News — At The Edge — 1/19
There is only one article and one video this week — nationalizing outer space & tech monopolies— that describe situations governments and businesses like but are exceedingly bad ideas for the rest of us.
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Why tech industry monopolies could be a ‘curse’ for society (9 min. video) —
In the early 20th century, Standard Oil was broken up because of its vast power. Today, many think Facebook, Google or Amazon present similar threats, but they proceed unchallenged. In “The Curse of Bigness,” law professor Tim Wu argues that America has abandoned antitrust enforcement and left us with an economy dominated by de facto monopolists.
Do we really want a nationalistic future in space? —
“[In] annals of science fiction…many of these stories…envision a time in which humanity has moved past narrow ideas of tribe and nationalism.
That assumption might be wrong…[as] in Trump’s…U.S. Space Command…[or] China’s expansive view of sovereignty…[make] the notion of outer space as a final frontier free from national appropriation is questionable…[and] not only will create precedents…for decades to come, but also…hinders our ability to address common challenges….
[Earlier] between 1962 and 1979 the [U.S.] and the former Soviet Union…enacted five major international treaties…[halting] on the legal status of the moon….[Situation] has only gotten more complicated due to an increasing number of space powers, both public and private.
National and commercial interests are increasingly tied to space in political, economic and military arenas…as nuclear nonproliferation, economic development, cybersecurity and human rights are also intimately tied to outer space….
China’s space spending surpassing $8 billion in 2017, though the U.S. continues to spend more than all other nations combined on space related efforts. But space has become important to every nation…. By 2015, the global space industry was worth more than $320 billion, a figure that is expected to grow to $1.1 trillion by 2040….
[Trump’s] Space Force has fueled concerns over a new arms race, which…could exacerbate both the issues of space weapons and debris….’There is a good chance that we may have to eventually abandon all active satellites in currently used orbits’ due to the growing problem of space junk….
[W]e should think long and hard before moving away from a…tested model like the International Space Station and toward a future of vying…military outposts in space.” https://phys.org/news/2019-01-nationalistic-future-space.html
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Doc Huston
