Is seeding life into the universe to be a part of the human future? Space probes conceivably could be doing this inadvertently, and the processes of panspermia also may be moving biological possibilities between planets and even stars. Robert Buckalew has his own take on what humans might do in this regard, as discussed below. Robert has written fiction and non-fiction since 2013 under the pen name Ry Yelcho for the blog Yelcho’s Muses. In 2015 he received the Canopus Award for Excellence in Interstellar Fiction from 100 Year Starship for the story “Everett’s Awakening.” His short story “The Interlopers” appears on Literally Stories. What follows draws on his speculative science article “Microbots—The Seeds of Interstellar Civilization,” which was awarded the Canopus Award for Original Non-Fiction. The essay that follows is based on his presentation at the Icarus Interstellar Starship Congress 2019.
by Robert Buckalew
The series of pivotal events that led to the development of intelligent life on Earth are so numerous and seemingly random that the occurrence of intelligent life at other places in the galaxy may be very rare. The chance extinction of the dinosaurs which led to the diversification and opportunistic evolution of mammals is but one of many such events. Assuming the extraordinary rarity of this occurrence elsewhere in the galaxy should be a compelling reason for humans to presume our gifts of intellect exceptional and assume the obligation to prevent this cosmic largess from vanishing through global natural disaster, nuclear war or self-made neglect. Even if intelligent life is found to be common in the universe, it is certain that our form of intelligent life is unique. If we wish, someday, to communicate and interact with these various sentient species and contribute our singular human culture to their diverse communities, we must project our species’ existence into cosmic time frames.
The creation of dispersed, self-sufficient human settlements both interplanetary and extra-solar is the best way to ensure our long term survival as a species. Because of the unimaginable distances to other star systems, most proposals for interstellar colonization involve large multi-generational starships, warp drives or wormholes. Although common plot devices to create science fiction stories, wormholes and warp drives appear unworkable travel methods given the constraints of known physics. Multi-generational starships come with their own technological, political, biological, social and psychological challenges that make their realization daunting to consider.
Nature, however, has developed efficient methods to spread life on Earth that could be employed for interstellar colonization. Engineered Exogenesis, modeled after successful natural processes, proposes a method to spread Earth-life throughout our local stellar neighborhood.
Exogenesis, in astrobiology, is the hypothesis that life originated elsewhere in the universe and was conveyed here to Earth. For example, there is evidence that life in our solar system originated on Mars and was brought to this planet aboard a meteorite. The plausibility of Earth-life having been transplanted is supported by our inability to create spontaneous life from primordial organic chemicals in the laboratory and by the fact that there is no known remnant of pre-genetic life on Earth.
Engineered Exogenesis will use an additional strategy derived from nature. The survival system used by plants, insects and many aquatic lifeforms is based on the overproduction of seeds, larvae or spores in order to overcome their natural failure rate. Mass produced microbots can be designed to intentionally deliver engineered genetics to prospective exoplanets in numbers sufficient to assure that some will likely reach their destination and survive. As with seeds, this may require the dissemination of thousands to millions of them, based on the projected failure rate of the delivery system and the expected germination rate.
We know that water and organic compounds, known as tholins, have been found on planets, moons, comets and asteroids throughout our solar system. These precursors for life are believed to exist on interstellar comets and asteroids as well. Planetary exo-systems are expected to offer a similar fertile environment ready for the introduction of earthly genetic material.
The major components of an Engineered Exogenesis system might include 1) a microbiotic vessel that travels to the extra-solar planet, 2) a space-based magnetic accelerator capable of providing the inertial energy to send the vessel to other solar systems, 3) a space-based laser providing communication and supplemental energy for solar sail navigation and maneuvering, and 4) the engineered genetic material capable of growing a bio-robotic agent on the exoplanet to prepare the planetary environment for humans.
