The purpose of this book is to initiate a new discussion on liberty focusing on the infinite realms of space. The discussion of the nature of liberty and what it means for a human to be free has occupied the minds of thinkers since the Enlightenment. However, without exception, every one of these discussions has focused on the character of liberty on the Earth. The emergence of human space exploration programs in the last 40-50 years raise a fundamental and new question: what will be the future of liberty in space? This book takes the discussion of liberty into the extraterrestrial environment. In this book, new questions will be addressed such as: Can a person be free when the oxygen the individual breathes is the result of a manufacturing process controlled by someone else? Will the interdependence required to survive in the extremities of the extraterrestrial environment destroy individualism? What are the obligations of the individual to the extraterrestrial state? How can wetalk of extraterrestrial liberty when everyone is dependent on survival systems?
The Cold Equations: Extraterrestrial Liberty in Science Fiction.- Fear of Freedom: the Legacy of Arendt and Ballard's Space Skepticism.- Freedom in a Box: Paradoxes in the Structure of Extraterrestrial Liberty.- Fairness as a Moral Grounding for Space Policy.- Space: John Locke's Ultimate Triumph.- Extraterrestrial Liberty and Creative Practice: a Firsthand Experience of an Imagined Future.- Elsewhere, Liberty.- The fate of Freedom of a Space Exploration Mission Encountering Life and the Liberty of the "Encountered" Extra-terrestrial Beings.- Astronaut Health: Planetary Exploration and the Limitations on Freedom.- Outrunning the Law: Extraterrestrial Liberty and Universal Colonisation.- The Lethality of Interplanetary Warfare: A Fundamental Constraint on Extraterrestrial Liberty.- Interplanetary Federalism: Maximising the Chances of Extraterrestrial Peace, Diversity and Liberty.- Liberty, Freedom and Democracy: Paradox for an Extraterrestrial Society.- Human Space Colonies: Towards a Governance Architecture.- Education and liberty in space.
"It demonstrates the value of the humanities and social science in the exercise of science and engineering. ... This is a book that engineering and science students should read along with their subject matter texts. It will also be of value to philosophy and political science students, and others who want to inform their space policymaking capacity with some aspects of science. ... In all, The Meaning of Liberty Beyond Earth is a thought-provoking book worth reading." (Joanne Irene Gabrynowicz, Quest, Vol. 23 (1), 2016)
"This book transports us to the pioneering phase of a new branch of our subject astrosociology. And what an engaging, stimulating and thought-provoking book it is." (David W. Hughes, The Observatory, Vol. 135 (1246), June, 2015)