Abstract
Among the four operating principles of the NASA Astrobiology Roadmap, Principle 3 recognizes broad societal interest for the implications of astrobiology. Although several meetings have been convened in the past decade to discuss the implications of extraterrestrial intelligence, none have addressed the broader implications of astrobiology as now defined at NASA. Here we survey these societal questions and argue that they deserve further serious study, in accordance with the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. Astrobiology, already an interdisciplinary field in terms of the physical and biological sciences, should now embrace the humanities and the social and behavioral sciences in order to explore its cultural implications. Such study is part of the general need for better dialogue between science and society.
First published in Bioastronomy 99: A New Era in Bioastronomy, Guillermo Lemarchand and Karen Meech, eds. (San Francisco, 2000).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
My papers on this case, including detailed analysis of the differences between Contact and the Coppola documents, are in the Adler Planetarium Archives in Chicago. See also http://variety.com/1998/film/news/coppola-s-contact-claim-is-dismissed-1117467799/ and http://variety.com/2000/film/news/coppola-loses-contact-1117780544/
References
Almar, I. 1995. “The Consequences of a Discovery: Different Scenarios”, in G. Seth Shostak, ed., Progress in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life, San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 499–505.
Berenzden, R. 1973. Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man. NASA, Washington, D.C..
Billingham, J. et al. 1999. Social Implications of the Detection of an Extraterrestrial Civilization. SETI Press; Mountain View, CA.
Blackmore, S. 1999. The Meme Machine. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Bracewell, R. 1975. The Galactic Club. San Francisco, 69–83.
U. S. Congress, 1961. Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs, a Report of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U. S. House of Representatives, 87th Congress, First Session, prepared for NASA by the Brookings Institution. Washington: Government Printing Office).
Coyne, G. 2000, “The Evolution of Intelligent Life on Earth and Possibly Elsewhere: Reflections from a Religious Tradition,” in Steven J. Dick, ed., Many Worlds: The New Universe and its Theological Implications. Templeton Press: Philadelphia
Crowe, M. 1986. The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, 1750–1900: The Idea of a Plurality of Worlds from Kant to Lowell. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Davies, P. 1995. Are We Alone? Philosophical Implications of the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life Basic Books, New York.
Davies, P. 1998. The Fifth Miracle: The Search for the Origin of Life. Penguin Press, London
Dawkins, R. 1976. The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
De Duve, C. 1995. Vital Dust: Life as a Cosmic Imperative. Basic Books, New York
Des Marais, David., J. A. Nuth, III, Louis Allamandola et al. 2008. “The NASA Astrobiology Roadmap,“Astrobiology, 8: 715–730.
Dick, S. J. 1995. “Consequences of Success in SETI: Lessons from the History of Science,” in G. Seth Shostak, ed., Progress in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life. Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco, 521–532.
Dick, S. J. 1996. The Biological Universe: The Twentieth Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate and the Limits of Science, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Dick, S. J. 1998. Life on Other Worlds: The Twentieth Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Dick, S. J. ed. 2000a. Many Worlds: The New Universe and its Theological Implications. Templeton Press, Philadelphia
Dick, S. J. 2000b. “Cosmotheology”, in Steven J. Dick, ed., Many Worlds: The New Universe and its Theological Implications. Templeton Press, Philadelphia
Dick, S. J. and James Strick. 2004. NASA and the Development of Astrobiology. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick.
Dick, Steven J. 1982. Plurality of Worlds: The Origins of the Extraterrestrial Life Debate from Democritus to Kant. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Finney, B. 2000. “SETI, Consilience and the Unity of Knowledge,” in Lemarchand and Meech (2000), 641–648.
Finney, B. and E. M. Jones, 1984. Interstellar Migration and the Human Experience. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Garber, Stephen J. 2014. “A Political History of NASA’s SETI Program,” in Vakoch (2014).
Gold, T. 1999. The Hot Deep Biosphere. Springer Verlag, New York.
Guthke, K. 1990. The Last Frontier: Imagining Other Worlds from the Copernican Revolution to Modern Science Fiction. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.Y.
Harrison, A. 1997. After Contact: The Human Response to Extraterrestrial Life. Plenum, New York.
Harrison, A., J., Billingham, S. J. Dick et al. 1998. “Increasing the Role of Social Science in SETI,” unpublished paper prepared for the SETI Committee of the International Academy of Astronautics, Melbourne.
