Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Mars Colony Governance

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
I doubt there will ever be more than 10 people on Mars at one time until such time that an expensive easily mined resource is discovered such as gold or diamonds. The governance will always be corporate in nature with a small share of democracy. Think corporate owned town with a democratic, puppet town hall to keep everyone happy.

Also, girls with 3 boobs. That is all.
 
Follow me here...
SpaceX.... Space sex
Model S, E, X
Obscure book written by arguably the father of rocket science 50 years ago proclaiming the name Elon (which in no derivation translates to leader, ruler, etc) as the leader of a Mars colony
Elon buys the car from The Spy Who Loved Me

Is Elon orchestrating the plot from Moonraker (but on Mars - Marsraker?)


Time to put the tin foil hat back on.

....you just blew my mind.
 
And if the super powers are involved then you can be sure all the old biases and grudges will come along as well, along with all the baggage of history that is the Middle East or even more local rifts such as the Greeks and the Turks. Is there anyway to start clean?

I post this as it's the first thing that came to mind, but it imagine banishment back to earth would be a good way of keeping that sort of thing at bay. I picture there being some sort of ferry version of the MCT that relays between Earth and Mars. Besides, it's not like jails are going to be high on the list of things to build there.

The trip back would also be something of a punishment in itself given that you could run the ferry ship autonomously. I guess this would be the ultimate form of ostracism.
 
I don't think 20 years is too long to start getting stuff in place. This stuff works on UN time, not Elon time. And if the super powers are involved then you can be sure all the old biases and grudges will come along as well, along with all the baggage of history that is the Middle East or even more local rifts such as the Greeks and the Turks. Is there anyway to start clean?


Yep, read that a while ago. That's what got me scared! That and books like The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, or Caliban's War or even Macroscope all end up pitting the colonists against Earth, or the various pre-existing factions of Earth messing up the colonies. I think its wise to avoid this fate if possible.

A fresh start is precisely why I would want to go. Much of the fighting between Judaism, Islam, and Christianity is over a piece of land that is practically worthless (other than sentimental value). No one currently thinks Mars is a "holy place" except those "pyramids on Mars" nutt jobs... And a simple question are should weed most of those people out.

Do you think mars is sacred ground? No.
Would you get upset if someone decided to build a house *somewhere* on mars? No.
OK, welcome aboard, NEXT!

And this is the problem with the moon... If the people in the middle east knew we actually landed on the moon and touched their "holy ground" then it would be war. Thankfully most of those people who would care don't but barely even have the internet, never mind know the history of space travel :D
 
My personal belief is that the colonization of Outer Space will be akin to an extreme version of the Wild West, with most governance and justice being administered by corporations like Weyland-Yutani and executed by Colonial Marines (ostensibly loyal to some country, but really operating under corporate authority), at least for the first few decades.

In the bleak frontier, there will be none of the civil society infrastructure initially. No courts for dispute resolution. No jails. No way to quickly and economically extradite people for justice. Only the strongest will rule. That means guys in rocket packs and Mandalorian battle armor.
 
My personal belief is that the colonization of Outer Space will be akin to an extreme version of the Wild West, with most governance and justice being administered by corporations like Weyland-Yutani and executed by Colonial Marines (ostensibly loyal to some country, but really operating under corporate authority), at least for the first few decades.

That makes for good movies, but people will have to be persuaded to migrate, meaning they--except for the first few adventurous volunteers--will have to be convinced there will be a better standard of living. The only thing that would change that is if colonization is done in the Australian manner by sending criminals, a few administrators, and some soldiers to protect the administrators. Bear in mind that the Wild West wasn't nearly as wild as is portrayed in the movies.
 
That makes for good movies, but people will have to be persuaded to migrate, meaning they--except for the first few adventurous volunteers--will have to be convinced there will be a better standard of living. The only thing that would change that is if colonization is done in the Australian manner by sending criminals, a few administrators, and some soldiers to protect the administrators. Bear in mind that the Wild West wasn't nearly as wild as is portrayed in the movies.

