Buying Jupiter for the price of a space station
Imagine alien prospector wanting to build "space highway" through our solar system. There could be another route, but the one leading to our system is "the best"
Such prospector also wants to use Jupiter orbit as "space gas station, with bar". Jupiter could be used not only because of its gravitational attributes, but simply because it would provide a stunning view for spacecrafts passing by.
The alien law states only one clause: If in given solar system is a planet with a civilisation which can detonate an atomic bomb, you have to have an agreement of such planet.
In our case, it would mean, that "space highway" has to be voted by UN and approved by majority of votes of all United Nations countries.
The prospector is willing to trade, offering to humanity new, shiny space station packed with cutting edge tech (from Earth point view). There would be nothing unknown to humanity, but imagine onboard computer having capabilities of top 500 supercomputer but also being shielded from space environment.
Also, prospector thinks, that if humanity knows, that if they make it to such "space bar" on their own, they could buy things from gas pump or such bar. And there are going to be "alien technologies"
The biggest drawback is, that our alien has to have a majority of Earth agreeing with such "space bar" and he would like Earth to agree in next 10 years. If agreement is not met, next detour is around Proxima Centauri solar system.
How should our alien proceed? He wants to approach us "tomorrow" (Earth current day)
Some background
Aliens see us the same way as we see "low paid jobs nationality." If you are American, imagine meeting Mexican. For Germans it would be Turkish and for Czechs it is Ukrainians. They would treat us the same way as we treat them:
- Do not generally care how Earth lives and what is its technical development
- Do not care who is representant of Earth
- "All earth people are the same" racist approach
- Do not care what alien technology is going to do with Earth
If someone from Earth manages it to this space gas station, they are going to be approached the same way as American would approach someone from Mexico:
"Uh, I am new here. How can I buy stuff?"
- "Space credits, dude."
"And how do I get some?"'
- "Sorry, I have no change right now."
"How do I apply for membership in space union?"
- "Just 25 light years away there is space union branch."
"And who is your leader?"
- "Xulguth the Great, duh! You never heard of him?"
(And so on. Basically assume same level of racism and racial profiling as you would do in your normal day when meeting someone from "foreign workers" nationality)
Also, you may assume, that all aliens posses "universal translator" device which allow them to understand every language which has been ever broadcasted on TV
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/15105. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
I think the hard part would be each nation wanting to make sure they got a piece of the pie, and it might be hard to do that with a single space station and set of equipment.
They'll be fighting over it like a bunch of parents fighting over the last Tickle Me Elmo. At some point some idiot will say "If I can't have it no one will" and shoot it down.
What would be a lot better would be the plans and theory for some technology that could be shared every where. Clean cold fusion, replicators, teleportation... Something that would help bring the poor nations up to a level closer to the rich nations, and not destroy the planet in the process.
Granted, the space station could have those things on it, but the reverse engineering would be handled by the rich nation governments and multinational corporations (since they have the resources to do something like that) and the poor nations would (rightly) be afraid that the technology would be limited and controlled.
Say Lockhead Martin got the right to reverse engineer the replicator, then they get to build and sell them to anyone that can afford to buy one, at a 100 million dollars apiece, and no one else gets to make one, and anyone that tries gets sued...
Some people would say that it's important not to disturb the status quo, but those people are the ones that are making all the money from the way things are now.
It would be a disaster for everyone else.
Also, any agreement should be a lease for the space around Jupiter, not sale outright. Something like the Chinese did with Britain for Hong Kong with the 99 year lease.
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