Planetary chauvinism#Surface chauvinism
File:The Earth seen from Apollo 17.jpg
File:Spacecolony3edit.jpeg, as envisioned by NASA Ames.]]
Planetary chauvinism is the belief that human society will always be planet-based (even if extended beyond Earth), and overlooks or ignores the potential benefits of space-based living.Paterson, E. T. [http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/1981/pdf/1981-v10n04-p269.pdf "Towards the orthomolecular environment."] Jo Orthomol Psych 10 (1981): 269-283. The idea can be extended to alien society in general, that is, we should expect alien society to be planet based. The coining of the term is often credited to Isaac Asimov, but in an interview with Bill Boggs, Asimov mentions that he heard it from Carl Sagan.{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_awNtfpJRo |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211215/1_awNtfpJRo |archive-date=2021-12-15 |url-status=live| title=Asimov Interview with Bill Boggs (35 minutes in) | accessdate=July 2, 2014 | author=Bill Boggs|website=YouTube }}{{cbignore}} The counter-argument is that all the benefits of a planet can be achieved in space, e.g., by an O'Neill cylinder-type structure.{{cite web | url=https://www.chicagospace.org/space-settlement-somewhere-else-entirely/ | title=Somewhere Else Entirely | accessdate=June 3, 2016 | author=Mike Combs}}
An even narrower version of planetary chauvinism is G-star chauvinism. This is the assumption that intelligent life will always evolve in star systems similar to our own, that is, in stars of spectral class G.Joseph A. Angelo, Encyclopedia of Space and Astronomy, p. 235, Infobase Publishing, 2014 {{ISBN|1438110189}}. Carl Sagan criticised this belief on the grounds that intelligent life has a greater chance of evolving on the most long lived stars. That suggests that class-M and class-K stars are more likely candidates, not only because of their lifetime, but also because they are far more numerous than class-G stars.Carl Sagan, Carl Sagan's Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective, p. 48, Cambridge University Press, 2000 {{ISBN|0521783038}}.
There are several hypotheses of the possibility of life originating in the universe in places other than planets.Luis A. Anchordoqui and Eugene M. Chudnovsky [http://journals.andromedapublisher.com/index.php/LHEP/article/view/166/85 Can Self-Replicating Species Flourish in the Interior of a Star?], Letters in High Energy Physics, issue 166, 2020, {{doi|10.31526/LHEP.2020.166}}
- From the abstract: "We argue that an advanced form of life based upon short-lived species can exist inside main-sequence stars like our Sun."{{Cite news |last=Browne |first=Malcolm W. |date=1988-02-02 |title=A Theory Sees Life, Of Sorts, On Pulsars |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/02/science/a-theory-sees-life-of-sorts-on-pulsars.html |access-date=2023-03-31 |issn=0362-4331}}Clifford A. Pickover, The Stars of Heaven, Chapter 8: "Stellar Graveyards, Nucleosynthesis, and Why We Exist"
Surface chauvinism
Thomas Gold, who advocated for the possibility of life in deep biospheres below the surfaces of celestial bodies,{{cite book |last=Gold |first=Thomas |title=The Deep Hot Biosphere |publisher=Springer New York |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-387-95253-6 |publication-place=New York, NY |page= |doi=10.1007/978-1-4612-1400-7}} has criticized science which only focuses on the surface and not below in its search of life as surface chauvinism.
Similarly, the focus on surface-bound and territorial space advocacy, particularly for space colonization, has been termed surfacism, neglecting interest for atmospheres and potential atmospheric human habitation, such as colonization above the surface of Venus.{{cite web |last=Tickle |first=Glen |date=2015-03-05 |title=A Look Into Whether Humans Should Try to Colonize Venus Instead of Mars |url=https://laughingsquid.com/a-look-into-whether-humans-should-try-to-colonize-venus-instead-of-mars/ |access-date=2021-09-01 |website=Laughing Squid}}{{cite web |author=David Warmflash |date=14 March 2017 |title=Colonization of the Venusian Clouds: Is 'Surfacism' Clouding Our Judgement? |url=https://www.visionlearning.com/blog/2017/03/14/colonization-venusian-clouds-surfacism-clouding-judgement/ |access-date=20 September 2019 |website=Vision Learning |language=en}}
See also
References
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