Imperialism, Technology and Tropicality in Arthur C. Clarke’s Geopolitics of Outer Space

Abstract

This paper addresses geopolitical cultures of outer space by examining the selected life and works of Arthur C. Clarke (1918-2008), one of the leading space technology advocates of the twentieth century, in the specific context of his adopted home of Ceylon / Sri Lanka. Within the framework of studies that have connected critical geopolitics and science, further discussions concerning the interface between imperialism, technology and tropicality help demonstrate the relevance of Clarke's geographical imagination to understanding geopolitical cultures of outer space. Three aspects of Clarke's life and works are examined: First, his underwater exploration activities in Ceylon from the late 1950s to the early 1970s; second, his 1979 Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novel The Fountains of Paradise; and finally, his promotion of Sri Lanka as a future hub of outer space technologies in the early 1980s. The paper suggests that geopolitical readings of outer space can be understood through investigating diverse aspects of place, landscape and identity.

Outer space as a geographical domain: A contribution to laying the foundations for astropolitics

“…Bilo da je reč o filmovima poput Ratova zvezda, televizijskih serija poput Zvezdanih staza, naučnofantastične literature poput Zadužbine Isaka Asimova (Isaak Asimov), Dine Frenka Herberta (Frank Herbert) i Odiseje Artura C. Klarka (Arthur C. Clark), stripova od pionirskih poput Fleša Gordona Aleksa Rejmonda (Alex Raymond) i Dena Derija Frenka Hampsona (Frank Humpson) do Žodoverzuma Aleksandra Žodorovskog (Alexander Jodorowsky) i Marvelovog multiverzuma, pa čak i onih dela koji se mogu pronaći u više medijuma poput serijala knjiga i televizijske serije Prostranstvo (Expanse) kao i pojedinih već pomenutih dela, popularni mediji mogu uticati na društveno konstituisanje svemira, i time njegovih društveno-geografskih karakteristika. Otuda i ne čudi što je pomenuta Reganova inicijativa poprimila kolokvijalni naziv po filmskoj franšizi Ratovi zvezda, kao i činjenica da popularna kultura (i drugih medija pored navedenih) zaokupljuje pažnju autora u astropolitičkoj literaturi (videti na primer: Sage 2008;MacDonald 2008;Dunnett 2021a;Maclaren 2021;Dunnett 2021b).…”

Stairway to Heaven? Geographies of the Space Elevator in Science Fiction

“…In this way, the space elevator acts as a bridge to salvation in the cosmos, a triumphant and transformational piece of Earth-space infrastructure. However, considered in the context of Clarke's identity as a western author in a postcolonial space, and noting the significance of the equatorial region to orbital space technologies, The Fountains of Paradise also foregrounds earthly geographies of colonialism and tropicality in the articulation of humanity's possible future in space (Dunnett 2019).…”

“…Geographical approaches to the study of outer space have started to interrogate the ways in which such inequalities have emerged and sustained themselves, across environmental, cultural and political registers. For example, recent studies have understood outer space as increasingly foreclosed by certain state and commercial actors (Beery 2012), have emphasised narratives of tropical difference in understanding geosynchronous equatorial satellite orbits (Dunnett 2019) and, more broadly, have conceptualised the Solar System as part of Earth's environment (Degroot 2017). It is clear from this and related literature that various types of infrastructure have been a significant part of the uneven geographies of outer space, whether in terms of long-established spaceports (Redfield 2000), anticipatory infrastructures (Gorman 2009) or redundant space hardware orbiting Earth as debris (Klinger 2019).…”

Nonscalability and generating digital outer space natures inNo Man’s Sky

“…We understand NMS as a powerful example of contemporary technological, cultural, and political innovation that informs imaginaries of interplanetary futures. Political geographers and others in related fields have contributed extensively to discussions of coloniality, imperialism, and frontier imaginaries shaping outer space geopolitics (see Dunnett, 2019; Kleinberg, 2007; Leib, 2015; Ormrod and Dickens, 2016; Redfield, 2002; Sage, 2008; Sammler and Lynch, 2019). Geographers have most extensively published works on outer space in the journal Geopolitics (some exceptions include Dunnett et al., 2019; Kopack, 2019; MacDonald, 2007).…”