Xenology - An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life Inteliggence and Civilization [First Edition]

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Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 2. Extraterrestrial Life: The History of an Idea "Empty space is like a kingdom’ and earth and sky are no more than a single individual person in that kingdom. "Upon one tree are many fruits’ and in one kingdom there are many people. "How unreasonable it would be to suppose that’ besides the earth and the sky which we can see’ there are no other skies and no other earths." -- Teng Mu’ a Chinese scholar of the Sung Dynasty (960 -- 1280 A.D.)1904 "We may pronounce each orb sustains a race Of living things’ adapted to the place. Were all the stars’ whose beauteous realms of light’ At distance only hung to shine by night’ And with their twinkling beams to please our sight? How many roll in ether’ which the eye Could ne‘er’ till aided by the glass’ descry; And which no commerce with the Earth maintain! Are all those glorious empires made in vain? -- Sir Richard Blackmore’ in Creation (1712)747 "That which makes me of this Opinion’ that those worlds are not without such a Creature endowed with Reason’ is that otherwise our Earth would have too much the advantage of them’ in being the only part of the Universe that could boast of such a Creature... -- Christian Huygens’ in The Celestial Worlds Discover‘d; Or, Conjectures Concerning the Inhabitants, Plants and Productions of the Worlds in the Planets (1698)602 "Extraterrestrial life is truly an idea whose time has come." -- Dr. Carl Sagan’ in The Cosmic Connection (1973)15

The idea that intelligent but nonhuman living beings might exist somewhere has tantalized the minds of men since the dawn of recorded history. Virtually every civilization or major culture on Earth has entertained some such speculation’ whether in its mythology’ its religious or scientific writings’ or in its philosophy of nature. The sophisticated concept of aliens indigenous to planets circling faraway stars did not blossom into existence overnight’ however. The theme of extraterrestrial life has slowly evolved over the course of many millennia of pensive human contemplation. Before it was accepted that Earth was a mere planet and that many others could exist’ intelligent nonhuman beings were commonly viewed in a mythological context. But as man learned to appreciate the vast scale of the universe’ the idea of life in the physical cosmos matured and gained wider currency.*

* There are many good historical introductions to both the scientific 747’1754’1769’1872 and the fictional1896’1897’1872 literature.

2.1 Ancient Beginnings While it is often pointed out that aliens appear in the most ancient of human records’ the true antiquity of the idea is rarely appreciated. An excellent example comes from the Sumerian civilization’ which flourished more than five thousand years ago (and may. well be the most distant ancestor of Western culture). According to Sumer legends which have survived’ codes of law’ science’ art’ architecture and the essentials of proper social behavior all were given to the humans by alien teachers -- amphibian intelligent animals with fishy heads and torsos and human feet. These creatures are never described as gods; there is little doubt the Sumerians presumed them to be as mortal as their human students.20 Usually’ though’ ancient gods were seen as superior beings with celestial abodes. The Babylonians’ successors to the Sumerian civilization’ held that the moving points of light in the sky which are the planets were the homes of their gods.45 Other cultures such as the Eskimos believed that the Moon and other heavenly objects were themselves gods.1872 Supposing the world to be flat and subscribing to the nontheistic Confucian philosophy’ the venerable Chinese had no conception of or need for life in the firmament -- although dragons and other monsters appeared frequently in the literature. The holy books of Buddhism’ on the other hand’ appear to accept the plurality of worlds in countless numbers’ complete with indigenous alien plant and animal lifeforms.1898 The ancient Vedda culture’ which prospered on Ceylon prior to the Hindu invasion in the 6th century B.C.’ held that after death souls migrated to the Sun’ Moon’ and the stars before reaching Nirvana (the ultimate state of perfection). The beliefs of the Hindus are also closely associated with the idea of a plurality of worlds. The Indian philosophy’ in fact’ "explicitly assumes the existence of extraterrestrial intelligences."1899 In one myth’ as told in the Brahmavaivartcz Purana of the god Indra’ we find: Hold! I have spoken only of those worlds within this universe. But consider the myriads of universes that coexist side by side’ each with its Indra and Brahma’ and each with its evolving and dissolving worlds.... Can you presume to know them’ count them’ or fathom the reaches of all those universes with their multitude of worlds’ each with its legions of transmigrating inhabitants?"1901 The Old Testament is filled with strange events which some have argued may be linked with extraterrestrial visitations -- such as the visions of Ezekiel.1058 And in the New Testament appear such positive statements as: "In my Father's house there are many mansions" (John 14:2)’ and so forth. But by far the most important early contributors to the advancement of the idea of ETs were the Greek and Roman cultures. To the Homeric Greeks’ the Moon was an inhabited world separate from Earth’ the dwelling place of protean gods and the spirits of departed humans.1753 Traditional Grecian mythology held that the universe created the gods’ a view more consistent with the concept of mortal’ fallible aliens than the usual creator-deity of other religions. The Greek culture inherited considerable astronomical knowledge from the Egyptians and Babylonians upon which much speculation could be based. Thales of Miletus (6th century B.C.) was a philosopher who had guessed that heavenly bodies might have a material composition similar to that of the Earth. Around this time Pythagoras (well-known for his contributions to geometry) and others were beginning to think of Earth as a globe in space’ a sharp break from the flat-world concepts of earlier thinkers. Since other earthlike worlds might therefore exist’ Xenophanes of Colophon - a contemporary of Pythagoras - populated the Moon with inhabitants’ cities and mountains.602 Another Greek philosopher named Anaximenes evidently also believed in a multitude of celestial habitats’ because he had the audacity to tell Alexander the Great that the Macedonian king had conquered "only one of many worlds."702 In the 5th century B.C. Democritus taught the concepts of infinite space and numerous worlds.747 One of his pupils’ Metrodorus of Chios’ later wrote that "to consider the Earth the only populated world in infinite space is as absurd as to assert that in an entire field sown with millet only one grain will grow."20 Anaxagoras too embraced the plurality of worlds: "The Sun’ the Moon’ and all the stars are stones on fire. The Sun is a red-hot mass’ or a stone’ on fire. The Moon is of earthy nature. . .an incandescent solid’ having in it plains’ thountains’ and ravines!"1872 Another 5th century mathematician of the Pythagorean school stated his views on extraterrestrial most forthrightly: The Moon has an earthy appearance because’ like our Earth’ it is inhabited throughout by animals and plants’ only larger and more beautiful than ours: for the animals on it are fifteen times stronger than those on the Earth... and the day in the Moon is correspondingly longer...1872 And from The Travels of the Young Anacharsis in Greece’ written sometime during the 4th century B.C.’ we have: As nature is even richer by the variety than by the number of the species’ I spread in the various planets... peoples who have one’ two’ three’ or four senses in supplement. I then compare their geniuses with those Greece has produced’ and I must confess that Homer and Pythagoras inspire my pity."362 About this time the first "Moon romance" was written by Antonius Diogenes. His Of the Wonderful Things beyond Thule included a visit to the Moon; unfortunately’ the original text has not survived.1872 The Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius firmly believed in a host of inhabited worlds. As he wrote in De Rerum Natura: Why then you must confess that other worlds exist in other regions of the sky’ and different tribes of men’ kinds of wild beasts.... Nothing in nature is produced alone’ nothing is born unique’ or grows unique’ alone. Each thing is always specimen -- of race or class’ and many specimens belong to each.... That sky and Earth and Sun and all that comes to be are not unique but rather countless examples of a class."733 Unfortunately for xenology’ the Earth-centered (geocentric) cosmologies sponsored by Plato and Aristotle held sway. Both philosophers were firmly opposed to the concept of a plurality of worlds. Aristotle asserted that all matter was contained in this world’ thus leaving no room for any others. The unchangeability of the heavens was cited as additional proof of this.45 These teachings were later picked up by the Christian Church and enforced as law. It was then denied that any knowledge could exist that Aristotle had not known.

2.2 The Long Interregnum Despite the powerful forces arrayed behind the Aristotelian world view’ it took time to halt the intellectual momentum in favor of habitable worlds. The famous Roman poet Cicero was interested in the possibility of living beings on the Moon’ and his Somnium Scipionis may have inspired Plutarch (46 A.D. - 120 A.D.) to write his account of a visit to the Moon. In Facies in Orbe Lunare’ after dealing with various problems involved in reaching the Moon’ the Greek historian endorsed the Pythagoreans thus: "They affirm that the Moon is terrestrial and inhabited like the Earth’ peopled with the greatest living creatures and the fairest plants..."1753 He continues: It is possible that some inhabitants exist on the Moon; and those who claim that these beings must need everything that is necessary to us’ have never considered the variety that nature offers so that animals differ amongst themselves more than they differ from inanimate life. Only forty years after the death of Plutarch’ the Greek satirist Lucian of Samosata (125 A.D. - 190 A.D.) wrote the first interplanetary romance that has survived the ravages of time.1872 In his elaborate True History Lucian and his fellow travelers are carried by whirlwind to the Moon’ found to be inhabited by a race of men who ride on the backs of three headed birds. The adventurers have arrived at a most inopportune moment’ as the Lunarians are in the middle of a war with the inhabitants of the Sun to settle a dispute over the colonization of Venus.1753 The space troops include such marvelous creatures as "Horse-vultures’" "Salad-wings’" and "Flea-archers" (archers astride giant lunar fleas).742 The story is reminiscent of the "space opera" of the 1930's and 1940's. But after Lucian there was no further debate of the possibility of visiting other worlds and meeting the indigenous lifeforms there -- for more than a thousand years! This may probably be attributed to the pervasiveness of the Church philosophy and its rigid opposition to the idea of the plurality of worlds. The pronouncement of Franciscus Gratianus’ Bishop of Chiusi’ in 1145 A.D. was perhaps typical: The belief in many worlds was to be condemned as heresy. Of course’ there was a serious logical flaw in this stance. If God really was all-powerful’ why was he only able to create one world? Conversely’ if only one world existed how could God possibly be truly infinite and omnipotent? The theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274) came up with a "solution" to the problem: God had the power to create infinite worlds’ but all the matter in the universe had been used to construct Earth!372 Despite the obvious holes in this reasoning’ the Church subsequently partially reversed its extreme position. In 1277’ under the authority of the Pope’ the Bishop of Paris decried as new heresy the belief that a plurality of worlds was impossible!45 This did not’ of course’ means that the Church began to teach the plurality of worlds. According to the physics of Aristotle’ still in vogue until the 16th century’ if any other worlds did exist they would have to gravitate to the center of the universe (where Earth was). But it became wrong to suggest that God could not create many worlds if He wished.747 The debate was far from ended. In 1410 the Jewish philosopher Crescas wrote: "Everything said in negation of the possibility of many worlds is vanity and a striving after wind." Still’ he was unwilling to stick out his neck very far: ...yet we are unable by means of mere speculation to ascertain the true nature of what is outside this world; our sages’ peace be on them’ have seen fit to warn against searching and inquiring into what is above and what is below’ what is before and what is behind...747 The first really explicit deviation from orthodoxy occurred during the Inquisition in Europe in the mid-fifteenth century. Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa’ Bishop of Brixen and Christian philosopher’ wrote a book called Of Learned Ignorance (1440) in which he stated: Rather than think so many stars and parts of the heavens are uninhabited’ and that this Earth or ours alone is peopled... we will suppose that in every region there are inhabitants’ differing in nature by rank and all owing their origin to God.747 Considering how little we know about other animals here on Earth’ he claims’ "of the inhabitants.... of worlds other than our own we can know still less’ having no standards by which to appraise them."747 It is said that Cusa escaped the Inquisitional wrath only by virtue of his special protection and friendship with Pope Eugene IV.1753 As astronomical observations became more accurate’ the geocentric Aristotelian/Ptolemaic world view began to generate problems that were difficult to resolve. Calculated positions of the planets’ for instance’ were invariably in error. This necessitated the concoction of elaborate "explanations" based on a kind of astronomical fudge factor. During this time the first tale of interplanetary travel since Lucian (thirteen centuries earlier) was published. Ludovico Athsto's (1474-1533) Orlando Furioso tells of a trip to the Moon using a chariot driven by Saint John. The vehicle is drawn by flaming horses’ who leap from the summit of a high mountain. The Moon’ it turns out’ is littered with cities and townships. The heavy theological flavor of the story may have helped save Ariosto from persecution. A mere eleven years later the first edition of Copernicus‘ renowned De Revolutionibus Orbium Caelestium appeared’ proposing the modern Sun-centered (heliocentric) solar system. If the Holy See was enraged at this they could do nothing’ for the Polish astronomer died the year his book came out -- 1543. Others were not so lucky. Forty one years after the death of Copernicus a Dominican monk by the name of Giordano Bruno (1547-1600) wrote his controversial On the Infinite Universe and Worlds. Among other things’ the Italian philosopher advanced the following heterodoxies: "Innumerable suns exist; innumerable earths revolve about these suns in a manner similar to the way planets revolve around our sun. Living beings inhabit these worlds."20 Although Bruno was visiting in relatively tolerant Great Britain at the time his book was published’747 as soon as he set foot on Italian soil he was promptly arrested by the Church and incarcerated without trial for seven years.45 He was then convicted of heresy by a tribunal of the Holy See and sentenced to death. Bruno was burned at the stake in the Campo de' Fiori in Rome on February 17’ 1600. With the improvement of the telescope by Galileo (1564-1642) and the subsequent observations of the mountainous terrain of the lunar surface’ it became clear that the Moon was quite similar to the Earth in many ways. His discovery of the four largest Jovian satellites confirmed the existence of many worlds. For his part in advancing the heliocentric Copernican astronomy and the hypothesis of the plurality of worlds’ Galileo was arrested by the Inquisition and forced to recant his heresies. Luckily’ he was not executed. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) further refined the Sun-centered cosmology by suggesting that planets move in ellipses rather than perfect circles. He also authored an engrossing fictional account of a trip to the Moon’ published four years after his death’ entitled Somnium. Lunar biology is described in some detail’ including several forms of vegetation and serpentlike grotesque monsters.742 The first narrative of a trip to the Moon written in English was penned by Bishop Francis Godwin in 1638. In The Man in the Moone the main character’ Domingo Gonsales’ uses a team of trained geese under harness to carry him to the Moon whereupon: Suddenly I saw myself environed with a kind of people most strange’ both for their feature’ demeanure’ and apparel. Their stature was most diverse’ but for the most part twice the height of ours; their color and countenance most pleasing’ and their habit such as I know not how to express....1872 By 1640 another book was out’ a two-volume set by fellow English Bishop John Wilkins’ entitled The Discovery of a World in the Moone. Wilkins asserted his straightforward belief "that it is possible for some of our posterity to find out a conveyance to this other world’ and if there be inhabitants there’ to have commerce with them."747 The roadblocks to the idea of intelligent alien life on other worlds were rapidly disintegrating.

2.3 Plurality of Worlds and Divine Purpose By the early and mid-1600's the utilization of the Moon and other planets as abodes for extraterrestrial life had become an accepted theme’ certainly in fiction but also increasingly in scientific writings of the time. In the 17th century - the century of great discoveries’ scientific breakthroughs and grand geographical voyages around the world - more than 200 accounts of trips to the Moon appeared in print.1896 In 1656 the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher sent his hero touring the heavens with an angel as his guide. In the course of these journeys’ the Moon was found to be quite habitable’ including mountains’ oceans’ lakes’ islands and rivers.1872 About a decade later in Milton's well-known Paradise Lost’ the angel Raphael discusses the possibility of life on the Moon and other planets. Says he of the Moon: Could not there be Fields and inhabitants? Her spots thou seest As clouds’ and clouds may rain’ and rain produce Fruits in her softened soil’ for some to eat Allotted there; and other Suns’ perhaps’ With their attendant Moons… But Adam is cautioned that it is dangerous to cogitate such matters’ as they are best left to the Almighty: "Dream not of other worlds’ what creatures there live’ in what state’ condition or degree."702 David Russen in A Voyage to the Moon (1703) allowed that there might be inhabitants on the Moon’ but that traveling there would be difficult because of the lack of air between worlds.742 In Robert Paltock's John Daniel (1751)’ a survivor of a shipwreck constructs a flying machine to escape his island prison but winds up escaping the Earth instead! On the Moon he finds copper-skinned humanoids who live in caves and worship the Sun.742 And in 1775’ a Frenchman named Louis-Guillaume de la Follie published an account of the doings of beings on Mercury. In Philosophy Without Pretension’ a brilliant Mercurian inventor-scientist constructs a flying machine which carries a skeptical fellow scientist to Earth and maroons him here.45 But the fictional treatments of extraterrestrial life in the late 17th and 18th centuries were executed with a growing eye to satire and witty criticism of the foibles of modern civilization. Despite the increasing interest among the scientific community in alien life’ fictional tales remained remarkably free of science and technical accuracy. For example’ two of the best-known early adventure stories were Cyrano de Bergerac's (1620-1655) Voyage to the Moon (1657) and History of the States and Empires of the Sun (1662) (which was uncompleted at his death) . In the first of these tales’ the narrator wears bottles filled with morning dew which are attracted to the Sun - everyone knows dew rises! - and eventually transport him to the Moon. There he meets Domingo Gonsales and his trained geese’ and the lunar queen and her court are a cruel mockery of the monarchy of contemporary England.1872 Gabriel Daniel's novel A Voyage to the World of Descartes (1694) is a satire on the dualist philosophy of Descartes. Daniel's travelers found the Moon to be inhabited only by spirits.742 Voltaire's characters in Micromegas (1752) are extraterrestrials: One is a dwarf from Saturn with 72 different senses’ and the other is a giant eight leagues tall from the Sirius star system possessing more than a thousand different senses. The story is a satire on the supposed intelligence of mankind’ as it might be evaluated by objective aliens.742 And Aratus' narrator in his A Voyage to the Moon (1793) treks to Luna by hot air balloon’ landing on an island peopled with lipedal snake-like organisms that speak English. The book caricatures British social and political life by describing the civilization of the man-snakes in a most derogatory fashion.742 Another main thrust during this era of development was along religious lines. As the astronomers during the 1600's came to accept the plurality of worlds’ an assumption arose that God would never knowingly "waste" a world.747 This view’ which persisted well into the 19th and even 20th centuries’95’103’117’206’599 held that if worlds did exist in space their only real purpose could be to harbor manlike beings.1902 In this vein’ Ralph Cudworth wrote in The True Intellectual System of the Universe (1678): "It is not reasonable to think that all this immense vastness should lie waste’ desert’ and uninhabited’ and have nothing in it that could praise the Creator thereof’ save only this one small spot of Earth."747 The Anglican theologian Thomas Burnet followed suit six years later in a book called The Sacred Theory of the Earth’ wherein he asked: God himself formed the Earth... he formed it to be inhabited. This is true’ both of the Earth and of every habitable World whatsoever. For to what purpose is it made habitable’ if not to be inhabited? We do not build houses that they should stand empty’ but look out for Tenants as fast as we can.747 In a sermon preached by a young English clergyman named Richard Bentley in 1692’ we find still more evidence of the new viewpoint that swept over Christianity in only a century: "It remains’ therefore’ that all bodies were formed for the sake of intelligent minds... each for their own inhabitants which have life and understanding."747 William Derham’ another minister and author of the popular work Astrotheology (1715)’ was of the same opinion. Nor was colonial America immune to these new exotheological conceptions. Cotton Mather (1663-1728)’ a Puritan minister who wrote a book called The Christian Philosopher’ had this to say: "Great God’ what a Variety of Worlds hast thou created! How stupendous are the Displays of thy Greatness... in the Creatures with which thou hast replenished those Worlds!"*747 During this entire period of literary and theological development’ scientific speculation on the nature of extraterrestrial life was on the upswing. Spaceflight to other worlds was no longer viewed as wholly impractical; when Peter Heylyn compiled his World Geography’ the Moon was described along with such other "imaginary" lands as Australia’ New Guinea’ and the Solomon Islands.1872 Bernard de Fontenelle's Conversations about the Plurality of Worlds came out in 1686 and was an instant success. Not only did de Fontenelle conclude that intelligent beings must exist on worlds other than Earth’ but he advanced the progressive notion that such beings would have those characteristics consistent with the environment of the world in which they lived. Mercurians’ therefore’ were all hotheads in temperament. The inhabitants of Venus’ the next planet out from the Sun’ "resemble the Moors of Granada’ a small’ black people’ burned by the Sun’ full of wit and fire’ always in love’ writing verse’ fond of music’ arranging festivals’ dances and tournaments every day." Jupiterians rarely encountered each other’ since their planet was so large’ and the extreme coldness of Saturn rendered the creatures there dull’ torpid and sluggish in mind and body. It was suggested that the Moon might not be inhabited at all’ because of the thinness of the atmosphere.1950 The first full-length scientific book to deal seriously and specifically with the problem of extraterrestrial life was authored by the Dutch physicist and astronomer Christian Huygens. Entitled The Celestial Worlds Discover'd (1698)’ it contained many detailed theories and pursued with greater diligence the conform-to-the-environment theme de Fontenelle had also wrestled with. Of the planet Mars’ for instance’ Huygens cautiously states: "His Light and Heat is twice’ and sometimes three times less than ours’ to which I suppose the Constitution of his Inhabitants is answerable." As for populating the Sun’** Huygens (unlike William Herschel more than a century later) is very pessimistic: That the Sun is extremely hot and fiery’ is beyond all dispute’ and such Bodies as ours could not live one moment in such a Furnace. We must make a new fort of Animals then’ such as we have no Idea or Likeness of among us’ such as we can neither imagine nor conceive: which is as much to say’ that truly we have nothing at all to say.602 Many 18th century notables freely gave their views on alien life. Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772)’ a Swedish scientist’ mystic philosopher and theologian’ fancied that Venus was inhabited by two distinct species of giants -- one the gentle’ religious’ human herdsmen’ and the other the cruel’ savage plunderers "whose favorite sport is eating what has been stolen."43 In a more serious temper’ in 1728 Benjamin Franklin wrote: "I believe that Man is not the most perfect Being but One; rather that as there are many degrees of Beings his Inferiors’ so there are many degrees of Beings superior to him."747 The so-called father of Russian science’ Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov (1711-1765)’ published many poems of both satirical and scientific bent to communicate his belief in life on other worlds to his countrymen. And John Adams’ who became the second President of the United States’ made the following entry in his personal diary on April 24’ 1756: "...all the unnumbered Worlds that revolve round the fixt Stars are inhabited’ as well as this Globe of Earth." Legal philosophers likewise expressed interest in xenology at an early date. For example’ Immanuel Kant's Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens (1755) set forth the then unorthodox proposition that while many worlds may be inhabited’ not all planets will bear life. Furthermore’ Kant felt it likely that "celestial bodies which are not yet inhabited will be hereafter’ when their development has reached a later stage." The great French philosopher Montesquieu (1689-1755) may be credited with the anticipation of modern metalegal concepts (see Chapter 25). He envisioned the possibility of humans having some form of legal relations with intelligent ETs. In his De l‘espirit des lois (1748) he stated: Laws in the broadest sense imply relationship. That necessarily follows from the nature of things. In that sense all beings have their laws.... Laws are relationships which exist between it and the different beings as well as the relations between these beings themselves.372 And back across the English channel’ the British political leader Lord Bolingbroke (1678-1751) wrote that ours may not be the highest intellect in the universe. In fact’ said he’ "we may well suspect that ours is the lowest’ in this respect’ of all mundane systems."747

* A curious book was written in 1757 by Dr. Swinden’ a British clergyman’ called Researches on the Nature of the Fire of Hell and the Place Where It Is Situated. According to Swindon's detailed calculations’ the interior volume of Earth is far too small to hold the multitude of angels that fell from Heaven after the Great Battle. Hence’ the Sun is the only possible abode of the devil’ it being a well-sustained fire and having plenty of room for Satanic inhabitants. ** The theory of solar-dwellers was once used as evidence at a murder trial. One Dr. Elliot’ accused of the murder of Miss Boydell in 1787’ stated in open court his opinion that the Sun was endowed with intelligent inhabitants. His friends asserted insanity as his defense’ citing as clear proof his beliefs regarding life in the Sun. 43

2.4 Science and Science Fiction In the early 19th century it was still maintained by many that the Moon must be inhabited’ or else God's work would be wasted. Thomas Dick carried this idea to its absurd but logical conclusion in his nonfiction theological work entitled Celestial Scenery (1838). First’ he noted that the rings of Saturn contain an area of more than thirty million square miles. "It is not likely’" he went on’ "that the Creator would leave a space equal to nearly six hundred times the habitable parts of our globe’ as a desolate waste’ without nay tribes of either sensitive or intelligent existence.... "1872 By the mid-nineteenth century this view remained virtually unchanged. Father Angelo Secehi’ a Jesuit astronomer’ asserted of the planets: "These worlds are bound to be populated by creatures capable of recognizing’ honoring and loving their Creator."1905 But as the last century drew to a close’ the English poetess Alice Meynell (1849-1922) sounded in verse what was to become the less-chauvinistic modern perspective: Doubtless we shall compare together’ hear A million alien Gospels... O’ be prepared’ my soul! To read the inevitable’ to scan The million forms of God those stars unroll When’ in our turn’ we show to them a Man.702 This idea that ETs will have their own religions and their own gods has replaced "waste" as the central topic of exotheological debate. Scientific speculations were often grossly unreliable and misleading’ as evidenced by the "Moon Hoax" fiasco. In July of 1822 a German astronomer by the name of Franz von Paula Guithuisen had first reported observing a great walled city on the Moon’ near the crater Schröter on the lunar equator. This caused quite a flap’ and the stage was set. The famous British astronomer Sir John Herschel (1792-1871) traveled to the Royal Observatory at Capetown’ South Africa in 1834 to commence a full sky survey of the Southern hemisphere. The project was well known throughout the educated world at the time and’ added to Gruithuisen's wild claims’ may explain the widespread acceptance of Richard Adams Locke's concocted front page story on Sir Herschel's "amazing discovery" of inhabitants on the Moon. Published in The New York Sun during the first week of September’ 1835’ the report (called "Great Astronomical Discoveries") claimed that Herschel had turned a powerful new telescope towards the Moon and had observed life there’ including forests’ bison-like animals’ blue unicorns and finally’ winged men and women: We counted three parties of these creatures’ of twelve’ nine’ and fifteen in each’ walking erect towards a small wood near the base of the eastern precipices. Certainly they were like human beings’ for their wings had now disappeared’ and their attitude in walking was both erect and dignified.1872 The entire first reprinting of 20’000 copies was completely sold out on the day of publication. During the second half of the 19th century the French scientist and popularizer Camille Flammarion wrote many discourses on the subject of extraterrestrial life. His On the Plurality of Habitable Worlds was a much-read general treatment of the subject. Another work’ entitled Imaginary Worlds and Real Worlds’ was a review of all previous writings on the habitability of worlds and the possibility of interplanetary communication.45 In still another volume’ Lands in the Sky’ Flaminarion stated with conviction: The Humanities of the heavens are no longer a myth. Already the telescope brings us in touch with their countries; already the spectroscope enables us to analyze the air they breathe.... From the bottom of our abyss we can visualize these far-away nations’ these unknown cities’ these extraterrestrial people!733 The publication of Darwin's Origin of Species (1859) was soon followed by the development of an idea advanced by Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius: Life may be ubiquitous thoughout the cosmos’ carried from planet to planet by tiny space-spores (panspermia).1906 The modern era of scientific xenology was ushered in with Henderson's important little book The Fitness of the Environment (1913)’ in which the Harvard biochemist attempted to demonstrate that both water and carbon are necessary in any living system on any planet in the universe.879 Superior astronomical data was becoming available’ providing a still more accurate view of our solar system and galaxy. The father of Russian astronautics’ Konstantin E. Tsiolkovskii’ wrote extensively on spaceflight and the possibility of ETs colonizing the Galaxy ahead of us. Alien civilizations’ he pointed out’ might well exist at many different levels of technological development;20 in 1925’ Tsiolkovskii summarized by noting the distinct probability that "perfection and dominance of the mind" have been spreading throughout the cosmos.702 Fictional treatments of extraterrestrial life proliferated. During the late 19th and 20th centuries the use of aliens became a vehicle for both romantic and far-flung scientific speculative statement. Achille Eyraud's Voyage to Venus (1865) was the first fictional visit to that planet at a time when the idea of an inhabited Moon was virtually a dead letter.45 In another trip to Venus’ Garret Putnam Serviss's A Columbus of Space (1909)’ we find ape-like cave dwellers and beautiful telepathic humanoids.742 John Munro painted a most delightful picture of life on Venus in A Trip to Venus (1897);1872 Edgar Rice Burroughs also took us to Venus and Mars’ as did C. S. Lewis in his well-known trilogy.364’348 And Jupiter's steaming jungles’ replete with dinosaurs and pterodactyls’ appeared in John Jacob Astor's A Journey in Other Worlds (1894) -- along with a brief excursion to Saturn.742 Voyages to other stars began to be written. With the French author Charles Ischir Defontenay we are transported to the star system of Psi Cassiopeia’ in his 1854 novel of the same naine’ for a quick dose of haunting space opera.564 David Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus (1920) likewise is a romance’ describing a visit to the extrasolar planet Tormance by spaceship and various adventures with the inhabitants there.1872 But it was certainly "Mars Fever" that inaugurated the present epoch of science in science fiction. In 1877’ under unusual conditions of good seeing’ the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli observed what appeared to be "channels" crisscrossing the martian surface. Schiaparelli never maintained that his "channels" were relics of alien technology. Yet the word gained something in the translation into English: "Channels" became "canals’" with the connotation of intelligent engineering efforts. This was snapped up by Percival Lowell’ an American astronomer who became so devoted to the search for life on Mars that he established an observatory in Flagstaff’ Arizona for the sole purpose of studying the Red Planet.2009 His two books were widely read. Mars (1896) may have served as the scientific background for H. G. Wells' famous novel The War of the Worlds (1898) in which Earth suffers an invasion by martians. Mars and its Canals (1911) might well have served in the same capacity for Burroughs when he wrote A Princess of Mars (1917)’ The Gods of Mars (1918)’ and classical sequels through 1940. Mark Wicks' To Mars via the Moon (1911) is another enthusiastic depiction of Lowellian Mars: The telepathic martians are found to have advanced canal-building technology and a Utopian socialist system of government. Lieutenant Gullivar Jones: His Vacation (1905) by Edwin Lester Arnold is a fantasy in which we meet carefree’ friendly’ gracious’ but apparently purposeless martians possessing an ideal political system. The martians in Hugh MacCoil's Mr. Stranger's Sealed Packet (1889) have voice-recording devices and electric lighting but are otherwise technologically inferior to earthlings. And in Robert Croniie's A Plunge into Space (1890) we again find the frustrated hopes of finite humans projected onto more advanced aliens: Zero population growth has been achieved’ workdays are only two hours in length’ and the government is so perfect that there is no need for politicians!1872 Two novels served as a bridge from romantic visits to alien planets in the 19th century to the modern era of science fiction. The first of these’ Kurd Lasswitz' Concerning Two Planets (1897)’ is a fascinating tale of martians who differ little from men physically but are comparatively advanced in ethics’ social and physical sciences. Since they are more advanced’ Lasswitz reasoned’ they will be the first to visit us and not vice versa.1038 The second important work is the aforementioned War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.1951 The interaction of man and alien is explored realistically for the first time. Man must realize that he may someday face enemies with "minds that are to our minds as ours are to the beasts in the jungle."1951 We must also learn humility’ we discover: In the end the invaders are destroyed’ not by Earth's pitiful military might’ but by the lowly bacteria of our planet against which the aliens have no immunological defenses. After the early 1900's the number of scientific and fictional investigations of the problems and benefits presented by intelligent extraterrestrial races rises almost exponentially. In 1929 Hugo Gernsback coined the term "science fiction’"1896 and the cheap pulps of the 1920's gave way to the technological space opera of the 1930's and 1940's. Still more recently both science and science fiction have become remarkably sophisticated’ dealing in detail with interstellar travel’ extrasolar alien life’ reasonable planetary environments conducive to the evolution of such life’ and various particulars of possible alien physiology’ sociology’ and philosophy. Xenology’ the study of life on other worlds’ is indeed "an idea whose time has come." Back to Contents

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 3. The Aliens Among Us "These {‘ancient astronaut’} books may be pitiful stumbling efforts in the morasses of technical and historical scholarship... but as religion they are worthy of respect as picture-language wrestlings with the deep matters all persons face -- or evade -- in the stillness of the heart. On this level their scientific and historical failings may not matter so much." -- Ronald Story’ in The Space Gods Revealed (1976)1870 "I saw a disk up in the air’ A silver disk that wasn’t there. Two more weren’t there again today -Oh how I wish they’d go away." -- Men’s room graffiti’ White Sands Missile Range’ New Mexico (1967) "Where are they?" -- Enrico Fermi (1943) "I am sure they saw something." -- Albert Einstein17 "Further extensive study of unidentified flying objects probably cannot be justified in the expectation that science will be advanced thereby." -- Dr. Edward U. Condon (1968)17 "By 2100 A.D. on Earth’ three species of cetacean had been recognized as intelligent and admitted to the United Nations. Their lawsuit against the former whaling nations had not been resolved’ and in fact never was. The cetaceans enjoyed the legal gymnastics too much ever to end it." -- Larry Niven’ in "At the Bottom of a Hole" (1966)548

Closely paralleling the historical development of xenology has been the widespread but unverified conviction that aliens already are’ or have been’ visitors to Earth. Despite the pseudoscience cults and charlatans frequently associated with "ancient astronaut" and "flying saucer" theories’ the hypothesis that intelligent extraterrestrials might have played some role in the evolution or emergence of human civilization is fascinating and certainly warrants critical study.

3.1 Xenoarchaeology It has recently become fashionable to postulate that ETs landed on our planet ages ago’ whether to influence our biological or social evolution’ to collect zoo specimens’ or to make anthropological surveys.1215’1221’1326’1327’1328 Extravagant speculations abound: One bock attributes to alien benevolence the discoveries of subatomic physics’ general relativity’ and the double helix!1880 Xenoarchaeology - the search for evidence of ancient visitation by interstellar travelers - is at best a difficult and confused field of study. Precisely because hopes and expectations are so high’ it is often harder to maintain a strong’ healthy skepticism. Hence’ in the words of astronomer Carl Sagan’ "we must accept arguments for extraterrestrial visitations to earth only when the evidence is compelling."1870 At present’ an exhaustive survey of all pertinent literature and other evidence fails to uncover a single incontrovertible case of past alien presence on our planet. Of course there is nothing a priori absurd about the basic idea of ancient astronauts. The Hypothesis of Mediocrity allows that’ as a general rule’ when one goes exploring one finds inferior things.1040 For example’ Columbus discovered America because European transportation technology was well advanced beyond that of the native Americans. Were this not the case’ the natives would have discovered Europe! It is plausible to conclude that if the Galaxy is teeming with life’ a superior intelligence from another star system could have visited Earth for any of a myriad of good reasons. Speculation has centered on three specific areas. First’ there is the possibility that aliens arrived geological timescales (millions or billions of years) ago. Biochemical and genetic evidence has been marshaled in an attempt to demonstrate that our natural biological evolution may have been adjusted’ enhanced or tampered with in some manner. A second proposition is that extraterrestrial "gods" and "saviors" have materially affected the development of human society and culture. The most common evidence advanced in favor of this is the virtual ubiquity of legends describing visitors from the sky. Usually these yarns seem to suggest either that the human race was exported to Earth from other worlds’ or that ETs came among men and helped launch human civilization. Naturally’ a mere account of strange beings who live in the heavens and perform miracles is not compelling proof. (Where else might gods reside but in the skies?554) And the clear correlation between the movement of stars and constellations in the celestial vault and the changing seasons has probably been recognized at least since the emergence of Cro-Magnon man. Primitive belief systems often attribute divinity and magical forces to such regular features in the environment. Yet how easy it would be for an alien humanoid to "curse" hapless natives with a portable x-ray machine! It may be that all interstellar First Contact operations include a Thaumaturgy Division’ whose duty it is to create miracles and god-myths to keep the curious at a safe distance in the unlikely event of an emergency landing. These thaumaturgists could create spectacular displays to awe primitive onlookers’ such as transmutation of drinking fluids’ variable-rigidity lances’ and advanced force-field technology (which might perhaps be demonstrated on local bodies of water). The third specific area of xenoarchaeological research is the quest for alien artifacts and other physical manifestations of their presence. This is of great importance’ because it is often urged that in such important matters "the only acceptable evidence would be hardware."373 For instance’ the discovery of a piece of advanced electronics embedded in a coal seam millions of years old’ accompanied by indisputably nonhuman skeletons’ might be acceptable as convincing evidence of past visitation. Another common suggestion is that the aliens might have left a durable marker of some kind’ such as the black monolith depicted in the science fiction movie 2001: A Space Odessey. In fact the Moon would be an ideal location: The artifact would last millions of years without disturbance and could only be detected by a reasonably advanced spacefaring civilization. But we must beware of technological chauvinism in assessing possible artifacts. We can interpret certain objects as airfields’ nails’ or evidence of the use of nuclear explosives’ but this is because we have just acquired this technology ourselves. Two hundred years ago the interpretation would have been much different; two centuries hence’ it will again radically change. The fact is that the technology of space visitors will most likely be highly non-contemporary with our own. The problems involved in tracking down evidence of extraterrestrial contacts in ancient times are vastly different from those of conventional archaeology and anthropology. It would not be remarkable if a few brief visits by ETs to limited areas of this planet have left no traces. Continental drift and tectonic shuffling’ ice ages’ volcanic activity and sedimentation will have taken their toll. Archaeologists generally search for human settlements. Yet the chances of’ say’ a spacecraft crash landing near one of these is extremely small. It is highly unlikely that we could ever detect anything less than widespread’ intensive alien involvement. Let us assume arguendo that ten aerial vehicles crashed somewhere on Earth in ancient times’ spewing their debris over a swath covering 10’000 m2. If the affected stratum is one meter deep and lies under an average of 10 meters of sediment’ this leaves about 1015 cubic meters of soil and rock to be examined. If we then assume that all crashes occurred only over that 10% of the Earth’s land area which is "interesting" to the ETs’ and that there are ten archaeologists with suitable engineering and technical credentials searching full time for the sites (excavating an average of 10 m3 each day per investigator)’ it would take roughly 15’000 years just to have a 50/50 chance of finding a crash site. Even then’ and assuming favorable corrosion conditions’ the chances of spotting recognizable remnants of an accident would still be miniscule. For these reasons and others’ many have renewed the hunt for reconstructable contact legends passed down from early human civilizations. There is some reason to cautiously assert the validity of this technique’ because we know that historical events have occasionally been faithfully recorded in myth and folklore. Perhaps the best-known of these was the first meeting between the Tlingit people on the northeast coast of North America and a European expedition in 1786 led by the French explorer Jean La Pérouse. The oral native account of the incident remained true to the original a century later’ although some of the descriptions of advanced European technology (e.g.’ giant sailing ships) had acquired a distinct mythological flavor over the years.554 And many other accounts of such phenomena as supernovae1557 and great floods862 have likewise survived through centuries of verbal narration. One useful test of the validity of legendary encounters with ETs might be whether or not information is contained in the tale which couldn’t possibly have been generated by the primitive civilization itself.15 For example’ an ancient manuscript containing modern circuit diagrams or a "holy number" worshipped throughout the ages (which turned out to be the transcendental e or the nuclear fine structure constant) might be sufficient if it could be independently authenticated. Carl Sagan has articulated three factors which maximize the probability that an historical encounter with aliens would be recorded in a reconstructable manner: 1. The account must be committed to writing soon after the event; 2. The contacted society undergoes a major change because of the contact; and 3. The aliens make no attempt to disguise their exogenous nature.554 If these stringent requirements can be satisfied in even a single instance’ xenoarchaeologists may be able to secure proof that Earth has been visited by intelligent ETs.

