031 - Thomas Walker-Werth: Free City Planning, Frontier Governance & Colonising Outer Space

Jun 23, 2023

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Timothy Allen talks with Thomas Walker-Werth.

Today’s show was one of my favourite interviews from our recent trip to LibertyCon in Lisbon. Thomas is an associate editor at The Objective Standard, and as a former town planner in the UK he has much to say about the designing and organising of Free Cities.

In this conversation, we take a deep dive into the reality of what its actually like planning towns as well as making some predictions about the prospect of designing places to live in outer space, particularly mars. Thomas has uniquely informed opinions on the morality and practice of governance in these future frontiers which, prior to our conversation was not something I had ever thought about before.

Other topics covered include: New urbanism, 15 minute cities, post modernism, flying cars, environmentalism, collectivism and we discuss the role that Elon Musk might play in the future of alternative governance models.

Enjoy the conversation.

TIMESTAMPS

(0:10) Introduction to the show.
(2:42) What was your career direction after high school?
(7:42) High street zoning laws.
(12:05) The problem with the 15 minute cities concept.
(15:59) Centrally planned cities.
(20:51) Why postmodernism is a rejection of the enlightenment
(24:51) Does the postmodern idea have any validity?
(29:50) How to plan your own development.
(34:00) The problem with the American model of retail.
(37:44) Are we going through a period of technological optimism?
(41:57) Avoiding the sound of road traffic.
(46:01) Where does moral value come from?
(51:43) What did you think of Dubai?
(57:50) Planning in outer space.
(59:52) 101 on how space will be colonised.
(1:04:22) Colonising Mars.
(1:11:44) Space colonisation and governance.
(1:14:30) The difference between authoritarianism and legitimate law enforcement.
(1:16:50) The difference between earth frontier colonisation and space colonisation.
(1:23:23) Creatives are always complicated personalities.
(1:28:06) How many people will die in a space race?
(1:31:24) Environmentalism is a rejection of humanity.
(1:38:05) Decentralisation vs. centralisation.
(1:40:52) City states and borders.
(1:44:07) What kind of governance models do you favour?
(1:50:02) Is America the best country on earth.
(1:52:44) Will we ever see a culture of freedom on earth again?
(1:55:37) Setting up a new state.

TWITTER:

Thomas Walker-Werth: ⁠https://twitter.com/knutsvanholm⁠

Timothy Allen: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/MrTimothyAllen⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Free Cities Foundation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/freecitiesfound⁠⁠⁠⁠