When and if we discover extraterrestrial life, the handling of the news will be interesting. Recall the tumultuous media circus following the announcement in the movie Contact. Carl Sagan knew a little about dealing with the press, and the film version gets across what might happen when you start broadcasting public fear and fascination through a cable TV and Net-connected world. Or think of the recent rumblings when the SETI Institute said it was about to make a ‘major announcement,’ which turned out to be business related and not extraterrestrial at all.
And in point of fact, we do have one actual experience of trying to announce extraterrestrial life. That was in 1996, when a team of researchers had submitted a paper, subsequently accepted, to Science. The contents were dynamite, for the authors proposed that the Antarctic meteorite ALH84001 might be evidence of life on Mars. The team had studied four potential biomarkers within the meteorite, which had earlier been determined to be of Martian origin, and the circus soon began.
NASA scheduled a news conference, aware of the public interest that must follow, even though the evidence for life was equivocal at best. But a member of the White House staff spilled the beans to his girlfriend about the upcoming Science story, so the word had already leaked. Add to that the fact that a prepublication version of the story was given to the press earlier than planned. The result: hoping to avoid being scooped, a number of news outlets started distributing the paper to get quotes from experts to bolster their upcoming stories. The work on ALH84001 thus began its journey from interesting paper to ‘discovery.’
Today we have no definitive take on the Martian meteorite, but the fact that there are alternative explanations to the possible biomarkers leads many to doubt their validity. Whatever the case, contrast this situation — researchers working in strict secrecy until the press sniffs out their forthcoming paper — to what may happen with a Mars sample return mission. The scientists who work on the first samples will be operating from the start under public scrutiny, looking both for biohazards and for evidence of life while under pressure to work quickly.
What that calls for, in the eyes of John Rummel (Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters) and Margaret Race (SETI Institute) is a communications plan that has been thought through in advance and will anticipate any outcome. Their recent paper suggests how such a sample receiving facility (SRF) might operate, with dialog involving NASA, policy makers, international partners and teams of experts:
In order to provide for a successful SRF activity, risk management and planetary protection information will have to be balanced with a program of education and outreach, from the scientific perspective, that will focus on the anticipated benefits of Mars exploration and of returning a sample from Mars — while not neglecting the uncertainties associated with the biological potential of Mars. In order to take a comprehensive approach even further, a Mars SRF communication plan must also address how, when, and where the public and scientific community will be informed of results and findings that occur during both the life detection and biohazard testing of the sample. Such information should be structured to properly put it into context, while it also may be delivered without context — in the raw — as a more or less continuous stream, similar to the recent practice of NASA solar system exploration missions.
And that last point bears watching. We know that bringing extraterrestrial life to light will draw intense public interest. The ability of any government agency to contain the outcome in the face of live streaming of data via the Net is questionable. Even as Martian samples are first being examined, various media outlets will be announcing rumor-based results in hopes of positioning themselves ahead of the pack. How well have we thought through the impact of an unequivocal finding of life on another world, even single-celled life? NASA is thinking hard about this, and that’s an indication that Mars remains very much in play as a potential home to some kind of exobiology.
The paper is Rummel and Race, “Got Life? Hours of boredom followed by moments of sheer terror (and that’s just with the press),” in Acta Astronautica 59 (2006), pp. 1160-62. A NASA draft protocol on all this is Rummel, et al. (Eds.), A Draft Test Protocol for Detecting Possible Biohazards in Martian Samples Returned to Earth (NASA/CP-2002-211842), 2002.
IIRC, some of the footage in “Contact” was from an official announcement regarding the ALH84001 findings (the scene with Clinton).
Actually, I don’t believe that the news would consider small organisms on Mars as a major story. Sure, it could be a side-story, but it won’t get covered much. Now as for the discovery of intelligent life, that’s a completely different story. I actually think, as you said, that it would be very similar to the events in Contact.
I’ll predict that those microbes do generate some really loud press if they are found, and especially if they’re photogenic and cute. After all, that is what the press do. However what’ll then likely happen is the media will saturate prime time for two or three weeks with controversy by finding random ‘experts’ (maybe even some real ones) that take alternative positions, and even get them to argue with each other on the tube. The public will get thoroughly confused and not know what to think, figure out who the real experts are anyway, and will ultimately do the equivalent of a mass market shrug and go back to their reality TV.
I think until those cute little microbes bunch their little flagellae into fists and scream into the camera, “E most certainly does not equal m c squared!!”, will anyone really pay much attention beyond the initial media feeding frenzy.
Hmmm, guess I’m a cynic.
