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.

The Individual versus the Collective After First Contact

We humans grow closer by the minute thanks to technology. The ability to tweet a message in Egypt and read it instantly in Detroit may be routine, but it can be seen as the development of humans from the individual to the collective. The question to ponder: are we part of an inevitable move toward a collective consciousness? What might that mean for First Contact with an extraterrestrial civilization?

Let’s start with the technology. The trend of interconnectedness between humans took off with the invention of the printing press, continued with the invention of the telegraph and telephone, moved forward with the formation of the mass media and has blossomed with the development of the Internet. What does all this mean for humans? Adam Gopnik has an interesting take on the matter in a recent New Yorker magazine review of books. The article focuses on the Internet as part of a larger cultural shift. Gopnik points to recent works by Andy Clark, “Supersizing the Mind”, and Robert K. Logan “The Sixth Language.” Their claim is that our technology is not only changing the way we think, but is rapidly becoming part of how we think. One of the more provocative lines by Gopnik:

“…the Internet produces the global psyche: everyone keyed in like a neuron, so that to the eyes of a watching Martian we are really part of a single planetary brain.”

The idea of a single planetary brain is a believable concept given the rise of smart phones. We are joined into the global information network by a device in our pocket. As smart phones decrease in cost and increase in number it seems likely they will become the norm. Great numbers of us will be joined together pocket to pocket. At what point do we decide that the clumsy little boxes get in the way, and we seek out brain interfaces for smart devices in our head?

Michael Chorost understands the concept perhaps better than most. He already has a chip installed in his head: the engine that runs his cochlear hearing implant. It’s a personal perspective on the larger issue of collective consciousness that is the topic of his new book “World Wide Mind.”

“If human minds could work directly with the Internet, two grand unifications would happen at once,” Chorost said. “First, humans would become more closely connected with each other…we would have entirely new ways to sense each other’s presence, moods and needs. A person with a suitably wired brain could be aware of other people as if they were part of her own body, the same way she knows where her own fingers are. Second, humanity and its tool, the Internet, would become a single organism with entirely new powers. Not just a mere hybrid, but a new species in its own right.”

What Chorost proposes is a profound change in humanity and perhaps one that could help us understand an extraterrestrial civilization. It is, of course, dependent on the nature of extraterrestrials, if they exist at all. Is collectivism a natural part of the development of intelligent beings? Would an extraterrestrial society, many years advanced from us in technology, be more collective and less driven by the individual?

It’s an important question, because it could determine how the relationship between an extraterrestrial civilization and humans would progress. If they are very different from us, perhaps not recognizing the individual at all, it may be tough for us to relate to them.

That essential difference could produce fear here on Earth and create a bitter debate. We are currently a society that celebrates the individual, while forming the collective frameworks necessary to survive and grow. There is already a growing battle between the individual and the collective that can be witnessed in U.S. politics. One could argue that democrat and republican differences come down to a question of the self versus the collective. Conservatives want less government and more individual control. Liberals want stronger government and a collective benefit. I know this is an extremely simplistic view of the much larger political debate, but it does hold some indication of how the future might go After First Contact. If an extraterrestrial civilization was collective in nature there could be significant dissent from human individualists. It might even impact the nature of our relationship with such a civilization. The individualists would argue that interaction with alien collectivists could turn humans into bee-hive like creatures, and thus away from our very humanity. It seems likely that no matter what the differences between us and them, those differences are likely to be of great concern to many on the planet, and perhaps rightfully so. Preserving who we are as humans would be of considerable importance After First Contact, especially if our new friends are much more technologically and socially advanced. The pressure to follow in alien footsteps and take on their characteristics could be immense.

Much of human development is currently driven by individual acts of genius and then a corresponding response within the framework of society. Facebook was created by one bright guy in a Harvard dorm room. But Facebook grows today thanks to the thousands of Facebook employees working together.  Facebook became what it is because of the millions of relationships that join human beings together: family, friends, co-workers and hobbyists. Are we prepared to give up that individual, spark producing, genius? Could the movement toward a collective consciousness actually impede our development? Perhaps there is a natural progression of individual led achievement building to a more collective model, with increasing technology and the rise of artificial intelligence?

What we are becoming here on Earth could be of great interest to the visiting extraterrestrial. Are we developing the types of tools that will allow us to better understand who they are, and our place in the wider universe? Our fragile state of affairs, both socially and politically, might also be of interest. Are we really ready to cope with the impact of First Contact and the question of what we might become After First Contact?

The After First Contact To-Do List

For the sake of argument let’s set up a First Contact scenario. It goes like this: Through one method or another we are contacted by, or perhaps manage to contact ourselves, an extraterrestrial civilization. We have a conversation that occurs without a great lapse of time in between comments (and I know this is unlikely given our current understanding of physics, unless they are in the neighborhood). The extraterrestrial civilization is willing to share what it has learned about science, life and the universe. They are advanced enough, and different enough, for us to acquire some revolutionary new ideas and perspectives.

How might such a thing change who we are as human beings?

What might we have to do as individuals to handle the challenges that such a relationship would create?

How we could change as human beings is a tough one to consider, primarily because we are dealing entirely in speculation. If we don’t know what types of things we might learn, or what would happen in this new relationship, how could we possibly consider how that information, or the situation, might change us?

