My 2023 was filled with conversations about ethics and space settlement, thanks to the publication of my book and the ensuing flood of panels, talks, and interviews. It was not unusual for me to be asked questions about topics that I hadn’t covered in the book — space ethics is a huge topic! But I noticed that many of these ideas and hypotheticals about the thorny ethical questions we’ll encounter in space came back to the same common question: What counts as a person? Specifically, when should we apply our mental model of a “person” to a non-human entity?
Obviously, the question of “what counts as a person” is hugely relevant in the (ongoing) history of human rights and social justice here on Earth, as groups in power have often dismissed the rights of other groups by arguing that the marginalized humans somehow don’t count as being fully “people”. This is how various governments and societies have justified enslaving other humans or otherwise exploiting their labor; invading and stealing territory while claiming to be “expanding civilization”; and practicing eugenics, committing genocide, and suppressing other groups’ languages, religions, and cultures.
But science fiction writers, futurists, and ethicists also explore the nature of personhood beyond the human species, often in contexts that overlap with visions of humanity’s future in space. If we genetically engineer humans to be better adapted to the space environment, will there be conflict between this new population and non-engineered humans? As the algorithms running our spacecraft and robotic equipment become more intelligent, do we need to recognize their rights as fellow space explorers? Are there benefits to viewing parts of the space environment as legal persons and granting them legal rights?
Of course, the concept of personhood varies between different fields. Animal intelligence researchers and AI developers debate how to define and measure consciousness and sentience in non-human subjects, while philosophers might ask whether a given being should be considered a moral agent. Legal personhood, however, isn’t as interested in a being’s capacity for thought or morality, but is instead concerned with the rights and liabilities granted to the entity, whether it’s a human, a corporation, or a mountain. In other words, personhood can be defined as a measurable property to be studied or identified, but it can also simply represent a mental model we apply to the world. Whether or not a river “thinks” in the same way as a human or other animal, if we consider it a person in our worldview, we will be more likely make decisions that protect and sustain the river and the wildlife it supports, rather than overexploit and pollute it.
I intentionally did not include many of these questions in Off-Earth, because they’re huge topics in themselves and I’d chosen to focus specifically on human rights in space settlements. But they’re worth exploring and it’s a new year, so for the next few issues of this newsletter, I’m going to dig a bit into a few of these “personhood” questions, point out what work is already being done in these areas here on Earth, and consider how the space environment might complicate things.
Other News
If you missed it last month: Off-Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space is now available as an audiobook, narrated by April Doty! You can find the audiobook version in all of the usual locations, including Audible, Google Play, and Audiobooks.com.
I’ll be in Missouri in February to give a talk at the St. Louis Science Center planetarium, asking “Can Our Earthly Ways Thrive in the Cosmos?”. The event is free and organized by Missouri Humanities.
I’m organizing a virtual conference through my nonprofit, the JustSpace Alliance, called the Environmental Justice in Space (EJiS) Workshop. It’ll be held on June 20-21, 2024, and our goal is to bring space experts together with environmental justice activists and researchers to discuss areas of concern in the space environment, lessons learned from the history of environmental justice movements on Earth, and ideas for ensuring an equitable and sustainable future for humanity in space. Registration is free(!) and open now at this link; you can also submit an abstract on this form to give a pre-recorded talk.