The Rise of the Foamin’ Empire
The future starts with a foam party. That’s one of the realities of living in a new world where our quest to seek out new life and new civilizations, and boldly go where no man has gone before, is being determined not by governments, elected officials, philosophers, or even highly logical Vulcans, but instead by billionaires (one might be a trillionaire), who range from unlikeable to unhinged. As it seems with markets, politics, and just about everything else these days, the rest of us Earthlings are left to choose which billionaire to back, and hope our billionaire is better than their billionaire. When it comes to the space race, only two are really in contention: Musk vs. Bezos. Our story begins with one of them living the high life on the high seas, yes, covered in foam. “The Adriatic has been crossed by Odysseus and Caesar, by Venetian fleets and Napoleon’s navy, by countless men bent on dominating the world. It has seen its share of courage and folly. But one day in June 2025, off the island of Cres, it witnessed something genuinely new: a man worth $240 billion standing waist-deep in bubbles on the deck of a $500 million yacht, wearing a white bucket hat.” Josh Tyrangiel in The Atlantic: Choose Your Overlord. “Together, in fierce competition, these two billionaires are in the early stages of a race to vertically integrate the galaxy—a process that involves rockets, moon landings, enormous satellite constellations, and space-based data centers running AI models fueled by computing power that no terrestrial supplier can match. Both say they hope to preserve human life from the specter of climate change and expand mankind’s understanding of the universe. Both would also like to dominate a market that, unlike every other market they’ve previously conquered, has no ceiling and few established rules.” (Maybe they’ll be more prepared since Earth seems to have fewer and fewer established rules these days…)
+ “Scientists believe there are planets outside our solar system where life is even more abundant and sustainable.” NYT (Gift Article): Worlds More Habitable Than Earth? They’re Out There.
