ISLAND ONE, a prime time family sitcom set on the High Frontier

After reading this discussion with interest, here is my opinion:

Government: Corporate rules for work conduct and most likely will go into personal life. Think of company mining towns in the late 1800s. Laws from nation sponsoring the project, or International laws.

Crime: low. Most inhabitants will be professionals.

Society: Contract labor. More akin to modern day mining operations in remote locations. For this think of mines near the Atacama Desert or north of the arctic circle in Alaska. In each case, the labor is contract, perhaps for 1 to 4 years. For the station, it would be for longer periods due to cost of employee transportation. In these situations, the companies sponsoring the employees would be responsible for their living expenses and support. The major problems at site are work related and difficulties of getting supplies. There will be families at these locations, but initially far fewer than in a normal Earth-bound town.

Currency: ? Credit. Cash takes mass and that has to be lifted from earth...and in a largely monitored society, credit would be easy to track. However, there may or may not be many opportunities to buy many things with your pay. Consumer items imported from earth would be expensive. No doubt, some amount of transport weight would have to be part of an employees contract.

Technology: Actually, personal tech would probably be less high tech than living on Earth. After all, there is easy access to the latest gadgets and fashion items from stores on earth. In space, the heart of electronics devices (high powered semiconductors) may be precious. Most large items can be manufactured, as can slower computer chips. Until there are many orbiting colonies, manufacturing ability for consumer goods would be very limited. To make the fastest and latest electronic items requires dedicated factories and these may only be built on earth for the foreseeable future due to cost and size. In this vein, a shipment of goods from earth has all the special appeal as a shipment of New York clothes to a small western town in the 1800s.

Food: The ideal may be plentiful plant growth, but there will be some difficulties in this. Just like some stories of isolated communities, sharing will be a requirement if there is ever a time with limited food supplies.

Actually I do not see these colonies operating smoothly initially as they will start as artificial communities. A significant number of "colonists" will not intend to retire there. Most will no doubt intend to work through their contract and then return to earth. One of the impediments to its success might be interference from competing interests (companies, governments, NGOs) trying to gain influence or control of the colony.

Then there is also the matter of investors and their interests and how that would affect the society....

terrierkeeper wrote:Actually it could be much like the wild west.

Little house on the prairie had much in common with the towns of the
time. But remember what happened to the Cole Younger and James Gangs?
Or the Daltons? Those farming towns had little in common with
Tombstone.

In addition to which there is one question that will have to be asked
of the Space Islands. Who will run the governments? I suspect the UN
Might try for a power grab and want to run them as International
Settlements according to their own rules and with no regard to wishes
of the inhabitants. They'll want to appoint governments rather than
hold elections. And if any elections are held they'll insist on
writing the Constituitions and veto for any candidate they may
dislike.

The issue of popular soverenty comes up almost immediately.

Thent there is crime and punishment.

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophile"
wrote:
>
> --- In spacesettlers, "terrierkeeper" wrote:
>
> > Anyway, I still think the Island Two Phase would be a better
> > grounds for a television series. Space Island Society would have
to
> > start forming governments. Diffferent island types would be under
> > developement.
>
> For most of the public, though, starting with the very first Island
> One is a big enough stretch. A whole space-bourn civilization
might
> be a bit much for them.
>
> > And then there is Crime which society would have to confront and
how
> > to handle it. I doubt they would have all the soft approach that
is
> > the fad in western civilisation yet there is some possibility they
> > might be like the wild west.
>
> I doubt that we will see much of the wild west in Earth orbit, or
in
> the earliest settlements. We might well get it in the Main
Asteroid
> Belt, though. Of course, this is why the Island Two phase would
make
> an interesting setting.
>
> This would be more _Little House on the High Frontier_ than
> _Tombstone in Orbit_. Have to agree that that would make for an
> interesting series, though. After there are a few dozen Island
Ones,
> an orbital cop (or rescue team) show would be a possibility.
>
> My other pet project (High Frontier-wise) is a superhero cartoon
for
> kids, with space pirates and mysterious aliens and a clear line
> between HumanTech (which would be ultra-hard SF) and AlienTech
(which