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Human governance beyond earth : implications for freedom
Author:
Charles S Cockell
Publisher:
Springer International Publishing, Cham
Genre:
Books / Politics
Year:
2015
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This book extends the discussion of the nature of freedom and what it means for a human to be free. This question has occupied the minds of thinkers since the Enlightenment. However, without exception, every one of these discussions has focused on the character of liberty on Earth.

In this volume the authors explore how people are likely to be governed in space and how that will affect what sort of liberty they experience. Who will control oxygen? How will people maximise freedom of movement in a lethal environment? What sort of political and economic systems can be created in places that will be inherently isolated? These are just a few of the major questions that bear on the topic of extra-terrestrial liberty. During the last forty years an increasing number of nations have developed the capability of launching people into space. The USA, Europe, Russia, China and soon India have human space exploration programs. These developments raise the fundamental question of how are humans to be governed in space.

This book follows from a previous volume published in this series which looked at the Meaning of Liberty Beyond the Earth and explored what sort of freedoms could exist in space in a very general way. This new volume focuses on systems of governance and how they will influence which of these sorts of freedoms will become dominant in extra-terrestrial society. The book targets a wide readership covers many groups including:

Space policy makers interested in understanding how societies will develop in space and what the policy implications might be for space organisations.

Space engineers interested in understanding how social developments in space might influence the way in which infrastructure and space settlements should be designed.

Space scientists interested in how scientific developments might influence the social structures of settlements beyond the Earth.

Social scientists (political philosophers, ethicists etc) interested in understanding how societies will develop in the future.

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Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015

Charles S. Cockell (ed.) Human Governance Beyond Earth Space and Society 10.1007/978-3-319-18063-2_1

1. Introduction: Human Governance and Liberty Beyond Earth

Charles S. Cockell 1

(1)

School of Physics and Astronomy, James Clerk Maxwell Building, the Kings Buildings, UK Centre for Astrobiology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK

Charles S. Cockell

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Abstract

Equipped with ideas on the greatest opportunities to maximise liberty in outer space and some of its existential threats, it is possible to proceed to consider how the freedom of space settlers can be incorporated into the governance structures of extraterrestrial settlements. This volume of essays pursues this discussion from an assortment of angles, examining what we can learn from existing and past human communities and political experiences, investigating how free scientific thought and artistic creativity are to be maximised in space and how liberty can be engineered into the very infrastructure of extraterrestrial settlements. Different political and social mechanisms are considered for how impartial laws and governance are to be established. The collection underscores the quantity of information we can use from past experiences of liberty on Earth and the new efforts and ideas that will be needed to prevent the onset of tyrannies in space. Despite the tyranny-prone conditions in the extreme environments of outer space, there are ways in which liberty can be encouraged to thrive and there are approaches that can be formulated long in advance of a permanent human presence beyond Earth.

Keywords

Liberty Governance Organisation Constitution Government

Of the seminal speeches that ring across the ages, there can be little hesitation in saying that Pericles Funeral Oration, spoken almost two and a half thousand years ago, deserves to rank among the highest. His glorification of the might of Athens and its military prowess may be less appetising in, one would hope, more enlightened times; however, his observations on the virtues of Athens which were the mainspring of the deeds to which he spoke defined a new type of social order:

Let me say that our system of government does not copy the institutions of our neighbours. It is more the case of our being a model to others than of our imitating anyone else. Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people. When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law; when it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses. No one, so long as he has it in him to be of service to the state, is kept in political obscurity because of poverty. And, just as our political life is free and open, so is our day-to-day life in our relations with each other. We do not get into a state with our next-door neighbour if he enjoys himself in his own way, nor do we give him the kind of black looks which, though they do no real harm, still do hurt peoples feelings. We are free and tolerant in our private lives; but in public affairs we keep to the law. This is because it commands our deep respect.

The oration, recorded by Thucydides (, p. 145) and delivered in 431 BC after the first year of the Peloponnesian War, was part of Athens annual tradition to commemorate its war dead. It is remarkable because it admonished its listeners to rally round a set of institutional arrangements and ideas rooted in the notion of freedom. Throughout human history, the masses have been cajoled and galvanised into action by the charisma of dictators or by ideals that are themselves rooted in the power of dictators, monarchs or one-party states. Here we have a speech that justifies sacrifices and implores its listeners to feel pride for the abstract concepts of democracy, a free and open political environment and even letting your neighbour behave how they want without receiving disapprobation, even in a look. Granted, the franchise was not one we would recognise today as very openwomen and slaves were excluded from these high-minded idealsbut nevertheless his speech, in its direction, was remarkably modern. Many texts on liberty do not do much more than elaborate on the basic precepts of which Pericles spoke.

The ultimate demise of Athenian power and the fact that two thousand years on we still live in a world where the values that Pericles espoused are enjoyed by a minority of humanity shows how difficult it is to inculcate the abstract ideas of liberty into the minds of people as something worth defending and constructing a society aroundhow much easier it is to impress them with the physical flesh and bones of a determined dictator.

Yet, this task is indeed difficult, and this observation is made more sobering by realising that in many areas on Earth, there is sufficient availability of water, food and not least air to breathe, thus reducing the number of excuses that despots might have to coerce populations.

How much more difficult would Pericles have found his task if instead of facing the masses in the sun-soaked fields of Athens, he was instead confronted by a multitude gathered under a dome protecting them from the lethal external environment of the Moon? If his oration was an invocation to make good on sacrifices made by people not for military victory, but for the survival of a population faced with instantaneous death caused by depressurisation or the want of liquid water and food, would the abstract ideas of democracy, an open society and allowing your neighbour the life they choose, be so effective?

Some might say that we must answer the question with the response that it must be effective. To deny this would be to accept that all people who venture beyond Earth wander into assured tyranny. To accept that the experiment in democracy and freedom that began in Athens, however many its imperfections, was merely a flourish born in the environment of the Earth and destined to die here would be to consign all hopes for the human settlement of space into the hands of dictators.

In an academic volume such as this one, which considers governance and liberty beyond Earth, there is a certain requirement for objective detachment. First, one must examine the conditions of certain types of liberty beyond Earth and then decide whether they are viable or not. This is a task that a number of us set upon in a previous volume (Cockell ).

But there is a more forceful approach as well, namely to recognise the tyranny-prone nature of the extreme extraterrestrial environment and to attempt to find solutions to it. To suggest ways in which we can actively construct governance structures that would allow for a Pericles-like vision of society to emerge and succeed seems an acceptable point of discussion. Academics must be objective, but they should feel no guilt in using their ideas to seek to advance the very liberty that allows them to think freely.

In this volume, we approach the subject of governance and liberty with chapters that examine both the conditions for liberty and the ways in which liberty might be maximised.

Although authoritarianism seems a likely outcome in an environment that is instantaneously lethal, it is not a forgone conclusion. It only seems inevitable because we often extrapolate our experiences on Earth into the extremity of the space environment without modification. However, with prior knowledge of these environments long before we establish human settlements, knowledge gained by robotic craft and humans, we may be in a position to ameliorate the influence of totalitarianism.

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