NATUSCHKA LEE: “Learning from Earth How to Explore and Colonize Other Worlds in the Universe”

ABSTRACT:

Since the scientific revolution and the emergence of modern science fiction novels, mankind’s relation to the universe, technology, life, worldviews and imagination has changed tremendously. The impossible has become next to possible. We have excelled in technology and medicine, but also in destruction and unwillingly promoted the emergence of worse diseases. While discrimination and political conflicts divide humans, AI forces humans to redefine their role, and we are running out of time to document the amazing biodiversity on Earth before it gets too late, we still wish to search for life in outer space and colonize a new planet, such as Mars. Instead of searching for God and religious guidelines like in former days, the today’s mission is now focused on curiosity, commercial exploitation, and on Aliens, intelligent civilizations or simple life signatures, such as biomolecules and microbes. As amazing that may be, we lack a substantial plan for how to deal in an adequate responsible manner with such discoveries that may have an even greater impact than the Copernical and Darwinian revolutions. This whole endeavour is complicated further by the fact that we lack a profound understanding of what is life, intelligence, consciousness, death, and what the future of the universe is going to be, and thus how to secure the survival of mankind in a longer term. These uncertainties may cause a new type of existential crise, misuse of science and the emergence of various conspiration theories, an escalation in political conflicts and military operations also in space, highlight the need for a critical epistemological evaluation on fundamental concepts and deeper interdisciplinary collaboration between natural sciences and the humanities.