The Microbot
The microbiotic vessel, hereafter referred to as the microbot, would transport hermetically encapsulated, genetic material to the destination exoplanet while providing radiation, magnetic and acceleration protection. This vessel would be designed to open in the presence of liquid water, deploy a biobot zygote and, if necessary, a photosynthesizing food source such as phytoplankton or other aqueous plant food. The engineering of the microbot would incorporate nano technology, bio-robotics, AI and neural networks. It could be very small, possibly the size of a grain of rice, and constructed of low mass materials to minimize the energy required for acceleration. Construction materials might include carbon fiber, graphene or Kevlar designed to withstand the high magnetic fields and high acceleration rates and to provide heat shielding for atmospheric entry. Microbot vessels would possess no on-board propulsion using only their initial inertial energy for space travel. A ferromagnetic mass at the leading end of the vessel would be required for magnetic acceleration and inertial stability. This mass might be separated for deceleration upon arrival at the planetary system or retained for atmospheric entry shielding.
Microbots would also use leading and trailing photo-sensors for navigational aids with the leading photo-sensor directed at the destination star and the trailing sensor pointed at Sol. Fore and aft modulated, bio-luminescent lasers would provide communication between traveling microbot ships reminiscent of fireflies on a summer night.
A series of pivoting, flat panels would be extended following launch. Each panel would use one side for solar energy collection. Solar electric storage might be achieved by capacitance of the microbot body. The obverse side, capable of adjustable reflectivity, would be used as a solar sail. The panel ends would also be capable of latching with other microbot panels for the creation of microbot arrays, connected clusters of individual microbots. A powdered iron substrate layer which would become magnetized during acceleration could aid in microbot arraying and later become a magsail for magnetic braking. A superconducting loop for magnetic braking could be incorporated into the perimeter of the solar panels or otherwise deployed as an independent loop. Finally, the panels could be positioned for autogyro aerobraking during atmospheric entry in the same way maple seeds can dissipate energy by helicoptering to Earth.
The Accelerator
Magnetic acceleration happens by activating each electromagnet ahead of the projectile to pull it forward. As the projectile accelerates, the rate of coil activation increases to stay ahead of the accelerating mass. Projectile acceleration would be limited by the inertial mass of the projectile and the force produced by the electromagnets. Magnetic accelerators can include a circular or linear motor configuration.
Aimed at the destination star, the microbots would be accelerated sequentially for a maximum exit velocity with a minimum energy expenditure. This must be a space based as the atmospheric heating from the very high exit velocity precludes microbots being launched from Earth. By timing the sequencing of the magnets the rate of acceleration can be optimized for the given projectile mass and the vulnerability of the vehicle and payload to the forces of acceleration. The length of a linear accelerator is inversely related to the acceleration needed for a given exit velocity – the longer the coil gun, the less acceleration needed. A circular, toroidal accelerator would not have this length constraint as it could use multiple cycles to obtain projectile terminal velocity. Once the system is deployed it could be used for numerous target stars. If microbots can be accelerated to 10% light speed, a trip to Alpha Centari (4.37 light years away) would take 43 years and a trip to Tau Ceti (10.4 light years away) would take 104 years. Reaching these speeds would be a function of the length and power of the accelerator and the mass of the microbot ship.
The Laser
The laser is not for propulsion, as suggested by Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Starshot, but would be used for communication and programming updates by modulation of the laser beam. It could also provide energy for course correction and arraying maneuvers. It is also best located in space to reduce atmospheric light scattering.
Arrays
Microbots would be programmed to array although some microbots would necessarily remain as self sufficient individual ships. The primary purpose of arraying is to improve communication with Earth as a larger antenna area can enhance both transmission and reception performance. However, arraying may also be used to collectivize the solar power and energy storage and to organize the use of this power.
Implementing Arrays
Microbot arraying could be achieved through use of swarm intelligence, a naturally occurring function among social insects, migrating birds and fish schools. Known in robotics as distributed AI, microbots could communicate with each other while traveling in space through their fore and aft photo-sensors and modulated bio-luminescence. As the trip may take 100 years or more, there should be adequate time for arraying even considering the limited maneuvering power provided by the angular incident positioning and variable reflectivity of their panels. Although launched individually, the first vessels would be accelerated at a slower velocity than the later vessels causing their clumping in space as they travel and increasing their ability to form arrays.
