Short abstract

A tidal surge floods the city of Hull, knocking out terrestrial phones. Emergency services rely on their contracted backup, Elon Musk’s Starlink, only to find the service has been restricted by the US government due to a geopolitical spat. Hear what we learnt from playing out this scenario.

Long abstract

Satellite technology has quietly become an invisible international infrastructure. It is often governed by a kind of technology feudalism: complex combinations of private and national interests. This talk recounts a 2025 simulation of a fictional crisis where these hidden systems of power became visible.

A massive tidal surge floods the city of Hull, knocking out terrestrial phones. The emergency services rely on their contracted backup, Elon Musk’s Starlink, only to find the service has been restricted by the US government due to a geopolitical spat over Greenland.

I will describe how the events played out in this exercise run with experts and in collaboration with colleagues at the UK Space Agency.

The outputs are valuable for bringing public attention to these technology risks (and also fairly entertaining). But what could have been achieved if we had involved the public from the start? I want to hear from the Sci Bar audience: what would you have done in the simulation and, more generally, what should we be doing to respond to the failed promise of a technological commons in Low Earth Orbit?