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Life Beyond Earth & The Mind of Man
Edited by Richard Berendzen
A symposium held at Boston University on November 20, 1972
(C) 1973 NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office * Washington DC
NASA SP-328
Stock Number 033-000-00518-1
Catalog Number NAS 1.21:328
Library of Congress Catalog No. 73-600150
[Note: The following are selected excerpts from the above publication]
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BERENDZEN
Welcome to the symposium on "Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man." Our
topic will be the search for life in the universe and the ramifications of
its possible discovery. Although there have been a handful of scientific
meetings on this topic, to the best of my knowledge this it the first time
there has ever been a meeting where a distinquished panel from diverse fields
will discuss the topic in an open forum.
A generation ago almost all scientists would have argued, often "ex
cathedra," that there probably is no other life in the universe beside what
we know here on Earth. But as Martin Rees, the cosmologist, has succinctly
put it, "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." Beyond that, in
the last decade or so the evidence, albeit circumstantial, has become large
indeed, so large, in fact, that today many scientists, probably the majority,
are convinced that extraterrestrial life surely must exist and possibly in
enormous abdundance. The question now is no longer so much of IF as of
WHERE, and with regard to the search, it has also become WHEN, for ultimate
contact seems to many serious thinkers to be virtually inevitable. A short
passage from the recent report of the Astronomy Survey Committee of the
august National Academy of Sciences of the United States, the Nation's most
disnguished scientific body, gives an example of the modern scientific
attitude:
"Each passing year has seen our estimates of the probability of life
in space increase, along with our capabilities for detecting it. More
and more scientists feel that contact with other civilizations is no
longer something beyond our dreams but a natural event in the history
of mankind that will perhaps occur within the lifetime of many of us.
The promise is now too great, either to turn away from it or to wait
much longer before devoting major resources to a search for other
intelligent beings... In the long run this may be one of science's most
important and most profound contributions to mankind and to our
civilizatioin."
I believe it fair to say, therefore, that this momentous topic deserves
careful, thorough discussion, and that is what I hope we shall give it today.
ADDITIONAL MEMBERS OF THE PANEL
ASHLEY MONTAGU: renowned anthropologist and social biologist For many years
he was chariman of the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers He is the author
of scores of books and research papers on a variety of topics in the social
sciences, including the social and cultural development of mankind
KRISTER STENDAHL: an outstanding churchman and theologican, who is the Dean
of Harvard School of Divinity. Dr. Stendahl is considered to be one of the
Nation's most scholarly theologians.
CARL SAGAN: astronomer and exobiologist at Cornell University, and one of the
five or six leading researchers on this question of extraterrestrial life. He
is the coauthor with the Soviet astonomer I.S. Shklovskii of the book
Intelligent Life in the Universe.
PHILIP MORRISON: a professor of physics at MIT durring this time, 13
years prior to this symposium coauthored what was perhpas the first
scientifically valid and reasoned paper ever published on possible modes of
communications with etraterrestrial life. Dr. Morrison is considered in
scholarly circles as one of the most broadly knowledgeable scientists in the
Nation.
GEORGE WALD: a professor of biology at Harvard. In 1967 he received the
Nobel Prize. Dr. Walk has published extensively in all branches of biology,
including the biological and chemical evolution of terrestiral life.
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WALD
The chance of breaking out of the solar system and establishing physical
contact - or the chance of any creature in outer space establishing physical
contact with us, coming to us from some other solar system -- seems to me so
remote as to be almost nil. In order to do that, one would have to travel at
the speed of light and it is rather hard to travel at the speed of light and
not be light. SO I rather doubt that physical contact is possible.
But we now are discuuing another kind of contact, and that is communication.
May I say, so that we can have a somewhat warmer and2 livelier conversation as
this meeting goes on, that I can conceive of no nightmare as terrifying as
establishing such communication with a so-called superior (or if you wish,
advanced) technology in outer space. You see, I see no escape from the
thought that more advanced technologies exist, very likely in a number of
places within our own galaxy. That though in itself is a little terrifying to
me, I muyst say, because of my view of and identification with the human
enterprise.
You see, when I ask myself as a lifelong sicentist, "What's science about?"
the answer is not to increase the catalog of facts, it is to achieve
understanding. It means a great deal that one of the greatest human
enterprises is understnaind. It is something that men have sweated out, to
the greater dignity and worth of man. The thought that we might attach, as by
an umbilical cord, to some more advanced civilization, with its more advanced
science and technology, in outer space does not thrill me, but just the
opposite. You see, I think it might thrill and fill with elation the people
who did it; but that is true of almost any enterprise one could name, however
horrifying, however destructive to the rest of mankind. You cannot think of
anything so horrifying that some person would not have a feeling of personal
accomplishment at carrying it out; and I would say that the rest of us had
better restrain him.
MONTAGU
These two facts render it likely, to judge from our immediate past
performance [*note: 10,000 years of humanity as opposed to longer
civilization maintenance by an extraterretestrial society], that upon
encountering them, our Government will immediately convene a committee in
order to determine whether these creatures consitute a threat to democracy.
Since their physical appearance will be markedly different and since
difference is usually equated in our culture with inferiority, no matter what
the intellectual status of these creatures may be, and regardless of the
healthy ways of life that characterize them, we shall, of course, know
exactly where we belong in the nature of things.
In short, we would have rather a problem on out hands, but we would not want,
I suppose, the American way of life to be contaminated. With the record we
have of treatment of the American Indians, the blacks, the Chicanos, and
other minority groups, and our record in such places as Mexico, the
Philippines, China, Vietname, and wherever else we have attempted to make the
world safe for democracy, you can foresee what is likely to happen.
