Monthly Archives: May 2017

The toxic stuff we breathe: South Africa, 2017 – eNCA (satire)

Posted: May 18, 2017 at 2:18 pm

File: 'South Africa hates women. It hates children. It hates the poor. And poor, black children who are girls are least valued.' Photo: eNCA

We are the most unequal society in the world. The country we live in is inordinately violent. We remain an extremely stratified country. Bessie Head once described the country as "a situation where people are separated into sharp racial groups ... one is irked by the artificial barriers. It is as though, with all those divisions and signs, you end up with no people at all.

We have come a long way since Heads indictment of the colonial and apartheid pathology and its impact on people in South Africa. But in some respects we have not overcome the habit of categorical thinking, or of the unequal distribution of power in line with those "artificial barriers".

We no longer legislate "race", and officially police every aspect of life in line with such prescriptive categorising in South Africa. We abolished that elaborate formal structure in 1994. But old habits die hard. Additionally, other, perhaps even older and more entrenched divisions, artificial barriers which have come to be seen as natural such that we no longer even see them, remain mostly unaddressed, despite our aspirations to do so, and despite the constitutional compulsions that are supposed to shape our society.

Class is one axis along which much that ought to have changed in the post-1994 settlement has yet to be addressed. It remains part of that bundle of issues we have inherited from the past that Terry Bell and Dumisa Ntsebeza have elsewhere called "unfinished business". The crimes committed in the past have not been fully accounted for, and this in a society where there are many calls for us to move beyond that past. Memory of oppression, we are told, ought to be nothing more than that: recollections of the past. Those who resist such calls to "move on" often draw attention to their scars, some literal, but manymetaphoric.

But scarring was not only the consequence of institutionalised racism. Colonialism and apartheid, and many of the systems they engendered as "indigenous African culture", also institutionalised specific arrangements for distributing power among people in this part of the world, but also violently displaced older arrangements by which men and women, older and younger people, insiders and outsiders in polities, among others, related to one another. And while much of that which has been so violently displaced by colonial conquest and its avatar, apartheid, survives in multiple sites, there can be no return to some pre-colonial wholeness for those of us who live here and now.

But the way we live now is not only explicable by what is going on here and now. Our past, and all its unfinished business, includes specific articulations of sexism and heteronormativity which benefited some but not others. The value placed upon some people rather than others, the infantilising of black women in legislation and political practice, the reduction of black men to labour units and the figuration of their bodies as threats to the imperial and apartheid order, and the organisation of legitimate and illegitimate desire in relation to the earlier imperial and later white supremacist nationalist project affected all of us, and in many respects, affect us still.

This is not to excuse the inordinate violations those with less power routinely suffer in contemporary South Africa. It does go some way towards understanding some of the social dynamics which contribute to that violence. Can a society with South Africas levels of inequality material and symbolic really expect to be more peaceful?

Men and women in this society, despite the hard work done by many and despite the provisions of the Constitution and the political economy it is supposed to frame, are not fully equal, and are not equally valued. Everyday sexism is real. Some of us can expect to navigate our day in public without being reduced to objects of someone elses unwanted and incontinent professions of sexual attention. The majority among us, women, have no such guarantees. And the boys and the men learn every day what is allowed, what is tolerated and what is encouraged, and what they will be able to get away with, because they are boys, or men. It takes a lot of work to unlearn those habits, and goodwill among us, as men, is not enough.

Similarly, the privileging of heterosexuality (or what is read to be such, or those versions of sexual expression which closely mirror or deliberately imitate it) cannot be denied. Though it is harder for many people to admit that habits of mind and being founded in heteronormativity and homophobia are as destructive of the humanity of those subjected to such prejudices, but also of the humanity of those who have such habits of thought and behaviour.

Our contempt for poor people outstrips our contempt for poverty in South Africa. How else explain our failure to undo the effects of those old divisions by which the current distribution of material resources from land through income, from nutrition to education, from employment chances to recognition of talent, can hardly be seen as accidental except by the wilfully blind? History has not been undone over the last 23 years, and while it would have been insane to expect such to have been possible, it ought also to outrage us at how much progress we could have made in the last near-generation since the abolition of formal apartheid.

