Space Inc (anthology)

Introduction by Julie E. Czerneda

Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor… a familiar rhyme to I many about work on Earth and just the beginning of a very long list of possible ways to earn a living here. But what happens when we leave this planet? What will happen to the jobs we know? And what jobs will be created because of the realities of space? I can guarantee it will be more than astronaut, tourist guide, and telescope technician, though I’m sure those jobs will still exist.

Like you, I’m curious about many things, but especially about the world around me. Not only the world itself, but people and what they do. Driving down a road, I’ll wonder what’s being made in the buildings I pass. I’d prefer some clues to guessing. Would meaningful company signs be too much to ask?

When I use something in my home, every so often I’ll pause and wonder at it. Who made it? How? Why? How long ago? I can look up technical information, but it’s infinitely more satisfying to talk to the people involved. I know, because I’ve had the good fortune to interview well over a hundred individuals about their work as part of my job. Pattern makers and physicists, cartographers and carvers, dog trainers and designers. The more I learn, the more I’m fascinated by how diverse the things we do for a living really are. We are, frankly, a very busy species.

And, like many of you, I’m curious about space, too. I have every confidence we’ll be living there and soon. So what about people and what will they do? Human enterprise is complex and interrelated. We depend on one another for so much—and how much more this interdependency will matter in space!

Will work itself change? Will we?

That was what I asked these talented authors: mink about our future and look up into space. Describe who you see and what they are doing. The regular folks. Real people trying to make a day’s living.

Because if we are to live in space—really live, and not just be visitors—it will be because of people like these, and what they do.