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Discord Invitation

19th February 2017

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Martian Civilization →

Thanks to Paul Gilster for posting this essay on Martian Civilization to his Centauri Dreams blog. This post draws heavily on a number of posts I’ve written over the past year or so about various ways or getting to Mars or settling Mars and the eventual emergence of a distinctively Martian perspective. This distinctively Martian perspective will be the basis of a Martian civilization that is distinct from terrestrial civilization, and this process of exploration, settlement, and acclimatization to Mars will probably begin in this century and stretch out over the coming centuries – and even across the coming millennia if efforts are made to terraform Mars.

A significant comments thread has appeared, which has given me ideas for further elaboration. What most needs to be addressed is to come to an appreciation of the synchronic context of any individual mission of space exploration or space settlement. Advocates of one particular plan or another tend to view their undertaking in exclusivist terms, but this isn’t how the sausage-making process of history works. History is not neat and tidy.

Even if a society or civilization adopts an over-arching central project that directs its activities from the top down, there are still going to be many divergent, non-central projects. In fact, to those living through a particular historical epoch, the central project of their civilization may not be at all evident, as any one individual may be caught up in activities and experiences not obviously connected to any central project.

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Tagged: Marsspace explorationspace settlementCentauri DreamsPaul Gilster

  1. geopolicraticus posted this