Towards an ethics of life

Ketcham, Christopher

doi:10.1016/j.spacepol.2016.05.009

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 31 publications

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“…However, if one accepts that the complexity and potential of life transcends that of non-life (e.g. Randolph and McKay 2014;Ketcham 2016;Vidal and Delahaye 2019) then an ethical case for spreading life to places where it doesn't yet exist could be made 7 .…”

Section: The Need For Global Decision-making In An Astrobiological Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Speaks for Humanity? The Need for a Single Political Voice

Crawford

2021

Astrobiology

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Future astrobiological activities and discoveries, along with other human activities in the transnational domain of outer space, will require the development of political institutions able legitimately to speak for humanity as a whole. I identify a range of possibilities, including the formation of a world space agency and a strengthening of the UN system; but I argue that ultimately the logic points in the direction of bringing space exploration within the remit of a federal world government, the creation of which would also be desirable for other reasons. Although, at present, humanity lacks a sufficiently strong sense of global community for the formation of strong global political institutions, I argue that the cosmic and evolutionary perspectives provided by astrobiology and related disciplines can help lay the psychological foundations on which such institutions may be built.

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Section: The Need For Global Decision-making In An Astrobiological Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Speaks for Humanity? The Need for a Single Political Voice

Crawford

2021

Astrobiology

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Ethical issues of human enhancements for space missions to Mars and beyond

Szocik

Wójtowicz

Rappaport³

et al. 2020

Futures

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Home and Away

Rahder¹

2019

Environment and Society

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This article examines the reinvigoration of outer space imaginaries in the era of global environmental change, and the impacts of these imaginaries on Earth. Privatized space research mobilizes fears of ecological, political, or economic catastrophe to garner support for new utopian futures, or the search for Earth 2.0. These imaginaries reflect dominant global discourses about environmental and social issues, and enable the flow of earthly resources toward an extraterrestrial frontier. In contrast, eco-centric visions emerging from Gaia theory or feminist science fiction project post-earthly life in terms that are ecological, engaged in multispecies relations and ethics, and anticapitalist. In these imaginaries, rather than centering humans as would-be destroyers or saviors of Earth, our species becomes merely instrumental in launching life—a multispecies process—off the planet, a new development in deep evolutionary time. This article traces these two imaginaries and how they are reshaping material and political earthly life.

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Towards an ethics of life

Cited by 3 publications

References 31 publications

Who Speaks for Humanity? The Need for a Single Political Voice

Who Speaks for Humanity? The Need for a Single Political Voice

Ethical issues of human enhancements for space missions to Mars and beyond

Home and Away

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