Re: SPACE: ownership/homesteading

Michael Lorrey (retroman@tpk.net)
Sat, 28 Dec 1996 23:17:49 -0500


Alexander 'Sasha' Chislenko wrote:
>
> At 04:26 PM 12/28/96 -0500, Michael Lorrey wrote:
> >
> >"You can bomb it from Air Force planes
> >you can shoot at it from Navy battleships
> >you can negotiate as much as you want with the state department,
> >but until you plant a 17 year old kid with a gun and a flag on that damn
> >hill, its not yours...."
> >--
>
> Sounds nice and passionate.
> However:
>
> - Should I keep a 17yo kid on that hill of mine at all times, or he can
> occasionally come down ?
> - Will a 16 year old do?
> - What if there are more hills than people?
> - Is an asteroid a hill too? The kid will feel so lonely there... Oxygen
> problems, too.
> Can I put a picture of that kid there instead?
> - What if I find Good Stuff in the center of the Moon? Sun? Where do I put
> the kid?
> - what about non-human ownership? Will AIs have to use humans as homesteading
> landmarks?

As nitpicky as you seem to be getting, basically we could use the old
homestead laws that were used to govern the european settlement of the
western territories of the US. You must maintain a constant human
presence, be actively exploiting the resources....etc.
>
> I may sympathize with a passionate illustration of the principle.
> However, I would still need to see how this will work in general situations.
> I liked the idea of the Universal Shares a lot more - though there seem
> lots of
> problems with it as well.
>

If you'd like, I'll drag out my old passionate saying about common
ownership. Not to poke at you Sasha, but I kind of thought that the
concept of personal reward was one of the reasons you came here to the
US?

Universal Shares would be for sale to anyone with the money to buy them
on the stock exchange....

-- 
TANSTAAFL!!!

Michael Lorrey --------------------------------------------------------- President retroman@tpk.net Northstar Technologies Agent Lorrey@ThePentagon.com Inventor of the Lorrey Drive Silo_1013@ThePentagon.com http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/ --------------------------------------------------------- Inventor, Webmaster, Ski Guide, Entrepreneur, Artist, Outdoorsman, Libertarian, Certified Genius.