PRE-DECOLONIZING SPACE:

Day02. Thursday, July 08, 14:00 EDT

Today’s visions of space represent the current ethos of first-to-planet-makes-the-rules, driven by billionaires with rocket ship companies. We must claim our solar system for an epoch of decolonization, rejecting ideologies that would see space as yet another domain for power consolidations and resource extraction. But what would this entail? This talk outlines what new philosophies would look like, visions with no money, no flags, and ships designed not just to leave earth but to thrive in space.

No money, no flags; ships designed not to leave earth but to thrive in space.

These visions are removed from the current ethos of first-to-planet-makes-the-rules that we are witnessing driven by billionaires with rocket ship companies. It is us who must claim our solar system for an epoch of decolonization, and reject ideologies that would see space as yet another domain for power consolidations and resource extraction.

But what will this entail? Air, water, food, shelter, care: a hierarchy of space needs: A new taxonomy of needs is needed to design space craft in a way that could allow generations to thrive in hostile environments We need new philosophies: does one of our species become more than, ‘sapien' if not born on our home world? Because the question has become not how long until the first human is born off-planet‚ but what kind of life experience will someone born in space be capable of?

For or all our millennia of philosophical pursuits we are now faced with the prospect of establishing the groundwork for an epistemic adventure that is no longer tied to the rock we have always inhabited. But to do so, we must actively revoke the narratives of settler-colonialism that already creep into discourse of tomorrow.

Mathana is a Texas-born, Berlin-based tech ethicist and interplanetary philosopher who works to create a sustainable and inclusive vision of the future by creating human-centric safeguards around emerging technology. As vice-chair for the IEEE's Global Initiative for Ethical Extended Reality, Mathana helps lead the world's largest ethics-focused AR/VR initiative, bringing together experts and practitioners from across the tech, academic and policy domains. They also consult on inclusivity projects and sit on a number of technical standards working groups across AI and robotics.