ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the longtermist vision and justification for the expansion of humanity into outer space and highlights some problematic aspects of it. Colonizing the universe beyond our solar system will almost certainly require us to become or create digital beings, as interstellar travel looks to be impossible for biological humans. Yet a Digital World would be, in ways that are not often appreciated, radically different from the world we are familiar with. We are largely clueless regarding the consequences of creating and entering unfamiliar worlds. Accordingly, evaluating the justifiability of these changes in terms of their consequences is practically impossible. In addition, to recognize whatever value the longtermist cosmic expansion would generate, the digital entities that will populate outer space on our behalf will – problematically – need to be conscious.