The actions we would need to take in responding to the situation are a bit more specific. We have no idea what we might learn from an extraterrestrial civilization, but we can imagine what types of choices and decisions we would have to make After First Contact. Here are a few:

-We would need to allow for world representation on a scale not experienced thus far. A relationship with an extraterrestrial civilization requires that we hold the resulting conversation as one planet. Think about what that really means: We would have to be joined together with one voice, something that has never occurred in human history. Okay, so you point to the United Nations. Does the United Nations currently represent the entire planet, or is it rather a meeting place for discussions involving many countries on the planet? The United Nations is a body of nations. It is not a singular voice or the sole representation for the planet. In a First Contact event the United Nations would have to act as the primary representation for planet Earth. Humans would need to view the United Nations in an entirely new light. There would likely be many people not happy with such a situation. The resulting unrest could be significant.

-We would be forced to confront our religious beliefs and find a new perspective for old faiths. Recent surveys have shown that a majority of people are comfortable with incorporating the concept of extraterrestrials into their religion. However, like all things speculative, what people say now in a pure environment of thought, could be quite different from the reaction to something real and present. It would seem likely that there would be many people, especially those with strong or extremist religious views, who would not accept the concept of extraterrestrial life so easily, let alone approve of a human relationship with an extraterrestrial civilization.

-We would have to learn many new things. Information shared with us, of any sort, would have a dramatic impact on specific fields and the many subsets throughout human civilization that operate in those arenas. Let’s take physics as an example. We would assume that academics and researchers would have quite a bit of work to do in processing any alien knowledge in regards to physics. But what about the multitude of private companies that are science based? Revelations in physics would create a tidal wave of impact, first through the sciences, then into private industry and further out into the rest of society. Perhaps the impact, much like a wave, would not be as great for those further out from the primary field of academic and research physics, but it would be profound enough to change how millions of people do their jobs. Learning would take on a much greater importance. Those who could not keep up with the change would be left behind professionally. Professors would not be able to rely on well-worn lectures. Researchers in private industry would search for ways the new alien information could be exploited. On the flip side, those same companies would also be extremely worried about what the competition might be doing with that information. This could create a volatile environment for higher education, research and private industry.

-We would need to overcome fear. This could be the big one. We have worked ourselves into a near-frenzy of mass market movie fiction about aliens marauding across the planet or secretly manipulating us behind the scenes. The number of movies and TV shows with such plots is growing. We have told ourselves too many scary stories. There will be fear inherent in any First Contact scenario. The level of fear would probably depend on the amount of interaction we have with extraterrestrials, and of course the physical ability, if any, that they would have to actually travel to Earth. Direct First Contact, an extraterrestrial civilization arriving in person or via mechanical emissaries, would create the greatest fear, because it would have the greatest risk.

-We would need to learn how to maintain a balance between our old world and the dramatic new universe. Most things on Earth would not change after First Contact of any type, even the most dramatic. We would still need to go to work, feed the family, participate in human social occasions and even mow the lawn. The basic elements of our lives would stay the same. On the other hand, for some people their entire profession, or religious faith, or world perspective, could undergo dramatic change. Keeping a balance between the old world and the new world could be a major challenge. Once again, the level of impact would depend on the type of First Contact. The higher the degree of interaction, and the more information shared, the higher the possibility of significant disruption in the lives of humans. The order that we keep each day, by going to work and cooking dinner for the family, is how society maintains itself. The commonplace is the bedrock of humanity, allowing us to function as a civilization. It will be important for people to maintain the commonplace while dealing with the extraordinary.

Are we up to the task? I think humans are incredibly resilient and manage to respond well to challenges. If we can survive World War Two, the nuclear arms race and ravaging global diseases, it seems likely we could survive, and perhaps thrive, After First Contact. The key will be human leadership. Are our leaders up to the task?

Stuff We Could Throw Out to Make Room for a First Contact Discussion

Just one question this Monday morning: why are the aliens always in such a bad mood? Now, they're invading Los Angeles and apparently, at least according to the latest box office reports, people are loving Hollywood's latest explosion-happy alien slug fest "Battle: Los Angeles."

This blog focuses on the impact of extraterrestrial First Contact on the human civilization. People will point out that we have not yet met any extraterrestrials and there is no evidence that there are any extraterrestrial civilizations out there. Agreed. Many astrophysicists have also pointed out that given the size of the universe that doesn’t mean they are not out there. It’s far too early, given our relatively brief examination of the universe, to make that determination.

So, if we can agree that there is a possibility, no matter how slight, then why wouldn’t we take just a few moments of time to consider how we might handle such an encounter?  The usual argument goes: we have far more pressing matters here on Earth. That is certainly true. Natural disaster, disease, malnutrition, warfare, corruption and cultural and racial intolerance are much more important topics. However, I do believe we can carve out some room for the discussion of First Contact issues by throwing the following topics out of our collective discourse:

-Lindsay Lohan

-The British Royals

-Justin Bieber

-Celebrity marriages

-Diet trends

-All comments about granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances on HGTV

See, we’ve already freed up enough media time and energy to have a rather substantial conversation about the impact of space aliens on human civilization. And you know what? It didn’t hurt at all.

