There should be a tax only on goods sold and services rendered in mutual business exchanges That's it. We don't need a complicated tax scheme, we don't need licensing, we don't need a centralized bank, and the people crying that we should not have any tax at all are out of their minds! One tax on sales and services, government proposes that tax, we vote on that tax. That could be how we decide the tax structure. Taxes are important because they fund public projects. Taxes are needed in order to fund the building of roads, the deployment of a transit structure, the man-hours of government administration to process citizenship, and the infrastructure for the government to maintain itself. Do you want Asgardia to be able to have the money to go to space, or not? Because that's our big goal in the Asgardia project. If you are not interested in going to space or sending things into space, then I'm sorry, but you are in the wrong place. If you would like to see us in space, there must be a way for the government to make passive income, and that tax method (in my humble opinion) should be REASONABLE, TANGIBLE and MUTUALLY DECIDED UPON by the government and citizens. Asgardia's goal of launching a satellite into space, holding an election, having more culture and media, getting an Asgardia online store and mobile app and so on and so forth requires money. The money purchases resources and manpower needed to move the process along. If you are suggesting "no taxes" with no alternative, then please, what is the alternative?

I am opposed to having an official language. When you have an official language, that means the government conducts all business in that language and has no automatic responsibility to pay for translators. The plurality of Asgardians are Chinese, but they compose less than 20% of all Asgardians. No one language will ever be able to solve our government's linguistic needs unless there is an active campaign to teach all Asgardians the official language and disincentivize using their native language. English is already our de facto primary language and the extremely low participation rate of non-English speakers is already a tremendous problem on the forum. And that's using the most widely spoken language on the planet.

Hello, fellow Asgardians. I just wanted to drop by to show my support for Esperanto as the official language for Asgardia. As an introvert, I usually don't post much. However, I read most of your posts. I find this topic very important and wanted to add my voice to those who prefer a neutral language like Esperanto to be the official language of the first space nation. ~~~ Much love to all. --Yovy

The ancient, unending debate over whether the totality of reality can be explained solely by matter or if it requires an additional spiritual substance of some sort does indeed better fit in the philosophy subforum. It is a mistake, I think, to approach consciousness from the perspective of trying to fit fundamental forces and the laws of physics directly onto subjective phenomena. It is easily verifiable that consciousness, and all subjective phenomena, are not directly physical phenomena, but operate through and as a result of material media/interactions, such as cells. The primary requirement of a subjective phenomenon is a capacity for memory. Subjective phenomena do not require intelligence. They are distinguished from objective phenomena by their non-deterministic functions. Single celled organisms, for example, are often capable of (limited) selective responses to environmental stimuli. made possible through chemically stored information. We can argue that subjective phenomena are fundamentally immaterial, but I think this requires ignoring the fundamentals of complexity and I think that all subjective phenomena are fundamentally complex. After all, nothing subjective has ever been observed at the quantum level or even at the substantially more complex atomic level. Complexity requires that the particular arrangement of the simple components of a phenomenon do not affect the complex phenomenon per se. This does not mean the particular arrangement of complex phenomena are not affected by the particular arrangement of the simple components, merely that a human brain is a human brain regardless of what particular information is stored in it. This behavior can give the appearance that the material involved is not relevant to the subjective function, but that is not the case. Remove the brain and you remove the conscious subject. Change the brain's material arrangement and you change the subject, although the subject is still a subject. One analogy would be that turning a fan on outside in a storm changes the storm measurably (barely), but it is still a storm. The other problem with materialism is that subjectivity naively (in the technical sense) appears to be a fundamental property of objects, but this is not the case. I would point to Putnam's Miniworld thought experiment for a rather conclusive argument that subjective markers (words) and the difference between a complex phenomenon and a simple phenomenon involving the same matter are distinctive properties that only occur when an intelligent subject is involved, not as a result of any direct material interaction. It merely appears to us, as intelligent subjects, that these properties are fundamental, because they are fundamental to the subjective universes existing virtually in our minds as materially stored information.

or could the psychic phenomenon exist due to particle entanglement? Would explain why animals know when a CME on the sun occurs before our space based telemetry senses it and that's days before the CME actually passes our way. Sub space communications ala Star Trek would be possible with particle entanglement, with the exception that it would work in real time anywhere in our galaxy, unlike in the show where it still takes a little time, increasingly the farther you are away.

