Of the many scenarios we can entertain for the future of civilization, the most expansive is that... more Of the many scenarios we can entertain for the future of civilization, the most expansive is that which projects human civilization onto the cosmos at large, with humanity building new settlements for itself in far flung outposts of the solar system, then other stars, and even other galaxies. A macro-civilizational expansion in which civilization itself will be iterated on other worlds in other planetary systems with no prior human history would constitute a pristine re-founding of civilization with each new settlement established, whether on another world, or some artificial construction in space. What happens to a civilization when it distributes itself on a cosmological scale? How must its institutions adapt to cosmological expansion?
Death And Anti-Death, Volume 21: One Year After James Lovelock (1919-2022) , 2023
The absence of a widely-accepted definition of life in biology means that multiple definitions of... more The absence of a widely-accepted definition of life in biology means that multiple definitions of life coexist and correspond to multiple conceptions of life, and multiple conceptions of life correspond to multiple conceptions of death. These conceptions of life and death can be applied to planets and their biospheres. Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis asserts that a planetary biosphere regulates itself, and therefore should be considered to be alive. A dead world, then, is a planet formerly bearing a biosphere that has become extinct. What other senses could be given to living and dead worlds, based on other definitions of life?
Complexity is a central problem for big history because big history has made complexity a central... more Complexity is a central problem for big history because big history has made complexity a central theme, constructing a cosmological periodization based on the sequential emergence of qualitatively distinct forms of complexity. How can the big historian differentiate distinct thresholds of emergent complexity while subordinating the entire sequence of thresholds to a single metric of complexity that demonstrates the increase of complexity over multiple scales of magnitude and across qualitatively distinct forms of complexity? The cosmologists' use of a cosmic distance ladder suggests an analogous construction for complexity: a complexity ladder for big history. While no complexity ladder is formulated in this paper, the program required for a complexity ladder is sketched.
The failure of a multiplicity of spacecraft designs in a variety of ways highlights some of the c... more The failure of a multiplicity of spacecraft designs in a variety of ways highlights some of the challenges for human beings utterly dependent upon technology for survival in space. A thought experiment is formulated to explore human dependency on technology in extraterrestrial space, in contrast to human survival on Earth. Don Ihde's conception of the technological texture of contemporary life is employed to examine the nature of human dependency upon technology in space. Technologies are shown to embody scientific presuppositions, and some scientific presuppositions are discussed. The consequences of human life shaped by technologies, in turn shaped by scientific presuppositions are examined, with their significance for human societies in space considered.
Technological artifacts, no less than ourselves, stand equal before the laws of nature. We obey t... more Technological artifacts, no less than ourselves, stand equal before the laws of nature. We obey the laws of nature because we must, having evolved within nature and as part of nature, and the technologies we construct are constructed by us to function within the same parameters of nature that produced us. Our artifacts obey the laws of nature because they must, having been constructed by us to exemplify these laws in ways that advantage us. Part of the power of the scientific revolution was the ability to delve more deeply into nature, to understand its secrets at a more profound level of comprehension, and so to exploit the possibilities of nature that had not yet been exploited by biology, or which had not been exploited to the degree that technologies allow.
The terrestrial/extraterrestrial symmetry hypothesis is introduced, according to which space trav... more The terrestrial/extraterrestrial symmetry hypothesis is introduced, according to which space travel changes nothing in respect to philosophy, implying that there is no distinctive space philosophy. Arguments for and against the symmetry hypothesis are explored, breaking down the question into the five branches of philosophy, metaphysics, epistemology, logic, aesthetics, and ethics. A possible way forward in the analysis of the symmetry hypothesis is suggested through a distinction between trivial and non-trivial philosophical ideas, such that change in trivial ideas is a merely contingent argument against the symmetry hypothesis, leaving philosophy essentially unchanged, while change in non-trivial philosophical ideas passes beyond the threshold of merely contingent change and makes space philosophy essentially different from terrestrial philosophy, in which case the symmetry hypothesis is essentially falsified. Potential directions for research into the symmetry hypothesis are suggested.
