DISSENT AND WELFARE

Abstract

AbstractFor liberty to succeed in space, there must be the capacity for people to dissent. The encouragement of dissent is critical to revealing political and economic arrangements that can lead to danger, even existential risks, in an inherently lethal environment. But how can people dissent in an instantaneously lethal environment where disruption such as a depressurisation event could threaten many lives? What types of dissent can work in the lethal conditions surrounding extraterrestrial settlements? Can strike action and revolution be accommodated in confined and economically limited extraterrestrial conditions? Both physical infrastructure and social conditions must be engineered to allow the conditions for dissent and disobedience and the means to channel these disagreements into peaceful and productive ends.