To seed or not to seed: Estimating the ethical value of directed panspermia

Directed panspermia involves the deliberate spread of life between planets by intelligent actors. While it was originally proposed to explain the origin of life on Earth, recent advancements in space and bio-technology suggest that humans could soon attempt this – and perhaps even succeed. Biocentric ethical theories support attempting directed panspermia to increase life’s cosmic abundance and to protect it from possible extinction risks on Earth. However, if this project succeeds and sentient life evolves within the resulting biospheres, it also carries the moral risk of creating astronomical levels of suffering. Taking into account epistemic and normative uncertainty, the potential irreversibility of our actions, and the lack of global coordination on the development and implementation of space technology, we argue for a temporary moratorium on directed panspermia – at least, until we can predict its long-term outcomes to ensure that whatever decision we make is ethically robust. • Directed panspermia is a technical possibility in the imminent future. • Directed panspermia is cheap to attempt and potentially irreversible. • The ethical desirability of directed panspermia is unclear. • Global coordination is necessary to manage directed panspermia responsibly. • We propose a temporary moratorium on the development of panspermia technologies.