| | Michael wrote:
Phil Osborn raised an old ghost: The Problem of the Skyscaper and the Sunset. As far as I know, it has no solution. The Law says that your property rights are a cone from the center of the Earth, perimetering your landed bounds and then all the up to infinity. That is a geocentric view. Mars may well "pass over" your house, but you clearly cannot sue the Martians for doing so. Yet, "air rights" are real in New York City. In fact, next time you are out on the road, look at all the places that have mircowave ("cell phone") antennas on top of them.
I respectfully disagree, of course, else I would not be writing this. First off, the "cone to the center of the Earth" is not, as far as I know, actually part of the law, and, if it is, then that is wrong to start out with. If it were true, in fact, then I could, in theory remove any part of that cone or all of it, which would likely result in a major local earthquake, depending upon the size of my property, and very possibly a volcano. My neighbors' properties would be collapsing into the vast hole, but, why would I care? It's my property; I can do what I want with it.
And, similarly, if there were any actual basis in just legality for such a claim, then, logically, one should own the rest of the cone, out to the farthest galaxy. Why restrict it to a paltry 5,000 mile cone on the earth? When a claim reduces to absurdity and requires arbitrary limits in application, that is a clear sign that there is a problem. I.e., Check Your Premises.
Even granted that they could sue for being inundated with lava, if I somehow safely and surgically removed the cone to some orbital location for use in building an L5 colony, perhaps using the space elevator that NASA is seeking help in designing, then the earth's gravity would decrease by that amount, which might be a good thing for most people, but if enough people did it, would destroy the earth's atmosphere over time. It would certainly cause major economic impact upon other people's properties.
In fact, the law recognizes that ownership of a plot on the surface of the earth does not necessarily mean that you own the mineral rights on that property, and, by implication, that you don't actually own a cone to the center of the earth. That's simply an unfounded assumption. The ownership of a plot on the surface is just that, and you only own it down to the point that you run into potential conflict with other people's claims, at most.
Similarly, ownership of that plot does not mean that you can do anything you want on it. You can't, for example, store nuclear weapons or inherently dangerous substances on a plot in an urban residential neighborhood. Risk is a real, albeit negative economic good, and by doing so you would be forcing your neighbors to assume that risk.
The right to a plot of land, like all rights, derives from the right to action. You can't build a dam to raise fish or generate power if I'm removing the stones as fast as you're collecting them, in order to build my house. So, you purchase the right to the exclusive use of those stones from me and everyone else who might have an interest in the stones, and then we are all happy. You have the stones. We have the compensation.
Then, you can do what you want with the stones, provided that you don't use them in a way that generates new problems for the rest of us - potential floods, for example, in which case you had better be prepared to pay out more compensation, or perhaps give up your project as too costly.
This is simple justice. As to the skyscraper vs. the sunset problem, let the bidding begin!
Oh, and BTW, the "Fermi paradox" connection? As in, where the heck is everybody. Like, the universe has been around a LONG time, and there should be aliens all over the place. We shouldn't even be here, as the Earth should have been colonized a billion years ago.
My most recent take: The alien super-beings are waiting for us grow up to the point of submitting a request for prior property claims to the moon, the various planets and planetoids, etc., and, of course, including the Earth, before we start homesteading property that may very well already be in use or planned use by someone light years distant. Maybe when we think to send out such a request, they will contact us (or perhaps me, as I'm the first human, I think, to make the request) with an offer of trade, now that we've demonstrated that we're adults.
(Edited by Phil Osborn on 5/03, 2:34pm)
(Edited by Phil Osborn on 5/03, 2:43pm)
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