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| Here, down on Good Old Earth, I'm no advocate of social media of any kind. I'm aware of their necessity and their omnipresence, but in their actual manifestations I perceive them more as pests than as convenient inventions. Human social behavior is the result of counteracting intentions: On one side, individuals seek their private advantage; on the other side, the community tries to recruit unselfish contributors to support common interests. The success of societies depends on institutions that allow for the continuous balance of these counteracting interests. |
| Communication is the key to this balance. We strongly depend on recognition of our accomplishments by our fellow-men; reputation is the main currency rewarding us for our social investments. Signs of reputation kept together the first complex societies, expressed as uniforms, titles, insignia, habits and ceremonies. Also our modern-day societies inescapably depend on such attributes, although their symbolic character may not always be as evident as in less developed and complex societies. E.g., most consumers of popular TV shows will deny to participate in a ritual. |
| We take part in rituals without being aware to do so. Probably, this unawareness is even a prerequisite for the success of rituals. Nobody likes the idea of being outperformed on the basis of predictable behaviors, others taking advantage from my own short-sightedness. But on the other side, good rituals are never intended to harm anyone. On the contrary, we procure most amazements of our life from good rituals. The drawback of our actual modern societies is, that we did not yet have enough time to develop rituals truly satisfying for everybody envolved. We have to hope for a better future. |
| Having said this, I come back to recently popping up efforts to extend human habitat to extra-terrestrial range. No single human can have any interest to spend the rest of his/her life under precarious, uncomfortable conditions, deprived from his/her life-long habits and contacts. The task to set up a habitat on the moon (and even more so on Mars) may be compared to the voyages of the explorers in the 15th and 16th century. These adventurers recruited their crews with promises of riches and pleasures, but many of these courageous seamen encountered just hardships and death. |
| From a social point of view, the most significant difference between these medieval explorers and modern-day would-be colonizers of space is communication. The crews of the Apollo space ships were out of contact with Earth only for about 3/4 h during each orbit around the Moon while passing behind it. The first steps on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission were witnessed by an estimated half billion spectators, about 17% of the world population at that time, no match for the few pairs of eyes witnessing the landing of Christopher Columbus in America. |
| Even if future travellers should cruise outer space more than a million miles away, they will have no problem to stay an integral part of our society. Instead of being deprived of human company they will on the contrary step right into the focus of public attention. It is at the heart of human identity that our well-being depends on physical relationships only in the second place; in the first place, our well-being is brought about by what others think of us, i.e. by our reputation. Therefore, the crew members of any long-term space mission will heavily depend on continued contact with Earth. |
| This does not mean that they should be the stars of a permanent space reality show. But if I leave my apartment to walk on the street, I should be diligent enough to put on clothes and shoes that fulfil some minimum criteria of social acceptance. Likewise, any space colonist should be aware of sections of the colony that are under public scrutiny. This would not only motivate to adhere to standards of educated behavior, but also create a persistent atmosphere of human familiarity, so that nobody will have to feel too lonesome. |
| MB 8/13 |
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