Interplanetary Imperialism

[Rusty Shackleford]

ok i know this is some what of a silly subject, but i was watching a show on tv about life on other planets.

Now, say in 100 years humans send people to the moon or even mars and establish semi-permanent bases/settlements.

Would it be considered imperialism to inhabit other planets if there are no native aliens (like the british and the Native Americans or Spanish and the Aztecs and that kind of old imperialism) and since there is no inhabitants would there be anything to exploit? and since they are not human, would it be considered exploitation to use them as workers like farmers do oxen?


i didnt want to put this into learning because i dont think anyone has covered this seriously, or i have not heard of that person/article.

[Blackscare]

In short, no.

If there are no intelligent lifeforms being exploited, it's not imperialism. We don't consider putting research outposts on the antarctic imperialism either, for the same reasons.



Would it be considered imperialism to inhabit other planets if there are no native aliens (like the british and the Native Americans or Spanish and the Aztecs and that kind of old imperialism) and since there is no inhabitants would there be anything to exploit? and since they are not human, would it be considered exploitation to use them as workers like farmers do oxen?
This is a bit confusing, first you give us a situation when there are no intelligent lifeforms (I gave my opinion on that above) and then you turn around and you mention using "them" like oxen or something.

If you're referring to intelligent beings, I'd call that slavery and unacceptable. If they're just oxen analogues or something there's no real problem.



Holy shit I can't believe I just answered that. XD


*Edit*

None of the above is taking into account the eventual political rifts between colonies and their parent nation or planets that are inevitable (assuming that settling is pursued following a classic colonial template or something, the dynamics of a socialist society settling other planets would be harder to predict).

[Rusty Shackleford]

like i said, it was a silly subject and now clear it was poorly thought out.

i should have put in an if lifeforms do exist but are not human/humanoids i guess.

ill take what you wrote as the answer. If it is the exploitation of intelligent beings then it is wrong.

[Blackscare]

It's cool man we all wonder weird things sometimes :p

[Pogue]

i find space exploration really excitting i think in communism we should focus alot of time on exploring space, i think i should be the rocket man too

[Jazzratt]

I imagine if we have any hope of mounting decent interplanetary jaunts to the kind of places likely to support intelligent life we'd definately have had to have abondoned ideologies that hold the exploitation of intelligent beings as something at all justifiable.

[Dr Mindbender]

ok i know this is some what of a silly subject, but i was watching a show on tv about life on other planets.

Now, say in 100 years humans send people to the moon or even mars and establish semi-permanent bases/settlements.

Would it be considered imperialism to inhabit other planets if there are no native aliens (like the british and the Native Americans or Spanish and the Aztecs and that kind of old imperialism) and since there is no inhabitants would there be anything to exploit? and since they are not human, would it be considered exploitation to use them as workers like farmers do oxen?


i didnt want to put this into learning because i dont think anyone has covered this seriously, or i have not heard of that person/article.

No. You can only have imperialism if there is an indigenous, native population to be displaced, exploited, enslaved etc. That only includes sentient, intelligent life by the way. If on the other hand we had the technology to conquer a far away planet in a different star system already inhabited by technologically disadvantaged or non-hostile compliant intelligence, that would be a different matter. But i think i understand where you are going with this.

[Sentinel]

Would it be considered imperialism to inhabit other planets if there are no native aliens

No, how could it be?


and since they are not human, would it be considered exploitation to use them as workers like farmers do oxen?

If they were intelligent it would be exploitation (thusly it's not exploitation to use oxen, which are dumb animals).

[Revy]

I wonder if there is a grey area if the uninhabited planet is in the same solar system as an inhabited one, or it's a moon of the inhabited planet. Do humans only have claims to Earth? Many would say no.
We probably will see the entire solar system as "ours". If there are other uninhabited systems out there, there isn't any reason not to settle them too. The only world in the solar system besides Earth in which serious scientific theories of intelligent life has been postulated is Europa, a moon of Jupiter. Europa has an underwater ocean environment which scientists believe may be conducive to life.