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The Consequences of Contact

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What We Know About Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Part of the book series: Space and Society ((SPSO))

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Abstract

By now, many readers will be, or have, been thinking a very human question: What’s in it for me/us? This is perfectly reasonable and even fruitful. Though the issue of the consequences of possible contact stretches the objectives of this book somewhat, it is, has been, and will be a cardinal question in SETI. A great deal of scholarly effort has gone into assessing the effects on humanity of contact with ETI. Though it is possible that if the signal is unambiguously from ETI, and it is information-rich, a message will cause great disruption, this is on the whole unlikely. Potential effects on various institutions, on the lives of individuals and groups need nevertheless to be assessed. It is most likely that in the short term, the effects would be determined by a number of factors, and are thus unpredictable. In the long term, the effects may bring about ‘mosaic’ changes, with some locales and statuses changing more then others. We also need to consider seriously the potential for intentional disruption of human life, whether in the form of warfare or otherwise.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Not because they ‘gave up’ as some authors would have it, but because they were overwhelmed by force, ideologies, and economics.

  2. 2.

    For the record I am a Jewish Daoist Shintôist Buddhist polytheist who believes (sometimes) that all things are alive in some fashion, and that computer printers are inherently malevolent.

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    Michael Ashkenazi

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Ashkenazi, M. (2017). The Consequences of Contact. In: What We Know About Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Space and Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44456-7_13

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