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SETI and Society ‘Society’ vs ‘Culture’ • Impossible to separate • All definitions are arbitrary • “Socio-cultural” solves the problem! SETI and Society • History, Anthropology, Archaeology • Law • Education • Science, Mystery and Epiphany Uses of History, Anthro, Etc • Study of Past Impact - Lowell, pulsars, impact of past worldview changes (if it is a change in worldview!) • Use of Analogs for Future Impact - Must be used cautiously - Transmission of knowledge to Latin West - 10,000 years of history, but what lessons? • Examine underlying assumptions An Early Attempt at Studying Societal Impact of Spaceflight • Part of a series of societal impact of spaceflight studies by American Academy of Arts and Sciences under contract to NASA (early 1960s; MIT, Bruce Mazlish et al) • Uses and Abuses of Historical Analogy • Cannot predict the future • A guide for thinking: “terrain of the past suggestive of the topography of present and its future projection” Make Use of Past Studies SETI Societal Impact ___________________________________ • Will depend on scenario (microbial or intelligent; near or remote, etc) • Will vary in different societies • Will affect religious doctrines in different ways (a long history of discussion) • Will determine our place in the universe • Implement the Denning research agenda Societal Impact of SETI • Impacting whom? ‘Society’ is not monolithic – how to handle this problem? • Impacting how? What is an ‘impact’? Scientific data refracted through many lenses • What is the scope of the problem? Very different scenarios for contact. • Etc, Etc Prepare for the Outcome We Are Not Alone (Walter Sullivan, 1966) Are We Alone? (Rood and Trefil, 1981) We are Alone … (possible SETI result) This outcome might also need preparation because there seems to be a need for aliens Law: The Problem of Response • Need an expert group, funded over a period of years, to study response problem and give advice to the President (Tatel) • IAA group? SETI and Society: Education • Better ways of communicating to public (Wagner) through multiple media • SETI Institute doing some of this through LITU curriculum • More “SETI Girls” • SETI is part of Cosmic Evolution (Drake Eqn), widely disseminated through Wright Center (Chaisson), SETI Institute, etc Science, Mystery and Epiphany • Astronomy raises questions traditionally reserved for religion • Astronomical art heightens the sense of mystery and beauty (especially Lomberg’s!) • SETI may result in an epiphany (but which one? “Stardust thou art and into Stardust thou shalt Return”
