RE: The End Of Economics: Does Mars Need Money?
@jameshsmitharts & @cryptogee,
An excellent find. Cryptogee, this video does an excellent job answering your question about money in the future. Technology changes ... people don't.
The world operates like it does as a result of billions upon billions of societal experiments to determine, "What works best." Screw theory, what's the reality. Use the evidence of your eyes.
Every once in a while, some ideologues come along with a plan to "perfect humanity" and manage to convince a sufficient number of people that they're not delusional lunatics ... and "revolutionary change" occurs.
Once all the bodies are buried, or the bankruptcy courts are filled to capacity in the case of financial revolutions, the system reverts back to the mean and we continue playing the same game but with better toys. Until you've rewritten human DNA, human beings WILL ALWAYS ACT like human beings have ALWAYS ACTED. No amount of dope smoking and blubbering while John Lennon croons, "Imagine all the people living life in peace, woohoooo," is going to change that reality.
No money, no Mars. There will be money on Mars. There will be soldiers on Mars. And yes ... my friend, there will be advertising agencies on Mars.
It's not about where you are, it's about who's there.
Quill
You could well be right, human nature stays the same, or at least changes so slowly that we can't perceive it. So that could be a valid reason as to why there will be money, soldiers and advertising agencies on Mars.
However the process of terraforming Mars will happen very slowly, so that means that there will definitely be a time on the planet whereby those things are not available. No soldiers because there's no one to fight and nothing to defend. No money because there's nothing to buy, ditto advertising agencies.
Therefore I don't think it's too much of a leap to think that once a status quo of no money has been established. The people living there might want to keep that status quo as it is.
Also if you take a look at the Elon Musk video, he explains how SpaceX is recouping its investment by taking up comms satellites and repair missions to the ISS. Hence he will have little or no need to try and recoup the investment from Mars itself.
We (or rather our Grandchildren) will see :-)
Cg
@cryptogee,
Listen C ... I am contacting Elon Musk right now and offering to set up Mars' first advertising agency, "QuillX Creative." I'm going to write a poem that he can't resist and recommend that we name the maiden ship, HMS (Anything) ... so long as we get the HMS in there.
Quill