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Matt:
Edward Sapir was an anthropologist and linguist. In an article titled "Culture, Genuine and Spurious," Sapir distinguished between genuine cultures and spurious cultures. He defined a genuine culture as "a culture in which nothing is spiritually meaningless, in which no important part of the general functioning brings with it a sense of frustration, of misdirected or unsympathetic effort."
It is my goal to design a prototype Martian settlement that has a rich spiritual environment; an environment that gives children the sense that they are following in the footsteps of their forebearers and that they will have the opportunity to make their own marks on the history of humankind. This goal is embedded in my suggestion that the path to Destiny Hall include a short alternate route made of sand. This goal is also embedded in the three blank panels on the right-hand door of Destiny Hall.
On their way to Destiny Hall, newlyweds could use the alternate path made of sand. They could take off their shoes and make two sets of footprints in the sand, similar to the two sets of footprints that their ancient ancestors left in fresh volcanic ash in Tanzania 3.6 million years ago. They could thereby continue the tradition of their forebearers.
The three blank panels on the right-hand door of Destiny Hall are meant to inspire children. The children of Destiny Hall would be told that those panels have been reserved to record their achievements. Some of those children will see those blank panels as an opportunity to make history and they will be inspired to achieve great things. And some children will look at those blank panels and just yawn, and grow up, and graduate, and marry, and move to Cleveland and become podiatrists. That's life.
I believe that if thirty families from different nations were brought together and asked to design a prototype Martian settlement, they would design a settlement that includes (1) family residences, (2) a community hall, (3) barns, (4) warehouses, (5) greenhouses, and (6) something like Destiny Hall. They would include something like Destiny Hall because they would not want to live in a society that is merely functional. They would design a complete culture, genuine culture, a culture that provides for their biological and spiritual needs.
Scott
I have been thinking about what might be on the four panels on the right-hand door of Destiny Hall and I have come up with nothing, nothing, nothing, and something. The top three panels, which represent the 5th, 6th, and 7th panels in a series of 8, should be left blank. These blank panels represent those portions of the story of Mars exploration and settlement that have not yet been written. These blank panels represent our current challenges. The 8th panel would have an image of The Great Circle of Mars. The Great Circle is a round stone, 2 meters in diameter and about 1 foot thick. The top of the stone is polished to a mirror finish and the side of the stone is rough hewn. The Great Circle would be located on Mars and would be the place where the ashes of the Ancestors are presented to the Martian Wind for final disposition.
Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines a great circle as "a circle formed on the surface of a sphere by the intersection of a plane that passes through the center of the sphere." The Great Circle of Mars is 2 meters in diameter because it represents a great circle of The Great Globe of Mars, which is also 2 meters in diameter. The Great Globe is located in Destiny Hall. The Great Globe contains the ashes of the Ancestors (i.e., the would-be Martians who have contributed to efforts to explore and settle Mars).
The Genesis of An Idea:
Once upon a time, I visited the National Geographic Society's offices in Washington, D.C. The National Geographic Society's ground-floor lobby contained the largest globe of the Earth that I had ever seen. I was impressed.
I regard the Mars Society as the Martian equivalent of the National Geographic Society. I thought that it would be appropriate for the Mars Society to have an impressively large globe of Mars. I knew that the Pantheon (a Roman temple) had been designed to contain a perfect sphere and I thought that it would be appropriate to put an impressively large globe of Mars inside a building based on the design of the Pantheon. That is how Destiny Hall got its general shape.
Scott
Cindy: you wrote that I have wondered "if 13-year-olds on Mars should routinely get knocked up or not, and if people should publically copulate on Mars." In another section of the New Mars Forum, I noted that the people of Iran recently raised the minimum marriage age for females from 9 to 13 and raised the minimum marriage age for males from 14 to 15. The issue of the minimum marriage age is highly relevant for Mars because Martians will be exposed to larger doses of ionizing radiation. Since the probability of birth defects increases with length of exposure, it might therefore be public policy on Mars to encourage people to marry and reproduce as soon as they are biologically able to do so. If early marriage were typical on Mars then family residences would probably contain three, four, or perhaps even five generations of people who are related by blood and/or marriage. The architectural consequences of this policy are significant because the minimum size of a family residence on Mars would be larger than those that are typically found in industrialized countries on Earth.
