Responsibility,capability, and Active SETI: Policy,law, ethics,and communication with extraterrestrial intelligence

With recently growing interest in the Active Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), in which humankind would send intentional signals to extraterrestrial civilizations, there have been increased concerns about appropriate policy, as well as the role of space law and ethics in guiding such activities. Implicit in these discussions are notions of responsibility and capability that affect judgments about whether humans or other civilizations should initiate transmissions. Existing protocols that guide SETI research address transmissions from Earth, but there is debate over whether these guidelines should inform de novo transmissions as well. Relevant responsibilities to address include (1) looking out for the interests of humankind as a whole, (2) being truthful in interstellar messages, and (3) benefiting extraterrestrial civilizations. Our capabilities as a species and a civilization affect how well we can fulfill responsibilities, as seen when we consider whether we will be able to reach consensus about message contents (and whether that would be desirable), and whether we have the capacity to decode messages from beings that rely on different sensory modalities. The interplay of these responsibilities and capabilities suggests that humankind should place increased emphasis on Active SETI.     

Ten thousand revolutions: conjectures about civilizations

Ten thousand years ago, no-one on Earth was living a “civilized” life. What has happened since is remarkable and impossible to fully comprehend; yet, everyone has ideas about civilization, and how the world came to be as it is. Such understandings of civilizations on Earth inevitably influence speculation about extraterrestrial civilizations, in two ways. First, sometimes a specific Earth civilization or historical experience is explicitly used as a basis for inferences about extraterrestrial civilizations. Second, more general assumptions about the development and functioning of Earth's societies shape conjectures about alien societies. This paper focuses on the latter, general assumptions, with the aim of considering how we can use multidisciplinary approaches, and our knowledge of Earth's civilizations, to our best advantage in SETI.     

An international relations perspective on the consequences of SETI

Can we envision what the laws of politics and the laws of ethics will be in extraterrestrial civilizations? The laws of physics and chemistry will be the same. Presumably, if there are biospheres in other solar systems, the nature of biology will be the same. Over time evolution may produce the same forms of consciousness and intelligence as we see on earth. However, the political and ethical systems on earth are diverse. Often our images of extraterrestrial civilizations are mere projections of earthly patterns of conflict and cooperation. Perhaps over time the many civilizations and patterns on earth will evolve into one global civilization with harmonious political and ethical norms. These may be the same in universal civilizations if evolution is a cosmic process.     

Asymmetry in Active SETI: A case for transmissions from Earth

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) typically presupposes contact with extraterrestrial civilizations much longer lived than humanity. Many have argued that given humanity's “youth,” the burden of transmitting should be placed on the extraterrestrial civilizations, which presumably possess more advanced technologies. These assumptions have contributed to the current emphasis on Passive SETI. Complementing this existing stress on Passive SETI with an additional commitment to Active SETI, in which humankind transmits messages to other civilizations, would have several advantages, including (1) addressing the reality that regardless of whether older civilizations should be transmitting, they may not be transmitting; (2) placing the burden of decoding and interpreting messages on advanced extraterrestrials, which may facilitate mutual comprehension; and (3) signaling a move toward an intergenerational model of science with a long-term vision for benefiting other civilizations as well as future generations of humans. Technological requirements for Active SETI are considered, and a case is made for Active SETI as a means for experimentally testing variants of the Zoo Hypothesis. Recommendations are provided for sustaining Passive and Active SETI and the communities that conduct these searches.     

MAD with aliens? Interstellar deterrence and its implications

The possibility that extraterrestrial intelligences (ETIs) could be hostile to humanity has been raised as a reason to avoid even trying to contact ETIs. However, there is a distinct shortage of analytical discussion about the risks of an attack, perhaps because of an implicit premise that we cannot analyze the decision making of an alien civilization. This paper argues that we can draw some inferences from the history of the Cold War and nuclear deterrence in order to show that at least some attack scenarios are likely to be exaggerated. In particular, it would seem to be unlikely that the humanity would be attacked simply because it might, sometime in the future, present a threat to the ETI. Even if communication proves to be difficult, rational decision-makers should avoid unprovoked attacks, because their success would be very difficult to assure. In general, it seems believable that interstellar conflicts between civilizations would remain rare. The findings advise caution for proposed interstellar missions, however, as starfaring capability itself might be seen as a threat. On the other hand, attempting to contact ETIs seems to be a relatively low-risk strategy: paranoid ETIs must also consider the possibility that the messages are a deception designed to lure out hostile civilizations and preemptively destroy them.     

