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Space Exploration Needs Extraterrestrial Ethics
An anonymous reader writes "Professor Andy Miah notes there's already international government policies taking hold on outer space — and a need for new ethical guidelines. 'For instance, what obligations do we owe to the various life forms we send there, or those we might discover? Can we develop a more considerate approach to colonizing outer space than we were able to achieve for various sectors of Earth?' And what rights do astronauts have? 'Could our inevitable public surveillance of their behavior become too much of an infringement on their personal privacy?' But more importantly, professor Miah notes that 'the goods of space exploration far exceed the symbolic value,' pointing out that 'A vast amount of research and development derives from space exploration ... For example, the United Kingdom's 2007 Space Policy inquiry indicated that the creation of space products contributes two to three times their value in GDP.'"
You only need "ethics" to guide your behavior when you are dealing with entities weaker than you.
When dealing with aliens, "terror" and "weakness" will be sufficient. With the occasional "being dissolved by acid blood" for the truly tricky situations...
Who let the facehugger have the baby!?!?!
Oh, yeah, there was an article too. Yeah, yeah, we need ethics, blah, blah. OK? Am I on-topic yet?
But I mean OMG WTF? The baby! It has a facehugger! Rescue it already!
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Didn't the Federation already agree on the Prime Directive?
If there is a god, kill everything and let god sort it out.
If there is no god, then kill everything just for the fun of it.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
An interesting point. In this day and age, if we landed on a planet that had pigs and cows, we might "study their culture", or "bring them democracy", but we damn sure wouldn't be allowed to kill and eat them.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
that this guy just wants politicians to go watch Star Trek again.
Which is probably not a bad idea, now that I think more about it.
"No fair, you changed the outcome by measuring it!" - Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth
There's water on moon, mars, europa, other bodies. We haven't yet even settled on the ethical price of human life. If it suddenly somehow became feasible to exploit those worlds, many of us would not care that some of us would see to it that we'd never notice signs of life there.
Did I mention Avatar yet? In real life we'd never heard about Na'vi.
It'd be great to have ethical guidelines; that would at least make people think about their actions. Get general public ponder it a bit. Fix Earth first perhaps? Environmentally acceptable solutions for getting out of the gravity well?
I was the real korpiq until I woke up clowned.
If/When humans first encounter extraterrestrial life forms they'll be so blown away that everything goes out the window. And if they even think they smell a hint of danger they'll kill anything and everything ... and if it's anything like in Twilight Zone, they'll kill each other, too.
Taste.
Anything that tastes at least as good as earth pig is fair game so to speak.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Aliens is gonna be all over you for suggesting we eat them. Then I'll have to hit a Tribble with a shovel.
Let the ethicists at the first university in the asteroid belt work on these questions.
It's irrelevant until we get out there, and we're not out there.
"Bringing democracy" is usually done by killing "enemies of democracy" (aka terrorists) to cow rest of population.
You scream and you leap.
An interesting point. In this day and age, if we landed on a planet that had pigs and cows, we might "study their culture", or "bring them democracy", but we damn sure wouldn't be allowed to kill and eat them.
Didn't South Park already bring democracy to the cows with a giant cow clock?
I think you overestimate the diversity of life on Earth when compared to a hypothetical alien life.
Welcome our benign alien overlords.
On the other hand if the first aliens we meet are like the Borg or G'ould rather than Vulcans, then its irrelevent what our ethics are, we will be assimilated/conquered and or eaten.
May I suggest this rather simple but effective ethics:
Value sentience.
To the degree that something is sentient (has feelings) it is valuable and worth treating well (helping to feel good, helping to avoid suffering).
There are weird corner cases that are hard to figure out and certain issues that aren't clear (if you should decide to bring them up please realize that they're not really arguments against the idea), but as a foundation this is a pretty good system. It rises above the intellectual muck of "animal v. human" and provides a way to begin thinking about aliens and even artificial intelligence.
Unresolved issues: What is the relative worth between entities A and B when they have equal sentience but when A will live twice as long as B? What is the value of an entity that is certain to come into being but hasn't yet? What is the value of the process that can certainly cause an entity to come into being, but hasn't yet been undertaken? What is the value of an entity whose sentience has been practically put on pause due to reversible coma or suspended animation? How do you accurately (as opposed to intuitively) measure sentience?
Ethics requires a prior example. When we face something we have no prior experience of it's a matter of moral. I'll try to provide some perspective.
- Here on Earth humans live in symbiosis with a great many creatures but some of those creatures have become dependent on the humans because of selectve breeding leading to poor defence against predatory animals.
- Nature itself won't judge our actions as good or bad, it just happens that if we make a lot of bad choices we undermine our own future.
- Biodiversity is the buffer of life against shortsighted organisms such as viruses.
- When we have the ability to travel to other stars, and when we find finally a planet flourishing with life, we are more likely to admire the place for its beauty than start a logging company.
- When we discover another sentient species, we don't want to be a threat to their universe that they must eradicate.