+1 teaching how to think. Question everything.

My view on this is that basic education, even for kids should be a revised version of the Trivium and Quadrivum from the middle ages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrivium I am currently working on a proposal that includes this. Of course we need to teach students to be inquistive and to have an open broad reaching mind that is tolerant of widely different cultures and beliefs which is fundamentally inclusive and unifying.

How about teaching students not what to think, but how to think? Essentially analyzing claims to determine validity; examining not just the answer and how we came up to it but also the question itself. The best teachers I had didn't just teach the answers, but they taught us how we came to them and why, so maybe classes regardless of topic should include this sort of reasoning and analysis instead of just what is "right" and wrong. Maybe a political science class(es) would be a good addition alongside a general education regardless of what career a student would eventually take, and maybe a class that introduces students to the different ideological or religious views designed and taught by those views who want to teach, not proselytize or indoctrinate, students about their believes. The reason I'd suggest a introduction course is that I think with excluding any official teaching on those ideals and leaving it to families who may not know or fully understand them, is that they might present a false representation based on biases. Asgardia will most likely be a nation of many different ideals, and allowing potentially biased and incorrect understanding of those ideals to permeate through the society, I think would be a bad idea. We only need to look now at the many situations around the world where certain groups are demonized, many because people have this misinformed idea about those groups that's been allowed to spread unchecked and unchallenged. We should be open to exploring them, regardless of how comfortable we might feel if only to prevent further stigmatization against them. I'll take the idea of Evolution since it's already been dropped: it's hard to study several fields in biology without acknowledging the certain mechanics of evolution coming into play. So while its studied in science classes, we should also have class that examines the controversy surrounding the topic of evolution and examine why we have them. This is a pretty interesting subject, thanks for bringing it up, I look forward to responses and continuing the discussion

Education is about creating the future citizens that you want. Not teaching those subjects leaves things open to having a society that will tear its self apart. Also, it is impossible to keep those world views out of the classroom as the students bring it in. Having no official teaching on these subjects might allow students to repress other students in some manner that would affect there education. For example if a male student is taught at home that women have no value and should not be educated, that would greatly affect his ability work in a mixed gender classroom. The ideology and moral value of tolerance/acceptance must be taught, otherwise the classroom will be unteachable. And beyond that society will be unmanageable.

Меня зовут Александр и у меня есть по этому поводу свое мнение, или идея, каждый может понять по своему.Необходимо чтобы в каждом регионе на планете Земля был представитель нации (уполномоченное лицо), достаточно корректный ,знающий ситуацию в регионе и обладающий навыками убеждения ,для того чтобы отстаивать интересы государства, нации. Предлагаю создать пока виртуальный кабинет иностранных дел, затем реальный когда у нас появится возможность для этого. С этого мы можем начать становление и нашего государства, нации в целом. От слов к делу. Параллельно можно создать и остальные кабинеты чтобы уже закрепить людей по направлениям в соответствии с их желаниями и возможностями. И в соответствии с этим решать конкретные вопросы а не просто писать в форуме, хотя согласен начало положено хорошее. Если это прочитает и Игорь Ашурбейли думаю он это поддержит. Давайте с этого и начнем . Ps: Жду связи и конкретных предложений для реализации нашего глобального проекта

Diplomatic relations are going to be crucial to the success of this concept. I do not believe there can be a one-glove-fits-all approach to this but there are some ground rules. Familiarity with the host country's customs and legal framework are certainly high priority. To that I would add language skills and a basic understanding of space science.

It is sure. In addition, forums should be arranged for the Asgardians from various countries of origins to meet each other and to make friendships. A real Asgardian society has to be formed so that candidates to be ambassadors should be chosen based on the principle of equal opportunities. However, no cretertia will be required for any asgardian to attend these forums and events.

Completely agree. While I am here I officially nominate myself as Ambassador to the great principality of Sealand.

