UNIVERSAL WARMING, ANYONE? Terrified of Light: The Depressing Argument for Crippling Our Space Program

The more serious problems with the book appear when we consider Deudney’s ideas. Deudney, a former senior researcher with the Worldwatch Institute, a Malthusian think tank, places no value on people. As he puts it, “exponential humanism, devoted to the perpetual expansion of human biomass, easily slides into planetary-scale ecocide.” 

In fact, he says, such additional human biomass in the form of new extraterrestrial branches of human civilization represents a threat, because it could unleash technological progress. 

“If the monstrosities and menaces of the ever-widening technological cone of possibility can be thwarted only by staying within a narrow path of human preservation and enhancement, then space expansion must be assessed for its effects on the reversals, regulations, and relinquishments constituting the barriers of restraint. . . . If space expansion makes the creation and preservation of restraints even more difficult, the probability of otherwise unrelated catastrophic and existential outcomes will rise, making it a potent catalyst for multisided disaster.”

From National Review.