Extraterrestrial Contact: Chaos

Riots in Cairo. Violence in Libya. Chinese protests calling for war against Japan. Has the world gone crazy? Can a video really inspire such social unrest? Should a territorial dispute over a small island lead to calls for military action?

The world has not gone crazy. It’s merely humans surrendering to fears and then whipped up by dissidents and opportunists into frenzy. Let’s not be naïve. The violence in the Middle East is not just the result of a stupid and insulting video. It’s just the latest pinprick in a conflict between the Muslim world and Christian world that has burned for hundreds of years. The Chinese protests over the ownership of small Islands in the East China Sea are not just a reaction to longstanding national land disputes, but also Sino fury focused on a nation that brutalized Chinese during World War Two.

So, what’s my point? The same simmering conflicts, and many others that exist all over our little planet, could come into play in the wake of First Contact with an extraterrestrial civilization. That may be hard for folks to understand. We like to view extraterrestrial contact as an event that would join humans together. And while that may ultimately be the case, along the way there would likely be plenty of conflict. That conflict would not come from humans freaked-out over extraterrestrial contact. Many surveys have shown that individually humans would probably be calm in the wake of extraterrestrial First Contact.

However, this isn’t just a question of individual reactions. Those same opportunists and dissidents whipping up frenzy today could decide that there is an opportunity to make a point and gain advantage in the wake of First Contact. Media reports say that the Chinese government may be fueling the fire in the Japan protests. In Libya, there are suggestions that political dissidents may have used the video as an excuse to stage a planned attack on the American Embassy.

This is the reality of life on planet Earth. Depending on the nature of First Contact, social unrest could be a big issue in the weeks and months following such an event. The nature of contact, of course, has a lot to do with it. If scientists discover an engineered signal and take years to figure out what that signal means and where it came from, it seems unlikely that there would be immediate unrest. In the wake of Direct First Contact, meaning we meet up with extraterrestrials in our solar system and have a high-information exchange, it seems more likely that we would have human relations problems here on Earth.

That said, there is a window of opportunity in such a dramatic event. Direct First Contact might lead to a period of stasis, brought on by humans individually and collectively being stunned by the news. People would naturally want to watch and learn at first. Wall to wall media coverage would focus on the discovery. It could take days, weeks or even months for the old conflicts to come to the surface After First Contact. But as people begin to consider how they want to take advantage of the First Contact situation and old rivalries are inflamed by the possibilities raised by First Contact, it seems likely that human hostilities would come to the forefront once again. An active effort to join humans during the stunned period could help to alleviate those hostilities, especially if it is possible to show how out-dated such long-rooted hostilities are After First Contact.

First Contact could provide a new perspective for humans, hopefully rendering many old conflicts moot. Why would you bother fighting over an island in the East China Sea when the future lies out in the universe? The presence of extraterrestrials should show humans that religious differences are really a matter of tiny degrees of difference, not a great gulf, as compared to differences with extraterrestrials.

The end result will depend on individual humans. If we let the dissidents and opportunists whip us into frenzy there may be conflict and social unrest. We are the keepers of our own world. If we choose to ignore those angry voices and look for a wider perspective, we may have a calm and yet exciting future. It will be our choice.

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Extraterrestrial Contact: The Impact of Earthrise

The photo is simple: the small, blue Earth rising in the sky over the barren landscape of the moon. We tend to take the Apollo 8 photo for granted. Benjamin Lazier of Reed College urges us to take another look the impact of the iconic NASA photo. In a 2011 article for The American Historical Review, Lazier goes beyond what has traditionally been championed as a picture that defined the environmentalism movement. Lazier doesn’t disagree that the photo had a huge impact on environmentalism, he merely points out that it may have also accelerated the perspective of globalization. We live in a time when everything seems to have global attached to it. This movement may have begun far before the Apollo missions, but the photographs from those missions seem to have accelerated the change in global perspective, as it did environmental perspective.

How important are photos? The 1972 picture of Earth as a “Blue Marble” hanging in the inky darkness of space may be the most widely disseminated picture in human history, as pointed out by Lazier. It is used to underscore many moral, political and scientific ideas. At once the photos show not only a lonely planet in the vastness of space, but our lonely planet and our only home. Even more striking, Lazier, says is how quickly the image lost its novelty and became part of our collective psyche.

If just a couple of pictures can have such an impact on human perception, what would happen After First Contact? Depending on how it goes down, such an event could have a series of perception altering images and an impact on our collective psyche rivaling many of the previous revolutions of thought. It could be the first picture of an intelligent extraterrestrial life form. Perhaps it’s not a picture, but rather the sound of an engineered signal discovered in far off space?