3.1.1 Extraterrestrial Intervention in Biological Evolution The evidence that man’s biogenetic evolution has been interfered with by aliens is scanty and highly questionable. Perhaps one of the earliest mythological accounts of possible biological experimentation on apes is mentioned in the Ramayama’ the second of the great Indian epic poems. Hanuman the monkey god was supposedly conceived when Shivar (a dweller in the heavens) gave Anjana (an Earth ape) a sacred cake to eat. The monkey god thus born was super-strong and highly intelligent.310 But despite the fact that Hanuman was followed by legions of other ape-heroes (Sugriva’ Brahaspati’ Bali’ Tara and Gandha’ among others)’ there was never any suggestion that these were the biological precursors of men. Greek mythology is full of tales of "interplanetary adultery." Zeus’ king of the gods’ had scores of human concubines and was reportedly responsible for many rapes of human females. Apollo’ Aphrodite’ Hermes and Ares all had affairs with mere mortals. Yet most biologists today agree that a successful sexual mating between two species from different planets is improbable at best. Although lions and tigers have been crossbred in captivity (to make "ligers")’ such is not the rule. Even CroMagnon and Neanderthal man’ two species of humans’ are not believed to have been interfertile. Benevolent ETs would probably have come to Earth’ not to hybridize or perpetuate their own genome’ but to improve ours. This could easily be done using advanced genetic engineering to accelerate the normal evolutionary processes. The native myths of the Marquesas Islands’ Hawaii’ Indonesia and Tahiti all tell that the first men on Earth were given birth to by a celestial couple.310 If one wanted to do this sort of thing and a humanoid was the desired end-product’ it might make sense to modify some of the local primate stock. Marmosets and many other monkeys have the same number of chromosomes as man; gorillas’ chimps and orangutans have only two extra. Erich von Daniken has suggested something along these lines’ although his factual support is notoriously weak. He claims in his several books that man is an artificial mutation’ separated from the ape stock long ago by alien intervention.1221 In Chariots of the Gods we find: Dim ages ago an unknown spaceship discovered our planet. The crew of the ship soon found out that the earth had all the prerequisites for intelligent life to develop. The spacemen artificially fertilized some human female members of {an advanced primate species} They repeated their breeding experiment several times until they produced a creature intelligent enough to have the rules of society imparted to it. The space travelers destroyed the unsuccessful specimens’ {fearing that men} might retrogress and mate with animals again.1326 Unfortunately’ no solid verifiable facts are adduced in favor of the hypothesis. This area of xenoarchaeology has been severely handicapped by a dearth of qualified researchers and an excessive quantity of unusually poor scholarship.1948 A case in point is Mankind -- Child of the Stars by Max H. Flindt and Otto O. Binder.1215 Their proposal’ simply stated’ is that we are the hybridized descendants of intelligent extraterrestrials. Apparently following Larry Niven's excellent science fiction novel Protector first published seven years earlier’1909 Flindt and Binder assert that the human race is merely a colony founded and maintained -- and later abandoned -- by beings from another world. Decades of detailed paleontological and evolutionary data are casually swept aside: We are asked to believe that man could not have evolved fast enough on Earth. Hence the "starmen" must be responsible. Supposedly’ humans are sexier than other animals because the ETs were downright lecherous. Not only did the starmen bring their own genes to Earth for our benefit’ but "the primate line was imported"1215 as well. As if this were not enough’ the authors of Mankind attribute the evolution of hundreds of species of food animals and other extinct creatures to the aliens’ kindly influence. Again’ factual support is totally nonexistent. But serious xenoarchaeological theories are being pursued by competent scientists in spite of the deluge of popularized pseudoscience on the subject. Ronald Bracewell’ a respected Stanford University radioastronomer’ has proposed that it would be a fine gesture for a passing extraterrestrial to have seeded our thensterile planet’ billions of years ago’ with the first microorganisms that would later lead to the evolution of intelligent life.80 A less glamorous version of this conception of the origin of life is widely known as the Gold Garbage Theory. According to Dr. Thomas Gold of the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research at Cornell University’ life here might have spread from a pile of waste products accidentally dumped on a barren Earth long ago.22’1910 A. G. Cairns-Smith’ a well-known biochemist at the University of Glasgow in Great Britain’ suggests that our original ancestors might have had alien biochemistries and has presented some (as yet nonconclusive) evidence to support this possibility.1460 But the best-known of the "earth-seeding" ideas has come from two of the world’s most eminent molecular biologists: Francis Crick at Cambridge’ England and Leslie Orgel at the Salk Institute in San Diego’ California. According to their theory’ first presented in 1971 at the joint Soviet-American Byurakan CETI conference’ organisms may have been directly transmitted to the Earth by intelligent space beings -- deliberately.1283 This "directed panspermia’" as they call it’ could be accomplished simply by sending out unmanned space probes bearing a ton or so of assorted microorganisms capable of infecting a sterile host planet. Crick and Orgel cite as evidence the inordinately large role of the element molybdenum in terrestrial biochemistry’ peculiar because it is such a rare substance. Chromium and nickel’ which are 10 and 100 times more abundant in the environment’ respectively’ are relatively unimportant in biochemistry. The theory has been debated extensively in the literature without conclusion.1294’1295’1296’1911’2100

3.1.2 Extraterrestrial Cultural Intervention Early primates may have been set on the path of sociocultural development because of alien intervention’ as portrayed in the popular production 2001: A Space Odyssey.1912 But there is no need to resort to fiction. Human folklore is replete with tales of interactions with strange beings from the skies. Among the lesser-known myths is that of the Eskimos. Eskimo legends tell of being transported to the frozen northern lands in "giant metal birds". According to Pauwels and Bergier’ attention has been drawn to curious cultural parallels between various archaeological sites located in Greenland’ Siberia and Ceylon.1913 But apparently the claim cannot be authenticated.1001 One case which most nearly meets Sagan’s three stringent criteria (see above) is the ancient Sumerian civilization.20’554 The Sumerians were profoundly affected by the Apkallu (possible representatives of an advanced’ nonhuman’ amphibious extraterrestrial society)’ who taught them laws’ science and architecture. No attempt was made by the aliens to conceal their nature. However’ the first requirement -- that there be a contemporary written account -- is partially lacking. The only description that has survived appears in the Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic (ca. 2000 B.C.)’ one of the oldest existing written texts in the world today. But second-hand reports are just not good enough. The Sumer legend is interesting because the creatures are always spoken of as "beings’" "endowed with reason’" and "personages" -- but never as "gods"! Were it not for the unusual subject matter the account would doubtless be considered an ordinary historical event’ as there are no mystical or super natural overtones in the writing. Most other legends don’t appear to represent a radical alteration of any culture. The 3’500-year-old Egyptian bible called the Book of the Dead speaks of "those who with their knowledge reach the vault of the sky" and mentions "those who live among the stars".1914 Although the work purports to describe the life of Thoth’ a god from the sky alleged to have given the people of the Nile the beginnings of science’ literature and medicine’ the Book of the Dead is laced with mythological serpents’ devils and demons. In India’ the Mahabharata is one of two beloved epic poems. The twenty-volume work’ written several thousand years ago’ is a history of Indian religion and mythology. The poem speaks of "vimanas" that fly through the air bearing gods. In another section’ two legendary characters battle each other with incredible weaponry that causes the winds to blow. . .meteors lashing down from the firmament. . .a thick gloom. . .the sun no longer gave any heat. . .clouds roared. . . . The elephants and other creatures of the land’ scorched by the energy of that weapon’ ran in fright. The very waters heated’ the creatures residing in that element. . . seemed to burn. The forms of the slain could not be distinguished.746 The Dogon of Mali in Africa worship a pyramid with a square’ flat top’ upon which it is said the "sky gods" landed during their visits in ancient times. Such beings supposedly taught the natives the essentials of surveying and agricultural techniques’ but are always referred to as gods.310 The tale’ however’ appears to be purely allegorical.* About the time the Toltec and Mayan cultures were beginning to intermingle (ca. 900 A.D.) there arose the legend of Quetzalcoatl’ a bearded’ light-skinned man who flew down from the sky to teach men law’ astronomy’ math’ art’ and the cultivation of corn and cotton. The feathered serpent was his symbol’ and the pyramid built in his honor is the largest in the world (it has a volume nearly 30% greater than the largest Egyptian structure). When Quetzalcoatl’s mission to Earth was completed he returned to the morning star’ promising to return someday. The Mayans themselves are also fascinating because of the extreme accuracy of their calendar system. Furthermore’ the units of time in the Mayan system included the alautun’ a period of roughly 63’000’000 years! One inscription de scribes events that occurred 90 million years ago’ and another makes mention of a date 400 million years in the past.1848 But without more’ unfortunately’ a long time-Sense alone cannot be considered compelling proof. For those who wish to find evidence for extraterrestrials’ the Christian Bible is chock-full of marvelous possibilities. The prophet Elijah’ for in stance’ was protected by a fire that came down from heaven and destroyed 100 soldiers and their captains (IV Kings 1:9-12). Soon thereafter he was abducted by a "fiery chariot’" and "Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." (IV Kings 2:11). Similarly’ Enoch is reported shanghaied by God (Genesis 5:24)’ although his tour of the "seven heavens" and subsequent return to Earth is published elsewhere (in The Book of the Secrets of Enoch). Jacob wrestles with an angel until dawn and finally overpowers it (Genesis 32:22-33). After forcing the angel to bless him’ Jacob releases it’ exclaiming in relief: "I have seen a heavenly being face to face’ yet my life has been spared."** Daniel encountered a being on a "throne like flames of fire." (Daniel 7:9). In Revelations 4:1-6’ Saint John observed "a door standing open in heaven" and then a throne "from which proceeded flashes of lightning’ rumblings’ and peals of thunder... and before the throne was a sea of glass like unto crystal." Seated on the throne is a humanoid’ surrounded by twenty-four others (the "elders"). The list of biblical tales is virtually endless: The God to whom Moses frequently speaks appears to lack that strength of resolve we might expect from an omniscient deity. For example’ when God is about to destroy Moses’ people the prophet manages to talk the Lord out of it! (Exodus 32:7-14) Furthermore’ Moses communicates with the being upon demand in a specially constructed Meeting Tent: "As Moses entered the Tent’ the column of cloud would come down and stand at its entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses." (Exodus 33:9) And God seems strangely concerned with promulgating an ethical rule that prohibits maltreatment of foreign-looking humanoids: "When an alien resides with you in your land’ do not molest him." (Leviticus 19:33) Dr. Vyacheslav Zaitzev746 and Alexander Kazentsev981 have theorized that both Jesus Christ and the biblical angels might have been ETs. (It is interesting to note that the births of both John the Baptist and Jesus were announced to the respective mothers by angels long before they themselves knew they were pregnant’ and that both mothers were barren or virgin at the time.) Then we have the problem of the Genesis Plurals. There are many of them’ but two are of special concern here. The first is as follows: "And God said’ Let us make man in our image’ after our likeness." (Genesis 1:26) The fact that the plurals "us" and "our" are used gives rise to the speculation that many gods are involved’ that is’ extraterrestrials. But it is generally accepted that these particular plurals are a veiled reference to the existence of more than one person in God (i.e.’ the Trinity). The second Genesis Plural is rather harder to interpret: "And it came to pass. . .that the sons of God saw the daughters of men...and they took them wives of all which they chose. ... When the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men they bore children to them." (Genesis 6:1-4) Who are these "sons of God"? More extraterrestrials?1845 One common explanation is that they are the descendants of Seth and Enos. Ronald Story has suggested that they were "divine beings who belonged to the heavenly court."1870 The issue remains unresolved. One of the most controversial "contact events" in the Bible may be found in the Book of Ezekiel. To pick one passage of many: Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year’ in the fourth month’ on the fifth day of the month’ when I was in the midst of the captives by the river Chobar’ the heavens were opened’ and I saw visions of God. And I saw’ and beheld a whirlwind come out of the north’ and a great cloud’ and a fire enfolding it’ and brightness was about it’ and out of the midst thereof...was the likeness of four living creatures; and this was their appearance; there was the likeness of a man in them. Every one had four faces’ and every one four wings. Their feet were straight feet’ and the sole of their foot... sparkled like the appearance of glowing brass. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they had faces’ and wings on the four sides’ and the wings of one were joined to the wings of another. After this "landing’" Ezekiel continues: This was the vision running to and fro in the midst of the living creatures’ a bright fire and lightning going forth from the fire. And the living creatures ran and returned like flashes of lightning. Now as I beheld... there appeared upon the earth by the living creatures one wheel with four faces... a wheel within a wheel. When they went they went by their four parts’ and they turned not when they went... And over the heads of the living creatures was the likeness of the firmament’ as the appearance of crystal’ terrible to behold’ and stretched out over their heads above... And I heard the noise of their wings’ like the noise of many waters... and when they stood’ their wings were let down. For when a voice came from above the firmament that was over their heads’ they stood and let down their wings. And above the firmament was the likeness of a throne’ as the appearance of the sapphire stone’ and upon the throne was the appearance of a man above upon it. (Ezekiel 1:1-26) According to the late Josef Blumrich’ former chief of the systems layout branch at the Marshall Spaceflight Center of NASA’ Ezekiel was confronted with an "Earth Excursion Module" (Figure 3.1) manned by an alien pilot.1058 In Spaceships of Ezekiel’ Blumrich presents detailed engineering analyses of a plug-nozzle planetary landing vehicle that has been seriously considered by aeronautical designers at NASA1977 and elsewhere.1001 Its "wings" are helicopter blades affixed to four columns supporting the rocket mechanism (Figure 3.2). The aerospace engineer concludes that his design would be optimal for the required missions’ which are: (1) Earth-to-orbit’ and (2) Short surface-to-surface hops.

Figure 3.1. The spaceship seen from a distance of about 190 feet (from Blumrich1058)

An example of the depiction of the traditional interpretation. The spacecraft began its flight to the earth with the separation from the mothership at an altitude of probably about 220 nautical miles. During the flight through the atmosphere’ its speed was reduced by aerodynamic drag until eventually’ at low altitudes’ a brief firing of the rocket engine reduced the speed enough so that the spaceship could use its helicopters for the rest of the descent. This last phase of the flight’ which begins with the brief firing of the rocket engine’ was witnessed and described by Ezekiel. Later he observes the spacecraft as it hovers a few feet above the ground in search of a suitable landing site. The brief bursts of the control rockets occur in a sequence seen as irregular by Ezekiel who construes them as lightning flickering in the space that separates the living beings. This diverts his attention from the fascinating beings to the area between them’ and thus he now sees the radiator of the reactor glowing like smoldering coals. The spacecraft has landed. Wheels’ which were housed in the lower portion of the helicopter units during the flight’ have now been deployed. The straight legs with their round feet no longer touch the ground. Wheels!

Figure 3.2. Helicopter unit seen from a distance of about 25 feet (from Blumrich1058)

As the great archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered the ancient city of Troy by accepting the Homeric epics literally’ Blumrich has attempted to take Ezekiel at his word and reinterpret what the Hebrew prophet saw in terms of reasonable modern technology. Certainly it is doubtful that Ezekiel - a man of the 5th century B.C. - could have recognized the form or function of a bonafide spacecraft if he had seen one. Unfortunately’ most biblical reconstructions such as the above fall short of the three stringent requirements demanded by Sagan. Although the events described in the Bible clearly had an enormous effect on many cultures’ the translated and retranslated record of whatever did happen 2000 years ago is now a hopelessly confused jumble of conflicting testimony. (The two accounts of Creation in Genesis’ for instance’ explicitly contradict each other!) Besides the incorrectness of the astronomy and celestial mechanics in most biblical (and other) tales’ the evidence here also fails because any hypothetical extraterrestrials apparently took great pains to generate a god-myth and conceal their exogenous nature. Unlike the Sumerian legends discussed earlier’ the Bible is loaded with spiritual’ mystical overtones which render virtually impossible the conclusive extraction of any historical visitation events that may be hidden there.

* It is interesting that the oral tradition mentions a "dark brother" of the star. Sirius.310’2022 In modern times it has been discovered that the Dog Star does possess a dark companion star’ a fact unknown until a little over a century ago. Nevertheless’ this can hardly be viewed as compelling evidence of extraterrestrial visitation because it is a trivial point which could easily have been adopted at random by the Dogon. ** It is notable that until about the 6th century A.D.’ the Church did not accept the spiritual nature of angels but considered them to be physical beings without wings.

3.1.3 Extraterrestrial Artifacts and Manifestations From time to time peculiar artifacts have turned up’ often touted as remains of alien technology here on Earth. At best most of the finds are unauthenticated’ unverifiable’ and frequently irrelevant. Perhaps the oldest known artifact is the so-called Salzburg Cube. This object was found in 1885 in a Tertiary Period coal seam by a Dr. Gurlt. It measured 67 x 67 x 47 millimeters (with a deep groove running around its middle)’ weighed about 785 grams’ and was said to resemble in composition a hard nickel-carbon steel.600 However’ mere steel should not have been able to survive 12-70 million years of the successive acid/alkaline reactions found in the decaying vegetation in a coal bed.1001 The Cube reposed in the Salzburg Museum in Austria until 1910’ when it apparently was lost.45 Bullet holes in prehistoric bison’310 remains of screws’1327 nails’49 and sparkplugs (the "Coso Artifact")83 have been unearthed’ as well as handprints310 and footprints1327 molded in solidified sandstone’ instruments’1326 small gem statuettes’1269 and peculiar coins.49’1001 A diffraction grating etched on a polished copper mirror was found in an early Egyptian (3rd or 4th Dynasty) tomb.49 And about 700 strange granite disks were rumored recovered from caves in the mountains of Payenk Ara Ulaa in China’ in 1938. These disks bore engraved symbols telling of creatures landing a craft and meeting the local natives.746 However’ the lack of corroborating artifacts is suspicious. The Baghdad Batteries are small ovoid jars capable of producing a weak current when filled with vinegar. About a dozen such objects turned up during heavy construction work near the capital of Iraq. Ronald Story has suggested that they might have been used for primitive electroplating of silver onto copper’ certainly a far cry from advanced extraterrestrial technology.1870 Another technological "gift from the gods" appears in the Bible. In Exodus 25:10-22 God tells Moses how to erect the Ark of the Covenant’ which serves as a transceiver to heaven. The construction details of the Ark are such that when completed’ Moses should have had a giant capacitor charged to a hundred volts or so.1915’778’1326 While it is true that an arch of acacia wood with gold leaf trimmings can hardly be considered advanced technology’1870 the ability of ovens’ cars and other metallic objects to audibly receive modulated radio broadcasts (on rare occasions) is a documented fact. If laboratory tests with models of the Ark can demonstrate this ability’ a good case could be made in favor of alien influence: The ETs would simply have been ordering the manufacture of the simplest radio device manageable with the limited tools available to humans millennia ago. Another Biblical tale often attributed to extraterrestrial activities is the "nuclear explosion" that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah around 2000 B.C.1915’1326 As related in Genesis 19:24-28’ "the Lord poured down on Sodom and Gomorrah sulphur and fire from out of heaven." Later that morning there was "smoke rising from the earth as though from a furnace." But there are excellent grounds for believing that the cataclysm was the result of a great earthquake1918 followed by explosions of natural gas.1870 Excavations at the site in 1928 revealed large burned out regions of oil’ sulphur and asphalt overlying a subterranean salt dome 50 meters thick. There is clear geological evidence that "a great rupture in the strata took place centuries ago. "1870 There are countless other artifacts which could and have been attributed to space visitors’ including the following: The construction of the pyramids and mummification technology’1326’1915 the Baalbek terraces as launching platforms’746’1326 the rustproof iron pillar in India’1326 the Nazca desert "spaceport" in Peru’1326’1915 the subterranean tunnels and golden tablets of Juan Moricz in Ecuador’1916 the giant cement cylinders of New Caledonia’83 the peculiar statues on Easter Island’1326 and the "catastrophic results of a landing attempt" in Tungus’ Siberia in 1908’600’2202 Unfortunately’ more prosaic explanations exist in all cases.80’1758’1870’1917’2008

3.2 Ufology Flying saucers and their progeny are largely a product of the Space Age. Since we now possess rudimentary spaceflight capability’ people ask’ could not aliens as well? This kind of reasoning has given added plausibility to the reports that Earth is now being regularly visited by ETs possessing high performance aerial vehicles with remarkable maneuverability (Mach-10 speeds with no sonic booms’ right angle turns’ vertical takeoff and landing’ etc.) This is not to suggest that the problem of UFOs ("Unidentified Flying Objects") is a new one. Humanity has been seeing strange lights in the sky for thousands of years. In 213 B.C. in Hadria’ an "altar" was seen in the sky followed by the appearance of a humanoid in flowing white robes.1673 There were at least a dozen similar sightings during the next two hundred years. In 100 B.C.’ Pliny observed "a burning shield scattering sparks {as it} ran across the sky at sunset from east to west."720 The phenomena persisted into later times. In Nuremburg in 1561’ for example’ there reportedly was a mass sighting of flying balls and discs in the neighborhood of the rising sun.1920 The great astronomer Edmund Halley in 1716 apparently saw an object that illuminated the night sky so brightly that it could serve as a reading light for several hours.1673 It is easy to find thousands of "flying saucer" sightings’ especially if we are willing to suspend our scholarly skepticism and uncritically accept all such accounts as being factual descriptions of aliens buzzing our planet. Most scientists would agree that there are many peculiar things to be seen in the heavens; it is the modern interpretation’ by and large’ with which they take issue. A recent poll of the members of the American Institute of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineers turned up sightings from only 2% of the sample of 1’175 scientists.1919 But popular polls yield different results. In 1966 pollster Gallup found that more than five million Americans claimed to have seen what they believed was a genuine UFO.17 By November’ 1973 the number had climbed to fifteen million (fully 11% of the adult population)’ and for the first time a majority of the American public believed that UFOs were real.1347 The literature in this field1790’1791 is extremely variable in quality’ and opinions tend to be highly polarized with little rational debate. Typical books written by "uncritical believers" include those by Leslie and Adamski’1787 Edwards’1639 Lorenzen’1672 Sanderson’632 Keyhoe1623 and Holzer.1858 (In 1974 one "ufologist’" Ralph Blum’ confidently predicted that "by 1975 the government will release definite proof that extraterrestrials are watching us."1347) Slightly less credulous’ perhaps’ are Vallee’787’1189’1673 Cohen’331 Hynek’341’597 Saunders and Harkins’1789 McCampbell’1778 and Emmeneker’1640 who present facts somewhat more cautiously while maintaining their devout belief in the mysterious. Finally we have the debunking books written by the "hardened skeptics’" such as Menzel’1788 McCrosky and Broeschenstein’1792 Condon’17 Klass’695 and Story.1870

3.2.1 Why Believe in UFOs? Why is support for the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (that UFOs are craft piloted by aliens) so widespread today? Part of the explanation must be the renewed interest in the subject of life on other planets. Ufologist B. L. Trench listed nearly 20 worldwide UFO investigative organizations;596 his favorite -- Contact -- had branch offices in 27 countries in 1971. And the television-viewing public eats it up. When the series "The Invaders"* was brought out about a decade ago’ the American Broadcasting Company sold the show to fifteen foreign networks as well.695 But there is much more to the phenomenon than the current fascination with xenological topics. Man has always had religion’ it is said’ both to preserve moral values and to impart a measure of predictability and uniformity to the environment. In a world where morality seems as fluid as the winds and where total annihilation may be only 15 minutes away’ traditional religions have been unable to supply the answers to many hard questions. It is this uneasiness about the future that has given rise to what Ronald Story appropriately labels the "new mythology".1870 The ancient-astronautists spawned by Erich von Daniken’s writings’ and the contactee cults such as the Aetherius Society’1870 The Two’1921 and Gabriel Green’s Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America333 are extreme examples of a belief pattern suffusing our entire culture. Many people have begun to view extraterrestrial visitors not merely as friendly’ but as technological angels who will guide us successfully through the uncertain years ahead.1347 Just as the biblical angels were the mythical beings proper to the age of early Christianity’ UFOs and their benevolent alien occupants are the mythical beings proper to the Space Age.615 The famous psychiatrist Dr. Carl Gustav Jung did not find it at all surprising that scientific instead of religious imagery would be used by many to assimilate the accelerated pace of modern civilization.1920 Flying saucers serve as a partial substitute for God.346 A related idea is the Status Inconsistency Theory of UFO sightings proposed by Donald I. Warren’ a University of Michigan sociologist.336 In this theory the belief in flying saucers is linked to the degree to which a person feels alienated from society. Persons who perceive their social status (as measured by’ say’ income) as different from their abilities or true worth (e.g.’ education’ ethnicity) have been found to be more likely to report UFOs than those who do not have this internal conflict. Such inconsistency forces the individual to withdraw from society to a certain extent’ and the resulting void is often filled by a belief in extraterrestrial benefactors. Another modern dilemma is the virtually universal distrust of governments and politicians’ and a nostalgic yearning for the great leaders of the past. There is much evidence that the known propensity of the authorities to classify and conceal has done little to reassure the public that no pertinent information on flying saucers is being withheld from them.18’694’1347 For example’ a poll taken in 1971 by the engineering periodical Industrial Research showed that 76% of the respondents believed the government was hiding some of the UFO facts. Since paranoia is self-reinforcing’ the conviction that aliens are commuting to Earth has not been dampened by official proclamations to the contrary. Finally there is the problem of boredom in daily life. With more leisure time on our hands than ever before’ we seek amusement and fun. Certainly the discovery of beings from another world would be both an amusing and exciting distraction from routine. As Story points out tongue-in-cheek: "Who knows? They might even let us ride in one of their spaceships!"1870 Carl Sagan believes that flying saucers are a kind of psychological projective test -- a "cosmic Rorschach" -- by which humans project their hopes’ frailties and selfperceptions onto alien beings.15 As he says’ "the idea of extraterrestrial visitation resonates with the spirit of the times in which we live."18

* The theme was that aliens are infiltrating our government as a prelude to conquest of Earth.

3.2.2 The Evidence for UFOs While it is certainly true that hidden xenoarchaeological treasures may lie veiled forever in ancient legend and folklore’ the observational data for flying saucers are frequently completely worthless. As British writer Maxwell Cade notes’ "there is clear evidence of much fraud’ more hysteria’ and still more wishful thinking."45 Such bitter experience has taught us that when we have an emotional vested interest in a particular result and expectations run feverishly high’ we must demand only the most scrupulous honesty from ourselves and refuse to accept any but the most rigorous’ compelling evidence.20’562 Most researchers would be delighted to find extraterrestrial life be cause it would be such a momentous discovery. Perhaps the strictest rule of evidence in xenology is that all conclusions must be compelled by the facts. There must remain no rational alternative explanations. L. Sprague de Camp has set forth the following criteria by which to judge the authenticity of UFO reports: (1) The report must be first-hand; (2) The teller must show no obvious bias or prejudice; (3) The teller must be a trained observer; (4) The data must be adequate and available for checking; and (5) The teller must be clearly identified.1922 A case which satisfies these requirements’ and which can perhaps be checked independently with a large number of witnesses’ would be considered reliable by the majority of the scientific community. But in addition to being reliable’ UFO reports must also be exotic. An exotic case is one which is inexplicable in terms of common phenomena; for example’ a strange moving light in the sky could be an aerial refueling operation’ a satellite passing overhead’ a police helicopter with a searchlight’ etc.15 Sagan maintains that to date there are no reliable cases which are exotic’ and no exotic ones which are reliable.18 Can flying saucers exist? Sagan himself has presented an interesting paradox which apparently rules out the possibility of ufonaut exploration of Earth. If there are many advanced civilizations in our galaxy then there is probably nothing terribly unusual about what is going on here. Hence’ there is no urgent reason for aliens to go to the enormous expense of visiting us. On the other hand’ if there are few technical cultures around’ there won't be enough of them advanced enough to send visitors!15 Skeptics often cite the fact that observed UFOs are totally nonstandardized in size and shape -- repeat visits by the same craft are rare. In general we would expect such standardization from experienced aliens’ since the retention of a single configuration over a long period of time is possible only when its design has matured. Given a specific mission and a specific level of technology’ an optimal definitive form can usually be found. So how can we explain the fact that UFOs appear to be shaped not only as cigars and disks’ but also cubes’ spheres’ doughnuts’ insect shapes’ etc.? Other arguments purporting to dispute the legitimacy of UFOs have been submitted by Friedman’694 Sagan’20’1317 Abell’1908 and Chiu.1311 The logic proceeds as follows: Using the acceptable estimates that there are a million communicative extraterrestrial civilizations (in our galaxy of 200 billion stars) each having a lifetime of ten million years’ then if each culture dispatches one exploratory starship per year’ Earth -- by random chance -- should be visited only about once every 100’000 years. Of course’ if the ETs discovered something interesting happening on our planet they’d come more often to keep closer tabs on us. What is not clear is whether humans are of such inordinate interest as to justify the large investment of alien time and resources that ufologists claim is being made. When dealing with ufology the careful reader will always bear one additional question in mind: If we put ourselves in the aliens’ shoes’ what is the most rational way to go about planning a successful first contact effort with a planet like Earth? Although this xenological problem is explored in greater depth later on’ a few issues can profitably be raised now: 1. Disturbance of the system -- Since they are the ones with high technology’ they will not fear us.1208 Thus the greatest danger to the enterprise is that of observer influence (a common problem in measurement science).77{?} If the mere act of observation will disrupt or destroy the system under observation’ it behooves the observer to minimize that disruption. As Richard J. Rosa of Avco Everett Laboratories puts it: "A hundred years {may be} of little consequence to them. The fact that Columbus did not hesitate to talk to the Indians was not without consequences that were unfortunate for Europe and tragic for the Indians. Perhaps our interstellar visitors have learned to be more cautious -- and considerate."344 2. Minimizing the disruption -- An advanced society can certainly make a planetary survey without the primitive indigenes knowing about it.377 As added security in maintaining anonymity’ aliens and their artifacts could sport many clever disguises.49 Ufologist Jacques Vallee notes: "To make ultimate detection impossible’ {the aliens} would have to project an image just beyond the belief structure of the target society."1189 In fact’ it is rather difficult to explain why’ if they wish to avoid contact’ the UFOs allow themselves to be seen at all.747 3. Standard first contact procedures -- Spacefaring ETs will undoubtedly be experienced at the business of contacting other cultures. The following has been suggested by anthropologists familiar with the problem: "Exploration will proceed in a series of ordered steps. At each star the team will investigate the system and locate any planets. If they find a planet they will evaluate its habitability’ physical resources and life forms. If any signs of intelligent life are discovered the survey team will have to decide whether to withdraw or attempt contact. This will involve careful observation from a distance to acquire information before actually making contact. At first’ in order to gain language skills and social understanding’ contact will be limited to individuals in small groups. In this way we can increase the chance of success at the official’ formal meeting with ET leaders to arrange recognition and continued contact."615 Most rational observers would agree that the vast majority of sightings are the result of misidentification of familiar objects viewed under unusual conditions of lighting’ weather’ and so forth.18 There are also a multitude of outright hoaxes and exaggerations on record. For instance’ in what Time magazine called the "gullibility experiment’" three Cal Tech undergrads launched helium-filled polyethylene balloons from which were suspended metal rods with vanes and lighted railroad flares. Throughout the Los Angeles area reports came in of red’ orange and green lights in the sky that moved at "fantastic speed."335 Similar deliberate hoaxes were arranged two years later near Castle Rock’ Colorado.1312 Not all sightings of flying saucers can be summarily dismissed as hoax’ weather balloon’ or ball lightning.337’339’345 Dr. David Saunders at the University of Colorado has collected more than 70’000 unidentifieds and has placed them in a computer indexing and retrieval system.1789 There even seems to be enough data for meaningful statistics to begin to appear. According to Poher and Vallee’ both computer specialists’ several trends and conclusions have already emerged: (1) The frequency of UFO reports increases with increased atmospheric visibility (which would not be the case if they were hoaxes); (2) the number of sightings is a bell-shaped distribution as a function of the logarithm of sighting duration; (3) the number of reports increases for objects farther away from the observer; and (4) the data show a peak a few hours before midnight’ and a smaller secondary peak a few hours after midnight.787 What kind of information would be needed to really verify a UFO sighting? Eyewitness accounts are unreliable’ heavily dependent upon the observer’s education’ health’ emotional state’ and predisposition to falsehood. The kind of evidence that would be really compelling must be primarily physical. Photographs’ for instance’ are generally regarded as hard evidence by scientists. But pictures showing aliens’ lights in the sky’ or actual UFOs in flight are extremely easy to fake’ as illustrated by the shots in Figure 3.3. (The author made a double exposure of a street light with a telephoto lens.)

Figure 3.3. UFO photographed by the author on March 30, 1976

Photographed by the author using Pentax Spotamatic and Kodak ASA-125 Plus-X Panchromatic. The object appears to fly off to upper right in the frame. See text for details.

After fifteen years of looking into the UFO phenomenon’ NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena) director Stuart Nixon reported in November’ 1972’ the following conclusion regarding the literally thousands of photos he had received: "NICAP has never analyzed a structured object picture that is fully consistent with the claim that an extraordinary flying device was photographed. In every case’ there has been some small detail’ or group of details’ that raised the suspicion of a hoax or mistake."695 As Philip Klass aptly notes’ there are more than 80 million cameras in the United States alone shooting roughly 5 billion still photos every year.695 Deft cameramen have managed to capture on film such rare occurrences as meteor falls’ tornadoes’ and plane crashes. And yet there is not a single photograph of UFOs or their occupants which can stand the strictest scrutiny and compel our acceptance of its authenticity.* What about astronomical photography? Each night hundreds of telescopes turn skyward to record events occurring in the heavens. Thornton Page’ Chairman of the AAAS Special Committee on UFOs’ states that "professional telescopes are not an efficient patrol net for extraterrestrial visitors" because they don’t see enough of the sky often enough.340 However’ the Smithsonian Prairie Meteorite Network has sixteen wide-angle Schmidt telescopes covering an estimated 440’000 square miles of the Earth’s surface. Canadian and Czech meteor networks add a small additional area to the coverage. According to Page’s calculations’ assuming a 50/50 chance of a UFO being photographed by one of the networks and given that none have so far been detected’ there can be no more than 690 luminous UFOs worldwide per year. If we just look at the United States’ the upper limit becomes only 25 objects per year. (That is’ if more than 25 UFOs were tracking across our skies each year’ then the chances would be better than 50/50 that at least one of them would be spotted by a network telescope and recorded on film.) In conclusion’ observational astronomy can neither convincingly rule out nor compellingly affirm the existence of UFOs. How about radar sightings? Although it is true that many UFOs have been detected on radar screens in the last few decades’ a radar return need not always correspond to a real physical object. For instance’ it was discovered early in World War II that meteor trails could cause radar echoes.49 Birds and swarms of insects produced baffling returns until the true cause was ascertained.1773 Temperature inversions’ so familiar to the inhabitants of the smogfilled Los Angeles basin’ can cause radar beams to bend along a "duct’" thus permitting the detection of objects much farther away than normal.1788 Radar signals can bounce off clear air turbulence or reflect back from patches of air whose temperature’ humidity’ or ionization differ from their surroundings.18 Naturally’ the Early Warning BMEWS network would be ideal for picking up UFOs. In 1966 it was reported that more than 700 "uncorrelated targets" were being detected monthly.1189 Unfortunately for ufologists’ the BMEWS’ SAGE’ and NORAD computers automatically discard any object that appears not to be following a ballistic trajectory or an Earth-orbital ellipse.18’597 And some really good cases of combined visual and radar tracking are probably being withheld for security reasons (e.g.’ "spoofing" tests’ etc.). But Sagan and Page have pointed out that even a combination visual and radar sighting might not indicate a solid body -- it could be an aurora’ for instance’ or mistaken identification.18 We see that it is only through the concatenation of many independent sources of confirmation that the authenticity of a UFO report can be compellingly demonstrated.

Figure 3.4 UFO-Related Objects and Phenomena17,18 Meteorological -- subsun’ sundogs (parhelia)’ moondogs (paraselene)’ lenticular clouds’ noctilucent clouds’ mirages’ "dust devils"’ St. Elmo’s fire’ grindstone clouds’ solar reflections on low-hanging clouds’ lightning (ball’ streak’ chain’ sheet)’ Brocken ghosts’ green fireballs(around NaCl crystals or dust)’ swamp gas flickers (ignis fatuus, methane combustion’"will-o-the-wisp")’ large flattened gliding hailstones’ sun glint off shiny objects’ rainbowrelated phenomena’ bolides’ ducted ground light reflection’ ice flakes’ coronal effects’ tornado lightning’ volcano lightning’ Earthquake-Associated Sky Luminescence (EASL)’ AgI used in cloud-seeding’ pile d’assiettes clouds(stack of coins)’ ice halo’ pilot’s halo Astronomical -- meteors’ fireballs’ satellite reentries’ auroras’ planets (Venus’ Mars’ Jupiter’ Saturn)’ stars (Capella’ Sirius)’ objects seen through haze/jet trails or magnified by temperature inversion’ Moon’ sunspots and solar flares’ comets Experimental and Technological -- balloons sandwiched between dense air layers’ test aircraft unconventional aircraft’ helicopters with bright lights’ high-altitude projectiles’ rocket launches’ contrails’ aircraft reflection or after burners’ bomb tests’ refueling operations’ searchlight reflections’ military flares’ satellites’ blimps’ parachutes’ radiosondes and pibals’ landing lights Physiological and Psychological -- autokinesis (perceived motion of stationary objects)’ autostasis (perceived stopping of moving objects)’ "airship effect" (perceived connection of separate sources)’ "excitedness effect"’ hallucination and mass hysteria’ afterimages’ autosuggestion (seeing what one is looking for)’ entopic effects (retinal or vitreous humor defects within the eyeball)’ motes on the cornea (perceived as spots)’ astigmatism and myopia’ failure to wear glasses’ reflections from glasses’ religious invention Photographic -- development defects’ internal camera reflections lens flare’ deliberate fakes (moon’ street lamps’ garbage can lids’ phonograph records’ hubcaps’ lens cap suspended by thread’ straw hat’ Frisbee’ models’ window glass reflections) Radar -- temperature inversions and ducting effects’ ionized gases in upper atmosphere’ angels’ bogies’ phantoms’ false returns (ice-laden clouds’ birds’ insects)’ "window" (long strips of chaff)’ ranging/calibration balls’ hot-air bubble reflections Biological -- airborne debris (leaves’ feathers’ milkweed seeds)’ "angel hair" (gossamer spider parachutes)’ birds or flocks of birds’ insect swarms’ luminous fungi on birds’ fireflies’ glowing owl eyes’ seagulls’ moths’ tumbleweeds Industrial -- detergent foam’ soap bubbles’ refuse from defective filter in chemical-industrial plant (milk’ rayon)’ smoke plumes Miscellaneous -- kites’ firefly trapped between window panes’ radio astronomy dish’ plastic bag with candles or flares’ searchlight & headlight reflections off clouds’ flashing ambulance light’ tossed lighted cigarette’ fireworks displays’ reflection off building’s windows’ airborne loose paper’ beacon lights and lighthouses’ water tanks’ lightning rods’ TV antennas’ weathervanes’ hoaxes

Despite prosaic explanations (Figure 3.4’ Table 3.1)’ occasionally more exotic physical evidence will turn up. Coral Lorenzen described a detailed chemical and spectroscopic analysis of the alleged remains of a UFO which exploded off the coast of Brazil’ near Ubatuba’ in 1957.1672 The metal fragments were touted as magnesium metal purer than any manufacturer could have produced at the time of the catastrophe. The case was investigated by the Air Force-sponsored Condon Committee study group in Colorado’ authors of the 1000-plus page report on UFOs that came out in 1969.17 It turned out that magnesium of suitable purity had been produced’ though only in relatively small batches’ by one American company several years prior to the event at Ubatuba. In no case to date has any piece of an alleged alien spacecraft shown signs of other than terrestrial manufacture.1312

Table 3.1 UFO Sightings and Unidentifieds U. S. Air Force Project Blue Book17’18 Year

All Sightings

UFO

Year

All Sightings

UFO

Year

All Sightings

UFO

1947

122

12 1955

545

24 1963

399

14

1948

156

7 1956

670

14 1964

562

19

1949

186

22 1957

1’006

14 1965

887

16

1950

210

27 1958

627

10 1966

1’112

32

1951

169

22 1959

390

12 1967

937

19

1952

1’501

303 1960

557

14 1968

375

3

1953

509

42 1961

591

13 1969

146

1

1954

487

46 1962

474

15 TOTALS:

12’618

701 (~5.6%)

Other physical evidence (largely unconvincing) was also examined during the two year study at the University of Colorado’ including stalled automobile engines’ evidence of strong magnetic field fluences’** circular burn marks and "landing pad" depressions on the ground’ broken tree limbs’ and so forth -- all to no avail. A growing number of UFO reports in recent times involve observation of the alien occupants themselves. For example’ the following articles appeared in the British Flying Saucer Review’ perhaps the oldest and most respected ufology journal in the world: "Violent Humanoid Encountered in Bolivia" (1970 case -- includes photograph of parked UFO and humanoid posing nearby);775 "The Humanoid at Kinnula" (1971 case -- close encounter with genuine "little green man");777 "The Extraordinary Case of Rejuvenation" (1973 case -- advanced medical knowledge imparted telepathically by humanoid aliens with "round ears and slit eyes’" standing roughly 1.8 meters tall);780 "Remarkable Encounter at Draguinan" (1974 case -- a group of French UFO enthusiasts are accosted by three silvery humanoids more than two meters tall);785 and "UFO Landing and Repair by Crew" (1974 case -- light-skinned’ eight-foot-tall humanoids garbed in "wetsuits" are observed giving their flying saucer a tune-up in the forest’ using wrenches and screwdrivers).782 Perhaps the first alleged contactee in modern times was the medium Helen Smith. Her travels in space were published in 1900 along with a dictionary for translating Martian into French.1924 More recently’ everything from sexual seduction of humans by aliens1623 to miraculous cures of myopia and rheumatism1347 has been attributed to direct contact with UFOs and their occupants. One of the more notorious contactees was the late George Adamski’ who claimed to have shaken hands with visitors from Venus when they landed in the desert near his hamburger stand in the early 1950's.1193’1787 (Adamski has since been shown to be a fake by a member of the British UFO Society.289) And then there are the persistent rumors that UFOs have crashed and their contents are being studied in secret by the government.814 One unconfirmed report states that the bodies of twelve tiny humanoids are being kept in cryogenic suspension in Hangar 17 at Wright Air Development Center near Dayton’ Ohio. The alien corpses’ and various parts of a flying saucer’ are supposedly the remains of a UFO crash in the New Mexico desert in 1948.1672 Probably the most celebrated contactee case is that of Betty and Barney Hill’ alleged to have been abducted aboard a spacecraft on September 19’ 1961’ and given a thorough medical examination by ETs.1795 (Betty was able to recall the incident via hypnotic investigation five years later’ though Barney apparently could not.695) One of the few corroborative pieces of evidence is a star map which Betty had been shown by the alien pilot’ and which she later reproduced from memory. Marjorie Fish’ an Ohio schoolteacher’ attempted to fit the map to the known positions of actual nearby suns in space. The fit she came up with contains fifteen Sol-like stars which all lie in a single geometric plane and center on what is presumably the extraterrestrials' home sun: Zeta Reticuli.351’1775 Carl Sagan and Steven Soter have disputed the authenticity of the Fish interpretation of the Hill map’ but the case remains one of the most fascinating of its kind on record. Zeta Reticuli is a double star system’ each sun believed to be suitable for the evolution of life as we know it and separated by a mere 0.05 light-years (only 1% of the distance to our nearest neighbor’ Proxima Centauri). Unusually rapid technological advancement on the part of the sentient inhabitants of either of the Zeta Reticuli stellar systems might well result from the tantalizing closeness of the two stars. As the giant’ luminous Moon beckoned to man throughout the centuries’ perhaps the Zeta Reticulans too would find the challenge irresistible - only sooner.

