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SETI: Social Effects of a Detection
Submitted by saraneppl on Thu, 08/20/2009 - 7:49am
This blogger is off to the Comcast Social Media Conference this afternoon, so today's post will be a quick one, but we really wanted to share this link.
Another CityClub staffer, while poking around SETI's website, found this interesting section discussing potential social effects of a detection. It is very clearly stated by SETI that should they ever "make contact" (so to speak), everyone would know: "Regarding the immediate consequences of success, it's worth pointing out that there will be no hiding of the discovery. If any signal is unambiguously verified as being extraterrestrial, it will be openly announced."
I'm sure, right about now, half a dozen scenes from movies wherein human encounters alien are spinning through your brain. Mass chaos? Silent wonder? What are the criteria for a signal to be "unambiguously verified"? Is the movie you're in Independence Day? War of the Worlds? Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Contact? Perhaps the now-in-theaters District 9? What do you think would happen?
Clicking the link above can lead you to a lot of other interesting places: background science of SETI, fact vs. fiction regarding Contact (which is based on CityClub panelist Dr. Jill Tarter). Check it out, click around - and make sure to join us on August 27 at the Science Fiction Museum for our conversation with Dr. Tarter and Dr. Don Brownlee, "The Search for Extraterrestrial Life: Is Anything or Anybody Out There?" (Seriously, guys - how can you even think of missing this?)
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Another CityClub staffer, while poking around SETI's website, found this interesting section discussing potential social effects of a detection. It is very clearly stated by SETI that should they ever "make contact" (so to speak), everyone would know: "Regarding the immediate consequences of success, it's worth pointing out that there will be no hiding of the discovery. If any signal is unambiguously verified as being extraterrestrial, it will be openly announced."
I'm sure, right about now, half a dozen scenes from movies wherein human encounters alien are spinning through your brain. Mass chaos? Silent wonder? What are the criteria for a signal to be "unambiguously verified"? Is the movie you're in Independence Day? War of the Worlds? Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Contact? Perhaps the now-in-theaters District 9? What do you think would happen?
Clicking the link above can lead you to a lot of other interesting places: background science of SETI, fact vs. fiction regarding Contact (which is based on CityClub panelist Dr. Jill Tarter). Check it out, click around - and make sure to join us on August 27 at the Science Fiction Museum for our conversation with Dr. Tarter and Dr. Don Brownlee, "The Search for Extraterrestrial Life: Is Anything or Anybody Out There?" (Seriously, guys - how can you even think of missing this?)
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