People’s Responses to KESTS to GEO over the past 16 years

When I can get the attention of someone long enough to tell them about the possibility of KESTS to GEO being able to enable solar-satellite-supplied abundant CO2-free electrical cheap power worldwide, enable solar powered total recycling of much of nature-unrecyclable industrial toxic waste materials instead of letting it slowly kill the ecosystem, and the movement of most rocket launches up to high spaceports in GEO 91% up out of earth's gravitational energy well and far above atmospheric drag, even build huge virtual-gravitied cities there in GEO extending civilization, the person's typical response is to glance quickly at my face (perhaps to see if I am telling a joke, see if I am really serious), make no reply and after a pause start talking about something intirely unrelated, about their familiar world and tasks, and soon the conversation is ended and the person tends to avoid me thereafter. Instead of excitedly asking more about this great hopefulness for mankind, they instead tend to compare what I said with my difficulty in having enough money to pay my rent, my poor manner of clothing myself and lack of professional haircut, and my eye-shifting Asperger's Syndrome communication difficulties, and quickly evaluate that I am crazy, or stole some professor's idea, or at very least am totally incapable of bringing the concept into enough reality to make a difference in their life. I keep doing my best, anyway, the world ought to know it has this great potential.

That the project would cost billions and probably would make trillions in profits, surely has not escaped the attention of the powerful wealthy during the 16 years (1988-2004) so far I have put the concept out to the public. Nor of the attention of special interest groups who would surely see KESTS to GEO as disruptive to their plans for the future or a means of their access to power and wealth if they could get me out of the way; since they obviously have not enlisted me to be cooperative helper making it happen yet.

Some part of me still naively believes the old adage "build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door", possibly also because I have no no business sense, no ability to promote or sell anything. Having had the experience in the mid-1980's of an expert burglary stripping my residence of every trace (almost) of an earlier conceptual design I had been creating since the gas lines of the mid 1970's, a high efficiency ground commute system called "the pullband commute system" which was a modern high tech evolvable version vaguely resembling old cable car systems in function, except would service every residence and be extendable to 300 mph commute between distant cities in one's own lightweight vehicle, then sliding via air cushioning within aboveground tubeways; the burglary occurred a week or so after I had attempted to get an automotive research center to be interested in the idea via mail (they did not reply, of course) which deprived me of all legally presentable proof of my authorship of the conceptual design (including my copy of the letter I sent to them, of course), so no one would invest in my effort since now others would have "legal" documents for patent protection, thus the concept was killed, and so people do not now have its option for their lives. I well know, since I have so little money that much of the time I have to ride the Los Angeles public transit system: try it sometime. (Don't get me wrong; I am appreciative of the L A MTA bus and light rail capabilities as they are, so I can get around to my volunteer jobs economically; it is just that the pullband commute system would have been so much more convenient, effective and economical, and we were all robbed of it.)

Thus having learned another something that did not work regarding businessmen playing their endless game, I had to do something different regarding KESTS to GEO, I decided that the best safety perhaps was to get the idea out to the public as fast as I could, which I did via the GEnie information network, my access thankfully enabled by the National Space Society. (urls to my files) The world did not "beat a path to my door" although soon I came back to my residence, a rented room in someone else's apartment in Van Nuys, to find the door kicked in by police following an (obviously false) report I was growing marijuana in my room (I like to grow houseplants in my home, permitted even if pets are not), then left my residence unguarded and door unrepaired, not a very desirable "beating a path to my door".

I've continued the effort during the sixteen years since then, and improving the conceptual design along the way at times. People's reactions generally have been toward the negative regarding the concept then turn on me as the author. Generally toward the KESTS to GEO conceptual design's implications itself, then toward me.

Avoiding the recantation of specific numerous events, the comments might be summarized by these comments that I imagine (so as to attempt to make sense of the real world I find) were going on in people's thoughts to make them have the responses they had: "I have nerver heard of it, therefore he must be crazy. Surely it won't work, otherwise the corporations would have already built it. It would obsolete ground-based conventional chemical fueled launch vehicle business, causing me financial distress, so ignore it and it will go away, starved; I the authority will show by my example that it is not worth anyone's attention, I am the expert. There is no problem that he is solving for people, since the sun is shining and gas is available at the pump, and I am the boss, the winner, the only one worthy of attention, therefore there is no problem."

Even though so far no one has come up with a technical challenge that I have not been able to solve, this only turned their attention toward me as the problem source. Again generalizing what could have been their thoughts about my writings: "He wants me to leave my hard-earned home and go live in a tiny submarine-like box in space; he is crazy. He has no PhD degree so he must have stolen the idea from a PhD so we need to find out who; he must be a thief, even immoral, let's catch him at it, get rid of him. Then the conceptual keys will be abandoned to be freely ours to include in our business games if and when we choose, we stay in control of everything. He is a miserable loser, we are the great winners and will remain so, and that is the only important thing."

Even back in 1988 when having a GEnie Spaceport Library chat list on the subject, I got few intelligent responses, limited to such as "I won't go to space or anywhere I cannot sail my sailboat." Similar neative feedback happened to my "Centristation" cheap space habitat concept chatlist (later I did get that concept formally published as "Wet Launch of Prefab Habitat Modules" in 1995.)

Despite this almost invariably general response pattern from others, my response has been to think that they must not have adequately heard what I was saying, so I would re-write it once again, hoping they could now hear the very important message for their well-being, even perhaps their survival, surely they are rational.

Realizing that my concept was more of a civil engineering nature than of pure aerospace (more like a bridge than a rocket), after a couple of years of rejection, the American Society of Civil Engineers accepted a paper from me on the subject of KESTS to GEO and formally published a peer-reviewed technical paper by me on KESTS to GEO in "Space 2000", then an expanded version I wrote and presented in "Space and Robotics 2002" then recently another technical paper in "Earth and Space 2004", all published by ASCE, although in 2004 the conference seemed to be taken over by a commercial group hostile to KESTS to GEO, and stalled the presentation of the paper until after the conference had ended and people mostly had left. (A photo log of that trip is online here.)

The lesson learned seems to be that to some people, "power" is as compulsively addictive as any hard core chemical drug; this hypothesis would explain a lot of the observed responses, although it does not show a solution, at least yet. It has been said that correctly specifying the problem in detail, is half the solution of the problem. Meanwhile, humanity is deprived, and the ecosystem suffers.

Thank you for hearing me out. (Did anybody read this?)

Jim Cline

jedcline@kestsgeo.com and/or jedcline@earthlink.net

Copyright © 2004 James E. D. Cline