Page Content (OCR)
Fears The proof, which is now only a matter of time, that this young species of ours is low in the scale of cosmic intelligence will be a shattering blow to our pride. A thee OO MAA. 10201 Copernicus and Darwin may have inured humans to marginalization. —The Social Implications Report, 1994? Essayist and editor Richard Holt Hutton argued in 1892 that commun- ication with Mars, if established, would lead (even though it should not) to a decrease in Man’s confidence and a lowering of his sense of moral respon- sibility, because he would take it as another sign of his insignificance.* This concern has reappeared many times. The reason that many people are opposed to SETI, thought Clarke, is because they realize that it is ticking like a time bomb at the foundations of our pride. Our previous demotions from centrality already have eroded our conceit. The story of astronomy is one long, slow assault on our sense of self-importance, observed New York Times science writer William Broad; Brin called it a series of lessons in humility.‘ As some see it, finding intelligent life beyond the Earth wrenches at our secret hope that we are the pinnacle of creation.’ Many people have trouble accepting the idea that we are not chosen, although this can be seen as a child’s wish. Finding other intelligent beings more advanced than we are would chal- lenge our self-image as the chosen people of an anthropocentric God. “If God only realizes Himself within an evolutionary progress,” declared Bishop Barnes, “then elsewhere He has reached a splendor and fullness of existence to which Earth’s evolutionary advance can add nothing.”® Psychologist Jung thought that to find ourselves no more an intellectual match for superior beings than our pets are for us, to find all our aspirations outmoded, might leave us completely demoralized. “(The) reins would be 232 The End of Hubris —Arthur C. Clarke, 1963!