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You asked if I would “accept” your alternate plan and you have incorrectly assumed that I would answer “No.”
I EXPECT early Martian settlements to be cold-adapted; i.e., I expect social relations in those settlements to be similar to the socialistic, Scandinavian countries.
I am not prescribing socialism; I am PREDICTING it based on the nature of modern, cold-adapted societies and the contingencies of survival that presently prevail on Mars. I am not, as a matter of personal preference, accepting or rejecting socialism or any other political/economic practices. I believe that my design for a prototype Martian settlement is practical in the sense that it will prepare people to cope with the Martian ecosystem as it currently exists.
If Mars had an atmosphere that could sustain human life, and if daily temperature variations were in the ranges that prevail in Hawaii, then I would expect the first Martian settlers to live on the surface of Mars. I would also expect the culture of those surface-dwelling Martians to be much less socialistic than the Scandinavians. For example, each family of surface-dwelling Martian settlers might construct wind mills that pump water and generate electricity, rather than purchasing water and power from publicly owned companies.
How would your “Hagel” deal with that?
Mundaka:
You wrote, “Now answer the question you keep avoiding: All else being equal, would you accept the same plan, with the exception that the first, underground 'core' colonies be capitalist rather than communist?”
You have incorrectly assumed that the core of New Euthenia would be communistic. As I wrote above, I expect that core to be socialistic; to have the kinds of social relationships and institutions that prevail in modern Scandinavian countries. That would probably include having publicly owned companies that provide air, water, and electrical power, and that provide trash collection and sewer services. Medical services might also be socialized, as in Britain, or medical insurance might be socialized, as in Canada. Beyond these socialized services, I expect New Euthenia to have hundreds of independently owned family businesses. And as New Euthenia becomes more mature, I would expect to see some investor-owned businesses develop. For example, an investor-owned corporation might be formed that builds surface rovers.
In summary, I am not avoiding your question; you are asking the wrong question.
Mundaka:
You wrote, “On Mars they would live in a settlement that has a frontier-adapted culture that is similar to the cultures of the early American colonies.”
The American frontier includes the balmy climates of Florida and the frozen plains of Baffin Island. If Florida-bound, “frontier-adapted” colonists were blown off course and ended up on Baffin Island then they would probably freeze to death during their first winter.
It should be obvious to you that people whose culture “is similar to the cultures of the early American colonies” would not be able to get to Mars.
And if you consider the character of social relationships that exist among people who live in Antarctic stations then it should be obvious to you that social relationships on the frozen rock known as Mars are going to be very different than the social relationships that currently prevail in Arkansas.
You have substituted your “frontier-adapted” for my “cold-adapted” and you have thereby made your Mars colonization proposal into a joke. Is that what you intended? Should I be laughing?
Mundaka:
Your “No plan” strategy for colonizing Mars will not work. The difficulty of getting to Mars and surviving there requires extensive planning and huge capital investments.
You wrote, “Of course -- the game is rigged from the start.” I agree. The Martian ecosystem puts very tight constraints on how a human society can be organized. However, if the Martian atmosphere becomes warmer and breathable, and if a complex biosphere develops, then individually owned family farms could be established. And in an area where there are hundreds of those farms there could be farm towns which contain many independently owned businesses. That kind of Midwestern individualism could develop on Mars but it is not practical to plan that sort of settlement pattern given the current state of the Martian ecosystem.
Scott
I have proposed the construction of an underground prototype Martian settlement that will prepare people to emigrate to Mars. The people of that prototype settlement would emigrate to Mars as “moral communities” (groups of 100 to 150 people who have previously lived together for a year or two and thereby become extended families). On Mars they would live in a settlement that has a cold-adapted culture that is similar to the cultures of the Scandinavian countries.
I realize that this “socialistic” vision of Martian civilization will not be appealing to many people so I have formulated a more politically correct plan for the development of Martian civilization. My plan should satisfy the collectivists, who prefer communistic economic relationships, and the individualists, who prefer capitalistic economic relationships.
Members of a Mars Society chapter in Mexico are planning to build a Minimal Unit of Terraforming (MUT). These units will be transparent plastic domes about 20 meters in diameter. They will contain plants that absorb carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere and then excrete oxygen. Periodically, an automated valve in each MUT will release the oxygen-enriched atmosphere in the dome. If there were millions of MUTs operating on Mars then the Martian atmosphere would gradually become capable of sustaining human life.
