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With the Moon treaty more or less gone then will sometime in the far future a Company come to rule areas of planets. With transplanet movement of tech and coin, is a brand like Samsung going to rule a planet. Will a company on Earth evolve to be the first Mars Corp or Marte pianeta Corporation, the Mars Hwasong Company? Mars will need miners, at one time Ernest Oppenheimer, a German immigrant to Britain and later South Africa who had earlier founded mining company Anglo American was one of the biggest richest names on Earth but these days a guy like Ernest Oppenheimer would be part of the old dinosaur class, a guy skilled at riding a horse or making a bow and arrow and overwhelmed by new technology and the modern vehicles. If old class and old companies die out then will the Mega company crossing planets evolve and is transplanetary capital truly going to happen?
One might not think 'Phones' you might not think consumer electronics will conquer Mars, you might instead think the guy building the rocket gets to be 'King', you might think Military the SpaceForce Navy guy Admiral Richard Byrd would rule or man with a boots and clothing company who builds the space suit will rule Mars. You may think construction like Caterpillar Inc an US construction manufacturer or if picking a South Korea name think Hyundai Heavy Industries and its diggers are need. However it is amazing of how much Samsung controls almost the entire the South Korean economy, they own most of South Korea's economy and especially when combined with Hyundai Motors, SK Tech Holdings, LG Electronics and the Asia-Pacific Oil Power corporation including Electric Power Corporation involved in supplying nuclear power through its subsidiaries. A company like Samsung when combined with a few of the old Lord and Elite especially the 'Chaebol' companies is the entire South Korea economy and one MegaCorp is too big to fail they would be involved in everything not just in one nation like South Korea but across the world maybe across planets. South Korean for example has expanded to Antarctic research mission, you can be sure that Samsung is involved somewhere inside the company someone already has learned logistics, how to provide power and heat to people in a long winter, they inside a space MegaCorp will already know Construction and material shipped to hostile places, it will already have communication with Meteorological reports, it will already be involved in biosciences and biotechnology company. If a Mega Corp spreads to a Mars region and the MegaCorp has a culture of corruption will its Dystopia corruption follow and want expansion and control of Mars.
If true Democracy and a Republic does not spread to Mars then what is old might become new on Mars, the top class of Korea were the yangban, or “scholar-gentry” with Jungin it could also be Chungin, some pronunciation of Korean words to not translate directly to English writing as they have their own unique clusters consonants and tonal sound. In both North and South Korea is an ancient culture of the highly educated skilled workers whose technical and administrative skills who were the lifeblood of the Korean Confucian agrarian bureaucracy, a 'Deep State' almost Federal skilled servant for whom the upper classes depended on to maintain their vice-like hold on the people. At the top in old Korea could sit an elite very similar to the Japanese Daimyo, Emperor and Shogun class, in Korea the commoners were called sangmin or yangmin, and they even had a caste the lowest class. If fair Democratic Republic value does not spread to Mars then its possible older systems which worked in their on way on Earth spread. Perhaps workers and companies on Mars will be part of something new like a Solar system wide Stock Exchange, super fast digital trade with its slight communication delay will be a thing, goods moved Planets to Asteroid to another Planet and coin and service and product moved from Mars to Titan to our Moon and to Callisto going to happen and give rise to a Galactic MegaCorp, a super company with a monopoly on these products inside a culture of Crony Capitalism or Corruption or would they operate with morality and fairness. A company from Canada might step in and see a gap in making fuel for example or bring its skills on energy from Canada all the way to Mars, another company might try and muscle in on the turf. On the basic side of things Mars will need transport, if its mission lands people instead of some near invincible colony of robots then it will need Water, it will need 'Food' and 'Air', it will need Ore and maybe Woods or Iron and Steel, it will need Power, Heat and Electricity, there could be a business of supply Low Tech product across the Solar system and High tech product imported from Earth, it will need Biotech for growing plants, the constant movement of supply might begin transplanetary trade on the Solar system Stock Exchange.
