feralfae

When I was a fairly young fairy, I would daydream a lot about living on a voluntary, cooperative space colony. Actually, even as an ancient fairy, I still dream of living on a space colony.

Since some of my earliest computer-playing memories were tied up with some Pascal I wrote for an environmental control program for the Stanford Torus, I had a pretty good idea of Space Colonies.  My program didn’t get used but I got to learn a new language, and therefore it was totally fun. I guess it is natural that I would associate Space Colonies with FUN.

But space colonies are also about the future of humans.   In fact, I did a painting once—of planets arrayed off into infinity—titled “Room Enough.” I think there is room for every social experiment of government, of cooperative, voluntary anarchy, of theocracies, and even new of social structures we have not yet imagined. We have certainly seen a lot of social structures already tried here on Earth.   The Swiss seem to have a structure that works fairly well, but I think humans can do better.  We just need to get coercive government out of the way. That is a mental exercise, not a violent one.

In fact, when I was fluttering around Evanston (fairies flutter, you know), there was a hometown paper that did an nice article about me, and I remember telling the reporter—and later seeing it accurately quoted in the article—that my life goals were to reach entelechy and to die teaching philosophy, sitting under a tree, on a Space Colony. I think I even said “Stanford Torus.”

I still think about that Space Colony sometimes, living out here in Montana.

(And I also still think about humans and how to identify the ones from my tribe. I finally figured out the primary demarcation is between those who initiate—or delegate the initiation of—force against peaceful humans. Non-Aggression Principle (NAP) humans.  After that, finding my NAP-tribe close kin gets into aesthetics, energy, interests, and outlook. And adventurers, of course.)

And I think we really need that Space Colony now: we need a demonstration model for humans to test out new ways of structuring society. I think we need a place run as a free-market anarchy, with only voluntary, cooperative institutions, and equal human rights for everyone. That meant equal opportunity, not equal outcomes, because no two humans want exactly the same outcomes.

There’d be no initiation of force against anyone, or you’d wind up dead so fast you forget your last thought.  Self-defense is a human right, along with life, liberty, and self-direction. The only true human rights are those rights held equally by every human: if only a special set of humans has that right, then some questions need to be asked: why do some have this right, and not others?  Is this a human right, or a violence-based imposition by some against others?  Space colonies, and even experimental societies, could try new approaches.  I’m in favor of totally voluntary free markets.

Why aren’t we doing this? No government on Earth could afford to allow such a NAP social structure here (although I am not sure that anything or anyone could stop a voluntary, cooperative people with such a magnificent goal), because it wouldn’t take long for all the other humans to discover and want to migrate there (they could also just imitate in their own group, couldn’t they?).

Violence-based governments would try stopping them, of course. When this nation was a totally great free-market, with very limited government, a whole lot of humans wanted to come here and invest their lives in the founding concepts of this nation.  We can do that again—going inward rather than outward, and making these voluntary communities around us.  Start with the 3×3 rule: find three people (or families) within 3 or 9 or 27 miles, and grow your philosophical family.

But a few thugs, even that far back at the glorious beginnings of this government, had the power to initiate violence, and it just kept getting worse over the course of history. There was that initial flaw that only gave equal rights to some humans and not others, which was a mortal flaw, enforced by the initiation of violence. Because you cannot sustain an institution based on the initiation of violence.

So, it seems to me that the only way we get to give a superb demonstration of why we don’t need government by force, and are ready for government by reason, is to build a Space Colony. Is there any reason not to begin today? I am going to check around and see if anyone is working on this—I mean in the private, non-governmental sector, not living off stolen money.

If no one is building a space colony, or a voluntary, free-market society, seems to me it is time to get to the task. Philosophy is fine, but practical application is everything. I’ll check back when I have more info.

feralfae