As we usher in a new era of space exploration—one defined by a commercial renaissance of human spaceflight and scientific missions explicitly tasked with seeking signs of alien life—it is becoming increasingly imperative to develop ethical guidelines for humanity’s exploration and treatment of extraterrestrial environments and phenomena. How will we choose to treat the life that we may one day encounter in the universe? How will we choose to treat the universe if it is largely devoid of life?
Working with Emilie Lafleche, Chelsea Haramia, and Julia De Marines, I propose that humanity’s expanding influence in outer space will require an ethical compass that is more expansive than the one conventionally used. The first step toward charting an ethically sound future in space is to recognize the multiplicity of moral value—that many kinds of moral value exist in the cosmos, and that phenomena can express multiple forms of value at once. Only once we acknowledge the multifarious nature of moral value can we seek to balance, preserve, and promote its various types in the universe.
Credit: NASA