Would people accept the expanding and greedy Mega corp as described in the Cyberpunk genre. If an almost Mega Corp like company such as 'Samsung' expands across the planets would it be classed as 'greedy' compared with past companies on Earth? I don't think any company could be as ruthless as the Mega Corps we see in scifi or could they but then again we have our Blood Diamond companies? If a Mega corp grows and builds the first city on Mars and the people felt they were not rewarded for work will they just worker harder hoping for better fortune or would the population protest, if a man is killed by space security would the colony go out at riot? In our real world we had Empires like Rome crossing kingdoms, Hanseatic League speakers of Low Germanic language a trade confederation in Northern Europe and there were first British and Dutch that crossed the realms of sea. Some begin to rule with a commodity like 'Tea' they went past States and Kingdoms dominated international trade and then part of a Public Private Corp. The old Mega Corporation of 'Tea' taxation, part of Royal banking and Dutch British State-owned enterprise expanding into product like Cotton, silk, indigo dye, sugar, salt, spices, saltpetre, slave trade and opium. The 'corporation' is ever changing one is born and one dies and one is replaced by another, the Dutch Empires collapses and British no longer rule the world and later comes the rise of the USA as power, the rise of the Vanderbilt family, Rockefeller Oil and Bankers, Henry Ford an industrialist, the Gilded people up until the Progressive era with Social change right up until WW1 and WW2 the USA had already become a power, before Chrysler Dodge or Cadillac or Pontiac or Viper, before collaboration between IBM and Microsoft and Windows or Apple and before Boeing made a 747 or before Apollo landed on the Moon the USA was already a power. Post WW2 from the 70s to the 1990s the base of product and Mega Corp moves, it shifts to Japan, the Japanese culture widespread in cyberpunk literature and movies the culture of 'Sony' or Toyota or Nintendo or Honda shows up inside tv shows, a scifi future setting but with people dressed like old Lords or Samurai or a young woman or girls as Geisha in Kimono, a young man or group of men wearing Haori, Japan still features in Cyberpunk. Even today if someone makes a Dystopia scifi Cyberpunk setting the writing in the background will be Hiragana, Katakana or Kanji the language of Japanese. Across movies and books the Japanese aesthetic survives in scifi but since the Bubble of the 90s Burst people see it as 'less powerful' maybe eventually the South Korean visual aesthetic will slowly take over the Japanese. There was huge hype that Japan would rule everything in the 80s and 90s before the Bubble, the ground beneath the Japanese imperial palace in the late 80s and early 90s was said to be worth more than the entire state of California. In the late 80s and early 90s the Japan’s Nikkei stock market index was almost worth all the other stock markets of the world combined, then it bursts. The Dutch sellers of Futures and Tulips and British Empire perhaps another Bubble, Boston Tea Party did not protest against Japan or Russia or the EU or Communists Marxists or Korea it was a protest by American colonists patriots against King George III's rule in America. If we took a snapshot of our world now what would this Giant Corporation be, it could be a MegaCorp like 'Samsung' that expands to make a Martian city, a Neo city across the stars.
In our fictional world of science fiction he Mega-Corps of these scifi worlds expand across planets, comicbook stories of Stark Industries, or Oscorp might have cartoonish comments on the military industrial complex. The American-Canadian writer William Gibson wrote Neuromancer, people who became Cyborgs enhanced their bodies and minds and a plot with a super-AI with links expanding all the way to the Alpha Centauri star system the books influence many other Cyberpunk movies and games. The Mega Corp is a common feature or theme appearing in many movies, in the description of Weyland-Yutani Corporation from the Aliens Franchise, in a horror video game franchise we have BigPharma and 'Umbrella'. In the 1990s Total Recall the Corporation is a rule of the tyrannical regime of Martian dictator Vilos Cohaagen played by Ronnie Cox. Western fiction often displays the Super Corporation as Horror or Dystopia like, in every film from the 80s and 90s when the MegaCorp concept pops up also popping up the name Japan. The movie inspired by Philp K Dick's story we have the Tyrell Corporation of Blade Runner, the MegaCorp they are often seen as sovereign nations of themselves using their power to change cities and even the offworlds. Sometimes in fiction they will own the City and the Police like Robocop and its dystopia, Detroit, the Cyberpunk MegaCorp can be the government or be the police itself, Omni Consumer Products (OCP) is a fictional corporatocratic megacorporation. In general across our fictional scifi writing the Mega Company or "OmniCorp" is seen as a bad thing. In our real world Big Oil is criticized for its links to regimes, profit from invasion in war, Joe Barton perhaps bought and even apologized to Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. There are conspiracy out there, Royals from Europe having influence inside USA banks and media, the British arrive John Oliver, Piers Morgan, James Corden, the Iranian-British 'Christiane Amanpour' are on your tv telling you that Donald Trump is a wicked man and Russia controls America, they take over your television and newspaper tell you this news with their oh so English accents...when the other guy Biden gets to power they become like a dog that chased a car and 'caught' it left with a confused look on their faces. In the names of international people you have George Soros born György Schwartz, he is Jewish but seems godless at times and told stories of betraying his own, a Hungarian-American businessman who seems to come with loyalty to no nation, no people, some like Soros had a false identity to avoid Nazi persecution, in an interview with 60 minds Steve Kroft asked, “My understanding is that you went…went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from the Jews.” Soros even replied he had no guilt and it was the 'Happiest Time of His Life'. If Corporation and People and Media can be so ruthless would they bring similar culture to Mars? Recently we have seen UAE, Qatar, Saudi, Iranian Jihadi types learn from the Royals of Europe and guys like Soros, they expand into media and other investment, subsidiaries in Chemicals, Property, Social Media internet companies. In Hindu culture the expanding company from India rises with Oil and Chemicals, InfoTech, Banking Conglomerates and groups like 'Reliance Industries' however nothing really matches the Speed at which S.Korea transformed from year 2021 to 2023 they transformed from a nation have no rocket to one with an advanced space program they are also clever not to get directly involved in the back and forth bickering of US media politics.
