Thalia Kohls is an artist currently trying to decide whether or not to pursue a Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology. Her family hails from Southern California, and she now lives outside Seattle, having graduating with honors in Greco-Roman Civilization/Language from a Northwestern university and spending several years with small business startups. Growing up, Thalia was enthralled by the idea of space flight and committed herself to the goal of becoming an astronaut. She poured over histories and technical accounts of elements of manned space flight, visited Kennedy Space Center multiple times, attended Space Camp, and was even an invited guest to the grand opening of the Apollo/Saturn V Center at KSC after participating in a NASA documentary. She accordingly had a great interest in rocket propulsion and participated in a local rocketry club for almost a decade, building typical Estes and high-powered rockets. She became disenchanted with the NASA paradigm as many of the dysfunctional aspects of the manned space program became painfully clear to her. Disillusioned, she switched out of her academic scientific/technical track and has since tried to understand something of the human condition (which defies scientific explanation). Still a strong advocate for a manned presence in space, Thalia would like to see the private enterprise sector revitalize the manned space program. However, she believes that the alt.space community is making both strategic and tactical blunders that are turning alt.space's goals from dreams into fantasies. Learn what the alt.space community looks like from the "outsider" viewpoint of an artist and historian.