New Mars Forums

My essay on "The Problem of Owning Mars" contains a draft Martian constitution.  I am considering adding an "Amendment I" to that draft.  The amendment would consist of the following three paragraphs.  The requirements in those paragraphs would provide the people of each Martian settlement with (1) a moral compass and (2) the capacity to control the evolution of their society and culture.

Amendment I.  Directed Sociocultural Evolution.  Each application for a Settlement Charter shall include a Sociocultural Development Plan.  The plan shall contain an ethnographic description of the settlement that the applicants plan to establish.  After the issuance of a Settlement Charter, the people who hold the charter shall annually review their Sociocultural Development Plan.  During that review, they may amend the plan and, if they amend the plan, they shall deliver a copy of the amended plan to the Terrestrial Embassy of the Provisional Government of Mars.

When the people who hold a Settlement Charter establish a Martian settlement, their Sociocultural Development Plan shall automatically become a part of the ordinances of the settlement.  The adult members of the settlement shall annually review their settlement's Sociocultural Development Plan.  During that review, the plan may be amended and, if the plan is amended, the amended plan shall be transmitted to the Terrestrial Embassy of the Provisional Government of Mars.

The children of every Martian settlement shall be taught that, when they become adults, it will be their duty to annually review their settlement's Sociocultural Development Plan.  Children shall also be taught to use behavior modification techniques to control their own and each others behaviors for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a society and culture that is consistent with their settlement's Sociocultural Development Plan.

Clark, you asked, "Are you suggesting that these laws would only apply to a *profession* of being a mother, whereby you produce offspring for economic gain or that the laws would apply to all women whereby they must be *certified* to be a mother?"  Such laws would only apply to women who produce offspring for economic gain, not to all women.

Clark, you wrote, "I find it humours that you point out the historical inequality in the application of laws between genders, then begin a discussion predicated on the application of yet more inequality."  I do not see the humor in this.  Women have the capacity to produce children; men do not.  This "inequality" is a simple fact of life and the law must deal with this fact.

Clark, you asked, "My question though is, what right does society have in determing who I as an individual choose to reproduce with (as long as we are both mutually consenting *adults*)?"   A legally enforceable agreement is known as a contract.  Society has the right to decide which agreements are legally enforceable.  Society also has the right to decide which agreements are punishable.  An agreement to commit a criminal act is known as a conspiracy.

Clark, you wrote, "These 'laws' would in effect allow society to dictate who we can and cannot conceive with."  Depending on the exact wording of the law, this might be the case.  Please take note that reproduction is a deadly serious matter in many societies.  For example, if a woman gives birth to a child outside of marriage she might be taken into a public place and stoned to death.  A woman in Africa is currently living under such a sentence.  After her child is weaned, she will be killed.

Clark, you wrote, "the idea that someone would need to be *proteced* when they are looking for a possible canadities to be the mother of their child is a bit propostorous, even for me."  The interests being protected would be primarily the interests of the children.  If a man failed to provide the financial support that he had agreed to provide for the mother and child then the mother would have the right to bring a legal action to enforce the contract.

Clark, you wrote, "I for one can forsee no need for these types of laws."  These types of laws might make sense on Mars.  The Martian ecosystem is extremely harsh and most women will be in the workforce.  In order to provide for the propagation of the species, some women might specialize in motherhood and become professional mothers.  Some states have recently adopted legislation that legalizes "surrogate mother" contracts.   "Professional mother" legislation can be regarded as an extension of the surrogate mother concept.

Scott

In general, warfare results from population pressures.  In the beginning stage of Martian colonization, the population density on Mars will be extremely low and the probability of intersettlement warfare will also be low.

Scott

Phobos:

You don't just walk into a Skinnerbox.  You go to bed one night as usual, in your own cozy bed.  Then you wake up on the cold, hard floor of the box.  EeeeeeK!   

So be prepared.  Get a set of pajamas with lots of big pockets.   

Clark:

You are correct.  Destiny Hall is designed to provide a "system of support for the establishment of a colony on Mars."  And, as you noted, I did not propose that Destiny Hall would be a place where brainwashing or any form of coercion would be practiced.  However, I did include a bit of religion, and I did so with great trepidation.