South Africa hates women.It hates children.It hates the poor. South Africas record is clear on this. And poor, black children who are girls are least valued How we came to this state is hardly mysterious. Devaluing those with less power is a longstanding habit of thought. Whole systems were dedicated to ensuring that the material reality matched the ideas, and for centuries. And some of those systems actively taught such beliefs about the world and the value of various people in it Worst, many of those systems remain active today.

Look to university campuses where young men can indulge in belittling the women around them as part of a ritual by which they get to become part of the organisation. Listen to people who use phrases like "man up" and "dont be a sissy". Observe the pigmentocratic standards of beauty by which the advertising and entertainment industrial complexs South African chapter configures desirability. Remind yourselves how adults relate to children in schools and churches, on buses and taxis, in trains and planes, in parks and sports grounds.

We all need to listen to ourselves, to watch ourselves, and remind ourselves why we are the way we are. We need to change our habits of thought and being, thoroughly, and it may help many of us to remember the deep histories of some of those habits. We have unfinished business. Despair and hopelessness are not enough, and neither is hand-wringing. Nothing can bring back the lesbians killed, the children murdered, the woman violated, the poor people dehumanised and deprived of their lives because they were inconvenient in a society where it seems increasingly that we have ended up with no people at all. We must do the work of mourning them, certainly, but we also owe them more.

Violation and violence, the stuff we breathe. We need fresh air, here and now, not elsewhere.

eNCA

20 April 2016

As women protest against the way rape is dealt with on campuses, Angelo Fick argues that our responses continue to be shameful.

11 December 2015

The United Nations special rapporteur Dubravka imonovi compiled her report after an eight day visit to South Africa.

28 June 2014

In recent times, we have increasingly used the idea of the monster to describe people who perpetrate acts which we think lie beyond the human category.

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The toxic stuff we breathe: South Africa, 2017 - eNCA (satire)

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Facebook and Google greed will lead us to information armageddon – NEWS.com.au

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A seasteading or artificial island design by Andreas Gyorfi. Picture: seasteading.com

Imagine a world with no musicians and no writers. A world where no news isnt good news, its fake news. A world in which we cant even think for ourselves.

Welcome to the Information Armageddon its coming our way.

This is the dire prediction of US communications expert, author, film producer and Bob Dylans former manager Jonathan Taplin, who has warned that tech giants who loudly proclaim to be progressive forces with such mottos as Dont be evil are in fact, well, evil.

Professor Taplin says that unless internet giants such as Facebook, Google and YouTube are forced to give a better deal to the people who provide all their content we will end up losing that content altogether.

Meanwhile, they are working on making us so dependent on technology and instant access to information that any collapse of the internet would render us effectively blind.

What the apocalypse will look like.Source:Supplied

Taplin has spent years researching these companies and the men behind them and discovered that behind the funky Silicon Valley facade is a far more sinister purpose: Namely to create all-powerful monopolies that force artists and other producers to effectively hand over their work at gunpoint, while at the same time collecting vast hordes of data from the people who consume it in other words, all of us.

And he says that unless there is a massive consumer revolution or government action, civilisation is headed over the cliff.

Speaking to news.com.au during a visit to Australia, which he says is better placed than the US to act before its too late, the mild-mannered Taplin offers a unique vision of an information Armageddon.

... and Bob Dylans former band manager. Thats Bob in the middle and Jon on the right.Source:Supplied

Facebook is working on a technology that can essentially read your mind, he says, referring to reports last month that the social media giant had hired 60 people to find out how to transcribe thoughts directly onto the screen.

You wouldnt have to actually type, you would just think the thoughts and they would appear on Facebook. So it seems to me that ultimately where this goes is that you become so dependent on your devices for everything that you would have lost any critical ability to find information, understand stuff.

And at some point if, say, there was a huge network breakdown we would essentially be like blind men stumbling around in the dark because we would have not only lost the ability to know anything we would have lost the ability to find out how we need to know something.

He holds similar fears about the so-called Google effect, especially now moves are afoot to develop a Google Now chip that could connect to the brain.

If you are totally dependent on Google for all your knowledge and understanding of anything such as history, maths and essentially abandon yourself to Googles knowledge engine then what happens if Google goes away. You would be like a blind, knowledge-less person. You would be like a child.