There is already an implicit conservation astrobiology that is present in planetary protection po... more There is already an implicit conservation astrobiology that is present in planetary protection policies instituted by several space agencies. We would benefit from making this conservation astrobiology explicit and examining its assumptions. Drawing upon definitions of conservation biology and astrobiology, definitions of conservation astrobiology are formulated and examined. The cosmological scale of conservation astrobiology entails drawing upon the resources of evolutionary conservation biology, which recognizes that, “conservation above and beyond the species level must become increasingly employed.” For conservation astrobiology, this means conservation at the biospheric level. Adopting the framework of “Whither conservation ethics?” by J. Baird Callicott (1990), conservation astrobiology is examined from the perspectives of the Romantic-Transcendental Preservation Ethic, the Resource Conservation Ethic, and the Evolutionary-Ecological Land Ethic, and the consequences of these frameworks for conservation at the biospheric level is examined
This is a report from NoRCELs Blue Earth Project symposium BEP2022 held online on January 8th, 20... more This is a report from NoRCELs Blue Earth Project symposium BEP2022 held online on January 8th, 2022. We are reporting the outcome pertaining to the following question: Is Humanity Settling its own Fate on Ecological Survival? A succinct conclusion drawn is that the Earth is facing the sixth mass extinction of flora and fauna; this being different from the previous five extinctions, in that it is entirely due to mankinds activities. Five invited eminent speakers delivered their input, highlighting the fact that there is extensive deterioration of the environment at large, coupled with an unprecedented demise of ecosystems leading to the extinction of species across the globe.
This exercise seeks to develop and question assumptions concerning the aftermath of first contact... more This exercise seeks to develop and question assumptions concerning the aftermath of first contact with ETI, especially in regard to a scenario of iterated contact.
A classroom exercise for assessing team members to be chosen as first contact liaisons with ETI, ... more A classroom exercise for assessing team members to be chosen as first contact liaisons with ETI, considering the permutations of ambiguous, apparently hostile, and apparently friendly first contact situations.
100 Year Starship 2012 Symposium Conference Proceedings, 2012
Taking biology as a model, and paralleling the formulations of astrobiology, the large-scale stru... more Taking biology as a model, and paralleling the formulations of astrobiology, the large-scale structure of the origins, evolution, and distribution of spacefaring civilizations is delineated and brief expositions are given of models of expansion for spacefaring civilizations.
The study of civilization has been a primarily historical enterprise, and secondarily a sociologi... more The study of civilization has been a primarily historical enterprise, and secondarily a sociological enterprise. This historical and sociological approach to the study of civilization has not been sufficient for understanding civilization as a distinctive phenomenon. Civilization needs to be studied as a sui generis object of scientific knowledge. Ten imperatives for approaching civilization in this way are outlined, which touch upon scientificity, interdisciplinarity, the definition of civilization, temporality, concepts specific to civilization, thought experiments, theoretical models, formality, regulative principles, and scholarly institutions. If civilization has a future, i.e., if it does not succumb to existential risk, civilization then has before it an expansive future with few intrinsic limits. Our knowledge of cosmology and of the history of the universe points to plentiful energy and material resources that could be exploited by any civilization possessing a sufficiently advanced technology, and these cosmological conditions should prevail for several billion years. Restricting ourselves to obvious extrapolations of civilization as we know it, supervening upon life as we know it, civilization appears to become more robust as it matures, experiencing fewer lapses of shorter duration and less loss of heritage, so that once a civilization has established multiple independent centers beyond its homeworld, there is no reason to limit its extent in space and time except for the limits of energy and material resources exploitable by such a civilization. The path from civilization to supercivilization 1 is not inevitable, but also not impossible. When the first starship departs from our solar system with human beings bound for another star, we will begin the process of the expansion of terrestrial civilization to other planetary systems. An interstellar civilization will come into being at this time. Before this happens, civilization will have expanded beyond Earth, making the entirety of the solar system its home, using the plentiful energy and material resources nearby Earth. Already at this stage of development, civilization will have established multiple independent centers of spacefaring civilization, though still clustered closely around the sun like moths fluttering around a candle flame. The interstellar expansion that would follow upon this buildout of a spacefaring civilization within our solar system would extend these multiple independent centers of civilization to multiple stars and their planetary systems,
Scientific thought was once the paradigm of unchanging truth. While the natural sciences have bro... more Scientific thought was once the paradigm of unchanging truth. While the natural sciences have broken with this presumption, the formal sciences have been slower to separate themselves from this antique conception. Yet the experience of change in the formal sciences must be recognized as central to the theoretical enterprise. It is at the boundaries of the formal sciences that most of this change occurs. Frege extended the scope of formal thought into foundations, while Cantor extended the scope of formal thought toward the infinite. Gödel synthesized foundationalist rigor with Cantorian insights to redefine the boundaries of mathematics with limitative theorems.
Year Three of Grand Strategy newsletters, comprising nos. 113 to 165, from January 2021 to Decemb... more Year Three of Grand Strategy newsletters, comprising nos. 113 to 165, from January 2021 to December 2021.
