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| 1 |
ID:
169349
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| Summary/Abstract |
The extreme conditions of all extraterrestrial environments restrict freedom of movement and encourage social, political and economic arrangements friendly to tyranny. However, deliberately engineered measures might be taken to maximise liberty in the space environment. For example, space settlements can be engineered to maximise the number of oxygen, food, water and power systems to disallow coercive regimes the opportunity to control single machines on which entire settlements depend. Spacesuits can be engineered to be easily manufactured and maintained, thus maximising the number available to occupants of a settlement and minimising the extent to which bespoke and difficult-to-service suits restrict freedom of movement. Other examples of this approach to engineering are provided, which we might term ‘freedom engineering’. Although attempts to deliberately engineer freedom into a settlement turn on the definition of ‘freedom’, it is suggested that objective criteria in the enhancement of certain types of individual and collective liberty can be used to determine when an act of freedom engineering is likely to be beneficial for a settlement. The space policy implications of these ideas are discussed.
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| 2 |
ID:
119860
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| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The seven billion humans on planet Earth consume 49,400 trillion cubic feet (1.4 quadrillion liters) of oxygen every year, enough to fill seven million Hindenburgs. About half of this oxygen comes from the ocean. Yet the recently concluded, decade-long Census of Marine Life reports that phytoplankton have been decreasing by approximately 1 percent every year since 1900. These microscopic plants produce most of the oxygen that comes from the sea. The exact causes of this decline are unknown, but rising temperatures are suspect. Ocean oxygen production is now likely about one-third of historical levels. In 2050, just as the world's population is projected to hit a peak of nine billion people, phytoplankton will be down to 22 percent of historical averages.
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