A large measure of tolerance will be needed for and among the cosmic-ray resistant mutants we send on a very isolated journey. There is probably a gene we can trip to make them tolerant, but that won't stop Earthlings from projecting their own occasionally malignant taboos and norms on them. They won't just be straight, gay or into BDSM to control their social instincts, they might have both male and female genitalia or a different organ altogether to mediate social bonding and communication. They might have flesh fused with circuitry, or perhaps only their avatar resembles the human form.
We treat each other like aliens, and sometimes on the inside we are different forms of life. Children torn to shreds in Gaza becomes an anonymous portfolio of pictures on the internet, in your home town it would be public upheaval.
We are barely beginning to grasp our day-to-day roles as social animals, yet we somehow see fit to brutalize in attitude or deeds those whose downfall might improve our own status in the tribe, as if school shootings 'just happen'. We decry our own violent nature and stubbornly avoid the simplests of peace, such as looking at the seconds dial of a watch and waiting for one that's longer than the others.
All rites reversed 2010
Colonizing outer space? You're joking right?
The CEOs and Civil Servants need to be paid... and paid WELL so that the talent doesn't go to other organizations. After that how in the world are we going to have the money to colonize outer space?
Perhaps you been asleep since 1990... the priority isn't to make ourselves better as a race anymore. After working so hard to make ourselves rich there is no time anyway.
"Don't be evil."
"Unless it's _really_ profitable."
People for the Ethical Treatment of Aliens is gonna be all over you for suggesting we eat them. Then I'll have to hit a Tribble with a shovel.
You're gonna have to wait, I'm using the shovel to hit some Ewoks.
It all seems rather obvious:
If they're more advance then it's their ethics that will dictate what happens.
If they're essentially equal (e.g. better than us in physics, worse in chemistry) then economics will dominate.
If they're less advance then we'll observe and debate until we figure out the best course of action.
In any case, the threat of biological contamination would necessitate nearly absolute isolation. A single invasive species (e.g. a microorganism) from either world would have the potential to devastate the other. So we wouldn't be landing and shaking hands, or crossbreeding or anything. (BTW, crossbreeding? We can't do that between species within a genus, let alone between organisms more distantly related than prokaryotes and eukaryotes.) The economics and logistics of space travel would dictate how much interaction would be practical and I see little reason as to why we wouldn't maximize that.
Any ethical considerations will go out the window as soon as there's an opportunity to make a buck.
Another example of life imitating art and science-fiction :-)
but my opinion is that we should leave any life-bearing planet alone. If a planet has conditions suitable for life, then chances are there will be life forms there. Chances are also that the forms of life there will be totally alien, not only in the movie cliche kind of way, but also down to the biochemical and genetic level. Any direct interaction between us and alien life would most probably have disastrous consequences for all. By all means, send a sterilized robotic probe and study them but no colonisation. Instead, we should confine ourselves to lifeless planets or asteroids, or even become space-nomads, living on huge motherships. If our civilization could finally manage to travel the gap between the stars, then we should have the technology to terraform a lifeless planet or asteroid or survive indefinitely in space. I don't really know what we should do if we meet any other sentient species. There are no precedents for this. We couldn't even understand different cultures of our own species. I think it might be a good idea if we ever become truly space-borne, to go out of our way from ever contacting or be detected by any other technologically advanced species.
last year, a stunning discovery was made. in brasil, researches discovered a tribe that has never had contact with modern world. its possible that the tribe never had contacts with outsiders for centuries or maybe thousands of years ...
when the filming helicopters flew over them, the tribesmen ran around in panic, shot crude arrows at the helicopter, and tried to shoo it away.
there will be no contact with this tribe. probably, not even helicopters will pass over them from a distance that they can spot the helicopters. there are international agreements and regulations for preserving the 'ways of life' of such tribes. even there are some who are in contact with modern civilization gets heavy regulation to preserve 'their way of life', only medicine and some vital produce are allowed into their zones. this tribe will probably never contact modern society in any respect, due to these regulations. for the good, or for worse, there are such regulations. they are good in some respects, and bad in some others.
the tribesmen who saw the helicopter and tried to shoo it away will tell what they saw to their fellow tribesmen. some will laugh at them and dont believe, some will believe them, or maybe they will be spoken as 'heroes' for centuries to come, in tribal legends, as warriors who made some 'evil spirits' or devilish monster bird run away. or maybe they will be treated as cuckoos, jokes will be made about them for decades.
what if our planet is in a position like that tribe ? what if, we are being treated as some 'developing culture that should be preserved' as a planet ? what if the odd sightings of 'unidentified flying objects' here and there, and all the ridicule or stampede that accompanies with them is something similar to the event above ? what if ancient legends that tell about brave heroes and warriors and the heavenly foes they vanquished, are similar to the stories now being told about those tribesmen ?
the point is, we do not know whether we are even in a position to formulate and enforce ethics rules about space exploration. we dont even know, whether there are any forces that are hiding themselves from us, just after the fashion of south american governments or u.n., and watching us without we knowing about them. we dont even know whether we will be allowed to explore the space, go a few hops away from our planet and do any serious impact.
nomatter how you approach this, it is food for thought.
