So…
Let’s say that we approach the Singularity and as part of that transformative exponential explosion of technology we discover a way to quickly and efficiently terraform the planet Venus, reducing it’s atmosphere to earth-like densities and changing the composition to be nearly identical to earth’s nitrogen/oxygen/CO2/Water vapor mix.
As part of that a system of orbiting satellites provide a constant shade to reduce the sun’s intensity to be comparable to the energy the earth receives from the sun. (The ‘extra’ sunlight would be converted to energy for all the happy, busy Venusians to use.)
Let’s say that this can all be done in a decade.
Then, just as the engineering is about to begin, someone discovers that Venus’s atmosphere is populated with a family of “extremophile” bacteria which require the conditions of Venus’s current atmosphere to survive.
Would it be ethical to drive those extremophiles to extinction in order to have an entire new planet which could be populated with the entire rich diversity of earth? Or are we ethically compelled to allow the Venusian bacteria to stop our efforts to terraform Venus?
8 users commented in " Bio-ethics and terraforming "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackCreate some sort of zoo-like habitat for the bacteria, and raze the planet, I say.
Dibs on the first Apple store and McDonald’s franchise!
In case I wasn’t clear enough, let’s say the atmospheric conditions simply aren’t duplicatable outside of Venus’s existing atmosphere. For example, let’s say that their survival depends on supersonic wind speeds…
It’s a binary question. The Venusian extremophiles will be extinct, period. Forever.
Well, for bacteria at least… I find it hard to imagine a setting realistically in which their habitat cannot be replicated. Heat, pressure, wind, chemistry… all could be replicated. And easily, I would say, for a civilization capable of terraforming.
Now, for the sake of argument / thought experiment, I could suspend my logical objections…
In which case I would say if it were bacteria (rather than something sentient) then human progress is more important.
Is sentience the deciding factor for you? What if Venus was populated by an improbable race of cute puppy-seals?
Well, I gave sentience as an example, which does not necessarily make it the only example.
However, going much beyond the bacteria example, I find it harder and harder to ignore the, “we could totally set them up in a simulated-habitat” argument.
I guess that illustrates that I am reluctant to eradicate a life-form, but not at all reluctant to establish a safe-haven for such a life-form and then confiscate and exploit its native habitat / resources.
I honestly believe the long term survival and heath of our species depends on finding new frontiers.
So even if it required 500 years to make Venus barely habitual, and it was teaming with life I would have no ethical issues with killing it all to allow human kind to expand beyond earth.
Ethically I believe we should try to coexist with any intelligent life we may find, if at all possible, and there are good reasons not to kill off non-intelligent life forms if there is a practical alternative, but the human race has to come first.
I would have to assess the status of the treatment of Earth by the human race at the time of the event. If humanity has continued to destroy and pillage the earth then I would have to say no. What point is there to expand the range of a destructive species. In a few years, decades, centuries humans would inevitably reverse any terraforming efforts on Venus and turn it into a polluted, hostile wasteland again. Of course my recommendation would be ignored by the terraformers. A pathogen does not voluntarily limit its range.
nyar, thank you so much for that perspective. I sincerely hope that the decision is not left to people who share your anti-human bias when or if this hypothetical situation becomes real.
If you are so convinced that humans are pathogens, why are you still corrupting the universe with your presence? What sort of hypocrite are you?
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