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There is another twist, what if the future generation is doomed to die with the solar system, shall we even care "future generations exists" or not? Or shall we
by temp8964 5y ago
There is another twist, what if the future generation is doomed to die with the solar system, shall we even care "future generations exists" or not? Or shall we start spending 90% GDP to work on space travel research right now so that the future generations can exist? The whole idea of juridical ruling on “duty of care” to future generations exists is just ridiculous.
- xbar 5y agoWhat about a duty of care for disenfranchised citizens being harmed, such as existing children? They are included in the "future generations" notion.
- morsch 5y agoYour hypothetical example is interesting because I'd come to the opposite conclusion. If we knew now that the solar system would become inhospitably to human life in, say, 500 years, no person alive now would be directly affected. But I think we'd absolutely have a moral obligation to start spending resources now to prevent harm from our descendants. Isn't this almost a sci-fi trope? I think it's hypothetical, either because while we know that the solar system has a finite lifetime, the time spans involved are absurdly long -- billions of years --, or because there are many more imminent problems that need solving (which, I suppose, is also related to the large time spans, which makes the solar system's death rather non-imminent).
- temp8964 5y agoWhat if escaping the solar system requires billions of years of efforts?