Maybe First Contact would only enhance the continuing Earthrise Era and broaden our perspective on the universe? Lazier argues that the Earthrise and Blue Marble photos in a sense brought the Copernican revolution era and the pre-Copernican revolution era of thought together again, allowing for both realizations at the same time. It says that yes we are a small speck in the sky, orbiting a sun and not the center of the universe. It also suggests that the Earth is our fragile home and the center of what we do. If we screw up our home we threaten our very existence.

The Earthrise photo may have just been preparing us for the next inevitable step in human development- citizens of not just a small blue marble hanging in space, but citizens of the universe, joining other beings.

Reference: 

Lazier, B. (2011). Earthrise; or, The Globalization of the World Picture

The American Historical Review, Vol. 116, No. 3 (June 2011), pp. 602-630

Extraterrestrial Contact: Visiting Robots

Many astrophysicists have suggested that if we meet traveling extraterrestrials they are likely to be robotic in form. Why? Artificial intelligence (AI) would not have the demands of biological intelligence in terms of biological needs. AI could be designed for travel. In space that is critical. The more mass you want to move, the more energy you need to move it. Life support requires plenty of stuff. AI wouldn’t need traditional biological life support and thus could travel in a much smaller and lighter vehicle. Because it doesn’t need fragile biological life support AI could also better withstand the dangers of space travel. Perhaps most importantly, AI could potentially travel for an infinite period of time, if it knew how to protect and repair itself.

AI of an alien manufacture would likely be much different from what we would design. Just as we put anthropomorphic characteristics into our robotic design, aliens would probably do the same, but from their perspective. I think there are a couple of things we could assume about traveling AI. There would have to be a reason for the travel. You don’t expend time and energy traveling through space without a reason. Perhaps there could be multiple reasons for travel? However, it seems likely there would be one primary reason. It could be the search for other intelligent life. It could be an exploration of parts of the universe of interest to the alien designers. Perhaps it’s a religious quest of some sort? You could speculate endlessly about the possible reasons for travel. One thing is certain: there would be a reason and we would want to know that reason quickly if we were to meet such traveling robots. AI could be a threat. Perhaps the primary reason is to extinguish competing life forms? Or to secure new planets for conquest? Those are certainly the favorite scenarios in Hollywood.

The other thing that we should expect from AI would be logic. It might not be logic that we would fully understand, but there would have to be some underlying system of logic. You would assume that AI would also need the ability to learn, which is what artificial intelligence implies. It would be tough to travel the universe, encountering new things at every turn, unless you had the ability to learn and adapt. That’s a good thing because it could provide a way for us to communicate. Even if such communication was not part of the original programming or mission, AI with the ability to learn could learn to communicate.

I’ve said before that machine intelligence would be one of the tougher First Contact scenarios. We’re suspicious of AI. It’s a relatively new concept in human reality even though it has been chewed on for decades by writers. The plotlines are usually not kind in fiction or for that matter in fact. The New York Times recently pointed out how robots are replacing humans in manufacturing at a greater and greater rate.

It might be tough for biological creatures to have a relationship with artificial intelligence, especially if that intelligence came with advanced technology. It’s one thing to feel dumb compared to biological creatures, how would we handle our inferiority to machines? I suppose we can hope for robots with compassion and plenty of patience.

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Extraterrestrial Contact: Revolution of the Spirit

Let’s be honest with ourselves. There is much more to our interest in extraterrestrial contact than merely meeting an alien intelligence. Beyond the purely speculative considerations of an alien civilization there is a deeper need. We see First Contact as providing a catalyst for change in human civilization. Some have suggested that this hope is quasi-religious in nature. I agree. I think there is a degree of faith built into the First Contact considerations. Many people hope that aliens will someday provide us with knowledge about technology, life and progress. The technology would help us solve our environmental and energy related challenges. The mentorship of an advanced civilization would help us achieve a new level of prosperity and peace on Earth.

These hopes are understandable and, of course, quite naïve. There is one thing that I can guarantee about alien civilizations, if they exist. They are likely much more complicated than we can understand. They are also likely to have attributes that we view as positive and attributes that we view as negative. Hoping for a visit from perfect beings is a rather absurd thought. Imagine if we traveled back 2000 years in human history. We would have technology and knowledge far surpassing anything people of that age would be able to imagine. And yet we would still be complex beings with plenty of good and evil. We haven’t managed to solve problems related to hatred and violence. Why would we imagine that aliens have done such?

We cannot head into First Contact with naïve hopes. We must be careful, critical and well-considered at each and every step. We must not take anything at face value. We must take charge of change and make sure it fits our needs and our desires.