My plan for a prototype Martian settlement is posted on the web at http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743 … thenia.htm I have given that settlement the name The City of Euthenia. Imagine that “graduates” of that prototype settlement emigrate to Mars and found a daughter settlement named New Euthenia.
New Euthenia could have a “core” area that contains about 10,000 people who live underground in a Scandinavian-style socialism. That core could be surrounded by hundreds of small, communistic settlements that each contain 50 to 150 people. Some of these small settlements would be secular, like Israeli Kibbutzim, and others might be religious, like Hutterite colonies. Each of these small communistic settlements would operate several hundred MUTs. And each small settlement would have several surface rovers so that agricultural produce from their MUTs could be transported to farmers markets in New Euthenia.
Over the course of several hundred years, these symbiotic combinations of communistic and socialistic settlements would gradually transform the atmosphere of Mars into breathable air. Then, at lower, temperate latitudes, people could start living on the surface of Mars. These surface-dwellers could live in communities where there is less collectivism and socialism and more individualism and capitalism.
I have made an honest effort to design a Martian civilization development plan that satisfies people all across the sociopolitical spectrum. I am sure that my proposal could be improved and I look forward to receiving your constructive criticism.
Sincerely, Scott G. Beach
While I was participating in the Mars Society's Law and Governance Task Force, I began drafting a constitution for Mars. That draft developed into the "Constitution of the Provisional Government of Mars," which is posted on the web at http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743 … ngmars.htm
That draft constitution depended on the Mars Society to get the proverbial ball rolling by adopting the constitution and then asking the United Nations General Assembly to ratify the constitution. But then a not so funny thing happened on the way to that forum. The Mars Society turned itself into an autocracy by adopting bylaws that disenfranchised all of its members -- all but a select few. The Society is now controlled by those few. I have therefore concluded that the Mars Society can NOT be regarded as an appropriate institution to lead efforts to establish permanent human settlements on Mars.
The Moon Treaty provides for the eventual establishment of an "international regime" to regulate the exploitation of lunar resources. The Moon Treaty could be used as a model for the drafting of a Mars Treaty, under which terrestrial governments could come together to establish a Provisional Government of Mars. In accordance with the terms of the treaty, each party to the treaty might contribute $100,000 each year to the Provisional Government, thereby giving the Provisional Government the financial resources to accomplish its limited mission.
The Provisional Government of Mars could be authorized to issue Settlement Charters. Those charters could provide that the holders of each charter may establish a municipal government on Mars. Those municipal governments could then adopt ordinances that allow the private ownership of land, homes, and businesses. These ordinances would provide a legal foundation for the growth of a self-sustaining Martian civilization.
The members of this forum could undertake to draft a Mars Treaty. If there is sufficient interest in doing this then we might ask Mr. Hon to establish a Forum section where this drafting work can take place.
The "Scope and Objectives" of the Commission are broadly enough stated that the Commissioners could regard my plan as supporting "sustainable human and robotic exploration." The Commissioners could recommend the establishment of one or more permanent human settlements on Mars with the primary mission of the settlers being to explore Mars to locate resources that can be extracted economically.
I sent the following message to the President's Commission on Moon, Mars and Beyond.
Dear Chairman Aldridge:
On November 11, 1620, John Carver, Myles Standish and other Pilgrims signed a Compact and thereby combined themselves "together into a Civil Body Politic." They subsequently set sail for the New World aboard a ship named The Mayflower. I believe that the actions of these Pilgrims provide us with a good example of how to colonize the Next World -- Mars.
I have written a plan for the colonization of Mars. My plan provides people with the opportunity to live together in a prototype Martian settlement and to organize themselves into a "Civil Body Politic" by adopting a set of ordinances that will govern their lives on Mars. The components of my plan are posted on the web at http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743 … t956282743
I believe that the United States of America and its international partners should plan to send complete moral communities to Mars.
Sincerely, Scott G. Beach
I have proposed the construction of a prototype Martian settlement named The City of Euthenia (see [http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743]http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743). Some of the people who live in that settlement would join together to design and construct "experimental neighborhoods" in which they build a sociocultural system that can maintain and replicate itself on Mars.
