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Is Human Enhancement in Space a Moral Duty? Missions to Mars, Advanced AI and Genome Editing in Space

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2019

KONRAD SZOCIK
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Abstract:

Any space program involving long-term human missions will have to cope with serious risks to human health and life. Because currently available countermeasures are insufficient in the long term, there is a need for new, more radical solutions. One possibility is a program of human enhancement for future deep space mission astronauts. This paper discusses the challenges for long-term human missions of a space environment, opening the possibility of serious consideration of human enhancement and a fully automated space exploration, based on highly advanced AI. The author argues that for such projects, there are strong reasons to consider human enhancement, including gene editing of germ line and somatic cells, as a moral duty.

Keywords

Human mission to Marshuman deep space missionshuman enhancementgene editingmoral dutyAI
Type
Special Section: Open Forum
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , January 2020 , pp. 122 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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References

Notes

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