Very interesting question. I think that colonies in the past can act as role models here. Some colonies have indeed been very small-scale for a time. Still, colonists have mostly been very different from gangsters, not the least because of their strong level of organized religion.
I imagine that some space colonies will inevitably fail. T…
Very interesting question. I think that colonies in the past can act as role models here. Some colonies have indeed been very small-scale for a time. Still, colonists have mostly been very different from gangsters, not the least because of their strong level of organized religion.
I imagine that some space colonies will inevitably fail. That is the price of diversity. Some will also be culturally primitive or just weird - crazy sects, more or less. My guess is that just as on Earth, the culture that can produce the most attractive living conditions and the most children will spread the most, because people will both immigrate to it and grow up in it. The difference is that cultures will not be able to suppress each other by force as on Earth. Diversity will be higher. Both on the positive and the negative side: The only thing that can put an end to a space colony probably is that everyone in it dies or emigrates. That gives a lot of space to bad culture. Bad culture that would have been suppressed by surrounding cultures on Earth.
So in summary, I think that the idea that culture tends to move towards higher levels of civilization holds also in space. The difference is that badly adapted culture will not be exterminated to the same degree as on Earth. For good and for bad.
Very interesting question. I think that colonies in the past can act as role models here. Some colonies have indeed been very small-scale for a time. Still, colonists have mostly been very different from gangsters, not the least because of their strong level of organized religion.
I imagine that some space colonies will inevitably fail. That is the price of diversity. Some will also be culturally primitive or just weird - crazy sects, more or less. My guess is that just as on Earth, the culture that can produce the most attractive living conditions and the most children will spread the most, because people will both immigrate to it and grow up in it. The difference is that cultures will not be able to suppress each other by force as on Earth. Diversity will be higher. Both on the positive and the negative side: The only thing that can put an end to a space colony probably is that everyone in it dies or emigrates. That gives a lot of space to bad culture. Bad culture that would have been suppressed by surrounding cultures on Earth.
So in summary, I think that the idea that culture tends to move towards higher levels of civilization holds also in space. The difference is that badly adapted culture will not be exterminated to the same degree as on Earth. For good and for bad.
Thank you for making me think a bit further.