Martian Game Reserves?

Fox News ^ | August 14, 2003 | Rand Simberg

[NonZeroSum]

John Carter McKnight recently wrote an article on the rights of Martian lifeforms, should they turn out to exist.

The question arises because, unlike the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, we haven't yet reached any consensus on a protocol for how to respond if we discover non-intelligent extraterrestrial life, particularly a physical discovery in our own solar system that could be adversely affected by such a discovery (though people are working on one).

[Mr. K]

And we need to know, do they taste like chicken!

[Brett66]

BTTT.

[CholeraJoe]

To heck with "Shoot Bambi." I want to shoot Marvin.

[JackOfVA]

John Carter McKnight recently wrote...

What a great name for someone writing about Barsoom ... er, excuse me, Mars. Now where is Dejah Thoris?

Jack

[Only1choice____Freedom]

And if we find we are alone in our solar system? Then what are we to "respect" an ecosystem that doesn't exist? Should we refuse to mine gold, Platinum, Titanium or other even more rarer substances on Mars because of some stupid environmentals here on Earth who don't know how this planet works, let alone another? I can hear it now. You think these morons whine loud now, imagine if we are ready to mine another planet? It's already started.

[RightWhale]

There was a thread for John Carter McKnight's article. The opportunity to deal with a new, alien lifeform will tax our understanding and promote development of the moral science, no doubt. The alternative approaches suggested in that article and this one do not exhaust the possibilities, not after 1000s of years of thought and attempted practice of moral principles.

We have not arrived at an ultimate answer of how we should behave in society, nor even a single answer on earth. We're a long way from that. The 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights might be a launching point for the investigation of aliens rights, but we don't have any agreement even in principle as to what animal rights or plant rights might ultimately be, and none at all for alien lifeforms.

We'll probably set up UN biosphere preserves around any indigenous life found on Mars, and we might even do it now before man sets foot on that planet, just in case. Sending colonists to Mars anytime this millenium would, of course, be highly illegal, and even a scientific expedition would be out of the question until we can guarantee there is no chance at all of contamination of that planet.

[martian_22]

All your planets are belong to us already. You just don't know it yet.

[kcar]

I was with you right up to this teleology stuff, and it being more comforting, er, "beyond" sitting around and chugging beer and watching football. I just couldn't wrap around that time bending backwards part, nor how all that culminated in the conclusion that we should go reproduce ourselves (is that actually some kind of coded insult?).
But seriously, something that maybe isn't true but is sure comforting to believe is about as convincing as any argument Shirley MacClain ever invented. But I could see how an alien lifeform, if it were sapient, might not be as comforted by the authors conclusion, nor by the apparently non-syllogistic thought structure of these invading carbon-based insects from Earth.

[NonZeroSum]

I just couldn't wrap around that time bending backwards part, nor how all that culminated in the conclusion that we should go reproduce ourselves (is that actually some kind of coded insult?).

Perhaps, but I can't imagine why you would think so.

But seriously, something that maybe isn't true but is sure comforting to believe is about as convincing as any argument Shirley MacClain ever invented.

How can anyone, ultimately, know what's "true"?

But I could see how an alien lifeform, if it were sapient, might not be as comforted by the authors conclusion, nor by the apparently non-syllogistic thought structure of these invading carbon-based insects from Earth.

The author was obviously referring to alien lifeforms that weren't even capable of being "comforted," since they were non-intelligent and (even more importantly) non-conscious.