Extraterrestrial Contact: Human Exceptionalism

First contact with an extraterrestrial civilization raises a few questions about how we perceive ourselves as humans. Where goes anthropocentrism in the wake of extraterrestrial contact? Are we forced to challenge our belief that humans are superior to other creatures on Earth? How about our role in the wider universe?

Anthropocentrism is another way of expressing the idea of exceptionalism. Exceptionalism is most often used these days in the American context. American politicians refer to exceptionalism as a way to show the American government and society as unique in history and something that other nations should aspire too. Most recently, Vladimir Putin criticized the concept of national exceptionalism in an op-ed in the New York Times, in reference to planned American actions in Syria.

Human exceptionalism is understandable. Currently we stand along in the universe, at least from our perspective. We dominate our planet in many ways. We could, and often do, change the environment to suit our wishes. If this has a detrimental impact on other species- oh, well, sorry, human needs come first. There has been a backlash against such thinking. The discovery of a rare spider in Texas recently caused a $15 million highway project to come to a screeching stop. Environmentalists across the globe are engaged in battles to protect the habitats of other creatures. But if First Contact with an alien civilization ever did occur would we be inviting dolphins or whales to share in the experience? Would we bother to consult dogs? Laugh if you want, it’s our anthropocentrism that drives the humor. Aliens wouldn’t necessarily think the same way. They might not care about dogs or dolphins or they could care very much, even taking the time to learn how to properly communicate with such creatures. 

It seems to me, though, that the biggest question of human exceptionalism in the wake of high information First Contact is how we will react. We can lord over cats and chimpanzees, but how about intelligent aliens? If they could reach us, or communicate with us, they would likely be quite intelligent, perhaps much more so than us. If that’s the case, where goes human exceptionalism? Into the waste basket?

And perhaps that’s a concern for life forms considering a visit to Earth. Will humans be threatened by visitors and react with violence? It seems unlikely, but we have lots and lots of weapons. Anything could happen if we’re scared enough.

This larger existential question is what interests me. Who will we be, in our own minds, when we discover that there is at least one other intelligent civilization out there? How will we place ourselves in this new understanding of our universe? I think in some respects we might be better off if it was revealed that there are dozens of civilizations out there. At least in that case we would not automatically compare ourselves solely with our new visitors. It might be easier being just another fish in the pond, than an inferior fish to the only other fish in the known pond.

There is also the question of how aliens would view human exceptionalism. We may very well hold our views even after other intelligent civilizations are revealed. We could feel that the human way of life is superior to the way of living for other intelligent beings. After all, many Americans consider their country exceptional and there are plenty of other countries on planet Earth. What ramifications would such a thing have on a long term relationship with extraterrestrials? Would aliens consider that way of thinking a threat? And then there is the flipside- alien exceptionalism. Would they feel superior to us? Would they expect us to take on their characteristics? That could be an extremely disturbing turn of events.

Most people would not worry about such things in the wake of First Contact, and certainly not in the immediate, heady days of discovery. However, I do think it’s an important topic for social scientists to consider, as it could have profound implications for our long-term human development After First Contact.

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Extraterrestrial Contact: The Challenge for Humanity

First Contact with an extraterrestrial civilization would be a major historical event and perhaps, depending on our level of interaction with aliens, a catalyst for paradigm shifts and revolutions across the spectrum of human sciences. There is no doubt that, in some degree, there would be a change in human perspective as a result of evidence that we are not alone. Once again, that degree would depend on the level of interaction with aliens and the type of information we receive. If it’s the discovery of a mysterious, far-off signal, First Contact would have less of an impact on human perspective than if we can actually converse in some way with aliens.

But those are the merely the passive results of First Contact, the things that will change due to the nature of the information we receive. What about the active endeavors? One could argue that changes in science are not passive, in that they require a great deal of work on the part of researchers and academics. My point is that reactions in science would be reactions to new information. We would not necessarily be actively using the situation to change things in our society. The information we receive about aliens would undoubtedly change us, but we won’t necessarily control the change.

Controlling the change is essential. The change will help to decide the path for human development for generations to come. If we merely react to the information we are given, we are not controlling the change. Humanity needs to see First Contact, in any form it might take, as a challenge that requires a much broader response and a response that would take well-considered, proactive measures. We would need to perceive First Contact not as something that is happening to us, but something that has happened, and that in turn we are determining our course of action. It‘s a big difference.

First Contact provides possibility for the human race. It will give us a new perspective on our role in the universe. It can also be a catalyst for change in the human civilization. If we truly embrace the greater challenge, we could see First Contact as a call for a larger discussion of what we want for human civilization, in both the short-term and long-term. What kinds of things should be discussed? Clearly, First Contact would require us to immediately consider the nature of our world organizations- how nations interact and how we will make decisions as a civilization. International relations are, at best, rather muddled currently. If we find out that alien civilizations exist, the need for some new form of organized discourse between nations, and ultimately better methods of determining action, will be immediate. Other changes could include better economic cooperation, global intervention in developing conflicts and global support of human rights. In the wake of First Contact, humanity will have the opportunity to finally take these issues seriously, on an international level, above and beyond what is happening today in the United Nations and with international diplomacy. First Contact could provide an impetus to action on a new level.