The Dichotomy of Information After First Contact

The future of humanity could be exemplified by the ability of a Chinese teenager to watch a video by the Korean pop musician Super Junior. Why Super Junior? I had never even heard of the fellow until I started to Google music banned in China. The Chinese government has a tradition of using firewalls to block access to banned websites and reportedly employs thousands to police websites in the country. Apparently, they have issues with Super Junior. Music, web sites and specifically any protest oriented material is routinely blocked in China. It’s a battle being waged across the globe. Egypt shut down the Internet for several days in an attempt to quash the protest movement. Clearly, the Egyptian situation was a victory for freedom of information. The situation in China will be a major issue in years to come.

In the United States it’s another form of control. Corporations would like to decide how we use the Internet, primarily to determine how we receive advertising, as those channels become increasingly more “interactive”, which in reality means that they want to target advertising without you knowing it. The near future will bring ads to your television determined and targeted especially for you based on that last Internet search. I’m not sure how they will keep the search terms “Britney Spears Nude” from influencing the ads shown in a Disney show now being watch by the kids, but dads everywhere should be very afraid. I know, this is nothing new; Internet freedom activists have been bemoaning attempts to control the web for years. And you know what? They’re right. The future of humanity, both in technological and social aspects, depends on free access to information and the freedom to share ideas.

It’s not a simple debate of democracy versus totalitarian rule. This goes beyond the political labels and goes straight to the heart of human development. We need ideas and we need to be able to share those ideas with others. We live in a technological era where much of the collective knowledge of the planet can be accessed by a $100 device in your pocket. The imperatives of that technology say that information should flow freely and new ideas should be allowed to blossom. Then, instead of some authority figure determining whether an idea is worthwhile, the entire planet can chime in.

Transparency is what happens when information flows freely. Transparency is a level of honesty that seldom occurs between a government and its people. It says that the actions of that government can be viewed and dissected by the general public. It goes well beyond the old fourth estate and far beyond any level of honesty we experience here in the United States. I have concerns about the personal motives of Julian Assange, but I can appreciate what Wikileaks supporters are saying. Secrecy inevitably gives someone power over a particular situation and that power breeds corruption. It only serves to help prop up a government or institution, it does very little to help people.

What does this have to do with alien First Contact? Unfortunately, it’s the centerpiece of a debate that I imagine would rage After First Contact. I have advocated for some time now for having a carefully controlled flow of information and an established framework for disseminating alien knowledge After First Contact, if ,of course, the aliens are willing to share. That means setting up a system of filters and controls. Groups of people, probably best led by the scientific bodies that represent scientific fields, would have to decide what information is to be released and how it is released. The goal is to prevent a meltdown of the human system of science. A tidal wave of new information could have a profound impact on many scientific fields and spoon fed knowledge, coming from an alien source, could do real damage to the human research and scientific process. The business world could also be turned on its ear. Dramatic technological revolutions could cause major shifts in the economy. All of this would probably occur After First Contact, with or without tight control of information. The filters and framework would only serve to lessen the severity of the impact and slow the speed of change.

Why can’t we know everything there is to know about the extraterrestrials? Why can’t they just lay out their scientific knowledge and let us decide what to do from there?  Why should certain people control the information that comes as a result of First Contact? Those will be among the arguments made by many people After First Contact, and probably most notably freedom of information advocates. And you know what? Those protesters will have valid concerns, and so will the people in charge of regulating that flow of information. Information does demand to be free and technology makes that a strong imperative. However, the protection of our human society requires us to prepare for that new alien information, building a framework for dispersal that protects our scientific and cultural institutions from washing away in a deluge of new ideas. After First Contact, if it is a highly interactive First Contact, this will be the dichotomy that will test human civilization.

I don’t see many easy answers. Perhaps, the only simple way out is to take matters out of our hands. We could hope that visiting extraterrestrials would be just as concerned. The information would be ultimately controlled by them- to give to us or to keep to themselves. They could control the flow and they could decide what content should be included. This seems like a rather paternal role to wish on visitors, but it may be the best way possible. Humans must fight for transparency and freedom of information. They must also be very worried about the impact of thousands of years of alien thought on our tender and rather fragile human civilization.

I realize that this discussion seems rather esoteric given the fact that there is no evidence at all that extraterrestrial civilizations are out there. But imagine the consequences if we do make contact? There could be no greater concern and we have done little to prepare. Perhaps, it’s worth just a brief moment of thought?

When Will the Space Aliens Get Here?

It crops up every few years: a pronouncement by some fringe group that extraterrestrials will be arriving at a specific date and time. They rarely give out the location. That’s usually reserved information for members of the club. That club is often a cult and those cults do some really weird things. We can make fun of them, but in reality it’s a question that many people ponder and I would have to admit that I wonder about it, as well.

First Contact with an extraterrestrial civilization will most likely come from the hard work of the SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) scientists who use technology and research to examine the universe for that one signal that defies natural explanation. A tip of the hat for their rational and well-considered process; I wish we could do a better job supporting them with federal funding. However, I, being neither a scientist or nearly as rational, enjoy speculating about the other end of the First Contact spectrum: Direct First Contact. Specifically, I’ve been discussing how humanity might react to Direct First Contact (the space aliens land on Earth and say hello) and the implications of such an event.