Nobody should be abused or mistreated because of their beliefs but when people talk about religious freedom, they usually mean the right to discriminate against others, the right to control how other people behave and the right to impose their beliefs on others. Those things should be explicitly forbidden in Asgardia but any religious practices that do not contravene Asgardian law, will, by default, be allowed. I think it would be dangerous to give religions any special recognition in the constitution and that all the law needs to do is to prohibit various forms of discrimination, including those based on belief systems.

There is nothing special about religions, and in my opinion there should be no special clauses in the constitution for their protection (your all powerful God needs protection? I'm sorry, that is too funny), except a clause that protects freedom of speech and freedom of thought (as others have already mentioned). All our technology is based on science. Science is going to create Asgardia (hopefully), science is going to bring us out into our solar system, and beyond, not prayers nor belief. You can believe whatever you want, but do not expect that others should respect your superstitions, they are not special, and bad ideas should always be exposed for what they are; Bad ideas. Our Earth would be a far better place if people started to make their decisions based on facts, instead of belief.

[quote] Re: Need to guarantee religious freedom in Constitution <== I agree with Petrv here. By: petrv(Asgardian) on 27 February 2017, 9:14 p.m. There MUST be two basic principles included in Constitution of Asgardia: 1) Asgardia is secular 2) Freedom of speech must be guaranteed to all citizens Religion is internal affair of every human, all religion activities should be held privat. All REAL believers keep theirs faith inside, not parade it in public or trying to convert other to his/her faith - this is not faith, but seekin for power...we have many examples of such behavior in history of all old nations and it must not be allowed in our new nation, I think...[/quote]

Hola Perú, Soy el nuevo Chapter Advocate del Perú. Estaré moderando algunas de las entradas del foro ligadas al Perú. Por otra parte... ¡Ya tenemos página oficial de Asgardia para el Perú en Facebook! Únanse dando un like y siguiendo la página para noticias. Link: https://www.facebook.com/asgardiaperu/ Un saludo asgardiano para todos :) - Eduardo

Hola, pensé que eramos más. Ahora entiendo el que no tengamos subforo ministerial. Feliz navidad $ir!

Well, being neither a scientist or an engineer i feel like maybe i can weigh in a little outside perspective. I agree that this whole concept is very young, and therefore susceptible to being drowned out by too many voices. To paraphrase an earlier post, a "choose your favourite nutjob" scenario. However, this is also the best time to find just how in unison our voices really are, see what issues we divide hardest on and address them. On the same note it is also the best time to see what issues we can leave behind easily. I for one, being unskilled, hope that we can adress the concern of education amongst our new community. I firmly believe that exposure is the surest way to address the echo chambers that all of us without fail come from. Be it acedemic, cultural, political, etc. Thank you for your time in reading this.

I'm fairly sure that the underlying issue here is that people are used to place cultural norms as the base of everything they do. Where you live and the history of that location formed the culture you most likely are used to. But Asgardia is a new concept in that it doesn't have a "base" culture to develop from. This, combined with the concept that the attempt includes the idea of using science as the base for decision-making, makes most of those issues.. irrelevant. Laws should make sure people's health (physical and mental) is preserved, and that contributing to society with your skills and capabilities is not hampered by cultural norms. The flow chart is pretty simple in my eyes: is "topic" harmful to those matters? If so, then it is meant to be handled legally; otherwise, it's not even supposed to be a topic of discussion. Let's take the example of discrimination. Someone hires only male employees on a specific job; Some would see it as discrimination. But you shouldn't solve this with the blanket idea of "gender quotas"; Laws should merely ensure that those who got the job were in fact the most qualified. /That/ is the base concept I wish was considered. Ensure that decisions are taken based on merit, skills, availability for the job's time constraints and what not. If your religion stops you from taking a job because it says that metal is impure and shouldn't be touched, then you are unfit for the job, it's not them who should adapt to your un-scientific belief and coat everything in nonmetallic materials. We need to ensure we're efficent, that people have access to what their merits say that are able to do, that we keep beliefs and opinions not based on actual needs and scientific research away from the decision process. Most of the issues you speak of base themselves on the concept that illogical discrimination is paramount. We shouldn't handle the symptoms of illogical, inefficient, un-scientific thought; Merely catch all by requesting decisions to be proven to be made based on facts rather than culture. Anything else is just looking at special cases of behaviour that is logically unacceptable; thus, at the current time, pointless.