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Planetary chauvinism

The Earth seen from Apollo 17.
An example of an O'Neill cylinder, as envisioned by NASA Ames.

Planetary chauvinism is the belief that human society will always be planet-based (even if extended beyond Earth), and overlooks or ignores the potential benefits of space-based living.[1] The idea can be extended to alien society in general, that is, we should expect alien society to be planet based.[2] The coining of the term is often credited to Isaac Asimov, but in an interview with Bill Boggs, Asimov mentions that he heard it from Carl Sagan.[3] The counter-argument is that all the benefits of a planet can be achieved in space, e.g., by an O'Neill cylinder-type structure.[4]

An even narrower version of planetary chauvinism is G-star chauvinism. This is the assumption that intelligent life will always evolve in star systems similar to our own, that is, in stars of spectral class G.[5] Carl Sagan criticised this belief on the grounds that intelligent life has a greater chance of evolving on the most long lived stars. That suggests that class-M and class-K stars are more likely candidates, not only because of their lifetime, but also because they are far more numerous than class-G stars.[2]

There are several hypotheses of the possibility of life originating in the universe in places other than planets.[6][7][8]

Surface chauvinism

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Thomas Gold, who advocated for the possibility of life in deep biospheres below the surfaces of celestial bodies,[9] has criticized science which only focuses on the surface and not below in its search of life as surface chauvinism.[9]

Similarly, the focus on surface-bound and territorial space advocacy, particularly for space colonization, has been termed surfacism, neglecting interest for atmospheres and potential atmospheric human habitation, such as colonization above the surface of Venus.[10][11]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Paterson, E. T. "Towards the orthomolecular environment." Jo Orthomol Psych 10 (1981): 269-283.
  2. ^ a b Carl Sagan, Carl Sagan's Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective, p. 48, Cambridge University Press, 2000 ISBN 0521783038.
  3. ^ Bill Boggs. "Asimov Interview with Bill Boggs (35 minutes in)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-15. Retrieved July 2, 2014.
  4. ^ Mike Combs. "Somewhere Else Entirely". Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  5. ^ Joseph A. Angelo, Encyclopedia of Space and Astronomy, p. 235, Infobase Publishing, 2014 ISBN 1438110189.
  6. ^ Luis A. Anchordoqui and Eugene M. Chudnovsky Can Self-Replicating Species Flourish in the Interior of a Star?, Letters in High Energy Physics, issue 166, 2020, doi:10.31526/LHEP.2020.166
    • From the abstract: "We argue that an advanced form of life based upon short-lived species can exist inside main-sequence stars like our Sun."
  7. ^ Browne, Malcolm W. (1988-02-02). "A Theory Sees Life, Of Sorts, On Pulsars". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-03-31.
  8. ^ Clifford A. Pickover, The Stars of Heaven, Chapter 8: "Stellar Graveyards, Nucleosynthesis, and Why We Exist"
  9. ^ a b Gold, Thomas (1999). The Deep Hot Biosphere. New York, NY: Springer New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-1400-7. ISBN 978-0-387-95253-6.
  10. ^ Tickle, Glen (2015-03-05). "A Look Into Whether Humans Should Try to Colonize Venus Instead of Mars". Laughing Squid. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
  11. ^ David Warmflash (14 March 2017). "Colonization of the Venusian Clouds: Is 'Surfacism' Clouding Our Judgement?". Vision Learning. Retrieved 20 September 2019.