Microbots Arrival and Descent to the ExoPlanet
Deceleration from near relativistic speeds to that of planetary orbit velocity is always problematic. Explosive ejection of the leading ferromagnetic mass could substantially decelerate the containment vessel while reducing the remaining microbot maneuvering mass. Employing the resistance of the reflective solar sails and the magsail, braking and maneuvering could be achieved by using the retrograde radiant photon pressure, plasma energy streams and charged magnetosphere of the destination star. Solar and magnetic braking could continue after entering an elliptical orbit of the star, until a matching planetary orbital velocity is obtained. With aerobraking the arrays could go from an elliptical orbit of the planet to a circular one. For the solitary microbots aerobraking would slow them for atmospheric entry.
Microbots entering the atmosphere would experience further braking through atmospheric drag. With reduced velocity, low gravitational attraction and high surface-to-mass ratios, atmospheric entry damage to the microbots might be kept to a minimum. Descent might be further dampened and controlled by positioning the panels for autogyro energy dissipation.
Engineered Genetic Materials
Genetics has become a game-changing technology allowing for man-made biological creativity. Genetic engineering has been revolutionized through CRISPR and the creation of artificial life by scientists like Craig Venter. Expanding the genetic alphabet beyond the 4 chemical bases found in DNA could add functions capable of assembling metal or silicon components into planet inhabiting biobots.
Although the microbot starship incorporated some bio-robotic functions such as neural networks and bio-luminescence for communication, it did not need the biobot ability to grow and reproduce. The biobots used for planetary exploration, terraforming and habitat construction would be grown from the genetic material in the microbot after acquiring a suitable watery environment for germination/gestation. These bio-life forms would be genetically designed to be suitable for the anticipated planetary environment but might also incorporate a greater degree of robotics into their biology for laser communication with Earth and reprogrammability.
Essential BioBot Characteristics
The first terrestrial biobots might best be designed to be amphibious for food access and terrain mobility and cold blooded for temperature tolerance. They might be capable of solar power or photosynthesis for their energy, but separate genetic material may be included to produce a photosynthesizing food source for the biobots.
Their instinctive behavior would include a work activity for communication and infrastructure building similar to instinctive nest, hive or web building found with Earth life. Their behaviors would be re-programmable from Earth allowing task changing capability. For this they would require a means to transmit and receive laser modulated signals with Earth as well as their interspecies communication using sound or light modulation.
Reproduction could be biological though it would likely be asexual. Reproduction would also be programmable through Earth communication in order to create a series of diverse offspring, specifically-tasked and specialized biobots. Eventually there would be terraforming for human habitation. After successful habitat construction and terraforming, the final genetic download would be human genomes for incubation. This would require specialized biobots for human gestation and nurturing. These humans could be genetically designed for the gravity, atmosphere and temperatures of the exoplanet by adjusting metabolism rate, body mass, lung capacity, skin color, fat, fur covering, etc. These modifications would prognosticate natural changes which would have evolved over time in humans in adapting to their new environment.
The simpler alternative to the more complex remote reproductive reprogramming would be to send sequential waves of microbots each containing subsequent genetics. However, the advantages of remote genetic reprogramming would not only result in faster colonization, but the genetic developments during the 100+ year microbot travel time could be incorporated in the transmitted genetic code.
Advantages of Engineered Exogenesis
There are some obvious advantages that come with with an Engineered Exogenesis approach to interstellar colonization. It would be scalable, specifically, the numbers of microbots manufactured and launch frequencies can be adjusted to suit political or financial circumstances. It would not be limited to one target planet, and any number of planets or newly discovered planets or moons could be added as targets over time. It would be tested in our solar system and modified with improvements before deployment. The seeding and growth of biobots could take place on Earth or in domed environments on the moon or Mars. Finally, it reduces the time scale for starship colonization, and eliminates human exposure to space travel. It, however, it lacks the drama and romance found in human adventure stories in space.