Our current understanding of physics would make Direct First Contact a highly unlikely event, due to the length of time it would take an extraterrestrial ship to travel to Earth, and the huge amounts of energy that would be expended to do such. Still, I think it's safe to say there are probably many things about the physical world that we have yet to fully understand and the possibility, however remote, is there.

So, let’s take up the topic of when the aliens might arrive to say hello, from their perspective. I know, I know…stop yelling, we have no idea what their perspective might be, and it is entirely possible that even after meeting extraterrestrials we’ll still have a tough time understanding their motivations. I do think there are a couple of things we can agree on:

-If they decide to make Direct First Contact this will mean they are interested in forming a relationship of some sort.

-The type of relationship would depend on their motivation for saying hello.

-They could be aggressive, they could be manipulative, they could be paternal, and they could be indifferent. They may have some other underlying motivation that doesn’t involve us much at all.

-If they do make contact, human reaction will be a concern for them. Whether it is blasting them with nuclear warheads, or humans running willy-nilly in the streets, chances are the extraterrestrial visitors would have a vested interest in how we react. Primarily, that interest would be in how our reaction fits into their motivation. If they are aggressive, blasting them with nuclear weapons would not fit into their plans. If they are paternal and protective, they might be worried about what we will do to ourselves, and our fragile little civilization, while running around willy-nilly in the streets.

-They would study us carefully before making contact. Unless they just happen to be passing through the neighborhood, they would want to know exactly what they are dealing with here on planet Earth.

-The Internet gives them access to a great deal of information about us. In the 1960s we imagined the alien view of earthlings after watching our commercial television broadcasts. It seems likely that they would want to park themselves in the neighborhood and do some web surfing for a while to have a better idea of who we are.

-Who they contact and how they do it would be a primary concern. You can’t just show up anywhere on Earth and say hello. Some parts of our planet would be unable to handle such an event. Other nations would try to control it for self-interest.

-It would not be in their best interest to show up on the White House lawn to say hello. Direct First Contact with one nation brings a whole host of world political problems. It’s like choosing sides in a hockey match before you know how the game will end. You’re much better off saying hello to both teams and all of the spectators. Or in the case of planet Earth, the 192 countries recognized by the United Nations (and perhaps even the ones not recognized) and not just the United States. Come on American people (and Hollywood), it’s time to get over ourselves.

Fine, so now you’re starting to realize that I haven’t answered the question. When will they decide to make Direct First Contact? I don’t even know that they exist, so the answer is probably never. But if they are out there contemplating the best time for the big hello, I would say it comes down to a couple of factors:

-A reasonable level of global political stability. Arriving during a world-wide war would probably be a bad idea.

-A point at which there is a world body that could handle the diplomatic needs of Direct First Contact. That pushes any possibility of the event further into the future. The United Nations has a lot of work to do before it could be considered fit to handle the diplomatic needs of Direct First Contact. Dr. Mazlan Othman is trying (she’s the director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs).

-A worldwide communication and information distribution system that joins all parts of the planet. Okay, that one we have now.

-A timely reason for saying hello. I guess the point here is that they will say hello when it is the best possible time to support the goals of their particular motivation. We cannot know when that might be, without knowing what they came here for.

Sorry, this didn’t answer the question. Quite frankly, I don’t know when the space aliens will come to visit or if they will at all. I will keep Googling though, and I’m sure someone has a date in mind.

The Santa Claus Effect

I’ve done plenty of speculation over the years about First Contact possibilities. One thing I haven’t considered is what I would call the Santa Claus Effect (different from the Santa Claus Rally in the stock market). What if there is an extraterrestrial civilization waiting to make contact with us, and they are waiting to make contact at a point where we could understand some tremendous, and perhaps quite disturbing, revelation? I call it the Santa Claus Effect, because learning the truth would cause a severe change in our perspective, blowing away previous core beliefs. It would quickly erode our naiveté, making us more cynical, and yet perhaps better prepared citizens of the universe. The information would have to be dramatic. Perhaps it would be a quite different view of reality, whether it is multiple universes or a complete reworking of our understanding of time and space.

We like to think that extraterrestrial knowledge would be a great thing for society, with information providing us the tools for advancement in technology. It’s unsettling to consider that perhaps reality is far different from how we perceive it and fraught with new, troubling challenges. The two could even come hand in hand: technological advancement and radical shifts in our perception of reality.

It would probably depend on how advanced a civilization we were to meet. If they are only a few hundred years advanced in technology, perhaps the great new truths would be limited to new ways of viewing physics and the universe. Scientists might be blown away, but if the details are complicated, as you would imagine they would be, the rest of society would be relatively undisturbed. However, if we find that our entire conception of time is a fabrication, and alternate realities exist, it would be likely to provoke a more wide-spread disturbance of perspective.

In the end, the Santa Claus Effect, even if quite dramatic, might be less of a challenge for humans than one would imagine. Humans have an amazing ability to process new information quickly and develop new world views. That resiliency in thought could go a long way in the wake of First Contact.

Unrest After First Contact

The Egyptian situation is interesting for many reasons. It does appear to be part of a growing world trend, where information technology and rapid communication can assist protest movements, which then combined with the force of the international news media, can quickly turn protest into the disintegration of governments. The big question for this blog: could those same technologies and forces cause similar unrest in the wake of Direct First Contact? To be sure, the context and the catalysts would be vastly different. Egypt has had an active underground protest movement for many years. Anger has been building and it is directed primarily at one man and his immediate government. The catalysts are unemployment and government corruption.

