Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence…Are We Really Ready to Find Out?

In 1972 and then again in 1973 America sent unmanned exploration spacecraft appropriately named Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 into space. On both, scientists placed a gold anodized aluminum plaque, a pictorial message with drawings of a nude man and woman, and more importantly a map of how to find our planet.

Why would we do such a thing? The question continues to roll around in my mind. Not that I am against space exploration, the discoveries and the opportunities that it represents far outweigh the millions of dollars spent for it. But the millions spent on whether we are alone in the universe, millions that (some argue) could be spent on more worthy endeavors, is really a different argument all together. And my concern goes even deeper than the money. I wonder if we, as human beings, have matured to the point that we are truly ready for what we might find, or more to the point, what might find us?

There are those who compare it to the discovery of the new world (North America), and what happened to the Native Americans who were here before us. It didn’t work out so well for them and if history repeats itself, this time on a galactic level, it could possibly not work out for us as well. Let’s face it, the odds of someone or something out there, given the size of the universe, is pretty great. And the odds of whoever showing up on our doorstep being far more advanced is even greater. For some reason there are many in the science community who seem to have the misguided notion that any aliens who find us will be benevolent. (If they are foraging around the universe, my thought is that we have at least a 50/50 chance that they won’t be).

Whenever I think of alien benevolence I remember an old Twilight Zone episode from forty plus years ago (written by Rod Serling). As a kid I loved the show, but it literally scared the bah gee bees out of me every time I watched it. So in this particular episode aliens come to Earth, they share their advanced technology with us and in time they become guardians for the people on earth, guided by a prime directive (a Star Trek term) written in a book entitled, “To Serve Man”.

How could they mean us any harm if their most fundamental mandate is to serve humanity? Everyone believed it, except for one scientist who became skeptical when he was not allowed to look in the book. As people willingly lined up to board the spacecraft that would take them back to the alien’s planet, he secretly hid until he could get to the book and look inside. Suddenly he runs in, screaming at the people boarding the ship to get off--”TO SERVE MAN IS A COOK BOOK!”

Even though there is a humorous twist to Rod Serling’s view of alien benevolence, there is a more serious question we need to ask ourselves. Are we really ready to encounter a significantly different form of life, when we can’t get along with each other now? Accepting diversity has never been a human strong suit, and is “learning that we are not alone in the universe” really worth the potential down side of what could happen when we do?

Let’s face it. We as people, and I don’t mean certain people, I mean all people, harbor some level of prejudice. It may even go back to times in our anthropological history when people connected by blood, became tribes which translated into greater protection. But as we have evolved it has become less and less beneficial, to the point of actually reversing the natural evolution of human socialization. That is why I find it particularly puzzling that America; a country that has benefited the most from cultural diversity has perhaps the greatest problem with ethnic intolerance. Consider our music, science, food, business, and literally everything. There is not a single element of what makes America and Americans great or unique, that is not directly or indirectly influenced by our diverse mix of cultures, and yet we are blind to the richness and the edge that it gives us on the global stage.

It is not something that we can change over night, behaviors never are, and at the outset we have to realize that it is a natural part of human nature, indigenous to all humans. Years ago when they filmed the first Planet of the Apes a psychologist came on set to conduct an interesting experiment. There, just as an observer, he watched the actors, not just when filming, but between the scenes and when the cameras and lights were not on. No one knew they were being watched.

Interestingly, if you are familiar with the movie, many of the actors were outfitted in very elaborate ape costumes, requiring many hours in makeup. Consequently, they never saw each other before or after. No one knew who was black or white or any other ethnicity. And once outfitted the actors could not remove the prosthetics, so they stayed in them all day, even to eat lunch.

Then came something totally unexpected, a unique look into human behavior at its most fundamental vantage point. When the filming broke for lunch or between takes, the actors dressed as chimpanzees grouped with the other actors dressed as chimpanzees; gorillas with gorillas, and orangutans with orangutans; each sought out his or her own ape type. Now it would be reasonable to assume that the actors, simply by the nature of being cast in similar roles, would congregate together, but the behaviors observed seemed to be more than just a matter of circumstance, as if something more primal began influencing their social preferences.

So all that said, are we really ready for ET to visit? In the first Jurassic Park movie Dr. Malcolm, the rebel advocate of the interdisciplinary theory of Chaos, made the comment about recreating dinosaurs, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, no one thought to ask...if they should.”

Science is getting closer every day to that boundary and many still don’t see the “should we” limit as something that needs to be considered before crossing. Stephen Hawking warned us before he died; the greatest danger humanity will face in the future will be artificial intelligence, and that new “alien intelligence” is not far away. Is humanity really prepared for the day when technology crosses over and becomes an actual life form, a life form likely to be more advanced than its creators? And will we even know it when it happens?

These are just a few of the many “cross at your own risk” boundaries that we face as our science and technology shift into light speed. And if alien life, either created here on earth or from some distant place in the universe shows up, will we even know the “point of no return” when we see it? And the bigger question, will we be prepared for what happens...if it doesn’t work out?

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