He is also highly sceptical of Googles Dont be evil ethos, citing its then CEO telling The Atlantic in 2010: Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it which Taplin describes as a debatable statement at best.

All this is in his book Move Fast and Break Things, named after a quote from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Taplin says tech bosses like Zuckerberg are indeed breaking things in fact they are destroying human creativity by blasting out virtually limitless content without giving any fair compensation to the people who produce it all the while sucking away ad dollars from other media.

The result, he says, will be the death of content itself, from music to journalism.

First off, there wont be money to finance new content. In the US there are 50 per cent fewer people working in journalism than there were 10 years ago. It wont be a profession that anyone can go into, he tells news.com.au.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg likes to break things. Picture: Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesSource:Supplied

And quite honestly, someone might be able to make music as a hobby but other than the big stars I dont think anybody could make a living out of it.

Taplin says it is up to everybody both producers and consumers to realise this and revolt against the tech giants in an effort to make them change their behaviour if they want to keep their reputations as progressive forces for good.

This is especially necessary because tech companies seem to resist any form of government regulation as well as a growing view that Silicon Valley is becoming more powerful than the US government anyway.

Taplin notes that Googles Larry Page has financed research on privately-owned city states while PayPal founder Peter Thiel has gone right into the realm of science fiction to avoid government oversight.

Thiel has financially supported an idea called seasteading, which is the concept of creating permanent artificial islands, called seasteads, outside the territory claimed by any government, he writes.

These cloud businesses could thereby escape taxation and regulation.

A seasteading or artificial island design by Andreas Gyorfi. Picture: seasteading.comSource:Supplied

Taplin has called on Australian politicians to lead the way in making giants such as Facebook and Google and YouTube pay for the content they use or face a world where that content no longer exists.

Somehow theres this illusion that people will continue to lose millions of dollars producing newspapers or music. It is a fantasy on the part of the politicians, he tells news.com.au.

I think a lot of them are beginning to realise that this content cannot be created for free and somehow, just for democracys sake we have to have a vital journalism community and we also have to have a vital artistic community.

While companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google promise they will take steps to reduce "fake news," Michael J. Casey and Oliver Luckett, authors of "The Social Organism," argue the first step is an overhaul of the companies' algorithm-based platforms to make them more transparent. Photo: iStock

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President of City awarded Freedom of the City of London – City, University of London (press release)

Posted: at 2:17 pm

Freedom of the City is one of the oldest surviving traditional ceremonies still in existence today

Professor Sir Paul Curran, President of City, University of London, has been awarded Freedom of the City of London.

One of the oldest surviving ceremonies in existence, Freedom of the City of London is believed to have been first presented in 1237. Sir Paul received his illuminated Freedom scroll (or resolution) at a ceremony at Guildhall on Tuesday 16th May.

Alderman Dr Andrew Parmley, The Lord Mayor, said: "London is home to a wealth of world-leading universities, making the capital the primary destination for students from across the UK and abroad. Sir Pauls leadership of City, University of London and his wider contribution to Londons Higher Education sector make him a very deserving recipient."

Commenting on the award, Professor Sir Paul Curran said: "I am honoured to receive the Freedom of the City of London and proud to serve City, University of London, which is the university of the City of London."

The honour historically provided trading rights and privileges including the right to go about the City with a drawn sword.

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My new article on Immigration, Freedom, and the Constitution – Washington Post

Posted: at 2:17 pm

My new article Freedom, Immigration, and the Constitution is now available on SSRN. It is based on a short presentation I gave at the 2016 Federalist Society Student National Convention. Here is the abstract:

In recent years, many conservatives have come to favor a highly restrictionist approach to immigration policy. But that position is in conflict with their own professed commitment to principles such as free markets, liberty, colorblindness, and enforcing constitutional limits on the power of the federal government. These values ultimately all support a strong presumption in favor of free migration.

I am working on a far more in-depth and detailed article on the constitutional questions briefly summarized in this piece. I dealt with some related issues in here, here, and here. I am also in the process of writing a book that will expand on the moral and policy issues raised by both immigration and domestic foot voting. It is tentatively entitled Free to Move: Foot Voting and Political Freedom.

