Saudi Arabia & the Stars - A Dreamer Visits

I am off to #SaudiArabia today for the Future Investment Initiative Summit. I mentioned this to someone I know, who asked me: "Why there. They don't have anything to do with space." My answer: "Not true, AND Exactly." Saudi Arabia, while not yet as advanced as #UAE in its space development, is still a nation capable of and working hard to join in the opening of the Frontier, and along with their brothers and sisters next door, they too can make major contributions to the cause. That is a part of my mission. Of course I am looking for investment in my own (very exciting!) space projects as well, and to scout startup ideas for projects worth investing in, but anyone who knows me also knows I never miss a chance to try and open the airlock for everyone to join the Space Revolution. That is my life's work. I've tried to evangelize our cause in places as different a Latvia and Ukraine, to Morocco and Michigan.

This grand Cause, so misunderstood and mischaracterized, must involve as many of us as possible if we are succeed. Space can no longer be seen as the technological proxy battlefield of a few powerful nations, the playground of the western rich, or the exclusive domain of scientists. If we are to truly Open the #HighFrontier, we need all the allies and hands we can get, as some may try to stop us, and thus, in my opinion doom the human race to obscurity and probable eventual annihilation. While some may think it insane and wasteful to be opening the Frontier, I see it as insane to sit on a tiny speck in the immense immensity of an entire universe and deny the possibility offered our fledgling race of apes with tools and guns fighting over fire fuels and water holes the chance to rise to the next level.

This means gathering those of Vision no matter where they are and what they believe. No one should be locked inside the airlock. Whenever possible, all should be trying to work together to pry it open - for the good of All. While I may have my own judgements on this or that political system here on the planet for example, I also believe that whose who already go to space become part of a new coalition, or family - one that in some ways transcends the nations or companies that sent them up. The same for those will go next and forever - if we win. And history shows that over time any who do venture to such "New Worlds" do eventually see themselves not just as emissaries of those who sent them or allowed them to go, but citizens of the place where they live, even as they celebrate and advance the cultures that gave them birth.

In this I find hope. The hope that perhaps the wars and ravages of our history, so often based on fighting over limited resources, lands and the power to control them, can be at last become archaic, in a place that is unlimited in almost every way. And so, I will continue to talk to anyone anywhere about the promise of the Frontier. I will preach and lecture and try to convince any and all that they too can be part of this incredible new moment in the evolution of civilization. At the same time I will stand firm that no one has the right to stop us, nor place ridiculous limits on us as we go.

I want to see Saudi Arabia step onto the launchpad and join us. Perhaps they do so in ways that might enable a better understanding of their own lands through observation, perhaps by re-awakening and building on the scholarship of their great minds from so long ago, bu sending out voyages of exploration, perhaps to inspire their youth by creating pathways for their people to fly themselves, or by creating new space industrial hubs and homes for New Space companies. Whatever works.

For example, one can argue that a farsighted nation's leadership, built on the treasures of energy beneath its own sands, might, as the world begins shift away from those sources of energy, look to the sky for new ways to supply its customers. After all, it was the wisdom of their forbears who realized the potential of what seemed to be a barren landscape here on Earth. Why not, combining the wisdom of those leaders with the wonder of the ancient Arabic scholars who looked to the sky, reach up and out to grasp the potential of the same sun that bakes the deserts, to produce the world's next great source of power?

You see, from my perspective, the history, character, economy, science and culture of every state on this world can offer a unique perspective and approach to opening those out there.

My job is to incite such conversations, to plant the seeds of "what might be" into the fertile imaginations of any and all who will accept them, and to help guide and nurture what is born.

So yes. I am going to Saudi Arabia. To learn, to listen, and with any luck, to leave behind a few tiny kernels of possibility, in the rich and fertile minds of older leaders and new generations of dreamers, that they might, just might, take root in the deep history of their homeland, and begin to lift their children's eyes to those same skies so long ago held in wonder by their scholars, and ask: "I wonder when I will go?"