The first draft of my Destiny Hall proposal included the proposition that parents would tell their children the myth that Mars had been imprinted on the child's GENES when the child was conceived on The Altar of Mars.  In the final draft, I changed "genes" to "soul".  I included the concept that each human is inhabited by a supernatural being (i.e., a soul) because that concept is found in almost all traditional cultures.

Scientists generally disapprove of the proposition that human behavior is controlled by a supernatural entity.  When they are not in church, scientists subscribe to the proposition that the behavior of a complex organism (e.g, a horse, shark, eagle, chimpanzee, human, etc.) is a function of the organism's physiology, its history of reinforcement and punishment, and its current environment.  This proposition is a scientific theory (see The Behavior of Organisms, by B. F. Skinner).

In designing Destiny Hall, I have tried to incorporate elements from many cultures.  For example, fossilized hominid footprints from Tanzania, architecture from Italy, stone from Great Britain, history from Iceland.  And, in my efforts to be inclusive, I included the concept of the soul.  But that may have been a mistake.  Including that supernatural concept has caused several people to see Destiny Hall as the temple of a religious cult, which I certainly did not intend.

I have thought about changing "soul" back to "genes" but that may not be necessary because scientists have recently begun to put a physiological foundation under the soul.  A recent article in the journal Nature describes how Olaf Blanke, a neurologist, found that he could trigger out-of-body experiences in one of his patients.  He was using electrodes to stimulate and map the patient's brain in preparation for surgery.  We can now see that out-of-body experiences, which have given rise to the concept of the soul, are the result of the functioning (or malfunctioning) of particular clusters of brain cells.  So the supernaturalism that was once included in the concept of the soul has now been replaced by a better scientific understanding of how the human brain works.

What do you think?  Should I change "soul" to "genes" or leave it as it is?

Scott

A.J.

Skinnertown would be okay; Bartertown would be a pooper.

Scott

Skinnerville

The most successful Martian settlement will be named Skinnerville, in honor of behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner.  The people of Skinnerville will all have read Skinner's "Beyond Freedom and Dignity" at least twice.  They will all regard themselves as sociocultural systems engineers and they will have the skills to adapt to novel situations faster than any other people on Mars.;)

Scott

Rob:

I would not look in utopian communes for people who might volunteer to participate in building a prototype Martian settlement.  I like the model represented by the Ecovillage of Ithaca  (click here).  That village is based on the "cohousing" model -- a group of privately owned family residences that collectively own and share a surrounding greenbelt and various community facilities. 

The people who live in ecovillages recognize that their sociocultural systems are dependent upon supporting ecosystems.  Those people try to preserve their ecosystem so that they can live in an ecologically sustainable manner.  I believe that this is a very appropriate model for the colonization of Mars.

I think of ecovillages as "neo-tribal" societies.

Scott

Byron:

In a previous message, you wrote, "While there is general disagreement about how humanity should go about setting up 'house' on the Red Planet, I think the majority of us Mars enthusiasts agree that it will take a collaborative, long-term scientific effort, most likely requiring the resources of entire nations, in order to carry out human missions to Mars, and eventual permanent colonization."  I agree that the exploration and colonization of Mars will be "a collaborative, long-term scientific effort."  I believe that the design, construction, testing, and operation of a prototype Martian settlement should be carried out in a scientific manner. 

The people of Comunidad de los Horcones (Community of the Decorated Wooden Pillars) can provide us with many useful examples of cultural engineering techniques that could be applied to the task of building human sociocultural systems that can sustain and replicate themselves on Mars.  The people of Los Horcones, including the children, routinely apply behavior modification techniques to themselves and to each other.  They refer to Los Horcones as an "experimental community" and they view their own behaviors as variables that can be experimentally modified.  They are collaboratively endeavoring to build "a satisfying and sustainable way of life (i.e., a culture)."  The results of some of their experiments have been published in international behavioral science journals.

Los Horcones represents a revolutionary development in the evolution of human culture.  The Los Horconans will never be trapped by the dead-hand of tradition; they have and have given their children the power to control the evolution of their culture.  The Los Horconans constantly evaluate the effectiveness of their individual and collective behaviors and they know how to design and implement interventions that reshape their culture.

