions, a n d Benoit
Di rect tracks. Then we p l ayed d ru m 'n ' noise
a n d convu lsive rhyth m s with U b a l d shouti n g
i n th e spacevoice m i crophone. I p l ayed
records from Am bush, Cavage, Kool Pop,
Praxis, H a n g a rs Liq u i d es, etc . . .
Then U b a l d sta rted the s u perso n i c
space ma n oe uvres on the A m i g a s a n d I took
the mouse of the web PC to m a ke a speci a l
show o f webs u rfi ng with espaceaa a . AAAA
Cosmos was efficient with ' Fear, Obey, Enj oy'
m o uth of G ig a b rowser, A. R.T. (Art-Religion­
Terror) from AAA Paris N o rd too, m i l l ions of
sta rs too. I s u rfed on costes.org from AAA
G uya n a a n d that seemed to su rprise various
peo p l e (incl u d i n g Ko n rad), with Art G u erri l la ,
Ecl i pse or ' I t m a kes n o d ifference' . . . H a rmo­
ny with n atu re . . . I a l so tri ed Space Stati on
H o m e l ess (not a n AAA o n e) and it was suc­
cessfu l too . The m usic went fa ster and faster
u nti l the end's explosion at 333 bpm and
more, with noise, 200 1 orig i n a l soundtrack,
e l ectro n i c grindcore, wei rd tekno . . .
After the con cert, w e q u i ckly decided to
AAA R o s ko 61
go to the Apa rtment with Eve lyne and
Kon rad to h ave a good s l ee p (we th i n k th at
maybe we d ra n k too m u ch). U b a l d a n d La u re
(MA 333 XKV8) followed their own trajectory.
That was the last a p pea ra n ce of AAA
Rosko .
S o , perh a ps i t is a good m o m e nt t o ta l k
a bout som e of th e n ew Autonomous
Astrona uts strateg i es that seem to be
a p peari n g i n the yea r 2000.

The Autonomous Astrona uts I nternational

S pa ce Station (I SS)/seeyouinspa ce.org and
five-year pl a n on e-way self-h istorification
project .
In th i s p roject, the strategy is to esca pe
from the AAA and show it as a m ovem ent
sta rted 23/04/95 , that comes from the past
to be efficient i n the fut u re . With o l d
concepts o f the 20th centu ry l i ke : a Five Yea r
P l a n , a ca ricatu re of the fa mous Bolshevik
strategy d u ri n g th e d i ctato rs h i p i n Russia in
the 30s, a n d a lso u sed by the nati o n a l space
a g e n cies d u ri n g the co l d wa r; th e
" psych ogeogra phy" con cept, a culture of
deriv i n g p romoted by o l d avant-ga rde
g ro u ps l i ke Lettrists or S ituation n ists ru n by
G uy Debord a n d oth e rs in the 50s a n d 60s,
from S p utn i k to th e moon l a n d i n g ; the
Dionysus Progra m and Disco's infl ue n ces
 from th e 70s a n d end of co l d wa r, that
represents the 8-side of the Apo l l o progra m ;
a " Rave I n Space" con cept that sh ows h ow
AAA can l a u g h about the fa lse myth of the
" G olden a g e " of the ea rly 90s tekno : Space
is the P l a ce ! ; sex i n space-AAA's su ccessfu l
investigations i n 95-96 (a nd its recent
a c h i evem ent); three-sided footba l l matches
of the AAA a con cept opposed to the bi­
,

po l a rity of classic two-sided footba l l ; etc . . .

(http://www. seeyo u i nspace . o rg) .
Th e th ree-sides concept is rel ated t o a
certa i n n otion of "triol ecti cs " . . . wh i ch over­
th rows the old notion of " d i a l ectics" . . . Every­
body kn ows that si nce we entered the 20th
centu ry, the n otion of d i a l ectics (deve loped
by Hegel a nd Ma rx) was a l ready old (but th e
fi ght agai nst the Law of Va l u e is sti l l neces­
sary), especi a l ly when Albert Einstei n i ntro­
d u ced in the 20s, th e 4th d i mension, Time, i n
physics theory (that i nfl uenced l ots of ava nt­
g a rde a rtists, sci-fi writers and poets in thei r
works) . Even when N i e l s Bohr i ntrod uced the
re l ativity of the observer with the quantum
theory in Copen hagen d u ri n g th e 30s, the
4th d i m ension sta rted to be overth rown too . . .
N ow math ematicians a re trying to give a def­
i n ition of the 5th d i mension . . .
 AAA R o s ko 63