Depends on what kind of life. Microbes won’t cause much of a stir, especially Martian ones. If microbial life on Mars turns out to be similar to terrestrial life, then it might be plausibly argued that such life was transported to Mars on impact ejecta from Earth. So there will always be some room for doubt to make theological zealots comfortable. Life on Europa on the other hand would be almost impossible to explain away as terrestrial-origin panspermia, and will cause a much bigger fuss I think.
But if we ever get to the full-blown Contact scenario, with a radio message greeting from an advanced civilization, I don’t know. Denial, certainly, among a significant part of the population, maybe a few tens of millions of suicides worldwide, an escalation of the backlash against science that’s already happenning today, but with astronomy in the sights this time, calls for suspension of government funding to astronomical research, etc etc.
And we always assume that the message we receive will be some benign secular greeting, along the lines of “come, let us solve mathematical equations together”. If the message turns out to be something along the lines of “Confirm your allegiance to Xandu, the one true God of the Universe”, then ‘I’ll’ be in the Do Not Respond camp!
If you can find it, Frank White, author of The Overview Effect,
came out with another book in 1990 titled The SETI Factor. In
this work, White discussed the various degrees of effect that
the different types of aliens and and how we discover them will
affect humanity, from microbes on another nearby planet to
detecting a signal from another star system to the appearance
of starships on the White House lawn.
For the record, the White House staff member whose girlfriend
had first blabbed about the Martian meteorite was actually a
US Senator (or Congressmen, not quite sure at the moment)
and his girlfriend was also his hooker/mistress, who infamously
wrote in her diary that NASA had discovered life on Pluto! Hey,
at least she was enthusiastic.
Two relevant Web sites that fellow CDers might find useful:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpi/meteorites/alhnpap.html
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/678/1
And it’s the Great God Zinditharu, not Xandu. He can’t handle
more than a couple of galaxies worth of sentient beings to
worship him.
Chris Wren, you’re exactly right. If we do discover intelligent life, that’s when the “fun” begins. However, there could be a major problem when it comes to society and its beliefs.
Oops, I meant “Do Not Release to Public” rather than “Do Not Respond”. But I guess both would be applicable…
When the first pulsar was discovered in 1967, some astronomers at
first wondered if its regular pulsations were artificial. There was even
talk of destroying the recorded data because it might have been
artificial!
Not exactly my idea of scientific progress.
There will always be some people who are never ready for new
knowledge and changes for our species, but does that mean we
should stop everything just for a few who are certainly not for
making humanity better, to say nothing of preparing for eventual
existence as part of a much larger reality?
Some day we are going to find life elsewhere, including the
intelligent variety. The Universe is not going to hide such
things just because we are not mature enough yet. We better
start growing up and realizing there is more to this life than
just this one little planet – soon.
ok everybody,i think it will be like this…we discover intelligent life or ‘just” a planet very much like earth,the word gets out,people suddenly say : we HAVE TO go there! why has’nt more been done!!! how soon can we go!! and these are the people that 5 minutes ago did’nt believe in “wasting” money in space! also we are talking about a trip of maybe 45 light years! and yes everybody it would be like the events that unfolded in contact. thank you your friend george
While there will be some who want to immediately visit
their space “brothers” and become one with the Cosmos,
many others will no doubt be wondering if they pose a
threat to our existence and will seriously consider a
pre-emptive strike. I hope they don’t have lots of oil. :^)
I wonder just how much we will be able to relate to
a truly alien species? I doubt the galaxy is full of the
kind we seem to find every week on Star Trek. You
know, the humanoids with funny noses or ears who
otherwise act pretty much like us.
Are we ready to meet what is out there? Or will we
have to wait for a more evolved species from this planet
to do the job right?
I would humbly notice that if 100% confirmation of even _extinct_ life on Mars is found, not mentioning even discovery of present (no matter single-cell or more compex) living organism there, it would receive TREMENDOUS coverage in all possible media!
ljk,a pre emptive strike on a society “x” light years away?lol i say sarcastically…i’d like to see that! because i WOULD NOT LIKE to see that or even a society so dumb as to want to have such a thing. and…yes truly alien life would be so very different that i think we would have problems communicating with them for sure i mean just look at us here on earth where it is not unusual for people to be shooting at each other when the only differences are country,race,religion.but WE are all humans who share the same planet and same basic history needs etc. incredible,no? and,dennis…if we found life even extinct life on mars the press would shift into warp 9.9 AND people would be dying to get there!! now luckily it is “only mars” and getting there would be a much more reasonable goal.in fact it would wind up being a huge boone to the space program! sure thing.a part of the trouble is and correct me if i am wrong or if you have a better idea – all the picture from mars thus far,look so very lifeless!! if only a small creature like a squirrel or rat or racoon would have scurried up to the lens to take a better look! or… if an orbiter had shown something that we could be pretty sure was an abandoned city or town!! thank you guys and i look forward to hearing from you again in the near future your friend george ps does anybody recall the old tv series “my favorite martian?” :) g
I have mentioned this work before, but check out the SF novel
The Killing Star by Pellegrino. In the story, an advanced ETI
society finds us via our electromagnetic signals and decides we
are a threat to them not due to anything we say or do towards
them (humanity doesn’t even know they exist), but for the
potential threat we could be to them and any other galactic
races.