I have suggested that Destiny Hall have a Conjunction Day Calculator.  If Clarkeville were built and if it included something like Destiny Hall then I would expect the children who operate the Calculator to evaluate the effect that operating the Calculator has on them and to then modify the Calculator and their corresponding behaviors in order to create something that is more satisfying and more enriching to them.  I would expect the children of Clarkeville to be excellent cultural engineers.

The most important thing that we could give to the children of Clarkeville is the power to control their own destiny; i.e., the power to control the evolution of their culture.  Whether or not they apply that power to the task of building human sociocultural systems that can maintain and replicate themselves on Mars will be up to them.

Scott

In a previous message, I described the Altar of Mars as a table that has four legs and that would be located in the single alcove of Destiny Hall.  In this message, I will describe the Altar in greater detail.

The Bluestones of Stonehenge

The ancient British monument called Stonehenge was built in several phases.  The first phase of construction began in about 1900 B.C.  The second phase started in approximately 1750 B.C. (See Stonehenge Decoded, by Gerald Hawkins.)  During the second phase, bluestone megaliths, some weighing as much as 5 tons, were moved from their origin in the Prescelly Mountains to the site of Stonehenge.  The bluestones were moved approximately 245 miles.  The movement of these megaliths required the combined efforts of dozens or perhaps hundreds of people.

The builders of Stonehenge could have used stone that was locally available but instead they chose to use bluestone from a distant source.  Why?  Some researchers have suggested that the builders regarded the bluestones as sacred because bluestone has the unusual characteristic of feeling warm when touched.  The bluestone megaliths might therefore have been regarded as being alive and having souls.

The Altar of Mars

The top of The Altar of Mars will be cut from a bluestone megalith from the Prescelly Mountains.  The top will be 15 centimeters thick, 60 centimeters wide, and 135 centimeters long. It will therefore have the same proportions as the stone sign at the entrance to CLARKEVILLE (see that topic in the Civilization and Culture section of the New Mars Forums).  The long axis of the Altar will be aligned so that it intersects with the vertical centerline of The Great Globe of Mars.

There will be two electric spotlights in the ceiling of the alcove where the Altar is located.  Those lights can be turned on prior to any time that the Altar is scheduled to be used.  This will allow the bluestone to be gently heated and to feel warm to the touch.

Scott

Matt:

Ben Finney is an anthropologist.  He wrote an article titled "Lunar Base: Learning to Live in Space."  In that article, Finney asserted that, "We should start now on a research and development program directed toward developing social systems designed so that people can safely and productively live and work on the Moon."  He suggested that these social systems should be designed by "those who will actually live in space."  I agree, and I believe that the people who will actually live in the first prototype Martian settlement should direct the design of that settlement.  If I had the opportunity, I would show those people my plans for Destiny Hall and I would suggest that they adopt those plans or similar plans for a set of rituals that transcend their own national cultures and that thereby unite them with each other and with would-be Martians worldwide.  For humans, this sort of planning and adoption is "natural." 

Destiny Hall is designed to be (1) a ritual center for the residents of a prototype Martian settlement and (2) an international mausoleum -- a place where portions of the mortal remains of would-be Martians can be stored until such time as those remains can be transported to Mars.  I believe that Destiny Hall could unite the members of a prototype Martian settlement with each other and with would-be Martians worldwide.

Scott

Matt:

About 40 years ago, people started planning a "new town."  They designed and built a city named Columbia, which is located in the state of Maryland, U.S.A.  Columbia has a number of "interfaith centers."  One of those centers is named "The Meeting House."  The Meeting House is shared by 6 religious congregations: Columbia Baptist Fellowship; Columbia Jewish Congregation; Columbia United Christian Church; Lutheran Church of the Living World; St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church; and Temple Isaiah.  The Meeting House shows us that, with proper scheduling, a number of religious congregations can share the same facility.  I therefore believe that a prototype Martian settlement could have a "Community Hall" that, with proper scheduling, could be used by several religious congregations.  And, after people got to know each other better, they might, as Rob has suggested, elect to hold "interfaith services" every now and then.

Scott