Prerequisites to Human Activity on Mars: Scientific and Ethical Aspects

Humans want to go to Mars now. This entails many difficult but solvable challenges. However, human activity on Mars depends on the answers to three fundamental questions: (1) Is there life on Mars, does that life represent at second genesis of life? (2) Can Earth life, and humans in particular, adapt to the Martian gravity of 0.38?g, and will human generations on Mars speciate from humans on Earth? (3) Is there enough carbon, nitrogen, and water on Mars to create a global habitable environment? These answers must be determined on Mars and will decide the scope of human activities.     

Yes,We Earthlings Should Colonize Mars if Martian Rights Can Be Upheld

I argue that programmes of Mars colonization might usefully be guided by a consideration of “Martian Rights”. I outline four categories of possible rights which would need to be guaranteed, depending on the precise nature of the colonization: those directly transferable from existing human rights, new rights, rights in need of modification, and the rights of Mars itself. Debates over Martian Rights should not be deferred until the technological challenges of supporting human life on Mars have been resolved. Rather, they have the potential to usefully inform the development of relevant space technologies.     

Mars: Science Before Settlement

I review Mars science goals, including those associated with the study of Mars’ past and present habitability, as well as those associated with understanding Mars’ atmosphere and climate. I argue that Mars settlement initiatives would likely frustrate attempts to satisfy many of these goals, and therefore that it would be prudent for the Mars science community to prioritize those investigations most threatened by human settlement of Mars.     

Why We Earthlings Should Colonize Mars!

Mars can and should be settled with Earth émigrés. For our generation and many that will follow, Mars is the New World. Exploration, settlement, and colonization are inherent in the human spirit. We earthlings must reject misleading prophesies such as the Malthusian fear that we are running out of resources on our planet. Resources abound off-Earth in space. Humanity's potential for growth is unlimited. Failure to terraform and colonize Mars would constitute a failure to live up to our human nature, and a betrayal of our responsibility as members of the community of life itself.     

Should Humans Colonize Mars? No

Space advocates, presidents, and NASA administrators have talked for decades about sending people back to the Moon and on to Mars, to stay. Neither funding nor public support has materialized. Billionaire Elon Musk has declared his intent to establish a human colony on Mars, drawing much media attention. Here Linda Billings argues that it would be unethical to contaminate a potentially habitable planet for further scientific exploration and immoral to transport a tiny, non-representative, subset of humanity—made up of people who could afford to spend hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars on the trip—to live on Mars.     

An Eastern Orthodox Theological Basis for Interplanetary Environmental Ethics

As a result of our technological advances in space exploration, human enterprise is no longer limited to the confines of planet Earth. Although several philosophical approaches to environmental ethics have already been advocated for human encounters with other planets such as Mars, it may be argued that various religious worldviews will significantly influence these suggested value systems. In this article, we present an Eastern Orthodox Christian interpretation of Creation and explore the theological meaning of the human vocation as Priests of Creation. An appropriate application of these two principles provides a theological basis for an interplanetary eco-praxis.     

Across the Martian Frontier? Thoughts on Planet B,a Martian Safety Valve,and the Earth as Our Body

Even though we are on the precipice of a “bad Anthropocene,” humankind should not colonize Mars. Mars is often depicted as our “Planet B”—an evacuation plan for Earth. But in this time of ecological crisis, theologian Sallie McFague suggests that we think of the Earth as God’s body and take our obligation to care for our common home seriously. Likewise, in contrast to calls for colonization, I contend that two American historical anecdotes—the safety valve theory and the Yellowstone—illustrate why humanity should think less about becoming Martians and instead find meaning and purpose in remaining Earthlings.     

Perceiving Other Planets: Bodily Experience,Interpretation, and the Mars Orbiter Camera

An emerging philosophical perspective called “postphenomenology,” which offers reflection upon human relations to technology, has the potential to increase our understanding of the functions performed by imaging technologies in scientific practice. In what follows, I review some relevant insights and expand them for use in the concrete analysis of practices of image interpretation in science. As a guiding example, I explore how these insights bear upon a contemporary debate in space science over images of the fossilized remains of a river delta on the surface of Mars. These considerations include an analysis of the ways that the objects of study are transformed by the mediating imaging technologies, such as the Mars Orbiter Camera.

