Designing a Settlement on Mars

(Political Science 342: Political Design and Futuristics

(9/13/03 version)

Ethics and Writing Intensive

Spring 2004

Jim Dator

Department of Political Science

University of Hawaii at Manoa

It is highly likely that permanent human settlements in space will come into existence within your lifetime, and that human life will begin to spread from its apparent cradle, Earth, throughout the solar system and beyond. While there are hundreds of thousands of persons working on the technology, architecture, environment--and even law, economics and psychology--of human settlements in space, almost no one is thinking about how humans might behave politically in such settlements, and how concepts of political design might be used or developed to help space settlers live as they wish, rather than as architectural forms, ground mission control, or military commanders might dictate their behavior.

This course is one attempt to design a space settlement on the basis of how people want to behave, rather than requiring them to adapt to conditions which others have imposed on them.

But maybe you think humans should not waste their resources on space travel at all, but rather should stay at home and create better environmental and political structures here. No problem! What better place to think through fundamental principles of preferred political behaviors and conditions for facilitating them than on Mars? Everything we do in space will have to be brought there for some purpose. We can take nothing for granted, or because it is traditional. Thus, any ideas we might have about preferred forms of governance on Mars should also be useful for new political processes and activities on Earth as well.

In this class, you will work both individually, and in teams, so that you will have the chance to broaden and strengthen your own ideas about governance and preferred human behavior within a social, and not just an individual, context. You also will be encouraged throughout the course to think in terms, not of present needs and problems, but in terms of the needs of future generations--of people yet unborn, who you will never meet, but whose lives you greatly impact by what you do, or do not do, now.

Discussion of the syllabus

Your views of space exploration and settlement

Dator, "Some in power, some in pain"

ASSIGN: Complete TRW Contest. Due 1/15

Dator, "How to think about the futures"

Dator, "Future generations: They are our conscience"

Turn in TRW Contest

ASSIGN: Your basic political concerns (2-3 pages) DUE 1/22.

(video and discussion)

Harris poll

ISU Credo

Glenn & Robinson, "Declaration of Independence"

Funaro, "Biological/Cultural drivers for space migration"

FIRST DAY TO POST "MINUTE PAPER" ON LISTSERV

Dator, "Evolution of political systems & political science"

Lewellen, "Types of preindustrial political systems" and "The evolution of the state"

Lee, "Primitive communism"

Wilson, "Human groups as units of selection"

"Political concerns" paper due

"Aanivalta"

Harcones, "Personalized government"

Kelly, "Out of Control"

FORM POLITICAL DESIGN GROUPS

Chartrand, "Mars: Just the facts"

Video--The planet Mars

"First steps to the stars" (video and discussion)

Dator, "Space settlements and new forms of governance"

Dator, "'Structural design' or 'will'"?

ASSIGN: Political Design paper (2-3 pages) DUE 2/17

Pendse, "Economic systems"

Dator, "Worlds without work"

"Important Words about the final Mars project"

Holquist, "The philosophical bases of Soviet space exploration"

Logsdon, "The race into space"

"History of space exploration"

View and discuss "Russian Right Stuff"

"Political design" paper due

Dator, "Politics is everything"

NASA's space program

Militarization of space

ESA website, "About ESA"

Lawrence & Dhume, "Blasting Off"

Johnson-Freese, "International space politics 2000"

Whittingon, "Let's challenge China"

Meyer and McKay, "Resources of Mars for human settlement"

Instructions for "Mars" paper

Video--Quest for Mars

ASSIGN: "Mars" paper (2-3 pages). DUE 3/11

Harris, "Influence of culture on space"

Whitney, "Interpersonal compatibility"

Costello, "Space-dwelling families"

Finney, "Anthropology and the humanization of space"

Dator, "Earth analogs for human space settlement and exploration"

"ESA and UNESCO Raise Ethical Questions Related to the Utilization of Space"

Lupisella, "Space ethics"

"Some ethical questions of space"

"Mars" paper due

ASSIGN: Space Ethics paper. Due 3/18

Nadis, "Life on Mars"

Zubrin, "A New Martian Frontier"

Dator, "Responsible for your rose"

Pearson, "Next 20 years in technology"

Kurzeil, "Spiritual machines"

"Space ethics" paper due.

Coates, et al., "The promise of genetics"

"Genetic Engineering home page"

Joy, "the future doesn't need us"

"Meat!"