The subject of public copulation was raised by Shaun. In a subsequent post, I explained to Shaun that I envisioned Destiny Hall as having a set of bronze doors that can be latched from the inside, thus giving newlyweds the option of consummating their marriage in Destiny Hall in private. I suppose that newlyweds could invite some or all of the members of their wedding party to accompany them to Destiny Hall to witness the consummation but it had not occurred to me to propose that. And even if that became common on Mars it would still be a "tame" marriage ritual when compared to some of the marriage rituals on Earth.
The doors of Destiny Hall are very important parts of the whole structure. I envision those doors as having numerous rectangular panels that, in pictures, tell the story of the quest to know and explore. The bottom panel on the left-hand door might show the 3.6 million-year-old footprints that our hominid ancestors left in fresh volcanic ash (these footprints were found in Tanzania in 1976 by paleoanthropologist Andrew Hill). The panel above that might show a Viking walking up the sandy shore of Iceland. His footprints would be visible in the sand and he would be wearing a typical Viking helmet -- one with horns sticking out of each side. The next panel could show a close-up view of the first bootprint made on Luna by Neil Armstrong. And the top panel could show Sojourner, snuggled up to and taking the measure of a Martian rock The marks from Sojourner's wheels would be visible on the regolith. I do not yet have any ideas for the panels on the right-hand door but I have a neat idea for the ceiling. More to follow...
Scott
(Maybe the path leading to Destiny Hall should include a short alternate route made of sand. Newlyweds could take off their shoes and ritualistically leave their footprints in that sand on their way to Destiny Hall.)
This is the first time in a long time I actually burst out laughing from reading something someone wrote. On a day like today, any laughter is at a premium, so thank you.
Mr. Armitage:
In this Forum, I have proposed that birth, marriage, and death rituals be performed in a building named Destiny Hall. The birth and death rituals that I proposed have not been been responded to in impassioned terms. In contrast, the marriage ritual that I proposed, which includes sexual intercourse, has been very controversial. At first, I regarded the impassioned responses to the marriage ritual that I proposed as a manifestation of Americans' inability to deal with sexual topics in a mature manner. However, I now believe that these responses are the result of a low level of awareness about the global diversity in marriage rituals.
If the people who regularly participate in this Forum had taken anthropology classes about human reproduction then they would probably regard my proposal as "tame" rather than as "weird". For comparison, I offer an example of a marriage ritual that is definitely not "tame". In "Design Principles for Extraterrestrial Communities," Magoroh Maruyama wrote about marriage rituals in the Marquise Islands: "On the day of the wedding, the bride gave a sexual farewell party to her old friends: she lay down, and her old friends lined up for their last intercourse with her. The longer the line, the prouder the bridegroom."
I am glad that I was able to bring a bit of laughter to your September 11th, a day that you Americans have good reason to be somber on.
Scott
Cindy, you wrote, "I wouldn't want to live in a society where the individual is subject to intense and deliberate mental stimulation in one direction or another." I do not know where you went to school but I went to public schools in California, where I was subjected to intense and deliberate mental stimulation. I was taught, at public expense, to ritualistically pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. I did this thousands of times, with my right hand over my heart and facing Old Glory. I pledged allegiance in synchrony with dozens of other people. I did not have the option of doing otherwise. Children in Nazi Germany engaged in similar, state-sponsored rituals. But that is not unusual; all nation states sponsor such rituals.
Recently, a man in California challenged the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance because the law that specifies the wording of the Pledge had been amended to include the words "under god". As a result of his exercising his constitutional right to bring this legal action, he received numerous death threats. A citizen of Nazi Germany would have been treated in a similar manner if he had challenged the validity of state-sponsored national rituals.