Analogy as a strategy for supporting complex problem solving under uncertainty

Complex problem solving in naturalistic environments is fraught with uncertainty, which has significant impacts on problem-solving behavior. Thus, theories of human problem solving should include accounts of the cognitive strategies people bring to bear to deal with uncertainty during problem solving. In this article, we present evidence that analogy is one such strategy. Using statistical analyses of the temporal dynamics between analogy and expressed uncertainty in the naturalistic problem-solving conversations among scientists on the Mars Rover Mission, we show that spikes in expressed uncertainty reliably predict analogy use (Study 1) and that expressed uncertainty reduces to baseline levels following analogy use (Study 2). In addition, in Study 3, we show with qualitative analyses that this relationship between uncertainty and analogy is not due to miscommunication-related uncertainty but, rather, is primarily concentrated on substantive problem-solving issues. Finally, we discuss a hypothesis about how analogy might serve as an uncertainty reduction strategy in naturalistic complex problem solving.     

Reuse and Recycle: The Development of Adaptive Expertise,Routine Expertise,and Novelty in a Large Research Team

Combining innovation and efficiency is ideal in many organizational settings. Adaptive expertise represents a cognitive explanation of how individuals and teams can learn to achieve simultaneous innovation and efficiency. In 2004, scientists led twin rovers on Mars in the search for historical water. The science team experienced a remarkable increase in efficiency, adapting with flexibility to unexpected events and dynamic, dwindling resources. After discussing the conceptual differences between adaptive expertise and related team learning and innovation concepts, we examine longitudinal behavioral data on novelty, routine and adaptive expertise. Sequential time series ARIMA analyses reveal that novelty fluctuated randomly, but both routine and adaptive expertise significantly increased over time. In addition, novelty, routine expertise, and adaptive expertise did not significantly predict each other directly or at a lag, suggesting that these are indeed three distinct constructs. Implications for theory and research on efficiency and innovation are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New Worlds,New Civilizations? From Science Fiction to Science Fact

ABSTRACT

Although long predicted on theoretical grounds, prior to the 1990s there was no observational evidence of worlds orbiting distant stars; however, the development of new technologies has enabled the discovery of thousands of these exoplanets. The diversity of these worlds exceeds scientific expectations and rivals foreshadowing by the most creative science fiction writers. Extrapolations based on statistical arguments and our understanding of how planetary systems form suggest exoplanets may outnumber the roughly 10 million quadrillion stars in the observable Universe. There are compelling reasons to expect conditions conducive to life on many of these worlds, but the existence of extraterrestrial life remains an open question. Although galaxy-spanning civilizations envisioned in science fiction remain unlikely, future contact with extraterrestrial species is not implausible, and in any case, the likelihood of having a human presence on Mars within the next few decades lends urgency to global, cross-cultural religious and ethical discussions.     

An Eastern Orthodox Perspective on Microbial Life on Mars

Recent efforts to explore the geology and climate of planets within our own solar system, especially Mars, have prompted a renewed interest in the search for microorganisms as the most plausible forms of extraterrestrial life. As the scientific search for evidence of microbial life on Mars intensifies, there has been a perceived need to examine the theological implications in advance of such a possible discovery. Religious considerations, thus far, have focused mainly on Western Christianity as represented by the Roman Catholic and various Protestant traditions. Although Eastern Orthodoxy represents the second largest group of Christians worldwide, to date, there is very little information available from these ongoing discussions concerning an Eastern Orthodox perspective. Therefore, we first review the case for the possibility of microbial life on Mars and then explore its fundamental Orthodox theological meaning. The apprehension of any form of extraterrestrial life by the Orthodox Church will be rooted in its collective interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, Patristic and contemporary religious writers, and in the ancient liturgical expression of its worship.     

The enactment of shared agency in teams exploring Mars through rovers

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences - This paper examines the enactment of agency in the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission. We argue that MER functioned as a distributed cognitive system,...     

The familiar stranger

To classify the contents of the collective unconsciousness which he had just discovered, Jung made use of typology. Later, beginning in the 1940s, he adopted the concept of archetypal field (relational and energetic), emphasizing the dynamic of opposites. Drawing inspiration from the field concept, the author shows the active role taken in the transference relationship by the opposites 'strange' and 'familiar'– defined as antinomic values – and studies the therapeutic conditions for a transition from one pole to the other, in neurotic and borderline cases. The clinical examples are drawn from Théodore Flournoy's book, Des Indes à la planète Mars (From India to the Planet Mars) , and two films, Theorem by Pasolini and Hiroshima mon amour by Alain Renais and Marguerite Duras.     

