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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The Capitalist Imperative

posted by on June 17 at 9:47 AM

European researchers said on Monday they discovered a batch of three “super-Earths” orbiting a nearby star, and two other solar systems with small planets as well.
gpw-200702-49-NASA-ISS007-E-10807-space-sunset-20030721-Pacific-Ocean-medium-1.jpg

If lifeless, if we can reach them (only 42-light years away), what’s in store for these super-Earths?

Capital, wage labour, landed property. Their interrelation. Town and country. The three great social classes. Exchange between them. Circulation. Credit system (private). Concentration of bourgeois society in the form of the state. The ‘unproductive’ classes. Taxes. State debt. Public credit. The population. The colonies. Emigration. The international relation of production. International division of labour. International exchange. Export and import. Rate of exchange. The world market and crises.

Cecil Rhodes:

To think of these stars that you see overhead at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would annex the planets if I could; I often think of that. It makes me sad to see them so clear and yet so far.

RSS icon Comments

1

Aren't these planets multiple times larger than Earth? So how "earth-like" could they possilby be?

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger | June 17, 2008 10:03 AM
2

An Earth-like planet is 3 to 10 times larger than the Earth. So not really livable... dunno what the real buzz is about.

From wikipedia:
"Beyond this point loss of consciousness will occur, sometimes known as "g-loc" ("loc" stands for "loss of consciousness"). While tolerance varies, a typical person can handle about 5 g (49m/s²) before g-loc'ing,"

Posted by Mr Fuzzy | June 17, 2008 10:07 AM
3

The smallest planet they can detect is 2 times earth size, but since they've found so many of them, it becomes likely that there are lots of planets smaller than that, just beyond the limits of detection. Every one of these planets is a potential market to exploit. And then, inevitably, the day will come when the people rise up and break their chains.

Posted by elenchos | June 17, 2008 10:13 AM
4

Damn that cecil rhodes and his 19th cent. global capitalism colonialism.

Thank god the ancient Greeks, Romans, Chinese, Sumerians, Egyptians, Indians and Persians never ever set up a colony nor conquered "Third World" peoples.

Posted by PC | June 17, 2008 10:41 AM
5

They are too hot for life, as stated in the article. Maybe though, that is not too hot for communists?

Posted by Original Monique | June 17, 2008 10:46 AM
6

All we need to do is invent a propulsion system and power source that will take us to near light speed and find a bunch of people willing to leave behind their family and friends, never to see them again.

Posted by keshmeshi | June 17, 2008 10:53 AM
7

Do you suppose we could send Mudede to one of them?

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty | June 17, 2008 11:00 AM
8

A single light year is something like 453,000,000,000,000 miles. You better have a worm hole that lets you off at the right stop!

Posted by Vince | June 17, 2008 11:48 AM
9

kesh, lots of people would be willing to go colonize another planet. Tons and tons. I'd be willing to go, even if it was a generational ship and only my descendants would ever see the destination planet. Humanity needs to spread out to other planets to ensure our survival as a species.

Posted by Big Sven | June 17, 2008 12:02 PM
10

@7 Could we send ECB to keep Chuck company?

Posted by You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me | June 17, 2008 12:11 PM
11

# 8. It's really more like a VERY long trip at the the speed of light. Not necessarily impossible, just highly unlikely.

Posted by Jay | June 17, 2008 12:20 PM
12

We haff declared War against der Worlds which are not part of our Third Reich, und all Americanish soldiers vill be flying to invade deiser worlds once we have built die giant starships!

Posted by Fuhrer McCain | June 17, 2008 12:50 PM
13

@10,

Mudede as Adam and ECB as Eve on a brand new planet: Are you sure you want that?

Posted by Bellevue Hospital | June 17, 2008 2:30 PM
14

@10,

Mudede as Adam and ECB as Eve on a brand-new planet: Are you sure you want that to happen?

Posted by Bellevue Hospital | June 17, 2008 2:31 PM
15

If it required several generations of people to get there then no homos would be allowed to go. They'd only be able to allow breeders. They would have to have children and raise them to continue the journey. Kind of interesting actually. It's the set up for Lost In Space.

Posted by monkey | June 17, 2008 3:33 PM
16

@9,

Yes, but, in the context of the Rhodes quotation -- exploiting other planets for the benefit of Earth is simply not possible. Even if we could travel near the speed of light, Earth would have to wait at least 84 years for any resources from other planets to make it back.

Posted by keshmeshi | June 17, 2008 3:59 PM
17

@15, WTF? Dr. Smith was totally gay.

Posted by CP | June 17, 2008 4:17 PM
18

There will also be families, and new songs, and love and betrayal and joy and strife. There will be heroism. There will be despots. There will be new ways of thinking and being, and there will be new social contracts.

There will be human beings. And I think that's fucking awesome. The only thing wrong with humanity nowadays is that we don't have a frontier to explore.

All the people who think that humanity is a blight or a cancer are welcome to opt out.

Posted by Lee Gibson | June 17, 2008 6:34 PM
19

kesh@16, you are right. We could *maybe* colonize the Moon, Mercury, Ceres or Callisto for a profit, but you'd have to go to the stars through sheer love of the idea of mankind enduring.

Posted by Big Sven | June 17, 2008 10:10 PM
20

ps- no need to go 42 l.y. away to look for life or colonization targets. Alpha Centauri A and B are both strong candidates for habitable worlds, and at 4.4 ly away you could conceivable get a probe there within a lifetime if SIM PlanetQuest (est: 2016 at the earliest) finds evidence of planets with the right orbits...

Posted by Big Sven | June 17, 2008 10:17 PM

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