You wrote, "The parallels between what you're describing/promoting and Naziism ARE THERE." Cindy, the parallels between Naziism and the United States of America ARE THERE. So what? Rituals, including nationalistic rituals, are common in societies all over this planet.
You should try to get some perspective on your own society. Take off your blinders; take an anthropology class. Read "Our Kind: Who We Are, Where We Came From, and Where We Are Going," by Marvin Harris (an ecological anthropologist). Harris will help you to see "beyond the smoke of your own chimney."
Cindy, you wrote, "If the Mars Society were to ever *officially* veer in the direction you are describing/promoting, I'll be the first to rip my membership card up into tiny pieces and never contribute another red penny to the Mars Society." Please take a close look at your Mars Society membership card. It does NOT read, "This is to certify that Cindy is a voting member of the Mars Society." You are not allowed to participate in the election of the members of the Board of Directors of the Mars Society; the Board is a self-perpetuating autocracy. In your view, is the Mars Society's management more like (1) Germany's Third Reich or (2) the U.S. Congress? My point is, you can find parallels to Naziism everywhere if you want to, and then you can use those parallels to attack anything that you disagree with IF YOU WANT TO.
And please take notice of the fact that Mars has an extremely thin, unbreathable atmosphere. This fact dictated that there will be more collectivism on Mars than there is on Earth. The first Martian colonists will live in underground bunkers made of metal and fused regolith and many of the services that their lives depend on (air, water, sewer, electricity, etc.) will be collectively owned and managed. If that level of collectivism is politically unacceptable to you then you should reconsider your participation in the Mars Society.
Scott
Why should we go and invent a new religion from scratch when we have plenty of perfectly good used ones lying about just about everywhere?
Bill:
This is a good question. I do not want to create a new religion. I am trying to design a set of rituals that include parts and pieces of many other cultures. I based the design of Destiny Hall on the Pantheon primarily because that design was built to enclose a perfect sphere and Destiny Hall would have a sphere in its center; i.e., the Great Globe of Mars. I did not choose the Pantheon because of its religious significance. The birth rite that I suggested is based on an African birth rite. I wish that I knew more about Asian cultures because I would like to incorporate parts of Asian rituals into my suggestions.
I believe that the exploration and settlement of Mars should be an enterprise that people from many nations can participate in. I would like to be able to show people around the world that parts of their traditions have been incorporated into the design for a sociocultural system that can be transplanted to Mars (I use the term "prototype Martian settlement" to refer to such a system).
I am not trying to design a society that I would want to live in. In general, the job of a sociocultural designer is to design a sociocultural system that is stable, resilient, and well adapted to a particular ecosystem. In this instance, I am trying to design a sociocultural system that is able to maintain and replicate itself on Mars.
Scott
Forgive the analogy, but when I read your contributions in this topic, I can't get the image of Heinrich Himmler out of my head. There was a similar feel to his 'Lebensborn' breeding program to create a so-called 'super-race'. In that nightmarish episode in history, women were treated pretty much like cattle and placed in breeding farms.
Shaun:
I was not familiar with the Lebesborn Project, which you cited in your previous message. Now that I have read descriptions of that project, I am wondering what you think it has to do with a discussion of marriage rites. The men and women who participated in the Lebensborn Project were not engaged to be married to each other and did not marry each other. The children who were born in the course of the Lebesborn Project were born outside of wedlock and I certainly do not approve of that. And what was even worse, the fathers of those children did not live with and help the mother to raise their children. This is a completely irresponsible abdication of a father's duty.
What does all of this Nazi crap have to do with a discussion of marriage rites?
Scott
Shaun:
I should have specified that, in my vision, Destiny Hall will have a set of bronze doors that can be latched from the inside. If a couple chose to consummate their marriage in Destiny Hall, they would therefore be able to do so in private.