T h e 3 3 3 Extension
In this project, we exten d the SYP fo r 333
days unti l the l a u n ch by Gera rd Z, the free­
l a n ce occu ltist a n d a l leged fou n d e r of the
AAA of the Pimax tech n o l ogy, a kind of pa­
,

ta physic structu re of esoteric space tech n o l ­

o g y that tries t o ca ptu re t h e cos m i c forces
u nti l l ift-off at 333 bpm . I n th is extension, it
wi l l be very i nteresti n g to ta l k a bout the 4th
d i mension , Time. That wi l l be a g reat mo­
ment for the AAA to deal with scie n ce-Fic­
ti o n (a n d show h ow we can ta l k a bout it a n d
sti l l rem a i n serious) a n d p l u ra l ity o f tem p ora l
worlds. Li ke works a bout Uchrony (para l l e l
worl ds a n d space-trave l) b y Eva n g e l i sti from
Bolog n a , work by Ricca rdo B a l l i i n the n ovel
" 333 " , AAA books and videos, and the GZ
festiva l a n d various AAA events. Th is g reat
n otion of Practica l Ti me Travel wi l l show the
necessity of a q u atrolectica l evo l utio n .
(http://www. echodesig n . n et/matti a/333/) .

The Zero Gravity Theatre Project

I n th is proj ect, the p l a n is to i ntrod u ce Au­
ton o m o u s Astro n a uts i nto nati o n a l space
agency tra i n i n g fl ig hts to becom e effective
astrona uts a n d to study from the i nside h ow
to destroy comp l etely the monopoly of
space exp l o ration . Lo l a C h a n e l h a s a l ready
succeeded (with the ATO L project) in ta ki n g
pa rt i n a zero-G fl ight from Sta r City i n Rus­
s i a . Th is project d efi n itively proves that the
AAA is not a m eta p h o r.

StopSta rWars strategy

The Stop Sta r Wa rs strategy seems to have
a ppea red two yea rs ago in the AAA network.
Th is strategy sh ows h ow some AAA goa ls
h ave been sh ifti ng (AAA was not su pp osed
to be a classical ' m i l ita nt' movement and to
develop i ndependent space program mes by
b u i l d i n g our own spaceshi ps) . Duri n g the
Space 1 999 festiva l in London, AAA- ers pro­
tested in front of a rms man ufactu rer Lock­
heed M a rt i n 's b u i l d i n g , with the slogan " Stop
Sta r Wa rs, m i l ita ry out of space " . Stopsta r­
wa rs.org is a web site of " G reen peace " move­
ment. For the moment, the plan is to take
part in the g l obal 7th of Octo ber movement
against the m i l ita risation of s p ace. (http://
www. g l obenet.free-on l i n e . eo . u k/index. htm) .

The Kiwi Astronauts

AAA Aotea roa l a u n ched a M a rs M ission fo r
Autonomous Astro n a uts. They a l ready orga­
n ise tra i n i n g sessions i n N ew Zea l a n d for th e
M a rs La n d i n g . (http ://www. o l dfa rm .co . nz) .
 65
T h e G uyana Free S pace Base Project
Autonomous astrona uts now have a free
s p ace base i n G uya n a 's ju n g l e (th a n ks to the
efforts of AAA Guyana) . The p l a n is to
organ ise a trip to G uya na to shoot a movie
near the Kou rou l a u nch pad in September
200 1 . The movi e wi l l present a n AAA press
conference in the j u n g l e , an Autonomous
Astrona uts' protest on the ESA l a u nch pad,
and a tri p i nto the j u n g l e with crazy
astrona uts . . . The movie wi l l be a mad one
(ha lf fi ction, h a lf true), uti l i sing the i nfl u en ce
of Stirner's autonomia concept, Arta ud's
Attrocity Theatre, Porno-Socia l , Sub­
commandante M a rcos and G era rd Z, H e rzog 's
Ag u i rre, and of cou rse th e AAA. . . G uyana
Free Space Base wi l l be a l so a web site. The
fi n a l p l a n is to free G uyana a n d th e Kou rou
l a u nch pa d . (http://espacea a a . ctw. net) .
H e re is my vision of a few strategies
(others exist) of the AAA fo r the futu re . We
m u st work on the necessity of d i sta n ci n g
ou rse lves from m i l ita nt or l o bbying move­
m ents a n d more in an a n a lytic way (as AAA
Vien n a proved i n Wo rld-i nformati o n . e rg) .
But a n a ssoci ation w i l l n ot be n ecessa ry any­
m o re i n the futu re . Autonomous Astro n a uts
created a soci a l m ovem e nt everywhere on
p l a n et Earth .
O U R G OALS REMAI N S TH E A B U N DA N C E O F
TH E U N EXP ECTED

