Do we have an obligation to spread life ?

[UM-Bot]

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/images/newsitems/galaxyspacered.jpg

A leading proffessor has suggested that the human race has an obligation to seed the universe with life. Missions designed to deliberately spread life to other planets could happen in the future, this "directed panspermia" is even feasible with our current level of technology. But is it really our place to decide how and where life develops ?

"According to Michael Mautner, Research Professor of Chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University, seeding the universe with life is not just an option, it’s our moral obligation."

View: Full Article | Source: PhysOrg.com

[Ashyne]

For all the species that we have wiped out, we hold the responsibility to compensate for our wrongs by spreading life throughout the galaxy, as long as the life we spread is not human life, but non-human fauna and flora.

[Child of the light]

Agreed with Ashiene, its probably ok to spread life but not human seeing as how we are destroying our world i feel that it is not fair to destroy others.

[DONTEATUS]

This is going to be a Great thread, Both sides of the subject will no doubt be voiced.

I for one think that the building blocks of Life are out there already.

And to send DNA and micro-orginsims out into Deep Space may work and may just turn into cosmic soup.

What if it grows up with Extreem ADHD and comes back to Eat us?

Or just Blocks our view of Interstellar Space with Freeways and By-passes.

The answer is still 42.

[chaoszerg]

I don't think we have a obligation to spread life, if we wipe ourselves out and the rest then tough for us, but we don't have to do anything in the universe, also I don't think spreading life would be that easy as on other planets there might be all sorts of weird bacteria or elements that would probably make living there impossible.

First we should focus on getting control of ourselves on this planet.

[Siara]

For all the species that we have wiped out, we hold the responsibility to compensate for our wrongs by spreading life throughout the galaxy, as long as the life we spread is not human life, but non-human fauna and flora.

Agreed. We should spread life but realize that our species is only one (occasionally pretty ugly) manifestation of it.

[chaoszerg]

Agreed. We should spread life but realize that our species is only one (occasionally pretty ugly) manifestation of it.

The only life we should spread if we did is plant and insect life.

Edited February 11, 2010 by chaoszerg

[Mistydawn]

saw this prgramme on tv last night about "infinity." How it as a number, is infinity plus 1. If we mulitply, increase in numbers, it is just as possible that those numbers are already created in some other worlds already... basically... it really doesn't matter what we do!!!!

[Darkcore]

Made me think of this little video (youtube):

[The Silver Thong]

Sure, why not seed other planets with bacteria,plant, and sure insect life where it could survive. I mean space is so huge that what ever we did the out come if any would go un noticed by others in the universe for millinia. I say we get some genetically altered moss or fungi and seed all of Mars with it. The first steps in Tera forming as we are going to need more room in the future. Unless the powers that be start bring the population down.

[theGhost_and_theDarkness]

I think we should just leave things as they are and let everything progress as it will. As has been said, we need to fix the mess we've created on this planet before we start thinking about things like that. When humans disrupt natural processes, we tend to muck things up. If life was meant to spread from our planet to another, it will happen on its own. I don't see why humans feel the need to inject themselves into the middle of everything.

[Mistydawn]

Sure, why not seed other planets with bacteria,plant, and sure insect life where it could survive. I mean space is so huge that what ever we did the out come if any would go un noticed by others in the universe for millinia. I say we get some genetically altered moss or fungi and seed all of Mars with it. The first steps in Tera forming as we are going to need more room in the future. Unless the powers that be start bring the population down.

Get you. If we screwed up once, or more, then screwing up some more and then some more, eventually we gotta get it right; that is the law of inevitabilty, right?!

[Der]

I think we should just leave things as they are and let everything progress as it will. As has been said, we need to fix the mess we've created on this planet before we start thinking about things like that. When humans disrupt natural processes, we tend to muck things up. If life was meant to spread from our planet to another, it will happen on its own. I don't see why humans feel the need to inject themselves into the middle of everything.

Why? It's not like most planets have life for us to harm anyway. What harm could come from inhabiting planets that don't have life?

Also, ever thought that maybe making other planets inhabitable and seeding life on them is part of "fixing the mess we've created"? We would be able to send endangered species to another planet in order to save them, and have a place where to so we can fight overpopulation (maybe not the same planet where we sent the endangered species).

Edited February 11, 2010 by Der

[:PsYKoTiC:BeHAvIoR:]

I don't think it's an obligation personally. I believe it's with humanity's curiosity and drive to explore the unknown that will result an expansion in life, especially when space travel becomes a common way of transportation.

