Help SETI Get Allen Array Back On Line

State and federal budget woes have caused the Allen Telescope Array to be put into "hibernation." The Allen Array is the most powerful tool yet in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The SETI Institute has launched a public effort to raise funds to get the Allen Array up and running again. You can help. It may sound like a small thing, and perhaps not an immediate government priority in the larger scheme of things, but the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is growing in leaps in bounds, aided by the many planetary revelations of the NASA Kepler Mission. Take a moment and visit the SETI Institute web site and donate if you can. A few dollars each, from a bunch of us, could help tremendously.

Maybe They Should Just Leave Us Alone

Let’s say that there is an extraterrestrial group, of some sort, out there, somewhere near-by and studying us. I have presented plenty of arguments for why now would be a relatively good time to say hello. Here’s an argument for leaving us alone.

Human development comes from challenge. We want to keep predators at bay, be able to see at night, and cook food to make it more palatable (and release more nutrients) so, 400,000 years ago, humans learned how to control and eventually produce fire. We face a challenge and find a solution, and thus the human race moves forward. The challenges can even come from other things that we create. It could be argued that the age of nuclear weapons has brought countries closer together in diplomacy and turned warfare into a global concern. We currently face a massive environmental challenge, and on numerous fronts. Global warming is just one of the threats. The nuclear crisis in Japan is an example of how our technology can threaten our long term existence. While it may not seem like it in real time, if you take a few steps back for a wider perspective, you can see humans answering these challenges. Nuclear power is undergoing new debate. It seems likely that in the wake of the Japanese nuclear crisis there may be prohibitions on the type of old technology used in those nuclear plants. Upgrading nuclear plant technology will take on a new importance and with it human technology will advance.

What would happen if those challenges disappeared? Science fiction writers love to imagine a world in which we meet extraterrestrials and learn the secrets of the universe. Even slightly more advanced extraterrestrial emissaries could provide radical new insights into science and the universe. Do we really want extraterrestrials spoon feeding us new information?

In a sense, it’s like working out for better health. Even if someone could invent a machine to flex your muscles to build muscle strength, would you really want to do it? Exercise the old fashion way also increases flexibility and strengthens the heart. Perhaps you could find a way to flex those muscles electrically (many bad inventions have claimed to do this) and still do real exercise to benefit the heart and develop greater flexibility, but what of the other benefits of real exercise that we might not fully understand?

Human technological and social development is a complex thing, with millions of interactions each day that will determine how we go forward. If you take away the need for some of that interaction, especially in the sciences, what unintended consequences might we face?

So, maybe the space aliens should just leave us alone and let us develop on our own. However, there is another solution that we probably would not enjoy or understand. Perhaps they should say hello, but with the caveat that they don’t give away any important information. Would we be able to handle that? Can’t you imagine the reaction when the extraterrestrials just say no in response to our questions about science and the universe? Would we understand? Would we feel that we are being treated like kids, or even worse, lab rats for study?

Information will be the most important part of the relationship After First Contact, and the flow of information of upmost concern. We may provide some insights for the extraterrestrials. It is likely though, that if they are advanced in technology they would be the ones providing most of the new information. How much they choose to share and how we respond to that decision could have a big impact on the future of the relationship between two civilizations.

A Suggestion: The Next Fifty for COPUOS

Last week marked the 50^th anniversary of manned space flight. The achievement still brings a sense of awe to many of us. The United Nations marked the occasion with a celebration of sorts. I found the UN news release interesting, because it notes that this year also marks fifty years for the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). The committee works to develop the rules that define activities in outer space. There are plenty of pressing matters when it comes to outer space activities: the threat of Near Earth Objects (NEOs), the danger of weapons in Earth orbit, and the accumulation of space junk. I don’t want to infer that the group does not have enough to work on, but there is something they are missing: a clear framework for diplomacy in the event of First Contact with an extraterrestrial civilization.

Argue what you will about SETI protocols and alleged secret NASA contingency plans, there is nothing that I have seen that outlines who should be in charge of diplomacy in a First Contact event. The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) folks have done a good job in defining what should occur in case of a SETI discovery. However, the protocols stop well short of the diplomatic process. And when you think about it, that need for diplomacy could come up in the variety of situations. Perhaps it’s a question of humans sending messages deep into space. Shouldn’t there by a world body charged with determining if that should happen at all and, if so, what message should be sent? Instead, we hold Internet contests to determine those messages.

The most serious need would arise if we did have communication with an extraterrestrial civilization. Even if those messages take dozens of years to travel back and forth over light years of space, there should be an organized process for coming up with our answers, and perhaps more importantly, our questions. Science should certainly be at the forefront of such a conversation, but diplomacy needs to lead the way.

So, COPUOS, happy birthday to you. I suggest that after blowing out the candles you give some serious thought to the next 50 years. The Kepler Mission is turning up potential planets by the spacecraft-load. SETI scientists have new computer firepower that allows them to process data like never before. How long will it be before we hit the big one and find out that we are not alone in the universe? 

I firmly believe that the United Nations is the organization that should be tasked with First Contact diplomacy. It is the only body that represents most humans, in most countries on Earth. COPUOS, and the corresponding United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), are the natural organizations to handle such diplomacy. UNOOSA Director Mazlan Othman took a great deal of flak recently from the media when she merely suggested that COPUOS examine First Contact issues. It’s time to get beyond the snickering and face the facts: we are not ready for First Contact. We have done little to prepare. The impact of such an event would be enormous. Human civilization would be changed forever. Isn’t it worth a few moments of serious thought?