There is something in our culture on Earth maybe media news reports and historical experience that knows it can go wrong, that makes us fear the Mega Corporation, the Crony Capitalism and the Monopoly, the business political class that blocks free enterprise. In our real world there are true scandals offshore Leaks appear in Database published in The Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Pandora Papers are 11.9 million leaked documents with 2.9 terabytes of data and no arrests instead the journalist got herself car bombed? Would a Corporate Mars have free journalists, Daphne Caruana Galizia she focused on investigative journalism, reporting on government corruption, nepotism and allegations of money laundering. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange announced that he would pay a €20,000 reward "for information leading to the conviction of Caruana Galizia's killers" An inquiry by former judges "accused the Maltese state of creating a pervasive 'atmosphere of impunity' that allowed her killers to believe they'd face minimal consequences". Could the Corp of Mars be so cold just as Russia and Putin has arms dealers, Amazon it makes money, Bezos does space rockets but has attracted criticism for lack of work place rights, critics call Amazon out for its actions, accusations of spying with facial recognition, China it is said to be Communist but it has learned the way of Financial, Chinese expanding in minerals and industry, the brutal life lived by a Chinese worker, people described as living inside a Totalitarian Police state. That is not to say the Western system is perfect huge elite business across Europe involved in corruption deals the Corporation like Wallmart pushing out the farming man, it expands in the USA, it will eat the small others and gain control of food and clothes, the bigger fish eating the small. Branson is his own MegaCorp with his Virgin brand, he even described himself as a "tax exile", having saved millions in tax by ending his mainland British residency and living in the British Virgin Islands. Elon Musk sometimes tells a story he is one of the good guys on a mission, Musk himself electric car and rockets is his own Mega brand 'Virgin'. Musk has many critics writing articles against him, he might have better rockets and cars but when you see how the current Admin favor old Motor companies or the old SLS culture and old space monopoly, he has fans and critical reports against him and yet it seems even Musk or Bezo or Branson types are not the giant magnates media makes them out to be and even Elon Musk does not have as much power as 'Samsung'. In the contest of Millionaire there would be a wealthy hiding amongst shadow like the defunct Habsburg dynasty, for example Blackrock and Vanguard Group one of them with about $8 trillion in global assets. Today it is possible the unnamed MegaCorp of Mars has already been born and already exists, the Space Millionaires of the future might be eaten by other Space Billionaires and the Billionaire eaten by hidden unnamed Trillionaire hiding that control entire nations.
