On the other hand, you can have anything you want if you are willing to build it from raw materials. Just tell me how much asteroid steel you need, budget your time, and it is yours.
There probably won’t be much of it for a while, but most of your free time you will probably spend building and maintaining your habitat, growing food, inventing conveniences, and even running your own businesses. The belters have developed their own economy, based on a unit of currency called, of course, the “credit.” They buy and sell services, parts, equipment, food, entertainment, whatever.
All you need to run an economy is energy, raw materials, and human talent. In the belt, the third element is the one in short supply. If we attract the talent and enthusiasm I think we will, the progress will be phenomenal. I am tempted to say it will be unlike anything ever seen on Earth, but I’m not so sure.
Our work place will be modeled on the Skunk Works, the legendary facility that built the U-2, SR-71, and Aurora, and their magnificent successors. The philosophy there was to give talented, hard-working people responsibility for a particular task, the authority to get what they needed done, and autonomy to work unmolested. That facility managed to build, almost from scratch, aircraft that were twenty years or more ahead of anything else flying. They invented new technology to do it, they did it faster than anyone else thought possible, and they did it elegantly.
The pioneers with their saws and axes, and the engineers at the Skunk Works, are the sorts of people who made America great. The chunk of real estate they occupied had little to do with it. Today, most of the occupants of that patch of land are fat and timid. But there are still a few, in this country and around the world, of the kind of people who made “American” a label to be proud of. Space will be populated by them. At this moment, I can’t bear the thought of hanging around down here while something like that is going on. I’d like to think I am, after all, an American.
Consider, if you will, the Old World backers of New World exploration. They expected to acquire great riches—gold, beaver pelts, and so forth. They had no idea of the tremendous wealth they would produce. But, that wealth stayed, for the most part, in the New World. The New World was, itself, the thing of value. That is what is going on here. Earth thinks it will profit greatly from the scarceium we will ship back, but compared to what we will build, it might as well be material for high-fashion hats. The big difference is that no native populations or furry critters need to die for us to succeed.
Now consider your prospects if you remain here. You will be safe and comfortable, I suppose, but your opportunities will be rather limited. You will be competing with about ten billion people for a finite pool of land, air, water, sunlight, and other resources. It is a sum-zero game with an increasing number of players.
I’d like to continue my present line of research eventually. The review board may be right. Maybe this planet isn’t the right place for my experiments, and if they work, I’d have to take the technology into space to exploit it anyway. I’d like the chance to build some really hot rockets, and I don’t know that I would get the chance in my lifetime if I stay down here.
If you understand why I’m taking the job, and if you want to come along, call me at 555-7263 for an interview. I’ll be taking applications in room 201 of the Holiday Inn just down the road for the next week or so. Just remember, I’ve worked with most of you. I know which ones of you can wield a wrench and which ones are pure theoreticians. I know who thinks they’re too good to clean a toilet and who steps in to do whatever needs doing. And I know who has the talent and desire to do it all.
So, who wants to join me?
Sincerely,
Erica Thompson