[BLANK_AUDIO] Well, in this final lecture, let's look at the social dimension of contact with extra-terrestrial intelligences. If we do ever make contact with an intelligent civilization, what would be the social implications for us of making that contact? Well, some people think it would result in fear and panic, but I suppose it depends upon the nature of the detection. If for example you picked up an ancient signal that had been sent from a distant star, I'm sure that would cause a great deal of fascination in the whole of human society. But it probably wouldn't cause anyone to be particularly fearful. If we picked up a signal from a probe in our own solar system, that might be a very different matter, if we actually thought that extraterrestrial intelligence was observing us now. That might cause a very different reaction amongst people. Previous belief in aliens did not cause pandemonium. For example, there was a prize launched by the French Academy of Sciences on December the 17th 1900 for 100,000 francs, the Prix Guzman. And the prize stipulated the following. A prize would be awarded to the person of whatever nation, who will find the means within the next 10 years of communicating with a star and receiving a response. Mars was a, was specifically excluded from the prize, because it was thought to be too easy to communicate with alien intelligences. Why is this prize significant? Well, it shows us that there have been periods, even in recent history, where people have just assumed, that other planets have got intelligences on them. And yet, these assumed intelligences did not cause fear and pandemonium in society. So it does seem that we can be actually quite comfortable, with the idea of alien intelligences out there, as long as they don't threaten us. One obvious question we might address about alien intelligences was, will it be friendly or aggressive? Well that's very difficult to answer, because of course we don't know anything about their biology or their behavior. But we might speculate on what they might be like, based on our own knowledge of human civilization and our own knowledge of biology. For example, they're unlikely to be purely aggressive, or else how could they have collaborated to send a signal and develop that level of sophistication in the first place? How would they have a society that holds together, if they spent their whole time being aggressive, either to other species or even amongst themselves? But we might also speculate that they're unlikely to be wholly peaceful. They will, after all, be the product of Darwinian evolution, and if they are social, which we'll need, which they'll need to be to build radio telescopes, then they're likely to have elements of competitiveness. Some sort of competitive aggression, maybe, in their society. Well again, this is all speculation, but we might think that an alien intelligence might not be too different from us. It might have some elements of aggression and some elements of peacefulness as well. Yet another question you might like to think about is, what would be the religious dimension of communicating with alien intelligences? What would be the effect on religions? But it actually turns out that very few religions explicitly exclude alien intelligences. And in fact, many religions will accept other intelligences within their world view. For example, it says in the Koran, and among his signs is the creation of the heavens and the Earth, and whatever living creatures, plural, he has spread forth in both. So Muslims actually do not have a problem with extraterrestrial intelligences. Having said that, some people believe that they're saviors, such as, Jesus or unique, others think that God is universal and that his savior is universal and applies to all creatures. So depending upon your religious point of view, you might think that your God is specific to terrestrial civilization. And that aliens cannot share a religious connection with us, and do not form part of your religious world view. But I think there's a more interesting question as well. Not just what would be the impact if alien intelligences on our religious point of view, but would we be ready to accept the religious point of view of aliens, if they have a completely different view of religion? Maybe they've even abandoned religion. Are we willing to go along with them and accept their point of view, particularly if they're older and more sophisticated than our civilization? So, the impact of aliens on our civilization may be more than just the impact on our religious world views. Also whether we're willing to adopt their particular point of view. If we do communicate with an alien intelligence, there's a crucial question that has to be addressed. How should the public be told? Well, the United Nations has thought about these sorts of problems. And the question is, should the information be told to the public outright or should it be slowly released, through some prescribed, through some specific type of protocol? In 1977 the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space posed these questions. Should messages sent to alien intelligences be composed by international organizations, such as the UN? Should a register of messages sent to aliens be kept? Should the preparation of all messages, whether sent out into space or to aliens that have landed on the earth, be done by the United Nations? And would art or science better represent the nature of humanity, and how should we construct these messages? These sorts of early questions, raised fundamental ideas about, the way in which we go about communicating with alien intelligences. In SETI programs, as well as if they came to the Earth and we made direct contact with them. At the moment there's no protocol for how we should deal with an alien intelligence if it made contact with us or if aliens landed on the surface of the Earth. But people are seriously thinking about this, and the United Nations is considering protocols to be drawn up, to handle the communication with first contact with an alien intelligence. And there have, of course, been previous attempts to speak to aliens. We met in an earlier lecture the Voyager records, these rec, these records that contain images and music from planet Earth, sent on the Voyager spacecraft and are now leaving the solar system. And these records were put on these spacecraft in the hope that they might one day be picked up by alien intelligences. And this is what the secretary of the United Nations wrote, that is included on those records on the Voyager spacecraft. The secretary said, as a secretary of the United Nations, the organization of a 147 member state who represent almost all of the human inhabitants of the planet Earth, I send greetings on behalf of the people of our planet. We step out of our solar system into the universe, seeking only peace and friendship. To teach if we are called upon, to be taught if we are fortunate. He then