Terasem Colloquium, July 20, 2025
Space expansion in the age of AI.
The first Terasem Colloquium of 2025 will be held on July 20, via Zoom, from 10am ET to 1pm ET. July 20 is the anniversary of the first human landing on the Moon.
See this page for more information about Terasem and videos of previous Terasem Colloquia, with commentaries.
There will be six speakers, each with a 30 min time slot for a talk and a short Q/A session. We’ll add the agenda and list of speakers to this post. The Colloquium will be open, and we will add the Zoom access coordinates before July 20.
This Terasem Colloquium will explore diverse points of view on the topic of space expansion in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). In particular, it will explore answers to the question:
Should we still want to send human astronauts to colonize space? Or should we want to leave space expansion to AI?
The first confirmed speakers are Robert Zubrin and Frank Tipler.
Robert Zubrin doesn’t need an introduction: he is the legendary founder of The Mars Society and the author of many great books on the colonization of Mars and space expansion in general.
Frank Tipler will argue that space colonization will be done by AIs, not humans. But in a short essay he noted that if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. “Any human who wants to join the AIs in their expansion can become a human upload,” he said.
We’ll invite other speakers with diverse points of view and different answers to this question.
Meanwhile, scroll down to see my answer to the question.
I’ve published three articles:
Should we still want biological space colonists? (Mindplex Magazine)
Should we still want biological space colonists (Part 2)? (Mindplex Magazine)
Space expansion in the age of AI (this website)
In “2001: A Space Odyssey” Stanley Kubrick and Arthur Clarke didn’t answer (or ask) the obvious question of why not send just Hal. But this question seems now unavoidable, of existential importance, and central to our future.
The question is: Should we still want to send human astronauts to colonize space? Or should we want to leave space expansion to AI?
My conclusions are:
Human-level and then superintelligent conscious AI will take over in the long run and spread into the universe. We’ll merge with the AIs to some degree, but the perception of a difference between “us” and “them” will gradually fade away: all will be “us.”
For the rest of this century, we should pursue both AI technology and traditional space expansion with both biological and AI colonists, establishing a multi-planetary civilization in the solar system.
In the meantime, we must learn to see AI machines as persons. Future generations will find this intuitively and emotionally obvious, but presently we must train ourselves to accept our mind children as “us.”
The words of Henry Miller come to mind: “To live out one’s desires and, in so doing, subtly alter their nature, is the aim of every individual who aspires to evolve.” We are living out our desire to go to the planets and the stars, and in so doing we are altering its nature.
I look forward to listening to the points of view and answers of the speakers!
A related issue of Terasem’s “Journal of Personal Cyberconsciousness” (Vol. 13, Issue 1 - 2025) will be published in July.