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345 special place in the vast expanses of cosmic history—if other intelligent beings exist. It may have a very special place if they do not. Whether the result of the listening effort is positive or not, we will evolve an active idea of our relationship to the universe—either as sharers in... or as near unique possessors of intelligence, capable of preserving and diffus- ing it throughout the universe. THe. OTT 28: —Five SETI scientists (Black, Tarter, Cuzzi, Connors, and Clark), 1977" After centuries of debate, we still are arguing about our status in the universe. Opposition to the search reflects an underlying fear that success would lower our status and undermine our self-esteem. The search can be seen as another step in our long journey away from anthropocentrism. Is the continuation of this journey inevitable? Anthropocentric beliefs may continue to have weight until unambiguous evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence is discovered. Even a confirmed detection might not demolish anthropocentrism. The durability of this idea suggests that contact might drive anthropocentrists to look for another way of arguing that humans are special. What if our search does not succeed? Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Baruch Blumberg, first head of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute, thought that a failure to detect extraterrestrial life would be a step backward from the Copernican revolution. Finding that there are no other intelligent life- forms, White observed, could reinforce religious views of humans as unique."! Asimov speculated that a failure to find other intelligences would cause anew kind of loneliness and desolation, a fear of a vast impersonal universe in which we are lost.'? That would bring us full circle, back to Blaise Pascal in the seventeenth century. Sk De ny D8 Until we detect others, we are effectively alone. So far, we have found nothing to exclude that possibility. If we are alone, argued Easter- brook, there are two poles of possibility. One is that life is a fluke without inherent significance. The other is that human life is precious beyond words." Achenbach went even farther. Until there is reason to believe otherwise, we have the right to view our planet and its inhabitants, and especially its sentient creatures, as the treasures of the known universe."* A Mirror Image. If we can imagine ourselves as the treasures of the known universe, why should we doubt that other intelligent species might come to the same conclusion about themselves? Our Place Among Intelligent Beings Our Place Among Intelligent Beings