says, we know full well that our planet and all inhabitants are all but a small part of this immense universe that surrounds us. And it is with humility and hope that we take this step. So this was our first attempt to communicate with alien intelligences. Well, that was a particular message from the secretary of the United Nations, but it raises yet another question. Who should represent Earth, if an alien intelligence landed on the Earth and we directly made communication with them. Who should be the first human beings to literally walk up to them, and make contact with them, and communicate with them? Well, you may have your own ideas, and there's certainly no definitive answer to this question. People hotly debate it. For example, should it be, the United Nations, an international organization that represent many member states many nations on the Earth? Or should it be a specific nation that has the capacity to explore space? For example the United States, or China. Should it be a collection of nations? Perhaps the European Union. Perhaps it should have no connection with nations at all. Perhaps a society, a society of explorers, should communicate with alien intelligences. For example, the Planetary Society, or the International Astronautical Federation. Or some sort of body of scientists and astronomers that carry out space exploration. Maybe they should talk to aliens. Or maybe none of these organizations of nations is appropriate. Perhaps the first people to talk to aliens should be everyday members of the public. Perhaps a collection of people that represent the different races on Earth should be brought together and sent out to communicate with these aliens. All of these ideas have their advantages and disadvantages. There's no specific idea yet about who would represent the Earth if we really made contact with alien intelligences. There is a problem, of course, with all of these ideas. They assume that we will make contact with extraterrestrial intelligences. And this is a real problem to be addressed. As we saw in earlier lectures, there's a problem that is being called the Fermi Paradox. First raised by physicist Enrico Fermi. And Fermi asked the question, if there are intelligent civilizations out there, if there are so many stars in the universe, then surely there's a high probability that alien intelligences would be out there and they would have communicated with us so far. But we haven't received any messages. No aliens have landed on the Earth. Why not? And here are some of the answers to the Fermi Paradox. Some of them slightly more outlandish than others, but all of them perfectly reasonable solutions to this problem. One solution might be that they are already here. They're already on the Earth amongst us, and they're just not communicating with us. Another answer might be that they can't get here. The distance between stars is too great, it takes too long for a civilization to send representatives to another star system. It's just not physically possible for aliens to move from one star to another. Another answer is, civilizations always destroy themselves. In the 20th century, human civilization came very close to a nuclear apocalypse. Perhaps it's the destiny of all civilizations at some point in their history to destroy themselves. We haven't yet reached that point, but perhaps we don't observe advanced alien civilizations visiting our planet, because all those other civilizations have destroyed themselves. Perhaps aliens are out there, but they're watching us, and we simply terrify them. Imagine being an alien and watching this species on the surface of a planet testing nuclear weapons, carrying out wars, and all sort of atrocities across the planetary surface. Perhaps they watch our wars and we terrify them so much that they simply refuse to communicate with us. Perhaps we are being denied entry to a galactic club. Perhaps there are a vast number of civilizations out there, but we have much to learn, including stopping war and solving problems on our own planet. And not until we reach a certain level of responsibility and sophistication, social sophistication will these other intelligences admit us, to this galactic club. And yet another solution is that we're a zoo. We're actually being observed by alien intelligences, that are carrying out a huge biological experiment on the surface of the earth, of which we are a small part. And they are using us to understand biological evolution. Well, some of these responses to the Fermi Paradox are somewhat more plausible, some of them are somewhat more crazy, all of them are very fun and they're very interesting. But it is, nevertheless, a quite serious paradox that astrobiologists have to address. Why are there no intelligent civilizations landing on the Earth and communicating with us? We have to find a plausible answer to that question. The Earth is a very small place, and we have much to learn about the universe around us, the possibilities of life out there in the universe and the possibilities of extraterrestrial intelligences. So what have we learned? Well, we've learned that predicting the effects of contact with extraterrestrial intelligences is very difficult. We can only really make predictions based on what we know about our own society and our own biology. There needs to be an agreed protocol to deal with contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. Something that the United Nations is already thinking about. The effects of detection may not be very profound unless it represents a clear and immediate threat to our planet. In fact the past history of ideas about extraterrestrial intelligence suggests that many people, many people feel quite comfortable with the idea of extraterrestrial intelligences. What we know already about religions and other world views is that many people would incorporate alien intelligences into their world view. It may not cause a crisis for religions and other types of social perspective. But nevertheless, how we communicate with extraterrestrial intelligences and the consequences for our society remains a good question. And we also have to answer the question of why we haven't already observed alien intelligences. Thank you for taking this course, astrobiology, that's now the end of these lectures. I hope you've learned something about astrobiology. This very exciting and rapidly developing area of science. That seeks to understand the origin of life on our planet. The evolution of life on our planet. And the possibilities of life elsewhere. Whether that's microbial life, or intelligent life. There are still a huge number of questions in astrobiology to be addressed, still a vast number of things that we don't understand and don't know. In the coming decades, maybe even the coming centuries, many of these questions will be answered. This is a fascinating field which I hope you'll stay in touch with, and continue to show an interest in, in the years ahead.