What protest catalysts might develop out of extraterrestrial First Contact? It really is a matter of what type of First Contact. A random message discovered far away (the most likely scenario) would probably cause little disturbance at first. Substantive communication with a far-off extraterrestrial civilization would be more of a concern. Direct First Contact has an immediate nature that would cause the most dramatic security and cultural impact concerns, and ultimately those two worries could be strong catalysts for unrest.

It all comes down to trust. What popular groups would support interaction with an alien civilization and what groups would be opposed? In a sense, individual nations and their governments would be stuck in the middle.

If the government of a country was to support a U.N. diplomacy process with an extraterrestrial group, it could be a cause of division within that country. Factions in the populace could view extraterrestrial contact as a conspiracy and religious groups could hold apocalyptic views. That could lead to direct protest and major problems for the government. On the flip side, a government could respond to such popular concerns by attacking the diplomatic effort and attempting to change the UN process.

First Contact could also cause popular uprisings against oppressive regimes, merely by opening the door to change. The Egyptian situation shows that organized internal dissent, coupled with international media attention can have a huge impact in a very short time. It is something last witnessed during the fall of the Berlin Wall. The only thing standing between status quo and change is catalyst and action. First Contact could provide a powerful catalyst by opening the door to new ideas and new perspectives. Social media and the Internet provide the tools for substantive action.

Needless to say, speculation is tough in this particular arena. We are trying to figure out not only the types of events involved in something that has never occurred on Earth, First Contact, but also how governments and people will react. There are no reasonable precedents. I admit that my comparison to the Egyptian situation is a stretch. However, current and historical comparisons are all that we have to examine when it comes to the consideration of human reaction After First Contact.

So, why bother even considering the issue? Like everything in First Contact speculation, it at least provides a dirt path going forward, certainly not a clear road or a highway forward, but perhaps a trace through the grass that can help us if First Contact ever occurs. We could use a framework to watch for specific events After First Contact and then respond to them, before they get out of hand. Nothing would impact a First Contact scenario more than political strife inside and between nations. It will be important to look for warning signs and develop proactive responses before situations get out of hand.

A Continuity of Meaning

The recent Royal Society meeting on extraterrestrial life has sparked a wave of thoughtful and intelligent media coverage of First Contact issues. Charles Choi, originally writing for www.space.com, takes a closer look at the material presented at the meeting, and as collected in a Royal Society journal issue entitled: “The detection of extra-terrestrial life and the consequences for science and society.” CBSNews.com reprinted the piece recently ,which expands on the presentation concerning religion and extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI).

The range of opinions among theologians seems wide. Some wonder what First Contact will mean for Christians, and in particular the role of Jesus. Others predict that most religions will be able to easily enlarge their perspective to include ETI in their overall vision. Surveys certainly support that prediction, as most religious people polled say the discovery of extraterrestrial life was not likely to significantly change their religious views.

The most interesting part of the piece is the discussion of the impact of alien culture, and perhaps alien religion, on human religions and beliefs. Even if they do not share our concept of religion, could our interaction with aliens create a kind of “new secular” religion based on extraterrestrial ideas? It sounds a little scary, quite frankly, but probably not outside the realm of human reaction. People need faith and faith comes in a variety of forms. An alien based religion could fulfill the needs of humans. What that means for our future is a big question.

Theologian Ted Peters at the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary provides an interesting perspective in the story:

Alien religions could draw converts, and if there are many points of agreement between religions on Earth and from space, one might see communication of ideas across species as well. "Greek philosophers never met the God of Moses, but there were people who said, 'Doggone, there seems to be much that coheres,'" Peters said.
Theologians will not find themselves out of a job -- traditional theologians will have to become astrotheologians, Peters noted.

"One of the things that distinguish one religious tradition from another are the symbols that have developed over time -- Christians have their set, much as Hindus have theirs," he said. "No doubt extraterrestrials have their sets of symbols as well, and theologians will have their work cut out analyzing them to see if there is any continuity of meaning."

I like that phrase “continuity of meaning.” I suppose humans would look for many of those continuities in the interaction with an extraterrestrial civilization, in religion, culture and science. While differences may be the most dramatic truths, it seems likely that we will also search for the similarities, as we try to reconstruct our view of ourselves and of the universe After First Contact.

Fourteen Challenges After Direct First Contact

Direct First Contact with an extraterrestrial civilization would present a unique set of challenges in the months and years following a First Contact event. A stunned reaction of relative quiet would be expected in the initial days after the event, and yet it will not last long. World leaders will have to respond quickly.

1. There will be a need for increased cooperation between nations in response to First Contact. Some nations may need support, to avoid slipping into protectionism and isolationism.

2. The rapid change in perspective could prompt knee-jerk reactions from institutions and organizations.

3. Some nations could experience unrest and governmental erosion.

4. Some institutions could disintegrate under the pressure of change.

5. Safe, progressive change for institutions will need to be actively promoted and nurtured.

6. New institutions will need to be created to respond to new needs.

7. World leaders should support individual, bureaucratic and corporate creativity to respond to new demands and opportunities.

8. There will have to be diplomatic, governmental, and scientific frameworks built to support cautious change.

9. World leaders will need to curb excessive self-interested reaction and power grabs by both individuals and organizations.

