Who Owns The Moon?
Who Owns The Moon?
The answer is, You Do. However probably not for long, as this treaty is currently under discussion. International Law states that the Moon and other planets are the ‘Common heritage of mankind’ and all research conducted is to benefit all mankind.
‘… the exploration and use of outer space should be carried on for the benefit of all peoples irrespective of the degree of their economic or scientific Development’ [1]
I don’t think many people are naive enough to believe, that the space industry is developing on the premise of collective ownership and distribution; an industry which is currently exploring, space tourism, asteroid mining, vegetable farming, and moon matter as a raw product for 3D printing.
Its potential makes earth-huge, look minuscule. Asteroid mining alone could provide vast amounts of iron, nickel, ore, water and more. And possibly, if products are processed in outer space they could take environmental impacts away from our precious atmosphere.
Whatever happens, it does highlight the old tensions that exist between the technology industry, national policy and international law. A gap made larger by the modes and speed in which both operate. Industry runs at a fast break neck speed like roadrunner, but instead of beep beep, it screeches, “Do it now, let’s think later”.
While governance is more like an elderly gentlemen, who first smokes his pipe, has a sherry and then states, “one should not be too hasty” and then promptly forgets about the issue, until it is forced to his attention again. When we put governance in it’s international context, it becomes a group of grumpy old men, arguing at the top of their voices, while deaf and unable to hear each other, and suffering from selective amnesia.
Whether it is to prevent environmental disaster, or deal with disruption caused by robotics, we may need to address the topic of social innovation. This requires, removing it from “threat politics”, which means unplugging it from Capitalism Vs Socialism or at least extending it beyond its parameters without using the dreaded term of “Post-Capitalism”.
It also means that we think of this type of change like any other, and move to incorporating it in our social structures, much as we do other areas of policy like health or security.
This allows us to to discuss, design, try out and improve in an open, conflict — free platform. I appreciate that we are still in the age of Machiavellian politics, however we could benefit by admitting that we need to take some baby steps to something beyond, what we know today. We have no trouble in thinking far ahead when it comes to technology, so why not society.
