What Form of Socio-Economic Structure Do We Need for a Space Colony?

Perhaps, you've played the computer game SimCity and designed your own city? It's amazing all the things you have to consider to get it right, for instance; transportation, education, distribution, living spaces, parks, stores, etc. - but what if you were designing a future space colony totally from scratch, and there were no deliveries for food or railroads to bring in supplies. Everything would have to be made, recycled, re-used, and prepared or manufactured on sight, and there would be scarcity for everything from the very beginning.

The other day, I was discussing this with an acquaintance, and I reasoned that as much as I decline to endorse communism in our modern world today on Earth, communism in a colony might be the best bet at least in the beginning because at the village level it works to keep things going. My acquaintance then stated;

"You say that communism is OK at village level, if we were to colonize other planets then surely communism would be the initial system to use as a colony would only be visit sites in the beginning, capitalism would be the end goal by as its starting point communism would be ideal."

Communism in the case of a space colony will still end up harvesting and harnessing the synergies of bartering. Capitalism's roots will emerge quickly, and as long as they are allowed to grow, the problem will solve itself. This is when my acquaintance got to thinking and added;

"Perhaps some thought needs to be put into a Financial System that works in stages matching the development of the colony EG communism for one colony as a colony grows to two or three villages introduce a basic form of capitalism, when there's 100 villages Bringing capitalism as an example."

I agree, the most important thing is "very basic" framework and little if any micromanagement, capitalism, that is to say free-market capitalism is best organically grown. It might be possible to control the flow of capitalism in the beginning, but it is nearly impossible once it gets going to control every single transaction, nor would you want to. Okay so, maybe originally jobs will be assigned based on skills, and as things get moving, bartering, trading, and the basic elements of capitalism could be allowed to flourish and allow for future abundance in a semi-Utopian motif.

Please consider all this and think on it. Consider our future in space and off-world planets, as we boldly go, and the future unfolds.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Space Colonies. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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Should Manufacturing Buildings Be Built More Like a Rubik's Cube Robotic Parking Structure?

"Re-inventing manufacturing" almost sounds like the mission statement of a Technocrat or Futurist looking to capture the utopian dream. Indeed, but why can't we? After all, Henry Ford's assembly line is a pretty old concept. Yes, certainly we have made incremental advances and yet, what about the proverbial "OMG" revolutionary innovations, and "leap-frogging" type paradigms shifts in the manufacturing sector? I guess we are still waiting for those aren't we? We don't have Star Trek assimilation machines yet, I suppose someday we will, and I hope the US is the nation to bring such dreams to fruition.

There was an interesting talk given by Regina Dugan of DARPA on December 14, 2011 for the engineering students and social studies students at MIT titled; "Just Make It" which of course is a "take-off" literally on the Nike Brand theme; Just Do It! - in this talk she mentions an aircraft manufacturing company which works without assembly lines and has been able to increase time to build from start to finish by a factor of 2. Each aircraft stays put, the folks working on it move. Okay so, that makes sense, and Rolls Royce and other high-end auto manufacturers use similar techniques, as to many of the hand-crafted high-end specialty cars.

Why was she giving this talk? Simple; we beat the German's in WWII due to our manufacturing abilities. Today, China can easily out produce us, so are we going to make the same mistake as the Germans did in WWII, in a future war with an industrial power that can out produce us? Well, are we? How can you say the answer is yes or no; you can't and that's one more reason manufacturing is so vital to US interests, on top of the importance of jobs, trade flows, and GDP growth. "A nation lives well, when it produces well," she reminds us, and quoted Adam Smith's warning about not relying on military resources to make our defense systems.

Now then, on the official "White House Blog" there was a posting back on June 24, 2011 by Erin Lindsay titled; "President Obama Launches Advanced Manufacturing Partnership." This appeared just after President Obama gave a speech at Carnegie Mellon University. Manufacturing and production are key to any advanced civilization, and we here in the US like to think we are the most advanced civilization of all.

Okay so, rather than running redline down the Six Sigma, TQM, and Finite Capacity Scheduling Model assembly line - why not really mix things up? Why not turn the three story assembly floor into a robotic Rubik's Cube factory floor, which would operate like a robotic parking structure. An AI mathematical system could keep the system at optimum, and it would allow for all sorts of possibilities? Well, why not think on that for the next five-minutes and shoot me an email if you have any ideas along this line of thinking?

Lance Winslow is the author on a new series of ebooks on Military Technologies. Lance is also the Founder of The Online Think Tank at http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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