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I thought it asked an interesting ethical question about generation ships, yes, it was voluntary for the people starting the journey, but the second generation

I thought it asked an interesting ethical question about generation ships, yes, it was voluntary for the people starting the journey, but the second generation and so on? The main characters mother clearly resented the people starting out, several other characters didn't. And unless I'm misremembering, some of the settlers did stay behind to work with the materials of the system's asteroid belt to make space habitats. I dunno, I feel like it /should/ appeal to those libertarian types that make a big fuss about how they were coerced into the social contract of where ever they were born. As being born on a generation ship you are denied the exit option in the voice/exit choice.

dunkelheit 6y ago
Yeah, ethics of generation ships is interesting. But I'd say the problem is present in attenuated form even today. Is it ethical to give birth to beings (our children) who haven't asked to be born? Indeed the negative answer to this question is the basis of several anti-natalist philosophies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinatalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinatalism > some of the settlers did stay behind to work with the materials of the system's asteroid belt to make space habitats. The author was clearly unsympathetic to them. They died rather quickly and all they got in the book was a short "signals stopped coming" mention (which was another infuriating thing).