I have not recommended that the political systems of those neighborhoods should be democratic, monarchic, theocratic, etc. And I have not recommended that the economic systems of those neighborhoods should be communistic, socialistic, or capitalistic. I believe that the people who design and build those neighborhoods should decide what kind of political and economic systems those neighborhoods should have.
I have designed a technological system that I believe could support human life on Mars and I am recommending that the people who live in that technological system should decide what kind of political and economic systems they will have.
I believe that the Martian ecosystem will select some sociocultural designs and reject others. I refer to this belief as selectionism. I am a selectionist.
I have drafted a site plan for a prototype Martian settlement named The City of Euthenia. This city can be regarded as the first phase of my Martian colonization program. The second phase is my design for The City of Equatoria. This city would be located on Earth's equator at about 160 degrees West longitude (near Christmas Island). Its primary mission would be to serve as the Launch Control Center for huge, sea-launched rockets. Each rocket would be able to carry 100 or more colonists to Mars.
The City of Equatoria would float on the surface of the Pacific Ocean. It would look something like the saucer section of the U.S.S. Enterprise D (featured in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation). A vertical cross section of the city is posted on the web at [http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743/equatoria.htm]http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743/equatoria.htm
My plan for the exploration and settlement of Mars includes a Constitution of the Provisional Government of Mars. That Constitution authorizes the establishment of a Mars Development Bank and it authorizes the Bank to issue money. If I were the President of that Bank I would recommend that the Bank's Board of Directors adopt a resolution authorizing me to issue coins that contain various amounts of fine gold. Furthermore, I would recommend that the Directors resolve that the Bank shall not issue paper money. I would remind the Directors that in 1729 Voltaire wrote "Paper money eventually goes down to its intrinsic value -- zero."
The coins issued by Mars Development Bank might be made of a Titanium and Zirconium alloy that is known by the trade name "Liquidmetal." This alloy is more durable than stainless steel and it is very easily formed into coins that bear highly detailed designs. The coins could be silver-plated as a health measure (silver has antibacterial and antiviral properties).
I have drawn a design for such coins. That drawing is posted on the web at [http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743/mdbcoin.htm]http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743/mdbcoin.htm
My Political Compass score:
Economic Left/Right: -2.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.46
This score puts me in the Libertarian Left quadrant of the Compass, surprisingly close to the center. This placement is consistent with my view that George Bush and his cronies are a bunch of maniacal fascist thugs.
Richard Sosis is an anthropologist. He studies cooperation, utopian societies, and the behavioral ecology of religion. In an article titled "The Adaptive Value of Religious Ritual" (American Scientist, March-April, 2004) he asked, "Why do religious beliefs, practices and institutions continue to be an essential component of human social life?"
During his pursuit of an answer to this question he studied Israeli communal societies called kibbutzim. He found that religiously oriented kibbutzim were more successful than secular kibbutzim. He attributes this relative success to "the ability of ritual to promote trust, commitment and cooperation."
After reading his article, I wondered whether these lessons can be applied to the Mars movement. Perhaps the Bylaws of the Mars Society should be amended to include a ritual that promotes trust, commitment and cooperation. For example, the Bylaws might be amended to provide that during the annual meeting of the Society each Voting Member shall deliver $1,000 to the Treasurer of the Society. After this ritual is completed, the Secretary of the Society should issue ballots to the Voting Members, who would then nominate and elect several people to the Society's Board of Directors. The Board might be composed of 12 Directors, each serving 3 year terms, so each year 4 Directors would be elected. The expenses that Directors incur in the performance of their duties will be paid by the Society but each Director would have to submit expense receipts to obtain reimbursement and individual Directors will NOT be reimbursed for their first $1,000 in expenses. By the operation of these rules, the Voting Members and the Directors will be publicly demonstrating their strong commitment to the Society and to its goals. This public demonstration would prompt other people to make the same commitment, and that would help to fill the Society's treasury and to make it easier for the Society to achieve its goals.
replicant7:
You wrote, "I can't seem to avoid considering 'tribal' in its more primitive perspective.....'tribal' to me always evokes images such as the civil war in Rwanda."
