I don't think we should do it at all. Because it is the first step towards colonizing the entire galaxy - and an entire galaxy filled with humans, each with the power to reshape entire galaxy using self replicating machines - and with innumerable different ideas about what's best for the galaxy - doesn't seem a safe place to me.
We'd then be the ET monsters of our science fiction horror movies - for all the other ETs in the galaxy - and for ourselves also when our descendants or their creations in far future turn their attention to Earth and decide to do something different to it - or indeed - destroy it by mistake.
So - we should explore - not colonize - at least until this is sorted out. There may be answers to it. But we need those answers first, before we set out to colonize the galaxy, not try to work them out later when it is full of colonists with vast strange powers and ideas that may seem crazy to us.
Chances of all those countless hundred billion colonies each of trillions of colonists agreeing to some restraint to help preserve the galaxy in a habitable form for us or ETs must be tiny - even communication at speed of light would make it impossible to sort something out within less than many millennia - so it has to be sorted out before colonization, not afterwards.
I don't know of any solution yet - and am interested of course to know if anyone has got an idea for a way to colonize the galaxy safely and with respect also for other ETs we may encounter - not to destroy their civilizations or their lifeforms - and not to destroy the Earth and its lifeforms when our descendants return here in the distant future.
Exploring is fine of course. If we don't set up independent colonies around other stars. But first time you have two colonies around stars separated by light years - if no ground rules or restraint or safeguards are in place - seems then inevitable that not so very far into the future - entire 100 billion stars of the galaxy would then all have colonies around them - and the results of that could be horrific if it goes wrong which could happen easily. Even something - totally pointless - someone lets loose a paper clip making self replicating but unstoppable machine that turns the entire galaxy (including Earth) into paperclips, the "paperclip event horizon" can just be someone's stupid mistake when technology is as powerful as that.
But perhaps we can find a way to make it a wonderful and inspiring outcome? If so how?
See Robert Walker's answer to If one day we find a planet able to sustain human life and we decide to colonize, what kind of systems should we establish?
We'd then be the ET monsters of our science fiction horror movies - for all the other ETs in the galaxy - and for ourselves also when our descendants or their creations in far future turn their attention to Earth and decide to do something different to it - or indeed - destroy it by mistake.
So - we should explore - not colonize - at least until this is sorted out. There may be answers to it. But we need those answers first, before we set out to colonize the galaxy, not try to work them out later when it is full of colonists with vast strange powers and ideas that may seem crazy to us.
Chances of all those countless hundred billion colonies each of trillions of colonists agreeing to some restraint to help preserve the galaxy in a habitable form for us or ETs must be tiny - even communication at speed of light would make it impossible to sort something out within less than many millennia - so it has to be sorted out before colonization, not afterwards.
I don't know of any solution yet - and am interested of course to know if anyone has got an idea for a way to colonize the galaxy safely and with respect also for other ETs we may encounter - not to destroy their civilizations or their lifeforms - and not to destroy the Earth and its lifeforms when our descendants return here in the distant future.
Exploring is fine of course. If we don't set up independent colonies around other stars. But first time you have two colonies around stars separated by light years - if no ground rules or restraint or safeguards are in place - seems then inevitable that not so very far into the future - entire 100 billion stars of the galaxy would then all have colonies around them - and the results of that could be horrific if it goes wrong which could happen easily. Even something - totally pointless - someone lets loose a paper clip making self replicating but unstoppable machine that turns the entire galaxy (including Earth) into paperclips, the "paperclip event horizon" can just be someone's stupid mistake when technology is as powerful as that.
But perhaps we can find a way to make it a wonderful and inspiring outcome? If so how?
See Robert Walker's answer to If one day we find a planet able to sustain human life and we decide to colonize, what kind of systems should we establish?
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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