Of all the current research being performed and maintained by our scientific community none is more important to human advancement than that of SETI and the Kepler telescope. Yes the research into our genetic and epigentic nature may very well prove more valuable to us. The LHC is by far one our greatest accomplishments by virtue of its construction alone, not to mention the potential discoveries it could produce. Yet the search for other intelligent life offers something more powerful. It offers humanity in a single iota of knowledge the understanding that we are not alone. It gives us a goal beyond ourselves.
When I was younger I spent a summer helping inner city kids in Philadelphia. I saw some pretty difficult things during that time. There were some wonderful people but when you deal with humanity's oppressed people, you see some situations that get ignored. We have people in this country living in filth by virtue of a life of unoffered opportunities. I lived with them and received only a taste of life at the bottom of America's ladder of prosperity. Since then, I have experienced a time where I too was a member of that class.
Yet during that time I was sharing my experience with other privileged children doing their duty for a college resume, or for a sense of being better people for helping. I remember one young girl complaining how hard her life was when her dad cut her off for a week. How she felt when she couldn't go get her favorite coffee in the morning, or hang out with her friends, or even buy something nice when she went to the store. She was stating this to "relate" to these people that were worried about not being able to eat or keep their jobs.
The contrast was stark and seemed at the time rather glaringly self centered. Yet I did gain one insight from it that applies here. Everyone struggles in relation to their experience. At my worst situation, I was infinitely better than anyone in Dafur. Yet when we look at the fact, that there is another place, another world in the universe with a civilization and technology like our own. Maybe our infighting might seem small. The piece of dirt that has been fought over for millennia in Israel may seem less vital. Once we know we are not alone, we can then compare ourselves as we often do when finding foreigners. Some will fear them, others rejoice, and still others despise their existence. I do not doubt religion will survive the knowledge. In fact I would think the chosen nature of humanity will become quite in vogue, but we will, without doubt begin to try and communicate, plan and finance someway to share physically with our first neighbors. This endeavor alone will lead to a second renaissance, a second and hopefully more lasting enlightenment.
We are not alone, and for this I am certain, yet only as certain as the probability begs for it. Perhaps we are alone in time, but I doubt we are alone in space. Our short time shouting to the cosmos in the faint voice of our technology would most likely miss the mark in the vastness of the universe. As our technology improves we are becoming less noisy. As we learn to use our bandwidth and control our communications to protect their integrity, we bleed less noise into space. Most likely any technology we might hear may only be available for 100 years in the span of a planet's life. To find life, will be difficult, but to not look is a robbery of omission not to be forgiven.
Posts