Warfare is not limited to tribal societies. On a per capita basis, warfare is more likely to be initiated by chiefdoms and states. I have tried to minimize the possibility of warfare by including various provisions of my draft Martian constitution (http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743/owningmars.htm). It prohibits taking weapons to Mars (in accordance with current international laws) and it creates a 1-kilometer-wide buffer zone between settlements (no possibility of border wars) and it requires each settlement to have a Sociocultural Development Plan (the implementation of such plans should keep the person-to-resources ratio below the threshold that leads to warfare).
And, in order to further minimize the possibility of warfare, I hope that the 8 experimental neighborhoods in The City of Euthenia will be composed of young couples from the 92 national neighborhoods. In the first two years of the City's operation, before the experimental neighborhoods are completed, young people from DIFFERENT national neighborhoods could meet and court and marry and then be elected to live in the experimental neighborhoods. The first Martian explorers and settlers would be drawn from their number, so the first Martians would represent all of the peoples of Earth. This blending of cultures and races would minimize the "us" versus "them" dynamic that often contributes to warfare.
In summary, with proper planning, I believe that we can lay a firm foundation for a peaceful and prosperous Martian civilization.
replicant7
You asked, "a Martian civilization [will] not be tribal...will it?
I hope that Martian civilization will be as close to tribal as possible. I think of The City of Euthenia (my design for a prototype Martian settlement) as a neo-tribal society. It would be composed of 100 band-size neighborhoods of about 100 people -- a total population of about 10,000. The city council could be composed of one representative from each neighborhood. Since the council would be no larger than a band (i.e., about 100 people) the political system of the city should not need the support of a political ideology that rests on a supernatural authority. The mayor of the city should not feel the need to close his annual state of the city speech with the words, "God bless The City of Euthenia." And the city treasurer should not feel the need to issue coins that bear the words, "In God We Trust." And the members of the city council should not feel the need to have each council meeting opened with a prayer spoken by a religious leader.
I hope that the settlement design that I have proposed will not need a political ideology based supernatural beliefs. And I hope that anthropologists will look at my design and agree that it represents an example of a "neo-tribal society."
replicant7:
You wrote that you were, "brought up in a strict catholic environment only to realise at about the age of 11 that it was all just psychological crap to control the masses...much like any other religion."
Yes, religious doctrines can be used to support institutionalized social control mechanisms in complex societies (chiefdoms and states). In simpler societies (bands and tribes) religious doctrines reinforce social bonds and provide rules for dealing with stressful situations. For example, religion usually provides rules for dealing with the corpse of a deceased family member.
Imagine that you live in a tribal society and had to do something with your mother's corpse. The religious beliefs of your tribe might direct you to dig a hole in the floor of your house and bury the corpse there. Imagine that there were several generations of your ancestors buried under that floor and that you expect to be buried there too someday by your children. And as a part of their religious education, you instruct your children how to deal with your corpse. When you die, they will have the comfort of knowing that they are doing "the right thing" when they bury you. And they may find comfort in the belief that your spirit has traveled to another realm of existence where, reunited with your ancestors, you will be at peace.
In summary, religion is not just a means to "control the masses." Religion also helps people to deal with stressful situations. We should therefore expect some sort of religious practices to be part of Martian culture. These practices may or may not include beliefs about an all-powerful god who endorses the actions of the Chief and his henchmen, the King and his knights, or the President and his police.
Gennaro
You wrote, "I just think humanity has left the religious stage behind." Your reference to "the religious stage" reminded me of James George Frazer's view of our intellectual evolution. In a book titled The Study of Culture (1974), anthropologist L. L. Langness summarized Frazer's views on religion. Langness wrote, "James George Frazer, who had been stimulated by Tylor, in his classic work, The Golden Bough (1890), not only set forth the principles of magic for the first time, but argued that magic was an early form of science based upon incorrect notions of cause and effect -- basically that things which were similar or had once been in contact with each other could affect or continue to affect each other at a distance. Out of this faulty magical belief, Frazer argued, arose religion, a higher achievement but one still trying to cope with the question of causality. Finally, he felt, science would inevitably emerge as the correct way of dealing with this question."
