Heinlein fans launch libertarianism into space

Forget Earth: In Space, Libertarian Ideas Are Thriving | WIRED -Sarah Scoles:

December 12, 2019 - "You may have heard the phrase 'There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch'.... Its acronym — TANSTAAFL — pops up in subreddits ... sweatshirts ... and as a nerdy economics rap on YouTube. Also: For the first eight years of the Libertarian Party’s existence, TANSTAAFL was its official slogan. So it may come as a surprise that this oh-so-political meal owes much of its popularity to a single book, about an anti-state revolution ... on the moon.

"Written by sci-fi luminary Robert Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is a libertarian manifesto baked into a novel. Heinlein infused his works with recurring sociopolitical themes, among them 'the importance of individual liberty and self-reliance,' as a sci-fi writers' society that anointed him its first Grand Master wrote. His interest in personal autonomy and private space exploration later seeped into the writing of other sci-fi authors, and into the minds of their readers—in particular, the leading figures in the commercial 'NewSpace' sector of private companies trying to escape Earth's surface.

“'The predominantly libertarian people who work in the free space movement almost universally cite Heinlein as their principal inspiration,' wrote engineer Robert G. Kennedy III.... Some of Heinlein's fans are, in fact, the biggest names in the commercial space industry. Take two of the (three total) people who've won the Heinlein Prize, a $500,000 award for accomplishments in the commercial space business: Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Bezos, who has faced speculation about his hypothetical libertarianism and whose gargantuan store certainly ducks taxes and regulation, has said he spent his childhood summers reading Heinlein.

"Musk, meanwhile, has called himself both moderate and 'somewhat libertarian.' He wants his Mars outpost to have a direct democracy where it’s harder to make laws than delete them — a stance that leans libertarian. Musk too has labeled The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress one of his inspirations....

"For today's billionaire space set, though, ... NewSpace companies are pretty much regular old government contractors in new-brand clothing. They run on defense department and NASA contracts; they rely on federal perks. 'Taxpayer dollars often sustain these mythically self-made entrepreneurs,' says scholar Victor Shammas... 'The state,' he continues, 'is NewSpace’s biggest customer.”

"Yet assuming these companies succeed, their leaders may well place a philosophical stamp on any space outposts that emerge. One day, when your grandkids or friend's kids' kids are riding their hover-scooters around Mars Township B2, they could be living out aspects of Heinlein's libertarian dream."

Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/forget-earth-in-space-libertarian-ideas-are-thriving/
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Pentagon has spent millions hunting for UFOs

The Pentagon Is Hunting for UFOs. Guess How Much It Costs. - Foundation for Economic Education - Working for a free and prosperous world - Camilo Gómez:

January 28, 2018 - "Last December, the New York Times broke the story about a secret Pentagon program that searches for UFOs. The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was a pet project of Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and then-Senate majority leader. The program ran from 2007 to 2012 and cost $22 million. It was funded by 'black money,' the term used for classified Pentagon programs. This explains why the project wasn’t public until this year...

"The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program gave most of the money to Reid’s billionaire friend Robert Bigelow, who runs an aerospace research company that has worked with NASA. Since Bigelow was already a billionaire, the obvious question is: why can’t he ... fund his own program?

"The relationship between UFO searching and the US government ... started in 1948 with a program by the United States Air Force called Project Sign, then it changed its name to Project Grudge. Then, in 1953, it became Project Blue Book for the next two decades. The program had two goals: to determine if UFOs were a threat to national security and to scientifically analyze UFO-related data.

"In 1968, the Condon Report was published by the University of Colorado UFO Project, a group funded by the United States Air Force from 1966 to 1968.... The conclusions of the Cordon Report were that UFOs are not a threat to national security, that unidentified sightings didn’t represent technological developments or principles beyond the range of modern science, and that there is no way to determine if UFOs are of extraterrestrial origin.

"In 1970, Project Blue Book came to an end, but that didn’t mean the government stopped funding the search for aliens. The SETI Institute, a non-profit organization founded in 1984, received funding from the government, but it stopped after the criticism as a waste of money without any relevant objective by two Democratic Senators, William Proxmire of Wisconsin and Richard Bryan of Nevada. But this was just the direct funding....

"The American government has wasted money on silly things like birdwatching, changing sand in beaches, and funding a clown school in Argentina.... UFO searches sound like a more imaginative way to waste money, but it’s still not a legitimate government function.

"[C]ould we trust that if a government actually solves the UFO mystery, they would reveal it? It seems doubtful, given their love for secrecy.... Plus, politicians tend to be hawkish, so if they are first to contact an extraterrestrial civilization, the risk of war increases. Searching for UFOs is just not the government’s business. We all would be better off if we leave that task to the private sector."

Read more: https://fee.org/articles/the-pentagon-is-hunting-for-ufos-guess-how-much-it-costs/?utm_medium=push&utm_source=push_notification
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Libertarians pioneer private space travel, NASA loses another $1 billion

NASA's $1.2 Billion Mistake Proves Something Every Libertarian Knows - PolicyMic - Christopher Blakely:

October 15, 2013 - "At a loss of $1.2 billion, NASA has officially shelved the massively expensive J-2X engine program. Development testing wraps up next year, but the problem is that there is currently no use for these super powered rockets. It is one thing to shoot for the stars, but aspirations without an actionable plan are nothing but a dream. There have been many advancements in the private sector that are making space travel far more practical and effective....

"Fortunately, we live in an age where space travel is no longer limited to the government. Entrepreneurs and scientists like Elon Musk and Richard Branson, both “small ‘l’ libertarians,” have been pioneering space travel in the private sector. Their advances are making it something that the whole human race can potentially experience. Musk’s SpaceX was one of the first companies selected with a contract from NASA for private space travel.... SpaceX has done so well that it has pushed policy towards private human space flight via the Augustine Commission, or The Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee.

"In the more commercial arena, the billionaire owner of the Virgin brand, Richard Branson, trademarked “Virgin Galactic” 10 years ago and now is now using it the moniker for passenger flights to space. While tickets are expensive, they are available for purchase to anyone with an internet connection. In a short time, these individuals have created amazing technologies with less capital backing than NASA."

Read more: http://www.policymic.com/articles/67551/nasa-s-1-2-billion-mistake-proves-something-every-libertarian-knows
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Libra, the 21st century libertarian space colony

Libra: The 21st Century (Libertarian) Space Colony | Paleofuture - Matt Novak:

February 15, 2013 - "There’s nothing hotter right now than starting your own libertarian-minded community from scratch.... Glenn Beck imagines building a community/theme park somewhere in the United States called Independence Park.... Others envision Idaho as the perfect spot to build a fortress-like libertarian utopia called The Citadel.... Still others — like PayPal founder Peter Thiel – are drawn to the idea of floating cities in the ocean, a libertarian dream of the future called seasteading.

"But all of these dreams pale in comparison to the grand utopian vision of a 1978 film called Libra. Produced and distributed by a free-market group based in San Diego called World Research, Inc., the 40-minute film is set in the year 2003 and gives viewers a look at two vastly different worlds. On Earth, a world government has formed and everything is micromanaged to death, killing private enterprise. But in space, there’s true hope for freedom.

"The film explains that way back in 1978 a space colony community was formed using $50 billion of private funds. Back then, government regulations were just loose enough to allow them to form. But here in the year 2003, government regulators are trying to figure out a way to bring them back under their oppressive thumb through taxes and tariffs on the goods they ship back to Earth."

Read more: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/paleofuture/2013/02/libra-the-21st-century-libertarian-space-colony/
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