Earth-Cosmos Binary

Preprint currently under peer review.

This version September 26, 2022

Seth D. Baum and Andrea Owe

Abstract: What should be done with the cosmos? This is an ethical question of profound importance. Furthermore, prospects for advanced technology mean that this is a question that humans may someday need to answer. This paper proposes one type of answer, the Earth-Cosmos Binary (ECB), in which Earth and its vicinity are preserved for humans and other existing Earth-life while the rest of the cosmos is allocated for the radical optimization of moral value. The ECB constitutes a balance between the moral view of preserving Earth and the rest of the cosmos in its current form and the moral view of converting the cosmos into something of greater moral value. Arguably, Earth and its vicinity is the portion of the cosmos most worth preserving due to the special nature of Earth. The paper considers a variety of arguments for and against the ECB, finding a strong but not definitive case in favor of it. The paper also presents variants of the ECB which may have additional moral value under certain conditions.

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

Inquiry, 1(25)

2024

Seth D. Baum and Andrea Owe

Abstract: Diversity is an important ethical concept, but it is almost exclusively studied within two domains: biodiversity and diversity of sociological attributes such as race and gender. We provide a general study of the intrinsic value of diversity. We survey prior literature on the intrinsic value of biodiversity and sociological diversity in search of insights relevant to the intrinsic value of all types of diversity. We then present three thought experiments designed to clarify intuitions about the intrinsic value of small amounts of diversity, large amounts of diversity, and diversity as compared to other intrinsic values. We find that many types of diversity are intrinsically valuable at both small and large amounts, but that diversity may be a weak intrinsic value in comparison to others. Noting that diversity can be defined in many ways, we propose that, for purposes of moral evaluation, diversity should be defined to include both a diversity of individual elements within a group and a diversity of the overall patterns or structures of the group. Some of our findings about the intrinsic value of diversity are tentative, indicating that moral intuitions about diversity are sometimes ambiguous and would benefit from further study.

Nonhuman Value: A Survey of the Intrinsic Valuation of Natural and Artificial Nonhuman Entities

Science and Engineering Ethics, 28(38)

2022

DOI: 10.1007/s11948-022-00388-z

Andrea Owe, Seth D. Baum, and Mark Coeckelbergh

Abstract: To be intrinsically valuable means to be valuable for its own sake. Moral philosophy is often ethically anthropocentric, meaning that it locates intrinsic value within humans. This paper rejects ethical anthropocentrism and asks, in what ways might nonhumans be intrinsically valuable? The paper answers this question with a wideranging survey of theories of nonhuman intrinsic value. The survey includes both moral subjects and moral objects, and both natural and artificial nonhumans. Literatures from environmental ethics, philosophy of technology, philosophy of art, moral psychology, and related fields are reviewed, and gaps in these literatures are identified. Although the gaps are significant and much work remains to be done, the survey nonetheless demonstrates that those who reject ethical anthropocentrism have considerable resources available to develop their moral views. Given the many very high-stakes issues involving both natural and artificial nonhumans, and the sensitivity of these issues to how nonhumans are intrinsically valued, this is a vital project to pursue.

Greening the Universe: The Case for Ecocentric Space Expansion

2023

In: Reclaiming Space: Progressive and Multicultural Visions of Space Exploration, by James S.J. Schwartz, Linda Billings and Erika Nesvold (Eds.) Oxford University Press.

Andrea Owe

Abstract: The idea of becoming multiplanetary is relevant to many moral values inherent in the Earth ecosphere. Contra many of my fellow environmentalists’ hesitation toward a civilizational expansion into space, I make a deeply environmental case for space expansion in this chapter. Specifically, I advance an argument for ecocentric space expansion and an ecocentric argument for space expansion: the long-term space future is about the continuation and potentiality of the total story of life on and from Earth. I put forth the claim that while humanity’s greatest immediate challenge is to survive the next century or two, our greatest achievement will be eventually greening the universe and bringing it to life.

Read blog post about the paper here.

