<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">peter waterman</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:peterwaterman1936@gmail.com">peterwaterman1936@gmail.com</a>></span><br>Date: Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 3:22 PM<br>Subject: [NetworkedLabour] Fwd: [Debate-List] (Fwd) Elon Musk's bourgeois Mars<br>To: "<<a href="mailto:networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org">networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org</a>>" <<a href="mailto:networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org">networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org</a>>, p2p-foundation <<a href="mailto:p2p-foundation@lists.ourproject.org">p2p-foundation@lists.ourproject.org</a>>, WSFDiscuss List <<a href="mailto:WorldSocialForum-Discuss@openspaceforum.net">WorldSocialForum-Discuss@openspaceforum.net</a>><br><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Patrick Bond</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:pbond@mail.ngo.za" target="_blank">pbond@mail.ngo.za</a>></span><br>Date: Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 9:55 AM<br>Subject: [Debate-List] (Fwd) Elon Musk's bourgeois Mars<br>To: DEBATE <<a href="mailto:debate-list@fahamu.org" target="_blank">debate-list@fahamu.org</a>><br><br><br>
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<h2>High Tech Fantasies: Elon Musk, Nuking Mars and the Colonization
of Space</h2>
<b><i></i></b>
<div>
<div><b>By <a href="https://zcomm.org/author/vemanuele/" title="Posts by
Vincent Emanuele" rel="author" target="_blank">Vincent Emanuele</a></b> <br>
<b><a href="https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/high-tech-fantasies-elon-musk-nuking-mars-and-the-colonization-of-space/" target="_blank"> </a><a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Elon-Musk-Nuking-Mars-and-the-Colonization-of-Space-20150924-0008.html" target="_blank">Source: teleSUR English </a></b><br>
</div>
<div> September 26, 2015</div>
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<div>
<div>
<p><i>“Life, forever dying to be born afresh, forever young and
eager, will presently stand upon this earth as upon a
footstool, and stretch out its realm amidst the stars.” –
H.G. Wells </i></p>
<p>During the 20th century, space was a key battleground in the
Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. By
the 1980s, U.S. President Ronald Reagan aimed to fully
militarize the stratosphere by developing the <a href="http://www.britannica.com/topic/Strategic-Defense-Initiative" target="_blank">Strategic Defense Initiative</a> (SDI),
otherwise known as the “Star Wars” program.</p>
<p>Over the years, the broader “Star Wars” program was scrapped,
but much of it has been reintroduced in the form of <a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/obama-denied-the-death-star-but-he-still-funds-star-wars" target="_blank">new military technologies</a>. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_satellite" target="_blank">For instance</a>, “As of 2013, there are 950
satellites of all types in Earth’s orbit.” In fact, “It is not
possible to identify the exact number of these that are
military satellites partly due to secrecy and partly due to
dual purpose missions such as GPS satellites that serve both
civilian and military purposes.” In other words, space is a
thoroughly militarized landscape.</p>
<p>That being said, the militarization of space is only the tip
of the iceberg in terms of what the elites have in mind for
the solar system and humanity’s collective future. Today,
there’s a growing number of high tech billionaires and <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/the-coming-age-of-space-colonization/273818/" target="_blank">government agencies</a> who are keen on
colonizing space. Without question, today’s high tech
visionaries are quickly developing the capabilities necessary
for multi-planetary colonization.</p>
<p>One of the world’s most respected scientific agencies, the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has an <a href="http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/hqlibrary/pathfinders/colony.htm" target="_blank">official stance</a> on space colonization:</p>
<p style="padding-left:30px">One of the major environmental
concerns of our time is the increasing consumption of Earth’s
resources to sustain our way of life. As more and more nations
make the climb up from agricultural to industrial nations,
their standard of life will improve, which will mean that more
and more people will be competing for the same resources.
