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Starshot Social

The Reawakening of Humanity’s Participation in the Universal Story: A founding manifesto of Starshot Social

There was a time when humanity looked up at the night sky and felt a sense of belonging. We were children of the stars, aware of it without words. I learned that before I could even speak properly. My earliest memory goes back to a warm summer night when I was three and a half, living on a small farm on the outskirts of Albania. I was playing inside the house when suddenly the electricity went out and the room fell dark. I got a bit scared and started crying, so my grandpa took me by the hand and led me to the porch to calm me down. The outage had made the sky brighter. The valley looked like a bowl of ink and the Milky Way like a white river overhead. He pointed to the stars and named what he knew. In that moment, the fear in me loosened. And I watched that river with astonishment until my eyes closed, falling asleep under it.

That sense of astonishment and belonging has faded nowadays. Somewhere between the noise of progress and the silence of the cosmos, we dimmed the very sky that once called us home. The constellations that stitched our ancestors together now drown behind the city lights. Our galaxy, once a river every child could name, has slipped beneath the glow of our own inventions. A recent study showed that nearly 80% of Americans now live under skies too bright to even see it, and more than a third of humanity has lost that view entirely. 1 We forgot the heavens not because they left us, but because we outshone them. We built vast networks of connection, and yet we have never felt more disconnected and alone. We filled the Earth with our signals, and yet the stars remained silent.

And I have watched that silence deepen. Our technologies grow, while our attention fragments day by day, and our souls drift further from the wonder that once defined us. The internet, which I’d argue was the greatest tool humanity ever invented, connected us in form but not in spirit. Social media promised community, but it delivered hatred and imitation, a spectacle of perfection that only deepened the loneliness it was meant to heal. Generative AI now floods those same platforms with illusions, eroding what remains of authenticity. The human voice, once trembling and sacred in its imperfection, is buried beneath synthetic echoes. And yet, within that silence, I hear the faintest pulse, the ancient rhythm of curiosity, of creation, of longing for the infinite.

That faint pulse for me intensified when I discovered an initiative called Breakthrough Starshot. A private effort led and funded by the visionary investor Yuri Milner. Who had already founded the Breakthrough Prize, known as the 'Oscars of Science', driven by the conviction that the world’s greatest minds deserve the same cultural attention as its biggest entertainers. Now, he was daring to spend 100 million dollars to design tiny lightsail probes pushed by powerful laser beams that could cross the immense void to another star within our lifetime. The concept struck me with the familiarity of a memory, it was the opening scene of James Cameron's Avatar brought to life. The same lasers, the same sails, the same destination to the star system Alpha Centauri. Only this time, the script was being written by scientists and engineers instead of screenwriters. And with former NASA Ames Director Pete Worden at the helm of the initiative, Milner was not talking about some distant mythical future, but about building the first interstellar mission on a human timescale. It was a bold scientific endeavour, which made me feel like the dream of reaching another star was no longer just a story, but a well conceived plan.

As I went deeper, I wanted to understand not just how he was doing this, but why. And that search led me to his book, Eureka Manifesto, where Milner speaks of the Universal Story, in which life and intelligence are the universe learning to know itself. Our mission, as he argues, is to explore and understand our universe. To deepen that understanding with care, and to preserve it for those who come after. Reading that, I didn’t just agree with the mission, I truly felt called by it.

And yet something was still bothering me, it was that deafening silence. I asked myself, how could the first serious interstellar mission of our species not sit at the center of our shared attention? Why weren’t people talking about it? Was it because we were constantly doomscrolling through meaningless feeds? Or was it something else? And then a realization hit me. The problem with most of humanity’s grand projects is not the vision, it is participation. People are inspired by the idea, but they do not feel included in the journey. They don’t feel like it’s theirs. They watch from the sidelines as explorers and scientists carry the torch, while their attention slowly drifts away.

During the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union, public focus was at its peak. What seemed impossible became real, we successfully put a man on the Moon because rivals sought to prove capability and the public willed it forward. We see a glimpse of this powerful force in Apple's series For All Mankind, which imagines a world where that rivalry never ended, driving humanity to establish moon bases and reach Mars decades ahead of our timeline. That lesson still holds. When people feel they have a stake, inspiration turns into constructive pressure that accelerates the work forward.