Ewen Chardronnet
fo r AAA Rosko
 67

M i s s i o n Accom p l i s h ed
b ut th e Beat Goes On :
the Fantasti c Voyage of the AAA1

Why the blue silence, unfathoma ble

spa ce ?
Why the golden sta rs, teeming like
sa n ds ?
I f o n e ascended forever, wha t wo uld
one see up th ere ?
Arthu r Rimba ud,
Soleil et C h a i r/Sun and Flesh, 1 87 0

What wou l d it be l i ke to step i nto space?

Beyo n d earth 's g ravity, its economy, its l aws,
what won d e rs wou l d we d iscover? What
u n known pleasures wou l d we stu m ble across
on o u r tri p to the sta rs? The m i ssion of the
AAA has been to attem pt some tentative
a n swers to these q u esti o n s .
Ou r criti cism o f state a n d com m e rci a l
space agen cies h a s been precisely that they
h ave been closed to the n ew possi b i l ities of
space. I n stead of rel i s h i n g the eru pti on of
th e m a rve l l o u s they h ave attem pted to
smoth er it with a l l the baggage they h ave
dragged b e h i n d t h em from ea rth-mon ey,
power, h e roism . The Space I ndustry is l i ke
M i ch ael Moorcock's Singularity. . . forever
seeking to impose its simplified and sterile
la ws upon m ultiversa l variety, a g a i n st whom
a re ra n ged the Chaos Engin eers who delight
in a ll forms of experien ce2 •
With a tiny fra ction of th e i r resou rces
the C h a os E n g i n ee rs of the AAA h ave
trave l l ed m u c h fu rther i n the past five yea rs
th a n NASA & co. h ave d o n e i n a l most fifty
yea rs of space expl o rati on . Despite th i s a
co mmon reaction to th e AAA h a s been that
we were creati n g some ki n d of g ra n d
m eta phor. O f cou rse what w e were d o i n g
d i d pose broad e r q u esti ons a bout t h e u se of
tech n o logy, th e stru g g l e over space with a
sma l l 's', a n d so o n . B ut we h ave a l so
seriously engaged with Spa ce-experiencing
zero g ravity, ta l ki n g to inte resting members
of the B ritish I nterp l a n eta ry Society a n d
d issident space resea rch ers l i ke M i l le n n i u m
Twa i n , and d i rectly confronti n g the
m i l ita risation of outer space .
Yes w e were serious, a n d h ave
d e m o n strated that com m u n ity-based space
exp l o ration is rea l ly poss i b l e . But we h ave
n ever l et th e p resent soci a l a n d pol iti ca l
ba rri e rs to its fu l l d eve l opment sta n d i n th e
way of experi e n c i n g some of its won d e rs i n
m i s s i o n acco m p l i s h e d but 69
the h e re and n ow. This is why th e AAA h a s
put s o m uch effo rt i nto creati n g situati ons
w h e re p eo p l e h ave been able to ste p
outside of th e i r u s u a l rol es a n d try th i n gs
they h ave n ever d o n e before . Someti m es
we h ave referred to these as tra i n i n g
sessions, b u t rea l ly th ey h ave b e e n l ess
a bout p re pa rati on fo r some futu re tas k t h a n
a bout p refi g u ri n g the a ctua l experi e n ce o f
bei n g i n s p a c e . Put s i m p l y the A AA h a s
created its own space where i nteresti n g
th i n g s h ave h a ppened .
I n m a n y ways the AM mode of opera­
tion has in itself been an experi m e nt in co l­
l e ctive e l a boration of ideas. Fro m some­
w h e re i n South Lon d o n a n otion spread a n d
a n etwork d eve l o ped . E a c h n ew con n ection
added its own i n g re d i e nts to the m ix so that
what e m e rged was an u n p re d i cta b l e a n d
con sta ntly sh ifti n g creation that refused to
be confi n e d to a rt, sci e n ce , m usic, pol itics,
m a g i c or any oth e r specia l ist category, a n d
