SETI From the Perspective of Intercivilizational Politics

Abstract

The possibility of SETI finding extraterrestrial biological or technological signatures is becoming less hypothetical. Social science scholarship has responded with a growing literature that examines the possible social, cultural, and political implications of a major SETI discovery. This article extends this social science perspective by speculating about politics at the other end of contact. I argue that the questions of whether another civilization would apply resources to SETI like efforts, who they would wish to contact, and their motivations for searching for intelligent life, are essentially questions about the politics of possible but unknown societies.I attempt to show the utility of this comparative politics perspective by applying it to Fermi's Paradox. The perspective of intercivilizational politics reframes the paradox as a problem of collective action and avoids two problematic assumptions widely found in the literature. First, it is probably impossible to predict what would be rational for extraterrestrial intelligence without knowing their appetite for risk. Second, if an extraterrestrial civilization shares similar patterns to our development, then many proposed solutions to Fermi's Paradox fall into the trap of assuming a unified rational actor. Instead, it is likely that possible interlocutors represent different political and social institutions from across an exocivilization.In addition, many famous commentators have argued that contact with another civilization would likely be disastrous for the less developed party, presumably us. So far, political scientists have added to this discussion by elaborating further on the possible dangers of a SETI discovery. However, I argue that reframing SETI efforts within the context of intercivilizational politics mitigates some of these concerns.