We are looking at a possible million humans or more living on Mars by 2050.
How will they live? What will they be doing? Is it going to be easy to travel between Earth and Mars? Are the communication systems going to work to keep connected with families on both planets? Why would you want to go to Mars in the first place?
These things do seem possible, based on reusable rockets and the fact that you can probably fly from Beijing to New York in under two hours today, travelling at four times the speed of sound (3,000mph/4,820kph). It’s not just our world that is getting smaller, but our solar system.
For me, this means that Earth will move to a global currency. It may be a stablecoin or a cryptocurrency or a basket of currencies – who cares? – the bottom-line is that the world of Star Trek and Star Wars is almost here … and who was bothered about money in either of those movie franchises (although Star Wars credits is a thing).
Regardless, let’s look forward and the fact is that a Multiplanetary Agent will become a thing. Like a Real Estate Agent, the Multiplanetary Agent will manage your move between planets. Between selecting your real estate on the Moon or Mars, to enabling the removal firm to move your worldly assets between them, the Multiplanetary Agent will be key.
Having said that, it assumes you are moving to another planet. What if you just wanted a holiday on Mars? Well, again, the Multiplanetary Agent can help. Just like the traditional estate agent, the Multiplanetary Agent will book everything for you from where to stay, what to see and how to get there.
In other words, just as we live today with cities and countries as destinations, within the next few decades, planets and satellites will be destinations. You want to go to Disney Florida or Disney International Space Station? You want a holiday on Earth or Mars base station? Have you considered which currency to use – dollars, bitcoins or marsbits?
The Multiplanetary Agent will deal with all of these things for you. Interestingly, you can delegate a lot of it to an automated agent, but the advantage of a Multiplanetary Agent is that they can personalise everything for you; manage everything for you; insure everything for you; and deliver everything for you.
A little bit like a prediction years ago that intermediaries would no longer be needed, I don’t believe it. In the future world, even with everything automated, a Multiplanetary Agent that is human will be important to ensure that everything from take-off to touch-down is smooth, easy and secure.
In particular, you have to bear in mind the difference between a holiday on Mars versus moving to Mars. Moving to Mars will be a big deal and if a million people move to Mars in 2050 you have to ask questions:
- How will they move?
- What will they own?
- Whereabouts on Mars will they live?
- Why would they move there?
The Multiplanetary Agent will work with clients to answer all of these questions, and manage their transition from Earth to Mars with them. It will be a key role.
Postscript #1:
Don’t forget there will also be thousands of multiplanetary hosts on spacecrafts travelling between Earth, Mars and other planets. Of course, the hosts could be robots, but human hosts will still play a key role in delivering drinks, meals and a smile on multiplanetary crafts.
Postscript #2:
Humans could potentially live on Mars, but there are many challenges to overcome:
Atmosphere: Mars' atmosphere is toxic, made up of 95% carbon dioxide, and only 0.13% oxygen. Humans would need a spacesuit to breathe outdoors.
Temperature: The average temperature on Mars is -81°F, but can drop to -220°F in the winter and rise to +70°F in the summer.
Radiation: Mars has high levels of radiation, and a violent solar storm could be disastrous.
Gravity: Mars has less gravity than Earth.
Dust storms: Mars experiences dust storms that reduce the temperature difference between day and night.
Resources: Settlers on Mars would need to extract resources from the local environment, such as oxygen from the carbon dioxide atmosphere.
Postscript #3:
In 1971, David Bowie asked if there’s Life on Mars
If you weren’t aware, it was his response to being rejected for writing the lyrics to what became My Way by Paul Anka, performed by Frank Sinatra. Anyways, if there is life on Mars we could be in trouble:
“(...) if we discovered traces of some simple extinct life form—some bacteria, some algae—it would be bad news. If we found fossils of something more advanced, perhaps something looking like the remnants of a trilobite or even the skeleton of a small mammal, it would be very bad news. The more complex the life we found, the more depressing the news of its existence would be. Scientifically interesting, certainly, but a bad omen for the future of the human race.”
Nick Bostrom, a Swedish philosopher and professor at the University of Oxford, essay in the MIT Technology Review
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
