The Space Race - Do we remain countries or unite?
In a world where three or four, at least, other sentient, intelligent civilisations (of non-human species) with a few planets each exist, earthly humans are getting more advanced. We've finally got the technology to discover these civilisations, but we only discover them after we colonise our first planet. Speaking of which, we've found a nice candidate. It's empty, it's within reach and it's pretty habitable.
In the upcoming years to launching our first colony mission, there's some stuff that needs to be taken care of. Out of all of it, I'm wondering, what are the major pro's and con's of abolishing the idea of 'nations' and becoming an intergalactic nation named Earth?
Russia, China and the US, among others, would obviously be the 'main' countries if we don't unite. But all in all, what should be done, and why? Should we remain as countries, and have planets belonging to the US, planets belonging to Russia, and so on? Or should we scrap that ideology and have planets belonging to Earth as a whole? Perhaps a compromise between the two?
I suppose considering politics and economy is a must, but other aspects to consider are evident. I just can't think of them...
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1 answer
It's a good idea but it will never happen.
Becoming one nation is a good idea in terms of interplanetary commerce and diplomacy. If we're multiple nations, then we are pretty likely to have multiple currencies, and other planets aren't going to appreciate having to exchange multiple currencies to their own currency when they've already come light years to get here.
It's also a good thing for diplomacy because it means we have one set of policies to apply to interplanetary affairs.
However, it won't happen because people will think it's too much hassle. Not only that but people disagree so much on so many issues that reaching one stable state with one stable government is impossible. Look at the world - we have groups like ISIS and AQAP who disagree with the West, we have Russia who would be a very powerful space leader but also disagrees with the West, and every country has internal disagreement about its own policies because people are different.
However, what I can see happening is us having a Space Commerce and Diplomatic Affairs Committee (SCDAC) (because we like giving things long names). This committee would be made up of a few members from each country in the world, and would be the deciding agency for trade and diplomacy. They would manage incoming trade, taking and paying one currency, then distributing it to countries of origin in their own currency. The members would vote on the policies, and while this arrangement would be incredibly inefficient, SCDAC would be the only viable way we would find to deal with everyone or people will complain about not having a say, etc, etc.
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