“…the
psychology of worldviews as a conceptual tool to further our understanding of
people’s reactions to astrobiological discoveries. Worldviews are the cognitive
frameworks and psychological processes that shape perceptions of reality,
influence the kinds of evidence that people accept, and makes it possible to
cope with unpredictable and potentially dangerous conditions.”
This would
likely be an important area of study in the wake of Direct First Contact with
an extraterrestrial civilization. Social scientists would need to track public
reaction and provide insight. Some members of the public would be optimistically
excited about First Contact and others would be scared. There would be a continuum
of human response across that spectrum with potentially troubling reactions
coming from groups at the fringes. The study of human response would likely
involve Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Religion, Political Science,
International Relations, and Economics, just to name a few.
Another
pioneer in this area was the Canadian scientist, Dr. Allen Tough. Sadly, he too
has passed on in recent years. I have read many of his articles. He established
the online journal Contact in Context.
He also
compiled what is perhaps the most comprehensive publication about social
science and First Contact: “When SETI Succeeds: The Impact of High-InformationContact.”I highlighted the publication in this blog back in 2011.
In one paper, titled “The Role of Social Science in SETI,” several authors
suggest a simple scale showing, much in the same vein as hurricane warnings,
the impact of First Contact.
Force One: Knowledge
that we are not alone, primarily in discovery of some form of extraterrestrial
communication.
Force Two: Humans
gaining scientific or technical knowledge from communication with an
extraterrestrial culture.
Force Three: Direct interaction with an
extraterrestrial culture leading to a long-term dialog.
Perhaps the
biggest insight that I gained from Dr. Tough is the idea that the human
Internet would be an important tool for visiting extraterrestrials. He realized
this in 1995, as the Internet was just coming into public perception. Many
scientists propose that if extraterrestrial civilizations exist, they are far
off, so far away that travel and communication would be quite difficult.
Perhaps so, but given enough time and wherewithal, there is no doubt a probe
could reach us from a far off civilization. Even with our limited technology we
have already sent probes that are currently outside of our solar system. The
best way to study human civilization would be through the Internet. Hopefully,
aliens would spend some time doing that before they contacted humans. They
could learn our languages and achieve a basic understanding of our biology,
history and society. But even if visiting aliens did their homework, we humans
would not want to rely on those aliens to develop a plan for a relationship
with humanity. That would be our responsibility. We would need to consider the
impact of such a relationship on our current society and for future
generations. That will require the work of academics who are not afraid to
explore other disciplines beyond their focus. This will be an important need
After First Contact- people who can consider human challenges from a variety of
viewpoints, using information from multiple disciplines. It is not how
scientists commonly work.
Social
scientists help us to better understand who we are as humans and as a society. They
will be on the front lines of response if Direct First Contact occurs someday.
Photo by Lucas
Davies on Unsplash
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