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269 ogy. “An alien society with no desire to send messages to other civilizations would not be planning to receive helpful signs from the stars,” posited Baird. “If creatures like these are left alone, we will never hear from them.” Many of us assume that every civilization will be curious about others. Yet, historian J.M. Roberts has pointed out the massive indifference of some Earthly civilizations—their lack of curiosity about other worlds— even as the European Age of Exploration began to influence their futures. The desire to explore may not be a universal phenomenon. Historian Steven Pyne found that exploration is a specific invention of specific civi- lizations conducted at specific historical times. It is not a universal property of all human societies. Not all cultures have explored or even traveled widely; some have been content to exist in xenophobic isolation.“ Consider the Ming Dynasty’s abandonment of oceanic exploration. “Fully equipped with the technology, the intelligence, and the national resources to become discoverers,” wrote historian Daniel Boorstin, “the Chinese doomed themselves to be discovered.” Although cost may have been an issue, the decision also may have reflected China’s belief that it had nothing to learn from the outside world.* Interstellar Anthropologists More advanced civilizations may not devote significant resources to searching for those less advanced. Looking for such societies may the concern of a few specialized researchers—as it is among humans. “Our earth is not the concern of the great enterprises of knowledge among those far societies,” proposed Morrison. “Rather, it is the activ- ity of a Department of Anthropology.” Just as modern anthropologists search in jungles for lost tribes that have never been contaminated by contact with modern civilization, McDonough suggested, some extra- terrestrials may search for newly emerging primitive societies. On our planet, the “primitive lobby” are the anthropologists who would like to understand such societies, anthropologist Richard Lee observed—and the missionaries who would like to convert them.*° A civilization far in advance of ours may devote only a tiny fraction of its resources to trying to find and communicate with life-forms it deems lower. Consider how few human researchers try to converse with dolphins and chimpanzees. Our signals might be picked up first by amateurs. McDonough imagined that there are alien clubs—similar to our ham radio operators—who delight at being the first to detect a new civilization, much as a short-wave listener jumps for joy when picking up a country he or she has never heard before.*” They Search for Others