Keith Henson has been involved in speculative engineering for over 50 years. He has written on subjects including space engineering, space law (Moon Treaty), memetics, cryonics, evolutionary psychology, and the physical limitations of Transhumanism. Born in 1942, he was heavily influenced by Robert Heinlein. Keith’s wikipedia entry is reminiscent of a Heinlein story in its humor and variety.

Keith earned a BSEE from the University of Arizona in the 1960’s. After graduation, he worked at Burr-Brown Research, now part of TI, then formed his own company, Analog Precision, Inc. In 1975, Keith and his then-wife, Carolyn, founded the L5 Society to spread Dr. Gerard O’Neill’s concepts. In 1985, Eric Drexler (of Nanotech fame) convinced him about cryonic suspension. About the same time, Keith and his second wife,Arel Lucas, wrote about memes and contributed to the early lexicon of memetics. As a free speech advocate, he became involved in the battle between the Church of Scientology and the net in the mid-1990’s.

From 2007 on, Henson worked independently and with others on the problems of global energy supply and affordable cost, particularly on power satellites for space-based solar power. There he was particularly concerned with launch cost, system mass, waste heat, heat radiators, and economics. In early 2015, Henson created the Google group Power Satellite Economics where various concerned citizens and experts from various fields can discuss the complexities and benefits of power satellites and related work.

Keith is retired but works as a volunteer on projects to solve energy and carbon problems.