Space Empires

"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 06:20:21 +0800, in a place far, far away, "Niko
Holm" made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:

No siree, never had the chance to visit the states... been to Europe
though... I don't know if me wants to after seeing bowling for
columbine...

Are you under the mistaken impression that Bowling for Columbine was a
documentary, rather than fiction? The Oscar voters made the same
mistake, despite the numerous falsehoods and faked scenes in it.

/me books a plane ticket

Can i stay with you?

On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 06:45:22 +0800, in a place far, far away, "Niko
Holm" made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:

Are you under the mistaken impression that Bowling for Columbine was a
documentary, rather than fiction? The Oscar voters made the same
mistake, despite the numerous falsehoods and faked scenes in it.

/me books a plane ticket

Can i stay with you?

'Fraid not.

Niko Holm wrote:

"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 06:20:21 +0800, in a place far, far away, "Niko
Holm" made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:

No siree, never had the chance to visit the states... been to Europe
though... I don't know if me wants to after seeing bowling for
columbine...

Are you under the mistaken impression that Bowling for Columbine was a
documentary, rather than fiction? The Oscar voters made the same
mistake, despite the numerous falsehoods and faked scenes in it.

/me books a plane ticket

Can i stay with you?


Aw, heck. You can come over and stay with me.
We'll bar-b-que a sacred calf and invite a few friends over.
Most of them have carry permits.


Richard

"Mark R. Whittington" wrote in message thlink.net...
History Professor Jeremi Suri discusses the promise and perils of space
empires:

http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/...2405-1445r.htm

A more likely issue is the establishment of monopoly suppliers of
certain key commodities.

Establishing a moon base, or a Near Earth Object mining operation, is
a hugley expensive task. However, once done, Satellite solar Power can
be produced at a relatively low marginal cost. Further, if this were
based on NEO mining, precious metals could also be extracted at low
marginal cost.

The mining company would sell material only to non competing
organisations, and, because of the high initial outlay of capturing
asteroids or mining the moon, would always have a price advantage over
competitors. Competitors would not be able to get funding, as the
original mining company would have a headstart of a few years. It
would be like lending money to an inexperienced upstart (as opposed to
AMD or IBM) to challenge Intel.

Within a few decades, such a company could be supplying the vast
majority of Earth's energy needs, and would have a monopoly position
that would make Bill Gates green with envy.

What would governments do?

In article ,
Alex Terrell wrote:
"Mark R. Whittington" wrote in message
rthlink.net...
History Professor Jeremi Suri discusses the promise and perils of space
empires:

http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/...2405-1445r.htm

A more likely issue is the establishment of monopoly suppliers of
certain key commodities.

Establishing a moon base, or a Near Earth Object mining operation, is
a hugley expensive task. However, once done, Satellite solar Power can
be produced at a relatively low marginal cost. Further, if this were
based on NEO mining, precious metals could also be extracted at low
marginal cost.

The mining company would sell material only to non competing
organisations, and, because of the high initial outlay of capturing
asteroids or mining the moon, would always have a price advantage over
competitors. Competitors would not be able to get funding, as the
original mining company would have a headstart of a few years. It
would be like lending money to an inexperienced upstart (as opposed to
AMD or IBM) to challenge Intel.

Within a few decades, such a company could be supplying the vast
majority of Earth's energy needs, and would have a monopoly position
that would make Bill Gates green with envy.

What would governments do?

Be that monopoly?

Seriously, though, one question is, what *should* governments do? If
the company in question is providing energy needs cheaper than the
alternative, why is that a bad thing? And if it's *not* cheaper than
the alternative, then the alternative will be preferentially selected
and the quasi-monopoly will have to drop prices or lose business.

This disregards, of course, the possibility that more than one nation
might hanker to start their *own* companies, out of matters of national
pride or something similar.

It's a decent question, but it's an overly simplistic one.



--
Aaron Brezenski
Not speaking for my employer in any way.

(Aaron P Brezenski) wrote in message ...
In article ,
Alex Terrell wrote:

A more likely issue is the establishment of monopoly suppliers of
certain key commodities.

Establishing a moon base, or a Near Earth Object mining operation, is
a hugley expensive task. However, once done, Satellite solar Power can
be produced at a relatively low marginal cost. Further, if this were
based on NEO mining, precious metals could also be extracted at low
marginal cost.

The mining company would sell material only to non competing
organisations, and, because of the high initial outlay of capturing
asteroids or mining the moon, would always have a price advantage over
competitors. Competitors would not be able to get funding, as the
original mining company would have a headstart of a few years. It
would be like lending money to an inexperienced upstart (as opposed to
AMD or IBM) to challenge Intel.

Within a few decades, such a company could be supplying the vast
majority of Earth's energy needs, and would have a monopoly position
that would make Bill Gates green with envy.

What would governments do?

Be that monopoly?

I guess it could be NASA, if they have any commerical sense. In that
case, I'd expect the US Government to sell the mining and SSP
operations to wipe out part of the deficit.

Seriously, though, one question is, what *should* governments do? If
the company in question is providing energy needs cheaper than the
alternative, why is that a bad thing? And if it's *not* cheaper than
the alternative, then the alternative will be preferentially selected
and the quasi-monopoly will have to drop prices or lose business.

People dislike a monopoly - even if the world is better thanks to
Microsoft, they still get sued.

I guess some things Governments (or competiton authorities) might try
and do a
- force Space Mining Corp to sell materials to other parties so that
they can go and get their own asteroids
- try and force a split between the mining operations, the SSP
construction, and the SSP operaration
- force Space Mining Corp to share it's L1 lunar material capture
facility

And the arabs would do anything to stop the world moving off
dependence on their oil.

This disregards, of course, the possibility that more than one nation
might hanker to start their *own* companies, out of matters of national
pride or something similar.

If the moon becomes "the place" for mining, then whoever occupies L1
could be in a very powerful economic position. I don't think there's
any provision in international law for claiming a point in space.

It's a decent question, but it's an overly simplistic one.

Yes, but the variations are fun. What authority would the US and EU
compettion authorities have over a multinational whose operations are
space based, and whose registered address is L5.

In message
(Edward Glamkowski) wrote:

The Red Cross started out as an American institution - Clara Barton
founded it in 1881. Can you imagine the world today without it?

This would be a different Red Cross to the one the rest of the world
uses whose founding charter was drawn up in 1863 then?

Below is just a tiny fraction of what americans have invented:

Half of which seem to be down to americans who were living elsewhere a
lot earlier and never set foot on the continent...

Anthony

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