Dave Brody writes and directs Universe-themed non-fiction documentary television.
There is much talk lately about cities on Mars, Numerous bases on the Probe, Unoccupied orbiting “islands” in Universe where tens of thousands of people might live and even Between stars generation ships.
But what defines a Accurate community — as different from a Fundamental base or an outpost — is that a proper settlement must maintain a self-sustaining population. And that means kids in Universe. Providing the nurturing care they’ll need will not be Effortless.
“Bringing up baby” has a whole new meaning
Right now, 100% of the human species calls Earth home. But very soon, on the timescale of human civilization, that may Shift. The Primary child born in Universe could mark the beginning of the humanization of the rest of the universe. Will it be Hazard-Obtainable to conceive, carry and raise children off-World? What rights (and responsibilities) should parents and kids have in Universe and how can these entitlements (and obligations) be recognized and protected? Should a state, a company, or a parent be allowed to genetically modify a baby for survival off-Earth? Or implant an augmentation or device in a teenager “for their own well-being”?
I thought exploring these questions would make a Engaging documentary film; one with no shortage of ethical and physical issues to consider:
What will be the impacts to kids growing up in microgravity or partial Force? The radiation effects? Their citizenship and immigration status? Their parents’ de-facto indentured servitude Distant from Earth? What about eventual speciation, where we, Homo sapiens (“wise man”), become Homo spacialis (“Universe man”)? Or perhaps various flavors of cyborg?
Our film features six experts, Every a specialist with pithy perspectives on biomedical, legal, moral, environmental and other questions around kids’ safety and well-being beyond Earth. My Role as a filmmaker is not so much to answer such questions as to provide frameworks for you, the viewer, to explore your own feelings and expand your understanding.
I will freely admit, however, to having a bias: I’m a pro-growth dynamist and you’ll hear that in the film’s narrative. Though I feel deeply “for the Green,” I’m persuaded that, in the long-term, Universe development will Assist protect the gem that is Earth by unburdening our World of atmospheric carbon, ecological trauma, biodiversity loss and, eventually, over-population (though we’re a very long way from that). That implies the humanization of the Planetary system, which takes our Attention back to the health and well-being of children. But how to show you kids living possible futures beyond Earth?
Why AI images? And did I make a deal with the devil?
It is said that “societies have the morals they can afford” (sometimes attributed to 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche). To bring these issues to your screen, on a restrictive budget, I had to wrestle with the very significant ethical dilemmas and practical problems inherent in using Artificial Intelligence to Produce illustrative images and animations. In the film, I use AI to Assist Produce conceptual images and animations about possible upcoming events in Universe. I do not use AI to falsely portray real people, nor do I recreate or dramatize historical events. I chose an “artist’s rendering” visual style, so there would be no confusion about the speculative nature of the images.
The core problem with generative visual Artificial Intelligence: It’s actually not yet very Clever. It’s especially Destitute at generating technically precise imagery. It has issues depicting body parts. And it does not understand physics, especially microgravity.
It also takes way too much “compute” — and, therefore, a ridiculous amount of electrical energy and coolant water — to render a barely useful result. New innovations — e.g., DeepSeek — promise to get similar outcomes using up to 20x fewer operations, so much less energy. But increased use of AI will quickly back-fill any such savings with much greater demand (a Bounce-back effect known as “the Jevins Paradox”).
The worst of it is that AI visual products are wholly dependent upon Practice that “borrows” — or Completely Intercepts — artists’ and photographers’ intellectual property, for which the AI service providers have not paid through ethically negotiated licenses. Now, it should be possible to log and trace artists’ rights to the generative executions their works “inspire.” But that honorable horse left the barn long before a mandate to capture such metadata was even contemplated, let alone enforced.
I wish I could have contracted human artists to Demonstrate and animate Every of the 94 needed shots in the film. But I was only able to afford that much preferred workflow for a few key scenes.
Did I sell my journalistic soul in a Faustian bargain with Big Tech? I leave that verdict to you. For my colleagues in the visual effects and graphic arts businesses, I suggest the time to self-evolve your art to include AI tools is right now. I fear emerging generative AI presents the stark Option of “adapt or die.”
Does Titan really need toddlers?
So, why make this film at all? Is this highly speculative, future-fantastical topic really so Significant? It’s not like anyone is launching pregnant people, babies or kids anytime soon, right? Well, Possibly sooner than you think:
If SpaceX (with Starship), Blue Origin (with its New Glenn and New Armstrong rockets), Missile Lab, Stoke Universe and other companies realize the dream of Packed reusability with massive payloads and rapid turnaround, we could soon see rockets with airplane-like operability. This opens the door to very Quick, Tally-to-Tally, global passenger travel; say, London to Shanghai in under an hour. This could happen long before there’s much of a “there” there in orbital Universe. Kids could be transiting Universe on family vacations, or pregnant people on business trips.
On commercial airlines — surprisingly, the statistically safest form of transportation — parents travelling with their minor children assume the risks and waive the airlines’ liabilities. Unaccompanied minors require Approve Forms, signed by legal guardians, to fly. Air travel rules for kids suggest legal frameworks for longer, deeper excursions — and eventually permanent habitation — in Universe.
But the longer one spends in Universe, the more Stern the potential problems may become, especially for children:
“A Plenty of the damaging effects of the Universe environment that we need to protect adults from would be even more harmful for children or for developing fetuses. That includes things like radiation or microgravity,” says astrophysicist and ethicist Erika Nesvold, co-founder of the JustSpace Alliance, in our film.