10. The valid concerns of many groups will have to be addressed in the wake of First Contact, including extremist groups. All segments of human society should be part of the dialog.

11. Transparency will need to be the hallmark of all endeavors After First Contact.

12. Affordable access to information technology should be treated as a human right. It will be critical to human growth and development After First Contact.

13. If extraterrestrial information is shared with humans, the sciences will need to re-organize and find ways to respond to the new challenges created by those scientific revelations.

14. Higher education systems worldwide will have to re-organize and find ways to quickly respond to change in many academic areas.

The Human Reaction to First Contact

What is the fate of humanity in the wake of First Contact? Will we descend into chaos with crashing religions and collapsing truths? It is a subject never fully rendered by the popular arts. Hollywood is too obsessed with instant gratification and special effects to take up the matter. Science fiction authors are, for the most part, perhaps too starry eyed and reaching to examine the gritty reality of life on Earth After First Contact.

Social scientists have touched on the subject and a recent paper for the Royal Society is the latest discourse by Dr. Albert Harrison, with the University of California, Davis, Department of Psychology. It is provocatively titled “Fear, pandemonium, equanimity and delight: human responses to extra-terrestrial life.”

One of Harrison’s central statements: “The discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) may be far less startling for generations that have been brought up with word processors, electronic calculators, avatars and cell phones…” His point is that human technological development may better prepare us to handle the revelation of ETI. He further states that in North America and Europe an announcement of the discovery of ETI is not likely to lead to widespread psychological disintegration and social collapse. Fair enough. As Harrison points out, the type of ETI discovery would determine the human response here on Earth.

The newest work in this paper seems to be an overview of surveys done in regards to human perceptions of ETI issues. He tracks Gallup Poll results between 1966 and 1987 to show that belief in ETI has increased from 34-50 percent in that time. A Roper Poll, conducted for the National Institute of Discovery Science showed that 25 percent of respondents said the discovery of ETI would make no difference to their day to day lifestyle. 42 percent expected to be slightly affected, 11 percent moderately affected, and three percent severely affected.

These surveys indicate that the public would be relatively calm in handling news of First Contact and hopefully this would be the case. However, I do think these sorts of questions may obscure the larger issue. In a dramatic Direct First Contact event, with an extraterrestrial civilization coming to Earth to say hello, many areas of human civilization could be impacted, including: economy, politics, and science. The affects of these challenges could be widespread and have a significant impact on many humans over the long term.

One would expect, After First Contact, the historically human acts of political clawing for control, the corporate grab for new opportunity, and the battle for social reordering as hegemonic forces collide with new truths. The wheelers and dealers in human society will struggle for identity and control in the wake of First Contact. Each of them will seek to reinvent him or herself in the light of the revelation. Primarily though, the same self-interest and personal protectionism will be the order of the day. And this should not surprise us at all. It has been the most predictable reaction throughout the course of human history. I suspect the biggest problem may be that this process occurs on steroids After First Contact. If a failing economy is enough to drive many segments of the world into acrimony and distrust, as has happened in recent years, what is likely to happen After First Contact?

In the wake of First Contact we will do what we always do: we will search for advantage in the new era. This is what I think we should expect not some great catastrophe for our civilization, but rather the same, brutal set of human reactions we have seen each and every year of human existence, just in a new context.

If this seems excessively negative, I can point to the positive. There will also be the joyous, creative celebration of new idea, unimaginable promise and awe at the unfolding wonder of it all. After First Contact will support the human spirit in ways we cannot imagine. This isn’t to say that we should rhapsodize and worship the new visitors. Not at all. We will need to apply critical thinking and a hard-nosed, practical approach to our relationship with any extraterrestrial civilization. But no matter who they are (barring of course, outright aggression) this will be an exciting time for humanity and for human development and thought.

Unfortunately, it will all be wrapped up into one confusing mess, just like every other day here on planet Earth. I suspect the one thing we can expect is that we will be every bit human in our reaction to a wider universe.

Dr. Mazlan Othman: A Call for United Nations Action

In regards to human contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, the Royal Society has just made a important contribution to the conversation. They held a meeting earlier this month and from it a series of papers have been published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.

The title of the issue, and the meeting, sums it up: “The detection of extra-terrestrial life and the consequences for science and society.”

The topics focus foremost on issues of astrobiology, and yet there is some attention paid to the implications of First Contact for the human race.

The biggest newsmaker may be the discussion piece by Dr. Mazlan Othman, Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA), simply titled “Supra-Earth affairs.”

Finally, finally we have a solid argument for United Nations leadership in First Contact. It has been a long-time coming and Dr. Othman is to be credited for this brave and sensible call to action.

She takes an oblique and almost administrative approach in stating her case. Dr. Othman writes about a 1977 United Nations discussion of extraterrestrial issues. After a wide-ranging set of discussions, the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) asked the Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA) to compile a report to examine “Messages to extraterrestrial civilizations.” No further action was taken.