Meanwhile this was not only related to Breakthrough Starshot. The same pattern was eclipsing many other great scientific space missions. Just as the Breakthrough Prize was created to give the world's attention to the scientists, I realized we needed a mechanism to give that same unwavering attention to the missions themselves.

Feeling inspired by all of that, I started working towards finding a solution. And believe me when I say that it wasn’t an easy task. For months I struggled with different concepts, chasing a link that seemed impossible to be discovered. Then, to my surprise the answer finally arrived to me through a dream vision. To truly bridge the distance between the public and the stars, I needed to build two distinct components: a vessel to carry us there, and a bridge to connect us from Earth.

The vessel is what I named the Universal Participation Module (UPM), an open source, small payload that future scientific probes, rovers, satellites, and even crewed space flights could host. I know that this might sound a bit technical, but bear with me. Envision a compact, radiation hardened unit, essentially a digital time capsule built to withstand the harshest environment known to physics. Inside, it carries a high density archive capable of preserving millions of files for eons, while its exterior features a display and camera system. This ensures that the module is not just a blind traveler, but a visual witness capable of proving its own presence.

And with the vessel defined, I began to search for the bridge. I looked closely at human behavior and saw that in today’s age, we feel a profound need to capture our lives in photos and videos. By freezing a moment, we validate it, we feel that it matters, and that it becomes a permanent part of who we are. Suddenly I could see it, the bridge needed to be a living social network. One that channels this natural impulse, gathering those authentic moments to then feed them into the module. And with that link, the average person could feel truly connected, as if a part of them had joined the mission.

This design, in my opinion, is the perfect solution because it creates a symbiotic relationship. We do not need to build our own rockets or fund billion dollar missions, although the ambition and the roadmap leads there, but instead, we attach ourselves to the scientific projects already going up. And in exchange for the ride, we offer the host mission something money and science can’t buy: the focused attention of the world. By hosting the module, a scientific project doesn't just launch instruments, it launches the memories of mankind, instantly amplifying its reach and turning a technical mission into a global human event.

Take, for instance, the upcoming Toliman mission. A space telescope that is designed to discover potentially habitable planets in the Alpha Centauri star system, the very target of our interstellar dreams. Without public participation, it risks being just another silent piece of hardware known only to astronomers. But if Toliman hosted a UPM connected to a social network, it would transform from a remote observatory into a global beacon. People from all over the world would look up at the night sky knowing that a piece of them is riding on that vessel, sharing in the vigil as it scans the darkness for our neighbors. It would bind their journey on this rock we call Earth, to the scientific search for life on other planets, ensuring that when a discovery is finally made, the world is already watching.

Or to understand the power of this combination even further, imagine for a moment the 2027 Artemis III mission, marking humanity's return to the lunar surface. Traditionally, only two astronauts will leave their footprints in the dust. But if that lander hosted a UPM, we wouldn't just be landing two people, we would be landing millions. Through their memories stored inside the module, a piece of every participant would stand on the Moon alongside them. And as I mentioned above that the module is equipped with an external camera and display, they could even capture a literal selfie from the lunar surface, their face framed against the alien landscape, proving that in a way, they were there too. That beautiful idea was sparked by earlier experiments from pioneering teams that briefly grabbed headlines and then slipped from view as attention moved on. A simple lesson that headlines fade, but a daily place to return to can keep the signal alive. That is why a living social network matters. And this vision extends beyond the Moon. When Elon Musk’s Starships finally descend upon Mars, the same profound connection would happen. We wouldn't just be watching the colonization of a new world from afar, we would be part of the landing party, standing together on the rust colored soil. Imagine the impact of that simple idea. Think of how many children would be inspired to pursue science and engineering, driven by the realization that they are no longer just watching history, but making it themselves.

Going back to the concept of capturing a moment on those alien worlds, I realized that an interaction that profound is too significant to simply be called a ‘selfie.’ It surely demanded a new word for a new era. To find it, I looked at the evolution of how we remember. In the 20th century, we captured moments and called them Snapshots. In the digital age, we freeze pixels on a piece of glass and call them Screenshots. I truly believe the next natural step for our species is the capture of authentic moments for a cosmic purpose. So then I thought, why not call them Starshots? It is a word that creates a feeling of permanence, that when you hear someone say, 'I’m taking a Starshot,' you know instantly that the moment is not just being saved for a feed, it is destined for the stars. Starshot! It just fits perfectly, because it transforms a distant scientific noun into a daily human verb, bridging the gap between the engineering of the future and the memories of today. But it also pays tribute to Breakthrough Starshot, the initiative that sparked this journey. And to name the place where this community gathers, I simply fused the mission with the medium, uniting Starshot with Social Network to create Starshot Social.

