This is challenging because vast distances in space will likely be an obstacle to effective enforcement. Space is, in a nutshell, an endless desert with oases that are extremely far apart from each other. The closest star to Earth is 4.3 light years away, resulting in a round-trip latency of 8.6 years even if light-speed communication and transport are possible. The closest galaxy is approximately 2.5 million light years away, rendering conventional enforcement impossible.
Reminds me of an interesting article which appeared in Scientific American recently.
Anyway I thought this was a good post. With regard to tractability, I think it’s possible that as we start to colonize space, the necessity of space governance may become apparent—perhaps in a sudden & unexpected way. If political leaders are looking for solutions at that time, it’s probably a good thing if there are proposals available which have been forged through an extensive & lively debate (as opposed to some kind of hastily composed emergency measure which ends up locking us into a suboptimal trajectory).
Another thought: If you think high quality political conversations are unusually difficult to have right now, but this situation might improve in the future, that could be an argument for delaying widespread public discussion of high-impact political topics to some future time when the situation has improved. (No reason not to think about such topics privately though.)
Reminds me of an interesting article which appeared in Scientific American recently.
Anyway I thought this was a good post. With regard to tractability, I think it’s possible that as we start to colonize space, the necessity of space governance may become apparent—perhaps in a sudden & unexpected way. If political leaders are looking for solutions at that time, it’s probably a good thing if there are proposals available which have been forged through an extensive & lively debate (as opposed to some kind of hastily composed emergency measure which ends up locking us into a suboptimal trajectory).
Another thought: If you think high quality political conversations are unusually difficult to have right now, but this situation might improve in the future, that could be an argument for delaying widespread public discussion of high-impact political topics to some future time when the situation has improved. (No reason not to think about such topics privately though.)