I have come to a Dead end with my proposal currently, I’m thinking that i need to do a lot more research than i’m currently doing in order for me to find other aspects of my idea to touch on. I’m going to do more research on Elon Musk The owner of Tesla Motors, and his proposals and ideas on colonizing mars. I believe reading some articles about what he wants to do and his reasons why will give me more insight as to why Humanity wants to leave the planet and colonize others. It will also give me some insight into the technology being developed just for his ideas. I haven’t changed my proposal because i literally do not know what else i need to add, so ill leave it alone bringing more resources i annotated to my meeting to see where else i can go with my proposal. To summarize my project circle around the idea of Terraforming and why Humanity has this need or dream to leave earth and colonize other planets, is this ethical or unethical. I will want to claim that it is ethical under specific circumstances dealing with if said planet has life etc. Currently I have looked at a few sources and i haven’t narrowed them perfectly down to things i want to list as something i want to quote and draw from, they mostly deal with ideas and the possibility. The sources i have listed i will draw from but i want to use at least three or four more to add to the knowledge of this concept.  My next steps will be to get the final guidance needed in my meeting so i can finalize my proposal, i believe I’m missing one aspect i need to touch on and research but it isn’t coming to me, with further research and guidance i believe i will find what I’m looking for.

 

My proposal (I haven’t changed it)

For my Archive project, I would like to discuss a science fiction creation called Terraforming. Terraforming which means “Earth-Shaping” is an idea taken from science fiction and mixed with real science. It basically deals with modifying another planet’s atmosphere, temperature, and surface to be similar or exactly like earth. It makes other planets habitable by Human beings, and any type of planet life from our own planet. The term was coined by Jack Williamson in a science-fiction story (Collision Orbit) published during 1942 in Astounding Science Fiction. The idea of Terraforming isn’t a new subject, but now it’s a reality. I want to discuss the Science fiction concept as it moves into real life, and how it is capable today. I wasn’t to give a brief explanation of its history from its conception to today and what exactly we want to do with this idea. “Nevertheless current research suggests that humanity possesses the technical capacity (though perhaps not the economic capacity) to begin the process of terraforming the planet Mars” (On the Moral Permissibility of Terraforming). Currently, we are researching the possibility of Terraforming Mars so it can have our first space colony, it’s capable but it is costly it would take the majority of the worlds governments to band together and fund such an endeavor. The idea has many ethical issues with it as well as people see it as Invading another land and stealing what isn’t ours and taking its resources.
Touching on the history of terraforming, and its current capabilities I want to then dive into the moral and ethical issues people raise when dealing with changing other worlds to fit humanity’s needs. “Some people consider the idea of terraforming Mars heretical – humanity playing God,” said by Dr. Zubrin an American Aerospace Engineer. He went on further to state that “others would see in such an accomplishment the most profound vindication of the divine nature of the human spirit, exercised in its highest form to bring a dead world to life”. People see it as favoring human interests and could possibly lead to the extinction of indigenous extraterrestrial life, or the Interplanetary contamination. We don’t know what’s really out there in our universe we have already brought our own planet to its knees, and possibly beyond the point of no return to some critics. Humanity has also driven to extinction to many animals and sentient beings on our very own planet, and bringing that to another world isn’t ethical.
My final subject to end my terraforming proposal is to try and answer the question why we want to terraform another planet to fit humanity’s needs. Why does Humanity want to leave earth so badly, and not want to fix what we have done to our own planet before searching for another? Is our planet earth really too far gone to save, or is it more cost effective to invade and terraform another? Science fiction has dealt with the idea of leaving earth and making other planets earth like to hold life, I want to research the idea why writers wanted to start their stories on other planets. It could deal with the current political, or social environment the writers were living in at the time making them dream of leaving this planet. In conclusion, my project will deal with the idea of terraforming, its ethical issues, its history as a whole, and what is Humanities next steps in building on this idea taken straight from science fiction.

Schwartz, James S. J. “On the Moral Permissibility of Terraforming.” Ethics and the Environment, vol. 18, no. 2, 2013, pp. 1–31. www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/ethicsenviro.18.2.1.

Slotnick, Rebecca Sloan. “EXTREMOPHILIC TERRAFORMING.” American Scientist, vol. 88, no. 2, 2000, pp. 124–125. www.jstor.org/stable/27857990.

Luke, Timothy W. “Environmental Emulations: Terraforming Technologies and the Tourist Trade at Biosphere 2.” Ecocritique: Contesting the Politics of Nature, Economy, and Culture, NED – New edition, University of Minnesota Press, 1997, pp. 95–114, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.cttts574.9.

“The Ethical Dimensions of Space Settlement” (pdf). Martyn J. Fogg. Probability Research Group

FREUDENRICH, CRAIG C. “SCI-FI SCIENCE: USING SCIENCE FICTION TO SET CONTEXT FOR LEARNING SCIENCE.” The Science Teacher, vol. 67, no. 8, 2000, pp. 42–45. www.jstor.org/stable/24154053.

PAK, CHRIS. Terraforming: Ecopolitical Transformations and Environmentalism in Science Fiction. Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2016, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1gpcb56.