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However, critics highlight a gap in Musk’s vision: while he emphasizes physical and engineering challenges, he pays scant attention to the governance and societal questions that must be solved before such colonies can be sustainable and peaceful. Without frameworks for self-governance, social cooperation, and cultural cohesion, space settlements risk replicating Earth’s mistakes or descending into chaos.
The Critical Gap: Governance and Civilizational Stability
The most pointed critique is that Musk’s focus on rockets and infrastructure misses the “art of governance”—the civilizational engineering of societal systems. When asked about how Mars will be governed, Musk downplayed the question, asserting that his concern is building factories and ensuring resupply logistics.