Eight billion humans can replace 195 nations with 36 cultural bioregions

Every human has a duty to do what they do best in service of all-human self-preservation within an eternal brutal universe¹ including but not limited to gamma-ray bursts from imploding hypernovae beyond our galaxy, natural pandemics across Earth and super volcanoes erupting from within Earth. Through perpetual war, the oppositional nation-state system, inclusive of ancient and artificial scarcity-based economic constructs prevents duty completion across lifetimes. This dysfunctional hierarchy, inherited from preceding monarchies and empires can be replaced with synergistic organization, also known as the team concept in sports around more natural and diverse cultural bioregions. Mesoamerica,² pictured above might be one such zone of responsibility to past, present and future humans.

In order to repair the human endeavor from the effects of past to ongoing³ genocides⁴ and the underlying stress of multiple ignition points for auto nuclear annihilation, all humans can unleash the synergistic power of existing cultural bioregions, peacefully replacing the nation-state system that has been in effect since the Peace of Westphalia⁵ in 1648. In our time, still defined by many as the post-Cold War era,⁶ 1991-present, sustained⁷ and synergistic space exploration can serve as a constructive measure of every human’s potential. Otherwise, through nuclear ignition points at 1) Israel-Iran-Russia-United States, 2) Ukraine-Russia-United States, 3) Taiwain-China-United States and 4) Pakistan-India, human civilization can end at any moment, if only from the effects of nuclear winter. In terms of generational duty continuance, these civilizational pitfalls have been unnecessary, evolving and unacceptable hazards since the Cold War, not acceptable risks as part of healthy ideological human competition.

Treaties through “arms control” regimes only postpone war, including nuclear war. A far better arrangement for relations among all humans is a paradigm of rapid expansion beyond Earth to achieve civilizational resilience in our solar system,⁸ first by truly understanding comparative⁹ planetology.¹⁰ Any paradigmatic transformation can bring about what economist and systems theorist Kenneth Boulding (1910-1993)¹¹ calls stable peace,¹² meaning a positively integrated relationship(s) beyond the absence of war, though Boulding himself saw space exploration as a wasteful pursuit.

Global mobilization toward ever-enhanced exploration of our solar system and beyond can impart deep social meaning that can be reinforced throughout lifetimes, not through artificial scarcity-based economic “safety net,” “rope ladder” or “trampoline” concepts but through an emerging multi-global economy¹³ that acts like synchronized continental fusion reactors by analogical comparison. A glimmer of such a transformed reality was presented at the United Nations Assembly by United States President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) on September 20, 1963¹⁴ who proposed joint exploration of the solar system between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. This speech served as a conceptual foundation for the planning of the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz “Handshake in Space” docking mission as part of the Detente arms control initiative between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Later, the International Space Station project (1998-present) between Russia and the U.S. remains an echo of the JFK-UN model of super robust space exploration as an expression of the human endeavor.

Mobilized action through synergistic power, tenacity and follow-through in this regard can be much better achieved through temporary all-volunteer missions instead of being hampered by cluttered written contracts that continue to waste time and drain generations of human energy. Updating to an abundance-based economic model is long overdue, one that is conducive to dynamic co-exploration for better understanding Earth within a wider physical context, making its inverse, weaponized anarchy across and beyond Earth anachronistic. More pedestrian though just as important mega-projects across our homeplanet¹⁵ such as in the area of efficient multi-continental transportation have also been neglected by cumbersome interactions among 195 national governments, fundamentally in opposition to both themselves and the interests of all eight billion humans and growing.¹⁶

We can make up for lost time due to millennia of war subverting our lives and expand beyond Earth expeditiously by organizing ourselves around 36 cultural bioregions,¹⁷ yet to be delineated as more natural and flexible components than those that comprise the nation-state system hierarchy. About 12 cultural bioregions each from 1) Asia-Pacific, 2) The Americas and 3) Asia-Pacific can be configured and reconfigured¹⁸ across all continents of Earth as we all soon become a multi-planetary civilization.

REFERENCES

1. Martin A. Schwab, Prospects for Collaborative Power in a Brutal Universe, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Hawaii, 2012. https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/f71abd7c-66fb-4d25-898f-e61f357cc386/content. Retrieved May 15, 2025.

2. Suzanne Barbezat, “What is Mesoamerica?” ThoughtCo, June 30, 2019. https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-mesoamerica-1588575. Retrieved May 15, 2025.

3. “Genocide Alerts,” Genocide Watch, webpage. https://www.genocidewatch.com/countries-at-risk. Retrieved May 15, 2025.

4. “List of genocides,” Wikipedia, webpage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genocides. Retrieved May 15, 2025.

5. “Peace of Westphalia summary,” Britannica, webpage. https://www.britannica.com/summary/Peace-of-Westphalia. Retrieved May 15, 2025.

6. “Post-Cold War era,” Wikipedia, webpage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post%E2%80%93Cold_War_era. Retrieved May 15, 2025.

7. 100 Year Starship. https://www.100yss.org/. Retrieved May 15, 2025.

8. “Sea Rise & Solar System Resilience 1/1 | 3×3 Global Drills Worksheet Series,” Martin Schwab, YouTube. Posted September 30, 2017, video (5:01). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YNbxHLlDEE. Retrieved May 15, 2025.

9. Karl-Heinz Glassmeier, “Solar system exploration via comparative planetology,” Nature Communications 11, 4288 (2020). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18126-z. Retrieved May 15, 2025.

10. “Comparative Planetology – Definition & Detailed Explanation – Planetary Science Glossary,” Sentinel Mission, webpage. https://sentinelmission.org/planetary-science-glossary/comparative-planetology/. Retrieved May 15, 2025.

11. “Kenneth E. Boulding,” Wikipedia, webpage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_E._Boulding. Retrieved May 15, 2025.

12. Máire A. Dugan, “Stable Peace,” Beyond Intractability, Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess, editors. Conflict Information Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted October 2003. https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/stable_peace/. Retrieved May 15, 2025.

13. Armen V. Papazian, The Space Value of Money: Rethinking Finance Beyond Risk & Time (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022). https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/978-1-137-59489-1. Retrieved May 15, 2025.

14. “Address before the 18th General Assembly of the United Nations, September 20, 1963,” John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, webpage. https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/united-nations-19630920. Retrieved May 15, 2025.

15. Martin A. Schwab, Homeplanet Defense: Synergizing the Global Populace to Subdue a Brutal Universe (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: FriesenPress, 2014). https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22267791-homeplanet-defense. Retrieved May 15, 2025.

16. “Current World Population,” Worldometer, webpage. https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/. Retrieved May 15, 2025.

17. Martin A. Schwab, “Israel and the nation-state system are immoral: We need to construct synergistic cultural bioregions across Earth and beyond,” 3×3 Global Drills, March 13, 2024. https://3x3globaldrills.com/2024/03/13/israel-and-the-nation-state-system-are-morally-inept-we-need-to-construct-better-power-structures/. Retrieved May 15, 2025.

18. Martin Schwab, “Continentalist reconfiguration for human expansion beyond Earth,” Vimeo. Posted September 24, 2020, video (7:21). https://vimeo.com/461359568. Retrieved May 15, 2025.