First stage identification of syntactic elements in an extra-terrestrial signal

By investigating the generic attributes of a representative set of terrestrial languages at varying levels of abstraction, it is our endeavour to try and isolate elements of the signal universe, which are computationally tractable for its detection and structural decipherment. Ultimately, our aim is to contribute in some way to the understanding of what ‘languageness’ actually is. This paper describes algorithms and software developed to characterise and detect generic intelligent language-like features in an input signal, using natural language learning techniques: looking for characteristic statistical “language-signatures” in test corpora. As a first step towards such species-independent language-detection, we present a suite of programs to analyse digital representations of a range of data, and use the results to extrapolate whether or not there are language-like structures which distinguish this data from other sources, such as music, images, and white noise.     

The DISC Quotient

D.I.S.C: Decipherment Impact of a Signal's Content.The authors present a numerical method to characterise the significance of the receipt of a complex and potentially decipherable signal from extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI). The purpose of the scale is to facilitate the public communication of work on any such claimed signal, as such work proceeds, and to assist in its discussion and interpretation.Building on a “position” paper rationale, this paper looks at the DISC quotient proposed and develops the algorithmic steps and comprising measures that form this post detection strategy for information dissemination, based on prior work on message detection, decipherment. As argued, we require a robust and incremental strategy, to disseminate timely, accurate and meaningful information, to the scientific community and the general public, in the event we receive an “alien” signal that displays decipherable information. This post-detection strategy is to serve as a stepwise algorithm for a logical approach to information extraction and a vehicle for sequential information dissemination, to manage societal impact.The “DISC Quotient”, which is based on signal analysis processing stages, includes factors based on the signal's data quantity, structure, affinity to known human languages, and likely decipherment times. Comparisons with human and other phenomena are included as a guide to assessing likely societal impact. It is submitted that the development, refinement and implementation of DISC as an integral strategy, during the complex processes involved in post detection and decipherment, is essential if we wish to minimize disruption and optimize dissemination.     

What should we say to extraterrestrial intelligence?: An analysis of responses to “Earth Speaks”

If scientists engaged in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) detect a signal from an extraterrestrial civilization, one of the most pressing issues facing humankind will be “Should we reply, and if so, what should we say?” Building on an infrastructure that the SETI Institute used to gather over 50,000 messages from around the world to send onboard the Kepler mission, Earth Speaks invites people to submit online their text messages, pictures, and sounds, as they ponder what they would want to say to an extraterrestrial civilization. Participants for the study have been recruited from 68 nations, from all walks of life. By tracking demographic variables for each person submitting a message, we have identified commonalities and differences in message content that are related to such factors as age and gender. Similarly, by tracking the date on which messages were submitted and the location from which the message was sent, we have also identified the way in which message content is related to time and geographic location. Furthermore, when we compare previous themes derived from textual messages to our current categorical analysis of submitted images, we find our textual themes to be concurrently validated. In doing so, we find the Earth Speaks Website not only allows for the construction of interstellar messages, but also functions as a projective psychological assessment of species-level human identity. We next proceed to demonstrate the generative power of our method by showing how we can synthesize artificial messages from the Earth Speaks messages. We then discuss how these artificially generated messages can be tailored to represent both commonality and diversity in human thought as it is revealed through our data. We end by discussing our method's utility for cross-disciplinary research in the social sciences and humanities.     

Life and intelligence in the universe from nanobiological principles: A survey and budget of concepts and perspectives

The new-born bioscience called Nanobiology has tackled the problems of the possibility of existence of extraterrestrial life and intelligence and of biosystem distribution in the Universe, as such questions actually belong to the realm of Theoretical Biology. The central, and yet unanswered points of such science have been reinvestigated by attempting knowledge and control of the hard-to-determine nanoscale-level classical and quantum interactions, which would supposedly give mechanistic, definite answers, both informationally and energetically, to the vexing questions put by biosystems to science: is the “living state” a physically definible concept, and how to define it? Are nanoscale kinetics or even detailed mechanics involved in the origin of life? What about intelligence, consciousness and their nanophysical roots? Are “life” and “intelligence” engineerable properties, or is any Artificial Intelligence program bound to mere metaphors? Self-organization, studied at the thermodynamic and the hydrodynamic level, showed the possibility of chemical evolution from amino acids, probably of cometary and/or meteoritic origin, up to spatiotemporal organization, autopoiesis and biological evolution, but didn't explain the origins of life. Questioning the uniqueness of the earthly evolutionary chemistry is cardinal for the ETI dilemma, as from a budgetary appraisal of perspectives in bionanoscale chaotic undecidable dynamics, quantum gravity and quantum vacuum, both “living state” and “intelligence” look like nonlocal, spacetime-linked cosmic phenomena.     