that crossed t h e a rbitra ry bord e rs d ivid i n g
o u r h o m e p l a n et. O f co u rse there a re exa m­
p l es i n l iteratu re of d isparate writers creat­
i n g a s h a red world (th e Cth u los myth os de­
velo ped by H P Lovecraft a n d oth e rs spri n gs
to m i n d), but the AM h a s n ever been con­
fi ned to the rea l m s of fictio n . A c l oser pa ra l­
l e l m i g ht be the Ch u rch of Al l World s i n th e
U S which sta rted o ut from the pages of Rob­
ert H e i n l e i n 's Stranger in a Strange Lan d
a n d beca m e a n a ctu a l ly existi n g a n d i nfl u­
enti a l eco-pa g a n g ro u p m ovi n g (in severa l
d i rections) away from the a utho r's d u bi o u s
vision .
The AM asse m b l ed its own tool box of
tech n i q ues, d reams a n d ideas between
which n u me rous u n expected con n ecti ons
a rose. Disco n a ut AM u n d e rtook o u r own
su rvey of possibi l ities with o u r " M eans of
fl ig ht: an a l ph a bet for a utonomous
astro n a uts " from Alchemy to Zebedee. B ut
the g ro u n d covered i n th is was sca rcely more
fa ntastic th a n some of the rea l com b i n ations
of peo p l e a n d p l a ces that emerged . C h i l d ren
b u i l d i n g th e i r own fu l l size model of a
spa cesh i p i n Vi e n n a . . . g rown-ups pl ayi n g on
swi ngs a n d ro u n d a bouts. . . passers-by
g ettin g to g ri ps with the i ntricacies of th ree­
sided footba l l in H yd e Park a n d H on o r Oa k . . .
wa l ki n g i nto the office of Lockheed d eath
corporation wea ri n g a space s u it . . . . raves i n
space i n B ol o g n a a n d e lsewh e re . . . a motley
crew of ma rxists, m u sici a n s a n d th e curious
bei n g p ut th ro u g h th e i r a stra l aerobics by a
ritua l magician o n H a m pstead H eath . . . .
ba l loons, a i rp l a n es, Space 1 999 costu mes,
vinyl, video, e n d l ess e-m a i l ra nts a bout
com m u n ism, art and Zoe Ba l l . . .
mission acco m p l ished but 71
So why stop now? We l l even the wi ldest
of adventu res can become routi ne, sta rt l i n g
i d e a s c l i ches and the most rad i ca l gestu res a
sou rce of l ig ht enterta i n ment. Space i m agery
h a s become i n creasi n g l y b a n a l and retro,
feat u ri n g i n n u merous adverts a n d pop
videos. We don't want to be the space
i n d ustry's cou rt j esters when capita l ism itself
is bei n g open ly contested , as seen i n Seattle
a n d th e City of London i n the last yea r.
The AAA h a s been a rad ica l movement
from the futu re operati n g i n the p resent­
n ow th e present is catch i n g u p with us. Al­
ready we a re see i n g mass o ppositi o n devel­
o pi n g to the m i l ita risation of space (see the
recent action at M enwith H i l l i n Yorks h i re) in
and before long space wi l l become a major
a re n a for all ki nds of soci a l stru g g l e3 . As the
fi rst space m utineers jetti son t h e i r bosses
a n d head out i nto the g a l axy to create n ew
a utonomous com m u n ities th ey wi l l te l l sto­
ries to th e i r ch i l d ren a bout th ose who saw it
a l l com i n g , way back in the 1 990s. Or per­
h a p s, l i ke i n the fi l m Term i n ato r, they wi l l
send h e l p back i nto the past-to 1 995 to be
p recise-to form a n etwork dedicated to
com m u n ity-based space expl o ration , th us
setti n g i n motio n a ch a i n of events lead i n g
t o th e i r eventua l su ccess .
 But look at th e sky!-lt's too small for us
If we feared dying of heat, we 'd stay on
our knees
Arth ur Rimbaud,
Le Forgeron/The B lacksm ith , 1 870

