Life, Liberty and the pursuit of – Martian – Happiness…
This year, the United States celebrated its 246th anniversary since declaring their independence from Great Britain. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are three of the unalienable rights which the United State’s Declaration of Independence says have been given to all humans by their Creator, and which governments are created to protect.
While times have changed, people have not. History has a habit of repeating itself and it is worth reflecting on the universal maxims the American founding fathers embraced and why those very sentiments may propel humanity to Mars.
Every early colony in the Americas was founded for one of two reasons: the pursuit of economic opportunities, or the pursuit of more freedoms. The old world of Europe offered limited space, overbearing government and rigid social structures that gave only limited opportunities to the lower classes. The “new world” offered a chance to find untapped resources, settle where land was plentiful, and shape their colony/government to fit their needs. Nearly 170 years after the first colony was established in 1607, those ideals still rang true in the words of the declaration of independence that forged the United States.
Persecution of civil and religious liberties, overbearing government, social strife, and people looking for more financial opportunity are all headlines that were just as true in the 1600’s as they are today. It may be a new millennium but humanity’s social challenges endure.
In the 1600s settlers looking for a new life in a new world sought out the Americas. In the 1700s expansion pushed north and south and then in the 1800s the rallying cry was to find new opportunities in the uncharted wild west. These new worlds were only new to the European explorers. Now, unlike any time in history, our technology has finally brought true “new worlds” tantalizingly close to our grasp. Unlike the Americas in the 1600’s which had an indigenous population, Mars is without life and essentially a blank slate. It is likely only a matter of time before the challenges of how we will get there and how we will survive are solved.
However, as history has shown, in many ways the engineering and technical challenges are simpler to solve than creating a new stable society. Before we reach 2050 it is very likely a new generation will have the opportunity to journey into the unknown and reach our first true new world. This generation will yet again have the chance to forge a new civilization that fits their needs, provides them opportunity, and guarantees their freedoms. The question we all should be asking is…. What will that civilization look like?
In an intriguing twist of irony, the first Mars colonies will be the ultimate socioeconomic contradiction. Never before in human history will so much capital be invested to build a communal society that every person is completely dependent on each other for everything. From each breath of air and drop of water to the colony built in a world owned by no one man. Pure capitalism creating nearly pure socialism and communism. Never before has there been such an opportunity to take the best parts of our current world to forge a new one… and also risk that we will only use the worst.
If history is our guide, the first to volunteers to go will be the adventurers and the entrepreneurs followed by those who are skilled in a trade and looking for more freedoms and opportunities. The intriguing question is what will the resulting society look like? Is it a democracy of the people? Is it an authoritarian corporate government run by the companies that fund the expeditions? Is it a class system where the trades – who control the air and water – have control or will it be a society of equals where the intellectual is shoulder to shoulder with the laborer.
As we look at building the Blueprint for Mars, these questions should be asked early and often so the best political, social and economic theories of our current world shapes the next one. Whatever the resulting society looks like, there is a good chance that its citizens will yet again leave the old world in search of the life, liberty and happiness only a new world can guarantee.