Harrison, Albert A., John Billingham, Steven Dick, et al. 2000. “The Role of the Social Sciences in SETI,” in Tough (2000), pp. 71–85.
Harrison, Albert A. and Kathleen Connell. 2001. Workshop on the Societal Implications of Astrobiology. Moffett Field: NASA Ames Research Center. Online at http://www.astrosociology.org/Library/PDF/NASA-Workshop-Report-Societal-Implications-of-Astrobiology.pdf
Huxley, T. H. 1863. Man’s Place in Nature. London, 71.
Lawler, A, 1996a. “Building a Bridge Between the Big Bang and Biology,” Science, 274 (8 November, 1996), 912.
Lawler, A. 1996b. “Origins Researchers Win Gore’s Ear, Not Pocketbook,” Science, 274 (20 December, 1996), 2003.
Lemarchand, Guillermo and Karen Meech. 2000. Bioastronomy ‘99: A New Era in Bioastronomy. Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco.
Logsdon, J. et al. 1995. Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U. S. Civil Space Program, vol I, “Organizing for Exploration,” NASA: Washington, DC.
Macilwain, C. 1996. “Goldin Wants More NASA Biologists as Gore is Briefed on Space Plans,” Nature, 384 (19/26 December, 1996), 601.
McCurdy, H. 1997. Space and the American Imagination. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.
McKay, C. 1990. “Does Mars Have Rights? An Approach to the Environmental Ethics of Planetary Engineering,” in Moral Expertise, ed. D. MacNiven. Routledge: New York, 184–197.
McMullin, E. 2000. “Life and Intelligence far From Earth: Formulating Theological Issues,” in Steven J. Dick, ed., Many Worlds: The New Universe and its Theological Implications. Templeton Press, Philadelphia.
Michaud, M. A. G. 1998. “Policy Issues in Communicating with ETI,” Space Policy, 14, 173–178.
Minksy, M. 1985. “Why Intelligent Aliens will be Intelligible”, in Edward Regis, Jr. ed., Extraterrestrials: Science and Alien Intelligence, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 117–128.
Monod, J. 1971. Chance and Necessity. New York.
NASA, 1999. “Astrobiology Roadmap.” Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, CA.
NASA. 2015. Astrobiology Strategy online at https://nai.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2016/04/NASA_Astrobiology_Strategy_2015_FINAL_041216.pdf
Peters, T. 1994. “Exo-Theology: Speculations on Extra-Terrestrial Life,” Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences Bulletin, vol. 14, no. 3, 1–9.
Poundstone, William. 1999. Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos. New York: Henry Holt, p. 375.
Randolph, R., M. Race, and C. McKay. 1997. “Reconsidering the Theological and Ethical Implications of Extraterrestrial Life,” Center for Theology and Natural Sciences Bulletin, vol. 17, no. 3, 1–8, Berkeley.
Rescher, N. 1985. “Extraterrestrial Science,” in Edward Regis, Jr. ed., Extraterrestrials: Science and Alien Intelligence, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 83–116.
Ruse, M., 1985. “Is Rape Wrong on Andromeda?,” in Edward Regis, Jr. ed., Extraterrestrials: Science and Alien Intelligence, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 43–78.
Schopf, J. W. 1999. The Cradle of Life. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Tarter, J. C. and M. A. G. Michaud, eds, 1990. “SETI Post-Detection Protocol,” Acta Astronautica, 21 (February, 1990), 69–154.
Tough, A. 1991. Crucial Questions About the Future. Lanham, MD.
Tough, A. 1998. “Small Smart Interstellar Probes,” Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, 51 (May, 1998), 167–174.
Tough, Allen, ed. 2000. When SETI Succeeds: The Impact of High-Information Contact. Foundation for the Future, Bellevue, Washington
Vakoch, Douglas, ed., 2014. Archaeology, Anthropology and Interstellar Communication. Washington, D.C: NASA.
Wilson, E. O. 1998. Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. Knopf, New York
Acknowledgements
The author thanks members of the “Question 7” Group at the Astrobiology Roadmap meeting at NASA Ames in 1998, and particularly Lynn Harper, Kathleen Connell, and Ken Rose for active discussions on the subject since that time.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dick, S.J. (2020). Cultural Aspects of Astrobiology: A Preliminary Reconnaissance at the Turn of the Millennium. In: Space, Time, and Aliens. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41614-0_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41614-0_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-41613-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-41614-0
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)