Which is the inconvenient truth — global warming or our cosmic destiny?

Early in the third millennium, Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, raised awareness of global warming via space age utopianism that mapped the fate of civilization upon the starry skies. From Plato and Ptolemy, Kant and Newton, to Kubrick and Serling, there has been profound human desire to situate human destiny amidst the starry skies. But just what is our cosmic fate — spaceship earth or planet of apes, space odyssey or cyberspace, no exit or twilight zone — in a universe of the Big Bang, with the starry skies moving away?

Barry Vacker teaches media, cultural, and utopian theory at Temple University, Philadelphia. The author of many articles and book chapters, his recent publications include the text for Peter Granser's photography book Signs (Hatje Cantz 2008). Vacker's recent work with experimental media includes the first three volumes of the "Theory Zero" book series (Zero Conditions, Crashing Into the Vanishing Points, and Starry Skies Moving Away), as well as the documentary film Space Times Square (2007), which he wrote and directed. barryvacker.net

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