Maruyama, "Aesthetics and the environment of outer space"

Alternative Futures for space programs

Visioning preferred futures

Video, (Joel Barker on visioning)

Sagan, "Dreams are Maps"

Dator, "Thinking about space futures, then, now, tomorrow"

ON THE ASSIGNMENTS AND OTHER MATTERS:

This is an Ethics and Writing Intensive Course

1. The primary purpose of this course is to help you develop your ideas about preferred forms of governance. You will do this by imagining you are designing a governing system for people living on Mars in the mid 21^st Century.

Detailed instructions about how to carry out this assignment will be given to you later.

During this course, you will learn about the evolution of political systems on Earth, existing ideas for new or improved political systems, and various ideas about political design.

You also will learn something about Mars--especially in contrast with Earth--and how those differences might influence the needs and desires of people living on Mars instead of Earth, and hence might impact your political design.

2. In order to assist you in developing your own ideas, and in order for you to learn from what others think, you will be assigned to a Political Design group on January 29. You will meet with your group, face to face and online, for the rest of the semester, preparing to make a collective presentation, at the end of the semester, to the class as a whole about your political design for a Mars settlement.

3. Your own personal final report is due on May 12. It may either be entirely written (about 10-15 typewritten pages), or in mixed media (exhibits, film, video, painting, audio, performance) but always with SOME written, explanatory base (5 or more typewritten pages). If you intend to do a mixed media final personal project, please let me know no later than April 8.

4. In addition to the individual final project, there are four brief written assignments. Detailed information about each these four papers will be given to you later.

5. As part of the Writing Intensive aspect of this class, a listserv for this class has been created on the UH Unix computer. You are expected to access that listserv and to place items on it for everyone to read (and also to comment about). As soon after each class session as possible, you are to send a "minute paper" to the listserv in which you briefly discuss two things about each class session: (1) "The most important things I learned from class today are....." and (2) "The questions I have, or the things that remain unclear to me, after today's class are...." A comment of two or three paragraphs for each of these two things each class period should be sufficient. More would be appreciated.

You ALSO are expected to comment about what others (including myself) say on the listserv, and to use the list as a place to carry on a continuing conversation about ideas generated by the articles, videos, and discussions in class and on the list itself.

You MUST enter comments on the listserv at least twice a week. Daily would be much better. Participation on the listserv is an essential part of the Writing Intensive portion of this class, as well as essential to your substantive learning.

The following statement must appear in the syllabi of all WI Courses: "Students must adequately complete all writing assignments to pass the course with a D grade or better. Students who do not complete all writing assignments will fail the course."

6. This class is Ethics Intensive. We will focus on the following ethical issues: the obligation of present generations towards future generations in general; whether it is ethical to use resources for space when there are so many problems on Earth; what should be humanity's ethical orientation towards other lifeforms we might encounter off Earth; and indeed whether nonliving things--such as the rocks and environment of Mars--have rights of their own that deserve our ethical consideration; the ethical aspects of space debris and of mining the Moon and asteroids; whether space should be owned privately, by nations, or kept as the common inheritance of all humanity; ethical aspects of space for peaceful purposes vs. the militarization of space, and many more.

7. Regular attendance and active participation in all aspects of the course is very important. If you know that you will have to miss one or more class sessions because of University-approved activities (such as athletic events, concerts, debates, ROTC exercises, ASUH conferences, and the like) PLEASE LET ME KNOW WELL IN ADVANCE SO THAT WE CAN DISCUSS WHAT YOU SHOULD DO TO MINIMIZE THE IMPACT OF YOUR ABSENCE.

If you miss a class during which a video is shown and discussed, please view the tape either by borrowing it from me, or by viewing it at the Wang AV Center or elsewhere. After you view the tape, write and turn in to me a 2-3 page critique on it If you miss class sessions without prior consultation, or if you do not participate as required on the listserv, you should expect your grade to be lowered.

8. Office Hours: My office is Saunders 604. I will generally be available there Monday-Thursday, 1-3 PM. Otherwise, I am available by appointment. Please come by, or phone 956-6601. However the best and my preferred way for you to communicate with me is via email. My address is: dator@hawaii.edu

9. Because of my duties as Director of the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, I will have to miss several classes. Someone will come in to take over my classes while I am gone, so I expect everyone to attend and participate in class as usual. Moreover, I will take my PowerBook with me on most trips and access my email, so you can and should continue to communicate with me even when I am not physically in Hawaii. However, if my absence from some classes presents any problem to you, please discuss this with me, or please do not take the course.

10. Each portion of the class described above counts as indicated towards your final grade:

Final project 30%

Group presentation of the final project 20%

Four written assignments (5% each) 20%

Participation on the listserv 15%

Class attendance and participation 15%

TOTAL 100%