For Engineered Exogenesis to become a reality there are many technical problems to be resolved as well as numerous ethical issues to be considered such as the chauvinistic imposition of our genetics onto other evolving planetary systems, the creation and dissemination of synthetic, reproducing life forms and the alternation of our own human genome. Society, so far, has been accepting of test tube babies, GMO food crops and gene therapy, especially when it seems to improve our lives. Such controversial technological impositions may also be accepted as necessary in order to achieve a human interstellar presence.
Has This Happened Before?
If Engineered Exogenesis is a viable idea, would it not have been done by advanced alien civilizations? If so, why are there no alien biobots roving around on Earth? This is like the Fermi Paradox about space aliens. If they were sent here, maybe ocean Earth life feeds on these undeveloped alien genomes before they grow and reproduce. Possibly life on Earth is the result of an alien exogenesis. Then where are the microbot ships that carried them? They would be tiny, widely scattered and hard to find. Possibly the nascent search for micrometeorites on Earth may yet find one of these artificial nanobots.
References
1. Michael Noah Mautner, “Seeding the Universe with Life: Securing Our Cosmological Future,” The Interstellar Panspermia Society. http://www.panspermia-society.com/
2. N. Mathews, A. L. Christensen, R. O’Grady, F. Mondada, and M. Dorigo, “Mergeable nervous systems for robots,” Nature Communications 8(439), 2017 (full text).
3. Jennifer Doudna, “How CRISPR lets us edit our DNA,’ TED Talk September 2015. https://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_doudna_we_can_now_edit_our_dna_but_let_s_do_it_wisely?language=en
4. J. Craig Venter, “Watch me unveil ‘synthetic life,’” TED talk. May 2010. https://www.ted.com/talks/craig_venter_unveils_synthetic_life?language=en
5. Daniela Rus, “Autonomous boats can target and latch onto each other,” MIT News June 5, 2019. http://news.mit.edu/2019/autonomous-robot-boats-latch-0605
6. Sarah Hörst, “What in the world(s) are tholins?” Planetary Society July 22, 2015. http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2015/0722-what-in-the-worlds-are-tholins.html
7. Francesco Corea, “Distributed Artificial Intelligence: A Primer on Multi-Agent Systems Agent Based Modeling and Swarm Intelligence,” https://www.kdnuggets.com/2019/04/distributed-artificial-intelligence-multi-agent-systems-agent-based-modeling-swarm-intelligence.html
8. Paul Gilster, “Starship Surfing: Ride the Bow Shock,” Centauri Dreams March 21, 2012 https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2012/03/21/starship-surfing-ride-the-bow-shock/
I’m sorry, but I regard this as a terrible idea, albeit a most ingenious one to be sure. The analogy that most readily springs to mind is “crapping all over the cosmos”.
It’s a serious case of putting the cart before the horse. Let’s launch similarly-engineered microprobes with heavy duty analytic capability for life existence first, shall we?
“Crapping all over the cosmos”?
There’s no place for self-hate here, the meaning in that statement.
I’m more for building artificial self-contained worlds but this is also a good idea. The imperatives in life are survival and expansion, and we just don’t yet know if there’s actually any other life out there. We can deal with the situation if we detect it.
Meanwhile we need to quit looking for more advanced types to come “save” us and get to work using what’s in our area.
“The plausibility of Earth-life having been transplanted is supported by our inability to create spontaneous life from primordial organic chemicals in the laboratory and by the fact that there is no known remnant of pre-genetic life on Earth.”
I don’t understand the logic of this statement. How does our current ability level of creating prebiotic protocells support the concept of exogenesis? This same argument is used in support of creationism but fails for the same reason. Our current ability level is just our current ability level. The lack of pre-genetic life is better evidence of exogenesis but we would have to make the case that a pre-genetic ecosystem could survive in the presence of a vastly more capable and energetic ecosystem of genetic life.
