26th
Hey, remember this debate from last month?
“I could be totally wrong about everything. But we could also do nothing and I think that’s pretty silly.”— Jill Tarter, director of the SETI Institute*, breaks it down for the Times who just asked whether she ever has any doubts about their mission.
— From London.
*Well fancy that, I just discovered SETI stands for Signals of ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence.
Actually it’s Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.
About ten years ago, the topic of SETI came up in an email conversation. My then-boss’s husband said something like this: “Passive SETI [in which we just scan the skies for signs of intelligence] is OK, since it may someday tell us how long we have until we get invaded and slaughtered. Active SETI [in which we send out signals hoping that some intelligent life will respond] is probably the worst idea humanity has ever come up with, because every example in recorded history of two civilizations of vastly different levels of technological advancement meeting for the first time has resulted in the genocide or enslavement of the less-advanced by the more-advanced. What do you think are the odds of finding another intelligent species that is less advanced than we are?”
I’ve been kind of unenthusiastic about SETI since that conversation.
I realize you’re expressing your point of view, but 100% of the examples in recorded history involved humans. I believe that Homo Sapiens rose to dominance over other humanoids because we have an innate drive to dominate the OTHER, the NOT US.
I think we’re starting to get a handle on it and control this drive. One way is to redirect the drive into sports. “OUR team is better than THEIR team.” Even more to the point, people self-identify with a team. “WE beat THEM.”
All this is just to say that it’s a human instinct. An intelligent species on another planet didn’t necessarily evolve with the same drive to dominate the OTHER, the NOT US. And even if they did, being more advanced than us, they probably subjugated the drive into, I don’t know, spaceball. I have faith that they did, anyway, so I’m not worried about it at all.
[snip]
I have nothing to add, but I couldn’t resist pointing out that apparently Stephen Hawking is on my side.
(What do you mean appeal to authority isn’t a valid form of argument? I’m close personal friends with Steve Wozniak, Charles Darwin, and Ke$ha and they use it all the time.)
