| Vendor | |
|---|---|
|
Fletcher Agency
Melissa Chinchillo |
| Original language | |
| English | |
ANOTHER EARTH
How did a free-thinking Buddhist metallurgist, a billionaire oil scion, and a troupe of actors create one of the 20thCentury's greatest, most ambitious, and utterly doomed scientific experiments?
In the 25-year epic tale of a modern day Noah's Ark another Earth was constructed in a glass complex in the Arizona desert and filled with the elements, animals, plants, biomes, and humans of our planet to see if we could preserve life on this world or export it to others, if need be.
Johnny Allen, the Harvard MBA turned walker-of-the-earth sought to save the planet from annihilation in the best way he knew: the formation of an experimental theater company. From its humble beginnings in New Mexico, The Theater of All Possibilities (TAP) attracted a diverse crew of young intellectuals, artists, thinkers, and free spirits. They farmed, built adobes, studied and one day, Johnny Allen told them, they'd remake civilization and allow humans to live on Mars. They studied the environments of the globe, hosted conferences and performed plays. Their goal was to create a human-made, self-sustaining, habitable earth one in which 8 people would live for two years.
The experiment failed. The crew of 8 "Biospherians" descended into a cross between the Stanford Prison Experiment, Lord of the Flies, and Big Brother. The media had a field day as this eco-tech planetary real-time experiment transfixed the world. It would be relegated to history as one of the spectacular disasters of our time.
But, rarely has so spectacular a failure been so prescient: Biosphere 2 was ahead of its time. It represented courage to tackle the most pressing questions. Elon Musk, Richard Branson, the NASA, Russia, and the international space program are working on similar questions.
Melissa Milgrom has written about popular culture, subcultures, and people with eccentric areas of expertise for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Beast, Salon, Audubon.com, and other publications. Her first book, Still Life, is a chronicle of her adventures among taxidermists. She holds a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and is a visiting professor at the Pratt Institute.
Johnny Allen, the Harvard MBA turned walker-of-the-earth sought to save the planet from annihilation in the best way he knew: the formation of an experimental theater company. From its humble beginnings in New Mexico, The Theater of All Possibilities (TAP) attracted a diverse crew of young intellectuals, artists, thinkers, and free spirits. They farmed, built adobes, studied and one day, Johnny Allen told them, they'd remake civilization and allow humans to live on Mars. They studied the environments of the globe, hosted conferences and performed plays. Their goal was to create a human-made, self-sustaining, habitable earth one in which 8 people would live for two years.
The experiment failed. The crew of 8 "Biospherians" descended into a cross between the Stanford Prison Experiment, Lord of the Flies, and Big Brother. The media had a field day as this eco-tech planetary real-time experiment transfixed the world. It would be relegated to history as one of the spectacular disasters of our time.
But, rarely has so spectacular a failure been so prescient: Biosphere 2 was ahead of its time. It represented courage to tackle the most pressing questions. Elon Musk, Richard Branson, the NASA, Russia, and the international space program are working on similar questions.
Melissa Milgrom has written about popular culture, subcultures, and people with eccentric areas of expertise for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Beast, Salon, Audubon.com, and other publications. Her first book, Still Life, is a chronicle of her adventures among taxidermists. She holds a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and is a visiting professor at the Pratt Institute.
| Available products |
|---|
|
Book
Published by Flatiron |