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The Consequences of Contact Those who have speculated about the consequences of contact have envi- sioned a wide variety of outcomes, from utopian to disastrous. Predictions have ranged from contact being a passing news event to it being the end of human existence. These speculations have become increasingly detailed— and discordant—since the radio search and the Space Age got under way in the 1960s. At one extreme of the spectrum are best-case scenarios; at os the other, worst-case. Many speculations have clustered around two poles of thought, some- times described as millenarian optimism and catastrophic pessimism. Summing up the division of views on the impact of radio contact with advanced extraterrestrials, Finney found that they vary between paranoid projections that it would quickly devastate the human spirit and pronoid predictions that the extraterrestrials would swiftly and benevolently lead us into a golden age.' Superlatives abound. Paul Horowitz thought that contact would be “the greatest event in the history of mankind.” Sagan shared that view: “The scientific, logical, cultural, and ethical knowledge to be gained by tuning into galactic transmissions may be, in the long run, the most profound single event in the history of our civilization.” Sagan even suggested that “it is certainly possible that the future of human civilization depends on the receipt and decoding of interstellar messages.”? Optimists describe the consequences as we wish they would be— positive, uplifting. “The effect on human scientific and technological capa- bilities will be immense,” wrote the Byurakan conferees, “and the discovery can positively influence the whole future of Man.” Sagan and Drake thought that contact with extraterrestrials “would inevitably enrich mankind beyond imagination.” “Searching for other life in the universe is not an unnecessary luxury,” Drake maintained, “but an essential component of forging a better life for Humankind.” Sagan found it difficult to think of another enterprise within 208 Optimists and Pessimists