A special early drop for patrons of the newsletter!
In 1927, Morris Cohen explained:
a property right is a relation not between an owner and a thing, but between the owner and other individuals in reference to things...dominion over things is also imperium over our fellow human beings.
That understanding of property—as a political imposition—raises profound questions about how we treat the outer-space commons and whether governments should be subsidizing billionaires as they plunder the stars.
In that vein, how do the space-colony visions of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos meaningfully differ? What does a company like Space-X have in common with the old imperial company-states, like the British East India Company? And why are billionaire bros obsessed with “political exit” projects like seasteading and galactic escapism?
We tackle all that and more with Alina Utrata, a scholar whose new article in American Political Science Review called, “Engineering Territory: Space and Colonies in Silicon Valley” is a banger.
✌️
Morris Cohen, Property and Sovereignty
Robert Nichols, Theft is Property
Alina’s Podcast
Alina’s Newsletter
