Should we seed other planets with life?

Hello,

I've been wondering for a while weather or not we as a species should "seed" another planet with life?

I wonder, im pretty sure we have the technology, weather or not this would be a good idea. We could once and for all prove the possibility of life on other planets, and wed get a wonderful new oportunity to study evolution, we could map the evolution of new life from first principles on another planet wouldnt that be amazing?

So what are your opinions guys? Do you think we should seed other planet?

~TR

[edit on 27-11-2009 by Tomb_Raven]

[edit on 27-11-2009 by Tomb_Raven]

good question.

first off, i think it's covered.

second, i'm sure we will know when and if we have the chance.

officially we are trying not to spread germs when we explore but....

3rd? when we are in a position to seed, as in, we can create our own solar systems, sure!

i certainly don't believe it's impossible given enough time and we learn
values and tech, that are lacking at the moment and foreseeable future.

our universe is 14.5 +/- byo? that is based on how far we can see.
correct?

if we survive to "pass the torch" on to our progeny, we will move on to the next level or create our next level.

yes but why wait untill weve already found the stuff out ...

we could try and seed one planet, then we dont have to bother to look for life on it, and if the life takes we have proof it CAN survive elswhere.

The technology required isnt that sophisticated we just have to male a selection of microbes that could survive, freeze them and send them over on a probe and release them onto the planet.

We could even try and do it on the moon, theres some water there

if we seed one planet we only contaminate one of them

~TR

Of course we should ... after all colonies have moved from land to land on our planet and now that we are all relatively settled (bar a few conflicts over land *cough* Israel I am looking at you and Pakistan I have an eye on Kashmir too *cough*) where else can we colonise?

It is in our nature to find a place, destroy what civilisation currently exists there and replace it with our own.

Ill go with the Star Trek (Genesis) Philosophy here.

I think it would be fine to terraform and seed life... but under the proviso that the planet we do seed is completely void of life.

We have no right to alter the destiny of any microbiological life indigenous to any other planet. After all.. that could have been us billions of years ago right!

Thankfully we still have a way to go before we can start playing god on such a huge scale.

IRM

mmno we shouldnt..iots Immoral to take and popualte a planet with a frieing species...especailyl if its humans* i can see it now, a millenia form now..another hitler taking over the new planet, columbus enslaving its females, atilla the hun and ghanges khan whoreds pilligaing the lcoal villagers,a capitalist society based on greed, extrocian, and screwing its citizens over in taxes... indeed lets populate the planet
im sure the FED will want their cut of the theft as well lol...start a costly war with the humans thier, kinda like star wars.

I'm not sure we're ready for this. We didn't do too good of a job when Columbus or the Vikings before him discovered America. We seeded that continent and look where it got us and the people that were already on it.

I 'm in agreement with InfaRedMan (above), I prefer the Star Trek approach to this too, no life on it or it ends up on reservations and such too... unless they kick our butts first.

Personally I say no. We cant even take care of our own planet let alone another one. How do we know life doesnt exist on other planets already? We dont own the solar system and I think we should leave the other planets alone. We need to take care of our own planet first.

Originally posted by InfaRedMan
Ill go with the Star Trek (Genesis) Philosophy here.

I think it would be fine to terraform and seed life... but under the proviso that the planet we do seed is completely void of life.

We have no right to alter the destiny of any microbiological life indigenous to any other planet. After all.. that could have been us billions of years ago right!

Thankfully we still have a way to go before we can start playing god on such a huge scale.

IRM

Sure we have the right to alter the destiny of microbiological life. We are of nature just like all other things so what we do is natural. When we kill animals for food we have denied that animal offspring which could have evolved into who knows what?

When we eat a plant we prevented it from possibly evolving. We absolutely have the right to rule the universe as we see fit. If other life comes along that is more fit for survival than us and exterminates us that is simply survival of the fittest.

