8
CONCLUSION
Accounts of supercivilizations and contact with them have a long history in science fiction and have undoubtedly influenced progressive scientists who believe that mankind might one day benefit from such contact. But, like religious accounts of divine beings with superhuman knowledge and power, they ultimately refer back to terrestrial concerns. In fact, most accounts of SCs are manufactured by emphasizing one aspect of the technological developments achieved on Earth over others. Thus, for example, Kardaschev’s version of an advanced civilization emphasizes energy consumption and Dyson’s emphasizes demographic forces, the effect of which are demonstrably significant for terrestrial life. The entire SETI endeavour reflects interest in technological developments on Earth. Thus advances in radio astronomy since the Second World War prepared the ground for NASA and the SETI community’s microwave searches, while more recent developments in laser technology have encouraged expectations of an optical signal. There are other versions of extraterrestrial civilizations which emphasize aesthetic or spiritual qualities and consequently reject technology and the very idea of colonization and, like some of Earth’s societies, prefer to look inwards for salvation. One version of an advanced extraterrestrial civilization at work is Ferris and Bracewell’s idea of a network of self-replicating communicating probes. This clearly emphasizes current terrestrial interest in robots, artificial intelligence and the replication of cognitive skills such as knowledge and prediction. The information technology culture is also an influential factor in Scheffer’s theory of teleportation by information transfer. Even the wildest theories concerning UFO visits and government cover-ups are reflections of serious terrestrial concerns. They might be dismissed as the ravings of paranoid crackpots but in a deeper sense they give expression to a sound healthy scepticism in the face of an unholy and secretive alliance between governments, the military and the scientists who serve them.
These different models of extraterrestrial civilizations have clear implications for any search strategy. Although emphasizing a search by means of infrared astronomy, both Kardaschev and Dyson’s models would entail a passive search strategy which involves little more than waiting to see if ETI can be discovered by means of existing observational technology. Tipler’s appeal to colonization
195
would lead to a search for spaceships, not microwaves. Likewise, Zuckerman’s account of obligatory mass migrations would involve a search for expeditionary ventures, and Stephenson’s proposal regarding travelling biospheres would require a search of the outer regions of the solar system as a likely zone for the detection of extraterrestrial vessels. But if the conclusions of Hart and Tipler are correct, then SETI is a waste of time. Spiritual and aesthetic models are notorious for their appeal to subjective psychological experience, while the postulation of Bracewell probes entails a passive wait-until-they-come attitude. The Peer Hypothesis, developed by Paul Birch, would involve a search with military expectations, while most versions of the Zoo Hypothesis involve an eavesdropping approach. The practical outcome of radio searches will involve requests for bigger, better and more widely based searches, preferably conducted in space.
Yet the one thing that can be predicted is that most of our predictions about contact with an advanced civilization are likely to be wrong. So far no society on Earth has correctly predicted its future: no ancient Greek, Egyptian or Babylonian predicted television or its effect on human culture. Most SC models neglect the reality of the changing direction of cultural progress. Religion on Earth was once the foremost vehicle for social progress and that would have been the area to look to for predictions regarding future cultural developments. But religion gave way to science, although it may even return again to its former exalted status. New, as yet unheard-of problems may shape our conception of progress and notion of progressive forces. Many exponents of SETI research assume that science and technology will be valued for their own sake and be seen in the forefront of progress. But maybe our need for survival may lead to a replacement of those values.
Notwithstanding the philosophical and methodological problems that have been raised against SETI, there are several compelling reasons for continuing. Proposals for SETI research are fundamentally committed to the empiricist methodology. SETI is also essentially interdisciplinary. No subject shows itself as capable of bringing together the fragmented elements of contemporary science. SETI embraces branches of astronomy, physics, biology, psychology, computer science, cognitive science, linguistics, information theory, natural and social history, geology, zoology, philosophy, theology, sociology and political science. SETI is also a discipline that is ripe for creative thinking, and a broader paradigm of scientific inquiry may emerge from it, drawing on the insights of poets, theologians and philosophers.
Apart from its unifying contribution to our understanding of scientific research, SETI and space exploration have lent support to environmental ethics: the view from space of Earth as a delicate and fragile world has motivated people to think of its ecological protection. Few Westerners had a concept of ecology until astronaut Frank Borman referred to ‘Spaceship Earth’. The opportunity to look back on Earth as a fragile oasis of life may turn out to be as significant as the Copernican revolution.
196
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104