Brains in space: the importance of understanding the impact of long-duration spaceflight on spatial cognition and its neural circuitry

Fifty years after the first humans stepped on the Moon, space faring nations have entered a new era of space exploration. NASA’s reference mission to Mars is expected to comprise 1100 days. Deep space exploratory class missions could even span decades. They will be the most challenging and dangerous expeditions in the history of human spaceflight and will expose crew members to unprecedented health and performance risks. The development of adverse cognitive or behavioral conditions and psychiatric disorders during those missions is considered a critical and unmitigated risk factor. Here, we argue that spatial cognition, i.e., the ability to encode representations about self-to-object relations and integrate this information into a spatial map of the environment, and their neural bases will be highly vulnerable during those expeditions. Empirical evidence from animal studies shows that social isolation, immobilization, and altered gravity can have profound effects on brain plasticity associated with spatial navigation. We provide examples from historic spaceflight missions, spaceflight analogs, and extreme environments suggesting that spatial cognition and its neural circuitry could be impaired during long-duration spaceflight, and identify recommendations and future steps to mitigate these risks.

     

Terraforming Mars and Marsforming Terra: Discovery Doctrine in Space

Harvard’s E.O. Wilson answered a millennia-old question by stating “ET is out there.” We are not alone in the cosmos. Humankind is devastating Earth ecologically, threatening her survival and that of all living beings—including themselves. Humans harm their own communities through economic, ethnic, and gender inequalities. Would humankind think and act similarly on other worlds? The Discovery Doctrine used by Europe to colonize indigenous lands seems resurrected. If humanity appears a pathogen in the cosmos community, how might ETI respond? Prior to colonizing Mars, humankind should alter its consciousness and conduct on Earth, and conserve its planet home.     

东西方文化的人性观差异及其对道德认知的影响

人性观,即认为人性究竟是本善的还是本恶的,不仅是哲学思辨的焦点,也是日常生活中形成的一种常人理论(lay theory)。对于东西方文化传统的检视表明,西方文化占主导地位的是性恶论人性观,东方文化占主导地位的则是性善论人性观。研究通过实证数据支持了这一结论,发现中国被试相对于美国被试,对于人性的主观评定更倾向于性善的一端(研究1)。这种人性观差异导致中国被试在道德方面,尤其是规范性道德(行善)方面,对人提出了更高的要求(研究1),并且这种因果关系得到了启动实验的支持(研究2)。这些研究结果有助于人们更好地理解文化如何塑造了人们对于人性和道德的看法。     

Ethics and the Extraterrestrial Environment

ABSTRACT After a brief review of environmental ethics this paper examines how terrestrial environmental values can be developed into policies to protect extraterrestrial environments. Shallow environmentalism, deep environmentalism and the libertarian extension of rights are compared and then applied to the environmental protection of extraterrestrial bodies. Some scientific background is given. The planet Mars is used as a test case from which an ethical argument emerges for the protection of environments beyond Earth. The argument is based on the necessity to recognise the intrinsic value of all living species and natural environments. At present, the treatment of extraterrestrial environments by makers of space policy is ethically undernourished. This paper explains why such an attitude endangers those environments and calls for the policy-makers to incorporate non-anthropocentric ethics into extraterrestrial environmental policy.     

Chunk hierarchies and retrieval structures: Comments on Saariluoma and Laine

The empirical results of Saariluoma and Laine are discussed and their computer simulations are compared with CHREST, a computational model of perception, memory and learning in chess. Mathematical functions such as power functions and logarithmic functions account for Saariluoma and Laine's correlation heuristic and for CHREST very well. However, these functions fit human data well only with game positions, not with random positions. As CHREST, which learns using spatial proximity, accounts for the human data as well as Saariluoma and Laine's correlation heuristic, their conclusion that frequency-based heuristics match the data better than proximity-based heuristics is questioned. The idea of flat chunk organisation and its relation to retrieval structures is discussed. In the conclusion, emphasis is given to the need for detailed empirical data, including information about chunk structure and types of errors, for discriminating between various learning algorithms.