Dear ssi list:
I would like to ask for your help with a book title. The subjects: (1) Expanding life to other solar systems through directed panspermia; (2) The ethical motivation; (3) The potential of planetary and asteroid materials to support life; (4) Using space to serve human needs; (5) Our cosmological outlook. The book is based on 30 years of research (see www.panspermia-society.com). It is aimed at a general audience, especially with some general science background.
Te following are some variations of potential titles. I would appreciate very much comments on which titles if any you would like best and maybe a few words why.
(1) Seeding the Universe: Galactic Ecology, Panspermia, and the Cosmological Future of Life
(2) Seeding the Universe with Life: Galactic Ecology, Panspermia, and Our Cosmological Future (3) Seeding the Universe: Securing Our Cosmological Future Astroecology and Directed Panspermia
(4) Seeding the Universe with Life: Securing Our Cosmological Future Galactic Ecology and Directed Panspermia
Thanks
Michael Mautner

Michael N. Mautner, Ph. D. Research Professor of Chemistry Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, Virginia 23284-2006 USA
Senior Research Fellow Soil, Plant and Ecological Sciences Division Lincoln University Lincoln, New Zealand Phone: (64) (3) 325-2811 X 8352 Fax: (64) (3) 325-3607 mautnerm@...

How about: "Panspermia: Seeding the Universe with Life"?

I liked your site:
http://www.panspermia-society.com

A few personal comments: I could easily believe given the hardiness of
bacteria, and its ability to travel via bounced up into meteorites (e.g.
Mars material getting to Earth), etc. that bacteria is possibly
everywhere in the universe already. I could also easily believe that
given the statistical improbability of a planetary system and solar
neighborhood being stable for any length of time (i.e. no nearby
off-the-scale neutrino flux supernovas, no superwaves, etc.) our form of
multi-cellular life is rare -- only happening when space born bacteria
have a few billion years of stability to cook. If that is true, then it
is easier to argue for a responsibility to spread either multicellular
life, intelligence, or (the better parts of our) culture throughout the
universe than spread life in the sense of bacteria -- because bacteria
may already be everywhere. Note, that if you think of bacteria as a
universe wide supercomputer (slowly exchanging genes etc.) then the
universe may already also be intelligent in at least that sense (just
perhaps not on a time scale we can comprehend) -- sort of a variant of
the Gaia hypothesis or Earth bacteria supercomputer.

I had some problems with the steps of your philosophy for other reasons
(again while I generally agree with the goal). You ignore aspects of
competition if something becomes scarce -- I think you either need to
acknowledge that or have a post-scarcity transcendental ("we can always
invent more") aspect. I think the "Expansion" aspect of the argument is
debatable. One could argue it is sufficient to preserve organic life
within certain reasonable bounds. One might argue the lower limit has
not yet been reached and so we should expand at least until that point,
but that is different from a general valuing of indefinite expansion.
Also, the philosophy is overly organic based -- it kind of justifies in
opposition a variant on the "Berserker" point of view (life is a plague
threatening superior machine intelligence). Coupled with expansionist
views, there may be no room for peaceful coexistence in that philosophy,
and yet it does seem like for space travel machines are superior (see
Hand Moravec's book _Mind Children_), In fact, one might argue that
intelligent machines might do a better job of preserving some broad
spectrum of organic life as just a curiosity or from a sense of
nostalgic familial obligation than organic life could by itself. For
example, there might be more "virtual" organic life made possible in
simulation if intelligent machines can tap into, say, a fundamental
computational nature of reality and then can run simulations of organic
life in that reality than if organic life just tries to put green slime
everywhere in the metascale universe. Anyway, not enough time to expand
on all this...

I really liked your phrasing under "Pursue Peace" of:
http://www.prosperityuk.com/prosperity/prosperity.html
"For my own faith I will kill; for my own wealth I will devastate; for
my own dignity I will humble; for my own freedom I will oppress."
It really makes clear how a progressive agenda has to be respecting
faith wherever you find it, and helping everyone be wealthy, dignified,
and free. One can also argue that intelligent, cultured, life from this
Earth only deserves morally to spread if we address this issue here
first (lest it just become a plague on other cultures elsewhere in the
universe who made that jump.)

Also, just so you see a philosophical alternatives you may need to
address, here is a link to think about:
"The Zetetic Realist":
http://www.pcpages.com/zentech/zetreal.html
While I think that philosophy can be compatible with panspermia, it
would be interesting to make the connections and avoid
incompatabilities. In short, it would probably involve making many of
the panspermia philosophical statements more probabilistic and open to
revision.

By the way, you might like our free garden simulator (a step to a
space-habitat simulator):
http://www.gardenwithinsight.com

--Paul Fernhout