As scientific knowledge accumulates, a worldview called naturalism becomes stronger and stronger, and supernatural worldviews weaken. However, religion is about more than explaining cause and effect. Humans reproduce sexually and they are social animals. Their behaviors are regulated by their emotional responses to their environments and to each other. One of the primary functions of religion is to help people to deal the their emotional response to stressful situations (e.g., danger and uncertainty). Until humans achieve the kind of non-emotional intellectualism that Science Officer Spock (of the Starship Enterprise) practiced then most people will probably continue to be religious. So I believe that is premature for you to conclude that we have "left the religious stage behind."
Clark:
You asked, "What is the myth of Phi?" If Phi and its history were taught in the schools of the City of Euthenia then some students would probably decide, as a purely personal matter, to conclude that their god(s) and/or goddess(es) did use Phi, a.k.a. the "Divine Proportion," in the design and creation of the universe. If those students have children of their own and then tell those children that supernatural beings did use Phi in the design and creation of the universe then Phi will probably become part of the mythos of those children. This is one of the ways by which religious traditions evolve.
In an article titled The Care and Repair of Public Myth (Foreign Affairs, Fall 1982, vol. 61, no. 1), William H. McNeill wrote, "A people without a full quiver of relevant agreed-upon statements, accepted in advance through education or less formalized acculturation, soon finds itself in deep trouble, for, in the absence of believable myths, coherent public policy becomes very difficult to improvise or sustain." I agree with McNeill's assertion and that is why I have invested considerable effort in creating a Phi-based aesthetic tradition for The City of Euthenia.
Today I posted on the Internet a "Golden Conjecture" about a Phi-based triangle. See http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743/exhibit9.htm . I tried for many hours to prove that conjecture and I could not find a way to do so. At this point, I am just taking it on faith. When I draw it very carefully and exactly, I comes out perfect.
It might be appropriate that my Golden Conjecture cannot be proved because, if it has to be taken on faith, that would support using Phi as a supplement to the various religious traditions in The City of Euthenia. My hope is that those Euthenians who are inclined to believe in supernatural beings will refer to the Golden Ratio as the "Divine Proportion" and that the Divine Proportion will then function as a bridge between the many different religious traditions in Euthenia. In that role, the Divine Proportion could help to provide a foundation for understanding, cooperation, and sustainable public policy.
P.S. I did not include this fact in my Golden Conjecture but I think that it is interesting to note that my Phi-based triangle has two sides that are in Golden Ratio to each other. I used a ratio and proportion calculation to find that Phi is to 1 as the square root of Phi is to the reciprocal of the square root of Phi.
Jadeheart:
You wrote, "I have a feeling that people in general have a genetic predisposition toward religion." I agree with you on this point. Complex organisms that can learn (rats, pigeons, humans, etc.) seem predisposed to become superstitious. See "Superstition in the Pigeon," Journal of Experimental Psychology (1948, no. 38, pages 168 - 172).
I do not know whether "It is possible to build a rational and humane culture completely free from the threat of supernatural restraints." However, I believe that as people gain a scientific understanding of their behavior then they will be less inclined to be superstitious and they will be less inclined to believe in the existence of supernatural beings.
If all of the members of a Martian settlement were naturalists (rather than supernaturalists) then they might answer the big "why" question by simply noting that living organisms -- including humans -- tend to migrate into every niche in which they can sustain and reproduce themselves. Daily questions about "What should I do?" could be answered by their Sociocultural Development Plan. (I recently revised my draft Martian constitution to require that all chartered Martian settlements shall have such a plan. The primary intent of that amendment is to prevent overpopulation and warfare. See [http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743/owningmars.htm]http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743/owningmars.htm .) A settlement's plan might serve as the moral compass by which people live their lives.
I do not know whether this would work or not. I think it's an experimental question. If The City of Euthenia were built, I would want live in one of the 8 experimental neighborhoods and participate in efforts to answer this question.
The United States Supreme Court will soon hear a case about a law that added the words "under God" to the pledge of allegiance. The man who brought that case believes that the government should not encourage people to believe in the existence of supernatural beings.
In a novel titled The Songs of Distant Earth, author Arthur C. Clarke wrote about a human society on a planet named Thalassa. A terrestrial visitor to Thalassa said, "I wish I could meet some of my long-dead colleagues and let them know how many of our endless arguments have been finally resolved. It is possible to build a rational and humane culture completely free from the threat of supernatural restraints."
Will the future validate Clarke's fiction? Can Martian society be religion-free? Can science become the foundation for a comprehensive worldview? And will religion then become obsolete?
