Innovation Starvation

In 'Innovation Starvation,' Neal Stephenson reflects on his childhood memories of watching Gemini missions and expresses disappointment at the end of the Space Shuttle program, questioning the absence of ambitious projects like space stations or Mars travel.

He argues that modern risk aversion, managerial short-termism, and over-reliance on omniscience from information access stifle grand innovations, proposing that good science fiction can inspire engineers and scientists by providing coherent visions of plausible futures, as exemplified by the Hieroglyph project.