SPACE

  A memoir and love letter by David Langerman

I love space, what can I say? Ever since I was a teensy little Ph.D student, I've only ever dreamed of being a space researcher. Hailing from South Dakota, the only thing I could really see from my house was space. Growing up, my parents always asked if I wanted a high-performance computer. "But David, all of your friends are studying machine learning. Are you sure you don't want to try it?"

I remained steadfast. I knew where the truly groundbreaking research was going on, and none of it stayed on Earth forever. True research greatness leaves earth's gravitational hold, and shoots for the stars. That's why the only computers I have ever used are radiation-hardened or radiation-tolerant processors, and I secretly prefer writing in Ada and C over any other language out there.

Machine learning is just statistics without a cool application for space exploration.

Space Interests

Anything that leaves the atmosphere automatically enters my heart. That said, I have a special affinity for deep space missions. There's something particularly special about designing software for a piece of hardware that will likely never re-enter the exosphere.

How I Feel About Space

Sometimes, space seems so far away. And life on Earth seems so dull and stagnant. And I daydream about BEING space. As if we were one. My DNA intertwined with the arms of all galaxies across our universe. MY universe. And like new cells splitting and forming their own, I could observe as new stars form across this vast body of seeming emptiness. Violently and beautifully exploding upon their death to create new space life. Maybe I could raise a space family. We'd have a space dog and white picket asteroid belt. We'd live happily for hundreds of thousands of billions of year until one day a black hole moves in next store and swallows up the entire neighborhood. "This is fine" I'd think, as time slows down and I'm pulled apart by the inconceivable mass of the black hole. "This is as it should be." My space family screams. Then it's all over. What happens next? Where did all the space go? Probably into some more space. After all. Space is all around us.