In the October 19’th post: “Artificial Singularity Power: A Basis for Developing and Detecting Advanced Spacefaring Civilizations.” I commented the following: “`Oumuamua…DELIBERATELY HEADED HERE…And to top it off, in all likelihood, due to the close passage to Earth, WE HAVE BEEN SEEDED!!!!” to which ljk replied: Seeded with nanobots? Why?” Robert Buckalew’s article is a WHOLE LOT BETTER RESPONSE THAN MINE WAS! Which leads me to the following paper: “On the interstellar Von Neumann micro self-replicating probes.” This is now a MUST READ for anyone who just read Robert Buckalew’s article here. FINALLY: This paper is currently up on the exoplanet.eu website. “Alternative standard frequencies for interstellar communication.” by C Sivaram, Kenneth Arun, O. V. Kiren. I hit paywall. If any reader is either willing to pay, or is clever enough to find their way around this, please do so, read the entire paper, and then PLEASE post these alternative frequencies in a reply to this comment. I would appreciate that so much. Thank you!
1. There’s so much speculative science here I first thought “Why not just build a wormhole?”
2. So will this biology be programmed to send home “Whoops” and commit mass suicide if it comes in contact with life?
3. Might this not be considered an invasion should there be intelligent life there?
4. Seems like a fertile area for some sci-fi, e.g. when the various branches of humanity and its offsprings come in contact.
5. Which is not to say it shouldn’t be considered.
The seeds of life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XyNe8UESTs
We should not do any deliberate seeding of Earth life to other worlds, and should do what we can to prevent any accidental transfer of Earth life.
We know nothing about life that may exist outside of Earth. From that life’s perspective any seeding of Earth life might well appear like a combination of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and the “Andromeda Strain”. Furthermore, there are many important scientific questions that can only be answered by studying natural occurrences of life on many worlds. If every place we can study has already been seeded with Earth life, we may never be able to find out if there are alternate biochemistries, if life appears commonly or rarely, if natural panspermia occurs, and on and on.
Seeding Earth life to other worlds would be a moral and scientific catastrophe.
There is huge ethical flaws in this idea, and in reality it is not about colonization, but about bio pollution of space.
Will Homo Sapiens be happy if some ETI civilization send to the Earth swarm of bio-robots polluted by some type of “space anthrax” dedicated to Engineer of evolution? I am sure not…
Thanks to Great Physics Laws this project is not implementable by way it is described…
This is essential.
I can just see it now, the Klingons consider it an act of war and annihilate the race that sent them.
This would make a good SciFi story with the theme of “A cautionary tale”.
The argument of Earth being seeded by exobiology was neatly shown to be flawed by Harold Shaw’s comment above. No more needs are said on that matter.
The idea that biobots with engineered genes are in any way “spreading Earth life” is to stretch the definition of Earth-life. The proposed engineered DNA is the stuff of needed tight control, not free dispersal in an environment.
I note that these biobots are not preceded by probes to determine if life already exists on the target planet. This would seem to be a requirement to ensure such planets are not living before any new form of life was introduced. The approach taken is almost like the “gray goo” or “paperclip” argument of uncontrolled AI.
The concept assumes almost magic fairy dust to work. One can certainly understand sending unicellular organisms like bacteria, algae, and protists. But the approach assumed that multicellular organisms can be sent as as DNA which earlier bots can gestate in artificial wombs and presumable socialize these ultimately “[post]humans”. As for sending reprogramming from Earth, what could possibly go wrong…?
Now lets look at the proposed propulsion mechanism. Even a cursory analysis with an accelerator around teh Moon’s equator shows how difficult this would be. At 0.1c, the microbot must be switched from a circular track to an exit in about 1/3 of a second. The shorter the track, the faster the switching to send it away from the track towards the stars. I would like to see a lot more on the engineering and costs to make this work. Apart from the free vacuum, it would make the cost of the LHC like a school science project by comparison.
The posited deceleration at the target star is handwaving. The microbots also now have to create a superconducting coil within their mass constraints. Plus the solar cell/sail arrays. In all likelihood, the plan would result in microbots flying through the target system barely slowing down, and any bot that hit a world would burn up instantly, or create a nice crater on impact.
As NS and Alextru have implied, this is an aggressive, biological invasion if the target world is already alive.
