Freedom in a box

paradoxes in the structure of extraterrestrial liberty

Charles S. Cockell

pp. 47-68

in: Charles S. Cockell (ed), The meaning of liberty beyond earth, Berlin, Springer, 2015

Abstract

Extraterrestrial environments have within them paradoxes of liberty, most of which derive from the need that people will have to work under a strong collective ethic to survive in a deadly environment, whilst at the same time pursuing the need for individualism to counter these conformity-generating extremes. These paradoxes are manifest at political, cultural and economic levels. Defusing them successfully, without allowing an extraterrestrial society to completely unravel, will one of the primary challenges facing emerging extraterrestrial societies.