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Here is part of the text. The full column is at:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/856672.asp
April 30, 2003
BEYOND (OR BEFORE?) STAR TREK
By Glenn Reynolds
Alan Wasser is all in favor of human colonization of outer space. But despite my earlier posts about the influence of Star Trek, he has mixed feelings about the show. The reason, he says, is that science-fiction shows like the Star Trek series, the Star Wars movies, and so on, have given people a sense of inevitability about the colonization of outer space that saps their willingness to actually work in favor of that outcome today. ?People actually say that to me,? he exclaims. ?We?ll have the Enterprise one day, so why worry??
Wasser doesn?t think we should take it for granted. A long-term space enthusiast (he covered the early space launches as a TV newsman, and now serves on the board of directors of the National Space Society), he thinks we need to be to settle outer space now.
I think he?s right, of course, and I also think he?s right in identifying property rights as a crucial element in advancing space settlement. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty forbids nations from claiming territory in outer space (specifically, it forbids ?national appropriation?) but it doesn?t, in the opinion of most experts, forbid private property rights.
Wasser has a proposal he calls the Space Settlement Initiative that would reward people who established a beachhead on the Moon with secure property rights. Legal scholar Wayne White has made a somewhat similar proposal.
The Space Settlement Initiative:
http://www.spacesettlement.ORG
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