In “Star Trek,” Starfleet officers are required to swear an oath to follow the Prime Directive, which states that personnel will not interfere with the natural development of alien cultures or civilizations while they explore the universe and “boldly go where no man has gone before.”
While the Prime Directive is a fictional rule for one of the most popular science-fiction franchises, there may be some merit to the philosophical and ethical issues the rule brings up, especially in regards to the future of space exploration.
In a lecture given last Monday, Christopher Impey, a UA distinguished astronomy professor, discussed the social and ethical implications involved with exploring the universe — namely those associated with astrobiology, which deals with the search and study of life elsewhere in space.
The subject is not new to Impey, who recently worked as an editor on the book “Encountering Life in the Universe: Ethical Foundations and Social Implications of Astrobiology.”
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