The Extinction Loop

Seasteading Institute’s floating islands do not evoke the millions of human deaths resulting from a climate shaped by perpetual tsunamis and raging super-fires. Their polished computer models instead function like Apple products, which separate the ruthless reality of the Foxconn factory gulags from the user’s product experience.

Bezos’s 2021 press conference, after having just returned from his 11-minute trip to the outer atmosphere in a penis-shaped rocket made by his Blue Origin company, is telling in this regard. Dressed in a blue space uniform topped with a cowboy hat to emphasize his new status as a space pioneer, he stated to the assembled press: “I want to thank eve... See more