Page Content (OCR)
212 regions around other stars probably would find it most efficient to send machines, not crews of living beings; interstellar spacecraft housing bio- logical intelligences may be justified only in the case of one-way migration. We are far more likely to meet the technological creations of the aliens than the aliens themselves. This logic has driven the emergence of an interstellar probe scenario, in which an alien spacecraft is sent to our solar system on a reconnaissance mission. If we detected a functioning probe, we would have to assume that the alien civilization had discovered us and might be observing us. The implications then would depend primarily on the intentions and remote- ness of the senders. Would the probe’s report motivate an alien civilization to send additional missions to our solar system? Would it stimulate an exchange of messages? Or would nothing happen that we could discern? The machine itself might have the competence to represent the other civilization. Bracewell pointed out that an alien probe with a substantial reference library on board could communicate with us in a much more interactive way than a civilization many light-years away. We could expect a major cultural impact, greater than if our first contact is by long-distance radio." The probe might not be limited to preprogrammed responses. If it were a highly advanced form of artificial intelligence, it might make its own decisions on how to deal with us. Given the age of our Galaxy, we may be more likely to find a probe that ceased functioning millions of years before our time. Such a machine could Laneen ea ahd nee wet Tee en eo te on ne i ene have reached our system long ago if the sending civilization had launched a program of interstellar exploration unrelated to signs of intelligence. If the other society had sent a probe after detecting changes in our planet’s atmosphere that signaled the emergence of life on Earth, that machine could have arrived more than a billion years ago. Dead spacecraft or other nonfunctioning technologies left by past visi- tors would not be immediately threatening, although they would prove that interstellar flight and direct contact are possible. Active alien technologies could provoke stronger emotional reactions, including fear. Harrison suggested other ways of categorizing the circumstances of contact: first, the familiar versus the strange; second, dawning awareness versus sudden insight; third—and most difficult to foresee—whether alien intentions are positive or negative.’ In contemporary literature or cinema, the extraterrestrial is most often an idealization of that which humanity would like to be or a caricature of what humanity has fear of becoming. ae LInidesnnn 1290916 The Consequences of Contact The Human Analogy —Astronomer Jean Heidmann, 1992'°