"Botany Bay....Botany Bay?! Oh no!" :biggrin:

I'm not sure that people will have to be persuaded to migrate though. There will always be some percentage of adventurous people who go just for the heck of it, or for the thrill of the extreme. Human nature being what it is, I expect some degree of lawlessness from rough characters who find their way into space. The colonization of the Americas was a pretty dirty business. I'd expect the same from colonization of space.
 
Different scenario as there are no indigenous people on Mars nor animals to hunt; Mars could be a world without weapons.
Alas, there's always other humans around and I hear they can be a nasty bunch.

But this brings up the next question I had:

Would it be better if the second group of colonists joins the first (and expands the existing colony) or creates a new colony? And if the latter, should it be placed "close" to the first, or half a planet away?

I can see arguments for both. For expanding the existing colony, adding extra capacity would be easier than starting again. And presumably the first group has gotten decent at generating enough oxygen and water. Added local genetic diversity would be a good thing.* For creating a second colony, redundancy is good. If something happens to one, there's always the other. And if they are 'close' the possibility of rescue is increased. Of course, if they are 'close' the possibility of one attacking the other over some resource or perceived slight is also increased.

*For genetic diversity, I'm assuming that that the colony would be "stocked" with pre-launch created frozen embryos or other seed material (ahem) from all over the Earth. The idea being to spread mankind onto other worlds, and not limited to the progeny of just those few who came from Earth. So test tube babies would be the normal way of increasing population, but the natural kind would be nice to have too.
 
Different scenario as there are no indigenous people on Mars nor animals to hunt; Mars could be a world without weapons.

It's a nice dream... but sadly at some point weapons will be needed for self defense... because there will always be some jerk who decides he wants to hurt someone else. Even if no guns, he could easily make knives and explosives out of the materials that would be readily available (Hello O2 tanks!). It will certainly start off without weapons... and then the first "incident" will happen. They will stand up a police/sheriff/security force and have him be given a weapon of some sort. And it will degrade from there.

Even the latest sci-fi movie to hit the theaters (that I was paying attention to) depicted a guy who was willing to kill other people just so he could be "right" about the planet that they landed on. He seemed like he started out with good intentions... and then over the years went just a little bit crazy... and decided he would try to kill the main character... which of course that never works out, and he died... but hey, the point still stands... people go crazy all the time.
 
My personal belief is that the colonization of Outer Space will be akin to an extreme version of the Wild West, with most governance and justice being administered by corporations like Weyland-Yutani and executed by Colonial Marines (ostensibly loyal to some country, but really operating under corporate authority), at least for the first few decades.

In the bleak frontier, there will be none of the civil society infrastructure initially. No courts for dispute resolution. No jails. No way to quickly and economically extradite people for justice. Only the strongest will rule. That means guys in rocket packs and Mandalorian battle armor.

You forgot about the bounty hunters
Cowboy-bebop-754433.jpg
 
Seriously, anyone going to Mars should be vetted with not just an MMPI but also a Hare Psychopathy Checklist and a functional MRI to rule out psychopathy.

Put in terms of 80/20, about 20% of the population could be considered "psychologically or socially marginal," with 20% of that first 20 =4% to be frankly malignant. This includes psychopaths and extreme narcissists (which happens to be about the rate in all human populations.)

Psychopaths have no conscience or empathic ability. It's hard-wired into their brains actually, and can be identified by MRI where the amygdala (emotion, etc) mis-communicates with the frontal lobe (consciousness). They can be very high-functioning individuals, appear totally normal or even super-normal, but would be thoroughly destructive in a closed social system. Most others just have squabbles, petty power plays, mini-breakdowns, etc the risk of which can be reduced by more routine psychological vetting, but will not willingly destroy the whole experiment for the purposes of a power thrill or some other amusement.

This type of vetting will need to take precedent over rank, scientific or political position. It's no joke - you can imagine a political figure like Stalin (easy example) being sent to Mars in his day, and what the effect would have been. Don't assume that people in these positions will have been naturally selected in this regard. A selection system will have to start from basic psychological principles, and proceed with rigor and independence if it's to be successful.