tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28823501.post3666650108068539215..comments2023-06-19T23:26:32.126+10:00Comments on QuantumG's Blog: Imagining Mars ColonizationQuantumGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17336493213317053535noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28823501.post-39577430463531044742013-02-17T00:47:50.407+10:002013-02-17T00:47:50.407+10:00Small communities act in ways that can easily be c...Small communities act in ways that can easily be confused with socialism but are not.<br /><br />For example, during branding time on a ranch, it is customary for neighbors to come over and help. It's hard work for the entire day and nobody gets paid for it. Then you do it again for someone else's cattle on another day. If you have no cattle, you do it for the camaraderie.<br /><br />The key to the community thriving is that everybody is an owner. Everybody profits. The providers of vehicles for transportation will all sell tickets for a profit. The colonists will all arrive with assets worth more than a million dollars. The bankrolling company will get up to trillions for arranging all the details depending on how many settlers are taken to mars.<br /><br />That's capitalism baby!ken_anthonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07612961297952294600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28823501.post-18544326579616911162013-02-16T16:06:12.255+10:002013-02-16T16:06:12.255+10:00"There is no word for a small self-sufficient..."There is no word for a small self-sufficient high-technology society" ...<br /><br />"Arcology" works nicely. So does "Biosphere" and (with some ideological stretching) "collective farm." But I suspect the term that actually would be used is "colony," with the understanding that everybody will know just what a Martian colony implies.<br /><br />That said, I think Anthony is being much too conservative. Robots and versatile machines will probably perform most of the bulk material handling in a future colony, and there's probably going to be very little waste. We won't have steel plants that produce ingots that go to warehouse and then to manufacyturers who melt down the ingots all over again to make castings which are handled on factory production lines, etc. We'll mine and reduce small quantities of ore and go directly to liquid pours of alloys which are cast directly in the final desired form. And even the slag will be reworked to yield buiding material and industrial chemicals. No muss, no fuss, no bad environmental impact.<br /><br />Whether this is really compatible with Anthony's free market ethos is an open question. I suspect it's going to look like and feel like socialism, even if earth-based corporations are bankrolling things. mike shupphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08383379836883992742noreply@blogger.com