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Paradigm Shifts What is important is the attempt to replenish the void, to fill the immense emptiness with meaning, even if this is accomplished by turning emptiness itself into an antagonist that can be confronted in human terms. AAAI DA... 100141 Our sense of scale has shifted dramatically within the past century. Astronomer John Kraus, remembering that radio broadcasting was the new sensation in 1920, described how his heart pounded when he first heard a voice from 2000 miles away.” Now we are searching for voices from hundreds of light-years away. Sagan and others have seen the quest for extraterrestrial intelligence as a search for a cosmic context for Humankind, in a universe vaster in both extent and duration than our ancestors ever dreamed.* This is not just a scientific issue; many nonscientists are looking for a more appealing, more satisfying, more responsive universe. We want to feel connected with the cosmos rather than isolated and alone. SETI may be an effort to achieve that connection, working within a framework that is acceptable to the Western scientific model. As White put it, the search might be a way to seek a reintegration that has been shattered by standing apart from the cosmos and examining it as something that is not alive, not intelligent, and separate from ourselves. This emotional dimension does not always manifest itself in scientific terms; it can be expressed as religious feeling, through art and music, and as philosophy and mythology.* Support for the search reflects a desire for community, reassurance, and variety. The universe may not be lonely; it may teem with other lives, other aspirations. No amount of robotic exploration can make us feel emotionally invested in the universe, argue Benjamin and others; only SETI, with its yearning for cosmic encounter, can address this essentially metaphysical need.° 343 —Mark Rose, 1981! Our Place in the Cosmos