This is probably going to be short and sweet... but let's see where it goes!
In this morning's batch of mostly garbage in my email inbox was an advertisement offering to sell me "an acre of land on Mars!"
It was even on sale for just $12, reduced from $35!
Now aside from the obvious thought of "there's a sucker born every minute," I got to thinking about the broader implications here.
In order for someone to offer to sell me a piece of the planet Mars, they have to be assuming that they own a piece of Mars, to begin with.
But who the hell owns Mars, in the first place? Did someone just walk into a land registrar's office somewhere and lay claim to the planet?
"Good morning! I would like to lay claim to the planet Mars!"
That's a nice idea... but who are you claiming it from, assuming that it's even something claimable, in the first place?
Sure, we can dismiss all this as "just a marketing scheme," but it's not that simple, really.
Let's project this out a little further: Elon Musk and crew are planning to colonize Mars... would he have to pay "rent" to this ostensible "owner" of Mars? Or is it in fact Elon Musk who's now selling property on Mars?
Is there going to be a "Mars land rush?"
And if we think BIGGER, is this simply what the human species does? If we were to find a way to traverse the chasm between the stars at some future date, would the first thing we do upon finding some exoplanet light years away be to claim it as "OUR PROPERTY?"
Sure, this might be a pretty frivolous discussion... but in the greater scheme of things, it's also a somewhat serious issue, if we project 100+ years into the future.
One might be given to wonder if there aren't treaties and such in place, concerning extraterrestrial property.
Well, there is, in fact the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 which sort of touches on this... but it was mostly formed to address weapons in space, not land holdings... except for a stipulation that no GOVERNMENT can lay claim to other planets. Or land on other planets.
The loophole is that it doesn't mention individuals, or corporations. Just *governments.
Even that is kind of tricky. Some of these companies offering "title" to a piece of the Moon, or Mars claim to be doing so "according to US colonial law," but that leads to the question of why Mars would be subject to United States property claim law... as opposed to Russian, or French or Japanese law?
And yes, whereas this is kind of a joke, and a pretty light and fluffy topic... it none-the-less opens up a can of worms I'm sure we'll have to examine in more detail, one of these years!
Thanks for reading, and hope you're all having a good week!
What do YOU think about this? The commercial angle aside, do you think people should be able to "own" land on planets? If so, who are they legitimately BUYING that land from, and according to what law? Do YOU want to own an acre of land on Mars? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
Greetings bloggers and social content creators! This article was created via PeakD, an application that's part of the Hive Social Content Experience. If you're a blogger, writer, poet, artist, vlogger, musician or other creative content wizard, come join us! Hive is a little "different" because it's not run by a "company;" it operates via the consensus of its users and your content can't be banned, taken down or demonetized. And that counts for something, these days! So if you're ready for the next generation of social content where YOU retain ownership and control, come by and learn about Hive and make an account!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly and uniquely for this platform — NOT cross posted anywhere else!)
Created at 20200805 23:57 PDT
0093/1321