While NASA spinoffs and other inventions can allow us to be
more thrifty with Earth’s resources, we nevertheless must come
to grips with the problem that humanity is currently limited
to one planet.</p>
<p>Undoubtedly, this view is shared by a wide range of
intellectuals, scientists, politicians and business
executives. For instance, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and
SpaceX, was recently interviewed by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LaXSXjMxWM" target="_blank">Stephen Colbert</a> on his nightly program,
“The Late Show,” where Elon discussed space colonization,
reusable rockets and various other high tech developments.</p>
<p>Immediately, Colbert asks, “Are you trying to save the
world?”</p>
<p>Musk responds, “I’m trying to do good things.”</p>
<p>Colbert then says, “But you’re trying to do good things, and
you’re a billionaire. That seems a little bit like either
super hero, or super villain? You have to choose one!”</p>
<p>At which point, Musk answers, “I’m trying to do useful
things.”</p>
<p>After a few minutes of small talk, Colbert inquires about
space travel and colonization: “You sincerely think that men
and women should go to Mars. Why should we go to Mars? It’s
uninhabitable.”</p>
<p>Musk nervously laughs and says, “It’s inhospitable, that’s
true.” Then, he goes on to suggest that Mars “is a fixer-upper
planet.” According to the Tesla Motors CEO, human beings
“could transform Mars into an Earth-like planet.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>But how? </b></p>
<p>“There’s a fast way and a slow way,” according to Musk. “The
fast way is to drop thermonuclear bombs on the poles.” The
“slow way” is to pump greenhouse gases into Mars’ atmosphere
by potentially transporting said gases from the Earth to the
red planet. To put differently, Musk wants to recreate the
processes of global warming on Mars.</p>
<p>In a previous interview conducted in 2014 with Raw Science’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfNC3PQIGPg" target="_blank">Crystal Dilworth</a>, Musk proposed the idea
that human beings “need to bioengineer new organisms that are
suitable for Mars.” He went on to note that, “Humanity has
already done this throughout time with selective breeding. But
that’s a slow process [evolution] that requires hundreds of
years, whereas with bioengineering, you could make it happen
much faster and with more precision.”</p>
<p>However, the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140506-space-trips-bad-for-your-health" target="_blank">physiological limitations</a> of space
travel are only one impediment: the main obstacle delaying
space colonization, at least in Musk’s thinking, is the
economic costs of such a project:</p>
<p style="padding-left:30px">What’s the key thing to
establishing a colony on Mars? It’s the cost per unit, per
man, the cost per person. I really think we need to get the
cost down to half a million dollars per person. And there’s
going to be an intersection of people who can afford to go,
and people who want to go.</p>
<p>Interestingly, Musk’s comments illuminate a fundamental
schism, one of the main antagonisms in modern society:
economic inequality. Again, if $500,000 (U.S.) is the low-end
cost per person to live on Mars, then it’s clear who won’t be
living there: the vast majority of the world’s population.
After all, who the hell has a half a million dollars?</p>
<p>Like many billionaires, Musk has created his empire with
public funds, yet virtually zero public input. “SpaceX, Musk’s
space-launch venture is dependent on government contracts (it
is the recipient of a $1.6 billion contract to resupply the
International Space Station),” notes <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-02-28/elon-musk-visionary-or-rent-seeker" target="_blank">Barry Ritholtz</a>. Furthermore, “His car
company, Tesla, received $452 million in government loans;
after the company paid them back, Musk suddenly decided that
federal investments and/or loans to promote alternative energy
was a bad idea.”</p>
<p>In other words, Musk’s hypocrisy knows no bounds. His entire
high tech empire is the direct result of the public commons:
satellites, roads, bridges, electric grids, airports, water
sewage facilities, public schools, hospitals, and so forth.
Without these elements, Musk’s technological fantasies would
be little more than entrepreneurial pipe dreams. Yet, he shuns
the public financing of green energy initiatives, unless, of
course, they benefit his companies.</p>
<p>In the end, the problem isn’t Musk – the problem is the
massive governmental and corporate entities that are in power,
and produce individuals like Musk. Who in their right mind
would drop thermonuclear weapons on Mars? Only the world’s
best and brightest.</p>
<p>To the regular person, these ideas sound insane, because they
are. Human beings have been terrible stewards of the Earth, so
why in the world would people think it would be a good idea to
reproduce our madness on other planets?</p>
<p>If, of course, humanity lived in some sort of harmony, with
equitable standards of living and democratic institutions and
political mechanisms, space travel and colonization could be
seriously discussed. But in a society where the world’s
richest five hundred families own more wealth than three
billion people, space colonization represents a new frontier
of inequality, alienation and segregation.</p>
<p><i>Vincent Emanuele can be reached at <a href="mailto:vincent.emanuele333@gmail.com" target="_blank">vincent.emanuele333@gmail.com</a></i></p><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><span><font color="#888888">
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