You have brought up the topic of "breeding-in-public." That raises the question of whether a couple may invite members of the wedding party to Destiny Hall to witness the newlyweds consummate their marriage. Should this be illegal?
In the days when Kings ruled, the King might copulate his bride in front of the wedding party. This "breeding-in-public" had a very serious purpose. People wanted to be certain that the children born to the Queen were rightful heirs to the throne. If there was doubt, the succession of a prince or princess to the throne could be contested. This could involve civil war and the consequent death of thousands of people.
Shaun: you wrote, "I recognize that (at least so far) you haven't advocated selective breeding. But the rest of your suggestions are just as effective at dehumanising the relationship between men and women as anything the Nazis managed to invent." I do not intend to advocate selective breeding. I believe that selective breeding will soon become obsolete. We are on the verge of taking control of our genome; we will soon be able to re-engineer ourselves from the genes up. When we have that power, we might choose to eliminate the Human Endogenous Retrovirus from our genome. We each have 30 to 50 copies of that retrovirus spliced into our genes. People who have schizophrenia are much more likely to have antibodies to the virus, which has led some researchers to suggest that schizophrenics have a genetic defect that makes it difficult for them to keep the virus in a dormant state. I believe that it would be wonderful if we could eliminate this terrible disease and perhaps even cure it in people who are currently afflicted.
And we might be able to figure out how bears can hibernate all winter without having their bones deteriorate. If we learned this secret, we might genetically engineer ourselves so that we do not lose bone mass while we are in low-gravity environments. Otherwise, emigrating to Luna or Mars might be a one way trip.
I do not understand why you regard my suggestions as "dehumanizing the relationship between men and women." I am proposing that marriage be viewed primarily as a means of procreation rather than as a license to have fun. I believe that the divorce rate would be much lower if couples focused more on the needs of their children and less on whether they were getting good sex from their spouse. You can label my belief as "dehumanizing" if you want to but I will continue to maintain that it is good social policy.
Scott
Cindy:
In a previous message, I predicted that, "At some point in the future, the Mars Society will build a prototype Martian settlement. In other words, the Mars Society will build a human sociocultural system that can be transplanted into the ecosystem of Mars." You responded "Fine" and I have interpreted your response as an acceptance of my prediction.
I have also predicted that, "The design specifications of that system will include rites of passage (rituals performed at birth, puberty, marriage, and death) and rites of intensification (rituals that reinforce a shared sense of community and destiny)." You responded to this prediction with the following statement: "I'd like for you to refer me to documents generated by the Mars Society itself [official] which states that rituals and rites will be performed in the manner in which you speak, and that this isn't simply a desire on the part of yourself and/or a small group of persons within the Mars Society."
Cindy, I have suggested birth, marriage and death rites that would be performed in a prototype Martian settlement on Earth and that would be connected to a final rite to be performed on Mars; i.e., giving the ashes of the Ancestors to the Martian Wind. I believe that this is consistent with the purpose of the Mars Society's Civilization and Culture Forum. The Mars Society describes this Forum as follows: "Discussion on the social, cultural and anthropological aspects of human missions and colonies on Mars". I hope that you and other people will, in this Forum, suggest alternatives rites that might be more satisfying to the participants. I believe that sociocultural design should be a collaborative process.
Cindy, I wrote that, "If people go into a marriage 'with only mutual pleasure and enjoyment in their minds' then there will be a high divorce rate and many tears and way to many children who have serious psychological problems. Those children will be much more likely to be in jail than to be leading a mission to explore and settle Mars." And you responded, "You misunderstood/misread my post. I said the HONEYMOON NIGHT should be about mutual pleasure and enjoyment -- one night. I've been married nearly 10 years; I am a bit too experienced in the Marriage Department [and a bit too intelligent] to suggest that marriage could be 'only mutual pleasure and enjoyment' - !!!".
