Results of Extraterrestrial Contact For Humanity
A part of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence involves the analysis of the implications of extraterrestrial contact for humanity, culturally, scientifically, technologically, and socially. Numerous contact scenarios have been created by scientists who are involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence in order to better contextualize what may eventually occur when humanity is contacted by an extraterrestrial species. These studies reveal that the result of extraterrestrial contact will be strongly governed by the benevolence or malevolence of an extraterrestrial civilization, how advanced it is technologically, and whether or not such a species sends robotic probes to contact humanity, as opposed to radio signals from a centralized source, as well as biological similarities and differences between humanity and the extraterrestrial species.
Malevolent civilizations, as speculated by Dr. Michio Kaku (2009) and Robert Freitas (1978) independently, may possess resources which can destroy humanity with little effort on the part of the extraterrestrial civilization and with little chance at resistance. Supporting the view of aggression, Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, speculates that the finite quantity of resources in the galaxy and the "explorer" nature of any civilization would cause it to be aggressive in the same way that human explorers have been historically.
However, these views have been disputed by, among others, the late Carl Sagan, who speculated that any technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilization would be advanced ethically as well, and would not be aggressive, and that humanity would, due to the extraterrestrial civilization's technological prowess, reciprocate this non-aggression. Corroborating this view, a study conducted by James W. Deardorff states that only a small percentage of extraterrestrial civilizations may be aggressive. Such civilizations may use various methods in order to help humanity, such as immediate actions to avert catastrophe (i.e. creating computer glitches in nuclear-weapons systems on the eve of global nuclear conflagration) or long-term mitigation of risks which may destroy humanity before true technological cooperation.
Extraterrestrial civilizations may also have specific implications for various aspects of humanity against a backdrop of these broad contact scenarios. In particular, religion may undergo various degrees of change, from a reinterpretation of religious texts by theologians to accommodate the new discovery to a complete reinvention of religion, with extraterrestrials bringing humanity into an all-encompassing cosmic faith.
In addition to the religious problems which may arise, Michaud (2006) and Othman (2011) speculate that extraterrestrial contact may cause problems for global foreign relations, causing global political divisiveness over the involvement of radio astronomers worldwide in post-detection processes and over which bodies represent humanity as a whole in the wake of contact, as well as how, with what content, and whether a message should be sent in reply to what has been received from extraterrestrial intelligence. On a larger scale, Harrison (2000) has speculated that, as humanity builds relations with an extraterrestrial civilization, humanity may be given an invitation to a "Galactic Club" with numerous other civilizations.
As well as political implications, extraterrestrial contact may have scientific implications as well. Extraterrestrial civilizations may, as Harrison (2002) speculates, cause a profound technological and societal impact of a magnitude much greater than the Industrial Revolution of the late-eighteenth to nineteenth centuries, and extraterrestrial life in general may give us knowledge of extraterrestrial biochemistry. However, extraterrestrial civilizations, if they know terrestrial biology and its weaknesses and are malevolent, may conduct biological warfare by means of pathogens and invasive species completely unknown to the Earth previously.
Read more about this topic: Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Famous quotes containing the words results of, results, contact and/or humanity:
“Being a parent is unlike any previous job—the results of any one action are not clearly visible for a long time, if at all.”
—Anonymous Mother. As quoted in Between Generations by Ellen Galinsky, ch. 2 (1981)
“Intellectual despair results in neither weakness nor dreams, but in violence.... It is only a matter of knowing how to give vent to one’s rage; whether one only wants to wander like madmen around prisons, or whether one wants to overturn them.”
—Georges Bataille (1897–1962)
“To write weekly, to write daily, to write shortly, to write for busy people catching trains in the morning or for tired people coming home in the evening, is a heartbreaking task for men who know good writing from bad. They do it, but instinctively draw out of harm’s way anything precious that might be damaged by contact with the public, or anything sharp that might irritate its skin.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“Disease can never be conquered, can never be quelled by emotion’s wailful screaming or faith’s cymballic prayer. It can only be conquered by the energy of humanity and the cunning in the mind of man. In the patience of a Curie, in the enlightenment of a Faraday, a Rutherford, a Pasteur, a Nightingale, and all other apostles of light and cleanliness, rather than of a woebegone godliness, we shall find final deliverance from plague, pestilence, and famine.”
—Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)