* The two best-known motion picture films of UFOs in flight’ a total of 1425 frames shot in Utah and Montana in the early 1950’s’1923 are highly questionable. 695 ** In case anyone is interested’ I have in my files a circuit diagram for a most unusual piece of equipment -- entitled "The Electronic UFO Detector". 770

3.2.3 The UFO Game The National Enquirer is offering a reward of $50’000 to the first person to submit incontrovertible proof that UFOs are of extraterrestrial origin.1347 Entries have been submitted’ but the prize has yet to be awarded. Fighting fire with fire’ Philip Klass in UFOs Explained declared he was so certain that UFOs are not piloted by aliens that he would personally refund the full price of his book to any purchaser if positive proof to the contrary ever comes to light.695 As an additional expression of confidence’ Klass has extended a $10’000 bet to any and all takers that UFOs are not extraterrestrial spacecraft. The jackpot pays off if any one of the following events occurs: (l) Any crashed spacecraft or piece thereof is found that clearly has extraterrestrial design or construction’ in the opinion of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences; or (2) the U.S. National Academy of Sciences reaches the same conclusion based on other pertinent evidence; or (3) "The first bona fide ET visitor’ who was born on a celestial body other than the Earth’ appears live before the General Assembly of the United Nations or on a national television program."695 What are UFOs? Besides alien spaceships’ these possibilities have been proposed: Time travelers from our future789’1189’1845 natural or artificial biological mechanisms’632 Satanic devils’562 and remote-controlled robots and androids.1623 Vallee claims that UFOs may be a purely "psychic" event akin to mass telekinesis’659 while astronomer-ufologist J. Allen Hynek warns us that "we may have to face the fact that the scientific framework’ by its very internal logic’ excludes certain classes of phenomena of which UFOs may be one. . . . It should not surprise us if a phenomenon that is inaccessible to a scientific procedure appears irrational."597 However’ while few serious ufologists would categorically assert that flying saucers are manifestations of extraterrestrial life’ many consider it to be the leading hypothesis.1448 As for future research’ Hynek has quietly organized the Center for UFO Studies in Northfield’ Illinois. A toll-free hotline phone number has been distributed to law enforcement and other government agencies to make UFO reporting fast and convenient.1671 An independent UFO-watch station crammed with more than $20’000 worth of sophisticated electronic gear has been set up on a 400-acre site 20 miles northwest of Austin’ Texas. The equipment at Project Starlight International (as the observatory is called) includes a 30-meter-diameter circle of sequenced spotlights and a low-power heliumneon red light laser to attract the saucer’s attention -- should one be spotted nearby.1925 Although it is probably the opinion of the majority of physical scientists that no compelling evidence now exists for extraterrestrial UFOs’ it would be unreasonable not to continue to pursue ufology with an open mind. Judgment cannot be passed until all the evidence is in.

3.3 The Resident Aliens The thrust of the chapter thus far has been the search for evidence of ETs on Earth in both ancient and contemporary mythology. But we must be careful not to overlook a possibly limitless source of alien intelligence indigenous to our own planet. Until quite recently it was supposed that the basic mental capacities of thinking or reasoning -- intelligence -- served as a clear distinction between humans and other members of the animal world. Today we know we’re not so unique. It appears that virtually all living creatures possess at least the rudiments of intelligence; many elements of intellect appear in varying degrees across the phyla of the animal kingdom (especially the chordates and mollusks). Intelligence is therefore not a quality peculiar to humans or mammals alone but is developed and refined by all lifeforms. The textbook definition of intelligence is: "The capacity to utilize experience in adapting to new situations." But what do we really mean by intelligent behavior? Even a virus could be said to be "learning" when its DNA changes to adapt to new environments. There are two approaches. The first is functional’ keying on the important functions of intellect such as the capacity for self-awareness. The second approach is structural: What is the ultimate mental capacity of the neural network of a creature’ viewed as a system? The structural approach allows facility of comparison between various animal species’ and the results are rather interesting. The analysis focuses on a single organ possessed by virtually every animal -- the brain. While it is widely recognized that high intelligence is the product of an elaborate brain’439’443’1000 a few qualifications are in order. First’ within the normal range of variations of a species among its members’ difference in brain size is unrelated to the intelligence of the individual animal.444 As much as 800 grams has separated human brains of apparently equal intelligence. And since organ proportions change during growth’ only mature average organisms can be validly compared. Brain size is a valuable criterion only when we compare differences between adult members of different species of animal (Table 3.2).

Species

Table 3.2 Brain Sizes for Various Animals* b(brain,gm.) B(body,kg.) Species (b/B) 10 %

Species

MAN

b•(b/B)**

Fin whale

6800

58’000

Rotifer

1.00

Humpback whale

6440

39’300

Antbear

4.8 %

Dolphin’ Phocaena

African elephant

5710

6’550

Canary

4.7 %

Dolphin’ Tursiops

0.8

Sperm whale

4020

39’000

Tzactl hummingbird

4.2 %

White whale

0.6

0.8

White whale

2350

375

Vampire bat

3.3 %

African elephant

0.2

Dolphin’ Phocaena

1740

142

Chipmunk

3.0 %

Chimpanzee

0.1

Dolphin’ Tursiops

1700

140

Mole

2.9 %

Walrus

MAN

1350

70

Walrus

1130

667

Hippopotamus

723

Giraffe

700

Thoroughbred horse

672

Rhinoceros Gorilla

0.07

MAN

1.9 %

Gorilla

0.06

Dolphin’ Phocaena

1.2 %

Humpback whale

0.04

1350

Rat

1.2 %

Thoroughbred horse

0.04

1220

Dolphin’ Tursiops

1.2 %

Polar bear

0.03

464

Fox

1.1 %

Fin whale

0.03

655

764

House cat

0.98 %

Deer

0.03

600

250

Quail

0.86 %

Fox

0.02

Polar bear

507

318

Chimpanzee

0.84 %

Rhinoceros

0.02

Chimpanzee

440

52.2

White whale

0.63 %

Alaskan husky

0.02

Guernsey cow

425

472

Honeybee

0.58 %

Tiger

0.02

Tiger

302

209

Octopus

0.48 %

Sperm whale

0.02

Deer

210

65.1

Alaskan husky

0.41 %

Giraffe

0.02

Alaskan Husky

131

31.8

Deer

0.32 %

Hippopotamus

0.01

Tiger shark

108

200

Gorilla

0.24 %

Guernsey cow

0.01

68

14

Walrus

0.17 %

Octopus

0.01

Fox

53.3

4.63

Polar bear

0.16 %

House cat

0.01

Old World ostrich

42.1

123

Thoroughbred horse

0.15 %

Antbear

0.008

House cat

27.6

2.82

Tiger

0.14 %

Chipmunk

0.002

Antbear

4.29

90 gm.

0.002

Rat

3.05

250 gm.

Chipmunk

2.07

70 gm.

Octopus

Mole

1.17

40 gm.

Python(snake)

1.12

6.14 gm.

Vampire bat

0.935

Canary

Guernsey cow

0.090 %

Tiger shark

African elephant

0.087 %

Rat

0.001

Rhinoceros

0.086 %

Canary

0.001 0.001

Giraffe

0.057 %

Mole

Tiger shark

0.054 %

Vampire bat

28 gm

Hippopotamus

0.054 %

Old World ostrich

0.001 0.0006

0.755

16 gm.

Old World ostrich

0.034 %

Tzactl hummingbird

0.0003

Quail

0.73

85 gm.

Python

0.018 %

Quail

0.0002

Tzactl hummingbird

0.20

4.8 gm.

Humpback whale

0.016 %

Python(snake)

8 x 10 -6

Honeybee

6.9 x 10 -4

.12 gm.

Fin whale

0.012 %

Honeybee

2 x 10 -7

Rotifer

2.4 x 10 -7

2.4 x 10 -6 gm.

Sperm whale

0.010 %

Rotifer

9 x 10 -10

* Adapted from Altman Dittmer’368 Spector’48 Lilly’ 217 Allen’309 Portmann-Stingelin’ 960 and Buettner-Janusch. 1927 ** Normalized to 1.00 for man.

Note: b is average species adult male brain weight’ in grams. (b/B) is fraction of body weight represented by brain. The last column’ b•(b/B)’ is the product of both these factors. A large value indicates that the organism has both a high brain mass and a high brain-to-body weight ratio’ which raises the presumption of higher intellective capacity.

Further’ size alone is not a sufficient determinant of the depth of intellect although it does fix the perimeters of mental complexity. Other factors such as neuronal density’ complexity and design of brain tissue convolutions’ size and efficiency of neurons’ average number of intersynaptic connections and so forth are also important. Gross bulk’ while a rough correlate of intelligence’ is not a precise measure of it.565’2560 It is difficult to say exactly where the threshold of human intelligence lies. It is known that human infants become facile with language only after their brain mass exceeds 8001000 grams.217 Yet this is not a reliable cutoff point because’ for instance’ chimpanzees (brain weight 440 grams) raised in human company have acquired vocabularies of as many as 200 different word-symbols. Dogs’ with smaller brains still’ utilize a larger repertoire of signals than do many primates (but this may be because primates are vegetarian browsers while dogs are pack hunters requiring reliable intragroup communications1542). Conversely’ the walrus (brain weight 1130 grams) is not known to have any symbolic language at all. Besides absolute brain size’ the relative size of the organ with respect to the rest of the body is also important. This ratio is representative of the investment made by the organism in intelligence as a survival mechanism. (It is known’ for example’ that even the brains of some social insects are relatively larger than those of some vertebrates.965) Of course’ these are only rough indicia of intellective capacity’ good only for comparing the order of magnitude of a creature’s mental acuity. But it is a safe bet that’ in general’ a 1000 gram brain will be smarter than a 100 gram brain’ and a brain which represents 10% of the total body weight will be more complex than one which only embodies 1% of the total.20’965 Were we to find on this planet other conscious minds with whom we might converse’ it would be an excellent opportunity to practice our communication skills -- before attempting first contact with ETs with whom we share no common biological heritage. We might also discover some problems the extraterrestrials may confront in trying to deal with us’ and learn to anticipate the solutions. Are there resident aliens on Earth? As can be seen in the last column of Table 3.2’ the cetaceans (dolphins and whales) come closest to man in terms of both absolute and relative brain size. Much has been written about the intelligence of cetaceans in popular fact15’1698’1699’1929 and fiction.1931 Their brains are highly convoluted and larger than human brains’ and they are extremely social animals (aggregations of up to 100’000 individual saddle-backed dolphins have been observed roaming the open seas565). Anecdotes of friendly and helpful attitudes towards men abound. There are reports of porpoises saving persons from drowning’ guiding ships through narrow’ fog bound straits’ and even of performing psychological 15 and psychophysiological 217 tests on their human captors. It is most difficult to measure dolphin intelligence and social abilities.1724 The famous undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau has pointed out four basic conditions necessary "for the elaboration of a civilized society." These are: Brain’ hand’ language’ and longevity.1723 Porpoise and other cetaceans have brains nearly equal to our own’ and possess lifespans of many decades. Whether or not they have a language remains to be proved. It is known that the humpback whale sings songs that often last more than 30 minutes and which are repeated with amazing accuracy.1931 Each season the songs are different.422 Dolphins’ too’ are capable of amazing mimicry of sounds and human speech. They could have a language of their own: One anecdote tells of a porpoise held in captivity and later released which emitted a long’ involved sequence of sounds in the presence of a school of dolphins it had encountered.15 Unfortunately’ cetaceans do not have hands; any intelligence they may have cannot be worked out in technology. Sagan has hinted that the dolphins’ creative energies might have been diverted to social instead of material technology. Asks he: "Are whales and dolphins like human Homers before the invention of writing’ telling of great deeds done in years gone by in the depths and far reaches of the sea?"15 Apparently a single whale song contains roughly the same number of bits of information as The Odyssey does! Cetaceans may turn out to be "fluked philosophers... introverts who can think but not do."96 All this has motivated Arthur C. Clarke to proclaim: "There seems little doubt that dolphins think and speak much more rapidly than we do... And yet after decades of dedicated research into human/dolphin communication no major breakthroughs have occurred. Either the animal is not as intelligent as we had hoped’ or communication with alien minds is a far more demanding task than anticipated. Of course’ the very fact that we have a vested emotional interest in finding porpoises to be intelligent should raise a flag of caution to the xenologist. The cardinal rule of evidence in xenology is that evidence must be compelling to be convincing. And most zoologists would agree that at present no such evidence exists in favor of cetacean super-intellect.565’1723 Hence’ while the dolphin possesses a huge brain and an exceptional ability to mimic’ this does not necessarily imply consciousness or even high intelligence. Elephants’ whose brains are more than three times larger than those of cetaceans’ are known with reasonable certainty to possess an intelligence far below human level.565 Mynah birds and parrots are capable of imitating human speech rather well. The much-heralded altruistic cooperative behavior of marine mammals in rescuing injured comrades is also observed in wild dogs’ African elephants and baboons’565 and may even be instinctual as a result of environmental necessities. Sociobiologist E. O. Wilson claims that delphinid’ communication systems are no larger nor more complex that that of other mammals or birds.565 The common consensus among zoologists appears to be that the intelligence of the bottle-nosed dolphin can be ranked somewhere between the dog and the rhesus monkey.1724’1932 This should not be taken as conclusive that cetaceans are not extraordinarily intelligent; the simple fact is that we just don’t know yet one way or the other. Certainly no evidence exists that would rule out this possibility. But because of the great potential inherent in such a discovery’ we owe it to ourselves both to continue delphinology research with vigor and to demand compelling evidence before accepting specific conclusions. As John Lilly has pointed out’ there are two dangerous pitfalls to be studiously avoided during first contact. First is the danger of anthropomorphizing -- of assuming that the alien creature possesses the same psychological constitution as humans. The second danger is what Lilly calls zoo morphizing’ the mistake of denying the existence of high intellect in complex’ large-brained creatures solely by inference from data on much smaller-brained animals.217 (Brian Aldiss addresses this very question in his science fiction satire The Dark Light Years.226) Perhaps to truly comprehend the mind of the dolphin we shall have to learn to "live wetly." We must be willing to climb down into a tank of water and live as the alien himself lives. Both Lilly201 and Brunner442 have suggested that this may be the only way for true interspecies understanding to occur. A kind of primal empathy must be established between the two communicators. Despite the tremendous promise of cetacean intelligence research’ hundreds of thousands of dolphins are ruthlessly slaughtered for food each year by the Japanese and Russians. Our own merchant fleets have been killing comparable numbers incidental to tuna fishing operations.* During the 1800’s whalers caught perhaps one animal per ship per month’ but during the record catches of the last decade the average ship was hauling in a carcass every day.422’1928 The explosive harpoon used by whalers has caused intense pain and suffering: A 150 lb. weapon carrying an explosive head which bursts generally in the whale’s intestines’ and the sight of one of these creatures pouring blood and gasping along on the surface’ towing a 400-ton catching vessel by a heavy harpoon rope’ is pitiful. So often an hour or more of torture is inflicted before the agony ends in death. I have experienced a case of five hours and nine harpoons needed to kill one mother blue whale.710 Although it is true that "the exploiters of the cetaceans are spoiling our relationships to them’"201 this is almost a trivial observation. There is a much larger lesson to be learned here.2036 Speciesism is a chauvinism so fundamental that its unabated continuance could wreck our relations with alien intelligences. As Peter Singer’ a philosopher currently associated with La Trobe University in Australia’ defines it: "…{Speciesism is} to discriminate against beings solely on account of their species’ {an unethical practice} the same way that discrimination on the basis of race is immoral and indefensible."712 Most of us are devout speciesists. Each year in the United States we condone the slaughter of ten million pigs’ thirty million cattle’ and more than three billion poultry animals to adorn our dinner plates. Sixty million rabbits’ rats’ and other pain-feeling creatures are tortured annually in experiments frequently unnecessary or useless. Singer explains the moral dilemma this way: The modern philosophy of "equality’" strictly speaking’ is false. There are no two humans who are strictly equal physically or mentally. The scope of equality (unless tied to self-interest) must therefore be determined by some objective criterion’ some common characteristic capable of distinguishing those who are equal from those who are not. The problem is that any trait possessed by all humans will also be possessed by some nonhuman animals; if the conditions are tightened so as to eliminate these animals’ some humans will then be eliminated. (Check’ for instance’ the criteria of pain-feeling’ rational thought’ memory’ etc.) Most distinctions that can be drawn between humans and other animals are not sharp and unmistakable. Zoologically’ most attributes smoothly blend into a continuum among the many animal species. And yet whenever there is a clash of interests’ even if it is a choice between the life of a nonhuman animal and a human palate’ the interests of the nonhuman are disregarded.712 No amount of pain and suffering on the part of our fellow creatures seems too high a price to pay for the slightest whims of people. This attitude is most unhealthy from the xenological point of view. If mere membership in the Homo sapiens club is sufficient to grant us ethical license to cruelly maim laboratory animals’ why cannot superior’ research-minded aliens pick out "mere humans" for similar honors? If we may brutally slash and torment bulls in bullfights’ why might not ETs be able to similarly justify the staging of gladiatorial mortal combats between "human dumb animals"? If we allow ourselves to eat the nonhumans who share this planet with us’ what ethical barrier can stand in the way of highly-evolved’ hungry aliens seeking to augment their menu with hairless primate meat?1949** Speciesism is clearly one of our most dangerous chauvinisms.2115’2118’2136 When sentient lifeforms are found elsewhere in our galaxy’ we’ll need all the help we can get from terrestrial interspecies communication research. Experience must be gained in empathizing with nonhuman bodies’ minds’ and environments. Such experience will give us the unique opportunity to view human culture through alien eyes’ a necessary preliminary to our understanding of how extraterrestrial aliens may evaluate us. And communication with resident aliens would be a major step towards the goal of eliminating our speciesist biases. As Carl Sagan poignantly observes: It is not a question of whether we are emotionally prepared in the long run to confront a message from the stars. It is whether we can develop a sense that beings with quite different evolutionary histories’ beings who may look far different from us’ even "monstrous’" may’ nevertheless’ be worthy of friendship and reverence’ brotherhood and trust. We have far to go; while there is every sign that the human community is moving in this direction’ the question is’ are we moving fast enough? 15

* The use of any marine mammal for food in the United States was outlawed by the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. A white meat preparation known as mahi mahi (or "dolphinfish") is fish and not porpoiseflesh (which is full of hemoglobin and therefore dark red in color633) as some mistakenly believe. ** More than a decade ago’ science fiction author Michael Kurland (and others) drew up a list of advantages in joining the Galactic Federation’ to be presented to the United Nations should the appropriate occasion ever arise. At the top of the list was the following: All intelligent species shall have the right not to serve as food for other races.78

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Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 4. Xenology: The Context of the Universe "The universe is not hostile’ nor yet is it friendly. It is simply indifferent." -- John Haynes Holmes (1879-?)’ in Sensible Man’s View of Religion "In such a universe as this what significance could there be in our fortuitous’ our frail’ our evanescent community?" -- Olaf Stapledon’ in Star Maker (1937)1946 "What is it all but a trouble of ants in the gleam of a million million of suns?" -- Alfred’ Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)’ in Vastness "O thievist Night’ Why shouldst thou’ but for some felonious end’ In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars’ That nature hung in heaven’ and filled their lamps With everlasting oil’ to give due light To the misled and lonely traveller?" -- John Milton (1608-1674)’ in Comus’ 1/195 "In a universe whose size is beyond human imagining’ where our world floats like a dust mote in the void of night’ men have grown inconceivably lonely. We scan the time scale and the mechanisms of life itself for portents and sighs of the invisible. As the only thinking mammals on the planet -- perhaps the only thinking animals in the entire sidereal universe -- the burden of consciousness has grown heavy upon us. We watch the stars’ but the signs are uncertain. We uncover the bones of the past and seek for our origins. There is a path there’ but it appears to wander. The vagaries of the road may have a meaning’ however; it is thus we torture ourselves." -- Loren Eiseley’ in The Immense Journey (1957)2110

We now cast our eyes skyward to contemplate a still grander perspective than even human literature’ folklore and ethics can afford -- the bound less twinkling oceans of the star-dusted firmament. The one commutual aspect of existence we can be reasonably sure of is the physical universe’ that breathtaking panoply of brilliant suns’ blazing galaxies and luminous nebulae which human and alien astronomers alike must share. There are countless reasons why the cosmic panorama per se is of xenological significance. Ultimately’ of course’ the astronomical environment serves as the backdrop for all our speculations about life on other worlds. If we are to successfully evaluate the ubiquity of biology in the universe’ we must attempt to isolate those features which all lifeforms will find in common. We must puzzle out whether humanity’ life’ and Earth are unique events or merely a footnote to a statistic in the Galactic Census. Knowledge of the evolution and distribution of stars and galaxies will suggest the most profitable places to hunt for evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations. But our curiosity tugs at us more insistently. Where will life be most abundant in the Milky Way Galaxy? In the central regions’ the disk of the Galaxy’ the spiral arms...? What kinds of stars are most likely to harbor lifeforms and planetary systems? How many other civilizations might there be’ and what stage of development have they reached? What are the general constraints on xenopolitical systems as regards size’ complexity and distribution? Are there any cosmological limits to high technology and galactic engineering? We may also gain insight into the limits of alien philosophies of nature’ the universe’ and the very mechanism of creation itself. How did the universe come to be the way it is? Has it always existed? Will it ever die? Are physical laws as we know them immutable’ or do they vary in different parts of the cosmos or at different times? Do other universes exist? Is there any purpose to physical existence at all? These fundamental questions have gnawed at the mind of man for millennia’ and must also intrigue the sentients of other worlds. The issues of xenology are intimately bound up with the features and properties of the physical universe.

4.1 The Universe On a dark’ clear evening the human eye can distinguish several thousand distant suns’ all of which lie in the Milky Way (our home galaxy). Floating freely in Earth orbit our senses would be assaulted by the light of nearly six times as many stars. The Palomar 200" optical telescope -- now the second largest in the world -- has the light-gathering power of a million human eye balls and extends our vision to several billion celestial objects in this galaxy alone. And about ten billion galaxies are observable with presentday astronomical equipment’ the farthest (3C 123) lying eight billion light-years distant.1952 How big is the universe? An important clue was uncovered by the American astronomer Edwin Hubble back in the early 1920’s’ when he was measuring the atomic spectra emitted by various galaxies. The farther away the object’ he found’ the more its spectral lines appeared to be displaced towards the lower frequencies of light. This curious phenomenon’ which became known as the "redshift’" was interpreted to be a kind of Doppler effect for photons. Much the same as a receding siren seems to be putting out lower and lower pitched sounds as it passes by’ so do galaxies seem to emit redder light as they travel away from us. Since the most distant objects are seen to possess the greatest redshifts’ the simplest explanation is that they are receding from Earth at velocities approaching the speed of light. Nearby galaxies are moving at a far more leisurely pace. Conclusion: The universe is slowly expanding. This is not to say that Earth has the extraordinary good fortune to lie at the exact geometric center of all creation’ simply because most all astronomical objects appear to be heading away from us. More correctly’ our galaxy is like a spot of India ink on the surface of a spherical balloon. We are surrounded by billions of similar spots. As the balloon inflates’ every point on its surface moves away from all adjacent points. From the chauvinistic viewpoint of each galaxy’ all others will look like they’re flying away at various speeds depending on distance. Each will view itself as the "center" of the universe! This idea that the cosmos will appear roughly the same from any position is called the Cosmological Principle. The latest measurements of galactic redshifts seem to indicate that the speed of recession increases about fifty-five kilometers per second for each megaparsec* of distance from Earth.1953 (This number is called the Hubble Constant.) Since the maximum velocity of recession which can be detected is the speed of light’ then the outermost shell of the swelling universe should lie about eighteen billion light-years from Earth. Of course’ if the "balloon" deflates’ points on its surface will rush together again. Using our value of the Hubble Constant’ we can mathematically run time backwards and extrapolate to Time Zero -- the creation event. The inverse of the Hubble Constant is in units of time and represents the age of the universe assuming a constant rate of expansion. This works out to a period of eighteen eons!** But scientists believe that the expansion of the universe has not been constant; on the contrary’ it has probably decreased with the passage of time because of gravity. Taking this into account’ the true age of the universe will not be quite so large’ and is now usually set at about sixteen billion years.1953’1983 Our estimate of the radius of the universe’ likewise corrected’ drops down’ to sixteen billion light-years. Any theory of cosmology that purports to explain the mechanics of the cosmos must’ at the bare minimum’ be able to account for Hubble’s redshift phenomenon. The one proposal which has been most successful in this regard is the Big Bang hypothesis. According to this leading view of cosmic evolution’ the universe began as a highly compact fireball of pure energy and infinite density. After perhaps a millionth of a second this density dropped off to nuclear values as the ylem or "cosmic egg" exploded outward.2062 The overall temperature may then still have exceeded 1013 K.1192 The stuff of the universe started to change from pure energy into matter’ primarily neutrons. When half an hour had passed most of the neutrons were gone’ replaced by a mixture of 60% hydrogen ions and 40% helium ions (by mass)’ as well as a smattering of deuterium (heavy hydrogen).1813 Using this model’ it can be calculated that at the one hour mark’ the temperature was down to about 250 million degrees; after the passage of a quarter of a million years’ it had fallen off to the present temperature at the surface of Sol. And 170 K was reached after 250 million years following the big bang. This turned out to be a red-letter date in the evolution of the universe’ because for the first time in history the density of matter became greater than the mass density of radiant energy. Protons and electrons must have coalesced into de-ionized H’ He’ and D atoms’ leaving no more than 0.1% still in the plasma state.1192 This signaled a dramatic change in the behavior of material. No longer was matter incessantly sloshed and stirred by the overpowering radiation field’ which had kept it permanently osterized in a thin’ gaseous form. Once radiation refrained from dominating the scene’ matter was free to gravitationally condense into relatively huge’ massive aggregates -- supergalaxies’ galaxies’ and stars.1813 There are two variations of the Big Bang scenario upon which most discussion has focused. The first of these is known as the closed’ or pulsating universe model. According to this thesis the universe is a gravitationally "bound" system. That is’ some thirty eons or so from now the fragments from the original ylem explosion will cease their outward rushing and commence to fall back together again like the dots on the surface of a deflating balloon. Cosmic evolution occurs in a series of alternate expansions and contractions. At the very end’ the Final Moment’ everything is destroyed’ the slate wiped clean in preparation for the beginning of the next eighty-billion-year cycle. Besides giving rise to philosophical nihilism’ this has interesting consequences for the development of life. During an expansion phase light is redshifted to the relatively harmless lower frequencies. However’ during the contraction phase the intensity of dangerous high frequency radiation might become unbearable -- due to a blueshift effect. If the pulsating model is correct’ then we are lucky to be alive during the half of the cycle most likely to be hospitable to life. In the second half’ the development and expansion of biology would be severely restricted. Are we’ asks Carl Sagan’ "trapped in a vast cycle of cosmic deaths and rebirths?"20 The second variant of the Big Bang theory is the open’ or expanding universe model’ which suggests that the cosmos will never stop enlarging and ultimately will disperse to infinity. In this view’ all matter reached the "escape velocity" of the universe at the time of the ylem explosion: The cosmic radius increases indefinitely. This is in sharp contrast to the pulsating model’ in which the radius oscillates between some maximum value and zero. There is evidence to support the Big Bang theories. For instance’ it will be recalled that the fireball cooled rather rapidly as it expanded. If this rate is extrapolated from the Bang to the present’ sixteen eons later’ the temperature should be down around a few degrees above absolute zero. This early prediction from evolutionary cosmology was verified in 1965 with the discovery of microwave radiation which fills the entire universe perfectly isotropically. The energy corresponds to a constant’ uniform temperature of 2.7 K. This actual relic of the primeval ylem superexplosion strongly affirms the Big Bang theories’ and appears to verify the Cosmological Principle mentioned earlier. How can we decide whether the universe is open or closed? It turns out that if the mean density of the cosmos is less than about 5 x 10-30 gm/cm3 (only about three atoms per cubic meter -- intergalactic space is very nearly empty)’ then there is insufficient mass to hang onto the galaxies gravitationally. The universe would be open and must disperse to infinity. Measurements of the actual density are difficult to make. However’ based on the latest data’ revised Hubble Constant’ and such parameters as the observed density of galaxyclusters locally and the abundance of deuterium in space’1959 astronomers have reached a tentative conclusion: The universe is open.1953 Another class of cosmological theories which has persisted for decades in various forms is the steady-state model’ which suggests that the universe is not thinning out at all despite the apparent recession of galaxies. According to a typical model of this variety’ neutrons appear suddenly out of nowhere in the interstellar void’ roughly one particle per cubic meter every few eons or so. The local density is thus maintained at a constant level’ the outflowing mass exactly balanced by the spontaneously generation of matter within the included volume. The most recent attempt to forge a more plausible steady-state model is the Hoyle-Narlikar cosmology (Figure 4.1).1956 This is based on the concept of a "mass field’" which is such that the mass of a chunk of matter is dependent upon its spatial and temporal location in space-time. The universe consists of a checkerboard pattern of normal and reversed mass fields. While mass never becomes negative’ its value does vary from zero at a boundary to some maximum value defined by the field. Einstein’s relativistic cosmology is said to represent a special case’1955 valid near a boundary but not across it or very far away from it. Astronomer Hoyle infers that we are close to such a boundary. Figure 4.1 The Hoyle-Narlikar cosmology1956

If mass has been steadily increasing since we crossed the border some sixteen billion years ago’ then galaxies we passed along the way -- which lie nearer the boundary -should have older’ less massive atoms. If less massive atoms also have less massive electrons’ these electrons should lie in larger atomic orbits and generally emit spectral lines of lower frequency. That is’ the spectra should be redshifted. The observed redshift of galaxies is explained’ not by their headlong flight’ but because the electrons comprising their atoms are lighter in weight.1954 Hoyle also has an explanation for the 2.7 K background radiation. It is known that light is most efficiently scattered by particles of low mass. Hence’ the boundary at Time Zero (where mass goes to zero) must completely scatter all radiation coming from previous cells. The background is just the smeared out starlight emitted by galaxies on the other side of the border. Hoyle calculates that such galaxies still exist prior to Time Zero as far back as 150 eons.1956

Figure 4.2 The Local Universe399,1985

Many other unusual theories have been proposed from time to time’ including the Klein-Alfvén matter-antimatter cosmology’1192 the universe-as-a-black-hole idea1963 (and black holes as accretion nuclei for elliptical 653 and spira1964 galaxies)’ the Everett-Wheeler "splitting universe" scheme1982’3683 and other multiple universe ("multiverse") theories.1512’1957’1958 The cosmological problem has not yet lent itself to a definitive solution. Perhaps it never will until we are able to ask ETs’ situated elsewhere in distant space’ for their observations and ideas.

* 1 megaparsec(Mpc) = 103 kiloparsecs(kpc) = 106 parsecs(pc) = 3.26 x 106 light-years(ly) = 3.07 x 1022 meters(m). ** An eon is one billion (109) years.

4.2 Galaxies If the Big Bang theories of the universe are essentially correct’ then it was not long after Time Zero on the cosmic time scale that matter began to condense gravitationally. Any small non-uniformities in the density of the heretofore homogeneous gas would be aggravated’ and local condensations could begin to occur. Today we bear witness to what astronomers believe is the end product of that grand condensation process: Stars. These giant plasma balls glow by the energy of intense thermonuclear fusion reactions’ at temperatures reaching many hundreds of millions of degrees in their cores. These incandescent globes are collected into great structures called galaxies’ which exist in many shapes and sizes. It is now known that galaxy-clusters also exist’ assemblages of a few to as many as thousands of individual galaxies. More than 80% of all nearby galaxies belong to such clusters.1974’2150 The spaces between them are virtually devoid of stars’ gas’ and other matter. A few astronomers today are of the opinion that order exists in the cosmos on an even larger scale. They claim to have discovered monstrous aggregates of galaxy-clusters possessing literally millions of individual galaxies’ with masses ranging from 1016-1017 Msun each.20’399’1191’1271’1974’1985’3676 More than twenty nearby "supergalaxies" have been tentatively identified’ having diameters from thirty to ninety megaparsecs.1974’1985 However’ less than a dozen can be identified in much detail within about 160 Mpc (~500’000’000 light-years).399 (For comparison’ the radius of the entire universe in the Big Bang cosmologies is roughly 4900 Mpc.) The spaces between supergalaxies is incredibly empty’ even more so than between galaxies and clusters of galaxies. We are believed to be embedded in the Virgo Supercluster’ otherwise known as the Local Supergalaxy (Figure 4.3). The Local Supergalaxy is a squat’ roughly cylindrical collection of nearby galaxy-clusters with a total mass of perhaps 1015 Msun.2025 It is about forty megaparsecs in diameter and twenty megaparsecs thick.399 Its radius is thus about 0.8% that of the known universe’ which is about 10-7 of the total "volume" of the cosmos.

Figure 4.3 The Local Supergalaxy399

The Supergalaxy rotates counterclockwise as viewed from the North Super-galactic Pole’ about once every hundred billion years. Since the origin of the universe’ it has yet to make so much as a quarter-turn! We are situated in a galaxy-cluster’ called the Local Group (Figure 4.4)’ some twelve megaparsecs from the center of the Supergalaxy near Virgo I. We are rotating with the Supergalaxy at about 2.5 million kilometers per hour’ roughly 0.2% the speed of light. The drawing depicts the approximate extent of the Local Supergalaxy as it is presently understood’ along with the thirty-one largest galaxy-clusters* in this hemisphere. It should be noted that our own Local Group is the smallest of these.

Figure 4.4 The Local Group1974,2025

Galaxy-clusters range from as little as fifty kiloparsecs in diameter (Stephan’s Quintet’ four member galaxies) to more than eight megaparsecs (Coma cluster’ several thousand members). Ours is a modest-sized cluster’ with twenty-one member galaxies and a diameter of 800-900 kpc.1974’2025 The Local Group is somewhat flattened in shape’ with most components (Table 4.1) in the southern hemisphere of our Milky Way Galaxy.** Eleven intergalactic tramp globular star clusters have also been spotted’ the lone gypsy wanderers of the forbidding intergalactic void.1974

Table 4.1 The members of the Local Group1945,1974,2025 Galaxy

Type

Mass

Diameter Distance

RA

Dec.

(Me)

(kpc)

(kpc) 680

0h 40.0m

‘41.0°

1h 31.1m

‘30.4°

Spirals M31 (Galaxy Andromeda)

Sb

4 x 1011

52

MILKY WAY GALAXY

Spc

1.5 x 1011

30

M33

Sc

2 x 1010

18

700

Snickers

dE

2 x 108

2.

16.8

Leo II

dE0

1 x 106

1.3

230

11h 10.8m ‘22.4°

Andromeda I

dE0

1 x 104

0.5

680

0h 43.0m

‘37.4°

Andromeda II

dE0

1 x 104

0.7

680

1h 13.5m

‘33.1°

1132

E2

2 x 109

2.1

680

0h 40.0m

‘40.6°

NGC 185

E2

2.9

680

0h 36.1m

‘48.1°

Andromeda III

dE3

1 x 104

0.9

680

0h 32.6m

‘30.2°

Sculptor

dE3

3 x 106

2.4

86

0h 56.5m

-34.0°

Fornax

dE3

2 x 107

6.2

188

2h 37.5m

-34.7°

Leo I

dE3

3 x 106

1.8

230

10h 5.8m

‘12.6°

Draco

dE3

1 x 105

1.0

Ellipticals

17h 19.4m ‘58.0°

NGC 147

84

2.4

680

0h 30.4m

‘48.2°

NGC 205

ES

4.2

680

0h 37.6m

‘41.4°

Ursa Minor

dE6

1 x 105

2.4

68

15h 8.2m

‘67.3°

Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)

Irr

2 x 1010

8.

5h 26.0°

-69.0°

Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC)

In

5.

61

0h 50.0m

-73.0°

IC 1613

Irr

4.

680

1h 0.6m

‘1.7°

NGC 6822

Irr

1.7

660

Irregulars

19h 42.1m -14.9°

There are basically three kinds of galaxies: Irregulars’ spirals’ and ellipticals (Table 4.2). Irregulars are small’ formless collections of stars’ containing perhaps 109 Msun. These

galaxies consist of about 10-50% neutral hydrogen gas and dust20 and have very few old reddish stars and very many young blue-white stars.1974 Much of the matter that could be utilized in the construction of stars hasn’t been used up yet. Spiral galaxies have consumed far more of their hydrogen -- only about 1% of the original amount remains’ on the average. There are a fair number of both old and young stars. The typical spiral has three major components: The halo (a spheroidal volume of space with very old stars in highly elliptical orbits)’ the nuclear bulge or "core’" and the galactic disk (which contains the spiral structure and most of the mass). Great dust lanes are usually very conspicuous throughout.20’1976 Elliptical galaxies are generally ellipsoidal in shape. Virtually all of the neutral hydrogen has been depleted’ and there is little dust. Most of the building materials for stars are gone. Few suns have formed in very recent times; consequently’ the stars tend to be very old.

Table 4.2 Characteristics of galaxies1945,1974,2025 Property

Ellipticals

Spirals

Irregulars

Total mass (in Msun)

106 - 1013

109 - 4 x 1011

108 - 3 x 1010

Diameter (light-years)

2000 - 500’000

20’000 - 150’000

5000 - 30’000

Diameter (kiloparsecs)

0.6 - 150

6 - 50

1.5 - 9

Mass density (Msun/pc3)

200 million years

O - B Spiral-Arm Population I ~0.1% of all Main Sequence Stars Main Sequence lifetime < 200 million years

Since O and B stars have such short lifetimes’ most of them die before their orbits can carry them very far from where they were born. A few do escape’ however’ and become mixed in with the rest of the stars. (Regulus’ in the constellation Leo and about 26 parsecs from Sol’ is one such escapee.) O and B suns are largely confined to within 70 parsecs of the Galactic Plane’1780 and have virtually perfect circular orbits around the Core in the Plane. These stars are sometimes referred to as "Extreme Population I." There is one minor complication to the view of the Milky Way presented thus far. The concentration of hydrogen in the spiral arms is a stable feature of the Galaxy’ and is thought to represent a wave of greatly increased gas density traveling across the Disk. Where density is highest’ the hot O & B stars can be formed’ trailing from what amounts to a galactic density-shockwave. We recall that Sol orbits the Core (Figure 4.9) approximately once every 240 million years. The problem is that the spiral density wave circles the Galaxy at a much slower rate’ about once every 400 million years. Consequently’ the bright spiral arm stars trail forward’* not backward’ from the leading edge of the bow shock.1976

Figure 4.9 Position and orientation of Earth and Sol in the Milky Way Galaxy

North Galactic Pole: RA = 0h 49m Dec = +27.4° (in Coma Berenices) South Galactic Pole: RA = 12h 49m Dec = -27.4° (in Sculptor) 0° Galactic Longitude: RA = 17h 43m Dec = -28.9° (Sol -- > Galactic Center line)

The distribution of life in the Milky Way is intimately connected with Galactic evolutionary history.1811 The Halo population is the oldest sub system’ remnant of the first stars and star clusters formed from the original virgin hydrogen cloud -- the protogalaxy -- 12 eons ago. As the cloud gravitationally condensed and began to rotate faster’ it flattened out and became more dense.1809 It has been estimated that about a hundred million years were required for the gas to fall ten kiloparsecs to the Galactic Plane.1827 During this time the Disk population was formed (after the Halo)’ which soon found itself rich in heavy elements.1807 The spiral arm population is the youngest subsystem of the Milky Way (105-109 years old)’ is also rich in heavies’ and is closely restricted to the Plane.1945 The abundance of heavy elements increases markedly toward the center of our Galaxy (Figure 4.10). The concentration in the Core is an order of magnitude higher than near the rim of the Disk’ and as much as three orders of magnitude greater than in the Halo. Based on the distribution of heavies’ where might we expect to find planets and life? It is difficult to avoid excluding the oldest Halo stars’ orbiting high above the plane of the Galaxy.33 For the most part’ these stars are extremely metal-poor. In addition’ they are few in number’ widely dispersed’ and exceedingly dim because of their distance’ Halo population II stars generally are not a good place to look for biology.312’1633

Figure 4.10 Heavy element abundance and distribution in the disk of the Milky Way Galaxy57,1972

Globular clusters are conspicuous collections of hundreds of thousands of individual suns. There may be as many as 2000 such clusters in the Galaxy’1973 but at present only about 200 are known to exist for certain.1807’1945 Since the component stars are population II’ they’ like the lone Halo objects’ are exceedingly poor in metals. This alone would be enough to rule out all but the slimmest chance of finding life’1633 but there are other problems. For instance’ stars in these clusters are so tightly packed that encounters between them may become important inasmuch as the stability of planetary systems is concerned.352 Also’ a large number of the stars have left the "main sequence" (see below) and have become red giants. This stage of their evolution is marked by large variations in luminosity and dramatic increases in stellar radius.20’1556’1973 It would appear that globular clusters are not fruitful places to search for intelligent lifeforms. If not in the Halo’ how about the Core? As discussed above’ the central regions of the Galaxy are more metal-rich than anywhere else in the Milky Way. The potential exists’ therefore’ for a vast multitude of terrestrial-like planets and planetary systems. There are probably also large quantities of organic and inorganic molecules near the Core -- just what’s needed to start the ball of life rolling.1816’1961 One quick objection to life at the Core might be that with such an immense concentration of stars in such a small volume (Table 4.3)’ the radiation flux might be too intense. However’ simple order-of-magnitude calculations reveal that this is not a problem. Even in the innermost recesses of the nucleus’ the total radiation received by a habitable planet will be no more than 0.06% in excess of that received from its primary. This should not be incompatible with an otherwise stable environment.