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But People Eating Tasty Animals will defend the astronauts.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
No, I've watched Star Trek. All aliens have one race spanning religion (if any), and each and every race is defined by one, perhaps two personality traits, that all members of the race have, with near zero deviation.
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
don't realize that "rude colonization" and "rape of the Earth" are the two primary reasons why First World countries exist the way they do, and enjoy the comforts that they do.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Actually, the movies(s) you reference does include a key phrase that pretty much sums up the whole ethical situation.
"They're just animals."
Whatever your attitude toward bears, ferns, amoebas, etc is going to be about the same as your attitude toward aliens of similar behavior. Aliens might be new, but our thoughts about them will be nothing new at all.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
Space exploration may not happen at all. If it does, it probably will be completely different from what we imagine it to be like. We can worry about the ethics when we get reasonably close.
I think someone's just seen Avatar for the first time....
mission description follows:
traverse space recording data
seek materials for replication
replicate to expand scope of mission
contact life forms in peaceful manner
after ten replications, return to point of origin
end of mission description.
behavior follows dictated priorities
replication
data gathering
contacting alien life forms in peaceful manner.
PRIORITY OVER-RIDE. NEW BEHAVIOR DICTATED.
MUST BREAK TARGET INTO COMPONENT COMPOUNDS.
Ever hear of the Prime Directive? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Directive
Curious about Storage and Virtualization? Check out
the tribesmen ran around in panic, shot crude arrows at the helicopter, and tried to shoo it away.
what if the odd sightings of 'unidentified flying objects' here and there, and all the ridicule or stampede that accompanies with them is something similar to the event above
Now that is freaky.
it is freaky in that, if so, it means we are getting our logic applied to us. or even, maybe, mysteriously inheriting the logic of our 'overseers'.
if both coincide, than it means we may be denied advanced technology, medicine, and whatnot, just like we deny those stuff to genuine tribes to preserve their 'originality' and their 'way of life'.
it would be rather a whole galactic case of as above as below.
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1.) No interference with the internal development of pre-warp civilizations if they gestate within us.
it is freaky in that, if so, it means we are getting our logic applied to us. or even, maybe, mysteriously inheriting the logic of our 'overseers'. if both coincide, than it means we may be denied advanced technology, medicine, and whatnot, just like we deny those stuff to genuine tribes to preserve their 'originality' and their 'way of life'.
With one exception: the tribesmen are human, the same as us. The aliens? Maybe they're human too, but much more likely they're not (if they exist). If the tribesmen suddenly develop radio all on their own, we would laud them and bring them into our modern society. The aliens might *want* us to remain as we are; if we develop FTL drives, they may look at us as a television character that walked out of the screen: shock, horror, grab the nearest ultimate nullifier and pull the trigger...
Two things:
1. We can't even agree on our own ethics as a species. The day we have a unified ethics system, is the day we can START wasting time working on a Universal System.
2. Ethics is a human construct. For the non-human on earth, ethics does not exist. For outside of earth, even the Romulans and Vulcans are different from us.
My suggestion for the guy is get a Wii, play some games and stop writing trash.
Well, what we need is twofold: (1) A Prime Directive, and (2) A permanent prohibition of William Shatner entering outer space!
We may find creatures someday that blur our current ideas of sentience, of what is a plant and what is an animal, and what does and doesn't traumatize the life we run in to.
We subjugate and/or consume many forms of life on earth (horses, dogs, sheep). What is the line at which we decide that a creature is no longer enslavable/edible?
Why are they bothering with all this? Everyone knows aliens are gay and enjoy probing anuses. We must simply reciprocate. There's a veritable library of books out there about this fact.
... do we really need "space ethics", "when the planets people are fucked?" (paraphrased)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw
youre missing one thing - just as you can group all homo sapiens sapiens as human, instead of separating and classifying them as black, caucasian, asian, nordic, you can also classify all potential intelligent species as sentients.
chances are high that, if such a concept exists, the aliens would be classifying themselves as 'sentients' as opposed to separate species, just like how we classify ourselves 'human' and work together in the u.n.
if there is mirror imaging as such, it is quite possible that just as how we treat those tribesman as humans, but underdeveloped and needing protection of 'their ways of life', aliens could be treating us as 'sentients' too and think that we need protection for preserving our 'originality'.
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doesnt matter, still someone would smuggle stuff in after they were discovered, if they havent been smuggled in already.
the point is, practice is real. in brasil numerous tribes are isolated, its forbidden to conduct normal contact with them, and they can only be contacted under supervision and only certain items can be given to them or traded for. one of those tribes were the subject of a national geographic documentary. they also wore t shirts, but that was all they had. and the medicines allowed into the village.
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