Consequences  of  detec-on  of  Extraterrestrial  Intelligence  

(Societal  Reac-ons)  Jennifer  Wiseman  

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There are 200 billion stars in our galaxy…

…one of them is our Sun.

The sun has planets…

…we know of one that has life.

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Is there another Earth out there? Life?

Are there other planets in the universe?  

Consequences  of  ETI  detec-on:    Possible  Societal  Reac-ons/Response  

•  Response  to  what?    Reac-ons  will  depend  on  what  we  detect.      (Message?    Threat?)  –  Likely  that  it  will  take  some  -me  to  analyze/believe  what  has  been  detected.    People  will  have  -me  to  “digest”  this.      

– Many  people  already  expect  ET’s.      Like  the  discovery  of  exoplanets,  might  not  be  a  big  surprise.  

•  Organized  response  from  governments?    Military?    Scien-sts?    Cultural  leaders?  (a.k.a.  Contact…)  

•  SETI  suddenly  becomes  funding  priority.    Study  of  ETI  becomes  more  accepted  as  science,  sociology,  anthropology,  diplomacy….  

“There are infinite worlds both like and unlike this world of ours...We must believe that in all worlds there are living creatures and planets and other things we see in this world.”

Epicurus c. 300 B.C

What about distant worlds? Thousands of years ago, Greek philosophers speculated.

And so did medieval scholars.

The year 1584

"There are countless suns and countless earths all rotating around their suns in exactly the same way as the seven planets of our system . . . The countless worlds in the universe are no worse and no less inhabited than our Earth”

Giordano Bruno in De L'infinito Universo E Mondi

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And in the last hundred years, Hollywood came knocking.

Will finding ET’s affect our view of our own human significance?

Are We, as Human Life on Earth, Significant? Special? Average? Accidental? Unusual?

How do our discoveries affect our view of ourselves?

•  What does it mean to be significant? Does it mean to be rare? Unusual? Central? Long-lived?

•  The Copernican Revolution: Earth is not the center of the Solar System –  (and the solar system is not the center of the galaxy, and the

galaxy is not the center of the universe, and there may be other universes, and...)

•  Not being central, or unique as life, can be interpreted as a loss of significance, if significance is based on position or rareness. But interpretations vary… How does “rarity” correlate with “significance”?

•  It turns out that in Copernican times, being removed from the Center was often considered an elevation, not necessarily a demotion! (see works of Dennis Danielson, American Journal of Physics, 2001; Mano Singham, Physics Today 2007)

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

“For, in fact, what is man in nature? A Nothing in comparison with the Infinite, an All in comparison with the Nothing, a mean between between nothing and everything…

When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space which I fill, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there; for there is no reason why here rather than there, why no rather than then. Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time been allotted to me?...

The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.” -Pascal

P37329 Galileo Image

Are we significant?

•  Philosophical musings can and will lead different ways…

No… and Yes… We do not seem to occupy a special place or significant

volume in our galaxy or in the universe. Planets are common. Life may be common. Our life-spans are insignificant in relation to the time history of the universe.

But our planet has evolved using the heavy elements produced over billions of years of star production. Our earth is in just the right situation for life to thrive. Advanced life may be uncommon. Fundamental constants seem finely tuned to allow stable development of life, at least in this universe.

And no… and yes…

There may be other kinds of life. There may be other universes with other fundamental constants. By definition, we need the ones we have. Anthropic principle.

But regardless of our place in space and time, why has this universe allowed the development of inhabitants at least in one place who study the universe and consider their own destiny?

How will the world’s faith communities react to

discovery of ETL? ETI?

•  Often the presumption of whether intelligent ET’s will hold religious faith, or of how Earth’s religions will respond to detection of any exo-life, seems to depend on one’s view of religion…. –  “Advanced civilizations will surely have

progressed [away from / toward] religious belief…”

–  “Finding ET life will [disturb / affirm] current religious faith on Earth…”

WWW

We are not the first to wonder if our lives are significant, as we observe the magnitude of the universe!

Psalm 8, a psalm of King David: Oh Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your Name in

all the earth! … When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which you have established, What are human beings that you are mindful of them,

mortals that you care for them? [Yet] you made them a littler lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.

NRSV

Biblically, we are significant, because of the will and love of God…

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass… But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear (respect) him… Praise the Lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion.” -from Psalm 103

Not likely a global religious crisis with ETI contact… (quotes from Ted Peter’s “ET Religious Crisis”

survey respondents) •  “Islamically, we do believe that God created other planets similar to

Earth.” “Only arrogance and pride would make one think that Allah made this vast universe only for us to observe.”

•  Evangelical Christian: “there is nothing in Christianity that excludes other intelligent life”

•  Buddhist respondent: “ETs would be, essentially, no different from other sentient beings, i.e., they would have Buddha Nature and would be subject to karmic consequences of their actions.”

•  A self-identified mystic: “my belief in God is absolutely unaffected by extraterrestrial life.”

•  “Discovery of ET would not affect my personal belief system because I am a stone atheist.”

Ted Peter’s ET “Religious Crisis” Survey

What about specifics of Christian thought? Would alien life experience the presence and redemption of God “ in person”, as done on Earth through Jesus Christ?

“Jesus Christ, the Righteous One… is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:2

Does this include the whole universe? Many think so…

Also: Advanced technology does not necessarily correlate with improved internal character of those who possess it… basic issues of good and evil, love and redemption remain…

Advertisement: Special Session on “Astronomical Pioneering”, AAAS Annual Meeting, February 2011, Washington DC

Sponsored by the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program of the AAAS

•  What are we learning about exoplanets? How will society respond to detection (or non-detection) of likely exo-life?

•  Wes Traub (JPL) – status of exoplanet detections •  Astronomers respond, discussing perspectives from

various religious traditions or societal perspectives (Howard Smith, Nidhal Guessoum, Jennifer Wiseman, Seth Shostak, Owen Gingerich (discussant))

•  Y’all Come!

•  The detection of ETI could inspire a worldwide sense of excitement and a desire to explore

•  The detection of ETI could inspire a greater sense of unity and commonality between us humans

Thomas Wright of Durham (1711-1786), contemplating the idea of “many suns” put forth

in Milton’s “Paradise Lost”: “Now admitting the breadth of the Via Lactea to be at a

mean but nine degrees, and supposing only twelve hundred stars in every square degree, there will be nearly in the whole orbicular area 3,888,000 stars, and all these in a very minute portion of the great expanse of heaven. What a vast idea of endless beings must this produce and generate in our minds! And when we consider them all as flaming suns, progenitors, and Primum Mobiles of a still much greater number of peopled worlds, what less than an infinity can circumscribe them, less than an eternity comprehend them, or less than Omnipotence produce and support them, and where can our wonder cease?”