Every Friday I will watch a Technology Entertainment and Design Conference (TED) talk and apply the ideas in that talk to space habitation.
There is a dilemma every country has to face. What should a nation do when there is a choose between helping themselves and helping the world? Should national interest take priority over global responsibilities?
This was the subject of the TED talk Global Ethic Vs. National Interest an interview with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown hosted by TED Curator Chris Anderson.
The Prime Minister brought up a good point, “I think one of the problems of a recession is that people become more protectionist, they look in on themselves, they try to protect their own nation, perhaps at the expense of other nations”. So, lets assume every nation was spacefaring at the beginning of the recession. It is probable that we would have stopped sharing technology and began a land grab on the moon. Especially as each nation’s space program’s funding was threatened.
However, the Prime Minister brings up another good point, “And any nation that would become protectionist over the next few years would deprive itself of the chance of getting the benefits of growth in the world economy”. So, in my scenario, when every nation competes with each other, they all loss the accelerated development due to sharing information. They all loss each other’s aid in the event of a disaster. They all loss the power of pooling their resources into one big mission.
See, when we prove that our long term interests are the same, we will work with each other. National interest almost always wins in the short term. Especially when it comes to spending money, but is global responsibility is viewed as an investment, then it’s easy to sacrifice national resources for humanity. Hopefully, this logic will lead into people funding space habitation.
We also lack a international organization for space. Space emergences must be reported to the Secretary General of the UN and the nation whose ship is in distress. But that is the limit to a real international partnerships. Yes, I know there are joint missions, but these feel like temporary mission rather then a consistent motion towards international space access.
Reactions
-Do you think the Outer Space treaty going against national interest?
Resources
Brown, Gordon. "Global Ethic Vs. National Interest" December 2009. Online video clip. TED. Accessed on January 10, 2010. <http://www.ted.com/talks/gordon_brown_on_global_ethic_vs_national_interest.html>
