Implications of the Copernican principle for our future prospects (1993) [pdf]

The implications of this concept have been discussed in Stephen Baxter's Manifold novels[0], particularly Manifold: Time[1]. Well worth a read if you're interested in things like this principle and the dark sky paradox. I'm also convinced they heavily influenced the writing of the Mass Effect games, though I have no concrete evidence.

[0] Three books set in a multiverse where each represents a different narrative that could have taken place, involving the same characters.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Manifold-Time-Stephen-Baxter/dp/034543...

The answer is so obvious, we have to launch a planetary program to implement it: Our only hope is to upload our consciousnesses into highly durable nanomachine "crystals" and launch enough of these devices that some will be discovered by similarly capable civilizations that can be convinced of the Copernican Principle's ineluctable truth and will therefore perpetuate this process.

This seems to be about what is better known as the doomsday argument: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_argument