N e i l Disconaut

N otes
1 M ission Accom p l i shed . . . but the Beat Goes On is the
title of the Rezi l l os LP recorded l ive at th e i r 1 978
farewel l g i g i n G l asgow. T h e Rezi l l os were respo nsible
for such Disconaut faves as Desti nation Ven u s and
Flying Saucer Attack. [up]
2 M i chael M oorcock, B l ood: a Southern Fantasy ( 1 995).
[up]
3 For i nformation on th is check the website of the
G l obal N etwork Aga i n st Weapons and Nuclear Power
i n Space, www. g l obenet.free .on-l ine.co.uk [u p]
 73

It's the End of the AAA as We

Know It and I feel fi ne
or
Objections to the 333-Day Extension

Th e AAA i s th e cra dle of autonomous

spa ce explora tion.
But h uman ity ca n n ot rem a in in th e
cradle forever
Tsi lovsky

Raido AAA h ave l eft the b u i l d i n g . After Apri l

23rd 2000, we won 't be p u b l i s h i n g any n ew
AAA texts, org a n ising events o r prod ucing
An n u a l Reports . J o h n Eden wi l l a lso shortly
be u nsu bscri b i n g fro m the AAA- l ist a n d
tu rn i n g over its a d m i n t o . . . somebody o r
n obody.

Space tra vel's in my blood,

Th ere a in 't n o th ing I ca n do about it.
Long journ eys wea r me out,
but I kn ow I can 't live without it.
The On ly Ones
\
There is a risk of the AAA fa l l i n g i nto situ ations
of e n d l essly repeati n g o n l y the most basic
ideas associated with the n etwork. This
co u ld become u nsatisfyi n g a n d can lead to
viewi ng one's own i nvo lvement in a si m i l a r
fa s h i o n t o a j o b o r mem bersh i p of a pol itica l
org a n isati o n . It a lso com m u n i cates a degree
of boredom to wh oever i s on the receiving
end. We don't want to a n swer the same
q uestions over a n d over aga i n .
For t h i s reason i t may b e usefu l for a l l
a utonomouos astrona uts to consider th e i r
positio n . We h ave decided t o o n ly i nvo lve
o u rselves with the org a n isati on of h i storifica­
tion proj ects (i n c l u d i n g the conti n u i n g ava i l­
a b i l ity of " cl assic" AAA merch a n d i se) a n d
o n l y th i s for as l o n g as it a p pea l s t o u s­
which certa i n ly won 't be for 333 d ays* . The
process of h i sto rifi cati on is o n e step re­
m oved from the 'operatio n a l ' l eve l a n d
therefo re h a s th e advantage o f o f a l l owing
a utonomous astro n a uts to p l a ce outrageous
contexts or exp l a n ati ons on the basic ideas
beh i n d the five-yea r p l a n .

