How the dreams of sci-fi libertarians have influenced American politics.

It was a beautiful vision, even if no one could quite figure out the details: a vast array of technology from the cutting edge of science, massive enough to reach past the border of Earth’s atmosphere and into space, conscripted by the U.S. military to safeguard America and the rest of the free world against the threat of Soviet nuclear attack using X-ray lasers.

Or particle beams.

Or space-based hyperkinetic weapons. Or something like that.

The technology may not have necessarily existed outside anyone’s head, but the Strategic Defense Initiative’s historical importance couldn’t be denied — at least to the people who came up with it. President Ronald Reagan expected that protecting the West... Read More