In yesterday's post I brought up two starting points about humans living off planet and today I’m going to go into more detail on the first point and then in a follow on post I’ll go into the second point. I asked how many people will be needed for successful colonization in space.I strongly believe this is an important starting point for any realistic conversation about expanding the human race beyond planet earth. In a 2014 Popular Mechanics article that addresses this issue an anthropologist named Cameron Smith from Portland State University is cited as saying that a minimum of ten thousand people would be needed and that forty thousand would be better. The article is a great read and I would encourage everyone to go check it out here.
40,000 people.
I want you to imagine a social system that required 40,000 people to work, live and cooperate in an interdependent manner all while confined to a single physical structure for possibly hundreds of years. Resource input and output would have to be absolutely neutral over many generations and any deviance from a very precise management of resources would eventually lead to the failure of this star bound colony.
Now imagine trying to create that dynamic here on earth. Where would you start? What would be your first steps? What resources would you focus on getting under control first?
Food?
Water?
Energy?
What about authority? What kind of power structure would have to be in place? How would conflict impact the whole? How would deviance, crime, and dissent be addressed and managed? We can’t get along on earth how are we supposed to get along trapped on a starship for potentially hundreds of years?
How about rewards for innovation and hard work? On earth a free market and concepts like capitalism offer effective rewards but those systems are dependent on consistent growth and the rewards are often a larger share of resources. I can’t see how this would work in the limited confines of a starship. This is definitely not my area of expertise though and I would love to hear from someone who is an expert in this arena.
There are clearly a huge range of issues that need to be recognized, addressed and developed before we can realistically consider living off planet. To be honest this needs to happen NOW if there is any hope of realistically moving off planet. Sadly though, if we do not figure them out very soon there will also be no hope for humanity on our planet. Your input and thoughts on these issues are needed, please comment below.