Starshot Social will carry and expand a cosmic mission into the daily life of humanity. It will be a platform not for distraction, but for meaning, a place where people can share only what is real, images and videos taken through its own lens, untouched by artificiality. Every authentic moment, every unfiltered fragment of life, becomes a living record. By now you know that these records will not vanish into servers and clouds, they will be sent literally into the cosmos if the participant opts in. Just like NASA’s Voyager probes once carried Earth’s music and messages outward, these archives will carry our shared, authentic moments. They will be stored and eternized aboard those UPMs.

And this way humanity’s emotions and dreams can continuously circle around the Earth, travel to the Moon, to Mars, to all other places in our Solar System. And one day when the technology is ready, they will ride aboard those tiny lightsail probes to our closest stars.

And think for a moment how beautiful that possibility is. Long after we are gone, and perhaps long after Earth itself has returned to stardust, these memories might be discovered by another civilization. In decoding them, they would find not just our scientific data, but our laughter, our faces, and the proof that once, on a small blue world, a species lived, loved, and looked up at the stars in astonishment.

Starshot Social is ultimately the heart that beats with participation. It says to every person: “You are part of the Universal Story. A piece of you will be eternal and shine among the stars.”

This cosmic initiative will not only send our memories upward, it will send people as well. As the platform grows, part of its resources will be used to fly selected participants on commercial spaceflights provided by companies like Blue Origin, so that ordinary citizens can experience the overview effect with their own eyes. Not just watching Earth from a screen, but seeing it directly, fragile and whole, and then returning as storytellers for the rest of us. For the first time, humanity will not just look to the stars, we will exist among them, in body, in memory, and in shared experience.

And to sustain this vision and move from dream to execution, there must be an engine powerful enough to build reality itself. That engine is the research and development arm of Starshot Social, funded by the capital the network generates. It will be the architectural core of our ascent, primarily acquiring but also designing and manufacturing the tools that make the vision real. It will invest in satellites, radiation hardened archives and AI that extend human reach rather than replace it. Through that arm, the dream becomes reality.

The platform in itself is also designed to galvanize this new community into a funding engine, allowing the public to donate directly to the missions they love. We will turn fans into patrons, ensuring that the next great leap in science is not stalled by a budget cut, but propelled by the people. And their contributions will not go unnoticed, they will be etched onto their profiles inside the platform as a badge of honor, signaling to the world that they didn't just watch the future, they helped build it.

And to ensure this momentum never fades, the social network features a Participation Score, a gamified system that tracks and rewards every contribution, from funding a launch to inviting a friend. This turns advocacy into a sport, driving users to spread the mission further and faster as they climb the ranks of our cosmic community.

Starshot Social is not going to be a traditional company, but a public benefit company, meaning that its mission comes first and profits will serve it. To protect that integrity from the start, I am funding this myself. I am putting everything on this company, I even sold my house to capitalize it even further. And I’m not mentioning this for dramatic effect, but because I could not ask the world to believe in a future I was not willing to bet my own life on. Consequently, any investor who wishes to join us, must be fully aware of that priority. We are building for the stars, not just for the quarter. Mission always comes first.

That also means that Starshot Social is independent and not affiliated with Breakthrough Starshot, but it is highly inspired by their vision and it will periodically dedicate a share of the revenue to support their initiative and advance lightsail technology toward opening a corridor to the nearest stars. And when that corridor opens, we may even one day send probes bearing our DNA and microbial life toward distant exoplanets. An idea outlined by physicist Claudius Gros in his Genesis Project paper, and technically reimagined by geneticist George Church, proposing that we use the density of biology itself to seed the cosmos. It would be a symbolic step for mankind, in becoming an interstellar species. Physicist Cosimo Bambi even proposed sending those tiny lightsail probes to the edge of a black hole. That would make the movie Interstellar no longer a science fiction, but a reality. So let those possibilities awaken your imagination for a moment.

