Overlords, Vassals, Serfs? How Space Colonies, the Future of the Space Economy and Feudalism Are Connected

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine what economic, social and biological seeds we need to sow to create successful space colonies better protected from dissent and revolution. It considers that while the space development timetable is continuing, the Earth economy in its current form will damage the biosphere before space industrialisation can be established, and without a healthy consumer economy on Earth, space colonisation is unlikely to occur. Using themes drawn from earlier feudal structures and considering the birth of capitalism and the nature of growth, this paper examines three long-standing assumptions about the drivers of the space economy. The first driver is that the space industrialisation is a necessary stimulus to the Earth economy. The second is the obligation of humanity to physically diversify to save itself from extinction, and the third is humans' innate exploratory nature, which must be given full expression. This paper will show that none of these drivers will be successful in altering the current economic realities of the space economy and that in particular, the third driver also misrepresents how humans explore. It will show that the Earth degradation timetable and the space economy development timetable do not match, and that the Earth's biosphere is likely to become irreparably damaged long before the space economy can support it or become self sustaining. This paper considers that solutions to the problems of biosphere degradation and sustainable development on Earth will be the same solutions to those of colonising space, and will describe a two-part implementation of a scheme to provide a secure foundation for successful space colonies. Firstly, by implementing historical features of human societies to enable natural decision-making procedures to develop among diverse groups dedicated to space development and secondly to slowly separate the space economy from the world economy of fiat currency and standard capitalist investments vehicles, which will direct the evolution of space colonies along a path compatible with both a protected biosphere on Earth and long lasting settlements away from it.