Table 4.3. Star Densities at the Galactic Core1821 Stars within Radius R

Radius from Center, R Star Density (stars/pc3)

(Msun)

(parsecs)

(A.U.*)

(Earth/Sol = 1.0)

0.1

5.2 x 107

6.0 x 105

0.0034

700

6 x 10-4

1.0

8.4 x 105

8.8 x 106

0.013

2700

9 x 10-5

10.

1.3 x 104

1.4 x 108

0.053

11’000

6 x 10-6

20.

3.8 x 103

3.2 x 108

0.081

17’000

4 x 10-6

100

2.2 x 102

5.0 x 109

0.21

43’000

1 x 10-6

800

20.0

2.0 x 1010

0.46

94’000

3 x 10-7

3000

3.0

-- -

0.87

180’000

9 x 10-8

0.15

-- -

1.88

380’000

5 x 10-9

(parsecs)

(Nucleus) (Core) (Disk/ Sol)

*

Irradiation by Surrounding Stars

Average Distance Between Stars

104

The mean distance from Sol to Earth is 1 AU’ about 1.49 x 1011 meters.

However’ more serious objections to Core life may be raised. For example’ we know that on the average about one supernova occurs every fifty years in a typical spiral galaxy.1962 In general’ a hundred light-years is considered the distance of minimum biological effect for supernovae468’469’498 (Astrophysicists Krasovskii and Sagan have suggested that one nearby supernova event about 108 years ago may have contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs.20) Since there are about 104 stars within 100 light-years of Sol’ the mean time between catastrophic events is about two billion years’ a comfortably lengthy period of time.20 On the other hand’ there are more than two hundred million stars within 100 light-years of the center of the Galaxy. Assuming the same supernova rate’ the mean time between damaging events would be reduced to 50’000 years. This may well prove intolerable to life. Another argument against populating the Core is based on dynamical considerations. The grand game of stellar billiards’ involving close encounters and collisions between stars once every million years or so’20 could make life in the central regions quite impossible. As Dr. R. H. Sanders and Dr. G. T. Wrixen of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory put it: "It is doubtful that there would be any life on planets in the galactic nucleus’ since with such high stellar densities close encounters between stars would be so frequent that planets would be ripped out of their orbit every few hundred million years."1961 But this argument loses much of its appeal if we consider the outer Core regions (say’ from 1-3 kiloparsecs out) where the star density is only an order of magnitude or so above Sol-normal. Finally’ there are indications that violent events are occurring at or near the Core. Astronomers Burbidge’ Hoyle and Lequeux have hypothesized that the expanding 3-kpc arm observed near the Core could be the result of an explosion that savagely ripped through the central regions a mere twenty million years ago.1816 More recently’ this theory has been refined to the following numbers: Titanic explosions may occur every 500 million years’ releasing some 1053 joules of energy (equivalent to total conversion of half a million solar masses into pure energy)’ followed by an ejection of one billion solar masses of matter.1961 Needless to say’ this would be an extremely disruptive event. [Note added in 2008: Many astrophysicists now believe there is a black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.] It appears doubtful that life will have evolved in the nucleus of our Galaxy’ although biology in the outer Core regions is entirely possible. Looking at it from an aesthetic point of view’ the spacescape enjoyed by the in habitants must be fantastically beautiful. Hundreds of stars would appear brighter than Sirius’ our brightest. Their most luminous suns would be an order of magnitude brighter than Venus is to us.1360 Starlight filtering through thick’ patchy dust clouds near the nucleus would produce interesting optical effects. The evening sky at the Core would be as bright as moonlight on a clear night on Earth -- total darkness might be unknown to these extra-terrestrials. But stars would still look like mere points of light. Only within one parsec of the center of the nucleus would supergiant stars appear as distinct globes to the naked human eye. Where else can life exist in the Milky Way? Scientists believe that the most likely place for life will be in the Disk’ both in the interarm and spiral arm regions. Heavy elements are plentiful there’ and planets should be numerous.2032 Stars are far enough apart to preclude close encounters’ and supernovae are few and far between. Finally’ most of the stars in the Galaxy may be found in this region. There is every indication that extraterrestrial life will be abundant throughout the volume of the Disk.

* Sol's forward motion should carry us into the Orion Arm in 107 years or so.

4.4 The Stars Stars come in many sizes’ brightnesses’ shapes and colors. In Orion we find the beautiful orange-red Betelgeuse keeping company with the brilliant bluish-white Rigel. In constellation Auriga lies the Sol-like familiar yellow star Capella. The brightest star in Libra’ named Zubeneschamali’ is naked-eye green in color and is best seen low in the midnight summer sky.1191 More than two-thirds of all stars form multiple systems -- double stars’ triple stars and more. With a telescope one can observe the gold and blue splendor of g Andromedae’ the twin red and green suns of a Hercules’ and the exquisite orange’ yellow and blue of zCancri.49 The stars in eclipsing binaries are often extremely near to one another’ so close that the tidal force pulls the smaller sun into an ellipsoidal shape. Gigantic beautiful whorls and ribbons of luminous matter flow from one to the other in complex patterns so faint they can only be witnessed visually by the local inhabitants of these systems. Even with our most powerful telescopes we cannot actually see these processes but must infer them from indirect evidence.20 Besides color and shape’ stars differ markedly in their relative luminosity. This property varies among suns across more than eight orders of magnitude -- as much as a hundred thousand times brighter’ to more than a thousand times dimmer’ than Sol. If the spectra of a large number of stars are compared’ however’ certain regularities immediately become apparent. All stars can be divided into relatively few groups whose spectra all look pretty much the same. These are the classes O’ B’ A’ F’ G’ K’ and M. (There are a few others -- R’ N’ S -- but these are of lesser importance.)* We’ve already seen that the O and B stars are the hot’ short-lived’ young and massive suns of spiral arm fame. Classes A and F are less hot and have longer lifetimes. Sol is class G. But the majority of all stars fall into the two classes K and M. These are relatively feeble’ undistinguished objects’ yet they burn little fuel and live extremely long lives -more than ten thousand times longer than their O and B counterparts. Luminosity’ then’ is a rough index of both the rate of fuel consumption and the life span of a star.32 Numbers from zero to nine are used to further subdivide the spectral classes. For instance’ a G0 sun is more luminous than a G5’ which in turn is brighter than a G9 -- the dimmest in the G class. The next-faintest star’ of course’ would be K0. M suns are the feeblest of all. The brightest star on record is class O5’ since objects from O0 to O4 have not been found. Stars with numbers between zero and four are often referred to as "early’" while those with higher numbers are considered "late." Sol’ technically a G2 sun’ would thus be viewed as an "early spectral class G star." Stellar mass’ in contrast to luminosity’ is restricted to within relatively narrow limits (Figure 4.11). Few stars have masses beyond an order of magnitude more or less than Sol’s. There is good reason for this.

Figure 4.11 Stellar number density near Sol, and stellar contraction time, as a function of stellar mass57,1808

A star in the process of formation is a battleground for two opposing forces which struggle constantly to gain the upper hand. Gravity’ which tries to collapse the ball of gas into a small volume with high density’ is counteracted by radiation pressure’ which grows more intense as the star’s thermonuclear furnace kindles and catches. The protostar shrinks to the point where radiation and gravity exactly balance each other’ and relative stability is achieved. Below about 0.01 Msun the ball of gas just sits there’ big and cold. Gravitational forces predominate. Internal pressures are just too low for nuclear fires to ignite. Dr. Hong-Yee Chiu at the NASA Institute for Space Studies calculates that stellar mass must be greater than about 0.02 Msun for fusion reactions to be initiated.1314 This prediction squares well with observations. The lightest stars known -- of M9 class -- are all at least 0.05 Msun or more. Jupiter’ the gas giant planet and possible arrested protostar’ masses only 0.001 Msun

In the direction of higher mass’ Chiu calculates that if the body exceeds about 30 Msun the radiation pressure must be so great it would literally blow the star apart. Indeed’ the largest stars known mass very close to this value.1314

The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (Figure 4.12) is a plot of luminosity as a function of stellar class. About 91% of all stars fall neatly onto a narrow strip running diagonally from top to bottom. This is known as the main sequence.

Figure 4.12. Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram Stellar Luminosity (Sol = 1.0) (Solar Luminosity Lsun = 3.84 x 1026 joules/sec)

The main sequence is not an evolutionary track’ and is perhaps best thought of as a "house" in which a star resides for most of its life. It is believed that the earliest stages of stellar evolution involve the condensation of a giant cloud of gas and dust many light-years in diameter and massing perhaps 1000 Msun.1945 As contraction proceeds’ the material fragments into many smaller globules until only tiny pieces remain. These units contain a few Msun of matter and measure about a light-year across. As the protostar shrinks its gravitational potential energy is converted to heat’ and after millions of years the object has drawn itself together as a warm cloud about the diameter of our solar system (say’ 40 AU). At this point’ energy resources are shifted to ionizing instead of heating the gas. The protostar shrinks down to less than 1 AU in perhaps twenty years or so.1808 A star suddenly appears in the midst of the whirling gas. We see that the actual contraction phase is very short’ lasting less than one percent of the sun’s total main sequence lifetime.57 These T Tauri stars are stellar newborns’ and their luminosity fluctuates erratically with time.20 Another peculiar feature of such objects is the blowing off of prodigious quantities of matter. It has been estimated that the original protostar loses from 30-50% or more of its starting mass in this fashion.85’473’1945 Hydrogen burning begins as the T Tauri stage draws to a close’ and the star enters the main sequence as a full adult.1808 Naturally’ not all stars of the same mass cease contraction at the same position on the H-R diagram. Those protostars which are deficient in heavy elements -- such as might be the case in globular clusters -- arrive at the main sequence at a considerably lower luminosity than most Disk stars. These are called the subdwarfs.20’1945 For most normal suns’ however’ the mass determines both the point of entry onto the main sequence and the length of time of residence there (Table 4.4). Large O and B stars enter high on the sequence’ and remain only a few tens of millions of years; the bantamweight K and M suns enter near the bottom and stay for tens of eons. Luminosity on the main sequence increases only very slightly with the passage of time. Sol’ for example’ has grown only 20% hotter since it left the T Tauri stage five eons ago.20 Stars are evicted from the main sequence only when all or most of their hydrogen fuel in the car has been exhausted. With the sharp reduction in radiation pressure the core contracts. Hydrogen gas in the outermost shell begins to burn. Collapse of the core raises the temperature there’ so that helium-’ carbon-’ and ultimately oxygen-burning become possible. The star thus separates into two rather distinct components -- diffuse burning shell and dense’ hot core. In this "red giant" stage’ the shell of hydrogen may be gradually driven outward leaving a brilliant white core behind. (Stars which have left the main sequence remain red giants for perhaps 1% of their total lifetimes.) This "white dwarf " soon finishes off the remainder of its fuel and all fusion reactions cease. A white dwarf slowly cools to become an in visible black dwarf. Life for Sol-sized stars ends as inauspiciously as it began -- as cold’ dark matter.

Table 4.4 Typical Characteristics of Stars and Stellar Types Main Fraction Seq. Stellar Type of Stars Mass* Radius* lifetime Temp. Luminosity Color Representative Stars (109 yrs)

(Sol = 1.0)

(Sol = 1.0)

O5

32

20

0.001 36’000

100’000

B0

16

9.0

0.009 25’000

15’000

B5

6.1

4.1

0.07

15’000

600

A0

3.0

2.5

0.4

10’700

65

A5

2.0

1.6

2.0

8400

15

F0

1.6

1.4

2.7

7300

5.3

1.3 1.1

1.2 1.1

5.3 9.3

6500 6000

2.4 1.2

G5

0.9

0.9

16

5500

0.7

K0

0.8

0.8

20

4900

0.4

K5

0.6

0.7

60

4200

0.1

M0

0.4

0.6

90

3600

0.04

(K)

(Sol = 1.0)

Main Sequence

~0.1%

Sirius A’ Vega(cz Lyrae) White Altair(a Aquilas)’ Formalhaut

~1%

3%

F5 G0

Greeng Velorun White Rigel’ Blue- Agena (b Centauri) White Regulus(a Leo)’ Achernar (a Eridani)

Sargas(theta Scorpii)’ Bright- Ceph (B Cassiopei) Yellow Procyon(a Canis Minoris) Sol’ Rigil Kentarus Pale (a Centauri) Yellow Izar(e Boötes)’ Dubhe, Pollux’ t Ceti(?)

8%

e Eridani’ Yellow- Rigil Kentaurus B Orange e Indi’ Groombridge 1618

13%

66%

Red

M5

Lalande 21185’ Kapteyn's star Proxima Centauri’ Barnard’s star

0.2

0.4

200

2900

0.007

F0

9

50

-- -

7000

4000

Yellow Canopus(a Carina)

G0

10

100

-- -

4500

5000

Yellow

K0

12

200

-- -

3600

8000

Orange z Aurigae

M0

16

500

-- -

3000

25’000

G0

3.1

10

-- -

5200

40

Yellow Capella A(a Aurigae)

K0

3.5

24

-- -

4100

80

Orange Arcturus(a Boötis)

M0

3.8

76

-- -

3200

400

0.6

0.02

-- -

10’700

0.005

0.3

0.030.01

-- -

7500

0.0004

Supergiants ~0.01%

Giants

Antares(a Scorpii)’ Mira(o Ceti)’ Betelgeuse(a Orionis)

~1%

White Dwarfs A0

Red

Aldebaran(a Tauri) (KS)

8%

F0 TOTAL

Red

o Eridani B white Sirius B’ van Maanen's star

100% Disk Population I (76%) ‘ Spiral Arm Extreme Population I (7%) ‘ Halo Population II (17%) = 100% *Solar Mass Msun = 2.0 x 1030 kg; Solar Radius Rsun = 6.9 x 108 meters

More massive suns have more spectacular deaths. Stars about 30% heavier than Sol go supernova’ leaving behind a small’ dense object called a neutron star -- essentially a gigantic atomic nucleus’ perhaps ten kilometers in diameter’ spinning furiously in space.1214’1314 Densities run about 1014 times higher than that of lead. The pulsar in the Crab Nebula is one of many such objects observed by astronomers in the last decade or so. Suns with initial masses of 3 Msun or more also supernova’ but instead of neutron stars these titanic explosions create spherical nuggets of gravitationally collapsed matter that have come to be known as black holes.** These holes in space represent such a high local mass density that light itself moves too slowly to achieve escape velocity at the surface. Observational astronomers think they’ve detected one "BH’" probably a couple kilometers in diameter’ located in the constellation Cygnus.1970 When a star leaves the main sequence’ so much energy is released that any life present is probably destroyed. Consequently’ as far as the search for extraterrestrial life is concerned’ only main sequence stars need be considered as possible candidates for habitable extrasolar systems.328 T Tauri objects’ giants and supergiants’ white and black dwarfs all may be eliminated from consideration. Fortunately’ this still leaves us with about three-quarters of all suns in the Galaxy as putative abodes for life. We know that life required 4.6 eons to arrive at its present stage of development here on Earth. Even if a certain margin of variation is allowed to account for differing speeds of evolution on different planets’ the first fossil records of marine invertebrates don’t appear until the opening of the Cambrian Period a mere 600 million years ago. It is plausible to conclude that at least three or four eons -- the so-called "genesis time" -- may be required on any planet for intelligent life to gain a foothold.214 If this is indeed the case’ then life will be restricted to stars of class F5 and later.57’328 Suns of earlier classes remain on the main sequence for less than the critical genesis time of several billion years’ rendering improbable the emergence of intelligence. Another argument in favor of class F5 as the early cutoff point is based on measurements of stellar rotation among the various classes of stars. There appears to be a sharp break at F5 in the amount of angular momentum possessed by suns (Figure 4.13). This conspicuous phenomenon can reasonably be explained by invoking the presence of planets.1278

Figure 4.13 Stellar rotation vs. spectral class (Main Sequence stars only)20,328

It is suspected that the birth of planetary systems is closely linked to the contraction and evolution of the primary. Approximately 98% of the angular momentum of our solar system is carried by the planets -- which represent only 0.2% of the total mass! The hotter’ fast-rotating stars are thought to be devoid of planets because they still retain the high initial rotation rate caused by the condensation of the original protostar. Cooler stars’ later than F5’ appear to have lost this great rotation somehow. One reasonable interpretation is that’ like Sol in our system’ these stars invested most of their angular momentum in their planets during the process of solar system formation.328 What is the smallest star that can harbor life? To answer this question we must briefly consider the concept of habitable zones or stellar ecospheres (Figure 4.14). An ecosphere is that region of space surrounding a sun where the radiation is neither too strong nor too feeble to support life. Too close to a star and a planet will fry; too far away’ and it will freeze. The habitable zone lies between these two extremes. Dr. Stephen H. Dole of the Rand Corporation has defined the limits of ecospheres so as to ensure that at least 10% of the surface of a world remains habitable all the time.214 Dole estimates that to accomplish this the radiation from the primary must be within 35% of Earth-normal. (This may be too pessimistic57’600 or too optimistic1907’2031 to suit some’ but it’s a good first guess.) Of course’ the size of the ecosphere will vary from star to star’ the less massive dim suns having much smaller zones of habitability than the more massive’ brighter ones (Table 4.5). And planets must huddle closer to cooler stars to keep warm; the ecospheres of F stars will lie at considerably greater distances than the zones surrounding’ say’ class K suns.

Figure 4.14 Stellar ecospheres (habitable zones)

Another argument frequently advanced is that since K and M stars have relatively close ecospheres’ planets within these habitable zones will become partially or totally tidally locked to their primary. That is’ such planets would rotate extremely slowly; worse’ they might become one-face worlds’ always presenting only one side to the sun for heat. This could result in the atmosphere freezing out on the cold side57’214’1908 or other environmental severities.20 Stars massing less than 0.7 Msun may have ecospheres so narrow and close as to possess no havens from such rotational arrest.214 This corresponds roughly to stellar class K3. On the other hand’ K2 and earlier stars should have at least a small region within their habitable zones in which tidal braking is much less severe.

Table 4.5. General Planetary Orbital Parameters for Habitable Zone vs. Stellar Mass Apparent Stellar Diameter at Inner EarthOuter EarthStellar Stellar Ecosphere* Normal Ecosphere* Normal Mass Temperature Boundary Ecosurface Boundary Ecosurface (Msun) (K) (AU) (AU) (AU) (Sol = 1.0)

Planetary Orbital Period at Earth-Normal Ecosurface (Length of Year) (Years)

(Days)

3.0

10’700

6.9

8.1

10.0

0.31

13.2

4820

2.0 1.6

8400 7300

3.3 2.0

3.9 2.3

4.8 2.9

0.42 0.61

5.4 2.8

1960 1010

1.5 1.4

7000 6650

1.7 1.5

2.0 1.8

2.5 2.2

0.68 0.73

2.3 2.0

854 737

1.3

6500

1.3

1.6

1.9

0.81

1.7

617

1.2 1.1

6220 6000

1.2 0.94

1.4 1.2

1.7 1.4

0.85 0.97

1.5 1.1

540 402

1.0

5750

0.86

1.0

1.2

1.0

1.0

365

0.9 0.8

5500 4900

0.72 0.54

0.84 0.63

1.0 0.78

1.1 1.3

0.81 0.56

295 205

0.7

4540

0.38

0.45

0.56

1.7

0.36

130

0.6 0.5

4200 3810

0.27 0.21

0.32 0.24

0.39 0.30

2.2 2.5

0.23 0.17

83.6 62.1

0.4

3600

0.17

0.20

0.25

2.8

0.14

51.4

0.3 0.2

3100 2900

0.11 0.07

0.12 0.08

0.15 0.10

3.9 4.9

0.078 0.054

28.4 19.7

0.1

2700

0.01

0.02

0.03

20.3

0.0072

2.6

* Ecosphere is that region of space surrounding the star in which insolation is ±35% Earth-normal. According to Dole’ this will leave at least 10% of the planet’s surface habitable. 21

Dr. S.I. Rasool at NASA has also suggested that the atmospheric evolution of planets may be critically dependent on the amount of ultraviolet radiation emitted by the primary.376 A deficiency in the UV could mean that the hydrogen and helium in the primeval solar system might not have a chance to dissipate from even the innermost planets’ which would remain large’ gaseous’ and quite jovian. (Also’ it is believed by some that M suns may be "flare stars’" which emit sudden blasts of deadly UV at random intervals.57’1775) But there are more serious complications involved in the ultraviolet problem. The steady-state intensity of UV radiation at the surface of the primitive Earth was at least an order of magnitude greater than the next most abundant source of energy.1017 An ultraviolet deficit might greatly slow or even preclude the origin of life and early biochemical evolution. It would appear that class K stars radiate at least an order of magnitude less UV than class G’ although this has been disputed by some.57’1775 Class M suns are even more niggardly’ emitting less than 1% as much UV as Sol at equivalent locations within their ecospheres. The evidence’ while far from conclusive’ seems to rule out stars later than early K as possible abodes for life.214’1018 As a first approximation’ then’ we choose to limit ourselves to population I stars in classes F5 through K2 on the main sequence -- perhaps 11% of all Milky Way suns (Figure 4.15).

Figure 4.15 Planetary surface temperature inside habitable zones

There is one further restriction on our selection of life-supporting stellar environments.2148 About one-third of all stars occur in pairs (binary stars)’ and some two-thirds occur in multiples of all kinds (binaries’ trinaries’ hexastellar systems’ etc.).20 There should be less chance of finding habitable worlds in multiple star systems because of the relatively large variations in planetary surface temperatures (due to the peculiar convoluted orbit traced by a planet circling many suns).50’1020’1053 The danger of "slingshot" ejection must also be reckoned with. Calculations reveal that if the components of a binary star system follow relatively circular orbits and are either very close together or very far apart’ stable orbits and moderate planetary temperatures are possible.214*** Dr. Su-Shu Huang’ formerly a physicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Washington’ made a preliminary determination of habitable orbital configuarations near binaries whose components are roughly equivalent in mass.1020 If good planetary orbits are to exist’ the two stars must lie either less than 0.4L½ AU apart or more than 13L½ AU apart’ where L is solar luminosity in Solar units’ Lsun. Of course’ if either component of a binary system is class F4 or earlier’ then both are unlikely to have been around sufficiently long for intelligent life to have arisen (though planets and simple lifeforms are not precluded). We also must reject population II binaries’ as well as those which have a red giant’ white dwarf’ neutron star or black hole as one member of the pair.1018 Dr. T.A. Heppenheimer at the Center for Space Science in California has completed some simple calculations on the formation of planets in binary systems.1300 His preliminary results indicate that’ taking into account the typically large orbital eccentricity (e ~ 0.5) found in binary star systems’ the components must actually be separated by more than 30 AU if they are to provide suitable habitats for biology. Apparently about one-third of all F5-K2 binaries within five parsecs of Earth satisfy this requirement.575’1300’2029 In conclusion’ our quest for life on other worlds should be limited to perhaps 5% of all stars in the Galaxy. The basic search therefore encompasses some ten billion suns’ most of which lie in the Disk and outer Core regions of the Milky Way.

* Traditional mneumonic: "Oh Be A Fine Girl’ Kiss Me Right Now. Smack!" Suggested non-sexist mnemonic: "Out Beyond Andromeda’ Fiery Gases Kindle Many Red New Stars."2111 The modern version doesn’t seem to be catching on. ** The properties of black holes are fascinating’ and many excellent reviews have been written’ including those by Thorne’ 1965’1966’1967 Penrose’1968 Kaufmann’ 1971 Ruffini and Wheeler’ 1969 and Hawking. 2021 *** It has been suggested that the Trojan points of double stars might be a good place to look for habitable planets. 607

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Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 5. General and Comparative Planetology “I have chosen that part of Philosophy which is most likely to excite curiosity; for what can more concern us’ than to know how this world which we in habit is made; and whether there be any other worlds like it’ which are also inhabited as this is? -- Bernard de Fontenelle’ Conversations About the Plurality of Worlds (1686) “We know the prodigality of Nature. How many acorns are scattered for one that grows to an oak? And need she be more careful of her stars than of her acorns? -- Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882-1944)’ in The Nature of the Physical World (1928)1549 “Roll on’ thou deep and dark blue Ocean -- roll!... Dark-heaving -- boundless’ endless’ and sublime’ The image of eternity. -- Lord Byron (1788-1824)’ Childe Harold “Geologists believed that Mount Lookitthat was geologically recent. A few hundred of thousands of years ago’ part of the planet’s skin had turned molten. Possibly a convection current in the interior had carried more than ordinarily hot magma up to melt the surface; possibly an asteroid had died a violent’ fiery death. A slow extrusion had followed’ with viscous magma rising and cooling and rising and cooling until a plateau with fluted sides and an approximately flat top stood forty miles above the surface. “It had to be recent. Such a preposterous anomaly could not long resist the erosion of Mount Lookitthat’s atmosphere. -- Larry Niven’ in A Gift from Earth (1968)231

Historically’ scientists have been willing to populate the Moon’ Mars’ and even Sol with a great multitude of living beings. But they often were loath to extend this cosmic fecundity to regions outside our own solar system. The main hangup was that until only a few decades ago’ the very idea of an abundance of planets circling other stars was scoffed at by most professional astronomers. Sol’s family of worlds was believed to be an extreme rarity’ if not an absolutely unique event’ in the Galaxy. The cause of this pessimism regarding possible habitats for life in the universe was due in part to the currency of the so-called “catastrophic theories of solar system formation. These held that the planets were born when a vagabond star passed too close to Sol’ ripping away rather sizeable hunks of solar matter. The filaments of star-stuff then condensed into solid worlds’ which fortuitously assumed nicely circular orbits around the sun. The problem with this model is that stars are very far apart in the Disk of the Galaxy’ so collisions of this sort must be quite improbable. The catastrophic theories lead to the inevitable conclusion that there are less than perhaps twenty solar systems in the entire Galaxy.20 This’ in turn’ implies that few if any habitable worlds exist outside our own solar system. In the 1930’s and early 1940’s a dramatic turnabout in attitude occurred.2038 Young stars in the process of formation were observed to be embedded in dense dust clouds lacked by older stars. Young stars were also seen to possess large amounts of angular momentum which older stars don’t have. Nearby suns were observed to wobble very slightly from side to side as they traveled through space’ as if thrown off balance by the presence of a heavy’ unseen companion. These and other observations were hailed as strong evidence that many’ if not all stars’ are accompanied by a planetary entourage. Today’ astronomers think of solar system formation’ not as an exceedingly rare event’ but as a normal and common adjunct to stellar evolution. With two hundred billion stars in our Milky Way Galaxy’ and more than a billion galaxies in the universe at large’ the number of possible habitats for life becomes truly staggering. If there are 1020 planetary systems throughout the cosmos’ then on the average more than a million of them are born every hour.20 The central objective of the science of general planetology is fairly straightforward: To study the physical and chemical properties of all non-self-luminous material bodies’ whether they occur in our own system or in orbit around some distant star.* A planet’ consequently’ is defined as any aggregate of matter possessing insufficient mass to sustain spontaneous thermonuclear reactions in its interior.214 Xenology has two questions to ask of planetology. First’ exactly how common are solar systems in the Galaxy? How many of them are there’ under what conditions do they arise’ and where are we most likely to find them? Questions of planetary evolution and distribution are of immense xenological importance’ both in the practical sense of knowing where to search for extraterrestrial life and in the theoretical sense of being able to assess the uniqueness of life on Earth.

Table 5.1 Important Properties of the 25 Largest Bodies in the Solar System214,2037,2093,2099,2108

Celestial Body

Length Length Escape Distance of of Velocity from Surface Sidereal Sidereal Orbital Polar from Radius Primary Gravity Day Year Eccentricity Inclination Surface

Mass (kg)

(km)

(106 km)

(Earth = 1)

---

27.9

1.99 x 1030 696’000

(SOL)

(hours)

(days)

514

(degrees) (km/sec)

---

---

7.25

618.

3.3 x 1023

2440

57.9

0.37

1410

88.

0.206

0. The flow of energy from source to sink (S) consists of irreversible processes’ so it too must always cause entropy to increase: DS > 0. Consequently’ -DL < DS is our only constraint. What does this mean in plain English? The last equation above simply says that while the entropy of a living system is always permitted to increase by the Second Law (e.g.’ upon death)’ a short range of decrease is allowed as well. That is’ it is thermodynamically permissible to have local pockets of negative entropy change -"negentropy." Dr. Erwin Schroedinger was really the first to point out that the essence of life is that it feeds on negentropy.1678 An organism able to transfer disorder from itself to its environment can reach a plateau for which the steady-state entropy within the living system is less than the formal entropy entering it.85 Life involves a continuing struggle against increasing entropy. Living systems thus increase local order at the expense of a larger decrease in order within the environment. Does life really violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics? We’ve seen that organisms can effect a local decrease in entropy by maintaining an energy flow.* This leads to an ordering of the intermediate (living) system. So the Second Law does not hold for nonisolated systems (L)’ but only for isolated ones (E). It is invalid for lifeforms alone’ but does hold if that same living system is considered in conjunction with the medium in which it is immersed. Life by itself is a nonisolated system capable of achieving negentropic conditions locally. Life plus environment is an isolated system’ for which the total amount of entropy must always increase. As one writer puts it: Living systems convert order in their surroundings into disorder’ and thereby increase their own internal order. To say that living systems feed on negentropy is equivalent to saying that their existence depends upon increasing the entropy of the rest of the Universe.2213 At the most fundamental level’ negentropic ordering processes are achieved by living organisms. Life drives its environment to physical or chemical disequilibrium’ establishing an entropy gradient between itself and its surroundings.1144 All living systems possess this feature’ and it is contended that any system engaging in such negentropic operations must be considered "living" to a certain extent (Figure 6.4).

Figure 6.4 Life, Entropy, and Organizational Structure (after Morrison1279)

A schematic presentation of the origins of living things. The first graph shows the population of structures -- molecules’ for instance -- against some measure of size or complexity for a case where a free-energy flow has spread the composition to include species of high free energy. The second graph shows what happens when some autocatalytic process begins to increase the population beyond some level of complexity by further degrading the less elaborate’ material present. The last graph suggests how artifacts might be looked at in this process’ a second and rarer’ but more costly’ bump.

The question is’ of course’ to what extent? Rather than viewing the question of life in absolutist terms’ it seems more fruitful to establish the intensity of negentropic processes as a measure of the extent of the life-quality. One of the more fundamental distinctions between "life" and "nonlife" is the degree of organization and internal structure possessed by living systems. Order and structure are virtually synonymous with information content.1012 That is’ living systems do more than merely establish a thermodynamic entropy gradient -- they establish an organizational/informational gradient as well. As organisms feed on negentropy’ they in effect remove information from the surrounding medium and store it within themselves. It is the business of life to accumulate information and complexity. In a physical sense’ these data bits which permeate all lifeforms may be thought of as being stored in an "aperiodic crystal" -- a biological lattice with highly irregular small-scale nonuniformities.2213 The more effective the negentropic processes’ the greater the organization which will arise and hence the more aperiodic the physical structure will become. Organization is maintained by the extraction of order from the environment. If we consider every "autonegentropic" system to be alive’ then its character or richness of expression may be defined along a spectrum from lesser to greater levels of organization. At one extreme are the viruses’ which are not negentropic systems by themselves and thus cannot be considered alive in the absence of living hosts. At the other extreme are mules and bees’ earlier rejected by the genetic definition of life because of their individual inability to reproduce. These animals are quite clearly auto negentropic systems possessing a vast degree of organization both in the macroscopic and microscopic realms. Thus they are not only "alive" (because they feed on negentropy to build internal complexity) but also "very alive" (because they are so internally complex).** The refrigerator in my house technically should be considered a "live" system in the very broadest sense’ as it is a well-defined intermediate system which uses an energy flow to decrease entropy within (the icebox gets colder’ and well-ordered ice crystals collect on the freezer walls) at the expense of increasing the entropy in the external environment (the kitchen air gets warmer). Yet its organizational structure is minimal. Little information is stored’ and there is only trivial interrelatedness even on the macroscopic scale. There is scant evidence of aperiodic crystal’ no complexity at all on the microscopic stage. So the intensity of life in my refrigerator is negligibly small. Note that "machine life" or "solid state life" per se is not ruled out. As machines become more and more sophisticated’ complexity follows. Large-scale integrated circuits available today pack millions of components onto a tiny silicon wafer the size of a postage stamp. Under the microscope’ significant aperiodicities have begun to appear in the latest generation of electronic devices. It is entirely possible that’ in time’ machines will evolve beyond the point of negligible life-quality. This is true’ despite the fact that modern digital computers (which merely process data without adding any of it to their internal structure) are not yet alive at all. In conclusion’ xenologists suspect that there are two fundamental properties any system must possess before it can be considered alive. First’ it must be thermodynamically negentropic’ establishing an entropy gradient between itself and the environment. Second’ it must utilize the entropy gradient to create or to maintain structural order internally -- that is’ it must be autonegentropic or self-organizing. Then there is the quality of organization’ known as complex interrelatedness or aperiodic crystal’ which reflects the intensity of the life process displayed by a given entity. For those who prefer succinct and pithy definitions’ the author would life to offer the following as a starting point for further discussion: Life is negentropic and selforganizing aperiodic crystal.

* A probable corollary is the necessity for "phase separation." In some sense’ the sources and sinks should be physically separated with the living system inserted between them. So we expect barriers to exist between an organism’s sources and its sinks. This prevents dissipation of the system’ protects it from adverse changes in the environment’ and insures the lifeform’s ability to exert and maintain control over its interior. 2213 The exact nature of these barriers -- whether gravitational’ electromagnetic’ or utilizing some hitherto unsuspected principle -- has not been widely discussed. 64 ** While evolution and the capacity to reproduce are of immense biological importance’ a system need not be capable of reproduction for it to be classified as living. 2213’62

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Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 7. The Origin of Life "Who knows for certain? Who shall declare it? Whence was it born’ whence came creation? The gods are later than this world’s formation; Who then can know the origins of the world? None knows whence creation arose; And whether he has or has not made it; He who surveys it from the lofty skies’ Only he knows -- or perhaps he knows not." -- Rig Veda’ ca. 1000 B.C. "If a dirty undergarment is squeezed into the mouth of a vessel containing wheat within a few days (say 21) a ferment drained from the garments and transformed by the smell of the grain’ encrusts the wheat itself with its skin and turns it into mice. And what is more remarkable’ the mice from corn and undergarments are neither weanlings nor sucklings nor premature’ but they jump out fully formed." -- Jan Baptista van Helmont (1577-1644)2481 "It is often said that all the conditions for the first production of a living organism are now present’ which could have been present. But if (and oh! what a big if!) we could conceive in some warm little pond’ with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts’ light’ heat’ electricity’ etc.’ present’ that a proteine compound was chemically formed ready to undergo still more complex changes’ at the present day such matter would be instantly devoured or absorbed’ which would not have been the case before living creatures were formed." -- Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882)1017 "Ultimately’ such a scientist is saying that man’s mind was created by a batch of dancing chemicals. He is saying that Shakespeare and St. Francis of Assisi were manufactured by something like Alka-Seltzer fizzing in a glass." -- in The Sign’ a Catholic monthly (1956)114 "The molecules that could not copy themselves did not. Those that could’ did. The number of copying molecules greatly increased..." -- Carl Sagan’ in The Cosmic Connection (1973)15

Scientists today will still admit that they really don’t know how life began on our planet. Laboratory work is tricky’ and nobody was present to witness events at first hand on the primitive Earth. Researchers in abiogenesis can only invent some reasonable story about how life arose’ and then maximize its plausibility by theoretical and experimental investigations.20 There are two central themes that run as undercurrents throughout the whole of xenobiology. First’ what is the probability that life of our kind will evolve on other worlds? By illuminating the abiogenic processes of this planet in ancient times’ scientists hope to get a handle on the exact combination of conditions and events necessary for the origin of carbon-based Earthlike life anywhere in the Galaxy. The second central theme of xenobiology’ to which we shall return in later chapters’ is the likelihood that life’ once having emerged in a planetary environment’ will constitute a form of biota more or less similar to that found on Earth. The laws of biochemistry demand that molecules combine only in certain specific ways’ and usually only in a very few most probable ways. In other words’ what are the physical and biochemical limits of the possible?

7.1 Historical Views on the Origin of Life Speculations on the source of life have been abundant throughout recorded history. The Rig Veda mentions that biology began from the primary elements’ and the Atharva Veda suggests that the oceans were the cradle of life. The Bible’ with its contradictory accounts of the Creation in Genesis (did man arrive before or after the beasts?)’ is strictly adhered to by many fundamentalists. Philip Henry Gosse’ an eminent 19th century zoologist and Christian’ found it a simple task to reconcile the growing mass of paleontological evidence with the Scriptures. God’ he declared’ created the Earth entirely in accordance with scientific findings. The Lord fabricated geological strata’ embedded fossils and the like for the sole purpose of fooling geologists. The apparently extreme age of Earth is only an illusion. Peculiar ideas abound. Hylozoism’ for instance’ is the belief that matter and life are one and inseparable. From this viewpoint’ life either has no origin and has always existed’ or else the question may be deferred to the origin of all matter. The theory of pyrozoa’ to cite another example’ was advanced by William Preyer in the last century. Preyer believed that life has existed at all times’ even when our planet was still in the molten state. These first fiery living things’ the pyrozoa’ slowly modified and adapted themselves as the environment cooled and changed’ eventually assuming the form in which life presents itself to us today.2218 Most theories on the origin of life have fallen into one of four distinct categories: 1. Life has no origin -- both life and matter have existed forever; 2. Life is the consequence of a supernatural event’ intractable and in explicable by the methods of science; 3. Life originated via ordinary chemical evolution in a deterministic fashion -- under similar circumstances’ the same general evolutionary patterns would repeat themselves on any world; and 4. Life originated elsewhere by means unknown’ and was subsequently transported to Earth (panspermia). The first two are self-explanatory’ and the third closely approximates the leading modern theories. The last deserves a word of explanation. The Greek philosopher Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (ca. 500-428 B.C.) was possibly the first to suggest that the seeds of life permeated the universe. With the downfall of spontaneous generation millennia later’ panspermia enjoyed a brief revival. The theory was sponsored by many 19th-century notables’ including Richter’ Kelvin’ Helmholtz’ Arrhenius’ and the great Italian chemist Avogadro. The doctrine of lithopanspermia held that meteorites were the means by which life wandered from planet to planet throughout the cosmos. Lord Kelvin’ a central proponent of this view’ considered it probable that countless life-bearing "stones" existed in space’ perhaps as the result of collisions between inhabited worlds. Hermann von Helmholtz’ a German philosopher and a pioneer in physics’ believed that the interior of a meteorite would be a safe retreat for interplanetary microbes during the long incandescent journey through thick planetary atmospheres. The presence of hydrocarbons in the carbonaceous chondrites was cited as evidence of the biological activities of the tiny organisms from space. Modern analyses suggest that microscopic lifeforms embedded in interstellar comets are possible’ but unlikely. The accumulated radiation dose from cosmic rays and natural internal radioactivity is "embarrassingly high" over the large transit times involved between worlds.22 Furthermore’ it is now known that meteorites are of roughly the same age as the rest of the solar system’ and that the organic molecules found in chondrites are reproducible by strictly chemical means.208’2030’2219 The famous Swedish physical chemist and Nobelist Svante Arrhenius was the loudest advocate for the theory of radiopanspermia.2304’2305’2306 He suggested that minute spores might be carried upward through planetary atmospheres by convection’ where electrical forces could provide sufficient energy to expel them from the body. The pressure of sunlight would then be enough to propel these cosmozoa to other solar systems. Tramping through space’ or riding piggyback on small grains of dust’ these legions of microscopic interstellar emissaries thus brought the good news of life to the rest of the Galaxy. Carl Sagan has done a careful analysis of the problem’20 the details of which will not be repeated here. His conclusion is that radiopanspermia is not a viable theory of the origin of life on Earth. Those microbes ejected from a stellar system by radiation pressure accumulate a dose of x-rays and UV three or four orders of magnitude higher than the maximum lethal irradiation sustain able by even the hardiest terrestrial organisms. Shielding won’t help: Life-forms large enough not to be killed aren’t ejected by radiation pressure because they are too heavy.22 The theory that life arose in the ancient swirling gas and dust clouds of interstellar space and then traversed the cosmos’ seeding the Galaxy with life’ may be called cosmospermia. Dr. J. Mayo Greenberg at New York State University set up a laboratory experiment a few years ago’ using tiny grains of matter the size of space dust and appropriate gases. He found that many compounds of relatively high molecular weight could be formed under the influence of ultraviolet radiation. Greenberg evidently believes that a similar mechanism could lead to the production of grains of a size and composition similar to that of viruses. Dr. Sagan has disputed such theories’ noting that any hypothetical extraterrestrial organism of 10-5 cm -- the size of a rabies virus or the PPLO (the smallest lifeform known) -would have a replication time on the order of two hundred million years. There could only have been fifty or so generations since the Galaxy first formed’ insufficient time for natural selection and evolution to operate.141 It is hard to imagine a smaller yet viable organism; the replication time for a larger microbe would be even longer’ permitting still fewer generations. Accidental panspermia is a class of theory typified by the "Gold Garbage Theory’" popularized by Dr. Thomas Gold’ a leading astrophysicist at the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research at Cornell University. The Garbage Theory was first announced in a paper read before a Los Angeles meeting of space scientists in late 1958’139 and proposes that Earth may have been visited by an expedition of advanced ETs who carelessly allowed some of their native microbiota (picnic basket litter?) to escape. "While this garbage theory of the origin of life understandably lacks appeal’" one xenologist notes wryly’ "we should not exclude it altogether."20 A similar idea is the concept of directed panspermia’ which suggests that organisms were deliberately transmitted to Earth by intelligent beings on another planet.1283 Advanced civilizations might intentionally seed sterile worlds’ either as a prelude to colonization or perhaps simply to perpetuate the heritage of life on the home planet as insurance against catastrophe. Panspermia does not address the phenomenon of abiogenesis but merely displaces the problem in space and time.* Consequently’ panspermia hypotheses aren’t strictly relevant to the ultimate origin of life in the universe but simply explain how any particular world might have come to be inhabited.

