Extraterrestrial Contact: Elements of an Organized Introduction and Human Response

I’ve proposed various elements of extraterrestrial contact over the years. Perhaps it’s time to combine those elements into one list. This list would apply to dramatic and direct First Contact; that is, contact where an extraterrestrial civilization arrives in our solar system to say hello. I don’t think that this has happened or is likely to happen, but I do think it deserves some consideration. We’ll have to make a couple of big assumptions to get started. The first would be that the aliens in question mean us no ill-will. The second would be that they don’t have any agenda other than saying hello. This would be what I call a “reaction-neutral” introduction, or one that was not designed to provoke a particular response or action on the part of humans. I think this could be best described as a diplomatic or scientific mission. This is a simple scenario and the real thing would likely be more complex. However, these basic actions would still apply to even a more complex situation.

The list begins with alien actions and continues with human actions.

Alien Actions

Introduction: The method of introduction would be critical. To truly be “reaction-neutral” the hello would need to come to all humans and not filtered through a particular government, institution or corporation. There is a multitude of ways this could be carried out. It would seem that some alien consideration of human public relations would be necessary in determining the method.

Allow humans to respond: Once there is an introduction it would be important for extraterrestrials to allow some space for humans to digest this new situation and formulate a response. With any luck, the “reaction-neutral” introduction would not lead to excessive conflict between nations or some sort of hostile reaction.

Communicate with us: Alien communication would depend on their reason for saying hello in the first place. This motive, or more likely complex motives, would likely drive all of their actions. The message communicated to us would have a huge impact on our reaction. Humans will want to know immediately why aliens are saying hello and what expectations those aliens have for a relationship with us. Humans would also need assurances that extraterrestrials would respect our right to determine how contact and diplomacy proceeds and respect our right to autonomy. Extraterrestrials would also need to communicate all physical actions they take on Earth, or in our solar system, well ahead of time, so there is no surprise after the initial introduction event.

Reassure us: As I stated before, human public relations would be important at each step in the alien introduction and eventual diplomatic relations. Primary to this would be issues of public safety and human autonomy. One would hope the extraterrestrials in question had studied us long enough to have a public relations plan that would address these concerns. That plan would need to adapt to changing circumstances on Earth. One could lay out what they might expect from human reaction, but it seems likely unanticipated situations would arise, requiring new public relations efforts. Remember, a public relations effort does not necessarily mean alien spin doctors and salesmanship. At its heart, public relations work is merely a way of communicating with humans to carry out a specific goal. That goal would go back to the alien motives for saying hello.

Move slowly and deliberately: Any action will have the opportunity for confusion and misinterpretation by humans. All alien actions would need to be clearly communicated ahead of time and made as simple as possible to understand, especially in the early days of diplomacy.

Share information in an organized process: If extraterrestrials were more advanced than us in science and technology, there would be a big learning curve if we hoped to understand science and technology from their perspective. This would require some form of education, first for human academics and eventually for the wider population. This would be important for the relationship. It would also be, perhaps, quite difficult to develop. Assuming extraterrestrials had already learned human languages, there would still be issues of biology and culture to overcome. Aliens with a very different biology could have very different senses and thus a unique perspective on the environment and universe. Cultural differences would also likely create a gulf between humans and extraterrestrials. One would hope that extraterrestrials would consider such matters and have a plan of action.

Human Actions

Develop a framework for diplomacy: Humans are not clear about how we think relations with extraterrestrials should proceed. It has been seriously considered by only a small group of academics and writers and there is no consensus. Who should be in charge of diplomacy? Governments, the United Nations or scientific bodies? How do we ensure that all humans are represented and that the form of diplomacy does not allow a particular institution or government to control extraterrestrial relations for their own benefit?

Support transparency:  This is perhaps the most important element of the human response to First Contact. Any attempt to hide such an event from the public eye would create conflict and mistrust, perhaps to a dangerous extent. Transparency goes hand in hand with objectivity (not favoring a particular nation). Not only does the introduction need to be made to the entire planet, but it also needs to stay squarely in the public eye, with all deliberations and decisions, to the extent possible, made public. This could prove tougher and tougher as many serious matters arise, especially in making decisions about information dissemination from the aliens to humans. Clearly, one could not hope to make decisions about what information was safe to release to humanity, while sifting through that information in public. Even for matters that must remain hidden, the entire process could remain transparent.