I disagree with your assertion that "the HONEYMOON NIGHT should be about mutual pleasure and enjoyment." As an alternative, I suggest that, as a matter of Martian tradition, a couple's wedding should be scheduled on the day during the bride's menstrual cycle when she is most likely to become pregnant. Sexologists have discovered that a woman is most likely to become pregnant if she has an orgasm shortly after her partner reaches orgasm and ejaculates. The leading theory to explain this fact is that during a woman's orgasm she experiences rhythmic contractions in her reproductive tract and that those contractions pump semen into her uterus and thereby increase the probability of conception. Based on this theory, it might be part of Martian tradition for the bride's mother to give the groom an electric vibrator, batteries included, as a wedding gift so that he can apply it to his bride's vulva in order to insure that she will have an orgasm at the "appropriate" time.
Cindy, you wrote, "Again: I want to see *official* documents generated by the Mars Society that the rituals and rites you speak of are officially promoted by the Mars Society. Please refer me to a web link or an on-line article to this effect, i.e. an official document." Cindy, I have made it clear that the rites I have written about in this Forum are my suggestions. I have NOT asserted that the Mars Society has adopted a "Prototype Martian Settlement Design and Development Plan," or any similarly titled document, that includes any particular rituals. I have made numerous predictions and suggestions and you can offer alternative predictions and suggestions. That I what this Forum is for.
Cindy, you wrote, "In reading your original post on the matter, it seems to me that Robert Zubrin was speaking by way of ANALOGY, and you and Mr. Banks have mistaken an ANALOGY for some sort of definitive plan. Let's see the official documents on the matter -- from the desk of Zubrin and/or the Steering Committee."
Cindy, the Steering Committee's minutes of August 10, 2002 contain the following: "Bruce Mackenzie presented a new project idea: The Analog Settlement to publicly demonstrate the feasibility of living beyond the Earth and its advantages to everyone." I do not know whether Mr. Mackenzie's "new project idea" was greeted with (1) a standing ovation or (2) a "Ho Hum. I suppose that we will have to pay attention to the 'human factors' eventually" or (3) something like "Well that's the dumbest idea I have ever heard". If the vagueness of these minutes bothers you then you might suggest that in the future the secretary draft minutes that specify how a "new project idea" was received.
Scott
Rob:
In the first message under the topic CLARKEVILLE (in the Civilization and Culture section of this forum) I reported that, "During the Steering Committee meeting of August 10, 2002, Bruce McKenzie proposed that the Mars Society construct a prototype Martian settlement in order 'to publicly demonstrate the feasibility of living beyond the Earth and its advantages to everyone'."
In "Design Principles for Extraterrestrial Communities," Magoroh Maruyama wrote, "In the sociocultural design of extraterrestrial communities, we do not know definitely whether an idea will work or not until we have tried it out... All we can do is to keep our minds open and to keep on experimenting." I agree with Maruyama and I believe that we will build several experimental prototype Martian settlements before we start shipping settlers to Mars.
Designs for prototype Martian settlements do not have to be based on "dreams" and "emotions." But we do have to recognize that human beings have a set of emotions hard-wired into their genes and that emotions must be taken into account when designing a human sociocultural system.
Scott
Frazer Valley? I would think somewhere around the "Four Corners" area. More open space.
Turbo:
You are probably right about there being more suitable agricultural land available in the Four Corners area. However, I believe that it would be best to choose a location that is outside of the United States. The Mars Society should try to make Martian colonization an international effort.
Scott
Cindy:
At some point in the future, the Mars Society will build a prototype Martian settlement. In other words, the Mars Society will build a human sociocultural system that can be transplanted into the ecosystem of Mars. The design specifications of that system will include rites of passage (rituals performed at birth, puberty, marriage, and death) and rites of intensification (rituals that reinforce a shared sense of community and destiny).
I designed Destiny Hall to be one of the components of a prototype Martian settlement. Destiny Hall provides a location for the performance of marriage and death rites. It might also provide a location for the performance of birth rites.