The aliens in the novel are neither evil nor on a mission of
galactic conquest: They simply computed the odds of the
beings from planet Earth being a threat to them and acted
accordingly, with a rational if cold logic.
Such a weapon designed to wipe out every living thing on a
planet’s surface is relatively simple and quite effective: Just
launch a big chunk of metal at relativistic speeds at a target
world, or a simple robot ship at best. No invasion fleets, no
fancy technological weapons required. The energy from
such a fast-moving object would easily sterilize Earth and
certainly remove us from existence.
Could it happen? Of course. The fact that we have even
thought of it means that someone from this planet might
consider wiping out another species before they could do
any potential harm to us.
Here is another item I have posted on this forum before,
but it bears repeating – go to this page and scroll down
about halfway:
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3aa.html
I see another possible scenario regarding our encounter
with ETI: Really advanced beings may want to rework
the galaxy to better suit their needs and we get in the
way like ants at a construction site. Such ETI do not
necessarily mean to crush or remove us during their
work phase, any more than a construction gang wants
to purposely squash an ant colony – but neither group
both pays much attention or cares about such lowly
creatures who do nothing to assist or improve upon
their project.
As I have also said elsewhere here, really advanced ETI
are not contacting us because there is little point for them
to do so. We need to search for them if we want any
chance at all to find such alien life, and our best bet is
by looking for infrared signatures in the outskirts of the
Milky Way galaxy.
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0606102
ljk yes thank you for your ideas and forwarding that website i was very interested to have had a look at it! sobering stuff indeed.sometimes i think just maybe we are lucky that space is so big and potential trouble is so very far away.ever see the movie independance day? to my mind another possibility. who could say no it could not happen? would be nice if someone could.anyhow gotta run but thanks again and i hope i’ll hear soon.your friend george
Microbes in underground lakes on Mars could have an ecology that’s every bit as “advanced” as Earth’s. A group mind created by microbes can be imagined possible by processes we see operating here on Earth — microbiological associations such as found in certain jelly fish for instance are just such an example of communication between “separate” and “independent” cells — which none-the-less create eyes, swimming muscles, poison barbs etc.
So, show me one single organism found on Mars, and I’ll see a whole new world. Even here on Earth, our organisms would be entirely rethought by comparing them to the Mars organism. A paradigm shift could occur in our thinking about our own microbes — perhaps they are a civilization, a group mind, an ecological synergistic association, a matrix of life with sentience we know not of.
One headline in the National Enquirer might be all that the lower half of the bell curve folks ever put their attention on: “MARS GERMS COMING TO KILL US ALL WITH COSMIC DISEASES.” Something like that might just give NASA a huge budget to get a managerial handle on the coming Martian invasion.
If a Mars researcher finds microbes that our instruments hadn’t found, would he be allowed to return to Earth — having breathed in the dust of Mars? What monsters in his bloodstream are coming home to us? This is the kind of thinking that could easily arise. And, hey, maybe I TOO WOULD BE SCARED of the possibilities of such an astronaut’s infection. Would a Mars germ be so specialized that it couldn’t live on Earth? Very doubtful to me when I see the amazing ability of life to cling to harsh environments and to expand itself in luxurious circumstances.
On the other hand, it is almost certain that if there ever were microbes on Mars, they’d have been splashed off and landed here by now. We might be Martian progeny.
But if that Mars microbe is using the wrong handedness, or if it has DNA that is different in some fundamental way, or if it eats silicon instead of carbon, whatever, fear will arise in the masses until science can tamp them down with clarity and understanding of the microbe.
One organism found, and life on Earth changes THAT VERY DAY.
Edg
Life on Mars, interesting.
The mere fact of finding “ANY’ life on Mars opens doors to unlimted possibilities. Were there intelligent life that managed to build “transoprotation” to leave a dying planet? The “specimen” of life that was recovered is proof of life on other planets, as how intelligent remains to be seen.