Does First Contact necessarily mean humans will rethink national interactions and come up with solutions to world problems? Of course not- we could easily dissolve into disputes between nations under the pressure of First Contact. It will take hard work and determination to make substantive changes. First Contact would be an opportunity for an evaluation of our civilization. It is an exciting opportunity to chart the course for generations to come. And perhaps we shouldn’t wait around for aliens. Whether anyone else is out there or not, we are one planet, one people- citizens of the universe.

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Extraterrestrial Contact: Placing My Bet

Why do I waste my time contemplating extraterrestrial First Contact? There is no evidence that intelligent aliens exist. We may not have the proper technology to discover them ourselves. It could be decades, if not centuries, before First Contact occurs, if it ever does at all. Aliens could be so far away in the universe that we may never even know they are there, let alone make contact. Pretty depressing.

My thought is this: why not bet on the long shot? The odds are long; incredibly long in this case, but the importance of the race cannot be understated. Direct Contact with intelligent aliens would change our civilization. Even long-term, far-away contact would change our perspective on the wider universe and our own society. In a way, it’s a reverse payout. If First Contact does occur, instead of there being some big prize for humanity there may be incredible challenges. So, to not bet on the long shot, to not prepare for the long shot, opens us up to danger. The lack of consideration and planning for this subject is a real problem. If First Contact were to happen, human society would not have a response. Hopefully, it will take years for us to transmit back and forth with aliens, due to the distances between star systems. That would provide plenty of time for the inevitable discussion, debate and action to take place. But what if it is Direct First Contact, where aliens visit our solar system to say hello? Such an event would leave us no time for planning and little time to take action.

The big problem with considerations of extraterrestrial First Contact is that everything is speculation. If it’s impossible to define what might happen, how do you prepare for it? I would agree. Trying to plan details for a First Contact response would be a waste of time. Our conjecture would likely be wrong and thus a detailed plan not of much use. However, we could have a general plan that answers a few important questions. First, who will represent Earth if we make First Contact? I’m not talking about one person, but rather a group. Which group will lead contact messaging? While scientists would be the ones setting up the transmission it would seem logical that people who are trained in diplomacy should decide the message, with plenty of input from governments across the planet. Hmmmm… that sounds like the United Nations. Indeed, SETI scientists have tried for many years now to have the United Nations take First Contact seriously. Unfortunately, that has not happened. So, there is a first step that could help in just about any First Contact scenario. Perhaps the United Nations could allow the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space to take up the issue and develop some basic protocol.

What would be the reaction to such planning? Undoubtedly there would be snickering in the media, and as UN officials probably fear, ridicule of the UN and its mission. From the UN perspective reputation is everything. And if you’re trying to handle civil war in Syria, prevent starvation in Africa and join nations together in environmental causes, why would you jeopardize your reputation for something that may never occur? It’s a very practical point of view. And in a sense, it’s just another bet. The UN folks are betting that First Contact will not occur and putting their entire wager on our current human challenges.

I get this. I even understand the snickering of the media. We haven’t taken issues of extraterrestrial intelligence seriously in our popular culture. What makes us think that we will take it seriously in the realm of international relations? Action by the UN will take guts and determination. It will take courage and vision.

So, why do I waste my time on what some might call a childish pursuit? Well, I actually agree that it is a childish pursuit. What child doesn’t wonder, at some point or another, about what might be out there in the universe? Those people often grow up to be astrophysicists or science fiction writers. We can’t lose the childish wonder that fuels our passion to discover new things. I’ll keep embracing that wonder as I continue writing for this blog. It’s a high stakes race, if the race is ever run. I’ll keep betting on the long shot and perhaps someday the UN and governments may put down their own small wager as well.

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Extraterrestrial Contact: Would machines be inherently more adaptive?

If an extraterrestrial civilization designed intelligent machines to roam the universe those machines would likely have an important characteristic: the ability to adapt. Learning is part of intelligence. The ability to adapt would be combined with the learning process for active endeavors to overcome challenges and respond to new problems as they occur.

Machine extraterrestrial intelligence is a topic worth pursuing.  Considering that humans send probes into space to explore, it seems possible that extraterrestrial civilizations might do the same. Paul Davies and Seth Shostak have talked about this idea for years now.

There would be possible benefits and many issues in such an extraterrestrial First Contact.

What would the adaptability of intelligent machines mean for us? It could take away many of the barriers in terms of communication and cultural understanding if extraterrestrial machines were to visit our solar system. Why? If they wished to make contact, they would learn and adapt to do so. An intelligent machine wanting to make contact would likely spend some time learning about us- our languages, our cultures and our technology. This would make sense for any intelligent extraterrestrial visitor. It’s probably what we would do if we discovered an extraterrestrial civilization in our travels. There would not be much to gain by charging in without knowing languages or understanding the cultures of the beings on the planet you wished to contact. Alien machines would want to learn human languages, they would be interested in how we might react and, perhaps most importantly, they would have a game plan, a process for undertaking an introduction.

