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Abstract: SETI is not a usual point of departure for environmental humanities. However, this paper argues that theories originating in this field have direct implications for how we think about viable inhabitation of the Earth. To demonstrate SETI’s impact on environmental humanities, this paper introduces the Fermi paradox as a speculative tool to probe possible trajectories of planetary history, especially the “Sustainability Solution” proposed by Jacob Haqq-Misra and Seth Baum. This solution suggests that sustainable coupling between extraterrestrial intelligence and their planetary environments is the major factor in the possibility of their successful detection by remote observation. By positing that exponential growth is not a sustainable development pattern, this solution rules out space-faring civilizations colonizing solar systems or galaxies. This paper elaborates on Haqq-Misra's and Baum's arguments and discusses speculative implications of the Sustainability Solution, thus rethinking three concepts in environmental humanities: technosphere, planetary history, and sustainability. The paper advocates that (1) the technosphere is a transitory layer that shall fold back into the biosphere; (2) planetary history must be understood in a generic perspective that abstracts from terrestrial particularities; and (3) sustainability is not a sufficient vector of viable human inhabitation of the Earth, suggesting instead habitability and genesity as better candidates.

Keywords: Fermi paradox; sustainability; habitability; genesity; planetary history; technosphere

Download preprint on ArXiv:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.080...