scerir wrote:
>
> (FW)
>
> The Republic of Mars is a virtual nation (or micronation), all immigrants
> are welcome. Check out our web site at: www.marsgov.net
>
> In a little over 4 months, our community has grown to over 500 members.
> However, we are always on the lookout for hard working people who wish to
> join us.
...
Is it just my perceptions, or are "efforts" like this actively harmful
towards actually colonizing Mars? Despite their intent, they
contribute nothing towards that end that has not already been
contributed by more effective organizations, and they raise the spectre
that, should someone actually manage to get people to and from Mars on
a regular basis, these organizations might claim to have some standing
to sue and otherwise interfere with successful operations ("we owned
Mars first").
> We also have an active science community - the Mars Academy of Sciences and
> Technology (MAST) has just been founded. One of the first tasks for MAST
> will be to submit to Parliament plans for our first city on the surface of
> Mars.
I predict that cities on Mars will be planned and built by people who
are actually there, and that no one will pay any attention to city
plans made in ignorance of local conditions when it comes time to
actually build the thing.
Sorry for the negativity, but like I said, these efforts seem to be
actively harmful, and thus deserve countering. (As opposed to, say,
passively harmful, where the "harm" is limited to wasting the
participants' time and other resources, and does not extend to those
not involved in the project.)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:59:46 MDT