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Jobs of the Future: Planetary Colonial Governor (2100)

This series will explore the job of a planetary colonial governor in the future and how humankind will fit in to a future world order domin...


This series will explore the job of a planetary colonial governor in the future and how humankind will fit in to a future world order dominated with the technologies we created. We explore how "human activity" will be taken over thereby rendering the jobs of today and obsolete relic of the past beyond a century in our distant future.

Years and centuries into the future, we will be experiencing great and revolutionary change to the way we live, how society works and how humankind as a whole will see themselves. Our world has been shaped by different periods of technological growth and progress from the Neolithic Revolution to the Industrial Revolution. Exponential growth in population and rapid advancement in manufacturing, production and consumption coupled with the rise of automation, artificial intelligence and robotics will transformed human society fully-integrated with our own mechanical wonders.

Futurists and visionaries are expecting that the United States, European Union or China will start sending human colonists to Mars by 2050 and it is expected that by 2100, we will have a viable space colony. By the next century, we will be creating a carbon copy image of what we have on Earth in another planet. At that time, our world may be a one-Earth government and Mars will be governed the same way too. In the far distant future, Mars may become a separate entity on its own and will probably declare independence from its Earthly overlords. This is where a planetary colonial governor becomes necessary.


If you are the planetary colonial governor of Mars, you have to implement laws similar to what is on Earth. But with a diverse population and virtually empty wilderness to govern, it would probably be like governing Jamestown of colonial America and old West where frontier justice takes center stage. Since the planet will be governed like a colony, it would be interesting how Earth will treat the Martians (transplanted Earthlings to be specific). As governor, you could rule the planet like a despot as long as you serve your Earthly masters well.

According to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (yes, there is one!), the Mars is not owned by anyone. Since no body can own a planet, who are we to ask permission to colonize then if we intend to send humans there? However, there are no Earthly laws that prevent anyone (say Elon Musk) from sending humans there and set up their own colony.


Some experts believe that Musk's hypothetical Martian colony will be under American laws even if the spacecraft will be launched in the French Guiana or Kazakhstan. SpaceX is an American private enterprise and subject to American laws and technically, all colonists that will be sent to Mars are SpaceX employees. But what about colonies from major space players (i.e. China, Russia, India, Japan and the European Union) that will be established soon?

These scenarios will surely be debated in the future as to how we will govern future space colonies. It would be possible that transplant Earthlings will government the planet as one or the different space colonies will govern themselves like the country that sent them.

Do you want to become a planetary colonial governor in the year 2100?

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