International Ethics Lecture
Annual International Ethics Lecture with Daniel Deudney, P.h.D. (Johns Hopkins) speaker, he will be presenting on "Space Colonization as a Catastrophic and Existential Threat," which is based on his book Dark Skies: Space Expansionism, Planetary Geopolitics, and the Ends of Humanity.
Advocates of significant human expansion into outer space claim such steps are necessary for human survival. ‘All of our eggs are in one basket,’ as Stephen Hawking said, but the future of humanity as a multi-planetary species will be assured. In reality, significant human expansion will create or exacerbate catastrophic existential threats. Already, the employment of space as a corridor for rapid nuclear strikes, the use of ballistic missiles as the premier ‘delivery’ vehicle for nuclear weapons, an application that space advocates simply fail to recognize as part of the space story, has increased the probability of nuclear war. At least three other perils are inherent in the larger program of colonization: asteroidal orbital manipulation technologies, genetic manipulation techniques, and unregulated or poorly regulated artificial superintelligence (ASI). Sustaining a regime of technological restraints in a diverse and conflictual multiplanetary system is likely to be difficult.
Speaker Bio
Daniel Deudney is an American political scientist and Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. His published work is mainly in the fields of international relations and political theory, with an emphasis on geopolitics and republicanism.He is the author of Bounding Power: Republican Security Theory from the Polis to the Global Village (Princeton University Press, 2007) and Dark Skies: Space Expansionism, Planetary Geopolitics, & the Ends of Humanity (Oxford University Press, 2020)
Event Snapshot
When and Where
Who
Open to the Public
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No