Guest. Dr. Brian Green; Topics: Our guest discussed his new book "Space Ethics" along with leading us through a more detailed discussion about ethical issues for humans developing and living in space. See the blog post for information about his book and the Table of Contents for his book.
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We welcomed Dr. Brian Green to the program to discuss his new book "Space Ethics (see the blog post with additional information about the book) plus the general topic of space ethics with some spillover to ethical issues faced by today's society. To initiate our discussion, I asked our guest to provide us with a working definition of space ethics. Dr. Green did so, talking about both ethics and morals as the same concept with one being Greek and the other being Latin. He went on to say that ethics is about making good decisions and being a good person, then implementing the decisions. He talked about ethics in the sense of building character and good habit. This included human rights but listen to all of what he said in this early part of our discussion. For space ethics, Dr. Green talked about making ethical issues apply to the new frontier. This led to an early topic discussion focused on space tourism.
As for space tourism, our guest said that humans needed a purpose and meaning and space tourism could fulfill that need. We then talked about Shatner going to space with Blue Origin. Don't miss what was said about the flight, space tourism in general, and Shatner. Next, our guest started mentioning China, AI, and technology ethics. He suggested that China had similar purposes to ours but they were implemented differently as they align ethically with the CCP. Dr. Green talked about differences between China and Russia plus he mentioned how China had successfully used stolen technology for their programs. In the context of space, he indicated that the party in space or at a space destination first or with the most presence in space may very well control the ethical framework for being in space.
Listener Todd sent in a note asking if rules were equal to ethics. Like rules of conduct for being in space or space traffic management rules or satellite end of life deorbit rules. Brian had much to say in his response to Todd as he pointed out the challenges were not just based on cause and effect. From this discussion, we turned to some of the chapters in his book, starting with the first chapter, "Why Space Ethics?"
In discussing the first chapter, Brian said he made lists for why and why not space or space ethics. He went over several of the points with us from both lists and later in our discussion mentioned that the why not side did have good points though he believed he answered them. He partially did this during our discussion but I suggest actually reading the chapter for the full coverage in answering the Why Space question. Before turning to ET intelligence, we both talked about the need for and the importance of inspiration.
Dr. Green talked about ET intelligence in two chapters. Chapter 8 was titled "Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial life." Chapter 10 was on "The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence." Brian was asked to differentiate between the two chapters which he did so listen up for what he had to say. After our ET discussion, Musk came up regarding his plans for humans to Mars and planetary protection issues stemming from Article 9 of the OST. Our guest talked about built in norms, not stupid rules.
The SpaceX and Elon Musk commentary formed a lengthy discussion. Toward the end of it, I asked Brian to be a consultant to Musk on PP concerns and what he would tell him as his consultant. Then I asked him to be the NASA consultant in support of NASA PP issues. Then I asked how he would advise NASA to deal with Musk. Listen to what Brian said wearing both the SpaceX-Musk hat and then the NASA hat. Please comment on this part of our discussion by posting on our blog.
Listener Steve sent in a note about weaponizing space. Listen to what Brian said on this issue as you might be surprised by what you hear. Next, I asked Brian for the perspective of his ethics peers regarding space ethics and the issues we had been discussing. Surprises might await you here too so listen up. Before the program ended, we briefly talked about medical and bioethical ethics. Toward the end, I mentioned my earlier business ethics presentations and papers. Listen to what our guest said about business ethics and the typical ethics of the Newspace type of companies and individuals creating space businesses then and today. For our conclusion, we talked about AI and lethal weapons systems, the idea of killer robots, then we talked about the policy makers, politicians and then finally the ethics regarding social media. Our guest was unable to say much on the social media commentary due to his having signed NDA's.
Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog and archive page for this program. You can reach Dr. Green through me or his faculty website page through Santa Clara University.
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