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Brighton & Hove Albion manager and chairman receive city freedom – BBC News

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BBC News
Brighton & Hove Albion manager and chairman receive city freedom
BBC News
Two of the architects of Brighton & Hove Albion's rise to the Premier League are receiving the city's top honour at a council ceremony. Manager Chris Hughton and chairman Tony Bloom are being granted the freedom of the city in recognition of their ...
Albion bosses to be handed 'Freedom of the City'Brighton & Hove Independent
Chris Hughton puts a No.10 top of Premier League wish list for Albion (From The Argus)The Argus

all 37 news articles »

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Timeline: Chelsea Manning’s long journey to freedom – The Guardian

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17 December 1987 Bradley Manning is born in Crescent, Oklahoma, to an American father and Welsh mother.

November 2001 Manning and her mother move to Haverfordwest in Wales after her parents divorce. The teenager shows an aptitude for computers at school. She returns to the US to live with her father in 2005.

October 2007 At 19, Manning joins the US army. Her father, Brian, had served in the US Navy as an intelligence analyst.

October 2009 Manning is sent to Iraq, where she works as an intelligence analyst at a US army base outside Baghdad. In that role, she is given access to top secret intelligence databases.

November 2009 Manning makes contact with WikiLeaks for the first time after it leaked 570,000 pager messages from 9/11.

January 2010 Manning uploads the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs to the WikiLeaks portal from a Barnes & Noble store in Maryland while on leave.

April 2010 WikiLeaks posts a video of Iraqi civilians and journalists being killed by a US helicopter gunship some time in July 2007, publishing it under the title Collateral Murder.

27 May 2010 Manning is arrested at Forward Operating Base Hammer outside Baghdad, and transferred four days later to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. While being held in Kuwait, she is found with a sheet that she has fashioned into a noose, having had suicidal thoughts.

5 June 2010 Manning is charged with leaking classified information.

25 July 2010 A series of reports on the Afghanistan war, based on US military internal logs, are published by the Guardian, the New York Times and other media groups.

29 July 2010 Manning is moved to Quantico in the US, where she is held in a solitary cell for 23 hours a day. The UN later denounces her conditions as a form of torture.

22 October 2010 The Iraq war logs are published, detailing civilian deaths, torture, summary executions and war crimes in what Manning summed up as the true nature of 21st-century asymmetric warfare.

28 November 2010 250,000 US embassy cables are published by the Guardian and other international outlets, revealing what diplomats really think about their postings and exposing widespread corruption in regimes across the Middle East.

24 April 2011 The Guantnamo files are released by the Guardian and the New York Times, containing the USs secret assessments of detainees at the US base in Cuba.

16 December 2011 Mannings first pre-trial hearing begins.

28 February 2013 Manning pleads guilty to leaking military information, but not guilty to 12 of the most serious charges, including aiding the enemy.

3 June 2013 Mannings court martial begins at Fort Meade, Maryland.

30 July 2013 Manning is cleared of aiding the enemy, the most serious charge, but is found guilty of a total of 20 counts, including several under the Espionage Act.

21 August 2013 Manning is sentenced to 35 years. The next day she announces through her lawyer that she is transgender and wishes to be known as Chelsea Manning.

17 January 2017 Barack Obama commutes Mannings sentence and sets the date of her release.

17 May Manning is freed from Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Whatever is ahead of me, is far more important than the past, she says in her first comment as a free woman.

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Miners fall to freedom, 8-2 – The Southern

Posted: at 2:17 pm

FLORENCE Andrew Godbold produced three hits and three RBIs as Florence defeated Southern Illinois, 8-2, Wednesday night.

The Freedom remain the only undefeated team in the Frontier League.

Ryan Lashley hit an RBI single to give the Miners a 1-0 edge in the fourth inning. But it was downhill from there for Southern Illinois.

Florence bounced back and scored four runs in the fifth inning, which was highlighted by a two-run homer from Goldbold. The Freedom grabbed a 4-1 advantage.

The Miners scored a run in the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly from Lashley. But Southern Illinois was only able to amass four hits in the ball game.

Jordan Kraus pitched seven innings and allowed two runs for Florence. Zach Cooper threw four-plus innings allowing four runs for Southern Illinois.

The teams play a double header today, which begins at 4:35 p.m.

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West Hartford Freedom Run Returns For Third Year – Hartford Courant

Posted: at 2:17 pm

The West Hartford Freedom Run, under new but familiar leadership, returns May 21 for the third annual event.