* One science fiction story suggests that life on Earth may have arisen from biota left behind by a careless time traveler from our planet’s future. 636 If any theory begs the question it is this one!

7.2 Cosmochemical Evolution The building blocks for life are lying around everywhere. Great clouds of organic molecules have been discovered drifting between the stars’ presumably formed by various natural processes.1002’2219’2220’2221 Radioastronomers have seen relatively complex compounds hiding deep in inter stellar space’ including methyl alcohol’ ethyl alcohol’ cyanogen’ formaldehyde’ formic acid and ether’1002’2217 and the search is on for amino acids. Compounds of carbon and hydrogen’ particularly cyanogen’ methane and hydrocarbon radicals’ are detected on the surfaces of stars.1973’2297 To find the limits of such processes’ Dr. John Oró performed an experiment which simulated a hot stellar plasma. Using a graphite resistance apparatus and a plasma torch device temperatures from 1500-4000°C were obtained. Methane’ ammonia and water were introduced continuously. The products were condensed at room temperature and allowed to interact for a few hours before analysis. Three amino acids appeared -- alanine’ glycine’ and aspartic acid -- along with hydrogen cyanide and a host of other organics.1072 There is no doubt that the carbon compounds essential for the development of Earthly life are ubiquitous. Organics have been detected on the Moon’2443 other planets’2037’2046 asteroids’2037 and in comets.1973’2222 The carbon chemistry of meteorites is also well-documented.702’2219 The Murcheson rock which fell in Australia on September 28’ 1969 contains 2 × 10-7 moles of amino acids per gram of meteorite’ which is more than many desert sands on Earth.521 These amino acids correspond rather closely to those produced in prebiotic synthesis experiments performed in the laboratory.225 The Orgueil meteorite contains approximately 7% organic matter’ including hydrocarbons’ fatty acids’ aromatics’ porphyrins’ nucleic acid bases’ optically active lipids’ and a variety of polymeric material.1075 On the basis of the amounts of carbon compounds detected in various meteorites’ researchers have concluded that these interplanetary wanderers could have brought as much as 5 × 1010 kg of formaldehyde and 3 × 1011 kg of amino acids to Earth during the first eon of its existence.134 Taken together’ these studies of meteorites’ comets’ planets and interstellar matter strongly suggest that chemical evolution is a continuing and commonplace occurrence in all parts of the cosmos. The basic constituents necessary for the emergence of life are universal. This implies that life should be widely distributed throughout the Galaxy’ wherever conditions are clement’ since the required ingredients of abiogenic processes are abundantly available everywhere.

7.3 Early Chemical Evolution on Earth Chemical evolution refers to the period in Earth’s history during which the chemical components on the surface changed from simple forms into complex substances from which the first living organisms -- protobionts -- could develop. The primary investigative tool in abiogenesis research has been the prebiotic synthesis experiment. Plausible primitive Earth conditions are arranged in a closed laboratory apparatus’ and the changes that take place are carefully monitored. The argument has long been made that since no geological record of the origin of life exists’ the course of events leading up to the creative event is fundamentally unknowable. While most biochemists today would dispute this supposition’ how close to reality are the simulated prebiotic experiments? It is unnecessary for scientists to heat together water’ methane’ ammonia and hydrogen (components of the primitive atmosphere)’ irradiate the mess with various forms of energy’ and then sit back to wait for a recognizable lifeform to reach its slimy paw over the edge of the beaker and crawl out onto the lab desktop. We won’t ever achieve this kind of completeness’ because that takes evolution and the secret to evolution is time.225 (But it has been seriously suggested that a complete artificial seashore be set up to test some of the proposed mechanisms in the origin of life.1630) From chemical equilibria we know the kinds of substances that had to be floating around in the primitive atmosphere and seas. Protein molecules ultimately consist of different combinations of only twenty different amino acids. Nucleic acids are composed of one of five bases’ one of two sugars’ and a single type of phosphate group. As Cyril Ponnamperuma of the NASA/Ames Exobiology Division once remarked: "The alphabet of life is extremely simple; the wide variety of life observed today may be traced to a mere handful of chemicals."85 Abiogenesis research differs markedly from most other scientific work’ in that an unverifiable historical process is being reconstructed. It probably is not practical to run through an entire origin of life "from scratch’" so different criteria must be used to evaluate hypotheses. For instance’ postulates must at least be consistent with known astronomical’ geophysical’ and biochemical principles insofar as this is possible. And stepwise experiments’ in which only one step of abiogenesis at a time is simulated’ are reasonable if plausible and appropriate prebiotic conditions are maintained. It is believed that the origin of life may have happened very fast’ certainly less than a billion years521 and possibly less than a hundred million years.225’305’2160 Most estimates today place the creative event in the primitive seas’ roughly 4.2 to 3.6 eons ago.

7.3.1 Prebiotic Synthesis For many years it was known that mixtures of carbon dioxide’ ammonia and water vapor would produce small amounts of simple organic chemicals if energy was supplied. But the results of these experiments were generally very discouraging and the yields miniscule under these oxidizing conditions. To originate life in such a poor’ thin broth would be well-nigh impossible. In 1953 a graduate student named Stanley Miller’ working under Nobelist Harold C. Urey at the University of Chicago’ constructed an apparatus to imitate the conditions of the primitive Earth (Figure 7.1). Previous investigators had always assumed the atmosphere to be oxidizing or neutral. Miller and Urey’ following the suggestions of A. I. Oparin in the Soviet Union and J. B. S. Haldane in Britain during the 1920’s’ took the unprecedented step of devising a reducing environment instead.2258

Figure 7.1 Miller Apparatus for Prebiotic Synthesis2315

In this schematic of the apparatus used in Stanley Miller's s historical experiment’ a variety of organic compounds are synthesized as the atmosphere of methane (CH4)’ ammonia (NH3)’ hydrogen (H2) and water vapor (H2O) is subjected to an electric spark discharge. Circulation is maintained in the system by the boiling water on one end and the condensing jacket on the ether. After one week of continuous operation’ the water was removed and tested by paper chromatography. A great abundance of amino acids and other organics was detected.

Miller mixed together methane’ hydrogen’ ammonia and water’ and carefully eliminated all oxygen from the system. This gaseous concoction was then circulated past an electric spark discharge’ followed by a water bath to simulate the primitive sea. After about one week of continuous operation’ the "ocean" had turned a deep reddish-brown. The experiment was halted and the contaminated water removed for analysis. Miller discovered to his amazement and delight that many amino acids had been produced in surprisingly high yields. Two percent of the total amount of carbon in the system was converted into glycine alone. Sugars’ urea’ and long tarlike polymers too complex to identify were also present in unusually high concentrations. Of course’ electrical energy was only one of the many sources of energy available on the primitive Earth (Figure 7.2). In fact’ ultraviolet radiation was probably the principle source: UV would have been able to penetrate to the surface be cause the protective ozone layer in the upper atmosphere did not yet exist. A Miller-type experiment using ultraviolet rays and a reducing atmosphere was performed in 1957 by the German biochemists W. Groth and H. von Weyssenhoff at the University of Bonn.2307 Their results closely paralleled those obtained at the University of Chicago half a decade earlier.

Figure 7.2 Prebiotic Chemical Evolution on the Primitive Earth

Countless prebiotic simulations have since been achieved which confirm Miller’s original conclusions. One bibliography’ current through 1974’ lists more than three thousand papers on the subject.1679 An exhaustive treatment of all of them is clearly beyond the scope of this book’ but the interested reader in encouraged to dive into the literature (Table 7.1).

Table 7.1 Summary of Prebiotic Synthesis Experiments through 1975 Year

Energy Source or Catalyst

Reactants

Products

Ref. #

Thermal reaction

Urea

1586

Electrical discharge

Glycine

2257

AMINO ACIDS, FATTY ACIDS, AND SIMPLE ORGANICS 1828

Ammonium sulfate’ potassium cyanate

1913 1926

CO2’ CO’ CH4 or H2

a-rays

Resinous organic material

2224

1937

CO ‘ H2O

UV

Formaldehyde’ (HCO)2 (glyoxal)

2317’2266

1951

CO2’ H2O’ Fe‘‘

a-rays

Formaldehyde’ formic’ succinic acids

2226

1952

formic acid ‘ H2O

a-rays (40 MeV)

(COOH)2

2279

1953

acetic acid ‘ H2O

a-rays

Malonic’ malic’ capric acids

2278

1953

CH4’ NH3’ H2’ H2O

Electrical discharge

Glycine’ alanine’ aspartic & glutamic acids

2258

1954

CH2O’ H2O’ KNO3’ ferric chloride

Sunlight

Amino acids

2261

1955

Ammonium fumarate

Heat

Aspartic acid’ alanine

2267

1955

CH4’ NH3’ H2’ H2O

Electrical discharge

Amino acids’ hydroxy acids’ urea’ HCN

2259

1956

CH4’ NH3’ CO2’ H2O

Amino acids

2260

1957

CH4’ NH3’ H2’ CO2’ H2’ CO’ N2

X-rays

Amino acids

2262

1957

CH4’ NH3’ H2O

UV

Simple amino acids’ fatty acids

2269

1957

Ammonium acetate

b-rays

Glycine’ aspartic acid’ diaminosuccinic acid

2223

1957

Glycine

Heating w/quartz sand

Alanine’ aspartic acid

2264

1957

Ammonium carbonate

g-rays

Glycine

2227

1959

Formaldehyde’ hydroxylamine

Thermal reaction

Glycine’ alanine’ serine’ and others

2265

1960

Hydroxy acids ammonia or urea

Heat

Glycine’ alanine’ aspartic & glutamic acids

2263

1960

CO2’ H2O

g-rays

Formic acid

2277

1961

CH4’ NH3’ H2

Accelerated protons

1961

NH3’ HCN’ H2O

Heat (70 °C)

Amino acids

2270

1961

CO2’ C2H4

g-rays’ or high pressures

Long chain fatty acids (C-40)

2276

1962

CH4’ NH3’ H2

b-rays

Simple aliphatics incl. amino acids

2272

1963

CH4’ NH3’ H2’ H2O

Hypersonic shock wave

Many unidentified organic compounds

2318

1964

CH4’ NH3’ H2O ‘ silica

Heat (850 °C)

Amino acids

2273

1964

CH4

Electrical discharge

Higher aromatic hydrocarbons

2274

1966

CH4 ‘ silica contact

Heat (1000 °C)

Higher aromatic hydrocarbons

2271

1966

Cyanoacetylene’ HCN’ NH3’ H2O

Heat (100 °C)

Aspartic acid

2275

1970

CH4’ C2H6’ NH3’ H2O

Shock waves ("thunder")

Amino acids

1664

1974

CH4’ NH3’ H2’ H2O

Electrical discharge

Amino acids and simple organics

521

Urea’ acetone’ acetamide

2316

SIMPLE SUGARS AND CARBOHYDRATES 1924

Formaldehyde ‘ H2O

UV

Hexoses’ hydroxy acids

2280

1959

Monosaccharides

g-rays

Polysaccharides

2310

1962

CH2’ Ca(OH)2’ CH3CHO’ CH2HCHOHCHO

Heat (50 °C)

1963

Formaldehyde ‘ H2O

UV

Ribose’ deoxyribose

2243

1965

Glucose

Heat (130 °C)

Polyglucose

2314

2-deoxyribose’ 2-deoxyxylose’ etc.

2281

1965

Formaldehyde

UV

Ribose’ deoxyribose’ other sugars

2282

1965

Monosaccharides

UV

Disaccharides

2313

POLYPEPTIDES, AMINO ACID POLYMERS, PROTEINOIDS

.

1954

Amino acids

Heat

Amino acid polymer proteinoids

2268

1954

Glycine

Electrical discharge

Polyglycine

2283

1959

Amino acids

X-rays’ UV’ or g-rays

Amino acid polymers

2310

1959

Hot proteinoid material

Heat’ slow water cooling

Proteinoid microspheres

2286

1960

Glycinamide

Heat (100 °C)

Polyglycine (up to 40-unit strands)

2311

1961

Asperine in water

Heat

Amino acid polymers

2285

1961

Glycine

Heat (140-160 °C)

Polyglycine (up to 18-unit strands)

2312

1964

Glycine ‘ Glucose ‘ H2O

Heat

Amino acid polymers

2284

1964

Amino acids

Heat ‘ cold quenching

Proteinoid microspheres

1702

1969

Alkanes’ Mg‘‘’ PO4=

UV

n-Hexadecane membranes

1415

Coacervates (a review)

1432

1974 1974

Proteinoid

Higher bonding in proteinoid microspheres

1435

1975

HCN’ H2O

Heteropolypeptides

1438

Uracil

2292

Purines

2289

Uracil

2244

Purines

303

Guanine’ xanthine

2281

Purine intermediates

2290

NUCLEIC ACID BASES: PURINES AND PYRIMIDINES 1926

Malic acid’ urea’ strong mineral acid

Thermal reaction

1960

Amino acids

1961

Malic acid’ urea’ polyphosphoric acid

1961

Amino acids

1962

Urea ‘ AICA

1962

HCN’ etc.

1963

CH4’ NH3’ H2O

b-rays

Adenine

2237

1963

Urea ‘ CH2CHCN or NH2CH2CH2CN

Heat (130 °C)

Uracil

2293

1963

CH4’ NH3’ H2

b-rays

Adenine

304

Heat

Guanine

2238

1964

Aspartic acid’ glutamic acid 16 others

Heat (180 °C)

Guanine

2239

1966

Urea ‘ AICA

Heat

Guanine’ xanthine

2291

1971

Thymine

2246

1971

Adenine’ Guanine’ Cytosine

2241

Zeolite catalyst

Purines

2247

Heat (100-140 °C) Heat

1963

1972 NUCLEOTIDES AND POLYNUCLEOTIDES 1962

Nucleotides

g-rays

Polynucleotides

2256

1963

Adenine’ ribose’ ethyl metaphosphate

UV

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP)

2294

1965

Nucleosides ‘ phosphates

Heat (160 °C)

Nucleotides

2242

1965

Bases ‘ metaphosphate ester

Polynucleotides

2235

1967

Cytidylic acid ‘ polyphosphoric acid

Cytosine nucleotide

2236

1967

Nucleosides ‘ polyphosphoric acid

Nucleotides’ nucleoside triphosphates

2295

1970

Imidazole ‘ cyanamide

Mononucleotides

2252

Polynucleotides

2251

Mononucleotides

2253

Heat (22 °C)

1971

Heat

1971

Cyanamide

1971

Adenine nucleotide

UV

Adenine polynucleotide

1628

1971

Cyclonucleoside

Heat

Polynucleotides

1627

1971

Nucleotide

Heat

Polynucleotides

1626

Cytosine nucleotide

2254

1971 1972

Thymine nucleoside

Thymine nucleotide

2245

3972

Ammonium cyanide ‘ water

Guanine nucleoside

2240

Mononucleotides

2250

Mononucleotides

2248

Mononucleotides

2249

Polynucleotides

1435

1972

Apatite catalyst

1973

Cyanamide ‘ AICA

1973

Cyanogen ‘ water

1974

Nucleotides

1974

Nucleosides

Heat

Oligonucleotides

1429

1975

Nucleoside ‘ ammonium oxalate

Heat

Nucleotide

1439

Apatite catalyst

Table 7.2 lists the sources of energy believed to be present during the first eon or so of Earth’s history. Ultraviolet radiation leads the pack. Carl Sagan and others have completed experiments with UV which seem to indicate rather high yields for prebiotic amino acids’ the building blocks of proteins. Over the first billion years of chemical evolution on this world something like a hundred kilograms of amino acids per square centimeter may have been produced’ resulting in a "soup" of about 1% concentration. This is the approximate consistency of chicken bouillon.

Table 7.2 Energy Available for Synthesis of Organic Compounds on the Primitive Earth Source of Energy

Energy Available (joules/meter2/year) 1.1 × 1010

Solar radiation’ all wavelengths Ultraviolet’

l < 3000 Ang

1.4 × 108

l < 2500 Ang

2.4 × 107

l < 2000 Ang

3.6 × 106

l < 1500 Ang

1.5 × 105

Electrical discharges

1.7 × 105

Decay of crustal K-40’ 4 eons ago

1.2 × 105 (3.4 × 104)

(Decay of crustal K-40’ today) Shock waves

4.6 × 104

Heat from volcanoes

5.4 × 103

Meteoritic impact

4.2 × 103

Cosmic rays

6.3 × 101

But ultraviolet radiation is a two-edged sword. While it may be the most abundant form of energy for molecule building’ it is also the most destructive. Early researchers were concerned that organics would be destroyed as fast as they were created. Fortunately’ the primitive oceans probably turned opaque like the brownish glop in Miller’s apparatus rather quickly. Vital chemicals newly synthesized and carried a short distance beneath the surface of the soup by convection undoubtedly escaped decomposition. Of the remaining energy sources’ electrical discharge was the most potent. As much as 5-15% of the carbon in a mixture of methane’ ammonia and water may be converted to amino acids and other organics by the energy of the discharge. Various forms of ionizing radiation give high yields as well. a particles’ b particles’ and g rays were common on the surface of the primitive Earth because of the presence of intense natural radioactive sources in the crust -- such as potassium-40’ thorium-232’ and isotopes of uranium. Volcanic heat was another prebiotic power supply.2368’2380 It has been shown that lava-heated seawater and underwater volcanoes may be effective in producing biologically important compounds. Heat and sonic energy would have been released by infalling meteorites -- certainly a significant factor in the environment of the primitive solar system.1417’2375 In fact’ experiments performed recently by Bar-Nun and others have conclusively demonstrated that as much as 30% of the nitrogen in an ammonia atmosphere can be converted into amino acids in this manner.315’1664’2375 Torrential rains have even been suggested as a possible source of energy for prebiotic synthesis’ and experiments have shown that a flask of formaldehyde’ allowed to stand for a few days at room temperature’ will produce some simple sugars. The great lesson appears to be that the exact nature of the power supply is relatively unimportant. Amino acids’ sugars’ and other chemical precursors to life probably arise on any planet possessing an initially reducing atmosphere and quantities of hydrogen’ carbon’ nitrogen and oxygen in gaseous reduced form -regardless of the particular source’ or sources’ of energy available.*

* Other factors may also be important. For instance’ early-type stars (F) are more likely to emit ultraviolet radiation in copious quantities than are late-type stars (K’ M). The speed of chemical evolution in primitive planetary environments may actually slow as we move from class F through classes G to K stars among habitable solar systems.

7.4 Proteins and Cells The cell is the fundamental biological unit and a common denominator among all terrestrial lifeforms. Living things on this planet are made up of cells which vary in size from less than one micron to several centimeters in diameter. While the simplest organisms are unicellular’ the typical human is an ambulatory assemblage of from fifty to a hundred trillion (1014) individual cells. The cellular construction of Earth life is remarkably uniform: Similar water content’ similar kinds of proteins’ similar lipids and so forth. All have at least one membrane’ perhaps no more than 100 Angstroms thick’ which protects the inner workings from the harsh vagaries of the external environment. The first protobionts undoubtedly had no such complex organizational qualities. But how can structure arise in the first place? It has been shown by Ilya Prigogine that thermodynamic chemical systems may develop certain states wherein some of the chemical constituents have periodic’ oscillating values.2230 A biologist’ J. Pringle’ has demonstrated that initially homogeneous systems can undergo a progressive change’ leading to the appearance of "spatial heterogeneity."2231’2232 That is’ structure can arise spontaneously. These two treatments of the problem of organization suggest that mechanisms may exist for collecting material into small’ localized concentrations’ perhaps leading to ordered structures we would recognize as cells.2368 But to build cells’ we must have protein. Protein is the most fundamental construction material’ used in building cell walls’ enzymes’ and so forth. To make proteins’ there are two requirements. First’ we need an abundance of amino acids. From our discussion above’ we see that this is virtually inevitable on any normal world possessing at least small aqueous oceans and a primitive hydrogenous atmosphere. Second’ there must be some way to hook up a long string of amino acids into a polymer of protein. Polymerization (linking together) of amino acids leads to the production of protein’ which can then be used for cell-building.* It is true that even dilute primordial soups can coagulate into gelatinous masses. But such conditions are far from ideal. In all likelihood’ most prebiotic syntheses probably took place in local regions of increased concentration. The efficient construction of amino acid polymers undoubtedly occurred elsewhere than in the open seas. Numerous concentration mechanisms have been proposed which might conceivably lead to the creation of small pockets of more potent broth. The simplest method is evaporation. Primordial soup’ caught in a narrow’ shallow lagoon’ would slowly thicken as the water that held the components in solution evaporated away.85 As suggested by Miller and Orgel’ similar effects result from slowly freezing the solution in the lagoon: The solvent freezes out in the pure form first’ leaving the solute concentrated in eversmaller quantities of solvent.521 A combination of air-water and water-solid interfaces provides mechanical consolidation of suspended matter’ as evidenced by the accumulation of scums and oil slicks near coastlines.1667 Another possibility is that organic compounds may have been trapped on solid surfaces such as aluminum silicate clays’ quartz’ and other minerals which allow polymerization reactions to proceed.1430’2381 To date’ however’ there is really only one proven method which yields polymers of amino acids under plausible prebiotic conditions. Dr. Sidney W. Fox at the University of Miami has obtained long-chain molecules with the following essential properties: 1. They contain all amino acids common in contemporary terrestrial organisms. 2. They have high molecular weights (the chains are relatively long). 3. They are "active" because they interact in the catalytic or rate-enhancing sense. (This anticipates metabolic activities mediated by enzymes -- which are also proteins. 4. They are as heterogeneous as contemporary proteins. 5. They yield "organized units" upon contact with water which have many properties in common with modern cells.1625 Dr. Fox calls his substances "proteinoids’" because they greatly resemble living protein polymers. His method for producing them is quite simple. A mixture of amino acids is cooked at 120-170 °C for a few hours’ and substantial yields (10-40%) of polymeric material are obtained. Fox decided to test his method under more realistic field conditions. He secured a large piece of lava from the site of an Hawaiian volcano.1702 The temperature of the rock was raised to 170 °C’ and the appropriate amino acids seated in a small depression at the top. Heating continued for several hours’ after which the lava was washed off with a small spray of sterilized boiling salty water -- as might have occurred naturally near a volcanic shoreline in ancient times. Proteinoid polymers were formed’ but there was more! To Dr. Fox’s surprise’ billions of tiny "microspheres" appeared in the wash water: spherical’ microscopic particles of uniform diameter bearing a striking resemblance to living cells (Figure 7.3).

Figure 7.3 Possible Model Protobionts: Thermal Proteinoid Microspheres1625

Structured thermal proteinoid microspheres.

These proteinoid microspheres were produced by slowly cooling a hot’ clear solution of thermally polymerized amino acids. (At right) Various stages of binary fission of proteinoid microsphere "protocells"

(Above) Parent microspheres spout buds.

(At right) Second-generation laid on second generation microsphere. After the bud grows to maturity’ it sprouts its own new buds. Is this a form of incipient reproductive capability?

The Miami scientist presented a scenario for the origin of microsphere protocells in prebiotic times: (1) Hot lava meets soup; (2) water boils away’ leaving sticky brown goop on lava; (3) contact with water (rain’ sea spray’ etc.) causes proteinoids to assemble themselves; and (4) microspheres are washed back into the soup. These initial experiments were completed nearly two decades ago’1702 and since that time Fox and his colleagues have refined their methods and perfected their theories on the origin of cells and life. Protein-like materials are now produced with molecular weights ranging from 3000 to 10’000 under plausible primitive Earth conditions.2371 And it has been shown that a primitive “cell with most of the attributes of life can arise spontaneously in a very brief period of time. Detailed studies of microspheres have confirmed the researchers’ initial optimism. What makes these spherules so unique is their “active nature. Dr. Fox has observed and recorded the following characteristic behavior of his proteinoid microspheres under various chemical and physical conditions: 1. Spherical shape -- 0.5 to 7.0 microns’ uniformly. 2. Single-walled membranes (like plants) and double-walled membranes (like animals). 3. Simulation of osmosis -- microspheres swell and shrink in response to changes in the chemical environment. 4. Selectivity of diffusion -- microspheres possess semipermeable membranes analogous to those of living cells. For instance’ in one case Fox discovered that polysaccharides were selectively retained under conditions in which monosaccharides diffused freely through the microsphere walls. (Polynucleotides and other organics are also absorbed from aqueous solution.1624) 5. Cleavage -- a kind of binary fission of a single “cell has been observed in acidic proteinoid microspheres. 6. Motility -- the microspheres’ when viewed under a microscope’ move non-randomly in preferred directions under certain special conditions. The addition of ATP appears to enhance the movement. 7. Budding -- buds appear spontaneously on proteinoid microspheres allowed to stand undisturbed in their mother liquor. 8. Growth by accretion -- buds which have been liberated by mild heating or electric shock will swell by diffusion to the same approximate size as the “parent cell. 9. Proliferation through budding -- second generation budding has frequently been observed on buds that grew to the size of normal microspheres. The buds are apparently engaging in a kind of “reproduction. 10. Formation of junctions -- microspheres are capable of approaching one another and physically attaching together in a more or less permanent fashion. 11. Transmission of information -- when two spheres have joined’ small proteinoid microparticles within the larger sphere are observed to pass through the junctions. The whole process is highly suggestive of microbial conjugation. 12. Stability -- the activity of the proteinoids does not diminish with storage over a period of 5-10 years.2370 The best-known of all physical cell models prior to the discovery of proteinoids was the coacervates’ thoroughly researched by the Soviet biochemist A. I. Oparin’ the Dutch biochemist H. G. B. de Jong’ and others. Coacervates are produced by combining solutions of oppositely charged colloids such as gelatin or histone with gum arabic. When solutions of the two substances are commingled’ they interact to yield clusters of microscopic structures having the appearance of tiny liquid droplets. Coacervates have many interesting properties from the point of view of the origin of life. For instance’ after these uniform spherules have aggregated’ they are able to absorb various simple organic molecules from the external medium (sugars’ dyes’ etc.). However’ Oparin has admitted that this process quickly leads to static equilibrium’ and the coacervate "protocell" then becomes a passive system’ unstable and prone to break-up upon standing. Another property of coacervates is their ability to convert certain chemical monomers to polymers after diffusion through the "cell" wall’ although it is generally recognized that the dynamic behavior of these droplets is fairly limited. There is another reason why coacervates’1432 sulphobes’1625 "biphasic vesicles’"1630 and many other prospective pseudocells1211’1415 do not compare favorably with Dr. Sidney Fox’s microspheres as model protocells. Coacervate droplets are formed from polymers which themselves were synthesized by living organisms. The gum arabic used to manufacture Oparin’s droplets was not produced abiogenetically’ nor is it at all clear how this might be done. The great advantage of the microspheres is that they are the direct product of single’ simple amino acids -- amino acids that must have been common on the shores and seas of the primitive Earth eons ago. Of course’ no biologist today would claim that proteinoid microspheres are alive in the sense of representing the first protocell. And yet’ to the extent that they self-organize’ accumulate information from their surroundings’ and exhibit both structure and behavior’ they are certainly near the borderline of life.

* We will not discuss here the significance of molecular optical activity. The curious reader is referred to Sagan’ 20 Jackson and Moore’ 47 Glasstone’72 Gabel and Ponnamperuma’ 315 Miller and Orgel’ 521 Ulbricht’ 1445 Hochstim’1446 Bonner et al’ 1447 Wald’1665 and Walker. 2382

7.5 Nucleic Acids and DNA In the previous section it was mentioned that there are two requirements for the production of proteins. First’ there must be amino acids’ and second’ there must be a way to hook them together to form polymers. There is’ however’ a third requirement for the origin of living systems on Earth. It will be recalled from the discussion of the definition of life that "it is the business of life to accumulate information and complexity." Let us consider this mandate in view of the problem of building proteins. To abiogenetically produce a living system’ that system must be capable of accumulating information and order from its environment. The proteins constructed by a cell must have the proper architecture for whatever job needs to be done. So our third requirement may be stated: There must be a way to hook the amino acids together in the correct sequence. Any old proteins will not do -- they must be the right ones. There exist simple chemical techniques to achieve this kind of ordering. One common example is called "autocatalysis" by chemists. Autocatalysis is a way for a process to catalyze its own production. Once a tiny bit of it has been produced’ that bit catalyses the rate of reaction to yield still more’ and faster. Aside from this simple selective feedback effect’ the development of molecular self-replication was probably the most critical single event in the origin of life on Earth. The origin of replication and the genetic code’ as opposed to the origin of proteins and cells’ allowed natural selection to begin to operate on stored information. And once evolution begins’ selective advantages of superior membranes and of multicellular colonies can be expressed in the form of increased organismal complexity. DNA -- the primary information-carrying molecule used by all lifeforms on this planet -- is a polymeric nucleic acid (Figure 7.4). We’ve already seen how easy it is to get amino acids and their polymers. But what about nucleic acids? Can they be demonstrated in prebiotic synthesis experiments’ along with their polymers?

Figure 7.4 The Role of Nucleic Acids in Terrestrial Biochemistry

Chemical Structure of Nucleic Acid (from Glasstone72)

DNA Content (figure from Britten and Davidson2568, in Kohne1654)

In 1963’ Dr. Cyril Ponnamperuma managed to synthesize adenine (one of the two most important nucleic acid purine bases) under simulated primitive Earth conditions. The NASA scientist and his three colleagues used a Miller-type apparatus’ and began their synthesis with nothing more than methane’ ammonia and water in the system. The mixture was bombarded with energetic electrons’ and about 0.01% of the carbon in the methane was converted into adenine.304 This is highly significant because adenine is useful’ not only for making DNA’ but also RNA’ ATP’ ADP’ FAD’ and a host of other critical life-molecules. In a related experiment two years later’ Dr. John Oró of the University of Houston and A. P. Kimball produced adenine is a closed reaction system which included ammonia’ water’ and hydrogen cyanide. Heat was supplied as the energy source’ and this time the production of the purine base rose to 0.5% of the available carbon.303 This value was observed over a wide range of chemical conditions’ indicating the relative ease with which this complex molecule must arise in a plausible prebiotic environment. The synthesis of the other important purine’ guanine’ has also been convincingly demonstrated. There have been various attempts to fabricate the three major varieties of pyrimidine bases which are also necessary in the production of nucleic acids. However’ the appearance of these substances under conditions similar to the primitive Earth has not been investigated as thoroughly as the purines. One experiment that yields a hefty 20% of cytosine requires a three-step process involving methane and nitrogen initially to create a cyanoacetylene intermediate’ which then goes on to produce the pyrimidine when combined with cyanate ion. Uracil’ another pyrimidine’ is obtained in very good yield by the direct hydrolysis of cytosine -- a prebiotically reasonable reaction. All the pyrimidines have been synthesized in environments at least arguably analogous to that of the early Earth. Prebiotic assembly of purines and pyrimidines into full-fledged nucleotides has proven more difficult’ and intensive investigations are now underway to determine and eliminate the problem. The main obstacle to success seems to be the formidable complexity of the nucleotide molecules themselves. While bases and sugars are relatively easy to produce’ combining them together is a much harder task. Nevertheless’ demonstrations of nucleotide synthesis under geologically plausible constraints have been made. One such technique involves the use of a mediating mineral called apatite’ which contains phosphates and oxalate ion’ in an "evaporating pond" scenario. We are not quite home yet. Just as amino acids needed polymerization to become protein’ so must nucleotides by polymerized into DNA. What progress has been made in the prebiotic synthesis of polynucleotides? The experimental record is admittedly spotty. When adenine nucleotides were heated in the presence of polyphosphate for 18 hours at 55 °C’ adenine polynucleotide polymers were obtained ranging from 20-30 nucleotides per chain. However’ in the words of the experimenter’ "the concentration of the reactants had to be as high as possible when the formation of high polymeric material was desired."1625 That is’ unless quite artificial conditions were contrived’ the adenine nucleotides could not be forged into very long chains. In another experiment’ solutions of adenine nucleotide were irradiated with UV light. Long chains were again obtained’ but only when extraordinarily high concentrations of polyphosphate were maintained.1628 Under similarly unrealistic conditions’ uracil polynucleotides with chain lengths ranging from 10-50 units have been found.1626’1627 One good experiment has been performed by John Oró and E. Stephen-Sherwood’ using a plausible "evaporating lakebed" scenario and temperatures from 60-80 °C. Uracil two-unit chains were formed with a yield of 23%’ and three-unit segments with a 12% yield. Cytosine polynucleotide chains were obtained by these experimenters with up to six nucleotides in straight-line linkages. Thymine polynucleotides 2-12 units long were produced when an unreasonable chemical environment was used; with more closely matched prebiotic conditions’ five-unit chains were obtained in yields of 1% or less.1429 The polymerization of some nucleotides has proven unexpectedly difficult’ partly because of the inevitable formation of unnatural side chains and partly because the reaction just doesn’t seem to want to go. Various solutions to these problems have been suggested. For instance’ there are enzymes -- ordinary proteins -- that are capable of catalyzing these polymerization reactions with ease. These enzymes’ or enzymes like them’ could have arisen by nonbiological means. If this is the case’ claims one researcher’ "such catalysts may have been responsible for the first polymerization of nucleotides on the primitive Earth."72 So at present’ here is where we stand. Purines and pyrimidines are comparatively simple to manufacture abiogenetically. The assembly of nucleotides has also met with some limited success’ but to date it has proven difficult to synthesize more than six-unit polymeric chains in a prebiotically plausible way.2370 Can these short strands alone make a stab at primitive replication? Dr. Leslie Orgel at the Salk Institute in San Diego’ California’ mixed up a solution of nucleic acids that might be considered prebiotically reasonable. He then placed some of the six-nucleotide polymers in his specially-enriched "soup." The short-chain DNA polymers correctly replicated themselves once out of every ten tries.

7.6 Early Biological Systems Thus far we have concentrated on the parallel development of polymeric amino acids (proteins) and polymeric nucleotides (DNA). We’ve seen that Dr. Sidney Fox’s proteinoid microspheres exhibit many properties which are strikingly similar to those displayed by contemporary living cells. We’ve also seen that Dr. Leslie Orgel has succeeded in demonstrating accurate’ if erratic’ replication in primitive polynucleotides. And yet’ despite these remarkable achievements’ the great final question remains untackled: How and when did the first living organism arise?* The answer is as unsatisfying as it is precise: No one knows. The arguments on this score smack of the "chicken-or-the-egg" controversy. It is unknown at present if proteins and protocells came first’ to be followed later by replicative nucleic acids’ or whether the nucleic acids were first’ and from them the cells later spawned. It has been fairly clearly demonstrated that life as we know it could not have arisen if either one or the other was wholly absent.521 Organisms lacking nucleic acids would have no means of achieving genetic continuity and evolutionary progression’ while organisms without proteins would find themselves severely limited in their ability to utilize the chemicals in their environment. Some manner of coevolution seems to be indicated. One theory holds that nucleic acids evolved some kind of boundary layer’ a proteinous skin to protect themselves from their surroundings -- the so-called "naked gene" theory. When this invention inhibited or prevented reproduction’ the parent nucleic acid molecule became extinct. When the new boundary layer served to protect the DNA without interfering with replication’ these were the "protobionts" which survived. There is some experimental evidence to support the view that polynucleotides might be able to influence protein synthesis directly.1431’2255 To do this’ they must cause a selective linear organization of amino acids’ and must facilitate amino acid polymerization.1444 Unfortunately’ other studies have shown that the interaction between polynucleotides with individual (monomeric) amino acids is relatively weak.1248 More convincing’ perhaps’ is the idea that cells were first. Self-assembly in molecular structures has been known for many decades’ and experimental evidence to date favors the easy synthesis of proteins in comparison to polynucleotides.1634 Sidney Fox has remarked that the sequence: protoprotein —> protocell —> nucleic-acid-coded contemporary cell is the most valid evolutionary sequence because it proceeds from the simple to the more complex.1625 The primitive protocell’ as modeled by the proteinoid microspheres’ could have exhibited many of the properties customarily regarded as belonging only to "living" things. Under Fox’s theory’ the cell would have developed nucleic acids to serve its ends’ rather than the other way around. One final piece of evidence seems to argue for the primacy of cells. In 1974’ Dr. Fox and his colleagues published some experimental findings on micro-spheres which seem to imply that the proteinoid protocell can do everything optimistically predicted for it. The abstract of the paper reads’ in part: Proteinoid microspheres of appropriate sorts promote the conversion of ATP to adenine dinucleotide and adenine trinucleotide. When viewed in a context with the origin and properties of proteinoid microspheres’ these results model the origin from a protocell of a more contemporary type of cell able to synthesize its own polyamino acids and polynucleotides.1435 (emphasis added) We’ve seen that scientists have discovered a relatively smooth chain of synthesis from the stuff of stars to the stuff of life. On the basis of pre biotic experiments performed to date’ it is probable that most of the organic molecules of life with a molecular weight less than 1000 spontaneously appeared in significant quantities during the early years of our world. While a number of problems remain’ most indications are that the origin and development of life on Earth had a certain inevitability about it. From the simplest compounds present when our planet first congealed about 4.6 eons ago’ to the first viable protobiont some half a billion years later’ the patterns of development and the upward march of complexity seem unavoidable. Only the most general conditions must be needed for carbon-based life to arise: A body of water’ a primitive reducing atmosphere’ some source of energy’ and lots of time. Life’ in Soviet Academician Oparin’s own words’ is "an obligatory result of the general growth of the universe."2297 Even now we humans just begin to suspect the truth: The universe is not ours alone to keep.

* There are countless side issues that cry out to be discussed at this point’ but which unfortunately can be given only a passing nod. First of all’ there is the absolutely fascinating question of the genetic code. As is well-known’ genetic information is written on the DNA strand in short’ three-nucleotide "words" called codons. By properly reading these encoded blueprints’ a cell can construct exactly the right protein molecules. For instance’ a series of three adenine nucleotides in a codon tells the cellular machinery to use one molecule of an amino acid called lysine at that location. Three guanines in a row means that a molecule of the amino acid glycine should be used. One by one’ the codons tell which amino acid to use and in what order’ and proteins are built up in precisely the right way. What is the origin of this marvelous code?1064’1444’2383 Is a three-nucleotide codon somehow optimal’ 1777 or would four have been more evolutionarily efficient?1064’1066 Why not the simplicity of only two? And what determined the rules of the coding itself? Three guanines mean glycine to a virus’ a dandelion’ or a human. Is the code somehow efficiency-maximized or error-minimized?1065 (It appears to be!1066’2378) What is the origin of chromosomes’ 2301 and the true purpose of genes?2322 These are important questions for xenobiologists to be asking’ because the universality of our genetic mechanisms will determine the limits of variation that can be expected in alien biochemistries. For xenologists’ of course’ there are far more fundamental issues that must be raised. For example’ why must genetic information be stored digitally in a linear sequence of monomer units? Could not some form of analog system serve? What of the possibility of genetic systems whose information was stored’ replicated and transcribed in a planar fashion rather than linearly?1777 Dr. Francis Crick has pointed out that on Earth’ DNA is used for "replication" and proteins are used solely for "expression" or "action." Is it possible’ he asks’ "to devise a system in which one molecule does both jobs’ or are there perhaps strong arguments’ from systems analysis’ which might suggest that to divide the job into two gives a great advantage?" 22 Others have echoed this idea. 521 Similarly’ Michael Arbib of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst questions "whether it is necessary for any lifeform to have a genotype distinct from a phenotype; in other words’ whether we have to have a program to direct growth and change’ or whether in fact the organism might be able to reproduce itself as a whole."85 Crick seems to agree’’ suggesting that it might be possible to "design a system which was based on the inheritance of acquired characteristics."22 (At least one science fiction story has been written along these lines. 2216) Arbib also wonders: "One might imagine some planet whose beings reproduce by xerography with no gene required!" 85 The possibility of inheritance without genes has been suggested before’ 1178 although in a different context. (A general review of replication was published in 2004 by Freitas amd Merkle.) And we must take care not to be guilty of "nucleic acid chauvinism." We are familiar with only one molecular replicating system’ but there is no reason why others should not be possible. Gordon Allen writes: "Life on other planets need not be based on nucleic acids or proteins if their catalytic functions can be otherwise provided." 1591 Dr. Alexander Rich at MIT also suspects that the functions of Earthly nucleic acid are not unique. Rich believes that "other molecules could be used to form other polymers which could be used as information carriers for living systems." Later’ he elaborates: I think it would be amusing to make a chemical system of complementary polymers based on monomers that are not nucleic acid derivatives’ simply to demonstrate that it can be done. In about ten years’ time’ I think we will have a well-developed field of synthetic polymeric information carriers that will give us a great deal of insight into our own terrestrial system. That another system is possible might have relevance’ if not to biology on this planet then perhaps to another. 1587’1632 Clearly’ a search should be made for non-nucleic acid self-replicating molecules. Exotic systems based on silicon’ boron’ or nitrogen-phosphorus chemistries are possible: Specialists in these fields expect an abundance of compounds comparable to that of carbon chemistry.1777 But we must not anticipate the subject matter of the next chapter.

