The right to bear arms?

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophile"
wrote:

>
> Hey! As long as we are talking sex (and to pull this, skyhook-
like,
> back into space), if applicants to habitat life are screened for
> diseases, that would include STD's.

Makes sense. You could develop a Habitat free from STDs and thus get
back to the good ole' fashioned natural sex, rather than safe sex.
But as soon as you let a tourist in, and he/she hooks up with a
local, you've just introduced a risk vector into your society. Now
what?

If birth control is also
> available, then I suspect that, even if the original applicants
were
> chosen for their commitment to premarital chastity, the next
> generation is going to be somewhat more permissive.

I'd love to read the rationale for why this woould be a selction
criterion. :)

And *their* kids
> will be less prudish still. A few generations, and you have a
> society that would make 1960's era Free Love advocates blush!

I tend to think that a dynamic that would be at play will be
something similar to the "power outage baby boom." There they are,
all those colonists, 250,000 miles from Earth, feeling isolated.
They'll probably celebrate life with a lot of "interpersonal skill
development" if you get my drift. They'll probably attach even more
significance to births as a life affirming process and recognize
that no matter where mankind goes, the life cycle continues.

They'll have a safer environment to raise the children. The kids can
walk to school rather than be chauffered. Family time will probably
increase because insane commutes will be reduced. Things will be
more local. Neighbors will probably know each other, rather than be
strangers like they are, in many instances, on Earth. This will all
probably result in a higher fertility number.

TangoMan