SETI: An Awesome Responsibility

In 1960, Frank Drake conducted the first ever formal SETI experiment when he aimed West Virginia’s Greenbank radio-telescope at two nearby stars. After observing Tau Ceti for several hours without detecting anything unusual in the narrow range of frequencies the project could measure, the telescope was trained on Epsilon Eridani. Barely five minutes had passed before a very strong pulsed signal was registered through a loudspeaker and on a paper chart recorder. Drake recalled in his memoirs that ‘everybody started talking at once, saying inane things such as, “What do we do now?”’

The heart-stopping signal was ultimately deduced to have been terrestrial interference, most likely a military aircraft. But if it had been ET, there was absolutely no action plan in place with regards to who should be informed, what they should be informed, or what should be done next.

SETI Protocols

It would take nearly four decades before contingencies for an actual detection would be drafted as the SETI protocol, which states in part:

‘The parties to this declaration are individuals and institutions participating in the scientific Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). 

The purpose of this document is to declare our commitment to conduct this search in a scientifically valid and transparent manner and to establish uniform procedures for the announcement of a confirmed SETI detection. 

This commitment is made in recognition of the profound scientific, social, ethical, legal, philosophical and other implications of a SETI detection. [Emphasis mine] As this enterprise enjoys wide public interest, but engenders uncertainty about how information collected during the search will be handled, the signatories have voluntarily constructed this declaration. It, together with a current list of signatory parties, will be placed on file with the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).’

Whilst undoubtedly worthwhile, it lacks teeth because it has no legal standing in the United Nations or anywhere else. And does it go far enough? 

A proposed protocol covering a response to an Extraterrestrial signal has yet to be endorsed by any of the 63 member states of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) http://resources.iaaseti.org/position.pdf

Direct Contact

And then there is the more controversial issue of contingencies in the event of discovering an Extraterrestrial artefact in the solar system, or the arrival of such on earth. SETI proponent and writer Dr Peter Schenkel proposed a document of principles ‘guiding the possible Contact Scenario of a visiting alien spacecraft’, published in the journal of the British Interplanetary Society. The proposal was rejected by the IAA SETI Permanent Committee. For SETI conservatives, such thinking is uncomfortably close to the UAP/UFO phenomenon. But it cannot be ignored.

I am struck by the fact that some prominent SETI advocates, such as the late Frank Drake, posit ETI societies so long-lived and advanced that they can afford the luxury of altruistically beaming information to anyone listening across galaxies, conduct massive technological feats such as constructing Dyson spheres around stars to harness all of their power output, and yet readily accept their own extinction because they wouldn’t attempt interstellar travel as a means of escape and survival from the inevitable death of their parent star. That doesn’t sound very intelligent to me. 

If SETI advocates restrict themselves to only considering a remote detection of ETI, where would media and the wider populace turn to for information in the event of a Direct Contact scenario; the UFO societies? Moreover, Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI) experiments have already been conducted, such as the powerful signal broadcast from Arecibo in 1974 by Frank Drake and his colleagues. Who takes responsibility if that message is one day intercepted and responded to with a visitation? Whilst Direct Contact is probably the least likely result of such activities, it can never be discounted. Such an outcome should be a sobering thought.

The practise of SETI has many different facets and carries a potentially awesome responsibility. SETI needs to consider all eventualities, and prepare accordingly. 

John Keeling is a Social Media administrator and content provider to the EAAROcibo SETI UK Facebook page.