Of the many scenarios we can entertain for the future of civilization, the most expansive is that... more Of the many scenarios we can entertain for the future of civilization, the most expansive is that which projects human civilization onto the cosmos at large, with humanity building new settlements for itself in far flung outposts of the solar system, then other stars, and even other galaxies. A macro-civilizational expansion in which civilization itself will be iterated on other worlds in other planetary systems with no prior human history would constitute a pristine re-founding of civilization with each new settlement established, whether on another world, or some artificial construction in space. What happens to a civilization when it distributes itself on a cosmological scale? How must its institutions adapt to cosmological expansion?
Death And Anti-Death, Volume 21: One Year After James Lovelock (1919-2022) , 2023
The absence of a widely-accepted definition of life in biology means that multiple definitions of... more The absence of a widely-accepted definition of life in biology means that multiple definitions of life coexist and correspond to multiple conceptions of life, and multiple conceptions of life correspond to multiple conceptions of death. These conceptions of life and death can be applied to planets and their biospheres. Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis asserts that a planetary biosphere regulates itself, and therefore should be considered to be alive. A dead world, then, is a planet formerly bearing a biosphere that has become extinct. What other senses could be given to living and dead worlds, based on other definitions of life?
Complexity is a central problem for big history because big history has made complexity a central... more Complexity is a central problem for big history because big history has made complexity a central theme, constructing a cosmological periodization based on the sequential emergence of qualitatively distinct forms of complexity. How can the big historian differentiate distinct thresholds of emergent complexity while subordinating the entire sequence of thresholds to a single metric of complexity that demonstrates the increase of complexity over multiple scales of magnitude and across qualitatively distinct forms of complexity? The cosmologists' use of a cosmic distance ladder suggests an analogous construction for complexity: a complexity ladder for big history. While no complexity ladder is formulated in this paper, the program required for a complexity ladder is sketched.
The failure of a multiplicity of spacecraft designs in a variety of ways highlights some of the c... more The failure of a multiplicity of spacecraft designs in a variety of ways highlights some of the challenges for human beings utterly dependent upon technology for survival in space. A thought experiment is formulated to explore human dependency on technology in extraterrestrial space, in contrast to human survival on Earth. Don Ihde's conception of the technological texture of contemporary life is employed to examine the nature of human dependency upon technology in space. Technologies are shown to embody scientific presuppositions, and some scientific presuppositions are discussed. The consequences of human life shaped by technologies, in turn shaped by scientific presuppositions are examined, with their significance for human societies in space considered.
Technological artifacts, no less than ourselves, stand equal before the laws of nature. We obey t... more Technological artifacts, no less than ourselves, stand equal before the laws of nature. We obey the laws of nature because we must, having evolved within nature and as part of nature, and the technologies we construct are constructed by us to function within the same parameters of nature that produced us. Our artifacts obey the laws of nature because they must, having been constructed by us to exemplify these laws in ways that advantage us. Part of the power of the scientific revolution was the ability to delve more deeply into nature, to understand its secrets at a more profound level of comprehension, and so to exploit the possibilities of nature that had not yet been exploited by biology, or which had not been exploited to the degree that technologies allow.
The terrestrial/extraterrestrial symmetry hypothesis is introduced, according to which space trav... more The terrestrial/extraterrestrial symmetry hypothesis is introduced, according to which space travel changes nothing in respect to philosophy, implying that there is no distinctive space philosophy. Arguments for and against the symmetry hypothesis are explored, breaking down the question into the five branches of philosophy, metaphysics, epistemology, logic, aesthetics, and ethics. A possible way forward in the analysis of the symmetry hypothesis is suggested through a distinction between trivial and non-trivial philosophical ideas, such that change in trivial ideas is a merely contingent argument against the symmetry hypothesis, leaving philosophy essentially unchanged, while change in non-trivial philosophical ideas passes beyond the threshold of merely contingent change and makes space philosophy essentially different from terrestrial philosophy, in which case the symmetry hypothesis is essentially falsified. Potential directions for research into the symmetry hypothesis are suggested.
There is already an implicit conservation astrobiology that is present in planetary protection po... more There is already an implicit conservation astrobiology that is present in planetary protection policies instituted by several space agencies. We would benefit from making this conservation astrobiology explicit and examining its assumptions. Drawing upon definitions of conservation biology and astrobiology, definitions of conservation astrobiology are formulated and examined. The cosmological scale of conservation astrobiology entails drawing upon the resources of evolutionary conservation biology, which recognizes that, “conservation above and beyond the species level must become increasingly employed.” For conservation astrobiology, this means conservation at the biospheric level. Adopting the framework of “Whither conservation ethics?” by J. Baird Callicott (1990), conservation astrobiology is examined from the perspectives of the Romantic-Transcendental Preservation Ethic, the Resource Conservation Ethic, and the Evolutionary-Ecological Land Ethic, and the consequences of these frameworks for conservation at the biospheric level is examined
This is a report from NoRCELs Blue Earth Project symposium BEP2022 held online on January 8th, 20... more This is a report from NoRCELs Blue Earth Project symposium BEP2022 held online on January 8th, 2022. We are reporting the outcome pertaining to the following question: Is Humanity Settling its own Fate on Ecological Survival? A succinct conclusion drawn is that the Earth is facing the sixth mass extinction of flora and fauna; this being different from the previous five extinctions, in that it is entirely due to mankinds activities. Five invited eminent speakers delivered their input, highlighting the fact that there is extensive deterioration of the environment at large, coupled with an unprecedented demise of ecosystems leading to the extinction of species across the globe.
