Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T05:10:29.440Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Virulence as a model for interplanetary and interstellar colonization – parasitism or mutualism?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2013

Jonathan Starling  and
Duncan H. Forgan
Jonathan Starling*
Affiliation:
School of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, Scotland, UK
Duncan H. Forgan
Affiliation:
Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA), Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
*
e-mail: JMS26@hw.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the light of current scientific assessments of human-induced climate change, we investigate an experimental model to inform how resource-use strategies may influence interplanetary and interstellar colonization by intelligent civilizations. In doing so, we seek to provide an additional aspect for refining the famed Fermi Paradox. The model described is necessarily simplistic, and the intent is to simply obtain some general insights to inform and inspire additional models. We model the relationship between an intelligent civilization and its host planet as symbiotic, where the relationship between the symbiont and the host species (the civilization and the planet's ecology, respectively) determines the fitness and ultimate survival of both organisms. We perform a series of Monte Carlo Realization simulations, where civilizations pursue a variety of different relationships/strategies with their host planet, from mutualism to parasitism, and can consequently ‘infect’ other planets/hosts. We find that parasitic civilizations are generally less effective at survival than mutualist civilizations, provided that interstellar colonization is inefficient (the maximum velocity of colonization/infection is low). However, as the colonization velocity is increased, the strategy of parasitism becomes more successful, until they dominate the ‘population’. This is in accordance with predictions based on island biogeography and r/K selection theory. While heavily assumption dependent, we contend that this provides a fertile approach for further application of insights from theoretical ecology for extraterrestrial colonization – while also potentially offering insights for understanding the human–Earth relationship and the potential for extraterrestrial human colonization.

Keywords

SETIFermi ParadoxColonisationVirulenceSymbiosisMutualism
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 45 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, C.R. (2001). Conserv. Ecol. 5, 15.Google Scholar
Anand, M. (2011). Earth, Moon and Planets 107(1), 65–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Annis, J. (1999). J. Br. Interplanet. Soc. 52, 19.Google Scholar
Batalha, N.M. et al. (2013). ApJ 204, 24.Google Scholar
Berenbaum, M. (1999). Our Common Journey: a Transition Toward Sustainability, p. 363. National Academies Press, Washington DC, USA.Google Scholar
Bjørk, R. (2007). Int. J. Astrobiol. 6, 89.Google Scholar
Boucher, D.H. (1988). The Biology of Mutualism: Ecology and Evolution, p. 400. Oxford University Press, New York, USA.Google Scholar
Carr, M.H. et al. (1998). Nature 391, 363.Google Scholar
Cartin, D. (2013). arXiv:1304.0500Google Scholar
Cirkovic, M.M. (2008). J. Br. Interplanet. Soc. 61, 246.Google Scholar
Cotta, C. & Morales, A. (2009). J. Br. Interplanet. Soc. 62, 82.Google Scholar
de Sousa Ant´onio, M.R. & Schulze-Makuch, D. (2010). Int. J. Astrobiol. 10, 15.Google Scholar
Ebert, D. & Herre, D. (1996). Parasitol. Today 12, 96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forgan, D.H. (2009). Int. J. Astrobiol. 8, 121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forgan, D.H. & Rice, K. (2010). Int. J. Astrobiol. 9, 73.Google Scholar
Forgan, D.H., Papadogiannakis, S. & Kitching, T. (2012). arXiv:1212.2371, 14 Google Scholar
Forgan, D.H. et al. (2013). Journal of the British Interplanetary Society 66, 171–177.Google Scholar
Freitas, R.A. (1983). Br. Interplanet. Soc. 36, 501.Google Scholar
Gibson, G.J., Otten, W.N., Filipe, J.A., Cook, a., Marion, G. & Gilligan, C.A. (2006). Stat. Comput. 16, 391.Google Scholar
Haqq-Misra, J.D. & Baum, S.D. (2009). J. Br. Interplanet. Soc. 62, 47.Google Scholar
Lovelock, J. (2000). Gaia: a New Look at Life on Earth, p. 148. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
MacArthur, R.H. & Wilson, E.O. (1967). The Theory of Island Biogeography, p. 203. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, G.E. & Scalo, J.M. (1979). Astrophys. J. Suppl. 41, 513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholson, & Forgan, (2013). International Journal of Astrobiology. 12(4), 337–344.Google Scholar
Odum, E.P. & Barrett, G.W. (2005). Fundamentals of Ecology. Thomson Brooks/Cole.Google Scholar
Ostlie, D.A. & Carroll, B.W. (1996). An Introduction to Modern Stellar Astrophysics, ed. Ostlie, D.A. & Carroll, B.W. Pearson Education, University of Michigan, ISBN 0-201-59880-9.Google Scholar
Otten, W., Bailey, D.J. & Gilligan, C.A. (2004). New Phytologist 163, 125.Google Scholar
Parkinson, C.D., Liang, M.-C., Hartman, H., Hansen, C.J., Tinetti, G., Meadows, V., Kirschvink, J.L. & Yung, Y.L. (2007). Astron. Astrophys. 463, 353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rocha-Pinto, H.J., Maciel, W.J., Scalo, J. & Flynn, C. (2000). Astron. Astrophys. 358, 850, 869.Google Scholar
Smith, D.C. & Douglas, A.E. (1987). The Biology of Symbiosis. Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd, UK.Google Scholar
Spencer, J. & Grinspoon, D. (2007). Nature 445, 376.Google Scholar
Speth, J.G. (2009). The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and… , p. 320. Yale University Press, USA.Google Scholar
von Hoerner, S. (1975). J. Br. Interplanet. Soc. 28, 691.Google Scholar
Vukotic, B. & Cirkovic, M.M. (2007). Serbian Astron. J. 175, 45.Google Scholar
Wallis, M.K. & Wickramasinghe, N.C. (2004). Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 348, 52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, R. (2002). Trends Microbiol. 10, 314.Google Scholar
Wiley, K.B. (2011). arXiv 1111.6131Google Scholar
Williamson, M.H. (1997). Biological Invasions, p. 244. Springer, UK.Google Scholar
Wyatt, M.C., Clarke, C.J. & Greaves, J.S. (2007). Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 380, 1737.CrossRefGoogle Scholar