Did you see the television series "Roots." In that series, the leading character, who was named Kunta Kinte, took his newborn daughter to the top of a hill on a cloudless night. Using both hands, Kunta held his daughter up above his head and said, "Behold the only thing greater than yourself." According to the traditions of his tribe, Kunta had an obligation to perform this ritual. But this was not just an obligation, it was a joy. This ritual was very important to him.
Destiny Hall could be used in a similar way. Parents could bring their newborn child to the hall and sit him or her on the Altar of Mars. They could each hold one of the child's hands and simultaneously say, "Behold your destiny." And then grandma snaps a picture, which is uploaded the Mars Society's web site for all would-be Martians to see.
In summary, a complete culture provides its members with a sense of connectedness, a sense of community, and a sense of shared destiny. I believe that having rituals which cultivate these intangibles will be crucial to the success of a prototype Martian settlement. More than two millennia ago, a wise man wrote, "where there is no vision, the people perish" (Proverbs, chapter 29, paragraph 18). I wish this guy were with us today because he would be a great sociocultural systems engineer.
I strongly disagree that newlyweds "should be enjoying their honeymoon night with only mutual pleasure and enjoyment in their minds, and nothing else." Children should be taught from an early age (before their hormones start pumping in full force) that marriage is a means of conceiving children and providing an environment where children can grow up to be happy, productive adults. If people go into a marriage "with only mutual pleasure and enjoyment in their minds" then there will be a high divorce rate and many tears and way to many children who have serious psychological problems. Those children will be much more likely to be in jail than to be leading a mission to explore and settle Mars.
Scott
...I see no reason why the Mars Society couldn't have a Destiny Hall of sorts, especially if the Mars Society is the most successful Mars colonization effort... I think this building should be built atop the first colony, unless it's still in use, of course.
Josh:
I envision Destiny Hall as being situated in the center of a prototype Martian settlement. The people who live in the settlement would be preparing themselves to go to Mars and/or preparing their children to go to Mars. My first choice for the location of the prototype settlement would be in the Frazer Valley, east of Vancouver, British Columbia.
Scott
I don't want it to just look like a Martian settlement, I want actual technologies to be used to literally simulate a Martian settlement.
Josh:
Building a prototype Martian settlement is a very complex task and it should probably be done in several stages. For example, the initial prototype (Prototype 1) might be a group of family residences surrounded by agricultural land that is farmed in the traditional way. Then, Prototype 2 might have food production done all in greenhouses. And Prototype 3 could have all food production operations contained in underground bunkers with artificial sunlight.
Food production is the easy part. Working out a social system that is compatible with Martian ecology will be the difficult part. Social design takes us into the realm of politics and values and it will take us a long time to generate a consensus about how Martian society should be organized.
Scott
And having children so young will interfere drastically with the education and thus the future of such a colony.
Phobos:
I disagree with your assumption that early marriage and childbearing "will interfere drastically with the education and thus the future of" a Martian settlement.
We Westerners have made a lot of trouble for ourselves by creating a social system that is not synchronized with our biology. We have thus created the "problems" of premarital sexual intercourse and children being born outside of marriage. We should not transplant these problems to Mars. We can and should build Martian settlements where it possible for people to marry and reproduce in their early teens and still go to school and acquire the skills that they will need to maintain a high-tech civilization.
In 1987 I visited a Samburu village in northern Kenya. I spoke to a young woman who lived in that village. She was 15 years old then. She had been married at 12 and she had a one-year-old child and a two-year-old child (she was holding both children when we spoke). This was completely normal in her society and it should be completely normal on Mars too.
Scott
An article in The Salt Lake Tribune (June 24, 2002) reports that the government of Iran has increased "the minimum marriage age from 9 to 13 for girls and from 14 to 15 for boys. The law stipulates that marriage of girls under 13 and boys under 15 will require court permission..."
What should the law be on Mars? People will be exposed to much higher levels of ionizing radiation due to the extremely thin atmosphere of Mars. Does it therefore make sense to recommend that young people reproduce at as young an age as biologically possible?
