Just imagine that you've built a space ship that can take you and your selected, say 10,000, passengers 14 light years to the nearest habitable planet. https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/news/240/the-nearest-potentially-habitable-planet-to-earth/ So a couple of questions. How would you select your passengers, what criteria would you use, what are you looking for in these people? What system of government would you set up on your planet, how would it look? Oh, hang on, I'll pop another question in, what name would you give your planet?
10,000 hot women. I'm kidding (mostly...) I would want most of the people to be well experienced in hands-on construction and farming, so we can build houses, purify water, construct sewers and grow food. This is the 'meat and potatoes' of all civilization. I would also want a fair number of people highly skilled in wilderness survival. Primarily they will be the ones scouting and mapping our new world, but also they would be necessary as a back up plan if the farming and house building doesn't get off to a very good start for whatever reason. There would need to be a small amount of technical people as well, to maintain and eventually build our own modern equipment. We'll need a handful of scientists of course, focussed in biology, chemistry and geology so we can learn all we need to know about our new environment and how to thrive in it. The government would be a Constitutional Monarchy with me as King. The Constitution would be created before we launched, including input from all 10,000 colonists, I would have authority over its final wording and all 10,000 colonists would have the opportunity to quit before we leave if they don't like it. This Constitution would be the Law, and my rulings would only carry weight in situations where the Constitution was unclear. There would be a clear, immutable Line of Succession from me that would expire at some objective point, whether it be the death of everyone in the line of succession or some predetermined benchmark that society had to meet, such as a population number or a supermajority vote. Once that point was reached, the King would be replaced by a governing body loosely prescribed in the Constitution but largely chosen by the adult population of the society. To put another way, I would be in charge but only to the least degree that I could manage, and only until I either died or everyone else decided they wanted something else. I might call the planet Janus, after the Roman god of new beginnings and transitions, who protected those about to undertake a new adventure. But there would be provisions in the Constitution to rename it if the people wanted.
I would call my planet Nonnie. I would rule as a dictator or at least as a dic. My first passengers would be all my friends. The other 9,999 would be by lottery; the ones with the most lottery winnings would be selected first.
Assuming this is a one shot deal, I would try to pick 10,000 people who would be useful in setting up a civilization from scratch. The thing with our current high tech civilization is that it depends on very large economies of scale and extreme job specialization. So you are not going to be able to establish the life style of a 21st Century first world nation with just 10,000 people. It would take at least two or three generations to get back to that. So my base selection criteria would be agricultural & animal husbandry. It would be useful if I could recruit a few hundred Amish or Mennonites who already have the experience of 19th century farming and the work ethic. After that, construction specialists, miners and mining specialists, and a base of tools and machinery that could be used to build other machines and tools, including motor vehicles of all kinds. Also medical personal and a cadre of scientist types of various disciplines. As far as government goes, some kind of representative Republic. I would probably start with some sort of Mayflower Compact that everyone who wants to be a citizen and vote would have to sign. Children and generations unborn would have to attain citizenship by signing the compact and agreeing to some sort of national service. You don't have to do that, but you don't get a vote then either.
It would be a rough go. No sawmills, no foundries or steel production, no agricultural machinery. And since I would rather sit by a mountain stream than rule the world.....I would probably stay home.
"Habitable" in this context means that it's probable that there is liquid water on the surface! It says nothing about temperature extremes, atmosphere, radiation levels, what's for dinner, etc. I like the general idea of thinking who to choose to go along on an adventure for the rest of your life. But, ... how about Wyoming or Montana?
When I get thinking about it ....gravity. 1.4 earth's gravity would mean a 100 pound bag of " stuff" would weigh 140 pounds. Effect on the body?... I also consider 10,000 people would be too many. If you had a ship that was self sufficient you could send a research team to investigate things like availability of food, water, temps, etc. And keep your ship in orbit. A single light year is a long way to travel and you would have to have a way to get to the planet in a reasonable length of time.
Yes, we have a tough time living in the Antarctic with full supply runs and rapid medical evacuation available much of the year, oxygen to breathe, penguins to entertain. Every other place in our solar system is MONSTROUSLY worse than that. Someone recently asked someone in our mission to mars team what they plan to do about radiation during the flight. The answer was, we need to get their fast!! LOL! Then what do they do? Will they bring along a backhoe? Sorry for the downer attitude, but I think we're Earthlings! It's really great here! We have Doordash, microbrews, cows, ...
We are creatures of earth and we still die from starvation and thirst and we die of thirst with oceans full of water and we starve with a surplus of food. I would really consider keeping this planet habitable.
1) No addicts. 2) No unfit or overweight people. 3) No one over 60 unless they're super fit, and have irreplaceable expertise. 4) Every person must have "homesteading" skills. Agriculture, livestock, building, water management, etc etc. 5) Every person must have a science, trade, or engineering skill. 6) Everyone under 40 must be prepared to breed. I would go with the Govt of the place of origin - IOW democracy. Unless conditions demanded something different, of course. I'd name it Plan B.
And just wait till you get a case of Angolan shingles and your flesh falls off your body! But seriously...if we found a pristine and bountiful wonderland. ....in a few thousand years mankind would ruin it and squander it away.
I think a subject like this is fun to imagine and great for science fiction. But in reality it would be difficult, if not nearly impossible. But our minds have to go there before we do.
I can't imagine how it could be 'easy'. But then that's why it would be awesome. The challenge and adventure would be A grade.
They were pioneers that got snowed in the Sierra Nevada range...i think. Anyway that resorted to cannibalism to survive.
Not that there aren't other problems, but ... The world's fastest satellite is the Parker Solar Probe at 365,000 mph. 14 light years is 82,300,000,000,000 miles. So, that would be a trip of something like 25,000 years. Crank wants only those under 60.
You would have to have a faster than light method of getting there. But if we could get there in a year or two, outfitting 10, 000 people for survival would be a monumental undertaking.
If I can get enough of you guys to take 10,000 people each on your spaceship then I might just stay here on Earth. It would be alright with the rest of you gone. So... let's see... we're going to need something like... 799,000,000 ships... yeah, that should do it. Good Luck!
Well, humans aren't easy. The question is posed so how would someone create a perfect world. I would go with the idea of calling the new planet Genesis or Utopia (something as bad as that, lol). With race and religion v atheist issues, I would filter that out as much as possible. Then is there an alternative to cash and even the structure of society. Certainly politics doesn't work on earth, so what's a better solution? There's my cryptic reply so far.
