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Aaron's avatar
Jun 5Edited

Come on Peter! Let´s write a comedy novel about Space Communism! We´re gonna have to ration the asteroids, because surely there aren´t enough to go around. "All spacesuits are equal when they´re leaking, but some are more equal pressure with the vacuum than others." I could go on and on.

Peter Hague's avatar

Might be funny!

Forward Synthesis's avatar

I don't like the space socialists one bit, but I suppose I prefer the space socialists to the outright anti-space leftists we see kicking around today. Believing the government can do it all is misguided, but considering the amount of articles casting doubt on the whole premise in any form whatsoever, even space socialism seems like a point from which progress can be made. The success of Elon Musk has sort of required that space socialism collapse, because it's so overwhelmingly clear that he's outstripped all previous state space programs that you essentially have to move to "Bah! Space sucks anyway and is taking stuff from poor brown people!" in order to have anything left.

In a similar vein, the small number of leftists hoping to nationalize AI are at least reckoning with it as a form of power that will exist now versus the copers who want to ban it all, or simply wish it out of existence by seething enough.

Peter Hague's avatar

A lot of the outright anti-space leftists just want to sabotage Musk et al, in order to allow government to once again take over in leading space colonisation. Then they would swing back round to supporting it.

Koba's avatar

Can you imagine communism in space? There would be a shortage of rock and minerals in the asteroid belt…….

Peter Hague's avatar

Well they managed to create wheat shortages in Ukraine and oil shortages in Venezuela, so it would not shock me.

Oliver Morton's avatar

How are the property rights to be enforced?

Peter Hague's avatar

Much the same way they are on Earth, I would imagine.

Jose Camoes Silva's avatar

The problem with space property (at least for the near future) is that it relies on the rights over that property being enforced on Earth in some way, which leads to all sorts of awkward dynamic incentives.

Just consider how governments enacted after-the-fact "windfall taxes" on some industries for both populist and financial reasons, in effect changing the rules of the game after it had been played. Or the "give 'the people' 50% of your AI company" bill introduced in the US Senate recently.