Positive consequences of SETI before detection

Even before a signal is detected, six positive consequences will result from the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence, usually called SETI. (1) Humanity’s self-image: SETI has enlarged our view of ourselves and enhanced our sense of meaning. Increasingly, we feel a kinship with the civilizations whose signals we are trying to detect. (2) A fresh perspective: SETI forces us to think about how extraterrestrials might perceive us. This gives us a fresh perspective on our society’s values, priorities, laws and foibles. (3) Questions: SETI is stimulating thought and discussion about several fundamental questions. (4) Education: some broad-gage educational programs have already been centered around SETI. (5) Tangible spin-offs: in addition to providing jobs for some people, SETI provides various spin-offs, such as search methods, computer software, data, and international scientific cooperation. (6) Future scenarios: SETI will increasingly stimulate us to think carefully about possible detection scenarios and their consequences, about our reply, and generally about the role of extraterrestrial communication in our long-term future. Such thinking leads, in turn, to fresh perspectives on the SETI enterprise itself.     

Exosemiotics: an inter-disciplinary approach

Over the past several hundred years, many ideas have been expressed as to how human beings might communicate with extraterrestrials. These ideas have been put forth by experts from a diverse range of fields including physical scientists, mathematicians, behavioral scientists, philosophers and creative writers who have widely differing views on how to express ourselves coherently with civilizations from other worlds.This paper will look at some of these differing viewpoints and stress the need for an inter-disciplinary approach to the challenges of sending and, perhaps most important, receiving messages. Could we decipher a message if we got one? Who is doing the listening and what advantages could an inter-disciplinary approach bring to these efforts? What are some inter-disciplinary approaches to sending messages to extraterrestrials?     

Mass-, time-, and energy-characteristics of the interstellar flights during the long proper time of astronauts

The existence of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) and extraterrestrial scientific-technical civilization (STC) is of principal importance for CETI (communication with extraterrestrial intelligence) and SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence). According to Kardashev and Bracewell, the Earth-like STC in their farther development can expand to the nearby planetary systems of the Galaxy, creating galactic community (Bracewell's galactic club).In a previous paper the possibilities of the one-step relativistic rocket interstellar flight during the proper time of life of one-two generations of astronauts were analysed. The realization of such interstellar flights is very improbable, even to the nearest stars. These results could be true for the case of the comparatively short proper time of astronauts, i.e. large acceleration. But flights to the nearest stars could be realized with small and very small accelerations. In the present paper are calculated the proper times t in the reference systems connected with the astronauts (S₂), as well as the times T in the reference systems (S₁)-inertial, velocities v in S₁, mass ratios, powers and energies for various flights, exhaust velocities u and accelerations a. Results are critically discussed.     

Morphological biosignatures and the search for life on Mars

This report provides a rationale for the advances in instrumentation and understanding needed to assess claims of ancient and extraterrestrial life made on the basis of morphological biosignatures. Morphological biosignatures consist of bona fide microbial fossils as well as microbially influenced sedimentary structures. To be recognized as evidence of life, microbial fossils must contain chemical and structural attributes uniquely indicative of microbial cells or cellular or extracellular processes. When combined with various research strategies, high-resolution instruments can reveal such attributes and elucidate how morphological fossils form and become altered, thereby improving the ability to recognize them in the geological record on Earth or other planets. Also, before fossilized microbially influenced sedimentary structures can provide evidence of life, criteria to distinguish their biogenic from non-biogenic attributes must be established. This topic can be advanced by developing process-based models. A database of images and spectroscopic data that distinguish the suite of bona fide morphological biosignatures from their abiotic mimics will avoid detection of false-positives for life. The use of high-resolution imaging and spectroscopic instruments, in conjunction with an improved knowledge base of the attributes that demonstrate life, will maximize our ability to recognize and assess the biogenicity of extraterrestrial and ancient terrestrial life.     

Satellite communications and the Internet: implications for the outer space treaty

The speedily expanding Internet is in the process of transforming the technological, economic, and policy bases for nation-state regulation of telecommunications, including space-based satellite networks. Deployment of the packet-switched Internet has accelerated the liberalization of telecommunications markets and has led to far-reaching regulatory restructuring and policy shifts regarding state ownership and control of networks and information flows. As space-based GMPCS networks become integral parts of the globalizing Internet infrastructure, the state-centric legal paradigm requiring state “authorization and continuing supervision” of space activities by “non-governmental entities” stipulated under Article VI of the OST and associated treaties forming the outer space legal regime will be called increasingly into question. This paper examines the technological, economic/trade, and security issues that question whether the existing state-centric paradigm for regulating Internel-based GMPCS satellite systems will remain in legal phase with emerging liberalized regulatory regimes for terrestrial Internet-based infractructures.     