There is something that First Contact of any sort could provide, though: a revolution of the spirit. I borrow here from the Burmese political activist Aung San Suu Kyi. She has been working for human rights and political freedom in Myanmar for decades. It has cost her dearly with both her family and her health. And yet is appears her hard work is beginning to pay off.

Suu Kyi made a famous speech in 1991 as she accepted the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. In that speech, she spoke of the greater context in the struggle for political freedom. This excerpt comes from Wikiquote:

 “The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit, born of an intellectual conviction of the need for change in those mental attitudes and values which shape the course of a nation's development. A revolution which aims merely at changing official policies and institutions with a view to an improvement in material conditions has little chance of genuine success. Without a revolution of the spirit, the forces which produced the iniquities of the old order would continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration. It is not enough merely to call for freedom, democracy and human rights. There has to be a united determination to persevere in the struggle, to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths, to resist the corrupting influences of desire, ill will, ignorance and fear.”

This is a tremendous thought. It is not merely guns and threats that keep people in line. It is fear. Suu Kyi points out that fear works in many ways, including the fear of oppressors who do not want to lose power. However, it is collective public fear that can allow a military government to hold back a nation. We have seen many examples in recent years of how a change in that fear can lead to action and hope. That action and hope can roll over tanks and change governments. Now, there is plenty of sacrifice and often bloodshed along the way. But the change is something that collectively people could not imagine until it started to happen.

I see humanity as also ruled by fear. Suu Kyi gave the charge for people to “liberate their own minds from apathy and fear.” This can happen in one nation. This can also happen for an entire planet. I think humanity needs a revolution of the spirit. Perhaps, just perhaps, extraterrestrial contact would be a dramatic enough event to help us break out of fear and see new hope for our civilization. We choose to live in violence and chaos. We can choose to live in peace and order if we wish. That may sound simplistic and it most certainly is simplistic. It is also the truth. There is no great outside force causing us to treat each other like crap. It happens through decisions we make each and every day. Recent events in many oppressed countries show that we can collectively change that equation. It isn’t easy. None of the revolutionary nations of recent has achieved the peace that they hope to achieve. And yet they are moving forward. In this way all of humanity could move forward. First Contact could provide the catalyst for a revolution of the human spirit. We don’t need aliens providing us with technology and telling us what to do. The simple realization that the universe is much more complex than we have previously understood could provide the catalyst for change. First Contact can be more than just a scientific breakthrough. It can be the wake-up message for planet Earth. That message is simple: it’s a new day and we can decide how that day will go.

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Extraterrestrial Contact: Civil Society and First Contact

I often discuss the impact of high-information First Contact on human institutions. But what about society, outside of government, religion and science? How would civil society be impacted by First Contact? At first there would probably not be much impact at all. The most immediate decisions would be ones of diplomacy. Institutions would have many responsibilities in the response to high-information First Contact.

However, after months or years there may be needs not met by government and religion. Education reform would certainly be a huge need for humanity after high-information First Contact. While secondary schools and universities may tackle some of that reform on their own, there would likely be outside forces calling for change, especially if there is opposition to change from within the academic ranks. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are particularly suited to such debate. They have the ability to tackle ideas that may be unpopular at first. NGOs often have advocacy experience. They can act as intermediaries between society and the government. NGOs may also have to act in an advocacy role when it comes to the changes needed in government.

One would expect that high-information First Contact would provide much information for the public. However, it seems likely government and science institutions would attempt to control that information. While that may actually be a prudent move at first, it would need to be tempered by organizations calling for a more open diffusion of information. Once again, NGOs would be perfect for such a fight. The media may pay attention to such issues at first, but as we all know, the media attention span can be quite short. There may need to be transparency advocacy organizations operating for years after First Contact.

Another issue would be the deepening of the knowledge divide in the world. Some people in our society are already left behind when it comes to computer access and general education. One would imagine that in a high-information First Contact situation this could get worse. We could have a situation where the elite of human society are on a speeding train of change, while the information poor are left sitting at the station. NGOs could have a monitoring and advocacy role in this area.

Social science in many aspects would become important After First Contact. NGOs could have a critical role in monitoring the health of human society and signaling where we may have issues going forward.

This may seem like a rather narrow train of thought, but I think it does speak to a larger issue. We haven’t thought about First Contact in much depth. Most of us still figure that the aliens will land on the White House lawn and say hello (or blow up) the President of the United States. While that may be clearly naïve, the range of impacts to human society has not been well considered. High-information First Contact would have a far-reaching impact. We will need all sectors of society, including civil society, involved in the response.