Should Martian laws prohibit Martians from advocating the existence of supernatural beings?
In a novel titled "The Da Vinci Code" the first eight numbers of the Fibonacci sequence were encoded by placing them in a random order. I have wondered why the brick-shaped monolith of the movie "2001" was said to have the proportions 1 by 4 by 9. Could the Fibonacci sequence be hidden in these numbers?
4 - 1 = 3 (a Fibonacci number)
9 - 4 = 5 (a Fibonacci number)
9 - 1 = 8 (a Fibonacci number)
9 + 4 = 13 (a Fibonacci number)
Is this just a coincidence?
In the last section of "3001: The Final Odyssey," author Arthur C. Clarke explained that during the production of the movie "2001" the idea of an alien-built "pyramid evolved into the now famous black Monolith." That brick-shaped monolith had the proportions 1 by 4 by 9.
Clarke's alien-built pyramid was originally described in "The Sentinel," which was published in 1951. The proportions of the pyramid are not given, except that it is described as "twice as high as a man." I have drawn a pyramid that could function as a sentinel -- an automated transmitter that would alert the builders that another sentient species had found the transmitter. My drawing shows a tall pyramid that has proportions based on Phi. The base of the pyramid is square. The sides of the base are the square root of Phi units in length, which means that the area of the base is Phi. Each of the four ridge-lines of the pyramid are Phi squared units in length. My drawing is on the web at http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743 … iramid.png . A pyramid with these proportions might be constructed as the "Center Monument" of a Martian settlement (see my draft Martian constitution at [http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743/owningmars.htm]http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743/owningmars.htm ).
A pyramid that has proportions based on Phi can be referred to as a Phiramid.
Bill:
You wrote,"Couldn't we ask this same question about anybody who tried to set up a Martian government? This is why I find the political philosophy considerations of Mars settlement so fascinating. It really is a blank piece of paper."
Yes, the political philosophy considerations are interesting. I believe that it is useful to consider the difference between (1) a group of people founding a government based on a claim to have the exclusive right to control a particular territory and (2) a group of people founding a government based on the promise of individuals to be obedient to the group as a whole.
The Mayflower Compact is an example of the second type of government. That Compact was signed on November 11, 1620 a.d. The people who signed the Mayflower Compact thereby combined themselves "into a Civil Body Politic... unto which we promise all due submission and obedience." At the time that they founded their government, they were NOT asserting the right to control any particular territory. The Mayflower Compact can therefore be regarded as a "social contract" that was binding on the parties, rather than as a group's claim to have the right to use force against any person who enters a particular territory.
Pendragon:
You asked, "Who is the Mars Society (not that I am against it in any way) to set up the constitution for Mars?"
If the Mars Society adopted the Martian constitution that I drafted, and if the United Nations ratified that constitution, then the constitution would become effective and the Mars Society would, in essence, be acting as an agent of the U.N. However, from an operational perspective, the Mars Society would not be doing very much.
The Mars Society would provide for the incorporation of the Mars Development Bank. The Bank would be staffed by professionals and would have hundreds of millions of dollars flowing through it annually.
The Mars Society should appoint someone to be the Ambassador of the Provisional Government of Mars. It would make sense to appoint someone who lives in New York City, close to the U.N. headquarters. If any members of the U.N. staff or General Assembly had any questions about what the Provisional Government was or was not doing to promote the peaceful and orderly settlement of Mars then the Ambassador would be able to meet with those people and address their concerns.
The Ambassador should be given a stipend to cover cab fare and telephone expenses. The Ambassador should annually go to U.N. headquarters to deliver copies of the Bank's annual audit report. The Ambassador should do this and other things that assure the U.N. staff and General Assembly that moneys are being handled properly and professionally.
At the national level, members of the Mars Society would lobby their governments to support The Euthenia Project and to thereby become part of an international effort to establish permanent human settlements on Mars.
If the Mars Society was disinclined to do what I have outlined above then interested people might organize local and regional chapters of the Society of Sociocultural Systems Engineers. Those people could work together to persuade their governments to join The Euthenia Project. Draft Articles of Association for the Society of Sociocultural Systems Engineers are posted at [http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743/sosse.htm]http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743/sosse.htm
