After Contact – Then What?

Harrison, Albert A.

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-13196-7_26

Cited by 4 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Additionally, questions about the evolution of intelligence (human and otherwise) are becoming integrated into astrobiology, with the larger framework of the evolution of human societies often invoked by other scientists. Also in the astrobiology field, a large body of work done by social scientists refers to the social implications of different types of astrobio-related work; in this respect, social scientists and humanists are engaged in questions about societal significances of detections (Denning, 2013;Denning, 2018;Funaro 2004;Harrison 1997).…”

Section: The Many Forms and Functions Of Social Sciencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Social Sciences Interdisciplinarity for Astronomy and Astrophysics - Lessons from the History of NASA and Related Fields

Berea¹,

Denning²,

Vidaurri³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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In this paper we showcase the importance of understanding and measuring interdisciplinarity and other -disciplinarity concepts for all scientists, the role social sciences have historically played in NASA research and missions, the sparsity of social science interdisciplinarity in space and planetary sciences, including astronomy and astrophysics, while there is an imperative necessity for it, and the example of interdisciplinarity between social sciences and astrobiology. Ultimately we give voice to the scientists across all fields with respect to their needs, aspirations and experiences in their interdisciplinary work with social sciences through an ad-hoc survey we conducted within the Astro2020 Decadal Survey scientific community.

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Section: The Many Forms and Functions Of Social Sciencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Social Sciences Interdisciplinarity for Astronomy and Astrophysics - Lessons from the History of NASA and Related Fields

Berea¹,

Denning²,

Vidaurri³

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It is crucial to acknowledge that interspecies communication requires psychological computability between the communicators [6,[103][104][105]. Although we should be careful to inadmissibly generalize the human condition to the stars [6,99], we cannot ignore the diachronic human factor in SETI. One fundamental aspect here is the notion of humans actively engaged with their material environment.…”

Section: Meaningful Formmentioning

confidence: 99%

Affordances in outer space: Forms of life, material engagement, and meaning within space exploration and SETI

Döbler

Carbon

2023

Acta Astronautica

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“…Some scholars accuse orthodox SETI of being an interdisciplinary failure [6], and a recent series of publications emphasize the role of an interdisciplinary approach to enhance our understanding of extraterrestrials [2,[21][22][23]. Psychologist Albert A. Harrison was a lifelong advocate for integrating psychology into SETI research [12,24,25]. However, it was Robert Freitas [26] who first discussed the possibility of a psychological discipline investigating the minds of extraterrestrials.…”

Section: Proposal Of Exopsychologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such criticism is not denying SETI projects' legitimacy but instead points to instrumental problems with humanity's efforts to make contact [11]. One terminus that is commonly used within this line of criticism is "anthropocentrism," which means "relating everything to the ways of humankind" [12]. An overly anthropocentric approach to SETI is likely to increase the chance of false negatives or false positives [8,[11][12][13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One terminus that is commonly used within this line of criticism is "anthropocentrism," which means "relating everything to the ways of humankind" [12]. An overly anthropocentric approach to SETI is likely to increase the chance of false negatives or false positives [8,[11][12][13]. In the latter case, human observers confuse natural phenomena with evidence of the activity of an extraterrestrial intelligence [14,15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Thinking ET : A discussion of exopsychology

Döbler,

Raab

2021

Preprint

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Despite lacking scientific proof, thinking about extraterrestrials and extraterrestrial intelligence is part of our psychological reality. It is often stated that cultural and scientific reception and representation of these strange entities suffer from anthropocentric bias. To profoundly investigate such bias and the minds of extraterrestrials, we propose a revised definition for the psychological discipline called "exopsychology." We define exopsychology as a sub-discipline of psychology, which investigates the cognition, behavior, affects, and motives of extraterrestrial agents and their human-specific representation. It is argued that the concept of intelligence is not suited for application in SETI. Thus, inherent in exopsychology is the conception of extraterrestrials as higherorder cognitive agents and as strangest strangers. We discuss the possibilities and limitations of conclusions about extraterrestrials, which leads us to hypothesize that limited statements about them might be possible, even though still influenced by anthropocentrism. We argue that it is possible to utilize anthropocentric knowledge and distinguish between admissible and inadmissible anthropocentrism. Although the first contact between extraterrestrials and humanity might never occur, scientific thinking about extraterrestrials will improve our understanding of ourselves and our place in the universe.

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After Contact – Then What?

Cited by 4 publications

References 16 publications

The Social Sciences Interdisciplinarity for Astronomy and Astrophysics - Lessons from the History of NASA and Related Fields

The Social Sciences Interdisciplinarity for Astronomy and Astrophysics - Lessons from the History of NASA and Related Fields

Affordances in outer space: Forms of life, material engagement, and meaning within space exploration and SETI

Thinking ET : A discussion of exopsychology

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