Space Forces

Praise

“Intricately dissects seven foundational visions of humanity’s future in space, from some of the most well-known and prolific engineers, thinkers, entrepreneurs, and science fiction writers in history. Scharmen’s keen eye for structures and systems lets him tease out the com-mon threads of conquest, domination, hope, and fear that drive us towards the stars. “
—Erika Nesvold, co-founder of JustSpace Alliance

“An episodic history of space exploration through the eyes of an architect focusing, not in the concept of conquer and dominion, but in the flawed yet captivating desire to reinvent life anew. Fred Scharmen brilliantly navigates through stories of inventing worlds, multidimension-al and a-hierarchical, lingering between reality and fiction.”
—Lydia Kallipoliti, Author of The Architecture of Closed Worlds

“As if from a vantage point somewhere in the endangered atmosphere, Space Forces reflects back a sense of what humans are so far by telling stories about their dreams of space travel. Mixed with their eccentric curiosities is their desire to make colonized property out of everything, their racist depravity, their clanking apparatus of national sovereignty, their extractivist hoarding, and their feverish dreams of capital accumulation. These are the little heroes of this little planet busy pursuing their rational plans to dominate it and those who might repair it.”
—Keller Easterling, author of Medium Design

“In this season of billionaires fleeing, however briefly, up the gravity well, we desperately need a knowledgeable guide to the human exploration of space, the choices it confronts us with, and what it portends for those of us left behind. Fred Scharmen is that guide. His brilliant new Space Forces makes it clear that if space is the place, it’s not one that’s different from Earth, and if and when we venture there for keeps, it’s ourselves that we’ll find there.”
—Adam Greenfield, author of Radical Technologies

“Whenever I get to read something by Fred Scharmen, I know I’m in for a weird and fascinating ride. Space Forces is no exception. “
—Ingrid Burrington, author of Networks of New York

“The inhabitants of the red planet zoom around in a hyperloop and their leader is called—yes, really—The Elon. This, along with an insane amount of other brilliant nuggets, features in Scharmen’s lively history of space exploration as a colonial and, ultimately, architectural project.”
—Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times

“Scharmen pulls off the delicate balancing act between the specific and the general with a skill that never lets the reader see the effort that goes into it.”
—Rick Cousins, Science Fiction Studies

“By touching on the development of contrasting views of how practical space flight was developed across seven distinct time periods, Scharmen lays the threads of how we got here out in perfect clarity.”
—Jonathan Hilburg, Architect’s Newspaper