Spreading life that could support human life on other planets is the ONLY way to ensure our survival should earth ever become uninhabitable.

reply to post by Tomb_Raven


We as the human race do not need to because it has already been done for us by Bugs and Blossoms. ^Y^

It doesn't matter whether we seed other planets or not. What happens, happens. Do I think we should? Sure if we can, why not? If we make a mistake then we'll learn from it and correct it. That's how we grow, exist, survive.

i just think the possibility for the scientific knowledge that could be gained itself would be the perfect reason to do it ... we could monitor evolution properly... its simply too hecktic there are too many animals here on earth.

i think it would be a brilliant idea to terraform a planet just as a backup, see if we can do it with just life, see if life can make a planet more habitable, life promotes life.

As a biologist i couldnt wish for anything better ... except aliens commin and giving us the encyclopedia galactica.

~TR

I think we will quickly learn that the universe is teaming with life.

Inescapably, the question will ultimately become how do we prevent contaminating our own planet?

Mark my words on this one.

Originally posted by loam
I think we will quickly learn that the universe is teaming with life.

Inescapably, the question will ultimately become how do we prevent contaminating our own planet?

Mark my words on this one.

You are correct there are intelligent lifeforms that have gone where we have

not dared go before and contaminating our planet from outside and inside our

atmosphere will always be humanities challenge. ^Y^

No. I think we should follow the prime directive and not mess with other planets until we prove ourselves to be savvy with ours, which in my opinion we have not. We should not interfere. We are not qualified metaphysically, spiritually, mentall, or technologically at levels where we can safely do this or even make a decision to do this. But hey, I also happen to believe this should apply to nations on our planet.

Yes , I believe it is humanities destiny one day to seed the galaxy with our genes and terraform a couple hundred planets , but first we have to grow up a little more.

First we need to learn to love our fellow human.

Then we could start with colonies on the ocean floor , on the moon and mars. Maybe turn the large deserts of the Earth into rainforests and give venus a hospitable atmosphere and then I'd say that we have a bit of experience at terraforming to go at the galaxy with.

Starred and flagged.

[edit on 27-11-2009 by De La Valletta]

This is WAY off into the future... but yea I think we should. But only if there is a legitimate reason to, not just because we can. If we manage not to blow ourselves up by the time it comes to the sun expanding & frying earth then it'll be something that has to be done anyway.
Could also be a good idea when it comes to maybe having somewhere to go if a dinosaur ending asteroid comes for us. Would be much better than a crappy underground bunker.

I agree that we shouldnt go mess with a planet that already has life on it though. But wouldnt that be really difficult to do anyway? We wouldnt want a 'war of the worlds' scenario to come up i.e. us not being able to cohabit with whatever bacteria already resides there. And surely it would be ridiculously difficult to erase all life thats already there. Especially when we see the strange places that bacteria manages to survive here.

To be fair though, most of the planets will probably have been claimed by some giant iguana/alien overlord by then anyway

[edit on 27/11/09 by Bluebelle]

Originally posted by Xeven

Sure we have the right to alter the destiny of microbiological life. We are of nature just like all other things so what we do is natural. When we kill animals for food we have denied that animal offspring which could have evolved into who knows what?

We have the chance to rise above being an animal ourselves... but obviously not while you (and people like you) are sucking air!

When we eat a plant we prevented it from possibly evolving. We absolutely have the right to rule the universe as we see fit.

Spoken like a true gun lobbyist!

IRM

[edit on 27/11/09 by InfaRedMan]

In order to seed life we must also know how to terraform a planet. Even then im assuming you meen seed carbon based lifeforms(other base lifeforms could be possible). We would need to terraform a planet because if a planet is already hospitable it would already most likely have life on it. And when we do "seed" this planet how are we going to? Transport life from earth to the planet, or put microbacterial life into the oceans and wait. Even then it would be almost near impossible to study the evolution given the millions and millions of years to get complex life. Then again if we can terraform in the future we may be able to speed up the evolutionary progress.

reply to post by Xeven


I do not think we have the right anymore. As being the most intelligent species that we know of so far. We have a duty in us to take care of the lesser species wether its on earth or in some rock in space. We may have started off as animals but we are so much more now. I meen what other natural creature has the power to destroy the world and go to the moon and build in space?