FAA's authority from Congress extends only to takeoff and landing. This is duly implemented in the new proposed regs. The Outer Space Treaty makes the US liable for damages caused by US spacecraft and citizens to other signatory's people and stuff whereever they are. That includes outer space and the rest of the planets. These areas too should be considered and governed for every US citizen and corporation that wants a US flagged spacecraft. There are excellent opportunities for US (mobile home) colonies in unoccupied territory. It's time to appoint someone whose job it is to make that happen. A new position should be created: the Governor of Outer Space Territory.
Like the Space Paidhi in C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner series, there would be a need for bridging tremendous cultural gaps between political leaders and spacers, quick thinking about governance modes, and even some rough frontier justice. (link)
Maybe I'm a little bit stumped by this one, but why do we need a friggin' Governor?... Don't we have enough government on terra firm already? We have enough problems here, we don't need to export them into space. Afterall the easiest way to kill a new frontier is to bring a government in "to fix things" or to "civilize the barbarians."
Frontier justice is a good rationalization for some type of policing maybe controlled through some type of government... but I would argue justice would come natural with demand. Like in the old frontier people would hire sheriffs when they needed them. They didn't start off with 10 legions of troops standing on guard.
Are we going to create a new layer of bureaucracy before we've even lifted off the ground? That's one surefire way to strangle a spirit of Liberty on a new frontier.
Man o' lou!... It would have been like appointing a governor of the Internet back in the 1980s. We would still be using phone modems today if that were the case no doubt!
No comments:
Post a Comment