[_delirium]

It's not exactly a recent one so more of historical interest, but back when people thought interplanetary colonization was actually plausible in the near term, C.S. Lewis was an advocate against it. He wrote a dystopian sci-fi trilogy containing a good amount of satire on the subject [1], which sparked an on-again-off-again correspondence, cordial but without much agreement, with Arthur C. Clarke, initiated when Clarke wrote to object to some passages in Perelandra [2].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Trilogy

[2] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743475186/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...

[nateabele]

Based on the above, I'm pretty sure you've never actually read the Space Trilogy. Lewis isn't advocating for or against anything. The stories are allegorical.

Setting them on planets other than Earth (although the third book takes place exclusively on Earth) provides an opportunity to examine closely-held beliefs commonly taken for granted.

[_delirium]

Clarke may have been reading too much into Perelandra by interpreting it that way, but Lewis didn't seem to object to that reading in the correspondence, and defended a view that Weston really was an accurate portrayal of what what Lewis saw as a likely future outcome of space-travel, an arrogant war of conquest to dominate the galaxy and subjugate any other worlds that might exist, in pursuit of technology and power.

Among other comments from his letters:

I don't of course think at the moment many scientists are budding Westons: but I do think (hang it all, I live among scientists!) that a point of view not unlike Weston's is on the way ... a race devoted to the increase of its own power by technology with complete indifference to ethics does seem to me a cancer in the Universe.

He also liked to sign off his letters to Clarke with comments like, "I wish you every success except a practical realization of space travel".

edit: A bit more in the section "Lewis and space exploration" here: http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1754/1

[nateabele]

Thanks for the clarification, I see what you're getting at.

I wouldn't interpret his writings as anti-space-travel in any way, but you have to understand Weston's character arc across books 1 & 2. Lewis was arguing against the ideal that motivated many peoples' interests in space travel at the time, and the philosophical underpinnings of their views on morality and humanity.

I don't think it's reasonable to suggest that someone of Lewis' intellect would so readily throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater on one of the greatest frontiers of human exploration.

Here, this guy puts it much better than I did: http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1754/1#IDComment332377...

Edit: Adding expository link.