Dr. Othman seems to be staking out a claim for the OOSA to take up new matters of extraterrestrial consideration. She ties this to more recent work in regards to near-Earth objects (NEOs). This is a more familiar subject (the dangers of asteroids and wayward satellites) that is the subject of much of the work by the OOSA. A group of United Nations member states requested an action plan be developed on the issue, with the focus being ways to build international cooperation and a response to possible threats. A working group drafted a year-by-year plan with specific objectives for each year. Those objectives included information gathering, mission planning and the formation of an oversight group. The plan was followed through, making recommendations and taking specific actions. The ultimate oversight group was determined to be the powerful United Nations Security Council.

In true diplomatic fashion, Dr. Othman finishes her examination of the NEO United Nations process with one simple paragraph. It is a simple plea for applying those past strategies to the issue of extraterrestrial First Contact and subsequent communication.

“We should have in place a coordinated response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject. The United Nations forums are a ready-made mechanism for such coordination. To make this happen, the champions of this subject must engage a wider audience, especially Member States of COPUOS, which would allow the subject to be included in the agenda of COPUOS and from this platform take it further to the General Assembly.”

This seemingly humble suggestion is actually a bold statement given the flak Dr. Othman endured late last year, when a U.K. media report suggested that she was proposing that she should be spokesperson for the planet Earth in relations with any extraterrestrial civilizations. That report was compiled from leaked information about the relatively tame proposal put forth at the Royal Society meeting. In reality, Dr. Othman is merely calling for the United Nations to take a central role in any First Contact protocol. The media has had its fun, twisting the reports to ever-more absurd suggestions. To her credit, Dr. Othman is not giving up on the issue, and I for one salute her for the professional courage she has taken in putting together this paper and attending the meeting despite the criticism.

United Nations leadership on this issue is the only practical solution to a real dilemma. We have not prepared, we are not prepared, and the implications for the human race could not be more profound. It is time the world listened more closely to Dr. Othman. It is time the United Nations took action.

Losing Our Humanity

The French have been grappling with ways to maintain their essential French-ness in a rapidly homogenizing world. In 1994, they passed the Toubon Law, designed to protect the French language from an onslaught of English. This has become an issue particularly in the French business world,where English is often used as the informal language of commerce. The French Coalition for Cultural Diversity takes it a step further, seeking to create protections in many cultural areas.

Are the French simply afraid of change? Or do they have a real concern?
The rise of the global economy, coupled with advances in communication technology, means that the world is becoming, in a sense, smaller or at least not as geographically confined. Americans can listen to African music or Russian poetry with a couple of keystrokes on the computer. Australians can read Finnish literature or watch Brazilian TV broadcasts. This cross-cultural influence will naturally create concerns about cultural identity. The world could become a great melting pot and some worry that will mean the death of individual cultures. One could argue that the American melting pot still retains plenty of distinct cultural differences. However, that cultural complexity comes in large part from recent immigrant communities. One only need look for signs of the Irish identity in many Southern cities to realize that cultural assimilation, and the formation of a new culture, occurs rather quickly.

So, the big question is: what happens after First Contact with an extraterrestrial civilization? Suddenly, human culture would be the least interesting thing to consider. All attention will be focused on the culture of an extraterrestrial civilization. It would seem possible that many academic fields will change radically After First Contact. What will happen to the social sciences? Will they be lost in the rush to study an extraterrestrial civilization? What impact will those extraterrestrial cultures have on human religion and philosophy?

This is the essential long term dilemma of First Contact. What will happen to our human culture in the wake of meeting an extraterrestrial culture? It is a scenario that has been analyzed in many human interactions through history, essentially the original concept of first contact. Let’s take Tahiti as an example. The island is thought to have been first visited by Europeans in 1767. English and French visitors wrote about the “noble savage” and the “Earthly paradise” in the Polynesian culture. Trade and interaction between the two civilizations soon took its toll. Guns, prostitution, venereal disease and alcohol decimated the Polynesian people and eroded Polynesian society. Disease proved to be too much for the native population to bear. By 1797 the natives shrunk to just four percent of the original pre-contact population.

We can hope that the problem of disease transmission between humans and extraterrestrials would be well managed, as it will be foremost in the minds of scientists in the immediate days following First Contact. It is the cultural erosion that will probably be less well-considered. The Tahitians of today are basically French with a Polynesian cultural undercurrent. Despite efforts to revive and maintain Polynesian ways, it is primarily a French society.

The biggest danger would seem to come with the generations born After First Contact. They will be a new breed of human: individuals with no recollection of a time when humans were the center of the universe. They are likely to focus their attention on the wider universe and the many things to explore within that context. In the wake of First Contact, the study of human culture will likely decline in academia. We may even see entire fields in the social sciences disappear.

Will we need to learn a lesson from the French and set about to protect our human culture? I have written about the New Isolationists, those people likely to oppose extraterrestrial interaction After First Contact. These people may have an important role: reminding us of the dangers we face in cultural assimilation. We will need to listen to many voices in the conversation that occurs After First Contact. If not, we may find ourselves in years to come lamenting a human civilization lost to the wider universe.

The Interaction-Problem Correlation

The impact of extraterrestrial First Contact on human civilization has often been described as a being based on the type of First Contact. The discovery of a signal from an extraterrestrial civilization many light years away would have a relatively low impact. Communication would take decades and the amount of information traded would most likely be limited at first. Direct First Contact, an extraterrestrial civilization landing on Earth, would have a much higher impact.

