As humanity moves forward and as technology advances further and further, we will begin to have discussions about stuff that we have never even imagined before and stuff that we only thought was possible in movies.
We already know that technology is making the world smaller by bringing us all closer together and several hundred years down the road, we might even begin questioning the concept of nations as we begin to venture out in space where we will have to act as one.
I had written about it about a month ago in this post. If we do not lose the concept of countries however, we will begin to see something happen, that up until now we have only seen in sci-fi movies.
What I am talking about is space-based nations. That even sounds futuristic, doesn’t it? So, what are these space nations and how can something like that even be possible?
What’s A Space Nation?
A space nation is an independent nation that is based in space. If you are imagining a country that is not based on a planet or a geographical location within it, and exists as a fleet of spaceships wandering around Earth, you are right.
It has its own law, its own citizenship, national anthem, flag and anything you would imagine that comprises a nation. The only difference? It exists in space. Ideally such a nation would be self sufficient and would not interfere or get interfered by other nations of the Earth.
You must be thinking that it is a really crazy idea and something we can’t even dream of right now and you would be correct. But did the people in the 17th century dream of the internet and the smartphone? Most probably not. The same way, right now we cannot see how this will be possible but technology, my friend, has a habit of making the impossible, possible.
Various technologies like energy generation tech, advanced agricultural tech and all sorts of other things will have to come together for this to work but I think that this will be a possibility within a 1000 years.
In fact, the first seeds of such a space-based nation are already beginning to get sowed. No, I am not kidding. Some really bright people are coming together to kickstart what could truly be the next frontier in the human advancement.
Asgardia - The First Space-based Nation
Before you get your hopes up, (like I did), let me tell you that, Asgardia is not already a fully functional space colony that you can join today and escape all your earthly woes, literally and figuratively.
Asgardia is an initiative by an international group of scientists, started late last year as a private space-based nation. They chose the name “Asgardia” as it means “cities in skies” in Norse mythology.
They started recruiting people last year and till now, over 190,000 people across the world have already joined. They are also providing citizenships to interested people on their websites. You can check their website here which contains their entire plan and other interesting stuff.
Right now they are going ahead with the launch of a data satellite that will store data off planet. The purpose and the nature of this data are confidential. Also, in the future, they will be launching their own currency and calendar.
In the future, Asgardia will be a true space based nation which would most probably orbit the Earth. People will live and work in space their whole lives, will even get married and have babies, and do any thing that we do here on Earth.
This is way, way into the future. You and I will be long gone, but future generations, hundreds of years from now could see it happening and the interesting part is that the process that leads to it might have already started.
Would You Live In One?
I know this won’t happen in our lifetimes, but if it were an option, would you register to leave your country and planet, and live in space, adopting entirely new identities?
I asked myself the same question and a part of me wanted to leave at once. I am really sick and tired of all that is going on, on our planet and it would be really nice to get away from all that and start fresh in a well organised space nation. Plus it would be really, really cool.
But then on second thought, such a life would be very monotonous. Yes, for the first few days, the view outside the window would be really great but the same view would make you reminisce all the natural beauty that the Earth has to offer and it’s just not the natural state of being.
So, I don’t think that I would want to join one even if it were an option today. Maybe future generations and future society will evolve a different way of thinking where people would want to do it, in which case, I would have no objection, because you know, I would have been long dead!
Anyways, what would you do? Would you like to live in space your entire lives?