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06/23/2001 Archived Entry: "Trouble"

So I picked up the latest July issue of Wired Magazine because I'd been interviewed for a feature in it, and I'm slightly mortified to find that the quotation they use from me is probably the most negative I said about the Mars Society (for the article was about the Mars Society). It follows:

But even some Mars Society supporters are spooked by the group's jingoistic ideals. "There's a concern that the Mars Society is a bit too heavily dominated by Americans," says Adrian Hon, an 18-year-old Brit who cofounded Generation Mars, an outreach program that deploys an Up With People/Trekkie vibe to get youth interested in the planet. "This always comes up at the conferences, that Europeans don't get enough say. Obviously, America has a very strong space policy, but effectively, Mars will just be a colony of America if the current trend continues. It worries some people."

(The full article won't be online for a few more weeks - I'll let you know when it is)

Now, I do stand by my words - I think it's true that the Mars Society has a (perhaps inevitable) American bias. And I don't really care that 80% or whatever of the members live in America. What I care about is the perception that we have to continue thinking like Americans when we get to Mars. That's not the point of going there, it's not just to recreate California. We already have a California, thank you very much. It's a valid concern, in my mind.

What bothers me, though, is that it sounds as if I'm completely against the Mars Society and Mars colonisation. Which, as anyone who knows me can tell, is complete rubbish. I'm proud to be a member of the Society and just because I don't agree with some of their policies doesn't mean that I'm against all of them. I guess what I'm worried about is the real possibility that some people within the Society will perceive me as traitor, considering that I'm only one of two members quoted in the article of having anti-Society tendencies, and the other guy is an award-winning author who can get away with saying stuff like that.

But what the hell. It doesn't bother me that much, and if it becomes an issue then I'll go and kick up a fuss about it.