Well enough lurking around outside the airlock! Might as well come in from the cold!
I first stumbled upon Asgardia the day of their official opening up and signed up right away (number 1043 it looks like). Corresponded with the initial crew for a ...
Well enough lurking around outside the airlock! Might as well come in from the cold!
I first stumbled upon Asgardia the day of their official opening up and signed up right away (number 1043 it looks like). Corresponded with the initial crew for a while and got myself really wrapped around the idea (micro-nations, seasteading and other attempts at independent states). Indeed some of the early attempts (the Atlantis 2 in the Bahamas was particularly apt) had much inspiration and guts but little on the practical aspects of working through all the legal and political entanglements. Most were just happy enough to sell postage stamps, passports and other curio and as such were usually ignored by the relevant governing authorities, being seen as more of a business venture than any real threat to the status quo. Because indeed, the concept of a nation on this planet is completely webbed up with the global status quo, mostly from the financial aspect (as all control manifests at some point). Thiel’s Seasteading project off the coast of Tahiti shows the most promise and we should monitor their progress as it goes. Could make an interesting co-endeavor with Asgardia at some point.
Politics and systems of control and coercion here on Earth have grown quite stifling for those liberty minded folks who still have not fallen under the hypnotic spell. The old left-right paradigm and divide-and-conquer tricks become obvious in the glare of open-sourced media and people the world over are fed up with it. Indeed, why start a space nation if you are going to just dredge up the same failed oppressive games from the muck only to pollute space and beyond with it! Not a good way to endear yourself to your neighbors (and get out of quarantine finally). We need to outgrow the childish egos our society is modeled around and mature rather quickly as a race or any expansion beyond our world on our part will be futile.
We cannot solve a problem with the same mindset that created it (Einstein I believe). One needs to elevate one’s point of view out of the arena to have the full field in view. With this new perspective, new paradigms are born and hopefully, we regain a bit more of our true humanity in the process. Systems cannot be repaired from within (though they can be eaten out from the inside).
This is an ancient and cyclic challenge for humanity. Are we up to the task? Can we break free from old familiar habits of control?
Asgardia so far has proven a very good virtual incubator of such concepts. Everyone involved seems to desire a clean break to restart the process where all have equal footing and respect. However the exact way of putting together all the needed elements for a fledgling nation has proven quite a challenge and at each level, new issues need to be dealt with that were not foreseen.
With the launch of its first satellite, Asgardia has brought the concept out of the social media discussion realm and taken things up a notch in the “real” environment. Small and insignificant it may seem, it is a cornerstone for a whole different way of looking at sovereignty and nationality outside any previous norms.
With the elections under way and things filling in all around I am feeling optimistic that this has sailed beyond the mere “pipe-dream” stage! Still a long road ahead but the initial steps are most crucial as all the rest follow in their tracks. Hopefully we can learn to become “good neighbors,” if we expect other possible neighbors to want to have anything to do with us! Asgardia indeed should aspire to become the ambassadorial coalition of Earth. So far we have the makings of such and once we have a legal basis for our sovereignty, we will be positioned in the vanguard of any exo-political relations that may unfold in our little neighborhood. It's a beautiful day!