Mars Needs Women; Earth Needs Men
A follow up to an earlier post found here: http://scifiwright.com/2014/05/mars-need-women/
Let me add a leg to the hypothetical in my earlier post, to ask to anyone willing to answer it the following question. If morality is based on genetics, or based on instinct, or based on a game-theory situation where each player is rationally concerned with maximizing his winnings after repeated iterations of a ‘prisoner’s dilemma’ situation, then does morality apply in a case where there is no genes in common, no instinct shared, and no repeated iterations?
A Martian Warlord has kidnapped Yvonne Craig in the grounds that (1) she is really, really attractive (2) Mars is technologically superior and beyond the reach of any possible retaliation (especially under the Obama version of NASA (3) Many Martian women are sterile, and the Martian Warlord wants her for his harem because she is healthy and intelligent and will make good breeding stock. Plus, she fills out the green dancing girl costume nicely.
The question facing us is whether abducting an innocent woman for one’s own prurient and selfish pleasure, either as a dancing girl or as concubine and breeding stock, is always and everywhere an immoral act, even if done by a Martian, or some other rational being with whom we have nothing in common, no trade, no social contract, no kin relations.
That was the hypothetical under discussion. Let us add one question to it.
Suppose you and the Martian are suddenly yanked to the planet of the Arisians, or the Metrons, or the critters who built the Monolith from 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY, or, better yet, the Vega Mind from HAVE SPACE SUIT WILL TRAVEL. These are superior beings who have no trade with us, no interest in ever having trade with us, and they are far, far beyond any possible power of retaliation from either humans or martians. A voice in the vast hall of Vega announces that the Martian warlord is on trial for the kidnapping and dance-coercion and forced marriage of Yvonne Craig.
Let us further assume for the sake of argument that you are under a positive duty to help aid and rescue Miss Craig merely because of some shared genes or social contract or because she is a luscious earthgirl and you are a clean-limbed fighting man from Virginia, hence a red blooded earthboy.
Also, let us assume that you want to help her because she is your wife, your sister, your mother, or perhaps you just like the way she fills out the dancing costume. Your motive can be as raw and primitive as need be for his hypothetical, or it can be as chaste and chivalrous and noble as imaginable. That does not matter for our hypothetical.
The voice announces you are the prosecution. If you refuse the job, the Warlord goes free, and Yvonne remains his slavegirl. She pleads with you for help!
The Warlord, speaking on his own behalf as a defense attorney, makes the following defense: “Your honor, what I did was not a crime because this event was not part of an iterated series of cooperation as might be found in a prisoner’s dilemma.
“Moreover, when my race does decide to open up trade and friendly relations in the future with the Earthmen, they will be only slightly annoyed by the kidnapping, which will make only some of the Earthmen dislike me, and that only for a limited amount of time, a generation or so. Mars is an old and dying world, our women are infertile, and I need a healthy fertile and intelligent earthwoman for breeding purposes.
“Miss Craig is so deliciously luscious that to me it is rational exchange to risk that small amount of dislike for that small amount of time to achieve so attractive a prize. We Martians have advanced science (as evidenced by our many flashing computers and control panels, so clearly as a Martian Warlord I have the power to do this act, and no rational reason within the scope of my self-interest to hesitate.
“The Earthmen can offer me no credible threat. The Earthmen can take comfort in the fact that they are obligated by their morality to band together to rescue her, even though, as a practical matter, Mars is so far away and so scientifically advanced, that they have no realistic chance to mount a rescue expedition. It would be like a Black African in a canoe trying to rescue Kunta Kinte from the plantation of Tara.
“Since the rescue is impossible and the Earthmen cannot harm me, according to prisoner’s dilemma logic, the cost to me for this act is zero or very near to it. THEREFORE IT IS MORAL. If it is a moral act, you cannot punish me for it.”
Suppose next that the Voice agrees that if the act cannot be proved immoral, it cannot be held illegal, and the Vega Mind will not punish the Martian Warlord.
The spotlight swings toward you. A whole Star Wars cantina-scene of advanced races stares at you with a variety of sense organs.
By your logic, you are obligated to attempt to save Miss Craig. The only way to save her is to prove the Martian Warlord is morally wrong to abduct women into his harem. The only way to prove that is …. what?
What do you say?
Because if you don’t have an argument, the evil Martian Warlord (who no doubt looks like Elvis) gets to possess the innocent Miss Craig. And who knows what the cad might do with her in his filthy clutches?
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
