What’s Past is Prologue: Future Messages of Cosmic Evolution

Abstract

Even before the first search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) experiment was conducted, people have been pondering what reply we might send if some day we discover an extraterrestrial civilization. Some have suggested that the United Nations would be the international body of choice for deciding such a question and that would seem one appropriate starting point. The challenge that the international SETI community has faced is gaining a space on the already full agenda of the United Nations; indeed, the preface to the existing SETI protocols endorsed by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and the International Institute of Space Law explicitly acknowledges the difficulty of gaining the attention of the United Nations. If some day we detect direct evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence, all that may well change, but what are we do to in the meantime?