In keeping with this concept, I think there is another relationship to explore: the correlation between extraterrestrial interaction and the problems created by that interaction. Even in a Direct First Contact event the amount of interaction between humans and an extraterrestrial civilization could vary greatly. Extraterrestrial visitors might want to share a great deal of information with us. They also may decide to share very little with us. The amount of interaction would be primarily their decision and it would likely be based on their reasons for visiting. Perhaps they are worried about what we would do with advanced technological information? Or they may want to protect us from a rapid series of paradigm shifts in our sciences. They may have a very specific agenda for visiting, one that does not include a great deal of interaction. Or they may have a mission based on sharing all of the information they have.

A high degree of interaction would likely produce a greater amount of information. This in turn increases the likelihood of problems here on Earth. Even low interaction may cause massive changes in perspective and could cause radical shifts in human philosophy, religion and even global politics. It would certainly provide a new level of security anxiety. We would go from worrying about each other to worrying about forces from outside our solar system. Still, with a lack of concrete information the amount of impact would be relatively small when compared with the alternative. A great deal of scientific and technological information exchanging hands could produce a tidal wave of change, creating significant problems for the world economy, global politics, and perhaps most importantly the stability of our scientific and research process. To put it simply: the more information exchanged, the more potential for problems to develop here on Earth.

Does this mean we should limit interaction with an extraterrestrial civilization, if that day ever comes? Not necessarily. If they are willing to share, our human curiosity will probably get the better of us. The real question is how the process for sharing that information should work. Needless to say, if an extraterrestrial civilization were to have access to our Internet they would already have a great deal of our information available to them. This would make the interaction actually more of a one-way street. However, it is a one-way street on which we should be able control the traffic. An open floodgate of information could prove disastrous. To prevent problems from growing out of hand, the information flow would need to be strictly controlled and analyzed at every step. This would require a level of scientific and global political cooperation far beyond anything we have managed thus far. It might even be a task beyond our reaching. The real issue would be whether an extraterrestrial civilization was willing to work with us on the distribution of information. If they simply want to put everything they know out there for us to consider, there is not much we can do.

We need to realize that any type of extraterrestrial First Contact will cause problems. Managing those problems, and managing the many challenges created by First Contact, will take a great deal of effort and require us to think about our own civilization in ways we have never before considered.

Our Crude Scientific Method

The process of scientific experimentation and replication is the foundation of our scientific culture. It’s the method used to help decide everything from what pharmaceuticals we should take to determining what is occurring in the environment. It has been used to help show how humans think and how humans are genetically designed. And yet there is one variable that is seldom mentioned in publication- how those results could be influenced by what researchers, and those who closely follow their work, want to see. This is explored in a recent New Yorker article by Jonah Lehrer titled “The Truth Wears Off.”

He shows how several scientific studies had initial dramatic results and how the published replication studies initially supported those findings. Then, over time, further studies showed diminishing results. The so-called decline effect could have many reasons behind it, according to Lehrer. Part of the problem may lie in what studies get published. Nil results are not very exciting. Results that replicate dramatic findings are more interesting and thus more likely to get published. There may also be a problem with the interpretation of testing results by scientists and the very human tendency to seek out the interesting, rather than report findings that are not significant.

Lehrer points to the Kuhnian concept that scientific paradigms grow in stature and then finally get to a point where they are so established they are actively questioned and enough data builds up to dispute the initial finding. At this juncture the results disproving the original thesis become more interesting. If the new experimentation tears down the old theories, a paradigm shift occurs and a new paradigm is developed.

I find these ideas interesting because they call into question our basic way of building knowledge. And it raises an important point. Debate and disagreement are often as important in science as the replication studies. This can be seen clearly in a recent announcement made by NASA scientists, and reported on this blog last week. The scientists reported that they had trained bacteria to grow on a diet of arsenic providing the possibility that organisms could exist in the universe using entirely different biological structures than what we have seen thus far on Earth. This week there has been a firestorm of controversy over the study, with criticism coming from microbiologists at several institutions. The debate is critical. These complaining researchers have examined the study and found flaws in the design, flaws that could call into question the results.

Perhaps our scientific method is too crude for us to even begin to understand extraterrestrial science? People often worry that extraterrestrial visitors would not be able to speak our languages. This seems absurd, considering the technological prowess that would be needed to travel between the stars. One would imagine that advanced technology, combined with some time for research, would allow extraterrestrial visitors to both understand human languages and develop a way to communicate with us. More likely we would have a very hard time understanding their scientific language and thus their technology. It would be like trying to build a skyscraper of knowledge without any understanding of the blueprints.

Perhaps After First Contact we would need to learn a new way of examining the world around us- building a new scientific method? Part of human progress could be the development of artificial intelligence that could conduct scientific experiments, without all of the human flaws of expectation and the need for drama. We could be getting in the way of science, instead of nurturing it.

The way science works here on Earth is a critical issue when it comes to considering the impact of extraterrestrial contact. The sharing of scientific knowledge and technological information is something many people would expect to occur if we ever have a relationship with an extraterrestrial civilization. The question is whether or not we could handle that information. If the extraterrestrials are willing to share, we will need to put together a carefully structured process for how we will receive such information and how it will fit into our system of research and scientific knowledge. It makes one wish that Thomas Kuhn was still alive and that he could lead such an effort in the wake of First Contact. His way of viewing science and the process of discovery is important for this discussion.