Forecasting

[close] Books that further thinking and research into our alternative possible or preferable futures, about futures research methods, about emerging changes that are evolving into possible futures, about designing, imagining, expressing or experiencing futures, about depictions of futures in the arts, or that are themselves artistic / narrative depictions of future worlds. [Group 'profile photo' art by Chad Hagen; banner graphic unknown]

[close] Complimentary to face-to-face group that focuses on deepening our understanding of future trends, positive and negative, fictive or real.

[close] To build “the biggest thing, ever!” – LiftPort’s Space Elevator – requires an enormous breadth and depth of knowledge. Naturally, there are technical challenges. These problems of physics, chemistry and orbital dynamics are the ‘sexy’ issues that get all the media attention. But there are additional questions – law, international policy, military implications, theology, finance, operational management, education, human resources, risk mitigation/insurance and more… These concerns cannot be solved with a calculator or a spreadsheet. These are problems which involve people; which mean they are problems not of facts, but of emotions. There are plenty of technical questions that our specialists are working on, but we’ve created this book club to prioritize on the ‘human’ aspect of building the Lunar Space Elevator Infrastructure. This book club is developed as a way of organizing topics to focus on. I have segmented the problems into “Challenges” (below). This book club will tackle books in all of these topics (posted in a Folder). The goal is to both educate myself / my team and of vital importance – to educate our fans / general population. We will read a variety of books (two per month) that will impact the development of Elevators on the Moon, and eventually on Mars and the Terrestrial Space Elevator here on the Earth! I invite you to join and participate in our discussions. Your intelligence, input, advice and wisdom are valued! Thanks for your interest and participation. Michael Laine www.twitter.com/mlaine President, LiftPort Group www.liftport.com