Time-scales

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Ed Minchau"
wrote:
> --- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "orionaut"
> wrote:
>
> > From time to time -- as I'm sure Ed will attest, having been one
> of
> > them -- members rethink their commitment. If they can no longer
> honor
> > that commitment with a full and joyful heart, they make the only
> > possible moral choice: they resign.
> >
> Yes, I left the ORION group. I think that the first group to
> establish an orbital colony will do so because they have put their
> butts and wallets on the line, not because they have scored high
on
> an IQ test. Sure, many of those who do get up there first will be
> quite intelligent, but they won't get up there just because they
are
> smart; they will get up there because they _do_something_ about it.
>
> Ed

There is a lot to be said for putting your money where your mouth
is. That's why I admire the freestateproject venture.

How much is the Orionaut group *doing* to foster their cadre?

Why not create an on-line dating service for your members?

Why not *tax* your members to enable the group as a whole to
practice I.V.F. and preimplantation embryo screening? If tax is a
dirty word, then legislate it.

Why not create private schools for your children where they can
excel compared to the rest of society and the subject matter can be
taught that will be politically, socially, and technically useful in
orbit? This way if things don't happen in time for you to go to
orbit, at least your children will be well situated.

What is your stance on religion for your members? If you follow the
trend of higher intelligence ---> lower religous belief, then if you
really do have a population pool of IQ 130+, I would expect very few
of your members to believe in gods. Why not teach your children that
believing in god is the same as santa claus or the tooth fairy? How
do you expect that this would ripple through your society?

What are your postions on male-female dynamics? Equality for all in
name only, or in actual policies? How about child-care? If it falls
to the woman then doesn't that negate the equality policy? I think
it'll be unlikely that there'll be day-care services because they
are usually staffed by low-paid, not high IQ people. There won't be
these peons in the Habitat, so what will you do?

Will you be usng your high IQ people to the fullest thus leaving
them little time to have a family life? Perhaps they will become
high investment parents and only have one child to lavish their
limited attention on. If so, won't the Orionauts die off from a
below relacement birth rate?

How do you square the circle with respect to high IQ, high
fertility, high achievement, and the expense of accomplishing these
goals. One way would be wealth transfer through taxes but that would
be anethema to most libertarians.

Are you doing anything to create a societal "common lore" that binds
people together?

What is your postion on language for the group? What if the group is
taken over by a large influx of Chinese or Russians and they vote
their language to be primary?

Are you in the process of creating a "culture" or are you just going
to transplant the American culture to orbit? If the last, is it only
politics that warrants improvement? Are there traits from other
cultures that should replace some dominant American memes? What are
they?

Are you publishing commentary to spread your message to a wider
audience beyond the "spacesettlers" group? How about publishing
political, societal, religious, technical, philosophical, artistic,
and educational treatises that can distinguish your movement, and
bring on debate, spread your influence and attract adherents?

Do you see the common thread of my questions? What is it that binds
the Orionauts together? Is it just high IQ and a libertarian
political bent that may be inappropriate for a closed knit society
that may require more governmental oversight because of the safety
issues of living in orbit? Or are you defining yourselves as a
separate culture with other distinguishing characteristics? If the
latter, I hope that it's something that the world hasn't seen so
that your experiment actually teaches us something new and
introduces new ideas into the world community.

Perhaps, I'm misunderstanding your philosophy. Does the libertarian
politics interest the members of the group because it will directly
benefit them, and they are much less concerned about creating a new
society and laying the groundwork for the future.

TangoMan