In our fictional worlds of scifi the Mega Corp may control the government by having employees in important positions and or by all-powerful lobbyists. Is a corrupt planetary Corporation a work fiction or will it be a possibility based on fact? Or when fiction fails to entertain with its gritty realism and now truth is stranger than fiction. Sometimes a company will live its natural life, sometimes the King will give away his wealth and kingdom for example 'Andrew Carnegie' he was one of the biggest names in the Steel industry and he gave away around $350 million or roughly $5.5 billion in today's money to Charity or University or other Philanthropy. a company of the past might fade out or when Ford or GM goes down would it simply be replaced by another more ruthless car company. If we look at the commentary in pop culture art and movies the people perhaps will protest against the 'Samsung' rule of Mars. If South Korea makes nice products on Mars and is 'Western' then what would be wrong with it building Mars. Would a Martian city be eaten by Corruption, the South Koreans making the same mistakes Japanese did, the same mistake of other Empires, the same problems and corruptions of HongKong or Holland or Thailand or Britain or the USA or any other place, complete control and dominance of people's entertainment lives worse, hyper-rich control worse than Popstar conservatorship disputes in the USA, everyone chord and dance routine and music note controlled. The modern 'Chaebol' Korean untouchable expanding corruption to space and replacing Daimyo Japanese feudal lords and a new Korea brand replaces old Japanese Zaibatsu elite family rule with lots of Double Dealing, lots and lots of Bribes, Manipulation and Corruption. If Mars was colonized in the late 80s and early 90s once NASA got landing with people then its possible hardware and cash would flow from the East and Sony, Honda, Nintendo, Suzuki Motors, Mitsubishi, SoftBank and the group of Sumitomo group keiretsu and Mitsui keiretsu on Mars would be a thing.
One reason I think Artemis Accords and the Moon is dead is because the land of the Moon it does not offer a place that tempts to live, unlike Mars with its atmosphere and near 24 hr day. Another is who is signing up for the Artemis, a nation like South Korea offers a lot but 'Isle of Man' or United Arab Emirates or Rwanda. A place Russia also wanted space, it wants more credit for its feats and now having its own jealous hissy fit condemned the Artemis Accords as a "blatant attempt to create international space law that favors the United States" maybe they want to restore the Soviet Empire to Space? However maybe some critics will find a flaw somewhere that is true, when someone says to me 'Rwanda' I can not think of much 'positive' maybe I can think of Blood Diamonds, or Money Laundering Financials or 'mass genocide' I can not see what they will bring to the Moon other than immoral behavior, dictator rule, religious extremism and ethno extremism and blood sucking financial vampire acts. The Average IQ in Rwanda is somewhere around 69 or 70, in the past people had to have a certain mental function to join the military people, some silly people passed exams but in the older times those that were too stupid, were classed “retarded,” “moron,” “idiot,” or “imbecile” to describe people with intellectual deficits. In Rwanda they also have a cultural experience of mass rioting, low emotional control and self genocide, are these Artemis nations really going to build the cities of the Moon? Could Rwanda offer a Moon village more than its own dictator ruling its own 'village idiot', its own slave class digging for Blood Diamond, would the serf be needed when you can have a more productive Android and Machine people and Cyborgs doing a better job than ten men. The economic center of gravity on Planet Earth if you think of it as a box or a ball it used to sit off NewYork in the Atlantic somewhere between London and the USA, it shifted back in the direction of Asia. Earth's economic center it was in the West it moves East and after Vietnam it moved rapidly back in the direct of Asia moving in the direction of the Silk Road and it is moving back where it has existed for thousands of years. The old Royal banking family of Europe replaced by a modern elite family from the East yet a work ethic so high and pressurized they stop having babies. Growth did not come without issues, mental illness and suicide rates in S.Korea now off the scale but South Koreas still grows the Bubble has not popped yet.
The transplanetary company will probably spread or try become a thing evolving to a Martian Corp. An Earth company with its people inside a production site it could bring the same workplace mannerism, formality, etiquette, convention and rules. If and when a company spreads out from Earth and goes to a village or city on another Moon or planet it will probably bring some of that same culture to the new space village. The company might even evolve to change it might be more ruthless or kinder and more empathetic towards the feelings of the people or they might want to remain hidden and not even show their own face. The company might be transplanetary and 'faceless' with a representative an Android Robot or an A.I graphic artificial intelligence social media avatar a representative for the company, its own press secretary or press officer and performing communications duty, Samsung will send its own Rachael an experimental Nexus-7 replicated person from a world not unlike Blade Runner.
Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2023-05-28 04:44:04)
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Low Crime, Really clean city, little public disorder but people call it a Dystopia.
Yes, Singapore immigration plans to scan your face instead of your passport
https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/02/ … passports/
Greece and Singapore: A Comparison of Economic and Democratic Freedom
https://greekreporter.com/2023/09/30/gr … c-freedom/
The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore
https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-the … singapore/
Revisiting William Gibson’s 1993 essay on the city-state took me back to my home, where future is past.
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For Mars_B4_Moon re #2 .... thanks for the link to the comparison of Singapore and Greece, with side references to other Nations.
That was a solid read!
SearchTerm:Singapore history of and analysis of strengths - comparison to Greece - reference to Alexander the Great
Note advice to not hire duds.
(th)
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