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Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 8. Exotic Biochemistries "OXYGEN: An intensely habit-forming accumulative toxic substance. As little as one breath is known to produce a life-long addiction to the gas’ which addiction invariably ends in death. In high concentration’ it causes death quickly’ but even in a 20% dilution few survive more than 0.8 century." -- Anonymous (1956)199 "An exotic biochemistry based on silicon is basically a comic-book idea." -- Dr. Norman Horowitz (1966)730 "Suppose that in the early days of our own planet’ when life was first forming in the primordial ocean’ a thousand different schemes of life set sail. Let us further assume that one particular scheme won out over the rest’ perhaps through the sheerest chance. The survival of that one scheme could now give us the false impression that it is the inevitable and only possible scheme." -- Dr. Isaac Asimov (1967)96 "E.M. Hafner: Do you know of any program of experimentation in your laboratory or in any other laboratory that is aimed at discovering forms of life that are not carbon-based? G. Levin: In my laboratory? No!" -- from Exobiology: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life (1969)630 "Indigenous alien life would not have to be like ours. In fact’ it would be rather strange if it were. Our life is ideally adapted to terrestrial conditions’ and it would show a surprising luck if other planets with widely different conditions had life based on the identical design." -- Dr. Peter M. Molton (1973)1129 "Fomor is a relatively small planet with almost no atmosphere and few interesting features. It does’ however’ possess several fungi which are biologically related to other fungi found in the Trans-Coalsack Sector’ and their manner of transmission to Fomor has stimulated an endless controversy in the Journal of the Imperial Society of Xenobiologists... -- Larry Niven’ Jerry Pournelle’ from The Mote in God’s Eye (1974)668

In the previous chapter’ we asked the question: What is the likelihood that life may evolve somewhere else in the universe? We answered by showing that’ given a primitive environment similar to that of ancient Earth’ some form of proteinous life is not unreasonable. But how deterministic are the processes that occurred on this planet four eons ago? What are the chances that life must follow the identical biochemical pathways taken by organisms on Earth? It is the principle aim of xenobiology to ascertain where life exists in the universe’ and what form it takes. At first glance’ the Hypothesis of Mediocrity might seem to rule out the possibility of alternative life biochemistries. There are no silicon beasts or chlorine-breathers present on this world’ ergo natural selection does not favor them and they cannot exist. This is’ however’ an incredibly chauvinistic argument. The only rigorous conclusion that can be drawn from the lack of exotic biochemistries on Earth is that contemporary conditions do not favor those other systems. Since a rich diversity of habitats is possible in the Galaxy’ peculiar life chemistries cannot be categorically ruled out. Life adapts itself to its environment. Change the environment’ and the nature of life itself will change. It may be that no negentropic life-system can arise spontaneously under non-Earthlike conditions’ but it is poor science to tie one’s hands with this assumption from the outset. Owing to the unique adaptivity of living things’ the Hypothesis of Mediocrity must be applied cautiously when we venture out into new environs. Experimental investigations have brought to light new facts which appear to indicate that significant variations on terran biochemistry are possible -- even probable -- on other planets. [Note: See also the author's article "Xenobiology"’ published in 1981.]

8.1 The Argument for Diversity The word chauvinism is derived from the cognomen of a highly jingoistic French soldier by the name of Nicolas Chauvin’ born at Rochefort in the late 18th century. In 1815 Chauvin gained great notoriety by his obstinate’ bellicose attachment to the lost cause of Napoleon’s crumbling imperium. The term has since become identified with the absurd’ unreasoning’ single-minded devotion to one’s own race’ nationality’ sex’ or’ most recently’ to one’s own point of view. Chauvinisms are predictably common in xenology. For example’ we have argued against what might be called "G-star chauvinism’" the idea that a home sun exactly like Sol is a prerequisite for life.15 Although our sun is class G’ F stars and K stars undoubtedly are also hospitable to life. But stars may not be necessary at all. The possibility exists that interstellar space may contain a large number of starless planets’ objects having jovian or superjovian mass. Neglecting such an alternative could be condemned as "solar chauvinism."1470 There have been discussions of "planetary chauvinism’" the belief that life can only exist on the surface of planets. Fred Hoyle exposes this parochialism in his science fiction novel The Black Cloud. After humans manage to open a communications link with the gaseous lifeform’ the interstellar electromorph is quite astonished. "Your first transmission’" says the Cloud’ "came as a surprise’ for it is most unusual to find animals with technical skills inhabiting planets -- which are in the nature of extreme outposts of life."62 And atmospheric chauvinism? Carl Sagan has imagined organisms trapped on a planet whose air is slowly leaking away to space. Over time’ such creatures might evolve mechanisms to cope with what is essentially an interstellar environment.15 Another possibility might be an advanced spacefaring civilization that had set up outposts in deep space or on airless worlds. There are many biochauvinisms in xenology’ various preconceptions relating to indigenous alien lifeforms. For instance’ one biochauvinism this author finds exceedingly difficult to overcome is "phase separation chauvinism."2371’2393 The requirement that all organisms must retain some sort of boundary layer between themselves and their surroundings seems to follow directly from the basic thermodynamic nature of life processes. Other things seem not so fundamental. The extremes of life on Earth are well documented; microorganisms are especially hardy. Acontium velatum and Thiobacillus thiooxidans flourish in some of the strongest acids known (pH = 0.0)’ while a blue-green algae known as Plectonema nostocorum thrives in the strongest bases (pH =13.0). (Normal water is neutral’ with pH = 7.0). Microbes can tolerate poisons of many kinds in their environment’ such as corrosive sublimate (mercuric chloride)’ sulfuric acid’ and arsenic. The tardigrades can stand prolonged periods of virtually complete desiccation’* and organisms have survived pressures ranging from the vacuum of space to more than 8000 atm (the barotolerant deep sea bacteria). Growth and reproduction have been demonstrated from -24 °C (psychrophilic bacteria) up to 104 °C’ and a few organisms (tardigrades’ spores) have been frozen to near absolute zero’ or heated to more than 120 °C’ and survived the ordeal. Radiation resistance is low in mammals and other higher lifeforms -- whole body lethal dose for man is a few hundred roentgens. But Deinococcus radiodurans and certain algae have endured as much as ten million roentgens of neutron bombardment’ owing in part to special protective chemicals contained within their cells. Ultraviolet chauvinists claim that life is impossible on Mars because of the intense’ unshielded solar radiation (UV) there’ but many protective adaptations readily can be imagined.15’26’1238 Perhaps one of the most persistent biochauvinisms is "oxygen chauvinism." A few decades ago’ before the matter was given the serious thought it deserves’ it was alleged that any planet lacking this "vital" gas was ipso facto uninhabitable. However’ O2 is not a requirement for survival for many organisms alive on Earth today (e.g.’ yeasts’ tetanus bacillus’ etc.) and was not present in appreciable quantities on the primitive Earth when the origin of life occurred. It has been shown that the present level of O2 is not optimal for plant growth. Greenery evidently grows more luxuriantly in an atmosphere containing only about half the normal amount of oxygen.53 Human scuba divers are poisoned by the pure gas at more than a couple atmospheres of pressure. The presence of O2 in the nuclear regions of contemporary living cells is usually fatal.

Oxygen is basically a reactive’ toxic gas which chemically combines with and degrades virtually all useful biomaterials. The disastrous and widespread contamination of Earth’s atmosphere with O2 a few eons ago (the first real "smog crisis") might have spelled the end of life on this world had nature not been able to quickly readjust to the new situation. It is as Arthur Clarke says: "Oxygen needs life’" rather than the other way around.609

The mere absence of oxygen on a planet cannot’ by itself’ argue against the presence of life there. Perhaps a more general biochemical question is whether or not the chemistry of life must occur in the liquid state. Most biologists would probably insist on a liquid solvent. But life in the gaseous state cannot categorically be ruled out. One can imagine a "soap-bubble beast’" laced with innumerable compartments and sub-compartments throughout. Probably a creature of the air’ its metabolism might consist of chemical redox reactions taking place within its many "cells" in a controlled manner with the reaction products slowly diffusing outward. Because of the lower concentration of chemicals in such a gaseous medium’ the organism’s structure’ complexity’ size and behavior would be sharply limited. Solid life’ too’ is not out of the question. Although it has been alleged that reaction rates would be too slow for such lifeforms to exist’ we know that timescales are relative and highly subjective. Trees often take hundreds of years to grow to full maturity’ and many are thousands of years old. There is nothing a priori absurd in positing a form of life which has extremely slow negentropic processes. Of course’ it must be admitted that the liquid phase seems rather more convenient than the solid’ gaseous or plasmic phases. Ions form easily’ transport is greatly simplified’ the breakup and recombination of chemical bonds is facilitated’ and crude environmental stability is assured. The liquid phase is probably the preferred mode of existence for extraterrestrial lifeforms.

* The kangaroo rat’ a common resident of American deserts’ never needs to drink water. Its metabolism breaks down chemical compounds in sufficient quantities to enable it to live on the water manufactured from the food it eats. Other animals’ such as the flour beetle’ are known to have similar abilities’ and camels can sustain themselves for weeks in this fashion. In the plant world’ the Spanish moss can grow without contact with any groundwater -- when humidity is high’ it can extract the needed moisture directly from the air.

8.1.1 Temperature Chauvinism Any life chemistry will inevitably be subject to a narrow’ or at least specific’ temperature range. This is because a successful biochemistry is based on large assemblages of complex’ delicately balanced molecules. These molecules must walk the thin line between overstability and overreactivity. Too cold’ and the system grows sluggish and grinds to a halt; too hot’ and reactions become uncontrollably rapid and the metabolism destabilizes. The dedicated temperature chauvinist wants to restrict the viable range of all lifeforms to less than 100 °C’ hardly enough to cover the gamut of terrestrial organisms alone. More sophisticated arguments suggest that even unfamiliar carbon-based systems probably could not exist much above 500 °C’ because large carbon macromolecules shake themselves to pieces long before things get even that hot. At the cold end of the scale’ carbon-based biochemistries may be much less successful below about -100 °C. Reaction rates become extremely low’ and there are fewer and fewer solvents in which the life-chemistry may proceed. But are these valid limits for all conceivable living systems? Perhaps not.* Table 8.1 gives the energy of various chemical bonds that might possibly occur in biologically significant molecules. If a structure is given more than this energy’ the bonds may snap and the molecule falls apart. The higher the bond energy’ the more stable the molecular structure. And stability is essential for any chemistry that aspires to live.

Table 8.1 Chemical Bond Energies for Some Combinations of Xenobiological Interest Energy

Energy

Energy

Bond Type

(eV)*

Bond Type

(eV)*

Bond Type

(eV)*

N=N

9.8

H - Br

3.8

S – Cl

2.6

C=N

9.4

Si – O

3.8

Cl – Cl

2.5

C=C

8.4

Si – Cl

3.8

S–S

2.2

C=O

7.4

C–O

3.7

O – Cl

2.2

C=C

6.4

C–C

3.6

N – Cl

2.1

H–F

5.9

S–H

3.5

Br – Br

2.0

Si – F

5.6

C – Cl

3.4

Si – Si

1.8

O–H

4.8

P – Cl

3.4

N–N

1.7

C–F

4.6

H–P

3.3

F–F

1.6

H–H

4.5

H–I

3.1

I–I

1.6

H – Cl

4.5

Si – H

3.1

O–O

1.4

N=N

4.4

Si – C

3.0

O2N – NO2

0.57

C–H

4.3

C–N

3.0

Hydrogen bonds

0.08-0.45

N–H

4.1

H – Se

2.9

van der Waals

0.04

* 1 eV = 1.60 × 10-19 Joules

Room temperature (25 °C) ~ 0.026 eV

Carl Sagan suggests that for life to exist’ the fraction of bonds disrupted due to random thermal motions must be no larger than 0.0001%. If this is true’ then lifeforms whose biochemistry is based solely on van der Waals forces (a weak attraction between atomic electrons and the nucleus of an adjacent atom) alone could survive at temperatures as high as 40 K. Biochemistries relying on hydrogen bonds alone could exist up to 400 K. Bonds of strength 2.0 eV or higher would suffer less than 0.0001% random breakage up to 2000 K’ and for 5 eV bonds the molecules survive up to 5000 K.2358 This spans the range of temperatures from the coldest worlds to the surfaces of stars. Concludes Dr. Sagan: "There seem to exist chemical bonds of appropriate structural stability for life’ and it would appear premature to exclude the possibility of life on any planet on grounds of temperature."

* Hal Clement’s two science fiction novels’ Mission of Gravity (low temperature life)2069 and Iceworld (high temperature life)’ 292 are highly entertaining.

8.2 Alternative Biochemistries Professor G.C. Pimentel’ chairman of a NASA Study Group on Exobiology in 1966’ remarked that perhaps the most interesting and important discovery that could ever be made in the entire field of xenobiology would be the detection of extraterrestrial lifeforms based on a chemistry radically different from our own. Space probe experiments designed solely to search for Earthlike organisms cannot firmly rule out the possible presence of life solely on the basis of a negative result. Cautions Pimentel’ we must beware of the hazards of "down-to-earth thinking."2353 Yet all living creatures with whom we are acquainted are comprised of complex carbon compounds immersed in liquid water. Two classes of molecules always seem to be present: Nucleic acids’ the blueprints of inherited instructions’ and proteins’ the materials and tools with which the architecture of life is constructed. Must life always be based on carbon chemistry in aqueous solution? If we can agree that a biochemistry is the proper format for living systems’ and that a liquid phase is probably essential’ does it follow that carbon and water are our only choices in the matter?

8.2.1 The Limits of Carbon Aqueous Carbon chemistry in terrestrial organisms proceeds by chemical reactions in the medium of water -- an amazing substance with a whole set of properties which make it ideal for our kind of life. Some have even contended that "water is the only possible candidate material." In 1913’ Harvard University biochemist Lawrence J. Henderson published a little book entitled The Fitness of the Environment in which he assembled for the first time the many points in favor of water as a life-fluid.879 Henderson’s analysis extends to the other molecules of life as well’ and his main contribution is to show that the very chemical properties of the elements gives each of them a certain unique status and irreplaceability. Among the many advantages of water’ Henderson notes that it is an excellent solvent for countless substances’ making it quite useful as a mediator of chemical activity in the liquid phase. Water’ too’ is an ionizing solvent’ which means that an acid-base chemistry is permitted and an ever wider range of reactions can take place. (Acid-base chemistry is fundamental to Earth life but is not necessarily a requirement for all life.1074) Hydrogen bonding between water molecules gives the liquid a high heat capacity -- the ability to store lots of heat without changing temperature very much. Organisms which use water are thus at a distinct advantage in an environment in which sudden swings between hot and cold are common. This same bonding force also holds biomolecules together so that reaction rates are enhanced64 (although it has been pointed out that H-bonding may not be absolutely essential for life2353). Furthermore’ water has a comfortably wide liquidity range -- a full 100 K under normal terrestrial conditions. However’ the extent to which this temperature span may be broadened is not generally appreciated. Saturated salt water may freeze as low as 250 K; under 100-200 atm of pressure’ the boiling point may be elevated to as much as 640 K. In the proper environment’ water could remain a liquid over a range of 400 degrees. It is not unreasonable to conclude that H2O may well be the solvent of choice from 250-500 K’ particularly in view of its extremely high cosmic abundance. Serious laboratory work aimed at defining and measuring the limits of carbon-based’ aqueous biochemistries has just gotten under way in earnest in the 1970s. Consequently’ direct evidence is only beginning to emerge from the scanty data. In spite of this handicap’ there are early signs that many alternatives are possible even within the confines of a carbon-water system. Dr. Peter M. Molton at the University of Maryland has suggested that simple changes in the early prebiotic environment may drastically affect the chemical species which later turn up as the dominant actors on the biochemical stage of evolution.1094 His example is drawn from Miller-type experiments involving the prebiotic synthesis of amino acids’ the building blocks of proteins. In the lab’ chemists have learned that there are two common structural forms taken by amino acids. They are called alpha and beta. The basic layout of an amino acid molecule is a chain of carbon atoms with a small -NH2 ("amino group") stuck on somewhere. In the alpha form’ the amino group appears near the tail end of the molecule. In the beta form’ the amino group is displaced more towards the front of the chain. All amino acids used in terrestrial biochemistry’ with one minor exception’ are of the alpha variety. The beta forms are absent. Why? Molton shows that this peculiarity may be due to nothing more complicated than the order in which water is introduced during the early stages of chemical evolution. If H2O enters into the prebiotic reactions when the first simple compounds are being synthesized’ then life will evolve with proteins consisting exclusively of alpha amino acids. This was probably the situation on the primitive Earth’ eons ago. But what if the initial products of chemical evolution never come into contact with water at all in the early stages? According to Molton’ when water is thus absent the beta amino acids will predominate. The proteins comprising the resulting extraterrestrial lifeforms would then be of the beta’ rather than the alpha’ variety.* The next step’ says Molton’ is to try to synthesize plausible alternative nucleotides in the laboratory’ simply by altering the prebiotic conditions under which they arise. Scientists are just beginning to see the myriad possibilities that may be open to carbon-water biochemistry on other worlds.

* Proteins made from the beta forms would probably not be edible by humans. Indeed’ they might even be poisonous -- a fact of considerable importance for future interstellar astronauts and colonists.

8.2.2 Alternatives to Water Can living processes be based on a liquid other than water (Figure 8.1)? To answer this question we must address a more fundamental problem: What are the properties of a good solvent for life? First of all is availability. If the substance is exceedingly rare’ there will not be enough of it around to sustain an ecology. Next’ it should be a good solvent for both inorganic and organic compounds’ and in this regard an acid-base chemistry is highly desirable. Further’ the fluid ought to have a reasonably large liquidity range’ so that organisms will enjoy a wide span of temperatures in which they remain biochemically operational. A high dielectric constant is preferable -- the liquid medium should provide adequate electrical insulation from the surroundings. Also’ a large specific heat would be nice’ because this would give the organism thermal stability in the face of sudden or extreme temperature variations in the environment. Finally’ the solvent ought to have a low viscosity -- it should not be too thick and resistant to flow (not an essential characteristic but certainly convenient).

Figure 8.1 "Ammonia! Ammonia!" (from Bracewell80)

J.B.S. Haldane’ speaking at the Symposium on the Origin of Life in 1954’ speculated on the possible nature of life based on a solvent of liquid ammonia.2328 The British astronomer V. Axel Firsoff picked up on this a few years later’ and extended the analysis considerably.352’1217 Today’ ammonia is considered one of the leading alternatives to water. Let’s see why. Ammonia is known to exist in the atmospheres of all the gas giant planets in our solar system’ and was plentiful on Earth during the first eon of its existence. Ammonia may be a reasonable thalassogen’ so it should be available in sufficient quantities for use as a life-fluid on other worlds. Chemically’ liquid ammonia is an unusually close analogue of water. There is a whole system of organic and inorganic chemistry that takes place in ammono’ instead of aqueous’ solution.1579’1584 Ammonia has the further advantage of dissolving most organics as well as or better than water’2345 and it has the unprecedented ability to dissolve many elemental metallic substances directly into solution--such as sodium’ magnesium’ aluminum’ and several others. Iodine’ sulfur’ selenium and phosphorus are also somewhat soluble with minimal reaction. Each of these elements is important to life chemistry and the pathways of prebiotic synthesis. The objection is often heard that the liquidity range of liquid NH3 -- 44° C at 1 atm pressure -- is a trifle low for comfortable existence. But as with water’ raising the planetary surface pressure broadens the liquidity range. At only 60 atm’ far less than Jupiter or Venus in our solar system’ ammonia boils at 98 °C instead of -33 °C. ("Ammonia life" is not necessarily "low temperature life.") So at 60 atm the liquidity range has climbed to 175 °C’ which should be ample for life. Ammonia has a dielectric constant about ¼ that of water’ so it is a much poorer insulator than H2O. But ammonia’s heat of fusion is higher’ so it is relatively harder to freeze at the melting point.* The specific heat of NH3 is slightly greater than that of water’ and it is far less viscous (it is freer-flowing) too. The acid-base chemistry of liquid ammonia has been studied extensively throughout this century’ and it has proven to be almost as rich in detail as that of the water system (Figure 8.2). The differences between the two are more of degree than of kind. As a solvent for life’ ammonia cannot be considered inferior to water.

Table 8.2 Acid-Base Reactions for Ammonia-based Life H2 HCl ‘ NaOH —> NaCl ‘ Aqueous-life chemistry

INORGANIC

‘ NaNH2 —>

HOH ORGANIC

NaOH

CH3COOH ‘ NaOH —>

‘

NH3

Ammonia-life chemistry

H2

Aqueous-life chemistry

CH3COONa ‘

CH3CONH2 ‘ NaNH2 —> CH3CONHNa ‘ NH3 Ammonia-life chemistry Acid ‘ base —> Salt ‘ Solvent

Compelling analogues to the macromolecules of Earthly life may be designed in the ammonia system. But Firsoff has urged restraint: An ammonia-based biochemistry might well develop along wholly different lines. There are probably as many different possibilities in carbon-ammonia as in carbon-water systems.1172 The vital solvent of a living organism should be capable of dissociating into anions (negative ions) and cations (positive ions)’ which permits acid-base reactions to occur (Table 8.3). In the NH3 solvent system’ acids and bases are different than in the water system-acidity and basicity’ of course’ are defined relative to the medium in which they are dissolved.

Table 8.3 Dissociation of the Vital Solvent1217 Solvent

Anions

H2

OH -

O=

NH3

NH2-

NH =

Cations

Nº

H‘

H3O‘

H‘

NH4‘

In the ammonia system’ water’ which rests with liquid NH3 to yield NH4‘ ion’ would seem as a strong acid’ quite hostile to life. Ammono-life astronomers’ eyeing our planet from their chilly observatories’ would doubtless view the beautiful’ rolling blue oceans of Earth as little more than "vats of hot acid."

After all’ water and ammonia are not chemically identical. They are simply analogous. There will necessarily be many differences in the biochemical particulars. Molton has suggested’ for example’ that ammonia-based lifeforms may use cesium and rubidium chlorides to regulate the electrical potential of cell membranes. These salts are more soluble in liquid NH 3 than the potassium or sodium salts used by Earth life.1132 Dr. Molton concludes: Life based on ammonia instead of water is certainly possible (Figure 8.2)’ theoretically’ at the superficial level. If we delve further into the complex biochemistry of the cell’ we could find some insuperable barrier to ammonia-based life -- but it is hard to conceive of any obstacle so insuperable that it would rule it out altogether.

Figure 8.2 Living in Liquid Ammonia Biochemical Type

Terrestrial Water-Life Form

Possible Ammonia-Life Analogue

HH || H—C—C-OH || HH HO | || H—C—C—OH | H HHO | | || H—C—C—C—OH || H NH2

HH || H—C—C—NH2 || HH HO | || H—C—C—NH2 | H HHO | | || H—C—C—C—NH2 || H NH2

Typical Alcohol

Typical Fatty Acid

Typical Amino Acid

Typical Protein Polymer (could be identical molecule in both systems)

Typical Carbohydrate (Ribose)

There are many other life-solvents (Table 8.4) which have been studied to varying degrees’ though none so extensively as ammonia. Hydrogen fluoride (HF)’ for instance’ has often been proposed. HF is an excellent solvent in theory both for inorganics and organics vital to carbon-based life.

Table 8.4 Physical Constants for Xenobiochemical Solvents352,879,1578,2082 Possible Life Solvent

Chemical Formula

Molecular Liquidity Melting Boiling Weight Range Point Point

Typical Heat of Dielectric Vaporization Constant

Heat of Fusion

(gm/mole)

(K)

(K)

(K)

(kcal/mole)

(kcal/mole)

Typical Viscosity (centipoises)

Sulfur

S2

64.1

331.8

386.0

717.6

---

23.2

3.48

1

Sulfuric acid

H2SO4

98.1

327.6

283.5

611.1

2.56

12.0

100.

48.4

Glycerol

H2H8O3

92.1

271.4

291.7

(563.1)

4.42

18.19

42.5

102 - 106

Phosphorous sesquisulfide

P4S3

220.1

234.0

447.1

681.1

2.002

16.06

---

0.10

Acetic anhydride

(CH3CO)2O

102.1

213.1

200.0

413.1

---

6.76

6.3

0.851

Ethanol

C2H5OH

46.1

192.8

158.6

351.4

1.20

10.9

24.3

1.078

Formamide

HCONH2

45.0

190’4

275.7

466.1

---

15.0

111.

3.31

Methanol

CH3OH

32.0

162.5

175.3

337.8

0.759

8.42

32.6

0.544

Carbon disulfide

CS2

76.1

157.1

162.4

319.5

1.05

6.7

3.0

0.436

Arsenic trichloride

AsCl3

181.3

143.0

260.1

403.1

---

12.6

12.6

1.23

Phosgene

COCl2

98.9

136.2

145.1

281.3

1.37

6.22

4.34

---

Hydrazine

N2H4

32.0

111.7

274.9

386.6

---

10.2

53.

1.12

Phosphorus oxychloride

POCl3

153.4

107.0

274.1

381.1

---

---

13.9

1.15

Hydrogen fluoride

HF

20.0

102.7

190.0

292.7

1.094

7.23

83.6

0.256

Acetic acid

CH3COOH

60.1

101.5

289.7

391.2

2.76

5.81

9.7

1.16

WATER

H2O

18.0

100.0

273.1

373.1

1.455

9.719

81.1

0.959

Formic acid

HCOOH

46.0

92.3

281.5

373.8

3.04

4.77

58.5

1.804

Methylamine

CH3NH2

31.1

86.0

180.6

266.6

3.47

6.47

11.4

0.236

Mercury dibromide

HgBr2

360.4

82.3’

511.1

593.4

---

---

9.84

3.70

Fluorine oxide

F2O

54.0

79.0

49.3

128.3

---

2.65

---

---

Formaldehyde

HCHO

30.0

71.0

181.1

252.1

---

5.92

---

---

Chlorine

Cl2

70.9

66.9

172.2

239.1

1.531

4.78

2.0

4.9

Sulfur dioxide

SO2

64.1

62.7

200.5

263.2

1.969

5.96

13.8

0.429

Nitrosyl chloride

NOCl

65.4

55.5

211.6

267.1

---

5.4

22.5

0.586

Ammonia

NH3

17.0

44.4

195.4

239.8

1.84

5.64

22.

0.265

Hydrogen cyanide

HCN

27.0

39.0

259.8

298.8

2.01

6.03

123.

0.201

Oxygen

O2

32.0

35.4

54.8

90.2

---

1.86

1.51

---

Nitrogen tetroxide

N24

92.0

33.6

260.8

294.4

3.5

9.11

2.42

---

Hydrogen chloride

HCl

36.5

29.9

158.3

188.2

0.476

3.86

12.

0.51

Hydroxylamine

NH2H

33.0

25.0

306.1

331.1

---

---

---

---

Hydrogen sulfide

H2

34.1

24.8

187.7

212.5

0.568

4.463

10.2

0.432

Methane

CH4

16.0

21.0

90.7

111.7

0.22

2.13

1.7

---

Chloroform

CHCl3

119.4

124.7

209.6

334.3

2.10

7.5

5.61

0.70

Carbon Tetrachloride

CCl4

153.8

99.7

250.1

349.8

0.783

8.27

2.23

1.33

Methyl chloride

CH3Cl

50.5

73.2

176.1

249.3

---

5.38

12.6

0.183

Hydrogen fluoride has a larger liquidity range than water and has hydrogen bonding as well as an acid-base chemistry (in which nitric and sulfuric acids act as bases!).1583 It also has a large dielectric constant and a sizable specific heat. The major difficulty with HF is its extreme cosmic scarcity. However’ this need not be a fatal objection in view of the widespread use of the equally rare element phosphorus in terrestrial biochemistry. Liquid hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is another possibility. Unlike HF’ hydrogen cyanide has a reasonably high cosmic abundance -- although it still may be too low to be of xenobiochemical significance. HCN is a good inorganic and organic solvent’ has an adequate liquidity range’ has hydrogen bonding’ a large dielectric constant and specific heat’ and a viscosity five times lower than that of water. Its chemistry’ however’ may be complicated by its tendency to polymerize. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is the sulfur analogue of water’ in which S atoms replace those of oxygen. (The two elements are of the same family in the Periodic Table (Table 8.5)’ and have similar chemical properties.) We might expect that H2S would have similar solvating abilities to water’ but such is not the case. Hydrogen

sulfide has only weak hydrogen bonding’ a low dielectric constant’ and is a very poor inorganic solvent.1578 Its narrow liquidity range (25 °C) means that it should be suitable’ if at all’ only for planets with heavy atmospheres and small daily temperature variations.

Table 8.5 The Periodic Table of the Elements H HYDROGEN 1 Li LITHIUM 3

Be BERYLLIUM 4

Na SODIUM 12

Al Mg MAGNESIUM ALUMINUM 13 12

B BORON 5

He HELIUM 2

First Period

C CARBON 6

N NITROGEN 7

O OXYGEN 8

F FLUORINE 9

Ne NEON 10

Second Period

Si SILICON 24

P PHOSPHORUS 15

S SULFUR 16

Cl CHLORINE 17

Ar ARGON 18

Third Period

K POTASSIUM 19

Ca CALCIUM 20

Ga GALLIUM 31

Ge GERMANIUM 32

Ar ARSENIC 33

Se SELENIUM 34

Rb RUBIDIUM 37

Sr STRONTIUM 38

In INDIUM 49

Sn TIN 50

Sb ANTIMONY 51

Te TELLURIUM 52

I IODINE 53

Xe XENON 54

Fifth Period

Os CESIUM 55

Ba BARIUM 56

Ti THALLIUM 81

Pb LEAD 82

Bi BISMUTH 83

Po POLONIUM 84

At ASTATINE 85

Rn RADON 86

Sixth Period

Sodium Family Group I

Calcium Family Group II

Boron Family Group III

Carbon Family Group IV

Pnictide Family Group V

Chalcogen Family Group VI

Halogen Family Group VII

Noble Gas Family Group VIII

Br Kr Fourth BROMINE KRYPTON Period 36 35

Sulfur dioxide’ another possible thalassogen’ is an ionizing substance which is a good organic and a fair inorganic solvent. It has an adequate liquidity range’ but a very low dielectric constant. Carbon disulfide’ a wide liquidity range fluid’ solvates sulfur and a number of organic compounds. But it is relatively unstable with heat and is expected to be rare on most planetary surfaces. Little is known about chemistry in liquid chlorine (Cl 2). While it has a good liquidity range’ it is five times more viscous than water. One peculiar halogen hybrid’ fluorine oxide (F2O)’ is a direct analogue of water. This intensely yellow fluid is a good ionizing solvent’ unstable at high temperatures but ideal for biochemistry

below 100 K. At such temperatures’ F2O might serve as solvent for the coordination chemistry of the noble gases.1172 There are many’ many other less likely solvents that have been discussed in the literature.**

* The point is sometimes made that water has the virtually unique property of expanding upon freezing’ which means that ice will float atop a cooling mass of water and protect the lifeforms beneath. However’ water freezing within the cells of living tissue exposes the organism to a new hazard -- mechanical damage by expansion. Since ammonia shrinks when it freezes’ the very property responsible for massive oceanic freeze-ups should also allow ammono lifeforms to be much more successful hibernators in a frozen clime. ** Dr. Allen M. Schoffstall at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs has performed some preliminary experiments with possible prebiotic syntheses in exotic solvents’ such as formic acid’ acetic acid’ liquid formamide and other nonaqueous solvents. His experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of prebiotically converting nucleosides to nucleotides or nucleoside diphosphates in anhydrous liquid formamide -- an alternative solvent to water.2384 Similar research is just now getting started at several other laboratories. 4086

8.2.3 Alternatives to Carbon Why do lifeforms prefer carbon? Few elements can compete with its ability to combine with many different kinds of other atoms. As for its ability to form long’ polymeric chains’ carbon knows no equal. There are many who believe that the element is "uniquely qualified" for the job of life. They may well be correct. The idea of living systems founded on a radically different chemical basis from ours has been around for a long time. It was already old hat in 1908 when Dr. J.E. Reynolds’ a British biochemist’ delivered a paper on the subject at a meeting of the Royal Institution in London. The reviewer for Chemical Abstracts wearily reported: ... It contains no new matter. The author advances a speculative theory as to the probability of a "high temperature protoplasm" containing silicon in place of carbon and phosphorus in place of nitrogen’ and points out that silicon found in certain animal and plant cells may actually be a constituent of the protoplasm of such cells.1608 Among xenologists’ the possibility of silicon (Si) -based extraterrestrial lifeforms was raised by the British astronomer Sir Harold Spencer Jones as early as 1940.44 In more recent times’ silicon-based structures have become perhaps the best-known and most commonly advanced proposal as an exotic biochemistry for aliens (Figure 8.3).

Figure 8.3 Depiction of a silicon-based lifeform in science fiction

The Horta’ a silicon-based lifeform depicted in an episode of Star Trek’ crouches in fear of the approaching humans. The small mineral nodules littering the subterranean lair are the creature’s eggs.

This is because Si lies directly below C in the Carbon Family of the Periodic Table of the Elements (Table 8.5). Members of the same family are expected’ more or less’ to have similar chemical properties and to form analogous compounds. There have been numerous objections to silicon life from all quarters of the scientific community. A common protest’ for example’ is based on the relative cosmic scarcity of Si as compared to C. From Table 8.6’ we note that carbon is roughly an order of magnitude more abundant than silicon in the universe.

Table 8.6 Cosmic Abundance of the Elements1413 Atomic Number

Element

Abundances of Atoms (normalized to Symbol Si = 103)

Atomic Number

Element

Abundances of Atoms (normalized to Si = 103)

Symbol

1

Hydrogen

H

31800000.

44

Ruthenium

Ru

0.0019

2

Helium

He

2210000.

45

Rhodium

Rh

0.0004

3

Lithium

Li

0.0495

46

Palladium

Pd

0.0013

4

Beryllium

Be

0.00081

47

Silver

Ag

0.00045

5

Boron

B

0.350

48

Cadmium

Cd

0.00148

6

Carbon

C

11800.

49

Indium

In

0.000189

7

Nitrogen

N

3740.

50

Tin

Sn

0.0036

8

Oxygen

0

21500.

51

Antimony

Sb

0.000316

9

Fluorine

F

52

Tellurium

Te

0.00642

10

Neon

Ne

3440.

53

Iodine

I

0.00109

11

Sodium

Na

60.

54

Xenon

Xe

0.00538

12

Magnesium

Mg

1061.

55

Cesium

Cs

0.000387

13

Aluminum

Al

85.

56

Barium

Ba

0.0048

14

Silicon

Si

1000.

57

Lanthanum

La

0000445

15

Phosphorus

P

58

Cerium

Ce

0.00118

16

Sulfur

S

59

Praseodymium

Pr

0.000149

17

Chlorine

Cl

5.7

60

Neodymium

Nd

0.00078

18

Argon

Ar

117.2

62

Samarium

Sm

0.000226

19

Potassium

K

4.2

63

Europium

Eu

0.000085

20

Calcium

Ca

72.1

64

Gadolinium

Gd

0.000297

21

Scandium

Sc

0.035

65

Terbium

Tb

0.000055

22

Titanium

Ti

2.775

66

Dysprosium

Dy

0.00036

23

Vanadium

V

0.262

67

Holmium

Ho

0.000079

24

Chromium

Cr

12.7

68

Erbium

Er

0.000225

25

Manganese

Mn

9.3

69

Thulium

Tm

0.000034

26

Iron

Fe

70

Ytterbium

Yb

0.000216

27

Cobalt

Co

71

Lutetium

Lu

0.000036

28

Nickel

Ni

72

Hafnium

Hf

0.00021

29

Copper

Cu

0.54

73

Tantalus

Ta

0.000021

30

Zinc

Zn

1.244

74

Tungsten

W

0.00006

31

Gallium

Ga

0.048

75

Rhenium

Re

0.000053

32

Germanium

Ge

0.115

76

Osmium

Os

0.00075

33

Arsenic

As

0.0066

77

Iridium

Ir

0.000717

34

Selenium

Se

0.0672

78

Platinum

Pt

0.0014

35

Bromine

Br

0.0135

79

Gold

Au

0.000202

36

Krypton

Kr

0.0468

80

Mercury

Hg

0.0004

37

Rubidium

Rb

0.00588

81

Thallium

11

0.000192

38

Strontium

Sr

0.0269

82

Lead

Pb

0.004

39

Yttrium

Y

0.0048

83

Bismuth

Bi

0.000143

40

Zirconium

Zr

0.028

90

Thorium

Th

0.000058

41

Niobium

Nb

0.0014

92

Uranium

U

0.0000262

42

Molybdenum

Mo

0.004

2.45

9.6 500.

830. 2.21 48.

But the real business of biochemical evolution takes place on planetary surfaces. The Earth’ Moon’ and Mars are remarkably similar in their silicon content -roughly 25-30% of the total topsoil. But on this planet’ Si atoms outnumber those of C by more than two orders of magnitude (Table 8.7). Organics are present in lunar soil only to the extent of a few parts per million’ and on Mars there is no trace of carbon in the crust even at the parts-per-billion level. Carbon is actually rare!*

Table 8.7 Comparative Elemental Abundances6,96,1413,1470 (weight %) Element Universe Earth’s Crust Seawater Human Body Hydrogen 91. % 0.22 % 66. % 63. % Helium 9.1 % 0.0000003 % --Oxygen 0.063 % 47. % 33. % 25.5 % Carbon 0.035 % 0.19 % 0.0014 % 9.4 % Nitrogen 0.011 % 0.015 % 0.000745 % 1.4 % Neon 0.010 % ---Magnesium 0.0031 % 2.2 % 0.033 % 0.013 % Silicon 0.0029 % 28. % 0.00011 % -Iron 0.0024 % 4.5 % 0.0000005 % 0.0038 % Sulfur 0.0015 % 0.026 % 0.017 % 0.049 % Aluminum 0.00025 % 7.9 % 0.000014 % -Calcium 0.00021 % 3.5 % 0.006 % 0.3 % Sodium 0.00018 % 2.5 % 0.28 % 0.041 % Phosphorus 0.000028 % 0.026 % 0.0000016 % 0.21 % Chlorine 0.000017 % 0.032 % 0.33 % 0.026 % Potassium 0.000012 % 2.5 % 0.006 % 0.057 % Titanium 0.000008 % 0.46 % 0.00000014 % --

A few have suggested that since carbon-based Earth life exhales carbon dioxide’ a gas’ silicon-based lifeforms must surely "breathe out silicon dioxide’ SiO2’ which is quartz: a painful process . . ."49 It is difficult to find any merit to this biochauvinistic objection. Silicon organisms probably are able to survive only in a reducing’ oxygen-free environment -- so SiO2 should not be produced at all. Even if it is’ it’s not clear why an extraterrestrial lithomorph should find the excretion of sand at all painful.

A seemingly more valid challenge is the contention that any available prebiotic silicon atoms will be irreversibly locked into large’ heavy SiO2 polymers’ making it impossible for them to participate in any life chemistry. But silicon dioxide is far from absolutely stable. In fact’ it is the original material in the synthesis of many silicon-organic molecules under the action of various chemical reagents.26 Another common complaint is that the number of carbon compounds catalogued -- perhaps two million or so -- greatly exceeds the total number of silicon-based substances known to chemists today -- about 20’000’ two orders of magnitude less. But the only reason a class of compounds is found may be because someone went looking for them. As few as twenty-seven organosilicon molecules were known at the turn of the century’ and real interest in silicon chemistry began to accelerate just a few decades ago. Furthermore’ the pitiful number of scientists currently engaged in silicon research is dwarfed by the armada of pharmaceutical houses and petrochemists flying the flag of carbon. As Carl Sagan notes with some amusement: "Much more attention has been paid to carbon organic chemistry than to silicon organic chemistry’ largely because most biochemists we know are of the carbon’ rather than the silicon’ variety."15 The inability of lone Si atoms to readily hook together to form very long chain polymers is often cited as the fatal flaw in all silicon biochemistry schemes. But exactly how crucial is this ability to concatenate? In Earthly proteins’ carbohydrates’ and nucleic acids -- the three most important and common polymer types -- the C-C linkages rarely include more than a few consecutive atoms. Organic side chains may contain up to eight’ and fats and various vitamin complexes use even more successive carbons’ but the basic molecular backbone of life is served by only a few. For instance’ most proteins consist of a repeating -C-C-N- unit’ a mere two carbons in a row. Biochemistries need stable polymers’ not long chains of similar backbone atoms (Figure 8.4).

