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Rick Tumlinson on Singularity 1on1: We are here to go there. Now go do something about it!"
by Socrates
April 19, 2015
“Rick Tumlinson is the descendant of pioneers who wants to help create the future pioneers who are going to go open the solar system and expand life beyond the Earth. That’s why I am here. The whole reason I exist is to make sure that this species and the life of the Earth expands into the universe.”
Rick Tumlinson is a legendary visionary, evangelist and a trench warrior for the opening, privatization and commercialization of Space. He has a very rich and colorful biography – one that you can read below in detail, but just some highlights include leasing the Russian MIR space station, helping send the first space tourist Dennis Tito and staring a number of organizations and companies such as the Space Frontier Foundation, Lunacorp, MirCorp, Orbital Outfitters, Deep Space Industries, the New Worlds Institute, The EarthLight Foundation and many others. Needless to say I very exited to have Rick on Singularity 1on1 for what turned out to be a truly epic interview.
During our 137 min long conversation with Tumlinson we cover: Orphan’s Appolo and the story of leasing the MIR space station; the Space Frontier Foundation; why and how he almost killed the International Space Station by a single vote; how he got the space bug from Timothy Leary and Gerard K. O’Neill; why he flies the skull and bones pirate flag; why we have to go in space even if we have big problems here on Earth; governments, the Apollo program and the Why? of space exploration; the limitations of biology and mind-uploading; his upcoming book God and Rockets; his take on the Fermi paradox…
This whole epic interview is full of gems. So it will take way too long if I start listing them all. But just a couple of my favorite quotes are:
“The reason we go to new places, the reason we do new things is because we are dissatisfied with the way things are. If we accept the way things are, then why ever do anything new?!”
“To carry the light of life to places now dark, the seeds of life to places now dead, and the eyes, hands and minds of humanity to places yet unseen, untouched and unknown.”
