We can breathe the air–but can we follow the rules?

Sci-Fi writer Charles Stross speculates on whether alien life could or would choose to inhabit earth.  Conclusion?  Less likely than you think:

78% of the surface area is seawater. Drop a naked meat puppet there and it’s going to go glug glug glub … tritely, this is Not A Good Start.

Of the remaining 22%, about one third is either mountain ranges, deserts, or ice caps. It’s reasonable to say that, in the absence of protective equipment, the meat probes are going to die of exposure in less than one diurnal period – possibly in as little as an hour if they’re unlucky enough to land in the middle of the Antarctic winter.

We’re down to about 15% of the planetary surface – 15% that isn’t lethal without life support equipment such as boats, tents, and clothing. Our meat probes can breathe the air without their lungs freezing or dessicating. They aren’t going to drown rapidly. And they aren’t going to roll off a cliff. They might get a tad sunburned or hypothermic depending on the weather, and they might be eaten by a mountain lion or bitten by a rattlesnake, but they stand a reasonable chance of making it through 24 hours on the surface without dying.

Whimsical questions such as these tend to leave out another important feature of Earth–our ethical systems.  Ethical codes among Earth’s many cultures and peoples are hardly uniform, but there’s a lot that unites us.  Would it unite the aliens, too?

One would think we can safely assume they will be rational in some sense.  And to make it this far, the aliens would probably have to embrace a lot of our basic rules: some subset would be protected from wanton killing, lying would be limited to inconsequential circumstances, etc.

But maybe not.  It’s funny that people like Stross always poke fun at how movies and TV portray Earth as an appetizing place to live.  But none question whether it’s the way we live — rather than the place — that would be the real turn-off

-Sam

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November 6, 2009 · Filed Under Sam, Science

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One Response to “We can breathe the air–but can we follow the rules?”

  1. Jake on November 6th, 2009 2:51 pm

    District 9 raises some relevant questions.

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  • Editors

    Jacob Bronsther is a law student at NYU, a former Fulbright Scholar to Mauritius, and a graduate of Cornell University. He has an MPhil in Political Theory from the University of Oxford.

  • Sam Gill is a consultant in Washington and a graduate of the University of Chicago. He studied Political Theory at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

  • Marc Grinberg is a Presidential Management Fellow with the U.S. government and a graduate of Princeton University. He earned an MPhil in Political Theory from the University of Oxford.

  • John Rood is the founder of Next Step Test Preparation and a graduate of Michigan State University. He has an AM in Political Theory from the University of Chicago.

  • Luke Freedman is a student at Carleton College, pursuing a double major in Philosophy and Political Science.


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