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claim authority, as no human has actually studied an extrasolar civilization. All of us are speculating. All the theorizing and experimentation that scientists do, proposed neuroscientist Christof Koch, depends on particular metaphysical back- ground assumptions about the world. Nowhere is that more true than in theories about extraterrestrial intelligence. “Where facts are few,” declared psychologist Carl Jung, “speculations are most likely to represent individ- ual psychologies.”'* The year 1960 provides a useful dividing line between eras in the debate about consequences. Scientific and technological advances since then have implied that contact could have a real impact on our lives. Signals from a more advanced civilization might contain information that would change our cultures and our opinion of ourselves. Direct contact could be a more intimate and possibly devastating experience. Turning points cluster around 1960. Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison’s seminal article in 1959 called attention to our new capability to search for alien radio signals at interstellar distances. Frank Drake under- took the first radio telescope search in 1960. A year later, he proposed an equation that allowed us to estimate the probability of detecting techno- logical civilizations.” Meanwhile, our species acquired a new potential visibility because of the radio, television, and radar signals we were emitting. For the first time, a remote alien observer with only the equipment of the kind already oper- ating on Earth could detect human technological activity.'* The Space Age began at about the same time. The first artificial satellite went into orbit in 1957; the first human orbited the Earth in 1961. This technology fed a different set of expectations, including visions of explora- tion and colonization beyond our solar system. Our new capabilities supported different paradigms: a slow exchange of radio messages between ourselves and a distant civilization, or direct contact with extraterrestrials (or their machines) that come to our solar system in interstellar spacecraft. As we will see, those paradigms collided in the 1970s. By then, speculations about the positive conse- quences of contact had become sweepingly enthusiastic among those who expected a remote encounter by radio. Their optimism provoked a counter- reaction, whose spokespersons sometimes took equally extreme positions. Both sides may be too sure of their answers. As cultural historian Jacques Barzun once noted, history gives no comfort to the many able, dedicated minds that crave finality and certitude.” Before and After 1960 Before and After 1960