[chaoszerg]

I don't think it's an obligation personally. I believe it's with humanity's curiosity and drive to explore the unknown that will result an expansion in life, especially when space travel becomes a common way of transportation.

I do think we need to spread out as we are increasing at a alarming rate and are wasting resources, but I think the ocean should be where we spread out too next on it or under it, but as for other planets I think bacteria, plant and insect life should be the ones to go first to just to kick start things off for when we can eventually start having colonies safely up there, but we really need to get a handle on what we are doing on this planet first.

[The Silver Thong]

Get you. If we screwed up once, or more, then screwing up some more and then some more, eventually we gotta get it right; that is the law of inevitabilty, right?!

Not really worried about mistakes. We are so far from any other star system we can pretty much do what we want and it will have zero effect on the universe damn even our small little galaxy is safe from human interaction. Say we find a planet that is similar to earth say like avatar but with out intelligent life, would I say colonize it, sure I would. Would I want to see it destroyed no but we do know thats what we do. Our impact even on this planet is brutal beyond belief however no matter what happens to humans life will alway return as long as earth has an atmosphere. For example what harm could come from putting life on Mars? If it goes wrong we leave and let mars reclaim itself.

[zenfahr]

I hear alot about us killing the planet... Im sure we are doing damage, but we are not killing it, we are learning how to live WITH it. I perfer to think that this is a natural process of life in the universe. Mother nature will shake us off like a bunch of pests if we get too bad. But we are not going to kill her. As for seeding the universe, hey why not? We are only talking about adding our genetic make-up to the already present Cosmic Soup. No big deal.

[zenfahr]

ST I wish your avatar would stop going back inside!!! I want her to come all the OUT already!!!

[J.B.]

Yup, it's our moral duty to spread life and habitability everywhere we can that's not already nailed down by someone else. Maybe not spread ourselves, at least not til we fix our current issues. Bugs in our software and all that. But simple life, like plants, bacteria, insects. . . get them out there!

Not too worried about mistakes either. I have a feeling that we're going to end up damaging or destroying a lot of worlds if we survive long enough to go interstellar, but that doesn't mean we're overall bad. Just depends on your faith/what you think we're supposed to be doing.

[Marby]

This is one of those questions where I see both sides of it, but haven't really formulated a solid opinion.

While I don't believe that humanity is so horrible that we are somehow not worthy of seeding other planets or spreading ourselves elsewhere, I also have to wonder about the wisdom in doing that before we have all the information, so to speak. We cause problems with pet pythons escape into The Everglades and start reproducing, how do we know what we would be messing up elsewhere?

At the same time, it's an exciting idea, and I would hope that the motivations behind it are not selfish. I say this with the understanding that we are not being selfish by practicing self preservation, because we are not.

[cluey]

Personally!!!...i think if life were meant to be on other planets.....it would already be there.....at no hand of ours.......

Edited February 12, 2010 by cluey

[UNME]

Awwwww.. we should leave the poor little planets alone. We have done so much to ruin our own planet. BOOHOO....

Bah, thats all just a bunch of hippy nonsense. I think when we find a planet that has animals on that we cant control then thats the one we leave alone. Otherwise whats the point of bein top of the food chain... my goal would be the first man to find alien life and see what it tastes like.

Who knows may be some killer BBQ.

[Der]

Personally!!!...i think if life were meant to be on other planets.....it would already be there.....at no hand of ours.......

I ask again: What harm could come from inhabiting planets that currently don't host life? If anything, inhabiting others planets would help Earth and its inhabitants (both human and non-human), since it would help us fight overpopulation and protect species that are in danger of extinction thanks to man (by sending them to human-less planets).

You hear lots of times people complaining about us being such a horrible race that is destroying the planet, yet when we come up with solutions that might help us solve our problems and save the planet, many of the same people complain about it and say we should just forget about it. It's like they just love to hate anything we do, be it good or bad. Why shouldn't we allowed to try to correct our mistakes?

Edited February 12, 2010 by Der

[J.B.]

Space Marines: Sending Polar Bears to Hoth so they can fight the Wampams. Or however you spell those ice monster things from Episode 5.

[The Silver Thong]

Personally I would like to send out tens of thousands of rockets containing life to planets that have no life but may be able to harbor it. I don't think it's our obligation but it is in our nature. I would not want to interrupt ok maybe I would existing micro life as We are all born of the stars. We should use what the stars gave us and thats the ability to do so. A big massive orgy in space to spread life. I'm all for it as there is no down side.