What I’m trying to say is that Starshot Social is not just another social network. It is a structure where every human being, no matter how ordinary, can contribute to something eternal and cosmic just by participating. It’s a platform that transforms loneliness into belonging, apathy into creation, and distance into connection. It is a reawakening of human wonder, of purpose, of unity. The future will not be built by corporations or governments alone, but by individuals who believe they belong to something greater. I aspire to make that belonging tangible. I want people to look up at the night sky and know that somewhere up there, a piece of them is shining back, and that beyond our Sun, a signal bearing our presence has already departed.

In the last 20 years, we have built countless systems that exploit attention. Now we will build one that sanctifies it. We have built economies that consume life. Now we will build one that extends it.

I believe that breakthroughs do not always require genius, but they definitely require a kind of endurance that is rare today. Think about the cathedral builders of the past. For centuries, people laid stones for structures they knew they would never see finished. They didn't work for the dopamine hit of a notification, they worked for a future they wouldn't inhabit. Interstellar travel is the cathedral of our time. It requires that same generational patience. So don’t forget, big things have small beginnings. And if that sounds grand, or even a little hubristic, I understand and I am self aware about it. That is why I have chosen a pragmatic, step by step approach. Hold me to humility and results. If you choose to trust and support this vision, I will spend my life honoring that trust by making it a reality.

To the social media platforms and other big tech companies with trillion dollar market caps that bank our attention daily, imagine what would happen if even a small part of those profits funded scientific projects, rockets, satellites, and deep space probes. Every year, the largest social networks store away profits measured in tens of billions, while NASA’s budget remains a modest slice of public spending and the United States devotes close to a trillion to the machinery of war.

At the same time, many of those companies are locked in a race to build the most powerful AI, chasing market domination and shareholder headlines. Meanwhile, they keep shipping new gimmicky features, algorithm tweaks, and glossy gadgets meant to keep us scrolling, to keep us in their loops. And while the novelty, for all its shine, feels thin, like a carousel of toys that entertains without inspiring. I know many of these platforms are bound to investors and quarterly expectations, even when their founders might want to aim higher. That is why I see Starshot Social not as a rival, but as an open invitation for them to link their digital world to the exciting frontier above us. I say to them: add a dedicated section inside your platforms for authentic, human captured moments, and commit to sending them into orbit and onward through our Solar System. They are uniquely positioned to inspire and accelerate humanity’s participation in the Universal Story, because billions of people use their platforms every day. And if they choose to do that, the sky would change its schedule. That is my thesis, anyways. But in the meantime I cannot wait for others to decide when to begin, someone has to light the first spark, as Milner once did for me. So I am choosing to start now, and together we will carry our story from this small world into the stars.

To the skeptics, which I wouldn’t blame you because I would be one of you too if I read something like this, I have a few parables:

Early physicians warned that railways would harm the human body at speed, then the landscape learned a new kind of distance and the timetables of nations changed. Weeks before the Wright brothers lifted into the wind at Kitty Hawk, a major paper explained with confidence that heavier-than-air flight would take millions of years, then the sand of a small beach rewrote the calendar of the sky in twelve seconds. In 1920, editors mocked the idea that rockets could work in a vacuum, and in 1969 they printed an apology after Apollo’s engines burned that certainty to ash. Not long after, experts said computers would remain the size of rooms, then they came to our desks, then our laps, then our pockets, and now they wait quietly on our wrists for instructions we once thought impossible.

The lesson is not that expertise is worthless, it is that thresholds are often invisible until someone walks through them. Do not underestimate the quiet force of a determined person, the one who returns to the problem after the noise has faded, who keeps adding proof to patience until impossible becomes routine. Models can be wrong and forecasts can be late, but stubborn, focused will has a way of prying open locked doors, shifting timelines, and turning a no into a not yet, then into a yes. This is how small rooms rewrite skies and how new epochs begin.

So I say to you who are reading this, let this be our dawn of participation. Let this be the century when humanity rediscovers itself, by remembering that our destiny is among the stars.

My name is Andi Muco, founder of this cosmic initiative, and I welcome you to participate in the Universal Story, by joining Starshot Social.

"Per Aspera Ad Astra" – Through hardships to the stars.

[6EQUJ5]: Starshot Social will firstly launch on Apple's App Store, on April 12, 2026, on the 10th anniversary of Breakthrough Starshot. It's a small tribute to the initiative that inspired me to start this journey, but also an invitation to carry that light into the next decade of participation. Make sure to join our waitlist down below so we can keep you updated.