Conard High School graduate Connor Swanton first had the idea for the 5K run and walk two years ago, as an appreciation to his uncles who have both served in the U.S Army.

Upon graduation last June, he handed the reigns of the event to his younger sister, Abby Swanton, who is now running the event along with her group of friends.

"I thought it was important to continue this because both of my uncles served in the military," said Swanton, a 17-year-old junior at Conard High School. "That's always been important to our family. Connor was always so passionate about it and I took all that, his passion for it, from him."

Nora Policelli, a 17-year-old junior at Conard High School, decided to help her friend run the event.

"It's important because veterans fight for our country and it's important that they have the resources to be happy and healthy in their lives," Policelli said.

The resources Policelli mention include organizations like Team Red, White and Blue, a nonprofit that provides services to military veterans suffering from invisible injuries, like post traumatic stress disorder. They will be the sole beneficiary of this year's event.

Matt McCauley, a 16-year-old junior, watched his older brother, Brian McCauley, organize the race the last two years and participated last year. He has his eyes on a military career after high school.

"I joined for the same thing, it's about family members who had served," McCauley said. "I also plan on going into the military. Once Brian got into this, it really interested me."

Swanton said giving back in this way is a great experience for her and the rest of the West Hartford students involved. Her team also includes Conard High School students Michaela Mocadlo and Lila Bell and Northwest Catholic High School student Bridget Murphy.

"It's really nice to see the veterans that benefit from this and to see the people that come run it with us from Team RWB and how much they appreciate it," Swanton said. "It's really nice to see how people are so happy that we're doing this for them. It's nice to give back to them."

"Overall, it's a rewarding feeling to see all the proceeds go to them," McCauley said.

Last year, they raised more than $2,000 through sponsors and by having more than 50 runners participate. Their goal this year is to have 100 runners participate.

"It's really a celebration to see a ton of people come together to help a cause that helps everyone," Swanton said.

The event will be held on May 21 at 10 a.m. The 5K kicks off at West Hartford Town Hall. Registration for the race is available online at westhartfordfreedomrun.com and can also be done on the day of the event.

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New Technology Could Put Brakes on High Speed Pursuits – NBC 7 San Diego

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The latest technology being used in high speed police pursuits in Southern California can eliminate the chase altogether.

It's called StarChase.

For now, Tustin police are the only law enforcement agency in Southern California using it.

The most interesting part is how law enforcement officers get this technology on a suspect's vehicle.

The Orange County Sheriff's trainers observed Tustin Police Department's use of the technology.

"It's an impressive system, Orange County Sheriffs trainer Lt. Chris Thomas said.

Officers use a laser to sight the fleeing vehicle and then a grill mounted launcher uses compressed air to propel a canister with aGPS.

The canister uses a powerful adhesive to keep a grip on the vehicle and then the device immediately begins transmitting its location in real time to radio dispatch and pursuing officers.

Officers follow at a safe distance and speed, reducing the risks associated with high speeds, heightened adrenaline and emotions.

"I like the fact we can get distance and we can slow this situation down, Thomas said.

"We don't have to drive at the high speeds, but we can still chase him in a safe way, in an electronic way, Tustin Police Department Lt. Robert Wright said.

Wright said his department was involved in 10 pursuits in 2016, and only eight the year before. But this technology could eliminate the need for most, if not all, future police chases.

"Its ideal for us and ideal for the community. It decreases that threat and danger that is involved in pursuits, Wright added.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tracks chase-related deaths.

According to a USA Today analysis of those records, in 2014 there were 385 people killed in crashes that occurred during a police chase. That's up 16 percent from the year before.

"Pursuits are inherently dangerous, Wright said.

Among the 2014 pursuit deaths, five were police officers, 73 were bystanders, and 77 were passengers in the fleeing vehicles.

In San Diego County, 21-year-old Marco Gutierrez was killed in an Oceanside police chase.

Investigators said pursuit speeds reached 80 miles per hour.

Gutierrez's brother-in-law Jorge Luis Lopez was behind the wheel of the getaway car. Lopez is serving a 19-year prison sentence for drunk driving and voluntary manslaughter.

But using GPS technology to track crime suspects in other situations has been challenged in court.