This exercise seeks to develop and question assumptions concerning the aftermath of first contact... more This exercise seeks to develop and question assumptions concerning the aftermath of first contact with ETI, especially in regard to a scenario of iterated contact.
A classroom exercise for assessing team members to be chosen as first contact liaisons with ETI, ... more A classroom exercise for assessing team members to be chosen as first contact liaisons with ETI, considering the permutations of ambiguous, apparently hostile, and apparently friendly first contact situations.
100 Year Starship 2012 Symposium Conference Proceedings, 2012
Taking biology as a model, and paralleling the formulations of astrobiology, the large-scale stru... more Taking biology as a model, and paralleling the formulations of astrobiology, the large-scale structure of the origins, evolution, and distribution of spacefaring civilizations is delineated and brief expositions are given of models of expansion for spacefaring civilizations.
The study of civilization has been a primarily historical enterprise, and secondarily a sociologi... more The study of civilization has been a primarily historical enterprise, and secondarily a sociological enterprise. This historical and sociological approach to the study of civilization has not been sufficient for understanding civilization as a distinctive phenomenon. Civilization needs to be studied as a sui generis object of scientific knowledge. Ten imperatives for approaching civilization in this way are outlined, which touch upon scientificity, interdisciplinarity, the definition of civilization, temporality, concepts specific to civilization, thought experiments, theoretical models, formality, regulative principles, and scholarly institutions. If civilization has a future, i.e., if it does not succumb to existential risk, civilization then has before it an expansive future with few intrinsic limits. Our knowledge of cosmology and of the history of the universe points to plentiful energy and material resources that could be exploited by any civilization possessing a sufficiently advanced technology, and these cosmological conditions should prevail for several billion years. Restricting ourselves to obvious extrapolations of civilization as we know it, supervening upon life as we know it, civilization appears to become more robust as it matures, experiencing fewer lapses of shorter duration and less loss of heritage, so that once a civilization has established multiple independent centers beyond its homeworld, there is no reason to limit its extent in space and time except for the limits of energy and material resources exploitable by such a civilization. The path from civilization to supercivilization 1 is not inevitable, but also not impossible. When the first starship departs from our solar system with human beings bound for another star, we will begin the process of the expansion of terrestrial civilization to other planetary systems. An interstellar civilization will come into being at this time. Before this happens, civilization will have expanded beyond Earth, making the entirety of the solar system its home, using the plentiful energy and material resources nearby Earth. Already at this stage of development, civilization will have established multiple independent centers of spacefaring civilization, though still clustered closely around the sun like moths fluttering around a candle flame. The interstellar expansion that would follow upon this buildout of a spacefaring civilization within our solar system would extend these multiple independent centers of civilization to multiple stars and their planetary systems,
Scientific thought was once the paradigm of unchanging truth. While the natural sciences have bro... more Scientific thought was once the paradigm of unchanging truth. While the natural sciences have broken with this presumption, the formal sciences have been slower to separate themselves from this antique conception. Yet the experience of change in the formal sciences must be recognized as central to the theoretical enterprise. It is at the boundaries of the formal sciences that most of this change occurs. Frege extended the scope of formal thought into foundations, while Cantor extended the scope of formal thought toward the infinite. Gödel synthesized foundationalist rigor with Cantorian insights to redefine the boundaries of mathematics with limitative theorems.
Year Three of Grand Strategy newsletters, comprising nos. 113 to 165, from January 2021 to Decemb... more Year Three of Grand Strategy newsletters, comprising nos. 113 to 165, from January 2021 to December 2021.
An entire year's worth of newsletters, and then some, from November 2018 through December 2019, c... more An entire year's worth of newsletters, and then some, from November 2018 through December 2019, covering any and all topics that came to mind.
A report on the SESA Space Ethics Panel held on Friday 23 September 2022 with participants Michel... more A report on the SESA Space Ethics Panel held on Friday 23 September 2022 with participants Michelle Hanlon, Frank White, Dan Hawk, and J. N. “Nick” Nielsen.
Uploads