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Autarky - national self sufficiency - has been a dirty word for many years. But should it be?
Mention autarky and people will, with a snigger, reference North Korea. Well let's take that head on - there you have a small country with limited resources yet it can support a nuclear weapons and serious ICBM programme. That should give us some pause for thought. Autarky doesn't mean a necessary demotion to the back of the class as far as technology goes.
Also we have our very thorough and detailed inquiries into the possibility of self sufficiency on Mars. I think the consensus here is that even without all the advantages of Earth's biosphere, Mars could support itself to a high degree.
The following factors seem important to me:
- Countries need no longer be dependent on imported energy. Hydro, nuclear, wind, solar and geothermal, plus waste from energy and biofuels taken together meant hat most countries on Earth can potentially meet all their energy needs internally.
- Improvements in battery technology mean that vehicles don't need to run on oil derivatives.
- improvements in energy storage make green energy solutions more viable.
- Advances in robotics, automation and 3D printing reduce reliance on cheap labour elsewhere.
- New recycling technologies reduce dependency on imports.
- Modern farming techniques allow for huge increases in food production. Something as simple as polytunnel farming can hugely increase yields. The Netherlands, a v small country in terms of population and land area accounts for 17% of world food exports!
- Every time you don't use part of your GDP to import something but instead use it to create a job in your country that makes your country wealthier especially if it takes someone off welfare at the same time.
Put it all together and I think history is going only one way, reversing a 500 year trend, we are moving towards a golden era of self sufficiency.
Let's Go to Mars...Google on: Fast Track to Mars blogspot.com
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For Louis re new topic and Post #1
Best wishes for success with this interesting new topic.
I hope it does well, because the theme seems to me to resonate well with the Mars initiative, as you have pointed out.
The My Hacienda topic is an attempt to bring together 7800 people (or so) willing to think about how they could contribute to a successful group enterprise.
(th)
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"Can Do" and "Do It Yourself" are exactly what we will need from all going to mars not just a few....
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