Space ethics to test directed panspermia

TL;DR

This paper explores the ethical implications of directed panspermia, proposing that ethical considerations could serve as a basis for testing whether extraterrestrial life was intentionally seeded on Earth.

Contribution

It introduces an ethical framework for evaluating the hypothesis of directed panspermia, linking technological evolution with moral considerations to assess extraterrestrial seeding.

Findings

Ethical requirements may be satisfied if Earth was intentionally seeded.

Ethical analysis can provide a testable approach for the hypothesis.

The evolution of intelligence is linked to ethical development.

Abstract

The hypothesis that Earth was intentionally seeded with life by a preceding extraterrestrial civilization is believed to be currently untestable. However, analysis of the situation where humans themselves embark on seeding other planetary systems motivated by survival and propagation of life reveals at least two ethical issues calling for specific solutions. Assuming that generally intelligence evolves ethically as it evolves technologically, the same considerations might be applied to test the hypothesis of directed panspermia: if life on Earth was seeded intentionally, the two ethical requirements are expected to be satisfied, what appears to be the case.