In an email to NBC 7, San Diego and Imperial counties ACLU Senior Policy Strategist Christie Hill said the group has not fully reviewed the new StarChase technology but "...Deployment of such tools and technologies must be guided by publicly-debated and approved policies that assure police accountability, create transparency, protect individual rights and allow for public scrutiny."

StarChase is limited to the pursuit of suspects already wanted for a crime. The intent of the technologyis to reduce crashes, property damage, injuries and deaths.

Tustin police said in the pursuit of safer crime fighting, StarChase is right on target.

The department outfitted some of its fleet with the device but not all vehicles.So far, they have not used the technology in a real pursuit but officers say they are excited to have it.

There are fewer than 100 law enforcement agencies using StarChase nationwide.

Published at 6:22 PM PDT on May 17, 2017 | Updated 4 hours ago

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This Technology Could Help Us Build Huge Structures in Space … – NBCNews.com

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The nascent off-Earth manufacturing industry is getting set to take its next big steps.

Made In Space, the California-based company that owns and operates the commercial 3-D printer aboard the International Space Station (ISS), is developing new technology, called Archinaut, that's designed to enable the assembly of large structures in the final frontier.

"The real difference maker for this technology is in the area of being able to put stuff up that you can't origami fold up [for launch], or that would be really, really difficult to do with a traditional deployable" system, Made In Space CEO Andrew Rush told Space.com last month.

Building structures off Earth would also allow them "to be space-optimized," Rush said, "rather than engineered to survive launch."

Related: 3-D Printing in Space: A Photo Gallery

The Archinaut concept integrates a 3-D-printer and flexible robotic arms into a single spacecraft capable of manufacturing parts and putting them together in space. In addition to building structures anew, Archinaut could help repair or upgrade existing satellites, Rush said.

Made In Space has been working on the project for about six months. NASA selected the idea for funding in November 2015 via a "tipping point technologies" solicitation, and the company (along with partners Northrop Grumman and Oceaneering Space Systems) got on the $20 million contract roughly a year later, Rush said.

Made In Space's work on Archinaut currently focuses on figuring out how best to manufacture "extended structures" in the space environment, Rush said. This research involves testing at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California Made In Space's next-door neighbor and analyzing samples created by the ISS commercial 3-D printer, which is called the Additive Manufacturing Facility (AMF).

The next step will involve adding the robotic-arms component into the mix, Rush said. All of this is part of the project's first phase, which will last a total of 18 months.

After such work is complete, Made In Space and its partners aim to launch an Archinaut demonstration mission to Earth orbit. That flight had been pegged for 2018, but the timeline might end up being pushed back a bit, Rush said.

"For the Archinaut development program through NASA, that's kind of dependent on Phase 2, which is to be announced," he said.

The demonstration mission will likely build a space structure a few meters across, Rush added. There should be bigger things to come, however.

"Where this gets really interesting is, tens [of meters] to 100 meters plus," he said. "And that's what we're angling toward."

For example, Archinaut could potentially enable the construction of gigantic space telescopes, Rush said: The technology could manufacture some parts in orbit and integrate them with others, such as mirror segments, that were launched from the ground. (At the moment, entire space telescopes must be folded up to fit inside a rocket's nose cone, limiting their maximum size.)

"That's what we think is the attainable future that Archinaut enables," Rush said.

NASA isn't the only organization interested in Archinaut. Rush said that Made In Space is also working with a commercial customer on an application for the technology and will turn over some hardware to this customer (which he declined to name) at the end of this summer.

Made In Space is also negotiating with a half-dozen other potential customers some of them government entities, others in the private sector on the possible use of Archinaut tech, Rush said.

Related: Here's Why Buzz Aldrin Wants to Retire the Space Station

Made In Space partnered with NASA to build the first-ever 3-D printer aboard the ISS, which reached the orbiting lab in September 2014. NASA owns that printer. But Made In Space owns and operates the AMF, a second-generation machine that arrived at the ISS in March 2016 and prints out parts for a variety of customers.

The company plans to develop Archinaut tech on a similar path, from demonstration mission to a series of increasingly capable, commercially operating machines, Rush said.

"Visions of what this could do have been with us for a long time," he said. "We want to do good work, and we want to learn from it."

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

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