Ethics of Interstellar Travel

[ElTexan]

Scenario: In the future, we discover a Class M planet around a distant star capable of quartering human beings. An enterprise is launched to take a few thousand people to colonize the new planet, but it will take four generations to get there. This means that approximately three generations will be born, live, and die onboard an interstellar starship. Would you volunteer? What are the ethical qualms with interning, without any choice in the matter, for their entire lives, your children to a lifelong existence aboard a starship... and to never experience every human’s heritage, a planetary existence?

 

[tabascojet]

Scenario: In the future, we discover a Class M planet around a distant star capable of quartering human beings. An enterprise is launched to take a few thousand people to colonize the new planet, but it will take four generations to get there. This means that approximately three generations will be born, live, and die onboard an interstellar starship. Would you volunteer? What are the ethical qualms with interning, without any choice in the matter, for their entire lives, your children to a lifelong existence aboard a starship... and to never experience every human’s heritage, a planetary existence?

Buck Roger's those fuckers....deep freeze the volunteers until they get there

 

[beardown07]

Chris Pratt gonna wake up duh hottest bech there and try to gaslight fuck her.

 

[tabascojet]

Chris Pratt gonna wake up duh hottest bech there and try to gaslight fuck her.

Much better option than event horizon.....

 

[broncosmitty]

Will there be vegan cheese on the interstellar voyage?

 

[tabascojet]

Will there be vegan cheese on the interstellar voyage?

No .....but plenty fumunda

 

[broncosmitty]

No .....but plenty fumunda

Yucky

 

[calsnowskier]

Much better option than event horizon.....

The mere mention of Event Horizon still gives me the heebie jeebies. Scariest movie ever made, imho.

and yes, I am serious. And yes, I understand that is a minority opinion.

 

[PatsFan2003]

Scenario: In the future, we discover a Class M planet around a distant star capable of quartering human beings. An enterprise is launched to take a few thousand people to colonize the new planet, but it will take four generations to get there. This means that approximately three generations will be born, live, and die onboard an interstellar starship. Would you volunteer? What are the ethical qualms with interning, without any choice in the matter, for their entire lives, your children to a lifelong existence aboard a starship... and to never experience every human’s heritage, a planetary existence?

The futuristic equivalent of people crossing the Atlantic to settle in the "New World"?

It depends on why you are leaving and why you are going.

 

[ThereIsNoPlace]

The futuristic equivalent of people crossing the Atlantic to settle in the "New World"?

It depends on why you are leaving and why you are going.

I'm not so sure it's all that equivalent. The heart of what OP asks is to the morality of burdening the 2nd and 3rd generations with being born and dying during the trip, with no payoff. At least in a Trans-Atlantic trip, you expected to reach the shores of a new land in your lifetime and see your children's children flourish.

 

[PatsFan2003]

I'm not so sure it's all that equivalent. The heart of what OP asks is to the morality of burdening the 2nd and 3rd generations with being born and dying during the trip, with no payoff. At least in a Trans-Atlantic trip, you expected to reach the shores of a new land in your lifetime and see your children's children flourish.

There are some differences sure but you're still taking your children to an unknown land without full knowledge of what's going to happen.

The payoff for any child is being with their parents and growing up during the trip. It could be a great experience. Taking your children to an unknown land didn't have the same payoffs for the 1st generation either.

 

[PickleRick]

Lets add another wrinkle here. For all you idiots that believe in ghosts, what happens when a person dies on the ship and haunts it? Does it get stuck in the spot it dies, sees the ship speeding away and think....well fuck.

 

[ThereIsNoPlace]

Lets add another wrinkle here. For all you idiots that believe in ghosts, what happens when a person dies on the ship and haunts it? Does it get stuck in the spot it dies, sees the ship speeding away and think....well fuck.

I don't know, is this an R-rated or PG film?

 

[ThereIsNoPlace]

There are some differences sure but you're still taking your children to an unknown land without full knowledge of what's going to happen.

The payoff for any child is being with their parents and growing up during the trip. It could be a great experience. Taking your children to an unknown land didn't have the same payoffs for the 1st generation either.

IMO 2 generations is a significant difference and is the predominance of OP's question.

 

[PatsFan2003]

IMO 2 generations is a significant difference and is the predominance of OP's question.

If they are stuck in steerage for the whole trip sure but if it's a long trip in relatively comfortable settings, the kids can grow and prosper regardless like they usually do.

 

[Gatorchip]

 

[flyerhawk]

Parents have been doing that shit to their children for generations.

 

[calsnowskier]

Lets add another wrinkle here. For all you idiots that believe in ghosts, what happens when a person dies on the ship and haunts it? Does it get stuck in the spot it dies, sees the ship speeding away and think....well fuck.

Following that logic, what holds a ghost to Earth? Earth doesn’t sit still. It is moving through space as well.

 

[PickleRick]

Following that logic, what holds a ghost to Earth? Earth doesn’t sit still. It is moving through space as well.

I love that you found any kind of logic in my post.

 

[Mofo]

Scenario: In the future, we discover a Class M planet around a distant star capable of quartering human beings. An enterprise is launched to take a few thousand people to colonize the new planet, but it will take four generations to get there. This means that approximately three generations will be born, live, and die onboard an interstellar starship. Would you volunteer? What are the ethical qualms with interning, without any choice in the matter, for their entire lives, your children to a lifelong existence aboard a starship... and to never experience every human’s heritage, a planetary existence?

The concept of a "generation ship", as they are known, was pretty much ruled out as impractical. There's too many requirements, too much that could go wrong, and the ethical considerations are not small, as you suggest. Technology is much better suited for a frozen sperm-egg defrost type of spacecraft. If speed isn't too big of a concern, then the only real requirements are autonomous computers / robots and an artificial womb. Both of these are achievable, probably within 50 years.

So instead of a massive, million-ton ship filled with several hundred people, worried about desolation, madness and mutiny, you could produce numerous school bus-sized craft, that are only tasked with keeping embryos frozen for the trip and raising the first generation of babies, after soft-landing on the new worlds. No Chris Pratt ethic or Laurence Fishburne screaming scenarios necessary...