Totally ethical.

This type of space mission essential to the continuity of our species. If we are too afraid to take these ventures, we will forever be chained to this planet, but knowing there is impending doom (even if it is many many years down the road).

Having lived this entire life of yours thus far floating in space on a unique spherical ship made of rock and water, I see no reason to call such a thing unethical. We are all out here in the vastness of space. What would be unethical is if the child isn't loved by its parents.

Its kind of the perception of our minds isnt it, I mean on the star trek ship they had the holodeck so I imagine that would help people but nothing like the real thing of course

Originally posted by schuyler
Yes, it's "ethical." You've been made to live in a house or an apartment, right? You don't live out in the open under the stars. Instead, your environment is largely artificial. In the summer we go from an air conditioned house to an air conditioned car to an air conditioned office building and cringe when we have to get out in the stifling heat for a few seconds.

If this is hust a 100 year starship and you're born half way through the voyage, there's a good chance you'll be alive at the end of it. Now THAT would be something!

Never had air conditioning in anything i own so although i take your point, i slightly disagree with you. I may be wrong but i though the 100 year bit related to the length of time they have put on us colonising other parts of space, rather than the actual length of time in the actual spaceship? I may have read that wrong though.......

I think it is unethical to have human colonies only on Earth. Earth has a finite life span and if we were hit by a large enough asteroid or if super-volcanoes (like Yellowstone) went off, humans would be history even sooner. This assumes you care about the human species and not just about yourself.

Based on our ancestors evolution, we would need about 1,000 to 2,000 humans to form a growing colony.

Spinning ark ships could provide artificial gravity. I'm not aware of any side-effects since your body would still "feel" 1G pulling on it. One day if the LHC ever finds the Higgs Boson we may even have real gravity manipulation.

Also, non-Earth colonies would probably not even want to go back to Earth and they would form their own culture. How may immigrants to North America said, "Hey I want to go back to Europe", maybe a few but not most.

Thankyou for the insightful and thought provoking discussion, ladies and gentlemen!

Some really standout opinions on the topic, and some really differing ones too!


I don't think anyone can be right or wrong, when it comes to answering things like this, as there are too many variables at play between now and when it actually happens, and that's without knowing the full work in progress plan as it stands today, so thankyou all for indulging me, and participating.

There were certainly some very valid points made, that I had not even thought about! I hope I didn't upset too many people by playing devil's advocate (or trolling as someone put it ), I just thought about the fact that it was very possible that a human might be born and die without ever seeing the Earth, and thought that was a very interesting subject matter.


I think I might try a more sensationalist title for my next thread, to get more people involved (I was hoping for more opinions to be honest). Sensationalism does well around here I guess .


Stars all round! (except the 2 rude people)




Regards

ASW.