Move slowly and deliberately: Any alien action will have the opportunity for confusion and misinterpretation. All actions, alien and human, would need to be clearly communicated ahead of time and made as simple as possible to understand, especially in the early days of diplomacy. This applies just as much to humans as it does aliens. The primary risk in human reaction is some wave of panic brought on by confusion or misinterpretation. Human governments and institutions will need to be on guard for such situations. Transparency is the best way to prevent this problem.

Allow for protection: Any type of First Contact would create a feeling of threat, to some degree. Direct First Contact would create a high degree of concern, due to the close proximity of visiting extraterrestrials. It would be natural for human governments to put military units on alert. Caution to some degree is inevitable and probably quite prudent. However, hostile reactions by humans are possible, especially if there is confusion in the process. Extraterrestrials would need to communicate all actions well ahead of time and humans would need to keep tight control over military units monitoring First Contact.

Determine a framework for information sharing: We will need to carefully consider the impact of sharing information with extraterrestrials. If they are advanced in technology this could pose a real problem for our world economy and our sciences. Perhaps this would be a role for scientific bodies representing the primary areas of concern? A panel could study the possible impact and develop a road forward for disseminating alien information.

Watch the world economy: Direct First Contact could create great swings in world economic markets as investors try to determine what extraterrestrial contact means for various industries and businesses. Careful attention to world markets and possible controls for wild fluctuations would be important.

Monitor fringe groups: Human reaction could come in a range of responses, from calm and thoughtful to frightened and violent. It seems likely that large institutions and governments would be more likely to react calmly due to a balanced nature of power sharing and decision making inherent in such entities. Fringe groups are another matter. Due to their small size and tendency towards radical views, they could react in haste. This could be a real problem, especially if fringe group reactions get extensive coverage in the news media. The reaction of small religious and political groups could eventually have an influence on the wider public, creating all sorts of issues for the human response.

Examine the future of our civilization: High information First Contact would have a big impact on our civilization. There would be a great need for an organized and well-developed consideration of that impact. From that effort could develop a plan for moving forward to ensure that human contact with extraterrestrials is beneficial to humans for generations to come.

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Okay space aliens, how about now?

The President of the United States just started his second term. Europe seems to be out of economic critical care. China and Russia face plenty of challenges, but the governments are fairly stable right now. There is no great world disaster in need of immediate attention. In short, Earth is a relatively calm place. So, how about now for First Contact space aliens? If you’re waiting for us to pull our collective human act together, this may be as good as it gets. Sure, Egypt is going to hell and Syria is still a bloody mess. But we can handle it. First Contact would be an incredible distraction for humanity. In a critical moment, such as the Japanese tsunami disaster or the height of the European debt crisis, such distraction could be a real problem. The entire world needed to mobilize to help the Japanese, especially in light of the nuclear crisis. The European Union had to make tough decisions to find a road to economic recovery for Greece, Spain and Italy. You wouldn’t want to make contact during a crisis of such an immediate nature.

I’m not saying that there are any extraterrestrials out there waiting to say hello. Even if there are extraterrestrials in the neighborhood, they may have no interest in making contact with us. But one would imagine that if extraterrestrials were interested in making contact, timing would be everything. If they care about human reaction they would want to plan the big hello very carefully.

This scenario makes a couple of big assumptions. The first assumption is that aliens would care about human reaction to First Contact. The second is our perspective on timing. The extraterrestrial concerns over timing in First Contact could be very different indeed. They might have criteria that would never even occur to us. As usual, we view First Contact through the lens of human perspective. The alien point of view would likely be quite different.

Still, if extraterrestrials were concerned about human reaction, picking a time of relative calm would be a good idea. Dramatic First Contact would be a big shock to our system.  It might be best to approach us when we can best handle it. Better get on it space aliens. Calm is unlikely to last very long on the third rock from the Sun.