Figure 8.4 Carbon-Family Analogues for Life: Polymers of Silicon (Si),1603’1649’2348 Germanium (Ge),1572 Tin (Sn),1596 and Lead (Pb)1696 CH3 CH3 CH3 | | | —Si—O—Si—O—Si— | | | CH3 CH3 CH3

Polydimethylsiloxane -- A typical silicone polymer. Stable up to approximately 250 °C.

C6H5 C6H5 C6H5 | | | —Si—O—Si—O—Si— | | | O O O | | | —Si—O—Si—O—Si— | | | C6H5 C6H5 C6H5

Phenylsilicone "ladder polymer"-Remains stable up to about 300 °C.

H H CH3 H H CH3 ||| ||| —C—C—Ge—C—C—Ge— ||| ||| H H CH3 H H CH3

Dimethylated polygermane organopolymer.

H CH3 H CH3 H CH3 || || | | —C—Sn—C—Sn—C—Sn— || || | | H CH3 H CH3 H CH3

Diorganotins -- Forms liquids or resinous’ glassy’ or rubbery polymeric solids’ depending in the nature of the organic side-group.

Butylpolystannoxane polymer’ n ~10-13. Colorless’ soluble in chloroform and CCl 4. Reasonably stable to hydrolysis(water) and to heating up to about 250 °C.

C6H5 C6H5 C6H5 | | | —Pb—O—Pb—O—Pb— | | | C6H5 C6H5 C6H5

Polymeric diphenyllead oxide.

Silicon’ in combination with nitrogen and oxygen’ forms a variety of ring-shaped and chain-polymer macromolecules stable in high ultraviolet radiation fluxes (such as might be found near a class F star or on the surface of an unshielded planet like Mars) and at low temperatures as well.1597 Silane (SiH4)’ the silicon analogue of methane with a repulsive odor’ remains a liquid between 88.l K and 161.4 K. It might serve as a solvent for a cold silicon biochemistry under anhydrous reducing conditions. The Si halides might also work’ though at somewhat higher temperatures. Unfortunately’ Si-Si bonds tend to break up in the presence of ammonia’ oxygen’ or water’ all of which are more likely to appear on a colder world. This difficulty disappears in a hot environment in which the role of oxygen has been usurped by its chemical cousin’ sulfur. The problem then becomes one of preventing the lowenergy Si-Si bonds from tearing themselves to pieces in the blistering heat.1172 At present’ the biggest obstacle is in devising plausible pathways of prebiotic evolution (Figure 8.5). Carbon seems more competitive under most conditions we can readily imagine.** Yet as Dr. Molton says’ "this may be due to our own ignorance of silicon chemistry as much as to any inherent theoretical difficulty."1132

Figure 8.5 Possible Prebiotic Biochemicals Usable by Si or Si—C Life352,1132,1597,1649 H H H | Silane | | H—Si—H (silicon analogue of H—Si—Si—H Disilane (silicon analogue of ethane) | methane) | | H H H H H Produced using silicon in H2’ CH4 | | H—C—Si—H Methylsilicane atmosphere in Miller-type experiment with electrical | | discharge and BCl3 catalyst. H H H | Analogue to methylamine in carbon chemistry. Many H—Si—NH2 Silylamine other Si-amines exist. C-amines of great importance in terrestrial biochemistry. | H HO2SiSiO2H Oxyprosiloxane Silicon analogue of oxalic acid. Cl Cl [ Cl ] Cl Cl | | | | | | | Cl—Si—Si— | -Si— | —Si—Si—Cl | | | | | | | Cl Cl [ Cl ]n Cl Cl

Perchloropolysilane -Prepared by heating SiCl4 in H2 atmosphere at 1000 °C’ using quartz catalyst. Demonstrates Si-Si bond stability up to n=21.

CH3 CH3 [ CH3 ] CH3 CH3 | | || | | | CH3—Si — Si— |—Si—| —Si—Si—CH3 | | || | | | CH3 CH3 [ CH3 ]n CH3 CH3

Permethylated linear polysilanes -Long chain organosilicon polymers up to n=8. Stable to oxygen and water.

Cyclohexyltrichlorosilane Produced in Miller-type experiment by sparking a mixture of SiCl4 and C6H12 in the absence of water.

In the last few decades a broad’ new class of silicon polymers has been discovered which might serve as a basis for life. These substances’ known as siloxanes to the chemist and as "silicones" in popular parlance’ are extremely stable in the presence of oxygen and water. In fact’ many silicones are formed by the action of water on the Si-Si bond. This novel class of compounds is now under intensive investigation’ as they have been found to exhibit a wide range of fascinating properties. There are rubbery silicones’ analogous to soft living tissue’ which remain flexible and "elastomeric" across a span of temperature that few organic polymers can match. There are hard silicone resins with impact and tensile strengths comparable to those of bone’ and which retain their stoutness in hot environments.1607’1610 Silicone liquids are useful as hydraulic fluids’ and some of them have very handy peculiarities. For example’ polydimethylsiloxane is an oil with variable mechanical properties strikingly similar to those of mammalian synovial fluid (a kind of bone joint lubricant).230 Some silicone rubbers are selectively permeable to specific gases. One rubber which passes oxygen has been tested in artificial gill devices designed to extract the dissolved gas from seawater for the benefit of human divers.2348 These compounds are generally less active chemically’ stronger’ more heat-resistant and more durable than their carbon counterparts. The molecular architecture of the silicones is relatively simple. Silicones have a backbone’ not of Si atoms alone but rather of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms. The side chains can be organic’ and are as complicated as any in terrestrial organic chemistry. Silicones appear to possess an information-carrying capacity and a complexity of structure as required for a successful biochemistry. There remain two problems with such silicon-oxygen lifeforms’ which must be dealt with before the plausibility of their existence can be acknowledged. First’ many silicones tend to disassemble into ring molecules at temperatures of roughly 300-350 °C. (Similar behavior is observed in most complex carbon compounds’ but at somewhat lower temperatures.) It would be difficult for silicones to remain stable in much hotter climes’ and it is unclear whether this slight thermal advantage is enough to enable Si to out-compete C in a high temperature regime. There do exist a few silicon polymers that can really get out of carbon’s league. Certain Si-C combinations are good to at least 500 °C’ and various aluminumsilicon structures can reach 600 °C without destruction. The second problem that must be faced is a familiar one: How do we arrange for a plausible prebiotic evolutionary sequence? Natural planetary conditions’ by and large’ are not conducive to the prebiotic synthesis of silicones. Worse’ recall that most of the complexity of the silicones is derived from the carbon side chains they possess. In spite of their greater thermal stability’ these Si polymers may find themselves in an indirect competition with carbon-based macromolecules. On any world in which the carbon chemistry had evolved sufficiently far to allow C side chains (as on the Si backbone) of the requisite complexity’ it is far more likely that these carbon chains would form polymers among themselves rather than splicing onto an "alien" silicone backbone molecule. Of course’ silicon is not the only game in town. Other members of the Carbon Family might stand in for C’ although this is much less likely. Germanium has been suggested as an analogue to carbon in some biochemical systems. N.W. Pirie has cited some rather dubious evidence for germanium-based protobionts in Earth’s past: The excessive concentration of Ge in the Hartley coal seam in Northumberland’ England.2347 But we are not restricted to the Carbon Family in our quest for analogues to C. One alternative not widely known outside specialist circles involves a tricky arrangement with the element boron (B).1172’2089’2446 Looking at the Periodic Table’ we see that boron lies just to the left’ and nitrogen just to the right’ of carbon. One might well suspect that a kind of averaging effect could take place if the two elements were combined’ resulting in some sort of "pseudocarbon" system. Indeed’ this does occur. There are compounds made of alternating boron and nitrogen atoms which closely parallel their organic counterparts in many ways. They have the same types of bonds’ similar molecular weights’ similar physical and chemical properties’ and so forth. A few possibilities are illustrated on the following page by comparing a series of common carbon compounds with their boron-nitrogen analogues (Figure 8.6).

Figure 8.6 Boron-Nitrogen Analogues Borazine ("Inorganic benzene") Colorless liquid Molecular weight = 80.50 Melting point = 215°K Boiling point = 328°K Density = 0.86 gm/cm3 Decomposes in water Methyl borazine ("Inorganic toluene") Colorless liquid Molecular weight = 94.53 Melting point = 214°K Boiling point = 360°K Decomposes in water White Graphite ("Inorganic graphite") Slippery white powder Planar polymer in overlapping sheets Sublimes ~3300°K Insoluble in water Boron Diamond (Borazon) ("Inorganic diamond") Colorless’ cubic crystal Hard enough to scratch diamond Burns in air at 2170°K

Benzene (A common solvent in organic chemistry Colorless liquid Molecular weight = 78.11 Melting point = 279°K Boiling point = 353°K Density = 0.88 gm/cm3 insoluble in water

Methyl benzene (Toluene. another common organic solvent) Colorless liquid Molecular weight = 92.13 Melting point = 178°K Boiling point = 384°K insoluble in water

Graphite (High-temperature lubricant) Slippery black powder Planar polymer in overlapping sheets Sublimes 3925-3970°K Insoluble in water Diamond (Compressed graphite) Colorless’ cubic crystal Hard enough to scratch any substance Burns in air at 1170°K

Dimethyl borine Colorless liquid Molecular weight = 84.99 Melting point = 181°K Boiling point = 338°K Soluble in organic solvents (ethanol’ other’ etc.)

Dimethyl butene Colorless liquid Molecular weight = 84.16 Melting point = 199°K Boiling point = 346°K Soluble in organic solvents (ethanol’ ether’ etc.)

While some B-N polymers are known to be stable to high temperatures’ many such substances turn out to be less stable with heat. Borazine’ the boron-nitrogen analogue to benzene’ is more susceptible to chemical attack because of its greater reactivity. The presence of water tends to degrade most B-N polymeric compounds. Part of these difficulties can be eliminated by switching to other combinations which also give a "pseudocarbon" effect. There are the boron-phosphorus (borophane) and the boron-arsenic (boroarsane) systems’ which are known to be extraordinarily stable and inert to thermal decomposition. These substances might serve on high temperature worlds if the abundance problem could be licked. A completely different kind of exotic biochemistry is the possibility of halogen life. Members of the Halogen Family’ of which fluorine and chlorine are the most abundant’ could conceivably replace hydrogen atoms in whole or in part. This would apply to biological macromolecules constructed on the basis of carbon’ silicon’ or any other viable backbone system. An oxygen-poor star might give rise to planets with abnormally high concentrations of free halogen. This is not as unreasonable as it might sound at first. The element phosphorus’ a common atom in Earthly biochemistry’ has a cosmic abundance approximately equal to that of fluorine and chlorine. Thus’ the availability and use of halogens by alien lifeforms cannot be categorically ruled out. There might exist water oceans and an atmosphere rich in chlorine or fluorine. Peter Molton has proposed a respiration-photosynthesis cycle for such a world’ involving carbon tetrachloride as the halogen analogue of methane.1132 Going still further out on a limb’ Isaac Asimov has set forth the possibility of fluorocarbon (Teflon) or chlorocarbon polymers floating in seas of molten sulfur. "No one’" the Doctor gently chides’ "has yet dealt with the problem of fluoroproteins or has even thought of dealing with it."2344 No one’ that is’ except science fiction writers.1359 Actually’ polymers of any kind should be of interest to xenobiologists (Figure 8.7). Since the basis of all life appears to be the polymeric organization of small molecules into larger ones’ polymer chemistry seems a reasonable avenue to explore for alternative biochemistries.

Figure 8.7 Other Polymers of Possible Xenobiochemical Interest

Cyclosilazanes1599

Cyclosilthians1600

Polysilazanes1599

Polymeric diphenyltin1603 CH3 CH3 | | | - O - Al - O - Si - O - Si - O - Al - O - Si - O - Al | | | | | | OC6H5 CH3 CH3 OC6H5 CH3 OC6H5 CH3

"Random" silicon-aluminum copolymer1603 Cl Cl Cl | | | = N - P = N - P = N - P =N| | | Cl Cl Cl Polymeric phosphonitrilic chloride1603

Polyphosphazine chloride trimer2348

CH3HN CH3HN CH3HN | | | = N - P = N - P = N - P =N| | | CH3HN CH3HN CH3HN

CF3CH2O CH3CH2O CF3CH2O | | | = N - P = N - P = N - P =N| | | CF3CH2O CH3CH2O CF3CH2O

SUBSTITUTED PHOSPHAZENES

(film-forming flexible crystalline thermoplastic)2348

(a water-soluble polymer)2348 BORON POLYMERS Dimethyl polyborophanes1574

Polymeric silyl orthoborates1573

In view of various deficiencies in normal carbonaceous organic chains’ many other classes have been examined in recent times.2348 According to H. R. Allcock’ a chemist at Pennsylvania State University’ "a new revolution based on organic polymers is about to begin." Silicon-nitrogen rubbers and oils have been known for many years. These compounds’ called silazanes’ are unstable in the presence of water or in an oxygen atmosphere.1598 Inorganic polymers with alternating silicon and boron atoms have turned up recently’ and a boron-oxygen-silicon linkage is used in the well-known "silly putty." Various carbon-boron ("carborane") polymers which are quite stable have been discussed in the literature’1575 along with short-chain nitrogen’ sulfur’ and silicon-sulfur arrangements. Phosphorus’ nitrogen’ and chlorine combine to form a kind of rubber in a water-free environment. These "polyphosphazines’" as the chemists love to call them’ are normally highly unstable in the presence of H2. However’ it has recently been learned that short segments can be polymerized and made water-stable. Soon after this discovery’ the elated researchers wrote: "... it now seems likely that almost any set of required properties can be designed into the polymer by a judicious choice of side groups." The proposal that polyphosphazine polymers be used in biomedical applications to transport fixed metal ions2351 suggests a wide range of xenobiochemical applications’ perhaps analogous to the metal-containing complexes in chlorophyll and hemoglobin.

* While more than thirty carbonaceous molecules have been detected in the interstellar void by radioastronomers’ only two silicon compounds -- the monoxide (SiO) and the sulfide (SiS) -- had been found as of 1976. 1002 This may’ however’ reflect more the zeal and interests of the searchers than the true ubiquity of molecular species containing silicon. ** It should be noted that partial substitution of Si for C occurs even in terrestrial skeletal components (e.g.’ diatoms’ some grasses’ etc.) and in protoplasm. 1551’1649 Dr. Alan G. MacDiarmid’ Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania’ has succeeded in forcing bacteria to take up silicon analogues of various carbon compounds in their nutrients. He has conducted similar experiments using analogues based on germanium (Ge)’1172 the element directly below silicon in the Periodic Table and whose compounds have long been known to possess certain medical properties. 1576

8.3 Exotic Lifeforms What is the bottom line in xenobiochemistry? It must be admitted that the mere ability of atoms to assemble themselves into polymers’ while significant’ is yet a far cry from the complex biochemistry needed to sustain a living system. There remains a vast gulf between the simple silicone and polyphosphazine polymers and the orchestrated symphony of life. While chemists have been vaguely aware of the possibility of exotic life schemes for more than a century’ no coherent’ well-integrated alternative system has been proposed and none is on the horizon. Without actual specimens of alien organisms to examine’ the task suddenly takes on staggering dimensions. Imagine trying to speculatively reconstruct our entire terrestrial biochemical basis’ having no prior knowledge of its nature or even of its existence! The evidence admittedly is against the existence of silicon-based life-forms: The evolutionary mechanisms and planetary conditions appear much too unwieldy. Ammonia life seems far more feasible’ if for no other reason than it is so closely analogous to terran biochemistry. It would also appear that carbon is the backbone element of choice in Earthlike environments’ although this should impose no real restriction on diversity. One must agree with Shklovskii and Sagan when they assert: "It is quite premature to conclude that ours is the only’ or even the best of all possible’ biochemistries."20 In spite of the difficulties’ there probably exist many different kinds of life in our Galaxy’ including some very exotic forms based on different physical interactions than ours. But we cannot be certain of this until we travel into space and seek them out. Back to Contents

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 10. Alien Bioenergetics "And yet ‘tis not improbable that those great and noble Bodies have somewhat or other growing and living upon them’ though very different from what we see and enjoy here. Perhaps their Plants and Animals may have another sort of Nourishment there." -- Christian Huygens’ in The Celestial Worlds Discover’d; Or, Conjectures Concerning the Inhabitants, Plants and Productions of the Worlds in the Planets (1698)602 "Individuals die. However’ the total amount of living matter perseveres’ and even increases. We can imagine a spherical organism with the cycles of physiological processes closed completely in themselves. Such an organism will be immortal and photosynthetic’ and it can develop even a higher consciousness... -- Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovskii (1934) "Along the very light-shadow borderline were the Outsiders. Just as their plantlike ancestors had done billions of years ago on some unknown world near the Galactic Core’ the Outsiders were absorbing life-energy. Their branched tails lay in shadow’ their heads in sunlight’ while thermoelectricity charged their biochemical batteries. Some had root-tentacles dipped in shallow food-dishes; the trace elements which kept them alive and growing were in suspension in liquid helium." -- Larry Niven’ from "Flatlander" (1967)607

Why are xenologists so concerned about bioenergetics? Bioenergetics means’ simply’ the study of biological energy. The engine of life’ as any machine’ needs a supply and a flow of energy--chemical’ electrical’ thermal’ or whatever--to keep it running. If power is suddenly cut off’ both mechanical and biological machines soon grind to a halt. The thermodynamic definition of life discussed in an earlier chapter--that living systems "feed on negentropy" and thereby manage to maintain themselves against the universal drive to disorder mandated by the Second Law of Thermodynamics--demands a flow of energy from a source to a sink. This requirement is so fundamental to the basic character of life itself that we may confidently predict that bioenergetics will be a favorite discipline among alien zoologists and physiologists. But can we be as certain about the specifics? The Viking Lander biology package assumed so. The Pyrolytic Release device tested for photosynthetic activity on Mars’ and the other two experiments sought evidence of respiration and simple metabolism. But were these assumptions reasonable? Must lifeforms evolving under alien suns on distant worlds conform to Earthly patterns and cycles? ETs will have met the bioenergetic challenge in many diverse and unexpectedly clever ways. Each new race independently must have evolved intriguing and totally unique methods for absorbing’ storing’ distributing and regulating energy. While we don’t know for certain if extraterrestrial photosynthetic animals are possible elsewhere in our Galaxy’ or if alien bloodstreams will run red’ green or blue’ or whether in some distant corner of the universe there exist "biological refrigerators" which can stabilize body temperatures on sweltering worlds as hot as blast furnaces’ xenologists cannot resist the temptation to pose these and other fascinating questions.

10.1 Finding the Energy to Live Active life requires a flow of energy between a source (a region of high energy) and a sink (a region of lower energy). To use heat energy’ for example’ a difference in temperature between two points in space must be maintained. A steam engine works not because it is hot’ but rather because the boiler is hotter than the condenser. How does plant life fit into this scheme? It has been said that the only reason photosynthesis works at all is that the surface of the sun is at 6000 K’ whereas the surface of the Earth (and its plant life) is only at 300 K. Photons emitted at the higher solar temperature travel through space to this planet’ enter the chlorophyll molecule and power the plant’s metabolism. Later’ photons of waste heat’ a form of degraded energy’ are radiated off at the far lower planetary surface temperature. Animals too need sources and sinks. The food they eat is burned by the oxygen they breathe’ and this constitutes a useful source of energy. The external environment’ by accepting bodily waste heat’ serves as a sink. All life on Earth ultimately depends upon one of two sources: Photons from Sol (photosynthetic organisms) and chemical energy (all nonphotosynthetic terran lifeforms). However’ various other possibilities have been suggested for hypothetical alien beings on other worlds. One widely discussed alternative involves the evolution of life on so-called "starless planets."128’816 Such worlds’ if they exist’ lie in the dark plumbless abyss of interstellar space far from the coddling embrace of any friendly star. Were the object large enough’ say’ a massive jovian or super-jovian’ it might be warmly self-heating with a tepid surface crust. Of course’ we know that heat alone will not power a living organism. And it is difficult to imagine how to establish a flow of energy in an environment heated to some relatively fixed’ unvarying temperature. Most writers have ruled out life on starless planets on this basis.18’22’714 Dr. Thomas Gold at Cornell University disagrees. If we consider the surface of a starless planet as a source at 300 K’ he points out’ then all we need to do is find a sink somewhere at a lower temperature to establish a life-giving flow. Space is very cold’ only about 2.7 K. If this or something very close to it could be used for the energy sink’ then biological thermodynamic efficiencies approaching those of terrestrial photosynthesis might in principle be possible.22 Extending this idea just a bit further’ Gold suggests that some alien lifeforms may base their processes on a thermal gradient in time rather than in space. Imagine a uniformly heated environment in which there was a slow but regular diurnal temperature variation. Usable bioenergy could be extracted through the use of a chemical system which coupled only to the equilibrium state established at each extreme. At the hottest extreme’ certain reactions might take place which stored energy in chemical form. This energy would then be released only when the temperature swung down to the coolest extreme. In this scheme’ the source and sink are no longer coextensive in time. As temperature fluctuates’ the surroundings would be first the source’ later the sink’ and so on. Many other imaginative and exotic energy systems have been postulated by various writers’ including geothermal heat and volcanism’ piezoelectricity’ solar wind ions’ planetary magnetic fields’ atmospheric electricity (e.g. lightning)’ and radioactive decay (fission power). J.W. Ycas has come up with a novel form of energy transduction’ to which he has given the formidable appellation "palirrhotrophy."2379 His organisms’ should they exist’ are powered by chemical osmosis. A flow of bioenergy -- an "osmotic current" -- is established "by exploiting the rhythmic variations in salinity which occur in the estuarine environment." As the palirrhotrophic lifeform is periodically flushed’ first with salty seawater and later with upriver freshwater’ energy is pumped into its system osmotically. Such creatures might exist on a predominantly watery world’ one with a large moon or moons and a fast rotation to make the tides frequent but brief. A tropical climate would ensure plenty of rainfall and a bountiful source of freshwater’ and high gravity would cause mountain water runoff to cut deep channels and fjords to the sea -- a viable niche for palirrhotrophic ETs. Another distant possibility is the use of mechanical energy. The waves’ winds or tides might be harnessed to power a shore-dwelling alien creature. A slowly rotating planet with a massive moon in a fast orbit would have plenty of mechanical wave energy available at the surface. Yet organisms would find themselves without sunshine for such long night-time stretches that they might find it useful to evolve a biomechanical energy system as an auxiliary power supply. A similar proposal is that extraterrestrial lifeforms might be able to use the internal heat flowing up though the surface of a terrestrial world. Unfortunately’ even on a world as far removed from the stellar campfire as cold’ distant Pluto’ the sun out radiates internal planetary sources by nearly two orders of magnitude. A more viable proposition’ perhaps’ is the concept of the thermoelectric organism.607 On a planet with thin air’ located close to its star’ the temperature differential between direct sunlight and shade might be sufficient to adequately power an alien biochemistry. A few hardy souls have even suggested thermonuclear lifeforms. At a meeting of the British Interplanetary Society back in 1948’ Olaf Stapledon proposed that the fusion power of the sun might conceivably be harnessed as an alternative to biochemical processes.556 Although Isaac Asimov has used this idea in the context of a small’ planetbound animal’94 such a power supply might be more apropos for electromorphs akin to Hoyle’s Black Cloud.*

* It is interesting to note that Sol’ the only nearby entity we know of that uses fusion power’ has an overall energy output of only about 0.0002 watts/kg. The human body’ on the other hand’ operates at a whopping 2.0 watts/kg’ about four orders of magnitude higher than the sun!

10.2 Photosynthesis Despite that many energy schemes noted above’ not all processes theoretically permissible under the Second Law of Thermodynamics are commonly or easily available to living organisms. The methods for the performance of useful work used’ say’ in modern industry are generally not utilized by Earthly lifeforms. For instance’ changes in temperature such as might result from combustion or nuclear reactions are not found in biology. Instead’ the creatures on this world uniformly may be characterized as "chemodynamic machines’" operating by chemical rather than by thermal energy. This is not a serious restriction. As Dr. E. Broda at the Institute of Physical Chemistry in Vienna points out’ nutritionists have observed that "surprisingly high yields of useful energy can be obtained from food." Comparing chemical and thermal systems’ Broda continues: "With a yield of 25% as observed’ the {equivalent} temperature difference works out as 105 °C. Hence’ if the body was a heat engine’ local temperatures of at least 310 K (body temperature) ‘ 105 K (food-conversion temperature) = 415 K would be needed."1013 While we recall that arguments on the basis of temperature alone cannot rule out the possibility of life’ this example serves to illustrate the superior competitiveness of chemodynamic as opposed to strictly thermodynamic energy systems. We conclude’ perhaps somewhat chauvinistically’ that nonexotic chemical energy systems will normally be the method of choice for the majority of extraterrestrial lifeforms. Naturally’ the most convenient and abundant source of usable energy for most ETs will be their sun. The process of energy utilization by a living creature is its metabolism. Given the problem of designing a metabolic system’ starting from the sole assumptions that (1) a chemical framework (2) powered by sunlight must be used’ we quickly arrive at two logical conclusions. First’ the simplest organisms in a planetary ecology will be those capable of tapping the given energy source directly. These lifeforms accumulate energy from photons received from the sun’ absorb any needed inorganic matter that happens to be lying around’ and put the two to work in an integrated biochemical system. Because they are able to harvest energy straight from the original source all by themselves’ such creatures are called "autotrophs." Second’ we might imagine another kind of lifeform which cannot tap the energy source directly. This class of organisms is either too lazy or too incompetent to manufacture its own food. So what powers them? Instead of patiently accumulating solar energy’ these larcenous "heterotrophs" pirate energy-riches from the complacent autotrophs. Since there is no honor among thieves’ we would also expect to find heterotrophs stealing energy from each other as well. An entire chain of robbery would develop’ with the strong taking from the weak’ the stronger taking from the strong’ and so forth. With a few minor variations’ this is the basic scheme of life on Earth. The autotrophs are our plant life’ which take up carbon dioxide and convert it to carbohydrates and other energy-rich goodies. The heterotrophs are the animals. Clearly’ the organization of an ecology into two major groupings (producers and consumers) is not at all arbitrary but follows logically from the twin assumptions stated earlier. It is difficult to imagine an easier or more elegant solution to the fundamental bioenergetic problem. Although other ecological systems may exist’ the dual autotroph/heterotroph arrangement is probably the preferred technique for chemically-based’ solar-energized metabolizers.1428 Each year about 150 billion tons of carbon are taken in by the autotrophic plants on this planet and are combined photosynthetically with some 25 billion tons of hydrogen (split from the oxygen in water) to make carbohydrates. In the process’ 400 billion tons of oxygen are set free. On the average’ a typical molecule of carbon dioxide wends its way through the system once every 200 years; each O2 cycles less frequently’ perhaps once every 2000 years.997 Of course’ it is not absolutely necessary for alien autotrophs and heterotrophs to participate in a carbon cycle biochemistry powered by the breakdown of water to oxygen. While the photosynthetic process itself is so simple as to suggest a certain measure of universality’ there is nothing sacred about which chemicals are recycled. In fact’ there are a number of other systems in use today right here on Earth. One alternative to the photosynthetic H2/O2 cycle of which humanity is a part is the H2/H2SO4 process of the sulfur bacteria -- an entirely different oxidation-reduction system than the one we use. Purple sulfur bacteria take in hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and oxidize it to sulfuric acid (H2SO4). Desulfovibrio’ another class of sulfur bacteria’ completes the cycle by reducing the acid back to the original hydrogen sulfide gas. Many other systems are in use on Earth besides this "sulfur cycle." There is an H2/H2O cycle’ a CH4/CO2 cycle’ an NH3/N2 cycle’ and so forth. Microorganisms on this planet are capable of metabolizing such peculiar and diverse substances as selenium’ iron sulfide’ arsenic’ thiosulfate ion’ cyanides’ and methanol. But the main hangup with using any of these exotic non-oxygenic systems to power large extraterrestrial organisms is their relative inefficiency. Most are at least an order of magnitude less energetic than the water/oxygen cycle which dominates the biochemistry of Earth. Because they are so woefully inefficient’ non-oxygen-cycle lifeforms are significantly out-competed in most terrestrial environments and "have been driven to the fringes of lifeas-we-know-it."1390’1651 Nevertheless’ there have been many valiant attempts to design viable extraterrestrial ecologies around various alternatives’ notably by Asimov’1358 Clement’292 Glasstone’72 Mitz’1424 Salisbury’1658 and Vishniac et al.313 If photosynthetic activity is extremely useful if not essential on other worlds’ what is the best way to do it? Although there are many other molecules at work’ chlorophyll predominates on Earth. Chlorophyll’ the green active pigment in plants’ is a member of a general class of carbon compounds known to biochemists as porphyrins. Porphyrins are very simple ring-shaped molecules which have been produced in many prebiotic synthesis experiments’1590 and which are believed capable of autocatalyzing their own production. Once formed’ the porphyrin ring has enormous stability against decomposition. This may help to explain why these substances are so widely distributed on Earth today. The porphyrin pigment chlorophyll has a single magnesium atom located in dead center. The exact function of this metal atom has yet to be clarified’ but it is believed to play a crucial role in trapping and utilizing the energy of incoming photons used in photosynthesis. If alien autotrophs use porphyrins too’ will they be restricted to green’ magnesium-based chlorophyll? A few have argued that we should consider only the most abundant metallic elements in Earth’s crust -- say’ the top 99% in abundance -- as candidates for the central atom.2374 If we buy this assumption’ then a fairly good case can be made for the exclusivity of magnesium porphyrins in any water-solvent oxygenic biochemistry.1423’2399 Of course’ this is only a plausibility argument -- one which utterly fails if alternative liquid media (other than water) are considered. And even in water’ despite the many points in favor of Mg’ some doubt remains. Other possibilities may be open to ETs. While photochemists have so far been unable to produce a substitute porphyrin complex "which involves relatively large storage acts" per photon of energy absorbed’993 it is well-known that zinc (Zn) porphyrin complexes are capable of undergoing reversible photochemical oxidation-reduction reactions similar to those exhibited by Mgporphyrins.1422’1423 One chlorophyll near-analogue’ called zinc tetraphenylporphyrin’ has shown weak photoactivity.993 Other zinc porphyrins’ although admittedly rare on this planet’ have been found in several organisms including Rhodopsuedomonas apheroides’ the diphtheria bacillus’ various mammalian organs’ and in leaf tissue homogenates.994’1069 Copper porphyrins have also been found in the diphtheria bacillus’ and other substitutions using nickel’ cobalt’ or manganese are remotely possible but seriously questioned.1422’1442 But perhaps we are being overly restrictive. What’ after all’ is so magical about the porphyrins? True’ they arise in prebiotic experiments’ and true’ they are relatively simple molecules and they get the job done. But maybe there exist other equally suitable substances that could stand in for chlorophyll in alien plant biochemistries. It seems difficult for many to believe that porphyrins are the best-suited class of molecules for the photosynthetic function. In fact’ according to Bernard Pullman of the Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique’ University of Paris in France’ "it certainly is not."315 George Wald’ Carl Sagan’ and countless others have pointed out that chlorophyll actually absorbs light rather poorly in the green portion of the spectrum -- paradoxically’ the very region where solar radiation is most intense. It is likely that a variety of dyes other than chlorophyll could have been used by plants. Several alternative pigments are known in terrestrial biology to participate in the process of light absorption. For example’ the carotenoids -- found in many species of bacteria’ algae’ and higher autotrophs -- absorb primarily blue light (which has more energy per photon) and thus are red’ orange’ or yellow in color. Carotenoids have no metal atoms and contain no porphyrin-like substances. Another category of terran photopigments are the phycobilins’ which give both the red and the blue-green algae their distinctive’ vivid color. In the purple "halobacteria" (salt-loving)’ chlorophyll is entirely replaced by another Earthly photosynthetic pigment called bacteriorhodopsin. This substance has a deep purple color and is chemically related to rhodopsin’ the photosensitive pigment called "visual purple" found in the rods of all mammalian eyeballs. Research has suggested that this pigment may be selectively more advantageous in certain specific environments. This is particularly true under conditions of intense sunlight’ elevated temperature’ high salinity’ and low oxygen concentrations.2402 As a possible photosynthetic agent for extraterrestrial plant life’ purple bacteriorhodopsin is less efficient (by one-third) but chemically simpler than chlorophyll. Going still farther afield’ why must complicated organic compounds be used at all? It has been amply demonstrated that the oxides of titanium (white)’ tungsten (canary yellow)’ and zinc (white) all possess high photosensitizing activity in oxidation-reduction reactions comparable to the activity displayed by chlorophyll. And these particular pigments are known to store light-energy in stable terminal products.2374 This may be useful for biology. Finally’ it is also well-known that many carbon-based organisms are capable of utilizing silicon and germanium to varying degrees. Why could not alien autotrophs’ instead of sporting leaves impregnated with chlorophyll’ sprout thin platelets of "organic photocells" analogous to the solar cells used by NASA to power spacecraft? Water could be split up by some electrolytic process’ and the hydrogen thus liberated incorporated into useful energy-rich molecules. Any of these substances could serve as photosynthetic pigments for alien plants. When human explorers reach out to other worlds’ they may discover beautiful white’ blue’ red’ yellow’ orange’ purple’ glittering steel-gray -- yes’ even green! -- landscapes of thriving vegetation.

10.3 Animal Metabolism and Respiration We have seen that photosynthesis is a highly useful means for collecting and storing solar energy. But only plants have been discussed. Could "animals" use this technique as well? This idea has cropped up from time to time in science fiction’ so it is worthwhile to deal with it briefly here. The basic idea is that it might be possible to design an alien metabolism falling somewhere between pure autotrophism and pure heterotrophism. The microscopic flagellate Euglena could be a possible ancestor of such creatures. This tiny microbe feeds both by chlorophyllic photosynthesis (like a plant) and by direct absorption of organic food (like an animal). But when it comes to larger organisms’ many writers have been unable to conceive of plausible autotrophic animals. Usually it is alleged that "plant men" are impossible because they would be incapable of collecting enough energy fast enough’ and that the only remedy for this failing is to become a sessile’ vegetable-like being’ perhaps akin to a tall’ green-skinned saguaro cactus with corrugated skin and large’ leafy limbs. But is this really true? The total power requirement of the typical mammal is roughly 3.4M3/4 watts’ where M is the mass of the animal in kilograms.1662 The energy received from the sun is a fixed amount’ and normal plant efficiencies range from 1-10% in normal light. From these values it is easy to calculate that the maximum size of a chlorophyllic autotrophic mammal on Earth is a small fraction of one millimeter. Moving the planet closer to the sun or raising the photosynthetic efficiency doesn’t help much’ either. But all is not lost! Reptiles’ for various reasons’ often consume as much as an order of magnitude less energy than mammals of comparable size. Taking this into account’ we discover that reptilian autotrophs may be as large as 30 centimeters wide. Given optimum shape and plausible environmental conditions’ autotrophic turtles are quite possible. Small autotrophic aerial insects or birds may also be possible on worlds where sizable wingspans are aerodynamically feasible. Energy could be absorbed by chloroplasts locked in the thin skin of the wings. Solar-powered avians may patrol the skies of other worlds high above the surface vegetation’ thus escaping certain death under a dense and dimly-lit forest canopy. If their planet rotated slowly enough’ they could probably glide sufficiently fast to follow the sun. They could keep their life-giving photoproductive wings in perpetual daylight. Since autotrophic avians would rarely have to stop to hunt for food’ they could spend virtually their entire lives engaged in such travels. Another possible autotrophic animal would be a floating marine species’ a pancake-thin stingray-like affair skittering across the surface of the sea. These creatures could grow to enormous sizes’ not having to waste much time on hunting or predation. Their main concern would probably be fending off hungry heterotrophic thieves. But Euglena and green hydras aside’ plant-eating is the way of life for all animals on Earth. Two broad classes of heterotrophic energy utilization may be imagined. First’ the rich foodstuffs plundered from plants could be broken down directly for energy. This simple technique’ probably used by the earliest protobionts and retained today by the yeasts’ is called fermentation. A typical fermentation reaction in which carbohydrate is decomposed looks something like: C6H12O6 —> 2C2H5OH (ethyl alcohol) ‘ 2CO2 ‘ 74’600 joules This anaerobic (oxygenless) reaction leaves most of the energy behind’ locked up in the two molecules of ethyl alcohol -- which are discharged as poisonous wastes. The second alternative is to employ a powerful oxidant drawn from the environment (e.g. oxygen’ chlorine’ fluorine’ etc.) to biochemically "burn" the carbohydrate fuel. Most animals on Earth today are powered in this way’ using oxygen as oxidant’ called respiration. In a respiration reaction’ the full amount of energy stored in the carbohydrate fuel is recovered: C6H12O6 ‘ 6O2 —> 6H2O ‘ 6CO2 ‘ 2’820’000 joules About one and a half orders of magnitude more energy are released during respiration than during fermentation’ at least with carbohydrate fuel. As a result’ many have concluded that animals powered by fermentation cannot be very advanced. This is of interest to xenologists’ because if true’ it sets a limit to the complexity of evolutionary processes in reducing environments -- such as those on the primitive Earth and gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn. Carl Sagan sounds a note of caution: This is an unimaginative conclusion. There may be more energetic foodstuffs available elsewhere; or the organisms there may eat at a faster rate than do organisms here; or their metabolic processes may be correspondingly slower. It is premature to infer that every planet populated with higher organisms must have an {oxidizing} atmosphere.20 However’ there appears to have been great selective advantage for those lifeforms able to metabolize powerful oxidants. Clearly’ in any biochemical system’ respiratory organisms will obtain far more energy from a given quantity of food than others who rely solely on fermentation. The invasion of land on our world less than an eon ago was immediately preceded by the evolution and rapid deployment of respiratory mechanisms throughout the animal kingdom.2404’2405 Respiration would seem to be the metabolic process of choice for highly active’ mobile organisms. On Earth’ three basic designs for respiratory organs have emerged over the eons: Tracheae’ gills’ and lungs. The first of these is used by insects’ worms’ and other small creatures. An insect does not really breathe’ as we understand the term. The system is essentially a passive one. Oxygen is not carried to the muscles by circulating blood’ but rather by a network of branching air tubes called tracheae. Insects introduce oxygen into the interior of their bodies solely by diffusion (sometimes assisted by weak abdominal pumping spasms) -- a far slower and less efficient technique than an active’ forced-flow oxidant circulation system. This tends to limit the size of tracheal breathers. Although this passive system might well serve much larger organisms on a planet with high atmospheric pressure (of oxidant)’* on Earth insect bodies must remain fairly small to be efficient.89’1730 The largest alive today are the tropical beetles which grow as long as 15 cm; and while tropical dragonflies and centipedes during the Carboniferous Period (and the Devonian Period sea scorpion Pterygotus) often achieved lengths up to 150-180 cm’ they were still stuck with attenuated cylindrical bodies no more than a few centimeters in diameter.722 If an animal can’t wait for oxidant to drift lazily through tracheae to replenish its cells’ it can forcibly pump it there using a powerful circulatory system. This is an active system’ in contrast to the passive mode of insect breathing.** Circulatory fluid may be enriched with the vital oxidant in one of two ways: Diffusion from a liquid medium (gill breathing)’ or diffusion from a gaseous medium (lung breathing). Breathing by water seems to present more problems with fewer rewards than air breathing. Since the liquid has a far higher density and viscosity than air’ it takes more energy to ventilate a gill than a lung. This difficulty is further aggravated by the simple fact that water equilibrated with the air above contains only 3% as much oxygen in solution. Hence’ the gilled animal must pump a lot to breathe a little. Oxygen diffuses into the respiratory organ about a million times faster in air than in water. Water breathers also have less control over the flow of vital ions between body and environment’ which can be quite hazardous. Perhaps the most serious drawback to the use of gills is the problem of heat loss. Water breathers expose their blood to an external fluid of comparable heat capacity’ while air breathers encounter a thin gaseous medium with a heat capacity some 3000 times lower than that of their circulatory fluid. Hence water breathers’ to inhale the same amount of oxygen per minute as a lunged creature’ must expose their internal environment to a heat sink with an effective capacity roughly 100’000 times greater than the equivalent amount of air. It is for this reason’ xenologists believe’ that warm-blooded aliens will almost certainly not have gills.724

* With much denser air’ insects could be somewhat larger than we know them. Flowers might also be larger’ broader’ more colorful’ in response. 89 ** As a general rule’ blood circulates continuously throughout the body. However’ in a few animals (notably the annelid worms) there is no such throughput circulation. Instead’ bodily fluids undergo a periodic ebband-flow cycle’ a kind of "tidal irrigation" of the cells.

10.4 Alien Blood It has been suggested that the color red is used to signify danger in so many human societies because it is the color of blood. We associate red with blood and bleeding’ which in turn are associated with pain’ bodily injury’ or death. If the blood of ETs is’ say’ green (Figure 10.1) instead of red’ one writer speculates’ they "would think green a quite natural index of danger and be amused at the idea of using red."2552 Virtually all higher organisms on this planet circulate body fluids of one form or another. The grasshopper has a circulatory system involving blood and many hearts -- though it is used only for food and waste’ and not oxygen’ transport. The earthworm has an advanced pumping network with five pairs of hearts’ and the squid has two pairs -- one at each gill to circulate fresh oxygenated blood’ the other pair for returning spent blood. In the human body’ a heart weighing about half a kilogram pumps 8000 liters per day through approximately 96’000 kilometers of vessels and capillaries.