Scott G. Beach
During the Steering Committee meeting of August 10, 2002, Bruce McKenzie proposed that the Mars Society construct a prototype Martian settlement in order "to publicly demonstrate the feasibility of living beyond the Earth and its advantages to everyone."
I like Bruce's proposal and I suggest that the Mars Society name its prototype Martian settlement Clarkeville. Furthermore, the entrance road to the settlement should be marked by a black, stone monument that is 1 foot thick, 4 feet high, and 9 feet wide, with the name "CLARKEVILLE" chiseled into the stone.
Scott G. Beach
Mr. Patrick Banks is a founding member of the Mars Society. He attended the fifth annual Mars Society Convention in August 2002 and he subsequently wrote a report titled "Reflections on the Mars Society After the Fifth Convention." In that report, Mr. Banks wrote that the Society's President, Robert Zubrin, compared the task of colonizing Mars to the construction of a cathedral. President Zubrin noted that in Medieval times the construction of a cathedral could take hundreds of years. This required that the skills necessary to construct cathedrals had to be passed down from one generation of stone masons the next.
Recognizing that the task of colonizing Mars is likely to take hundreds of years, we might wonder whether the Mars Society can create the kind of dedication to this goal that is able to survive from one generation to the next. Will the current members of the Mars Society be able to pass their dedication to the cause of Mars on to their children? One way to produce that kind of inter-generational dedication is to build a cathedral. The cathedral could be a place where would-be Martians are made and where their cremated remains are stored until such time as their descendants can take those remains to Mars.
The cathedral could be known as Destiny Hall. It's form could be based on the Pantheon, the greatest of all Roman temples, which was designed to enclose a perfect sphere. The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., is based on the design of the Pantheon. And Thomas Jefferson used the Pantheon as a model for the design of his home, which he named Monticello.
Destiny Hall would contain The Great Globe of Mars and the Altar of Mars. The Great Globe would be two meters in diameter, hollow, made of steel-reinforced concrete, and covered with a painted-on image of Mars. It would have a locking access port on its top. Any person who was a life-long member of the Mars Society would be eligible to have one cubic centimeter of his or her cremated remains put into the Great Globe. The General Assembly of the Mars Society might resolve that, in the case of a person who had made outstanding contributions to the cause of Mars, two or three cubic centimeters of that person's remains may be placed into the Great Globe. The ashes in the Great Globe would one day be taken to Mars. Then, just before the start of the season when the Martian Wind produces dust storms that circle the entire planet, the ashes will be put onto a large, flat circular stone which has a surface that has been polished to a mirror finish. The Wind will take the ashes to their final destiny.
The Pantheon has many alcoves but Destiny Hall would have only one alcove. The Altar of Mars would be located in that one alcove. The Altar would have the form of a small table with four legs. A gentleman would bring his bride to the Altar. She would place her elbows onto the Altar, oriented in such a way that she is looking directly forward at the Great Globe. Her husband would then lift up the back of her wedding dress and copulate her. He would also be looking directly forward at the Great Globe. They would tell their first child that he or she had been conceived on the Altar of Mars and that, because they were both looking at the Great Globe, the image of the Great Globe had been imprinted on the child's soul. They would tell their child that Mars is his or her destiny. Children will believe this story when they are four years old and, by the time they are six, they will understand that this story is a myth, the kind of myth that all cathedrals are built on. These children will grow up to be dedicated members of the Mars Society and they will one day take their parents' ashes Mars, and to the Martian Wind.
Scott G. Beach
No UN permission should be needed. So I'm going to get a little nervous if the UN claims "provisional" rulership of Mars.
Phobos:
My proposal for a Provisional Government of Mars provides that the Mars Society will function as the Provisional Government, with the endorsement of the UN. This is my suggestion for getting around the private property prohibitions in various international space treaties.
Scott
The first person to set foot on Mars will say, "With the consent of the Peoples of the United Nations, I claim this world in the name of the Provisional Government of Mars."