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Extraterrestrial Contact: The Weight of Our Decisions

The question has to be asked when considering the response to extraterrestrial First Contact. What if we screw it up? That may sound like a worry not worth considering, as First Contact of any sort is hard to predict in terms of how it might happen. I do think it’s a question that will be foremost on the minds of those involved in the event, if it occurs some time in our future. Why? Primarily because high information First Contact would likely have a profound impact on human civilization.

It will also be a situation unlike any we have encountered in human history. That uniqueness presents problems. We can’t do a best practices review of First Contact situations. Well, that’s not entirely true. We could certainly do a review of human to human First Contact in history. The initial meetings between human societies have been well documented. A few of those situations may have turned out okay for the civilization with lesser technology, but as has been pointed out time after time, most of those situations did not turn out well for the technologically weaker civilization. There is a long list of human societies rendered extinct because of First Contact with other humans.

Aliens are unlikely to be like humans and such comparisons only go so far. And that means that we don’t have any roadmap for extraterrestrial First Contact. That makes it a potentially dynamic event and one where we are forced to fly by the seat of our pants, so to speak. If we screw it up- who’s to say what negative impacts there could be for the human race? (not to mention the rest of the Earth and it’s creatures that we usually forget to consider). If we are too open we could unleash biological dangers on Earth. If we are too open we could find ourselves flooded by alien information, causing a tidal wave effect for our scientific and social institutions. If we are hostile we could create conflict. If we are hostile we could cause the aliens to avoid us.

Of course, there is a middle road that could be followed. Staying on the middle road won’t be easy. The whole of humanity would be embroiled in a debate over the response to First Contact. It may be hard to reach consensus. World leaders may be forced to make tough decisions. Two hundred years later humans could point to those decisions and say that the wrong decision was made and that humanity was irrevocably harmed. Just a little pressure.

What can be done? Nothing. A bold and active response will be required in a direct First Contact situation. We must hope that the world leaders making those decisions are thoughtful, careful and have a clear vision for the future of humanity. We don’t want to screw this up. Future generations will be counting on us.

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Extraterrestrial Contact: Scrambling Humans

I bet you thought this blog entry was about aliens making breakfast of humans. Sorry. First Contact with an extraterrestrial civilization would create challenges for institutions and individuals across the world. Academic fields in the physical and social sciences would have new ideas to consider and perhaps entirely new academic areas for study. In the event of a high-information First Contact governments and world bodies would have many considerations. And if the First Contact is direct in nature those considerations could have a high degree of immediacy.

The plain fact is that we’re not ready. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Would we really want to spend time and energy considering something that might never occur and, if it does occur, something that is impossible to predict? We have no idea what aliens we might encounter and what challenges that contact might create. But we don’t need a detailed plan. What’s missing is a framework for diplomacy and interaction in a conversational First Contact event. A framework isn’t the details of response. It’s merely the structure used to support the development of those details.

The true challenge behind First Contact response is that it demands that people think in a way that they have not done before. Many academics and professionals would have to consider their area of expertise in an entirely new light. High information First Contact would also demand that many institutions act in a way they have not done before. There would be a series of new responsibilities created and most likely a heated debate about who should handle those responsibilities. The institutional change would be the toughest. Institutions, such as governments, trade organizations, scientific bodies and NGOs, are built to support specific missions and act in carefully managed areas of interest. First Contact could bring about a power grab as some groups try to dominate the response. It could also cause a finger-pointing effect, where everyone expects the other guy to do it. This is perhaps the most dangerous part of not having a First Contact framework for response. We would be left scrambling and in the process our various conflicts and divisions would come into play. How might we react? We could hope that nations and world leaders could come together with a plan quickly. Some may look to the United States and China to lead the response. The primary group joining nations on Earth and creating a forum for debate is the United Nations. However, even a United Nations response is likely to come under some criticism.

So, should we hope that the aliens just leave us alone? Perhaps. However, I think we would eventually pull together and stage an effective response. If the aliens in question are patient we might have the time needed to build our framework and consider the situation. If the introduction is more demanding in nature we could be in trouble.

It is simply too much to ask for most institutions to consider alien First Contact right now. However, even a basic plan of response by the United Nations would do much to prepare us, if such an event ever occurs. It would also help answer the question of legitimacy in a First Contact event. It’s much easier for the United Nations to claim responsibility for diplomatic duties if they already have a protocol established. They currently have no such plans that have been discussed publicly. Astrophysicists have brought the issue to the attention of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) on several occasions and yet there has been no action taken.

Any aliens planning First Contact should build in a little extra pad. That will give the humans time to run around, trying to figure out what to do next.

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