Digging Down on Anti-Space Sentiment

What are the actual reasons people oppose the colonisation of space?

I often speak to people I meet about space colonisation, and in some cases they oppose the idea outright or have doubts of its practicality within our lifetime. Obviously, I want to convince them otherwise.

Changing minds, however, is hard.

In some instances, I’ve had someone articulate an argument against space, which I’ve then offered refutation to - to which they responded by saying “yes, but…” and restating their initial argument verbatim. What was the point of me even saying anything?

As frustrating as it is, space projects require broad support, especially if publicly funded. So what I am going to do here is share some of my experience of these conversations, using a taxonomy of different forms of objection and how I’ve previously dealt with them.

The Sniff Test

Most people, on encountering a new idea, do not spend a lot of time carefully analysing it. Normally they quickly decide if they like it or not, depending on their prior experiences and biases.

Space colonisation is quite far outside of people’s normal experiences, and thus probably won’t feel like a real, solid possibility. The common sense that navigates you through the world can’t quite figure it out.

The physics says this will work, but every real world experience you’ve had in your life says people should fall off the opposite side.

Furthermore, space colonies are also something many people will have only encountered in science fiction. So the first gut reaction might be that the proponent is simply confusing fantasy with reality.

Neither of these things is a rational grounds for objection of course - something existing in science fiction or not existing in science fiction is orthogonal to whether or not it is actually possible. But it is still a common heuristic, which exists because its a useful fast filter to dismiss people who try to convince you of the reality of astrology or magic. The task, then, in this situation is not to get lumped into that category.

My approach here is to start from immediately verifiable facts now - such as the exponential increase in mass to orbit that has been ongoing for several years. Explain that this is what has prevented all the previous dreams of space colonisation from being realised. Also, it is good to remind people of real milestones indicating progress in space. Remind them that Starlink is still quite new, and changing the way we access the Internet on earth already. Point to the progress of the Artemis program, and the footage of reusable rockets that would be dismissed as science fiction a few years ago.

Actions tend to speak louder than words - and ultimately this objection will be undermined by material progress. If you can’t get past it through argument - have the person simply wait until they see something that convinces them of progress. The batch of the booster on Starship Flight 5, for instance, cut through to the mainstream media and made an incredible impression on people not normally interested in space. If you’ve got a long running friendship with a doubter, just send them a video of the next big milestone, and let the rockets do the work.

The Problems on Earth