I 'm s o bored o f the AAA

The Clash

There is a lso the d a n g e r of a n AAA

b u reaucracy emerg i n g-of becom i n g the
it's t h e e n d 75

sort o f org a n isation t h a t asks G eorg e Soros

for £333,000 (even i n jest), or th at g ets n e a rly
a pp roving mentions i n a n a rchist magazi n es
l i ke Org a n ise i n th e i r J 1 8 write u ps, or that
a l l ows a cou p l e of i n d ivid u a l s to get wheeled
out for th e media every time someth i n g
vag u e l y a rty g ets d o n e a bout outer space .
Above a l l th e re i s t h e d a n g e r of vetera n
a utonomous astro n a uts bei n g perceived as
experts-n u d g i n g cl oser to the space
esta b l ishment (corporate o r govern menta l
attem pts to m a ke space travel more ope n ,
media sci ence com m entators, the B ritish
I nterp l a n eta ry Society, etc) th a n the peopl e
w h o a re th e AAA's n atu ra l constituen cy.
We wou l d l i ke to ta ke u p Disco n a ut
AAN.s pro posa l that we d i ssolve o u rselves
i nto a wider g ro u p of peo p l e . We s h o u l d at
a l l costs avo i d g h etto isation-the creation
of a n iche AAA category. Perh a ps we shou l d
i n stea d con centrate o n infecti n g oth e r
categories s o that there is n o l o n g e r a n eed
for a specific AAA n etwork. I n deed , it s h o u l d
n ow be t h e p ri m a ry focus o f a l l a utonomous
astro n a uts to create a situ ation where the
AAA is n o l o n g e r necessa ry.
T h i s is by n o means the e n d . J u st as o u r
p revious projects h ave overtly a n d covertly
been p resent in our AAA a ctivities-th e
ideas, experien ces, a n d re lationsh i ps that
we u n ea rth ed wh i l st part of t h e AAA wi l l
su rely conti n u e to b e present i n what we d o
as g roups and as i n d ivid u a l s i n the futu re .

See You I n Space

Raido AAA

* Wh i l st we understa n d M r S a l l i 's ideas a bout the

AAA being a self-in itiatory process i n which peo­
ple m ay h ave to i m m e rse themselves for a spe­
cific length of time to rea p the rewa rds, we a re
u n clear as to how setti n g a n other discrete length
of ti m e with a fixed endpoint wi l l resolve the
" problem " of people beco m i n g i nvolved some
ti m e after the beg i n n i n g of the five-year p l a n .
We wou l d a l so u rg e caution to people who
wis h to i m m e rse themselves i n a project which is
n u m erologica l ly identica l to the a rchdemon Cho­
ronzo n , who i n o u r experience is a fa r from be­
n i g n infl uence.
Th is text isn't an attem pt to ru bbish the ideas
beh ind the extension (or to have a go a younger
AAA groups or autonomous astronauts)-it's
more an explantion of why we don't wish to par­
tici pate-and perhaps a n attempt to generate
some discussion!
 77

333
"333 " is a transversa l ist con cept that
m oves in severa l d i rections at o n ce. I n
this text we're g o i ng to explore some of
the main directions in which th e " 3 3 3 "
m oves.

d i rection S
333 as the n u m ber of days i n wh ich AAA Bo­
l ogna plans to extend the AAA Five Yea r Plan
after its end on Apri l th e 23rd yea r 2000. The
reason for such a n extension has to be fou n d
i n wh at w e fee l as a fundamenta l need : the
l a u n ch on Apri l th e 23rd yea r 2000 of what
we ca l l a process of self- h i storificati on that
wi l l rad i ca l ly deny any possi ble h istorisation
com i n g from " o utsi d e " of o u r activities as
a uton omous astro n a uts. D u ri n g this 333 days
extension, every AAA g ro u p wi l l be i n vited
to come up with its own self- h i storification
project a n d , i n doing so, a rad ica l resista n ce
towa rds the worki n g u n iti es of h i storisation
wi l l be expressed . Self-historificati on i n fact
has been proved to be the most effective
a nti- h i storisation tech n iq u e .

d i rection E
333 as the title of the scie nce-fiction n ovel
AAA B o l og n a is writi n g togeth er with M r.
G e ra rd Z* (1 ) that i ntends to be, between
oth er th i n gs, a sort of person a l h i sto rifica­
tion of the AAA from the future . A d i rect
con seq uence of d i rection S .

d i rection L
333 as the n u m ber of l a u n ch pads for i n d e­
pendent space expl o ration the Association
of Autonomous Astrona uts have been locat­
i n g on P l a n et Earth . From th e I n ner City
AAJ:>.:s in G ru b Street (now ca l l ed M i lton
Street) to Ocea n i a AAJ:>.:s on One Tree H i l l .
P l u s to mention AAA Trento's one at the a nti­
g ravitation a l site of Montagnaga on the Alps
where bizza re phenomena of resista nce to
g ravity as a social law consta ntly h a ppen .
And the AAA Lucca 's one i n Tusca ny i n Piazza
de l l 'Anfiteatro that is an e l l i ptica l sq uare b u i lt
on a Roman an cient a m p h itheatre peri meter
situated in the heart of th e Lu cca h i storica l
centre . Pi azza d e l l 'Anfiteatro has three med i­
eva l g ates th at you n ecessa ri ly h ave to pass
th rough if you want to get to the sq uare, and
l ooks l i ke a perfect pitch for a th ree-sided
footba l l m atch .