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Extraterrestrial Contact: Identity Crisis

There could be plenty of challenges that arise if First Contact with an extraterrestrial civilization occurs some day. Most of those challenges would be created by the nature of contact and the type of intelligent beings that we might encounter. The circumstances are impossible to predict. If First Contact ever does occur it could happen in a million different ways and would most likely surprise us in many respects. We’re imaginative, but not imaginative enough to consider all of the possibilities.

So, that leaves us to one challenge that seems likely in almost any scenario: a human identity crisis. We can’t predict what the aliens might be like, but we know what we are like. Our human frame of reference is based on the current truth: we are alone in the universe. A change in that frame of reference would likely lead to self-examination. We would need to acquire a new perspective. That sounds like a natural process and perhaps it would be. I doubt, and surveys seem to support this, that humans will freak out in the wake of First Contact. It’s the long-term consequences that I think could be most challenging.

The most obvious challenge in perspective would be an inferiority complex. If we meet an alien civilization with technology much more advanced than ours we will, for the first time, face a collective feeling of inferiority. The outcomes of that feeling are hard to predict. It could cause us to become isolationist. Fear would be a big part of that reaction. Inferiority can easily lead to a feeling of vulnerability. That could spur defensive actions. Another scenario is what I call the “star treatment”. In this case we are so in awe of alien technology that we begin to view the extraterrestrial culture as something to aspire to. This could be damaging to our own culture. The worse-case scenario would, over time, lead to a washing away of our scientific institutions. While I think this is a long-shot, I suppose it really depends on the star power of the aliens in question. Just how cool are they and how much do we want to be like them?

Of course, the most notable feature of an alien civilization might not be technology at all, but the cultural aspects of their society. Perhaps they have a religion, or faith of some sort, that we begin to admire? There’s certainly nothing wrong with admiration. However, you would worry about our own religions and faith. Jumping head-long into another civilization’s culture would seem a mistake at any level and in any manner.

It comes down to one important challenge: we will need to hold onto our culture and ways of thinking, while expanding our knowledge. We need to protect ourselves and still learn about the new civilization. We need to find out what they have determined about the universe and share what we have learned. This won’t be easy. We may have to institute something that the French have had for years- actual institutional actions to try and safeguard french culture. It seems a bit silly to us Americans at times, but it makes sense. In a world dominated by American culture in the media, the French are bombarded with an American perspective. They have fought to protect their language and culture. The same is true of the Canadians. Efforts to promote Canadian filmmaking and music go as far as to require a percentage of homegrown movies and music on television and the radio. An Earth-wide effort might be necessary in the wake of First Contact.

Why do we need to worry about this now? There is certainly no reason to worry. First Contact could be decades or centuries away. However, it seems prudent to consider the possibilities and ask some serious questions. What will we do when our perspective changes forever?

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Extraterrestrial Contact: Embracing the Weird

You could call it the ultimate exercise in diversity acceptance. If we have trouble understanding and accepting other races and cultures here on Earth, how would we handle extraterrestrial First Contact? Perhaps the most important step would be overcoming our expectations.

We have spent most of human history trying to conquer our surroundings. We seek to control our environment through agriculture, technology and science. We have expectations of how living creatures should live and sometimes its well apart from what nature has designed. There was an interesting article in the New Yorker recently by Elizabeth Kolbert called “Recallof the Wild”. She describes a nature preserve in the Netherlands that seeks to recreate a paleolithic ecosystem. As Kolbert describes it’s just the latest attempt at “rewilding”. Now, clearly this project shows human attempts to control and shape the environment. It also provides a flip-side to that idea. The ecologist largely responsible for the Oostvaarderolassen, as the preserve is called, has attempted to introduce species similar to those that would have been found in a Paleolithic ecosystem in that area of Europe. The idea is to let the introduced animals reproduce and settle in the nature preserve without much interference from humans. That has lead to die-offs, especially in the winter. Kolbert describes Dutch TV stations showing video of animals starving to death. It’s part of the natural process but one that humans find it hard to accept. There was outrage among many in the Netherlands. One could argue that a man-made ecosystem should have man-made controls to help prevent such harsh natural die-offs.  They have suggested her culling by shooting animals unlikely to make it through the winter. However, the entire debate shows our attempt to humanize nature. Humans like to see nature as a pastoral setting. We want to see the abundance of biological diversity, but we want it to behave as we think it should. Natural behaviors and outcomes can be brutal and sad from our perspective. We can’t truly accept that the natural system works that way. We even call nature “Mother Nature” in an attempt to anthropomorphize the natural environment.

