How morally correct is it to handpick a few to evade the Apocalypse while letting others suffer, by colonizing other planets?

For the better part of the past few decades, our political narrative has been dominated by discussions about the future of our planet. Amidst a backdrop of rising global temperatures, melting ice-caps, and erratic natural disaster cycles, lawmakers backed by vested interests have quibbled in an attempt to delay meaningful action.

However, the public narrative has slowly shifted from questions of whether we need to act, to whether we’re doing enough – the now common dying-earth science fiction trope being an example of this shift. With a number of corporations attempting to commercialize spaceflight, and indirectly, extra-terrestrial colonization, mankind is on the very cusp of embarking on the Second Age of Discovery.

Any proposal to save humanity by colonising space, brings with it a slew of questions – whom do we select to save, and would saving a select few even be ethical?

Racial and economic filtering

The American Space Program, culminating in mankind’s first steps on the moon, is a period most would count among humanity’s finest moments. However, the program was the very embodiment of the discriminatory policies which had  marginalized the African-American community for over a century – when the first black mathematicians came in to work at NASA in 1943, it was in a segregated office with a ‘colored girls’ bathroom and a table for the ‘colored’ computers. Government policies have changed since then, but African-Americans are acutely aware of the systemic discrimination which continually undermines them. Overrepresented among the incarcerated, and underrepresented among the educated elite, the plight of America’s blacks serves to underscore a startling problem.

This diagram, from a paper by SpaceX founder Elon Musk, drives home the fundamental problem with the colonization efforts. Colonizing a remote world far from the comforts of your own home presents a distinct set of physiological and psychological challenges, and few, despite the romanticism of space travel in popular culture, would be willing to go – and those willing would also have to pay for a $10 billion dollar ticket. Any viable colony, according to Musk, would need a minimum of 100 people. Merging both Venn spheres by bringing down the cost, is what corporations like Musk’s, strive to achieve.

At the same time, it’s natural for a colony to seek engineers, physicians, and other professionals. While a ticket would cost substantially less than $10 billion in the future, it’s still likely to remain expensive, especially when demand rises as Earth grows inhospitable and Mars, more hospitable. It’s also plausible that the aged would not be accommodated in pioneer generations, to utilize resources effectively. So we primarily select for young, wealthy professionals – who, considering America’s skewed demographics, would be the young, white male.

The problem is not America’s own, as a number of other countries have also discriminated against ethnic minorities over their history. A similar experiment in India would give us an upper-caste Hindu male, proving colonization efforts would create a racial filter wherever there exists entrenched racism. Even when these countries have reformed, a number of systemic obstacles remain, prolonging the dominance of a particular social group. This ultimately skews chances of survival to favour the more powerful socio-economic group.

As colonies are established across worlds, it’s the wealthy and powerful with the greatest chance at survival and to pass on their genes. Considering the environment of space, over generations their bodies would also adapt, and Homo Sapiens as a species would split due to genetic drift. When rising economic inequality is already a serious concern, we must ask ourselves – do we wish to create a genetic barrier between class groups, to supplement pre-existing economic and social barriers?

Do demographics even matter?

While racism and sexism in public spheres are a concern, the prime issue here still is the survival of the human species. In the face of impending doom, a strong argument could be made of the necessity to ignore such concerns, and ensure that Homo Sapiens finds a home on a safer planet. It’s just as persuasive to argue that colonies grow to become countries and civilisations. Hence, the kind of people we select to form the bedrock of that new civilisation should be a critical concern in public discussions, and not be taken lightly.