Before We Find Aliens, Humans Need to Figure Ourselves Out, Anthropologist Says

[Judi Lynn]

By Meghan Bartels - Space.com Senior Writer a day ago

Are we alone? Humans have a lot of questions about alien life. But those beings, if they exist, likely have some questions of their own about humans, queries we may want to answer before we find any life beyond Earth.

That's because the answers we reach will shape how we respond to any such discovery in ways that have profound implications for us and that hypothetical life beyond Earth alike, according to Kathryn Denning, an anthropologist at York University in Canada who focuses on space exploration and extraterrestrial life. Some of those questions, the more anthropocentric ones, are already in the air, underlying conversations about the search for life.

But other questions would benefit from a shift in mindset that is uncommon in the field, Denning told Space.com. "We're still thinking [about a detection of extraterrestrial life] in terms of an intellectual problem about us and our place in the universe," she said. "[We] haven't thought through the consequences for that other life."

One key struggle may be the tendency to emphasize the question "Are we alone?" which Denning said speaks more to the recent history of science than to humanity in general. "A lot of people have already made that leap. They've already assumed that life is prevalent," she said.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/humanity-finding-extraterrestrial-life.html

[PJMcK]

1. Why do people believe aliens have visited Earth?

Humans cannot communicate with nearly all of the other creatures on our planet, how could we possibly communicate with creatures from another planet?

The answer to the question, "Are we alone?" is quite simple. No, we're surrounded by life. Unfortunately our behavior has meant that we're killing much of that life with our consumptive society.

[tymorial]

2. It is entirely possible that aliens have visited Earth

That doesn't mean they shaped our development. An advanced civilization capable of interstellar travel could have evolved millions of years ago. Compared to the age of our Galaxy, Solar System and Planet... the age of our own civilization is the size of a grain of sand.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. The distances between stars really is more vast than most people understand.

And there's not a lot of faith on the part of most scientists that we will ever have FTL (faster than light) travel, nor that wormholes, if they even exist, will prove a useful way of getting great distances.

But even if I am completely wrong here, there's another thing to keep in mind. Species have a finite life span. Yeah, I know, there are some species that have been around for several hundred million years, but none of them are plausible candidates for ever developing the kind of intelligence that will go on to invent FTL drives. The vast majority of species continue to evolve, just as we humans are. In fact, we have probably evolved more in the last ten thousand years than we did in the previous 100,000 years. So my point is that a species that actually invents FTL travel and explores or even colonizes the galaxy, isn't going to be around a few million years later. It's possible that if we ever get out there we will find the remnants of long-gone civilizations, not still living, vibrant ones.