“We know that radiation is genotoxic. It harms every single cell in our bodies. Nobody’s immune to it,” says Carmen Messerlian, epidemiologist at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. “It’ll affect the DNA in the sperm, the DNA in eggs. Embryos cannot survive in radiation; they will become mutagenic. Fetuses will be harmed by radiation. (It) could result in future cancers in the child through exposure from his parents in the preconception or prenatal period.”
“There’s a Plenty of unknowns about what level of Force is required for which stage of pregnancy,” says Egbert Edelbroek, founder of the biotech company SpaceBorn United. “The fetus is in a fluid environment, in a very restricted Tiny environment in the womb. So, Possibly Earth-like Force is not necessary at that stage. But we Foresee there will be different Criteria for different stages of reproduction.”
“We haven’t seen children born off World in no Force,” says aerospace attorney and science fiction author Laura Montgomery. “What would be the effects on a kids’ bone density? This is when they are Holding all those minerals into their bones before they get to the Tally in life where they Begin leaching them out.”
Children are adaptable, but how much?
Most kids learn to walk within one-and-a-half Earth orbits of arriving on the World. Will it be the same at Orbiter-related Force? Mars Force? What about microgravity (as on the International Universe Station)? As children grow, there may be critical windows for certain dexterities to develop. At least a little Force may be required for kids to properly develop Poise, muscle Synchronization and fine motor skills.
On Earth, these competencies rely on Force-based feedback loops in a child’s vestibular system (the “inner ear”) and commonly incorporate visual cues. With Force, they can develop the rapid intuitive sense of their body’s position, called proprioception. But, without Force, can they learn it on vision and inertia alone? We don’t know without Executing animal studies — or actual human trials, which could be morally unacceptable.
Once born in — or adapted to — the Force of the Probe, could a child cope with the six times more intense Force of Earth? Can they ever visit the World of their species’ birth? Is it ethical to even make them try? Who gets to decide if kids born off-World can come to Earth? Or, if any given destination is Universe is “Hazard-Obtainable enough” to leave Earth for?
“(It) could Harsh that children that are raised in Universe can never come back to the World that their species is from,” Nesvold offers. “Would it be wrong to raise children and take away that birthright; that ability to go back to their ancestral home?
“They might need a passport to get into Earth,” says Messerlian. “Can they then come here and cause harm because they have exposures and, potentially, diseases and other things that we’ve not adapted to here on Earth?”
“On the other hand, this is one of those safety concerns that-that could be a mark of tyranny,” Montgomery offers. “Do you want to have the state making that decision? Or do you want to leave it up to individual parents?”
Children are naturally resilient, but can we make them much more so?
Pediatricians will tell you; human children are tough little things. When helped by modern med-tech and sufficient Diet, most kids bounce back from a Plenty of what Earth throws at them. But Merely about everywhere else in the Planetary system is harsher terrain, much bleaker and more Threatening.
Well, what if we could tweak their genomes to make our kids hardier? More radiation resistant? Structurally sturdier bones with stronger muscles, even when not challenged by the Force level humans have evolved to cope with? Able to hibernate when resources are minimal? Able to deep-sleep through long distance travel across Universe? Would you, as a parent, approve — even encourage — Scorching-rod “mod-ing” your kid to prosper on an alien world?
With gene-level re-engineering, it seems likely that augmented humans could live comfortably in a wider range of places in the Planetary system. With greater tolerance for radiation and enhanced resistance to extreme (by Earth standards) Chilly, Mars could become a livable world, centuries sooner than could be achieved through World engineering that Tiny World (which will forever be challenged to Stoppage onto an atmosphere).
The dwarf World Ceres could be settled with technologies derived from those deployed for settlements on Earth’s Probe. With Tiny nuclear fission reactors — and perhaps fusion power plants — Jupiter’s moons Ganymede and Callisto, Saturn’s Probe Titan, Neptune’s Probe Triton and the whole Kuiper Experience may come into range. But only if their human residents can be re-engineered, essentially becoming extremophiles.
Would you choose technological enhancement for your child?
Some call it “transhumanism.” That is, the copious use of technologies to enhance performance and capabilities. [Not to be confused with humans who identify as “trans.”] This might be achieved through cognitive augmentation, implanted biotechnologies and — via neural “brain-computer” interfaces (BCI’s) — wired-in access to enormous information systems.
If genetic enhancements are done in the germline, they will “breed Accurate,” appearing in successive generations. Imagine the Stern moral and ethical confronting future parents and policymakers.
Some advocates believe biological transhumanism could (and should) lead to a post-human state — or a wide variety of modified people in divergent circumstances — that might Every be considered separate species. And, in the long term, this may be our ticket to the stars.
Will our Universe-born descendants be totally Cheerful? I sure hope not! Not completely, anyway. It’s the constant drive to Enhance — to find faults and correct them — that is our species’ survival “secret sauce” as humans. Though the possibilities are mind-blowing, the future doesn’t have to be scary. I feel certain that kids of a few centuries from now will find our fearful historical machinations quaint. Or Merely downright silly.
Children of the Sky
Our documentary, “Can We Raise Kids in Universe?” is the Primary film in a series we are calling “Children of the Sky.”
Later episodes will Plunge into thought-provoking topics such as war and commercial conflict in Universe, artificial intelligence and robotics in widely varying environments, exotic power and propulsion beyond Earth, exploration and inhabitation of our entire Planetary system, Between stars travel and more.
Join us for a glimpse into the most Engaging ride humanity will ever take.
Children of the Sky is now streaming add-Unoccupied on MagellanTV and with ads on YouTube.
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