Feb 16, 2009 | Lucas
Let's assume we colonized Mars. And since we've already made one assumption, let's make some more:
In order for civilization to be able to thrive on Mars, an economic infrastructure would have to be implemented, one that would at least in some way depend on that of Earth's. Here's the issue. If we calculate the distance between the Earth and Mars by subtracting the Earth's average distance from the Sun from that of Mars' (which ignores the fact that each planet orbits at a different speed) and divide that by the speed of light, we get 261. What does that number mean?
It means that it would take 261 seconds (4.3 minutes) for light, or any information for that matter, to travel from one planet to another (talk about having a high ping!). This would create a huge discrepancy in the markets, tremendously complexifying trade between Earth and Mars. For example, if you put in an order to buy a certain Martian stock at 1:00:00 pm, it would be processed at 1:04:21 pm, and you wouldn't know what price you bought it at or whether you actually bought it until 1:08:42 pm! That's an unacceptable gap if you consider the volatility and fluctuation of financial markets.
Another issue that would arise is a form of "insider information" on each planet. If you are an investor on Mars, having a lot of money invested in Hershey and all of a sudden they release a press release saying their chocolates cause cancer, you won't hear about it until 4 minutes later, by which time all the Eartians have sold their Hershey stock (and thrown away their candy).
It gets even worse when the Earth and Mars are on separate sides of the Sun, which happens every Earth year. It's not possible to communicate with Mars during that time because it's behind a huge ball of flaming gas. Even if the Sun wasn't in the way, the distance between Earth and Mars at that point would be over 2 AUs, meaning it would take well over 15 minutes for information to travel between the two planets.
I pity the iBankers of the future.