Could alien machines be better able to adapt than biological visitors? They probably wouldn’t be hung up with the prejudice of biology and culture, perhaps making them less judgmental and more open to other ways of being. However, their programming and base intelligence would probably be very different from ours. Sorting that out could be difficult for us. Also, our conception of machine intelligence might be very different from the type of advanced technology we might encounter. Our machines serve us. Alien machines could be self aware and have their own agenda, different over time even from their creators.

There is certainly plenty of fun science fiction on this topic. And all of this imaginative speculation would have positive and negative impacts if a real situation was to develop some day. There could be fear of machines on our part, thanks to the Terminator movies, the TV show Battlestar Galactica and other popular fiction that features computers taking over the world. This alone would force adaptive alien machines to consider human public relations and carefully study how we interact and how we would best respond.

It all comes back to motives. Intelligent machines, just like biological extraterrestrials, would have a reason for coming to our solar system. Perhaps they are designed to explore, much like our probes? Perhaps they are designed to make contact? We could hope that would be the case, because then the need to understand human culture could be built into the machine programming. Any help we could get in First Contact would be a good thing. If the machines were not designed to adapt or even care about human interaction it could be a mysterious alien encounter that we would never fully understand. And that could be the most frustrating scenario of all.

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Extraterrestrial Contact: Post it on You Tube?

I thank the readers of this blog for providing great insight over the years. There are not many of you out there, but those who are reading tend to have thoughtful and well-considered ideas about the aspects of alien First Contact that are rarely discussed.

Mark from Australia had an interesting thought about the use of social media in a First Contact scenario. I have proposed using the traditional media to bypass national governments, allowing extraterrestrials to reach all humans at once and perhaps start a process of diplomacy with the United Nations. Mark wonders if some sort of landing, and the resulting video sharing, pictures and social media posts it would produce, could mean that the aliens wouldn’t even have to worry about the traditional media.

The idea of social media or internet contact of some kind is interesting. I suppose it really comes down to a matter of control. Aliens may not care how we react. They may not have a specific agenda that requires a certain response from us. If so, merely sending a signal from outer space in the areas we are currently searching would be the easiest method of contact. However, if aliens did want a specific reaction they would want to carefully control the process. I know that sounds a bit devious, and it certainly could be, but controlling the process isn't devious, in and of itself. It's something those of us in the PR profession do all of the time. We control not only the message, but also the way in which the message is delivered, in order to achieve the reaction and response we hope for. The traditional media is easy to understand, because they have set patterns of behavior. The same could be said of law enforcement and military personnel. If you have a good idea of how these groups might react you can design the process to get the response that you want. That's why my main character Alex, in my novel the “Ashland City Landing”, chooses a public landing designed specifically for the media response. The reason is simple: to bypass individual national governments and get straight to the United Nations.

Let’s get back to social media possibilities. Aliens might want to issue a message to the entire human race, without going to the trouble or taking the risk of appearing in person. If so, they could start out with a signal from space, for scientists to “discover” and then follow up with a You Tube video greeting for the human public. It would be impossible for any government to block such a message and it would be taken seriously if the signal that had already be sent through space was confirmed by scientists as being outside of possible human creation. In First Contact, disproving the hoax will be the primary issue. There is so much crazy material on the internet currently, there would have to be some clear and verifiable evidence that messages were coming from extraterrestrials and not human jokesters. This is no small matter and devising the method of evidence would be critical to any First Contact scenario in which the aliens are making contact with us.

Putting a video on You Tube or staging a landing event for humans to disseminate via social media could work, but it would be highly problematic, given the vast number of hoax messages and scams on the internet. One of the currently hot social media news sites is Reddit. In the case of first contact one could expect many posts on Reddit and in a time frame quicker than the traditional media. That might be fine for video of an alien craft or news of some sort of landing, but what can it really do beyond that? Sites like Reddit have no safeguards for accuracy. The New York Times Magazine recently examined how Reddit posts propagated false suspect rumors in the Boston Marathon case.

So, in short, yes, social media could certainly be used for First Contact. But the use of social media has many negatives. The primary weakness would be lack of control. You can hope that certain actions will happen with social media, but those actions are not nearly as predictable as events tied to the traditional media, especially television news media in the United States. In the end, predictability is your friend if you wish to make contact with humans. It allows you to plan a series of events and have a reasonable expectation that they will occur in that fashion.

There is also the overall issue of authority. The traditional news media, scientists and law enforcement hold positions of authority in our society. When those institutions talk, people listen. Social media does not have that kind of clout, just due to its populist nature. I would imagine that even respected scientists would be less likely to announce First Contact in a Tweet or Facebook post, than they would in a news conference on TV. And certainly material posted on sites like Reddit would be viewed with a critical eye, with preference given to those sources that hold traditional authority. Our old institutions still have great power in our society, even if that power is changing as the internet grows in new ways.

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