So, what would we do if we were to meet aliens some day? It seems likely that we would make judgments about their appearance, actions and society based on our human characteristics. That makes sense- we have no other lens to consider extraterrestrial intelligence. However, that lens could also be problematic. If we have trouble accepting the brutal side of our own natural environment, how would we accept beings from a vastly different environment? Would we think less of them because they had characteristics that we consider unacceptable?

Extraterrestrial contact with intelligent beings would require a great deal of diversity understanding. We would need to set aside our human expectations and learn about aliens in an objective way. This may be fine for the academic community, which is used to considering challenging ideas as part of the job. For other humans it could be quite tough. The appearance, culture and actions of aliens could be off-putting. That could lead to public resistance to diplomatic relations.

A certain amount of caution from the public is to be expected and would be quite healthy. The last thing we would want to do is consider aliens to be better than us and seek to transform ourselves to better fit their way of being. There has to be a middle ground of learning and understanding, while also protecting who we are and what we hold important in our civilization. It will be up to world leaders, academics and scientists to establish this path and help the human race stay on course. There may be Oostvaarderolassen moments when it comes to what we learn about extraterrestrials. It’s critical that we keep learning and don’t let our human perspective get in the way.

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Extraterrestrial Contact: The Giggle Factor

This blog occupies a small slice of territory in the consideration of extraterrestrial intelligence. I don’t believe in alien conspiracies or that First Contact has already occurred. I do believe that First Contact is a distinct possibility in the future, in one form or another, and that we should have a sober and wide-reaching conversation about how it would impact humans and our civilization. This isn’t an easy conversation. I alienate (no pun intended) those who believe in extraterrestrial conspiracies. Folks on the other end of the spectrum think that consideration of extraterrestrial intelligence is a silly waste of time. They may very well be right. If there are no alien civilizations out there for us to contact, this is simply an amusing train of thought. However, if we do ever make First Contact our lack of serious consideration and preparation will be a major problem. So, a little proactive conversation on the subject seems worthwhile.

This “giggle factor” in the consideration of extraterrestrial intelligence was brought up by Dr. Mazlan Othman, the astrophysicist who directs the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA). She is well acquainted with the “giggle factor”. A few years ago Othman prepared a paper for the Royal Society in London. The Royal Society is one of a few respected scientific bodies to take up the issue of extraterrestrial intelligence (the International Astronomical Union is another key supporter). The media got wind of the Othman paper, which proposed planning in the United Nations for extraterrestrial contact. The media twisted it around and the headline became a United Nations director announces herself to be the primary diplomatic contact for extraterrestrials. The coverage was harsh. Dr. Othman immediately backed away from the insinuations. If you read her paper there is no such proposal, it is merely a call for serious consideration of extraterrestrial contact at the international level.

The media had great fun with the story. A few months later the UN attempted to repair the damage by posting a thoughtful and interesting interview with Othman in the United Nations News Centre. Dr. Othman brings up an interesting point:

“…extraterrestrial life must take root as a scientific discussion. Once it takes root and people throw away the idea of it being frivolous or the work of charlatans, people will start seeing it for what it really is.”

This has been the work of the SETI Institute for many years now. Jill Tarter and Seth Shostak have championed a scientific, research based, approach in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. They have worked hard to make SETI part of the astrophysics community. That means distancing themselves from the conspiracy theorists and UFO buffs. The approach makes sense. But one wonders how long it might take. First Contact may be decades or even hundreds of years off. It could also occur tomorrow. Our lack of serious consideration leaves us ill-prepared to handle such an occurrence. There is not even agreement on what group might lead such a diplomatic effort.

We waste so much time and energy on the frivolous in our society that calling the consideration of extraterrestrial contact a folly is ridiculous. Let us spend one percent of the time, energy and money that we spend talking about Justin Bieber and the Kardashians. That alone would give us a solid foundation to move forward. 

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