The draft Constitution of the Provisional Government of Mars is appended to an essay titled "The Problem of Owning Mars" (click here).
Scott G. Beach
I've been hoping to find a way to foster a link between environmentalism and space science for a long time.
JGM:
I have proposed that we build prototype Martian settlements in every country that joins an international consortium to colonize Mars. These prototype settlements would be perfect homes for people how want to recycle everything and produce zero pollution in the process. I therefore think that it would be very easy to forge a link between environmentalists and would-be Martians.
Scott G. Beach
My Martian settlement proposal is posted on the web. Click here!
I'm all in favor of gold money here on Earth, but I'm not sure that it'll be the currency of choice on Mars.
Pat:
What do you think of using census data as a foundation for a monetary system? The ordinances of a Martian settlment might provide that the amount of coin and currency in circulation shall be based on the number of people who live in the settlement. The ordinance could authorize the issuance of, for example, up to M$1,000,000 per person. This limit would prevent the settlement's government from causing monetary inflation.
Scott
In an article titled "Social Decay and the Federal Reserve," Eric Englund reports that, "Since the Federal Reserve's founding in 1913, the dollar's purchasing power has depreciated by over 94%." He asserts that as a result of this monetary infaltion, "laborers experience ever-increasing difficulty in making ends meet and lose the means to hold a family together." He assertes "that monetary central planning (via the Federal Reserve) is a root cause of social decay" and he concludes that, "In order to change the United States' course for the better, it is mandatory that we abolish the Federal Reserve and restore a 100% gold standard." (Mr. Englund's article is posted on the web (click here).
This brings us to the question of Mars. Will the Mars Development Bank issue money that is made of or backed by gold? Or will the bank issue money that can be inflated to worthlessness as fast as a printing press can run?
"In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation." Alan Greenspan, "Gold and Economic Freedom," 1967
I vote for gold.
Scott G. Beach
Clark, I used to work in a marketing department at a hospital. The policy there was that every clerical task had to have an associated list of procedures, in writing, for performing the job.
Mr. Edwards:
I once worked as the Document Administrator of a company that was ISO 9000 certified. Under the ISO (International Standards Organization) system a company does what its says and says what it does. Each job and each task of a job is written down in a "Work Instrucion" and each Work Insruction is written in a prescribed format. Each employee is required to periodically review and update the Work Instructions related to his job. This insures that if he is promoted into a higher position in the company's governance structure the person who takes is previous job will have a complete, detailed, up-to-date set of instructions for performing that job.
To insure that Work Instructions are being properly maintained, the company hires auditors who read Work Instructions and then watch what employees do in order to determine whether the employees are actually doing their jobs as described in the Work Instruction. This high level of monitoring and control is essential to a company that is building warheads and rockets that can deliver those warheads to Moscow or elsewhere. It would also be essential to martian settlements, where small mistakes could cost the lives of hundreds or thousands of people. If I were going to live in a martian settlement, I would want that settlement to obtain and maintain an ISO certification.
Scott
As a person who is constantly seeking practical solutions to these kind of problems, I would love to see what some of your ideas of how an actual governing structure would be set up on Mars.
Byron:
Here is a governance idea to chew on.
A community of about 1,500 people. Each person over 25 years old is eligible to serve on a Board of Planners. The Board has 15 members. A person can be nominated to the Board by a petition signed by 25 adults (people over 18 years old). Periodically, the names of all nominees are placed into a hat and someone (maybe a virgin) reaches into the hat and draws out the name of the "winner."
These ideas are drawn from the Hutterites (click here)and from B. F. Skinner's utopian novel Walden Two. The Hutterites put the names of community members who are qualified to be their chief executive officer into a hat and then let "God" pick one. They thereby avoid the divisiveness that electioneering can generate. I like the term "Board of Planners" because it focuses attention on the need to take a long-term view. People who take a long-term view are less likely to be plagued by the "unintended consequences" of policy decisions.
Scott G. Beach