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Old 10-01-2007
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Re: What is the point?

Quote:
Originally Posted by soot View Post
How will we prevent "wars" onboard our spacecraft? We haven't established, here on Earth, a system of governance or justice that provides for anything approaching "peace and security" in the long-term. Even the most ambitious and successful empires have only lasted a few hundred or a thousand years at the most, after which they generally devolve into a period of chaos. What makes us believe we can provide for the governance, management, and administration of a mobile "mini-civilization" that would have to be a few thousand members strong?
It seems to work well for the military, so the concept could be adjusted to have a military-style chain of command and certain rules in place that all the specially selected crew would agree to. And even if it were an American-style republic it could work with some minor adjustments as well. After all, the US has held together fairly well for 321 years so there's no reason to think a smaller version wouldn't work in space.
Quote:
How will we keep the "residents" of our interstellar biosphere commited to the mission? Naturally the first generation will be, they signed on for it after all. How about the second generation, the third, the hundredth?
That's easy. They won't be able to come back. That alone would keep ME pretty committed to the mission.
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