That Brutal Little Blue Planet

How would an extraterrestrial civilization view us?

It’s more than just a casual observation. If First Contact ever does occur (and I’m not saying it necessarily will) what they think of us would be a critical element of the new relationship.

Well, let’s put it in a form easier for us to comprehend: how would we view them? The answer is through the lens of our particular perspective. We would view them in comparison to us. Given that, one would imagine that they might view us in comparison to their type of biology, culture and technology. That could be a pretty high standard, depending on their level of development. If they are a much more advanced civilization they could view us as the brutal, scrappy little planet with major environmental problems. You would almost hope that in such a situation there would be many civilizations that our visitors had studied. This, at least, might help them view us with an element of objectivity. Rather than suffering in a direct comparison with them, we would perhaps be seen as part of a continuum of development that occurs with intelligent beings. They might even classify such civilizations:

Class one: intelligent life developing

Class two: early civilization

Class three: mechanized civilization

Class four: computerized civilization

Class five: destroyed their planet and now looking for a new home

Okay, sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Why does all this matter? How they view us goes directly to the heart of the new relationship. If we are the only other civilization they have run into, they might have high expectations for us, expectations that could be judged by their standards. This could have a huge impact for our future. In the wake of a dramatic First Contact scenario, with a high degree of interaction between ourselves and extraterrestrials, human self-determination will be a big issue. Do we decide our own path forward or are we under the influence of a powerful new friend?

The Fears

Godzilla is back. At least in the popular imagination. NPR reports that Wikipedia searches for the 1950’s horror film icon are up significantly. The reason? Perhaps, an exploration of fear. Godzilla, as you may remember, was created in the movies due to radioactivity caused by atomic bombs. The Godzilla searches are seen by some social scientists as a way for us to explore our fear about radiation leaks and, of course, those fears are now sky high, thanks to the nuclear crisis in Japan.

Grady Hendrix, co-director of the New York Asian Film Festival, had an interesting quote in the piece:

“Movies are where we rehearse our fears.”

So, what about fear of extraterrestrials? I think you can put most scary extraterrestrial movies into four general categories of fear:

Personal attack and violation: This is perhaps the scariest of scenarios, because it involves personal violation. The alien abduction movies would be the best examples. Abduction and experimentation are often done at night and when a person is asleep. “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” certainly starts out this way. “Communion” is perhaps the classic tale of a family tormented by aliens. Hollywood upped the ante recently, with the “Fourth Kind”, which did not fare as well at the box office. The primary fears are a loss of free will and a loss of privacy. Aliens have powers beyond our imagining and they do with us as they want. We won’t even bother discussing the use of probes.

Corruption of the individual and society: In a sense, this is the broader version of the personal attack. My personal favorite was the original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” There is an element of personal violation, but the trend is toward a subversion of human society. The TV series “V”, both in the original and remake, take this conspiracy to new levels and point to what could be the most profound fear for humans: the aliens will take over our society. Once again, the loss of free will is a major factor.

All-out attack: Hollywood loves this plot, probably because Hollywood loves to blow stuff up and alien invasion movies provide plenty of opportunities. In fact, it seems that directors spend a great deal of time deciding what well-known structures to explode. “Independence Day” blew up the White House. “Battle: L.A.” takes the whole city down, one building at a time. However, it’s interesting to note that in both of those examples the humans are able to fight back. And they all return to the same theme first popularized by H.G. Wells with “War of the Worlds”: we don’t know exactly why they’re out to get us, but they are, and we’d better do something about it. Often, extinction is the ultimate fear in these movies. However, loss of free will and enslavement are also motivators.

We’re not worthy: This is a slightly more esoteric fear, explored very nicely in the original “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (and not so well in the remake). The idea is that the aliens are worried about what we humans might do to ourselves, and the rest of the universe. Humans are basically bad, but with some redeeming characteristics. There is usually an ultimatum of some sort. The primary fear is that we are not worthy of hanging-out with the more developed extraterrestrials. Many of us like this plot, because it infers that we are probably our own worst enemy. And history tends to support that theory.

Film buffs will be quick to point out that most alien movies have an underlying fear that might have nothing to do with space aliens. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” is thought to be an exploration of fears of communism. Godzilla was just one of many examples of how people worried about the nuclear age, both in the 1950’s, and apparently now. However, if you consider extraterrestrial First Contact in any form, you would want to explore the fears that would accompany such an event. They would grow in correlation to the amount of interaction involved in a First Contact event. If we merely intercept some far off message, it would be one level of fear. If the aliens land in Baltimore and take in a ballgame at Camden Yards, it would be a much greater degree of fear.

We would be naive to think that fear would not be an important issue After First Contact. While such an occurrence may not provoke open panic in the streets, it would certainly be a background worry, and one that could impact important decision making for world leaders, scientists and the general public.

How do we get over our fears? I suppose it can only come through facing reality. If we ever get the opportunity to meet members of an extraterrestrial civilization, we will need to explore these concerns. I would suggest that the best way would be to consider them openly. Caution is a pretty important characteristic of the human personality. It keeps us safe. Turning fear into reasonable caution would make sense. Fear isn’t entirely irrational. All of the previous scenarios could be plausible in the wake of First Contact. Talking about them openly, and forming a framework to protect ourselves, might be the best medicine of all. And hey, we’ve had plenty of rehearsal time to get ready for the big performance. Thanks Hollywood.