Sustainability Puzzles and the Extraterrestrial Turn

The importance of sustainability is often used to both critique and justify the accelerated development of humans’ technological capabilities. Sustainability-reasoning also shows up in debates about detection of and contact with extraterrestrial others—for example, the Sustainability Solution to the Fermi Paradox. While it is indeed possible that the technological trajectory of some alien species has run roughly parallel to ours, speculation about the sustainability-practices of extraterrestrial others is also yet another example of the cosmic mirror, wherein our reasoning about the cosmos reflects strongly back onto ourselves. SETI searches and debates regarding extraterrestrial technology can assist us in understanding our own technology and its potential trajectories. Sustainability discourse in technology ethics has taken a decidedly planetary, species-level direction, with theorists positing both a Terrestrial Turn based on ecological and Anthropocene concerns, as well as a Structural Turn based on AI and digital technologies’ embeddedness in humans’ socio-technical systems. In intersection with these movements, I posit the Extraterrestrial Turn, uncovering notable parallels between the puzzles we encounter in sustainability discussions regarding AI and digital technologies on Earth and the puzzles regarding outer space use and exploration of the Solar System and beyond. Unsustainability fears have led to worthwhile reasoning about the relevance of wisdom and the possibility of an aspirational Sapiezoic Eon. I recognize moral wisdom as an important piece of a Sapiezoic solution to sustainability puzzles. I contend that sustainable technology goals should include contributions from extraterrestrial technology debates. I conclude that both contemporary SETI searches for extraterrestrial technology and the ancient concept of moral wisdom together have an important role to play in sustainability debates regarding humanity’s future.