If it was done on one of our icy Moons, it could even make the Moon unapproachable for we current humans 1.0.
It would seem easier to start on a more conservative level – colonizing Mars with lichens and tardigrades and halophiles, perhaps distributed in some sort of West Ford adaptation (see https://www.wired.com/2013/08/project-west-ford/ ). Some might interpret the presence of Mars to be providential, a small back-up planet for the later warmer days of the Sun, where life might find a last chance to prove its meaning.
But disseminating life throughout the cosmos – especially highly engineered patterns of life – well, I suspect a Buddhist might say, correctly, that if you are disseminating life, you are disseminating suffering. Do we want slaves in Orion, landmines in Ursa Minor, brain implants spreading in all directions from Cygnus? Perhaps we should approach our Hayflick limit with aged grace rather than pursuing immortality without restraint.
The proposal in a way recognizes a limitation of life on Earth – we are really not very highly evolved. We are colonial microorganisms, every cell an identical genome, highlighted with transient chemical annotations to provide some differentiation. It is possible that alien organisms can arrive as a speck of fungus, release spores that make flies and roundworms, whose eggs hatch into crocodiles and super-soldiers. There’s no inherent reason why a chicken egg cannot not come with a small section of the yolk set aside for the zygotes of every creature on Earth, to be mobilized as needed for the greater glory of the hens. We just haven’t evolved it… yet. This proposal seems to want to.
I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t pursue synthetic biology to a maturity level where a planet can be terraformed by sending something the size of a seed or nut. Well before synthetic biology reaches that maturity level, it will have transformed what it means to be human, an Earthling and a self-aware intelligent being. The demand profile for biospheres will be too complex for the spray and pray method of terraforming. Terraforming won’t even be necessary. Further, a civilization where synthetic biology has fully matured will put great value on any unique instance of evolution whether it is the result of exogenesis or abiogenesis.
Earth life is valuable, perhaps even priceless or sacred. Preserving Earth life deserves and requires a more conscious strategy than masturbating into the void.
Among metazoa, the accoutrement of zygotes is so often quite complex; divesting them of that accoutrement as in metatheria and eutheria entails the phylogenetic acquisition of appurtenances such as marsupia and uteri. Even the “eggs” of vertebrates are more than just zygotes.
Fungi can indeed start from a single simple spore, but not so for plants beyond vascular cryptograms. Bacteria do form polymicrobial films, and have both multicellular and plasmodial slime molds. Anything more will need more sophistication than described.
And let us not forget that the molecular biochemistry of life on earth is organized for evolution, to elbow out the “less fit”. If some other place is seeded with life, evolution ain’t gonna come to a screechin’ halt. Even with our genus – Homo – which has been around for about 3 million years, other Homo species – naledi, robustus, neanderthalis, heidelbergensis, denisovanis, and maybe others – have come and “gone”, although we carry some of their genes, and are direct descendants of some through genetic drift, albeit with natural selection. Homo sapiens has been around for ~300,000 years and there is no telling what our descendants (if any!) will be like in another 300,000 years.
The critical importance of social interactions between newborn and infant humans and their parental figures is highlighted by the dysfunction in neglected children. How that social interaction will be substituted sans parent figures remains to be seen.
Thinking about discussed idea and multiple comments here, I suppose we can get fine explanation to “Fermi paradox”:
May be multiple advanced ETI civilizations widely spread around our Galaxy , after studying Homo Sapience simply put Huge Space Condom around Solar System, to protect the Universe from undesired pregnancy that can be caused by sexually disturbed teenager – Homo Sapiens civilization…
Correction : I am reasonably sure Robert Buckalew is talking about exoplanets WITHOUT any homegrown lifeforms …..so why all the guiltfeelings ? ….in the near future it should be possible to distinguish between exoplanets with-or-without life …so whats the big ´´etics´´ problem ?
Death is an individual event. Whether or not our species survives, we all die, and nothing can change that. Family history and my individual circumstances suggests that is not so far in the future for me. I am quite comfortable with that, more so with poetry than physics. It is well . . .