I hope you will understand that the assignment I was given was worded in the
form, "How might human beings react to the discovery of life beyond Earth?"
and I have interpreted the word "might" to mean "how may we probably react"
and "how should we react." We are coming to the "should."
I do not think we should wait until the encounter occurs; we should do all in
our power to prepare ourselves for it. The manner in which we first meet may
determine the character of all our subsequent relations. Let us never forget
the fatal impact we have had upon innumerable peoples on this Earth --
peoples of our own species who trusted us, befriended us, and whom we
destroyed by our thoughlessness and insensitivity to their needs and
vulnerabilities.
The simple truth is that before we can communicate with others succesfully,
we must first learn to communicate with ourselves succesfully, and we are a
long way from having achieved that. Perhaps that is where we ought to begin
-- with ourselves. Learning to communicate with ourselves, with all the
different peoples and nations of the Earth. We go on behaving as if we
believe there is very little wrong, if anything, with ourselve. We refuse to
face the fact that we have already virtually desstroyed ourselves as humane
beings, and if we recognize any destruction at all, it is that of our
environement. We must recognize that we are suffering from a sickeness even
though it has been repeatedly denied; nevertheless it is, from my point of
view as a student of human nature, a fact that most people are no longer
humane beings, but sick persons - a sickness induced by the worship of false
values which have corrupted the spirit of man and made him the most dangerous
creature on this Earth. Unless he cures himself of this sickness, can one
reasonably expect such a creature to behave in a healthy manner? What one
can expect him to do is to behave destructively, and a good deal of the time
to be unaware of the fact that he is doing so.
Hence, to the question, "How might human beings react to the discovery of
life beyond Earth?" I would answer: "Don't wait until that life is
discovered, but prepare yourselves for the discovery by becoming what you
ought to be, by realizing your evolutionary destiny, which is to live as to
live and love were one." And what is love? It is the ability to confer
survival benefits in a creatively enlarging manner upon the other. And what
is health? It is the ability to love, to work, and to play. If we will
begin on such a a program of rehabilitation, we may be able to respond to
the discovery of life beyon Earth in an enhancing manner.
We have landed on the Moon. It might not be such a bad idea if we tried
landing on Earth. When asked by a European inquirer what he thought of
Western civilization, Gandhi paused awhile, and wrly smiling, replied, "I
don't think it would be such a bad idea."
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
QUESTION:
Communications between ourselves and other civilizations can be considered
in general in two basic categories. One is a sort of passive communication
in which we receive information from other beings; we must sit there and
compile it and perhaps eventually sort it out. And the other is an active
communication, in which we ourselves can try sending signals. And as far as
the active part is concerned, the first step outght to be to construct some
sort of signal that would be identifiable as to the fact that we were
intelligent beings. But beyond that, as Carl Sagan said, these people are a
lot more intelligent than we are. The next step would be to send out one
piece of information that would characterize our society. Since they are
probably more intelligent or advanced than we, deep consideration should be
given to just precisely what piece of information should be sent out,
because the wrong characterization of our society, or the wrong
interpretartion of it, could be quite damaging in the long run.
SAGAN:
I do not think it is quite as urgent to send as to receive, which may be a
paraphrase of a Biblical passage. Also, I again would want to stress that,
willy-nilly, we have been sending, so your remarks are most properly directed
to the FCC. The image of our society, which is garnered at some place 30
light years out, is the image you get by turning on the lat-night tube. So if
you are worried about sending out the wrong message, you have every reason to
be worried.
BERENDZEN:
Let me mention something that I would hate to pass without adequate
discussion. Is it possible that if we detected a signal from space, it would
have the dramatic, beneficial effect on mankind to bringing us together?
SAGAN:
Well, I alluded to that before. I think chances of that happening are very
great, because as soon as it is clear that there is somebody else out there
and they are smarter than us and they are different from us, then the
differences between the various slight subsets of mankind which people are
spending a lot of time worrying about -- those differences I think tend to...
MONTAGU:
Look, we have had someone out there for an awfully long time, whom Dr.
Stendahl calls "God." I take it he is referring to the Christian God. As an
antrhoplogist I am aquainted with several hundred gods. And this God is
supposed to be all wise and all-loving, etc. We seem to have learned very
little from Him. Why should our communication with extraterrestrial beings
have a more cohesive effect that the concepts of the Catholic CHurch, for
example?
SAGAN:
It is a good question. There are many possible long answers, but maybe the
fastest answer I can give is that there may be some room for doubt about the
reality of the several hundred gods you were talking about, but once the
message is received, I think there will be very little room for doubt about
the reality of the message.
MONTAGU:
But I do not doubt the existence of any of these hundreds of Gods! I believe
anything you believe to be real is as real as it could possibly be, even
though it's unreal.
SAGAN:
That's why you have such an exemplary moral character!
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QUESTION:
I would like to direct a question to Carl Sagan. Professor Wald has raised
the issue of the control of technology. Now the conference that took place in
Soviet Armenia was a mutual conference between two great powers. Professor
Morrison has raised the possibility that a tremendous corpus of knowledge can
come wafting down from outer space. Suppose that this comes into an American
facility in Puerto Rico, technology that would enable us to dominate this
world. Suppose it comes into a Soviet facility in Armenia. What exactly would
be the international body that would monitor these signals from outer space,
assuming that this civilization that we would be communicatin with is more
advanced and would be giving us tremendous technological knowledge? What is
to guarantee that one of the existing nation-states does not monitor it and
use it as we have used our technology in the past?
SAGAN:
Very good question. Fortunately, I think it has a quick answer. The answer
has to do with time scale and beamwidth. As Phil Morrison stressed, and he