The Ethics of Sustainability for Artificial Intelligence

Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on AI for People: Towards Sustainable AI, CAIP 2021

Andrea Owe and Seth D. Baum

Abstract: Sustainability is widely considered a good thing and is therefore a matter of ethical significance. This paper analyzes the ethical dimensions of existing work on AI and sustainability, finding that most of it is focused on sustaining the environment for human benefit. The paper calls for sustainability that is not human-centric and that extends into the distant future, especially for advanced future AI as a technology that can advance expansion beyond Earth.

Read blog post about the paper here.

The paper is part of the conference AI for People: Towards Sustainable AI, CAIP’21.

Moral Consideration of Nonhumans in the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

AI & Ethics 1(4): 517-528

2021

Andrea Owe and Seth D. Baum

Abstract: This paper argues that the field of artificial intelligence (AI) ethics needs to give more attention to the values and interests of nonhumans such as other biological species and the AI itself. It documents the extent of current attention to nonhumans in AI ethics as found in academic research, statements of ethics principles, and select projects to design, build, apply, and govern AI. It finds that the field of AI ethics gives limited and inconsistent attention to nonhumans, with the main activity being a line of research on the moral status of AI. The paper argues that nonhumans merit moral consideration, meaning that they should be actively valued for their own sake and not ignored or valued just for how they might benefit humans. Finally, it explains implications of moral consideration of nonhumans for AI ethics research and practice, including for the content of AI ethics principles, the selection of AI projects, the accounting of inadvertent effects of AI systems such as via their resource and energy consumption and potentially certain algorithmic biases, and the research challenge of incorporating nonhuman interests and values into AI system design. The paper does not take positions on which nonhumans to morally consider or how to balance the interests and values of humans vs. nonhumans. Instead, the paper makes the more basic argument that the field of AI ethics should move from its current state of affairs, in which nonhumans are usually ignored, to a state in which nonhumans are given more consistent and extensive moral consideration.

Environmental Ethics in Outer Space - A macrostrategic space journey through cosmism, posthumanism and moral enhancement

Dissertation

Supervisor: Dr. Nina Witoszek

Grade: A

Reprosentralen, The University of Oslo

May 2019

Andrea Owe

Abstract: The Anthropocene may entail at least two major civilizational and planetary events; the environmental crisis and the project of spreading humans and Earth-life to other planets. This thesis operates in the span between these two events. Its objective is to explore what ethics may secure and promote long-term sustainability of Earth-life in space, and how these moral values may be promoted and adopted. With an environmental ethics approach to the young interdisciplinary field of space ethics, this thesis thus aims to tentatively and exploratively draft a viable ethic for long-term sustainability of Earth-life in space. At that, the study focuses on the challenge of human moral adaptation in the scenario of human migration to outer space.

By using the methodology of macrostrategy, this study applies a wide scope in terms of time and space, in order to analyse trends, risks and correlations between ethics on the one hand, and political, social and cultural, as well as evolutionary and planetary aspects of human civilization, planet Earth and the cosmos. It moves between fields such as evolutionary- and astrobiology, Russian cosmism and posthumanism. The conclusions of the study suggest a need for an updated epistemology which gives justice to the factual holism and relationalism of the world and the universe. This epistemology serves as the basis for a proposed ethic for the project of spreading humankind and Earth-life to other planets. This proposed ethic considers certain aspects of altruism and ecocentrism placed in a cosmic context, while staying grounded in the realism that is human nature. Further, the research suggests that a viable space ethic must with time expand its scope in time and space in order to reach an appropriate size and scale. This is proposed on the basis of a need to navigate through existential risks to humankind and Earth-life. The study simultaneously identifies significant obstacles for such a moral development in the current evolutionary trajectory of the human being. In order to overcome these obstacles, and by the rationale of the severity of the current crisis, the study concludes that a combination of extensive moral education together with applied moral enhancement by the aid of our technology, may be appropriate and necessary means to promote and adopt this expanded ethic. As such, the study implies that a moral development of humankind may be relevant to the success of the project of becoming multiplanetary.

The Ethical Dark Side of the New Space Age

MEDIUM, The Startup

March 2020

Andrea Owe and Timiebi Aganaba-Jeanty

On behalf of The Interplanetary Initiative Space Advisory Pilot Project, Arizona State University

“It may seem like we are heading towards a new technological and economic revolution enabled by the promise of our space future. But it is easy to overlook that this new space age comes with a darker side.”