Legal consequences of a SETI detection

If a detection of ETI takes place, this will in all probability be the result of either: (a) detecting and recognising a signal or other emission of ETI; or (b) the finding of an alien artifact (for instance on the Moon or other Celestial Body of our Solar System); or (c) the highly improbable event of an actual encounter. First and foremost, legal consequences regarding any of these contingencies will result from immediate consultations between nations on Earth. Understandings, memoranda and even agreements might be proposed and/or concluded. Such results within the field of terrestrial law will surely be a new branch of International Law, and particularly of International Space Law. At the same time, terrestrial nations will have to realize that any ETI will be self-determined intelligent individualities or organizations who might have their own understanding of “rules of behaviour” and thus, be legal subjects. Whether one calls such rules “law” or not: if two intelligent races—both of which have specific rules of behaviour—come into contact with each other, the basic understanding of such mutual rules will lead to a kind of “code of conduct”. This might be the starting point for a kind of Law—Metalaw—between different races in the Universe.     

SETI and space law: jurisprudential and philosophical considerations for humankind in relation to extraterrestrial life

The impact of confirmation of life outside the small ecosphere we call Earth will be profound on the terran population as a whole. The “Declaration Of Principles Concerning Activities Following The Detection Of Extraterrestrial Intelligence” and the IAA Position Paper “A Decision Process for Examining the Possibility of Sending Communications To Extraterrestrial Civilizations: A Proposal” provide a firm basis for the development of a new body of space law. It is important that space law design and prepare for implementation of a protocol to guide the nations of the world concerning the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), through the advice and cooperation of scientists, jurisprudential, philosophical, political and sociological scholars. Through the IAA, the IISL, the United Nations and other organizations, formal documentation should be drafted to encode the Declaration of Principles and IAA Position Paper referred to above. In this way, a body of metalaw can be developed to enable human communication with non-terrestrial life. This paper discusses the philosophical and sociological parameters of terran understanding of our place in the universe which will dramatically impact jurisprudential thought and action in light of the realization of the infinitesimally small niche that humankind occupies. A discussion of these interdisciplinary concerns will be necessary to realize a metalegal approach to interstellar communications and relations.     

SETI in the light of cosmic convergent evolution

Theodosius Dobzhansky, one of the founding fathers of the modern evolutionary synthesis, once famously stated that “nothing makes sense in biology except in the light of evolution”. Here it will be argued that nothing in astrobiology makes sense except in the light of “Cosmic Convergent Evolution” (CCE). This view of life contends that natural selection is a universal force of nature that leads to the emergence of similarly adapted life forms in analogous planetary biospheres. Although SETI historically preceded the rise of astrobiology that we have witnessed in the recent decade, one of its main tenets from the beginning was the convergence of life on a cosmic scale toward intelligent behavior and subsequent communication via technological means. The question of cultural convergence in terms of symbolic exchange, language and scientific capabilities between advanced interstellar civilizations has been the subject of ongoing debate. However, at the core of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence lies in essence a biological problem since even post-biological extraterrestrial intelligences must have had an origin based on self-replicating biopolymers. Thus, SETI assumes a propensity of the Universe towards biogenesis in accordance with CCE, a new evolutionary concept which posits the multiple emergence of life across the Cosmos. Consequently, we have to wonder about the biophilic properties the Universe apparently exhibits, as well as to try to find an encompassing theory that is able to explain this “fine-tuning” in naturalistic terms. The aims of this paper are as follows: 1) to emphasize the importance of convergent evolution in astrobiology and ongoing SETI research; 2) to introduce novel and biology-centered cosmological ideas such as the “Selfish Biocosm Hypothesis” and the “Evo Devo Universe” as valuable arguments in theorizing about the origin and nature of extraterrestrial intelligence and 3) to synthesize these findings within an emerging post-biological paradigm on which future SETI efforts may be founded.     

The benefits and harm of transmitting into space

Deliberate and unintentional radio transmissions from Earth propagate into space. These transmissions could be detected by extraterrestrial watchers over interstellar distances. This article analyzes the harm and benefits of deliberate and unintentional transmissions relevant to Earth and humanity. Comparing the magnitude of deliberate radio broadcasts intended for messaging to extraterrestrial intelligence (METI) with the background radio spectrum of Earth, we find that METI attempts to date have much lower detectability than emissions from current radio communication technologies on Earth. METI broadcasts are usually transient and several orders of magnitude less powerful than other terrestrial sources, such as astronomical and military radars, which provide the strongest detectable signals. The benefits of radio communication on Earth most probably outweigh the potential harm of detection by extraterrestrial watchers; however, the uncertainty regarding the outcome of contact with extraterrestrial beings creates difficulty in assessing whether or not to engage in long-term and large-scale METI.