Elon Musk’s Mars Colony — Doom or Boom
Elon Musk says it’s time to colonize Mars. As a South African, perhaps he should know better. European colonies didn’t produce a model society there. Throughout human history, colonization has proven ruinous. Occupying forces murdered and subjugated existing populations, exploited natural resources for the homeland, and — without exception — caused enduring political instability.
It’s possible that Musk and other advocates of space living don’t understand this history. A 2016 article in the Independent said:
“The brutality of colonialism still fails to make it into a lot of UK history textbooks. Missing are the Boer concentration camps where 170,000 people suffered in overcrowded camps and thousands had lost their lives; the Amritsar Massacre where thousands of protestors were killed within 10 minutes; the partitioning of India where over 10 million Hindus and Muslims were forced to leave their homes and millions lost their lives as a result; the Mau Mau uprising where thousands of Kenyans were tortured, raped and burned alive; the millions who lost their lives in the 1943 Bengal Famine; or the famine in India which resulted in the deaths of between 12 and 29 million people who starved to death under British colonial rule.”
There is not evidence for life [as we understand it] on Mars or other planets. Does that mean that the mindset of colonizers has changed? If the drive is to establish a settlement, extract resources, and trade with the home base, we can agree that the motivation of colonization remains the same. We will change the landscape to serve our needs. Mining. Excavation. Terrain modification [think the Mars equivalent of deforestation]. And if we do encounter life on Mars, it is safe to assume that we will repeat the mistakes of our ancestors. Human behavior hasn’t changed all that much since the “emancipation” of colonized territories in the 1960s.
The concept of space colonization and settlement is much different that the concept of space exploration. Musk presents this as the opportunity to expand the human population. In an interview with NBC News, he offers Mars settlement as a safeguard against human extinction. There is little other motivation offered. In the articles I researched, most of the content focused on how the technology would transport and support humans, missing the opportunity to discuss why humans should create a multi-planetary population.
In her 2015 TED Talk, astronomer Lucianne Walkowicz said:
“I worry that this excitement about colonizing Mars and other planets carries with it a long, dark shadow: the implication and belief by some that Mars will be there to save us from the self-inflicted destruction of the only truly habitable planet we know of, the Earth. As much as I love interplanetary exploration, I deeply disagree with this idea. There are many excellent reasons to go to Mars, but for anyone to tell you that Mars will be there to back up humanity is like the captain of the Titanic telling you that the real party is happening later on the lifeboats.”
In the case of space colonization, we need to have long discussions about the implications of extending our history of colonization to another planet. We often put science’s capabilities in front of ethics’ responsibilities, then we struggle to clean up the mess. This bias toward action causes something called “wicked problems” — where the solution to one issue causes further problems [see Wikipedia for more].
In his pursuit of a Mars colony, Musk is putting a sense of adventure ahead of a sense of liability. In an 2013 interview with TED’s Chris Anderson, Musk said:
“I really think there’s a fundamental difference, if you sort of look into the future, between a humanity that is a space-faring civilization, that’s out there exploring the stars, on multiple planets, and I think that’s really exciting, compared with one where we are forever confined to Earth until some eventual extinction event.”
A very small and skewed Twitter poll I conducted indicated that people are in favor of space colonization, even with some reservations. Based on humanity’s track record — extracting natural resources, destroying natural habitats, and social chaos — perhaps we should be slower to colonize the solar system. Mars and the other planets might be better off if we sent mechanical explorers instead of human settlers. At least, we should have more public conversations about WHY this is important and how to set ethical standards — and stops — to regulate our future behavior.
