Elon Musk, the most famous and visionary entrepreneur of our times, has announced on Twitter a new project. He needed six words to communicate his last vision to some 48 million followers: “Creating the city of Starbase, Texas”.
The millionaire decided to reconquer Texas, building an autonomous and “private” city. How will this idea develop?
Elon Musk is dreaming about STARBASE, the new digital and autonomous CITY-STATE
Starbase. Here’s the name of the new city that Elon Musk intends to create in Texas, two miles far from the mouth of Rio Grande. In the same area stands Boca Chica village, headquarter of Musk-founded aerospace company SpaceX. The idea is to expand this settlement to become a real innovative, autonomous entity and a kind of hi-tech, private city with its own laws.
# Bureaucracy keeps Elon Musk’s feet on the ground
Elon Musk’s project strives for a re-qualification of the area, and a reboot that goes really towards the ideal model of futuristic and digital city, with a series of new infrastructures.
Yet Eddie Trevino, the County judge in charge about, stated that if Musk wants to go all the way, he will have to follow the procedures: so making clear that a simple Tweet, for U.S. government, is not enough.
To make this project a reality, Musk plans to convince the residents of the area to sign a petition. The possibility to organize themselves with autonomous laws and regulations would thus depend from a popular vote.
# Innovation zones and private States: the new frontier for companies and entrepreneurs
This kind of project is nothing new, because for years there has been talks about private, autonomous, hi-tech cities. in this vision, any company with enough money, land, and innovative ideas can create its own private little State.
In Nevada, a draft law describes the so-called Innovation Zones. Actually, areas with autonomous regulation shaped as authentic private States. They would impose their own taxes, provide services and administrate justice with proper apparatus.
# More protection from the abuses of States and bureaucracy: the new frontier of the cities-States of the new millennium
It’s a frontier – digital this time – made of new explorers and conquerors; and a background of skepticism towards public powers could make this a reality. In an increasingly global and digitally interconnected world, physical borders seem to vanish. Classic State appears obsolete and we can imagine a future made of independent, private cities-States, linked by economic and cultural interests.
Certainly, it remains the problem of the protection of the citizens’ rights. We need to provide new systems of guarantees, to be applied in the world towards which we are moving, or we risk to fall into what some observer have called a neo-feudalism.
CHIARA BARONE
