From: Chen Yixiong, Eric (cyixiong@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Aug 11 2001 - 08:41:42 MDT
<< I'm not sure why you guys are devoting so much effort to trying to figure out security arrangements for a space colony which does not exist and for which there is not yet any definite plan to create, but I thought I would comment on one little detail. >>
Errm.. well, yes, I admit that this seems a little minor on the colony project agenda. I hope to have something that interests others to start the project that will lead to an open-source distributed initiative to complete the sociologistics project. So far, unfortunately, I think I had very little success on progress of the highly important topics like examples of possible applications of Intellicracy.
<< The idea of claiming "space" seems a natural move for us Earthlings because it is a direct analogy to how we divide up the Earth. However, a direct analogy is probably not a good one in this case. >>
Yes, I missed this one completely. Thanks Charles for point this problem out.
I wonder how civilizations in StarTrek divide their territory. Apparently, the galaxy rotates, though very slowly. Over time, the stars would shift and entire solar systems may inadvertently enter another civilization's boundaries. Even correcting for average galaxial rotation cannot prevent systems nearer to the center from outpacing those in the middle, and those further out from lagging behind.
Currently seeing no solution out, I suggest the colony have a minimum inner sphere of the distance (Fm X Sm), where:
Fm = Fastest Mode of Travel (such as with missiles, especially those gravity assisted)
Sm = Safe Minimum Time to set up and prepare the Defense System (maybe you can take the Minimum Time to setup and multiply it by 5)
With this inner sphere where absolutely no "foreign" space vehicle or weapon should exist at without permission, we have an outer sphere of "influence" where we will allow vehicles and installations which "dropped" into this sphere to remain but prohibit any that wants to intentionally change course to enter it. This sphere should probably most of the resources we need to use, or perhaps it will not take the shape of a sphere and we can fix it statically in terms of orbit (for instance, half of the asteroid belt centered around, say Cres).
Of course, at the risk of over-simplifying the whole problem, we can claim half of the solar system relative to us (assuming we take up an orbit exactly opposite Earth and at the same distance from the Sun). Comments, anyone?
When Humanity reaches out into space, we will then have to tackle the problem of interstellar boundaries. I wonder how the solution will look like.
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