Ben Finney

The impact of contact

Abstract Scenarios of the impact on human society of radio contact with an extraterrestrial civilization vary widely between paranoid projections that contact with advanced extraterrestrials would quickly devastate the human spirit, and pronoid predictions that the extraterrestrials would be so advanced that they would swiftly and benevolently lead us into a golden age. Such extreme pronouncements exaggerate the probable speed and magnitude of the impact of radio contact in that they conflate technical and cultural understanding, and ignore the problem of inter-civilizational comprehension. Judging from the record of cultural misunderstanding between closely related human groups, comprehending a totally different civilization light years away, and absorbing the meaning of whatever messages were sent, would be a slow and tedious process calling for the efforts of specialists from many disciplines as well as the SETI scientists now engaged in the search.

A tale of two analogues: learning at a distance from the ancient greeks and maya and the problem of deciphering extraterrestrial radio transmissions

Abstract The transmission of ancient Greek learning and science to medieval western Europe via the translation of Greek and Arab texts is often cited as a terrestrial example of “learning at a distance” that could occur by means of the decipherment of radio messages from advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. However, the translation between such closely related languages as Greek, Latin and Arabic and the decipherment of radio messages from an extraterrestrial civilization to the point where humans could understand them are only nominally analogous tasks. A terrestrial example of such “learning at a distance” from an ancient civilization that perhaps better prepares us for thinking about the immense task inherent in any interstellar knowledge transmission is provided by the lengthy and troubled efforts of western scholars to decipher the inscriptions left by the ancient Maya and to learn from them about this ancient civilization. Only recently, with the rejection of the ideographic fallacy that Maya glyphs symbolized ideas directly without the mediation of language and with the application of linguistic knowledge of Maya languages has it been possible to decipher the Maya inscriptions and learn from them about their science and culture. This experience suggests that without any knowledge of languages in which extraterrestrial messages might be composed, their decipherment could be most problematic. The Maya case is also relevant to the common suggestion that advanced extraterrestrials would deliberately compose messages not in their own natural languages but in artificial ones using logic, numbers, and scientific constants presumably shared among all intelligent civilizations, or at least those in their radio-communicative phases. Numbers and calendrical dating system were the first parts of the Mayan inscriptions to be translated, albeit with the aid of partial “Rosetta stones” left by the Spanish conquerors. This success served, however, to reinforce the ideographic fallacy, and led to rather fantastic notions that the inscriptions dealt only with mathematical, astronomical and mystical domains, when in fact most deal with dynastic history. Examination of the Maya case suggests that if we are to employ terrestrial examples to help us think about extraterrestrial knowledge transmission, we should explore the range of human experience and not just focus upon those examples which support our hopes.

SETI and the two terrestrial cultures

Abstract At first glance, differences between SETI scientists and their critics from the humanities and social sciences might seem to illustrate C.P. Snows famous thesis about the “two cultures”. However, upon examination it can be said that SETI is an unusual field where natural scientists from various disciplines, as well as a variety of humanists and social scientists, do come together to discuss common problems. Although specialists from the two groups may sometimes disagree fundamentally about SETI, they are at least talking to one another.

Anthropology and the humanization of space

Abstract Because of its broad evolutionary perspective, and its focus on both technology and culture, anthropology offers a unique perspective on why we are going into space and what leaving Earth will mean for humanity. In addition, anthropology could help in the humanization of space through: (1) overcoming socio-cultural barriers to working and living in space; (2) designing societies appropriate for permanent space settlement; (3) promoting understanding among differentiated branches of humankind scattered through space; (4) deciphering the cultural systems of any extraterrestrial civilizations contacted.

Rediscovering Polynesian Navigation through Experimental Voyaging

Over the last two decades, my colleagues and I have sailed a modern reconstruction of a Polynesian voyaging canoe some 40 000 nautical miles through Polynesian waters. This programme has been driven by two intertwined goals: one experimental – to test the sailing technology and navigational methods of the ancient Polynesians in order to resolve issues in Polynesian prehistory; and the other cultural – to enable contemporary Polynesians to relearn the means by which their ancestors found and settled their islands, and thereby gain a better sense of their uniquely maritime heritage and, ultimately, themselves. This paper focuses on the effort to rediscover how to navigate without instruments, and how that rediscovery is helping both to change scientific thinking about the colonization of Polynesia and to transform the selfimage of contemporary Polynesians.

Tsiolkovsky and extraterrestrial intelligence

Abstract Where is everybody? Fermi’s famous question about the apparent absence of evidence of extraterrestrials and the answers to it offered by Ball, Kuiper and Morris during the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) debates of the 1970s were anticipated in the writings of the pioneering Russian space theorist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Although Tsiolkovsky is most widely known for his work on spaceflight theory and his visions of humans living in space, he was also a dedicated monist who believed life existed throughout the cosmos and that we were surrounded by extraterrestrial species far more intelligent than us. To explain why advanced extraterrestrials had not made their presence known to us, or, more importantly, had not interfered with our evolution to raise us to their own level, Tsiolkovsky proposed that they were deliberately leaving us alone in the hope that we might develop “a new and wonderful stream of life that will renew and supplement their already perfected life”.

Solar system colonization and interstellar migration

Abstract Solar system colonization is an essential prelude to interstellar migration. Through the incremental settlement of the solar system we can develop the infrastructure necessary to support costly interstellar flight, new spacefaring technologies needed to cover the great distances and to nurture human life during the long flights, and new forms of social organization to enable humans to flourish in exotic environments. Furthermore, as suggested by the history of the colonization of oceanic islands, the successful settlement of the solar system and the exploitation of its resources will “cosmicize” people, encouraging them to look beyond our Sun to other stars and to the prospects for transplanting human life around them.

Contrasting Visions of Polynesian Voyaging Canoes. Comment on Atholl Anderson's ‘Traditionalism, Interaction and Long-Distance Seafaring in Polynesia’

Anderson’s essay appears to have been born of frustration over the rejection by Science of his letters criticizing Collerson and Weisler’s 2007 paper and my perspective piece about it (Finney 2007), as well as his perception of the unpopularity of criticism, which to him is the “essence of scholarship” (Anderson 2008:3, footnote 2). I have been asked to comment briefly on Anderson’s essay because it addresses some of my voyaging research. Here I focus on aspects of our respective visions of voyaging canoes. Anderson decries “traditionalism” in Polynesian seafaring research, including the “neo-traditionalism” of Lewis and Finney who employ ethnography, experimental voyaging, and historical

Will Space Change Humanity

In 1956 the philosopher Hannah Arendt delivered a series of lectures at the University of Chicago in which she considered the human condition from the vantage point of what were then “our newest experiences and our most recent fears”. Three great events, she said, had shaped the modern age and determined its character: first, the discovery of America and the ensuing exploration of the world; second, the Reformation and the social and economic transformations that followed ; third, the invention of the telescope and the revolutionary perspective on the earth and the heavens promoted by astronomy. Before, however, these lectures could be published another great event occurred: on October 4, 1957 the first Sputnik was launched, inaugurating the space age.