The author points out that, because we live in a solar system, there are virtually unlimited astronomical sources of power available to us. He predicts that we will eventually have to build enormous mechanisms to gather, store, transform, use, buy, sell, revitalize, and save these cosmological energies. He insists that we will be able to make much more valuable uses of the energies like the heat of our Sun, the tidal forces our Moon produces, and the energies of motion that come from the spinning around of our Earth at 1,000 mph at the Torrid Zone, as examples, when we use these massive mechanisms. Crosby contends that if a "big lie" exists, it is that value is decreasing more and more on the Earth, and we are using up all of our resources. This is simply not true. Not only that, but the opposite is the real truth. We are lucky to have star system resources, capable of providing us with so much energy that we can make the Earth be as we want it to be, with greatly improved lifestyles for people in general. The book is a combination of essays, satires, scientific writings, and poetry. Some parts of it are literal, and some are symbolic. It is sometimes lighthearted, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes funny, and sometimes very serious. It is a call for social action to convince others that unlimited energy resources are really available, and that gigantic mechanisms need to be built, so that we can have lifestyles that are possible because of what we have been given in the form of the cosmos we are part of. Big problems and hopes require big solutions. Size matters when it comes to making terrestrial as well as extraterrestrial forces we receive more useful. Crosby asserts that the writings about scientific theories can be verified using computer models and scientific techniques, and if someone wants to prove it for oneself, one can use the same methods, and will reach the same conclusions - simple basic engineering, but on a tremendously large scale. The book also confronts the problems and solutions related to "the meaning of value". Simple: using enormous mechanisms, astronomical energy value will be transformed into "real world" or business energy value as a product which will be represented as monetary value. Having the availability of such a tremendous quantity of such a valuable product will provide working people with a much, much higher quality of life, liberty, happiness, and upward economic opportunity. People in general will use more money and energy to produce many more goods and provide many more services. It describes the impact that so much new wealth will have on things like aging, economics, foreign relations, medicine, disease, mental disorders, qualities of lives, national politics, and social needs, for examples. The poor, the rich, and everyone in between will benefit. There will be a steadily growing economy, without uncontrollable and catastrophic "ups and downs", resulting in a steadily growing tax base for governments, providing for more social needs in better ways. It predicts the beginning of a new Age of Reason and Improvement.
About the Author: About the Author After having refused an opportunity to go to medical school at MUSC in Charleston, South Carolina leading to a profession in Psychiatry, in 1974, I decided to learn how to run the Student Affairs part of a university. I applied for a M.Ed. in Student Personnel Services at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. I got my M.Ed., but during that time I was pursuing a strong minor in Psychology, which I later majored in at the College of Charleston, in South Carolina. I found out I was more of the teaching and research type than an administrator type, and that I liked working in Psychology and Medicine more than in Higher Educational Administration. In 1976, my wife and I then moved to Tucson, Arizona, where I was accepted in a PhD program in Tests and Measurements, and Research Methodology. My son died tragically, and my wife wanted to move back to Charleston. While in Charleston, I applied for and was accepted in a program at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida in Personality and Counseling Theory, with a minor in Human Development, in 1978. It was in Gainesville that, due to a genetic defect, I had my first full blown episode of Bipolar Disorder at age 27. I moved back to Charleston, SC, in 1979, and that's where I live now. Because of the debilitating nature of the disorder, I figured I'd be forced to contribute academically and socially by doing independent writing and research as a physical and social scientist at home. Writing is my nature, and I've been doing it for years. Most of the things I have written are related to some major future and contemporary national and/or international issues and topics in a few academic areas. Every now and again I like to write a poem or a satire. The way I 'think outside of the box' is to take an eclectic approach to understanding and a multidisciplinary approach to suggesting solutions. Although calling a book 'visionary' might sound Narcissistic to some, I found out that many predictions I had made years ago are coming true today, and that in many ways there is still a long way to go until some of my visions are realized. I like to address some issues in an informative, funny, and satirical style, and for some reason I like semicolons; ... . In academic areas, I like to put complex terminology into ordinary terms; making the 'translation' as simple as possible and nonetheless profound.