space habitats

Terry, I agree that people will be people and that means anything they can conceive, they WILL conceive, whether its good for them or not. As we move out into space and begin building our worlds, people will naturally try old solutions, new solutions and blends of both to form the societies within them. Some will work, some wont- Thats how Humans learn and progress. Im a believer that as we spread out into thousands and then millions of self contained worldlets and communities, every form of society, government and living arrangement will be tried- in Mankinds diversity lies his strength. We have no idea, yet, what the term HUMAN means. Over the next centuries and millenia, Mankind will experiment with EVERYTHING, not just his governance, but also what it is that actually defines our Humanity. Is a digital upload equally Human with an amphibian man with gills and lungs who lives under the ocean on a waterworld? Or would either be considered Human by Conservatives? I look at Humanity as a spectrum of possibilities, and his habitats must, perforce follow suit. Consider the type of society necessitated by the development of teleportation based on beaming a digital copy to a distant star system, where it is uploaded into a body grown from that data. Would we require the original to be destroyed so as to maintain unique identity, or would we, in effect end up with multiple copies of people running around the galaxy- and which one would be you since all of them would have the same memories and genetic code at least up to a point in time? Utopia, ushmopia! These are the things I look forward to!

From: Terrierkeeper
Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2013 10:19 AM
To: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [spacesettlers] Re: : Space habitats

Sorry for taking so long to get involved but my computer was nocked out and I had to get it fixed.

First of all I don't believe in Utopias, no ideal perfect society can be achieved as they all fail for one common factor People. As a student of history I have studied all sorts of societies from the most primitive to the most Spartan. I have studied Communism and what has come in the form of the Soviet Union and Mao's China. I have studied the Nazis and what they did. I have studied the Puritans here and their society and American society as it has developed over generations and I have come to the simple conclusion that People are for the most part given to indulging their own corruption and vices whenever given the chance because that is their nature. People are not victims of their environment but creators of their environment. Anyone who tries to create Utopia will only achieve Dystopia for their efforts because People are by nature not ideal beings but heavily flawed. That is what we got in the Soviet Union and all the other communist countries when they tried. Same with socialist countries. Same with the US with Prohibition and all the other things 'progressives' have been inflicting upon us.

On the other hand I do believe in Space Colonization, Man must spread his wings and move into the heavens. Our world is getting too small for the growing numbers of people at the same time we can not limit births because we need genetic diversity. Our economy is too small for the growing numbers of people who need real jobs. The only solution is move into space and expand territory and economies. Since no habitable planets are available then we must build our new homes and our new worlds.

Any society in space will be no different from that on earth which isn't a bad thing. Indeed our society was pretty good until radicals started to try and 'improve' things.

Moving into space will give us a chance to go back to our beginnings and start our societies over and that is a great thing.