d i rection F
333 as the n u m ber of days i n wh ich AAA
B o l o g na p l a n s to exten d the AAA Five Yea r
P l a n i n order t o produce a n " AAA Rave i n
333 79
Space" CD.

direction H
3:33 p m as the p erfect time for a p sych ic
attack a g a i n st Nasa.

d i rection I
333 as the th ousands of pou nds AAA Bologna
i ntends offici a l ly asking M r. G eorge Soros for
as a fin a ncia l backi n g for AANs i ndependent
space exploration program mes.

d i rection S
333 a s th e n u m be r of d ays i n wh i ch AAA Bo­
l o g n a p l a n s to exten d the AAA Five Yea r
P l a n . Th is extension wi l l pro l o n g the a utono­
mous astrona uts adventu res until M a rch the
2 1 st 200 1 , d ate of the fi rst Anti-G ravitatio n a l
Spri n g Eq u i n ox.

d i rection T
3 3 3 as th e n u m ber of m i n utes that every
th ree-sided footba l l m atch lasts for (or at
least I th i n k so, I ' m n ot that s u re a bout it . . . )

d i rection 0
3 3 3 as th e n u m be r that every g rou p j o i n i n g
th e 3 3 3 days extension t o th e Five Yea r P l a n
i s i nvited t o i n sert i n betwee n its n a m e . For
exa m p l e , AAA Bolog n a wi l l become AAA
" 333" Bolog n a .

d i rection R
3 3 . 3 as the a n g l e i n d e g rees at wh i ch a
spacesh i p m u st enter earth's atmosphere to
avoid bu rn-o ut.

d i rection I
3 . 3 3 a m a s a n other perfect time for a psych ic
atta ck a g a i n st Nasa !

d i rection F
333 as the n u m be r of d ays AAA Utrecht is
g o i n g to exist for. . . ( to contact " J u n g l e " AAA
Utrecht: j u n g l eAAA@ hotm a i l .com);

d i rection Y
333 a s the n u m ber of e-z steps yo u have to
go thro u g h (acco rd i n g to AAA Bologna) to
b u i l d your own spacesh i p .

d i rection ! S E LF- H I STO R I FY!

Riccardo B a l l i
(AAA Bologna)
note:
1 G era rd Z i s a freelance occu ltist from Lond o n , n ow a
m e m b e r of AAA B o l o g n a .
D eta i l s o f " 3 3 3 " a ctivity can be fou n d at http ://www.
echodesig n . n et/m attia/3 33/
 81

The Fi nal Declaration

23/04/00

The Association of Autonomous Astrona uts

{AAA) has arrived at the climax of its five­
year p l a n . We h ave now successfu l ly
estab l ished a worl d-wide network of loca l ,
com m u n ity-based g rou ps dedicated to
b u i l d i n g their own spaceshi ps .
On Apri l 23rd 2000, wh i ch m a rks th e
fifth a n n iversary of th e offi c i a l l a u n ch of o u r
i n depend ent space expl o ration progra m m e ,
the AAA wi l l sponta n eously d issolve itse lf i n
order to i n iti ate a n ew p hase o f self­
h i storificatio n . We wi l l enter the rea l m of
myth , a n i n s p i rati o n for the N ext G e n e ration
of space exp l o rers . Th ose who wish to
engage with the possi b i l ities that open u p
w h e n w e l eave th is world beh i n d ca n n ow
uti l ise the d iverse experiences of th e
participa nts i n the AAA project.
The AAA evo lved into a soci a l m ovement
that deve l o ped a com p l ex too l box of
tech n i q ues for exploring th e n ew soci a l
re l ations th at a re created by a utonomous
com m u n iti es i n space. These tools ca n b e
used by anyone.
This is a mom entous occasion for the
h isto ry of h u m a n space expl o rati o n . Th e
AAA legacy wi l l be the i n d isputa b l e fa ct that
the state, corporate, and m i l ita ry monopoly
of space trave l h a s been destroyed forever.

SEE YOU IN SPACE

 sP A C E
1s
THE PLA
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