One reason for focusing on global catastrophic risk is because if a global catastrophe occurs, it could prevent human civilization from accomplishing great things in the future. Arguably, some of the greatest things it could accomplish involve expansion into outer space. This paper presents an ecocentric vision for future space expansion, in which human civilization spreads flourishing ecosystems across the cosmos. The paper is part of a broader collection of visions for space exploration intended for a wide academic and public audience.
The paper begins by presenting a case for ecocentric ethics. The case is based on the idea that all living beings are of moral value not just on their own, but through their participation in interconnected webs of life that extend across time via evolution and across space via ecosystems. Ecocentrism is contrasted with the human-centric ethical views that are common in discussions of space expansion and global catastrophic risk, though it is noted that ecocentrism is very much compatible with human flourishing due to the importance of ecosystems for humans.
The paper then explains the importance of addressing global catastrophic risk as a precursor to future space expansion. The basic idea is that human civilization may be necessary for expansion of Earth-originating entities into outer space. Therefore, it is imperative to avoid any global catastrophe that could prevent human civilization from executing space expansion. Furthermore, space expansion itself could help to lessen the harms to civilization from catastrophes on Earth. These are familiar themes within global catastrophic risk research that uses more human-centric ethics. As the paper explains, the idea also holds for ecocentric ethics as long as two ethical principles are held: the principle of equality across space and time and the principle of optimization of moral value.
Finally, the paper describes its vision for a universe of weird and beautiful Earths. This entails human civilization working to establish flourishing ecological communities across the universe. These new ecological communities could live on other planets or on new astronomical bodies created for this purpose. The ecological communities would be inspired by the ecosystems of Earth and would be part of the overarching story of life that came from Earth. However, they would then evolve in new and different directions suitable for the conditions in their cosmic location. The paper argues that an ecocentric account of space expansionism entails a tentative moral objective to fill the universe with these ecosystems.
The paper extends GCRI’s research on the ethics of global catastrophic risk, outer space, and the long-term future, especially the papers Adaptation to and recovery from global catastrophe, The ethics of outer space: A consequentialist perspective, Long-term trajectories of human civilization, and Isolated refuges for surviving global catastrophes. The paper additionally contributes to GCRI’s research on ethics perspectives that are not human-centric, especially the papers Moral consideration of nonhumans in the ethics of artificial intelligence and The ethics of sustainability for artificial intelligence.
For further discussion of the paper and its role within GCRI’s overall portfolio of work, please see the GCRI Statement on Pluralism in the Field of Global Catastrophic Risk.
Academic citation:Â
Owe, Andrea, 2023. Greening the universe: The case for ecocentric space expansion. In James S. J. Schwartz, Linda Billings, and Erika Nesvold (Editors), Reclaiming Space: Progressive and Multicultural Visions of Space Exploration. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pages 325-336, DOI 10.1093/oso/9780197604793.003.0027.
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