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This book discusses the big questions about how the discovery of extraterrestrial life, whether intelligent or microbial, would impact society and humankind.
Public theologians are already thundering like prophets at climate change and racial injustice. But the gale force winds of natural science blow through society as well. The public theologian should be on storm watch.
Throughout history, humans have explored new places, making both good and bad moral decisions along the way. As humanity proceeds to explore space, it is important that we learn from the successes and not repeat the mistakes of the past. This book provides the first comprehensive introduction to ethics as it applies to space exploration and use. It examines real-world case studies that exemplify the ethical challenges we face in exploring beyond Earth: space debris, militarization in space, hazardous asteroids, planetary protection, the search for extraterrestrial life, commercial and private sector activities in space, space settlements, very long duration missions, and planetary-scale interventions. Major themes include human health, environmental concerns, safety and risk, governance and decision-making, and opportunities and challenges of multidisciplinary and international contexts. Ideal for classroom use and beyond, the book provides ways of thinking that will help students, academics and policymakers examine the full range of ethical decisions on questions related to space exploration.
The Routledge Handbook of Social Studies of Outer Space offers state-of-the-art overview of contemporary social and cultural research on outer space. International in scope, the thirty-eight contributions by over fifty leading researchers and artists across a variety of disciplines and fields of knowledge, present a range of debates and pose key questions about the crafting of futures in relation to outer space. The Handbook is a call to attend more carefully to engagements with outer space, empirically, affectively, and theoretically, while characterizing current research practices and outlining future research agendas. This recalibration opens profound questions of intersectional politics,...
Astrophilosopy, Exotheology, and Cosmic Religion: Extraterrestrial Life in a Process Universe applies Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy and the associated process philosophies of Henri Bergson, Teilhard de Chardin, and others to the interdisciplinary layers of astrobiology, extraterrestrial life, and the impact of discovery. This collection, edited by Andrew M. Davis and Roland Faber, asks questions such as “How have process thinkers imagined universal creative evolution and its implications for philosophies, theologies, and religions beyond earth?” and “How might their claims as to the primacy of organism, temporality, novelty, value, and mind enrich current discussions an...
This volume, the result of an ongoing bridge building effort among engineers and humanists, addresses a variety of philosophical, ethical, and policy issues emanating from engineering and technology. Interwoven through its chapters are two themes, often held in tension with one another: “Exploring Boundaries” and “Expanding Connections.” “Expanding Connections” highlights contributions that look to philosophy for insight into some of the challenges engineers face in working with policy makers, lay designers, and other members of the public. It also speaks to reflections included in this volume on the connections between fact and value, reason and emotion, engineering practice and...
Astrotheology: Science and Theology Meet Extraterrestrial Life looks at both ends of the telescope: the unfathomable reaches of cosmic space and the excited stirrings within the human psyche. It takes a scientist to explain what we are looking at. It takes a theologian to understand who is doing the looking. This book's scientific authors update readers on astrobiology's search for extraterrestrial life. Theologians add to the science a theological analysis of the place of space in understanding God's creative work, the prospects of sharing God's creation with extraterrestrial neighbors, and the question of whether one or many incarnations are required for cosmic redemption. Finally, these scholars lay the foundations for an ethic of space exploration. This book introduces a comprehensive astrotheology with an accompanying astroethic.
This seminal monograph provides the essential guidance that we need to act as responsible ecological citizens while we expand our reach beyond Earth. The emergence of numerous national space programs along with several potent commercial presences prompts our attention to urgent environmental issues like what to do with the large mass of debris that orbits Earth, potential best practices for mining our moon, how to appropriately search for microscopic life, or whether to alter the ecology of Mars to suit humans better. This book not only examines the science and morals behind these potential ecological pitfall scenarios beyond Earth, it also provides groundbreaking policy responses founded up...
Where did we come from? Are we alone? Where are we going? These are the questions that define the field of astrobiology. New discoveries about life on Earth, the increasing numbers of extrasolar planets being identified, and the technologies being developed to locate and characterize Earth-like planets around other stars are continually challenging our views of nature and our connection to the rest of the universe. In this book, philosophers, historians, ethicists, and theologians provide the perspectives of their fields on the research and discoveries of astrobiology. A valuable resource for graduate students and researchers, the book provides an introduction to astrobiology, and explores subjects such as the implications of current origin of life research, the possible discovery of extraterrestrial microbial life, and the possibility of altering the environment of Mars.
A Guardian “Favourite Reads—as Chosen by Scientists” Selection “Tackles some of science’s most enduring misconceptions.” —Discover A falling apple inspired Isaac Newton’s insight into the law of gravity—or did it really? Among the many myths debunked in this refreshingly irreverent book are the idea that alchemy was a superstitious pursuit, that Darwin put off publishing his theory of evolution for fear of public reprisal, and that Gregor Mendel was ahead of his time as a pioneer of genetics. More recent myths about particle physics and Einstein’s theory of relativity are discredited too, and a number of dubious generalizations, like the notion that science and religion a...