Figure 10.1 Alternate Blood Chemistry in Science Fiction

Mr. Spock’ the extraterrestrial Science Officer of the Federation starship Enterprise, has green blood coursing through his veins. © 1976 Paramount Pictures

One of the most important functions of circulatory fluid is to deliver oxidant to the organism’s cells’ by dissolving more of it than would normally be possible in plain water. On Earth’ where gaseous oxygen is the most common oxidant in general usage’ the utility of blood in this regard is greatly enhanced by the presence of pigments. These pigments are able to combine "reversibly" with O2’ picking it up in lung or gill and ferrying it along to the cells. For instance’ pigments found in mammals typically can carry some 250 cm3 O2 per liter of blood’ as compared to a mere 5 cm3 O2 that can be dissolved in a liter of ordinary seawater at the same temperature.

The way oxygen transport works is rather clever. Nature has discovered that certain substances will chemically combine with oxygen at high partial pressures’ but that if the pressure is lowered past a certain point’ the gas is let go again. By maintaining a high partial pressure in the respiratory organ of an animal’ and a comparatively low pressure within its cells’ O2 may be picked up by the blood pigment in the lungs and later forced to give it up when it reaches the body tissues. The most successful such pigment on this planet is hemoglobin (Hb)’ a member of the same class of porphyrins to which chlorophyll belongs (Figure 10.2). A hemoglobin molecule consists of a porphyrin ring with a central iron atom (heme)’ hooked to a giant clump of protein called globin. Hemoglobins are present throughout the entire animal kingdom’ in all vertebrates (except a few Antarctic ice-fish1691) and in the circulatory fluids of many invertebrates as well (annelid worms’ many arthropods’ and some echinoderms’ mollusks and crustaceans).

Figure 10.2 Structures of Some Important Porphyrins1428 Chlorophyll

Heme (hemoglobin)

The porphyrin ring structures in chlorophyll and hemoglobin are remarkably similar. Researchers have suggested that it may he possible to replace the central magnesium (Mg) atom in chlorophyll with zinc (Zn)’ and the central iron (Fe) atom in heme with cobalt (Co)’ in alien plants and animals.

Hemoglobin remains the most efficient oxygen-carrier known. For the better part of this century’ chemists have labored in vain to create other substances that could do a better job. Nevertheless’ several other pigments have been discovered and utilized in nature.* These’ while not as efficient as hemoglobin’ still are able to serve as adequate oxygentransporters in certain environments (Figure 10.3). The copper-containing pigment hemocyanin’ second in breadth of distribution only to hemoglobin’ is found in the blood of various mollusks and arthropods.195’723 Unlike human blood’ which is bright red in the arteries (oxygenated) and dark red in the veins (deoxygenated)’ hemocyanin blood is a beautiful blue in the arteries and crystal—clear colorless like water in the veins. Hemocyanin is always found floating freely in the blood plasma’ rather than being trapped inside corpuscles as are the relatively smaller molecules of Hb. This copper-based’ proteinous’ non-porphyrin blood pigment is only about 25% as efficient an oxygen carrier as hemogIobin.734 Might true extraterrestrial "blue bloods" exist? On a world with very high surface pressures and abundant oxygen we might suspect that the higher efficiencies achieved by Hb might not be needed for survival. Hemoglobin might then never have evolved at all.

Figure 10.3 Respiratory Pigments for Alien Bloodstreams

Another free-floating respiratory pigment found in various tubular annelids (Polychaeta)’ also only about a quarter as efficient as Hb’ is chlorocruorin.723 Solutions of this ironbased pigment are green in natural dilute solutions’ but in higher concentrations become vivid red in color. The blood of one species’ Serpula vermicularis’ is remarkable in that it is a dual hemoglobin/chlorocruorin pigment system. Hemerythrin is iron-containing proteinous pigment found in the blood of certain bottom-dwelling marine worms (nematodes’ annelids) and brachiopods. It serves as a reversible oxygen carrier’ but is far less efficient than hemoglobin. Blood containing this pigment is a bright pink or violet when oxygenated’ but turns colorless by the time it reaches the veins. A small molecule like Hb’ it must be confined to corpuscles in the bloodstream rather than allowed to float about freely. Another pigment is called vanadium chromagen.1650 This is found in the blood of sea squirts’ ascidians’ and tunicates. Confined to tiny corpuscles known as vanadocytes’ the blood containing these tiny packets is usually apple-green in color but can also be found in blue and orange varieties’ presumably due to the presence of different oxides of vanadium.1070 Although still questioned by some’ vanadium chromagen appears to take up and release O2 freely in acidic solutions. There are a few others known to biologists’ such as the copper-based porphyrin found in the wing feathers of Turacus indicus and the occurrence of a manganese-based porphyrin in the blood of the mollusk Pinna squamosa (called "pinnaglobin’" a brownish pigment)’ whose respiratory functions have not yet clearly been established. Lifeforms on other worlds could use various combinations or varieties of any of the above to get oxygen to their cells. Their blood could take on virtually any color’ as we have seen. But does the inventory of natural techniques on Earth exhaust the possibilities? Not by a long stretch. Despite the undisputed fact that reversible oxygen binding is a comparatively rare biochemical property’ there are many alternatives never seen by nature. For more than half a century now’ chemists have been reporting the synthesis of Hb-like molecules’ not occurring in nature’ capable of reversible combination with oxygen.734 For example’ a simple iron-indigo compound seems to work quite well.2411 Porphyrin complexes of dozens of metallic elements have been studied carefully in this regard.914’918’1068 Chemists have discovered suitable manganese and cobalt complexes unknown in terrestrial respiratory systems. Since early in this century’ in fact’ a wide range of cobalt histidines and "coboglobins" have been investigated in depth. (See especially the work of Hearon et al.’914 Hoffman and Petering’916 Martell and Calvin’1067 and Michaelis.915’2414) They appear most promising for use in possible alien biochemistries. There is some precedent for this on Earth: Vitamin B-12 is a cobalt-based porphyrin. Coboglobin blood would be colorless with a faint pinkish tinge when loaded with oxygen’ but in the veins would take on a dark yellow or deep amber color. Since coboglobin protein is a lightweight molecule like hemoglobin or hemerythrin’ we might expect ET blood to carry the pigment in corpuscles.** After many cycles of use’ a molecule of coboglobin gets old and "tired." It loses its ability to reversibly bind oxygen. While this aging takes weeks in the case of normal human hemoglobin’ less than a day is required for coboglobins to poop out. As this "irreversible oxygenation" sets in’ the pigment changes color dramatically from amber to deep pink. But this should pose no insuperable problem for ETs. We know that millions of human blood cells are broken down and rebuilt each minute of our lives. It is not implausible to suggest that alien organisms may have evolved a more efficient biochemical apparatus for the recycling and reconstitution of blood pigment than have Earthly animals. It is doubtful that the relative scarcity of cobalt compared to iron will rule out the existence of coboglobins in alien blood. While the element is about 1/100 as abundant as iron in the seas’ it is approximately as abundant as phosphorus’ chlorine’ and potassium’ all of which are common in mammalian biochemistry. And the two elements copper and vanadium -- used by terrestrial lifeforms in the O2-transporting blood pigments hemocyanin and vanadium chromagen -- are almost an order of magnitude scarcer than cobalt in the cosmos and are of comparable abundance on planetary surfaces.*** Another interesting though less likely possibility is iridium-based blood. One simple compound with an absolutely horrible name (chloro-carbonyl-bis(tri phenylphosphine)iridium) has recently been shown to undergo reversible oxygenation.919’920 This substance is insoluble in water and other polar media such as liquid ammonia and alcohols’ but this presents no barrier to its use in blood. The vanadium chromagen found in ascidians is also insoluble in water. In solution’ the compound takes up one atom of oxygen per molecule to change from brilliant yellow to sullen orange. The reaction is not quite as fast as with the cobalt complexes’ so a more convoluted lung would be necessary. In the oxygenated condition’ the iridium-based blood of extraterrestrials would have to be protected from light because it is very photosensitive. The pigment slowly decomposes over a period of days or weeks when exposed to strong light’ gradually changing color from orange to green and finally to a deep bluish-black. Such aliens would therefore either have very dark skin’ or would inhabit a dimly lit world. (In the absence of light’ the molecule is stable for years.) The iridium complex has one additional property which is extremely fascinating to xenobiologists. In addition to oxygen’ the molecule is also capable of reversibly binding hydrogen as well! Many other reversibly binding compounds can probably be found if chemists search for them diligently. And we haven’t even really considered the possibility of ETs using oxidants other than oxygen. To date’ chemists have scarcely considered reversible chlorine- or sulfur-binding molecules which might serve as respiratory pigments in the bloodstreams of truly alien extraterrestrials.

* Most animals with colored blood (except insects) obtain that color primarily from the respiratory pigment. Naturally’ since substances of all kinds may be dissolved in the circulatory fluids of an animal’ the possibility of blood of any color cannot be positively ruled out. However’ in most respiratory terrestrial species it remains true that the blood is vividly colored according to the particular oxygen transport pigment used. ** Like hemocyanin’ hemerythrin and coboglobin are not destroyed by carbon monoxide as is hemoglobin in human blood. Organisms with these kinds of blood pigments thus would not be poisoned by the gas’ as humans are. *** Cobalt’ not iron’ may lay claim to the simplest oxygen binding molecule on record. Cobalt forms a complex with ammonium hydroxide (ammonia dissolved in water) which is capable of reversible behavior. The carrier molecules have a mean lifetime of only a few hours’ so must be rapidly recycled much like coboglobin. 914

10.5 Thermoregulation About 20 joules of energy are released for every cm3 of oxygen consumed in respiration. In reality’ however’ only a fraction of it can be utilized for activity and useful work. There is much waste heat. A major problem experienced by extraterrestrial creatures will be controlling the generation and distribution of this excess energy within their bodies. Of course’ an organism might simply choose to ignore the problem’ hoping that the environmental temperature extremes don’t become so great as to make life impossible. These are the "cold-blooded" animals’ which are not really cold but merely biologically unregulated. There are many examples on Earth. Sea creatures are most likely to follow this pattern’ because temperatures in the ocean vary little from day to day.* The consequences of cold-bloodedness are often striking. During freezing weather’ as much as 75% of the body water in several marine invertebrates has been found in the form of ice.943 Cold-blooded creatures are not seriously size-restricted’ but tend to be come lazy and sluggish in hotter or colder climes. Consequently’ animals evolved certain techniques to maintain greater control over internal temperatures. It was quickly discovered that it was of tremendous advantage to be able to run the biological machinery at top speed in virtually all circumstances. The fact that most organisms on Earth are mostly water is itself a tremendous thermoregulatory advantage. A 75 kg adult human’ for instance’ may generate ten million joules of energy in a single day. As pure heat energy’ this would suffice to raise the body temperature only about 30 °C. But if almost any substance other than water were used’ the same quantity of heat would cause a temperature rise of from 100-150 °C -- which is excessive. Aliens’ like terran lifeforms’ may also control body heat by dilating or constricting blood vessels in the skin. An extraterrestrial with green blood whose body is overheating may appear flush-skinned’ a sickly-looking pale patina. There are variations on this theme. Elephants are thought to use their giant ears as great thermal radiators. There is much speculation that the tough armored dorsal fins of the extinct dinosaur Stegosaurus might have acted as cooling vanes. ETs may come up with similar adaptations’ especially among the larger creatures and in hotter planetary environments. Evaporative cooling is another simple technique. Humans can sweat out as much as 10-12 liters of water each day from some six million evaporative sites in the skin. However’ it is believed that only large warm-blooded organisms can afford to throw away the copious amounts of water needed for strictly evaporative cooling. We might also expect that aliens on very humid worlds would be far less likely to evolve evaporative thermoregulation’ because high humidity means slow vaporization. Again’ there are variations. Some animals’ such as the rabbit’ the ostrich and barn owl’ and the dog’ are cooled almost entirely by panting.944 Saliva spreading is the only known technique among rodents’ several marsupial species’ bats (Megachiroptera)’ and has been observed in cats’ elephants’ and opposums.942 Wallowing is most effective in bare-skinned or sparsely-coated species. The domesticated pig cannot sweat at all’ but by wallowing in mud or its own urine it can increase evaporative heat loss by as much as two orders of magnitude.941 (Intelligent wallowing ETs’ the utods’ appeared in Brian Aldiss’ science fiction novel The Dark Light Years.226) The Canadian harp seal is a warm-blooded animal living in extreme cold’ and has evolved a unique internal heating system. It has the equivalent of a biological "electric blanket" under the skin’ which can be turned up or down as required to maintain stable body temperatures. The seal can also regulate its own heartbeat’ ranging from 120 down to 20 beats per minute’ to change the distribution of body heat.2408 Many other methods of temperature control exist among Earthly fauna which could serve as models for ETs. Heat can be generated by shivering’ and many believe that feathers may have been a thermoregulatory adaptation.1653 There is "behavioral thermoregulation" (sun-basking’ shade-cooling)’ "social thermoregulation" (school swimming in fish’ hive fanning in social insects)’ "seasonal thermoregulation" (woodchucks and marmots are warm-blooded during one season’ cold-blooded in another)’ and even variable metabolic heating demonstrated in some species of plants. To the best of our knowledge there exist no organisms on Earth that directly utilize the principle of the heat pump -- which Carl Sagan has aptly described as "biological refrigerators."630 The cyclical expansion and contraction of a volatile coolant fluid might be possible. Or’ cycles of complementary biochemical reactions could be designed to cool an extraterrestrial lifeform at one end while radiating off heat at the other. For instance’ consider a 100 kg alien with a normal body temperature of 50 °C. If it is sitting in an environment held at a uniform 75 °C’ the desired body temperature can be maintained if the creature holds one fifth of its total body mass (about 20 kg) at 175 °C. Such a heat pump mechanism would be greatly simplified if a simple cooling fluid with high heat capacity could be found’ especially on a planet with an atmosphere rich in heat-conductive gases such as hydrogen or helium. The overall problem of heat management has some interesting consequences as regards the limiting sizes of organisms elsewhere in the Galaxy. As dictated by the SquareCube Law’ an animal which is twice as tall has eight times more mass -- and thus eight times more waste heat is generated -- but only four times as much surface area across which to radiate it off. The problem of very large animals’ then’ is to find ways to get rid of lots of excess heat. Since the quickest and simplest way to do this is by conduction in water’ this may explain why the largest warm-blooded animals on Earth -- the whales -- are found in the sea. The largest terrestrial land lifeforms in hot’ tropical climates (rhinos’ hippos and elephants) are designed without body hair to facilitate heat loss. Dinosaurs are believed by many to have been hairless’ and this fact may have contributed to their extinction during the periods of extensive glaciation and global cooling which followed the balmy Jurassic a hundred million years ago)142’2412 The Square-Cube Law predicts exactly the opposite problem at the low end of the size scale. An animal which is only half as tall generates only 12½% as much waste heat but has 25% as much skin surface to radiate it away. It must eat twice as fast just to stay as warm as before. The problem of small animals (say’ 1-1000 grams) is to conserve body heat and find enough to eat to stay alive. As Isaac Asimov once remarked’ "no one has ever seen a fat shrew or ever will."2409 For example’ whereas a human consumes only 1-2% of his body weight in food each day’ a mouse must eat 50% of its weight daily to survive. A warm-blooded animal much smaller than a mouse seems virtually impossible. The disadvantages of small size with warm-bloodedness further aggravated in cold Arctic climes or in large heat-sink media such as the ocean. In both these niches on Earth larger animals tend to predominate -- polar bears and seals in the cold North’ and dolphins and whales in the seas. There are no reptiles or amphibians’ and few small mammals. It is also known that body limbs and tails tend to be shorter in colder climates’ a phenomenon known as Allen’s Rule. The size and shape of extraterrestrial organisms will be closely determined by their need for energy’ the efficiency of their metabolisms and ecology’ and by the nature of their internal temperature control mechanisms.

* Warm-bloodedness probably requires nonaquatic evolution. Air is less conductive than water’ holds less heat’ and is subject to much wider thermal variations. Air just can’t do the job water does’ so a new approach is required. Warm blooded ETs will probably have evolved that ability on land.

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Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 11. Extraterrestrial Biomechanics "...but why must they be of the same nature as ours? Nature seems to court variety in her Works’ and may have made them widely different from ours either in their matter or manner of Growth’ in their outward Shape’ or in their inward Contexture; she may have made them such as neither our Understanding nor imagination can conceive." -- Christian Huygens’ in The Celestial Worlds Discover’d; Or, Conjectures Concerning the Inhabitants, Plants and Productions of the Worlds in the Planets (1698)602 "I would even go so far as to say that’ from the cosmic viewpoint’ all terrestrial mammals are ‘humanoid.’ They all have four limbs’ two eyes’ two ears’ one mouth’ arranged symmetrically about a single axis. Could a visitor from Sirius really tell the difference between a man and’ for example’ a bear? (‘I’m terribly sorry’ Mr. Prime Minister’ but all humanoids look the same to me....’)" -- Arthur C. Clarke (1968)373 "Life elsewhere is likely to consist of odd combinations of familiar bits." -- Allen Broms’ in Our Emerging Universe (1961)1191 "Two large dark-coloured eyes were regarding me steadfastly. The mass that framed them’ the head of the thing’ it was rounded’ and had’ one might say’ a face. There was a mouth under the eyes’ the lipless brim of which quivered and panted’ and dropped saliva. The whole creature heaved and pulsated convulsively. A lank tentacular appendage gripped the edge of the cylinder’ another swayed in the air. Those who have never seen a living Martian can scarcely imagine the strange horror of its appearance... -- H. G. Wells’ in The War of the Worlds (1898)

The rich diversity of multicellular life on our own planet should tip us off that nature will have produced similarly intricate designs elsewhere in our Galaxy. The flora and fauna of extrasolar worlds doubtless will differ markedly from terrestrial species. One has only to consider the tremendous variety of terran life to realize at once that we live in a grand planetary zoo without equal -- save that of another world. Nevertheless’ there must exist some limits to strangeness’ some basic’ universal rules regarding the construction of physical beings. Our imagination sorely needs stimulation rather than restraint. So perhaps it is appropriate to begin by attacking one of our most basic assumptions about alien life: That all organisms must be built of cells. Since phase separation is probably a fundamental prerequisite to life’ and since small cells are virtually certain to arise prebiotically’ it was not an unwarranted assumption’ to be sure. But it is not essential’ either. Interesting in this regard are the slime molds native to Sol III.444 At one stage in their life history’ they are small and insignificant one-celled flagellates capable of individual multiplication by simple fission. At a later time’ however’ large clumps of these cells fuse together. The resulting single’ large’ amoeba-like organism is capable of collective movement as a single entity. During this "plasmodium" stage cell walls dissolve away’ leaving an amorphous mass of living protoplasm which can grow as large as 25 centimeters or more. Here’s the catch. Although there are many cell nuclei floating around inside’ the "body" of the slime mold in the plasmodium stage bears no trace of the earlier division into many cells. The organism has’ quite literally’ metamorphosed into a large single-celled organism.* Hence’ large extraterrestrial beings plausibly may be unicellular. Another peculiar possibility is the diffuse-organism concept. Despite the assertions by some that "no biological life has developed in which a single integrated organism has covered large geographic areas’"600 it has been pointed out by the renowned American entomologist Edward O. Wilson that a colony of social insects may be thought of as a kind of organism: ...weighing anywhere from less than one gram to as much as a kilogram and possessing from about a hundred to a million or more tiny mouths. It is an animal that forages amoeba-like over fixed territories a few meters in extent.... The giant of all such superorganisms is a colony of the African driver ant Dorylus wilverthi’ which may contain as many as 22 million workers weighing a total of over twenty kilograms. Its columns regularly patrol an area between 40’000 and 50’000 square meters in extent.565 What would an ET with detachable cells be like? Would we recognize the parent organism as living? If it were intelligent’ could it comprehend us? Contact with an alien diffuse-organism might prove frustratingly difficult for early human explorers of distant worlds. [Note: See also the author's article "Extraterrestrial Zoology"’ published in 1981.]

* This idea has already been used in several science fiction stories by Larry Niven. His Bandersnatchi are an example of an elephant-sized extraterrestrial organism constructed on a unicellular basis. The creature consists entirely of "undifferentiated protoplasm." 451

11.1 Specialization and Symmetry Despite the fascinating possibilities suggested above’ a compact multicellular condition will probably develop on many worlds with highly organized life.* This is primarily because multicellularity permits specialization. Specialization permits a division of labor in the primitive cell colony. Some cells become expert at’ say’ moving the body around. Others’ free to ignore motion’ may perfect their skill at digesting foodstuffs. The division of labor allows cells to do what each does best’ and the aggregate efficiency is vastly increased. It is the business of life to accumulate information and complexity. The specialized’ highly differentiated organism is the bearer of far more information than a more homogeneous or generalized entity. The specialist metazoan has greater complexity. This is not to say that complexity per se necessarily has survival value. But solutions to complicated environmental crises may require complicated solutions. As Carl Sagan observes’ a solution involving many molecules will frequently be qualitatively superior to one which involves only a few.20 There does seem to exist a general evolutionary trend towards increased information storage’ greater complexity’ and higher levels of biological specialization. By "specialization" we usually mean "the utilization of specific structures which perform given functions within the body." These structures are called organs. Organs’ while specialized in function’ need not be specialized in structure. It is entirely possible that extraterrestrial lifeforms might have what is often referred to as "distributed organs." Instead of neat packages of similar cells’ distributed organs would be scattered throughout the body. There are precedents for this on our own world. For instance’ insects inhale oxygen like other animals and yet they have no lungs. Unlike the localized organs found in humans’ mammals and other animals’ the insect "lung" permeates the entire body. The insectile structure is crisscrossed’ like a piece of Swiss cheese’ with a network of tracheal tubules and microscopic holes. Air reaches the interior cells only by diffusion. The insects’ "lung" is a distributed’ nonlocalized "organ." Peter Ritner has suggested that a creature’s brain might be of a distributed nature.1550 We can imagine an enormous blob of alien protoplasm suffused with more or less generalized nervous tissue. The organism’s brain and body’ like the breathing apparatus of the insect’ would be coextensive. The number of organs of each type is highly variable. The squid’ for instance’ has two kinds of hearts -- one for arterial blood and one for the venous. Many terrestrial creatures have two or more eyes’ multiple anuses and stomachs’ pairs of arms and legs’ and so forth. Sometimes’ organs combine several functions at once -- such as the human mouth. There is no reason to believe that ETs will have exactly the same combinations as us. They may have separate organs for eating’ drinking’ breathing and speaking. The dolphin’ for example’ eats through its mouth’ breathes through its blowhole’ and "speaks" through its "ears." The land snail’s lung opens onto a passageway quite distinct from its food canal’ and sea cucumbers breathe through their rectums. (This is called "anal respiration.") Brachiopods can only vomit their solid and liquid wastes’ because they have a "blind intestine’" a kind of alimentary cul-de-sac. Then there is the ant lion’ which is incapable of voiding any excrement at all. This is because all digestion occurs outside of its body’ by the powerful saliva it injects into its victims. After the prey’s innards have turned to soup’ the ant lion sucks the victim’s body clean of the predigested pap’ leaving a dry husk behind. There are no wastes. And the members of phylum Nematomorpha (long worms) have no mouths at all. All nutrients are "eaten" by direct absorption through the skin. Aliens can be no less strange in their organ arrangements. There is also the possibility of multiple-brained extraterrestrial animals. After all’ Brontosaurus and Diplodocus’ two species of giant dinosaurs’ carried an enlarged section of neural tissue in the hip region -- larger than the brain itself! The volume of this "sacral enlargement" in Stegosaurus’ another fossil animal of grand proportions’ was perhaps twenty times larger than the brain in the cranial cavity in the head. Further’ Homo sapiens (a species not yet extinct) tenders a curious "split brain." The left and right hemispheres are two coordinated organs with distinct functions and reactions to stimuli.502 Most vertebrate brains have a similar dual construction. In addition to varying degrees of specialization and organ distribution’ most extraterrestrial multicellular lifeforms will display some sort of symmetry. Symmetry refers to the basic geometrical layout of an organism’ the way its various parts are positioned with respect to one another’ its shape. Probably the first to appear in evolution was radial symmetry. The radiolarians -- small’ spherical lifeforms -- are ideal examples. The main body is distributed around a single point in a radiating fashion. The cylinder shape is another form of radial symmetry’ in which parts are arrayed around a line instead of a point. Many sponges and coelenterates display this pattern. However’ virtually all of the metazoans may be regarded as having bilateral symmetry. In this design’ an imaginary line drawn from head to tail bisects the animal into two similar pieces. That is’ the organism may be divided down the middle by a plane which results in two mirror-image halves. Humans are organized in this fashion’ as are all mammals and most chordates. Bilaterality’ if we can trust the fossil record of a single specimen planet’ must have great selective value because it has been re-invented countless times in most phyla of the animal kingdom. Of course’ body symmetry reflects lifestyle. Primitive sedentary or attached animals are usually radial’ a body configuration that permits exploration of the environment in all directions. Conversely’ animals that must pursue their food more actively need a more mobile’ streamlined shape. The bilateral cylinder is ideal for efficient unidirectional movement through viscous media such as water. And it is characteristic of the most successful of Earth’s fauna’ including all of the vertebrates and most of the invertebrates. Based on the evidence of literally millions of terrestrial animal species’ we conclude that highly-organized mobile aliens will most probably have bilateral symmetry if they have any physical form at all.

* Terrestrial organisms display remarkably little variation in the sizes of the individual cells’ most falling within a single order of magnitude of scale. However’ colder planets may spawn lifeforms with somewhat smaller cells than ours. This is because there is less thermal disruption at the molecular level at lower temperatures.63 But how small can cellular building blocks be? The 1000 Angstrom "pleuropneumonia-like organism’" or PPLO (the smallest living thing on planet Earth capable of independent metabolic activity)’ is probably extremely close to the theoretical limit of roughly 400 Angstroms. 1440’2395 An alien analogue to a human being’ if constructed of cells this small’ would weigh a mere fifty milligrams and would stand only five millimeters tall.

11.2 Xenobiomechanics Besides the gross form alien life may assume’ xenologists also want to know how large these beings might be. What role does planetary surface gravity play in determining the size and shape of bodies? What are the limits of biological building materials? Will alien skeletal support structures resemble our own? As with most areas in the field of xenology’ these questions are quite complicated and have no quick’ simple answers. A good place to begin’ however’ is the Square-Cube Law’ first recognized by Galileo more than three centuries ago.2410 This mathematical law’ which will hold anywhere in the universe’ states that volume increases faster than surface area as size is increased. If an animal’s size is doubled’ its surface area rises by a factor of four. Its volume’ and therefore its weight’ rises as 23 or eight. From this simple result flow many momentous consequences. If weight increases eight-fold’ but the surface which supported that load increases only fourfold’ then the pressure that must be sustained to support the body against gravity has actually doubled. Bones are asked to carry proportionally twice as much stress as before. Consequently’ as animals get larger’ their bones must become thicker’ sturdier’ and squatter to accommodate the higher pressures. All parts of an animal must be modified when there is an increase in size. Muscle tissue’ the strength of which is determined by cross-sectional area’ must double in relative thickness in response to a twofold increase in size. Lungs’ kidneys’ intestines and other blood-filtered organs also function according to surface area rather than body volume. The entire organism must be redesigned as it becomes larger. The horror movies about giant insects ravaging the countryside are really quite impossible. A bug the size of a house has a billion times more mass to carry around’ and its thin’ spindly legs are called upon to sustain pressures thousands of times greater than before. To walk at all’ the misshapen insect needs muscles proportionately thousands of times thicker than before -- yet such tissue already virtually fills the hollow bones of the tiny original so there is really no room to grow. If it did not collapse under its own weight’ or was not immobilized by the feebleness of its muscles’ it would starve to death because its stomach was a thousand-fold too small or would suffocate because its tracheae could carry only a thousandth of the needed oxygen. The worlds of size are truly worlds apart.*

* Consider the following excerpt from J. B. S. Haldane’s Possible Worlds (1928): A man coming out of the bath carries with him a film of water of about one pound. A wet mouse has to carry about its own weight of water. A wet fly has to lift many times its own weight’ and a fly once wetted by water or any other liquid is in a very serious position indeed. An insect going for a drink is in as great danger as a man leaning out over a precipice in search of food. If it once falls into the grip of the surface tension of the water -- that is to say’ gets wet -- it is likely to remain so until it drowns. The majority keep well away from their drink by means of a long proboscis. 974

11.2.1 The Challenge of Gravity The strength of biological building materials sets an upper limit on size. Galileo once calculated that a tree taller than about 100 meters (on one-gee Earth) must buckle under its own weight. This is because its cross-sectional strength would be insufficient to stabilize such a tall mass against collapse. (Some sequoias’ which slightly exceed this theoretical limit’ are nevertheless close to the maximum height attainable using woody materials.) The typical loads sustainable by animal bone are about: 600 atm laterally (shear strength)’ 1000 atm in longitudinal tension’ and as much as 1700 atm in compression.204’1730 These should be compared to the following: 340 atm for Douglas fir’ 540 atm for hard-burned brick’ and 5400 atm for cold-rolled steel.48’924 Clearly’ bone is an excellent building material. The villain of this story is’ of course’ gravity. This force at the surface of any world determines to some extent the maximum mass and size of the animal life. One way to meet this challenge is to take to the water. In the sea’ the force of gravity is partly cancelled out by the opposing natural buoyancy of immersed bodies. There are no obstacles to large structures per se. But subtle problems arise when sea creatures grow too large. It has been suggested that inertial mass’ rather than weight mass’ may be the limiting factor. That is’ the larger a body in motion is’ the more it wants to remain in motion. An extraterrestrial leviathan larger than a whale would experience severe steering’ braking’ and turning difficulties. Cornering too fast could easily exceed the strength of the building materials’ and snap the behemoth in two.400 There are also ecological considerations. Larger aliens will generally eat more than smaller ones’ all else being equal. Yet at the same time it is getting huger’ the organism is also getting bulkier and less maneuverable. The animal needs to spend more and more of its day feeding. Indeed’ the largest whales must drive incessantly through food-laden waters in order to meet the severe metabolic demands of their ponderous bodies. Further’ note that the mass which must be fed increases as the cube of the linear dimension’ the nutrients must be absorbed through the surface area of a gut which increases only as the square of the linear dimension. The Square-Cube Law thus predicts that at the same time it is becoming harder to ingest food fast enough’ it’s also becoming harder to actually utilize what is eaten.* What is the largest skeletonless creature that can exist? We really don’t know’ but in the ocean the answer is -- reasonably large. Life without a rigid frame offers advantages difficult for humans to fully appreciate. Many molluscs such as the squid and octopus have pretty much lost their ancient shells and have become essentially skeletonless lifeforms. Octopuses can stretch themselves quite thin’ passing rubberlike through small holes and narrow crevasses. Arms’ eyes’ and even head can alter shape and elongate when necessary. The octopus has been called "the supreme escape artist’" and is known to be able to walk across desktops and the decks of ships. But a creature of the land must be a creature of gravity. Whether resting on the surface or traveling across it’ alien organisms must find some means of support or be reduced to a groveling mass on the ground. As long ago as 1917’ the well-known zoologist D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson speculated on the effects on evolution of altering the planetary gravity. "Were the force of gravity to be doubled’" Thompson declared’ ...our bipedal form would be a failure’ and the majority of terrestrial animals would resemble short-legged saurians’ or else serpents. Birds and insects would suffer likewise’ though with some compensation in the increased density of the air. On the other hand’ if gravity were halved’ we should get a lighter’ slenderer’ more active type’ needing less energy’ less heat’ less heart’ less lungs’ less blood. Gravity not only controls the actions but also influences the forms of all save the least of organisms.958 The concept of the small’ squat’ muscular high-gravity beasts and the tall’ wiry’ frail low-gravity beasts has been tediously reiterated by generations of writers. There are good reasons to doubt such simple conclusions. First’ we may properly assume that the strengths and densities of biological building materials are roughly the same on any terrestrial planet in our Galaxy. And it is certainly true that the maximum mass of a living organism cannot exceed the crushing strength of its bones. But it is very important to bear in mind that this observation is applicable only to maximum size. Indeed’ few Earthly animals exist at or even near the theoretical maximum. This is because animals’ extraterrestrial or otherwise’ are designed for motion. They must be able to withstand the peak pressures and accelerations encountered during running and jumping. Standing at rest’ for example’ a horse seems greatly overbuilt. But on the racetrack’ where it may pull to a halt in as little as 0.3 second (near the breaking point of its bones)’ its design limits are more fully exploited.400 Second’ it is relatively straightforward mathematically to demonstrate’ from the simple laws of Newtonian mechanics’ that the maximum height of animals on a planet is inversely proportional to gravity. That is’ height ~ 1/g.214’1309 Similarly’ we can show that the cross-sectional area of supportive bone must increase directly with ~g’ the bone radius as ~g1/2’ and the maximum mass as ~1/g3. Let us consider the significance of these results. We recall from an earlier chapter that the most massive of all terrestrial worlds should not have a surface gravity in excess of 2.2 Earth-gees. (Although self-heating starless planets or superjovians could have tremendous forces’ even monstrous Jupiter only musters 2.64 gees.) Luna’ whose gravity is too feeble to hold sufficient oceans or atmosphere for life’ checks in at 0.16 gees. Apparently the range of plausible terrestrial habitats for life spans a single order of magnitude of gravitational force. With this in mind’ let’s look at the maximum size of land animals here on Earth -- a typically exotic’ standard one-gee planet. The largest land creature alive today is the African elephant’ weighing in at an impressive 6600 kg. But larger animals have trod the soil of our world. The Baluchitherium’ an extinct land mammal’ had a total mass of well over 12’000 kg. Tyrannosaurus rex’ the largest land carnivore’ was about 13’500 kg.2409 The largest land animal ever was the Brachiosaurus’ weighing an estimated 45’000-78’000 kg’ but we’ll ignore this majestic brute because it is believed that he had to spend a great deal of time sitting in swamps resting his tired bulk. We shall hazard a crude guess’ from these data alone’ that the heaviest viable exclusively land-dwelling creature that can plausibly be designed on an average one-gee world is about 20’000 kg. (The precise value selected doesn’t affect the conclusions very much.) Applying the aforementioned maximum mass ~ 1/g3 relation’ we discover the following: The weightiest alien animal that can inhabit a 2.2-gee world might be about 1900 kg. On a tiny 0.16-gee world like Luna’ the largest creature could be nearly five million kilograms (though I’d hate to try to keep it fed). So on the heaviest of all reasonable terrestrial worlds’ animals such as walruses’ small elephants’ and even 70 kg humanoids are not excluded. On massive’ 2.2gee planets’ all animals the size of hippos or smaller will certainly be possible with a modicum of redesign -- no need to call for "powerfully built’ squat creatures’ perhaps rather like an armoured pancake on multiple legs... limited to slow’ creeping motions across the surface."41’45 There is no reason why such relatively minor alterations in surface gravity should drastically affect the allowable sizes of typical alien animals. This is not to suggest that gravity won’t control the construction of large ETs to some extent. It is true that’ in any given mass category’ the members of an animal species evolving on a high-gee world will have shorter’ stockier bones than those evolving in low-gee environments. We can estimate how large this effect might be. Consider the form of man. A typical human femur -- the most perfectly cylindrical and the largest single bone in our bodies (found in the thigh) -- is perhaps 3.5 cm in diameter. From the bone radius ~ g1/2 relation noted above’ we find that the femur should increase to 5.2 cm on a 2.2-gee world’ or fall to 1.4 cm on a 0.16-gee world’ to provide equivalent support for a 70 kg human body mass. Such changes would probably necessitate major alterations in bone distribution’ structural stress loading’ and internal organ design. Experiments have shown that animals reared in high gravity environments tend to grow slightly thicker than normal bones’ stronger hearts’ and to lose fat. (See especially Kelly et al.’1309 Oyama and Platt’2418 Smith and Kelly’2419 Steel’2417 and Wunder.2416) But by and large’ alien creatures should not appear grossly over- or under-built as compared with Earthly lifeforms of comparable mass.

* There is another still more subtle twist to the story of pelagic lifeforms. On a high pressure world (which may or may not correlate with higher gravity)’ more gaseous oxidant (e.g.’ oxygen) will dissolve in the water in the oceans. The amount of O2 dissolved at any given temperature is directly proportional to the atmospheric surface pressure (Henry’s Law). So on a world with a hundred times the Earthly partial pressure of oxygen’ a hundred times more can dissolve in the sea. Warm-blooded fish should be common. Cold-blooded fish without gills could also exist’ breathing directly through their skin like the earth worm and the salamander of Earth. On a cold oceanic planet these effects would be even more pronounced’ since oxygen dissolves more readily in cold water than in hot.86’2513 And’ of course’ more oxygen means larger bodies.

11.2.2 Meeting the Challenge: Skeletons There are two most common varieties of skeleton currently in use on planet Earth’ both of which are suitable designs for extraterrestrial land-dwellers. The first of these is the exoskeleton’ essentially a hollow tube into which the creature’s viscera are poured. Our earnest ecological competitors’ the insects’ have this form of body support. The second type of skeletal structure’ displayed by all vertebrates’ is called an endoskeleton. In this design’ the support lies under the skin deep within the body. The animal’s vital organs are hung around the central spine like coats on a hat rack. The two are complementary. Exoskeletons consist of gut surrounded by skeleton; endoskeletons consist of skeleton surrounded by gut. Each is the other turned inside out. Which is the superior design for aliens? It has often been pointed out by zoologists that a tubular column of bone always gives greater strength than a solid beam of equivalent mass.215’965 In virtually all situations involving static loading’ exoskeletons appear more advantageous (though usually only slightly). For instance’ the same resistance to bending is achieved with an exoskeleton weighing half the mass of an endoskeleton.1715 Also’ the same mass of exoskeleton has seven times more resistance to buckling than an endoskeleton -- although this advantage diminishes with size.1730 Finally’ the area of bone to which muscles may be attached is far greater in exoskeletons -- muscles may be better placed to take maximum advantage of the mechanical advantages available in a given design. Why’ then’ would any self-respecting extraterrestrial want to be a vertebrate? If external skeletons are so clearly superior to internal ones’ why bother with the latter at all? The answer is this: We’ve only considered static conditions. Animals are designed not for the static situation but rather for the dynamic one. As bulk size increases’ endoskeletons soon outstrip exoskeletons because their performance is superior under dynamic impact loading.1715’1730 Insects’ the Earthly land-dwellers who make the greatest use of external skeletons’ are the same animals for whom gravity is least important. Small animals have much less to fear from falling than do large animals. That is’ small animals’ not needing high impact strength’ may develop the structurally sounder but dynamically less secure exoskeletal arrangement. Large animals’ whose greater size demands better protection from destructive impact loads (e.g. falling out of trees)’ cannot afford this luxury. The largest of all animals’ both living and extinct’ have had endoskeletons. This is probably not a bad rule of thumb for alien lifeforms. Of course’ on a low-gee planet falling impacts would be somewhat diminished for larger creatures. The exoskeleton might remain the preferred design up to bigger sizes than we find on Earth. The largest exoskeletons this world has ever seen measure on the order of 10 cm (on land). It is not inconceivable that the most lightweight of habitable planets could allow meter-sized or larger structures.* There are’ however’ certain other disabilities of the exoskeleton. Setting aside the usual extreme overmassiveness of the structure’ the central difficulty is the problem of growth. If an alien organism possesses a hard’ unyielding integument’ there is no space left for its body to grow. Insects on Earth solve this problem’ albeit rather clumsily’ by periodically "molting" -- shedding the too-small’ aging dermal skeleton and replacing it with a newer’ larger one. This procedure has the unhappy consequence of leaving the animal highly vulnerable and less mobile during the time between the actual molt and the completion of the replacement. Predators lick their chops. ETs may have found better solutions. For instance’ an exoskeleton could be constructed from a series of overlapping laminar plates. They would be designed in adjustable sections held fast by a protein glue. This glue could then be loosened from time to time to permit the plates to slide a bit farther apart’ thus enlarging the interior volume of the skeletal cavity and permitting continued growth. Another alternative for aliens might be to use a hard’ rubberlike substance in the outer dermal layers. This material could be forced slowly to expand (by biochemical means) while providing continuing firm support. Similarly’ one can imagine specialized polymers with different unidirectional cohesion. Maximum tensile strength would lie in the horizontal plane of the ET’ and minimum strength would lie in the vertical direction -- thus permitting vertical growth. Extraterrestrials may have an exoskeleton which’ like the human skull’ has a very thin layer of living tissue over it. As the organism grew’ material would be dissolved from the interior face of the skeletal wall and redeposited as fresh bone on the outward growing side. Massiveness would represent an increasingly serious problem with size’ but any significant thinning of this "shell skeleton" would render the animal more prone to lethal puncture. Higher lifeforms elsewhere in the Galaxy may not be limited to only two choices -- exoskeleton or endoskeleton. Countless outré support structures may be readily imagined’ but it will suffice to mention a mere handful of them here. One of the most popular alternatives’ which appears in the drawing on the following page’ is known as the "basket skeleton." (Figure 11.1) Found only in the echinoderms of Earth -- sea cucumbers’ starfishes and sea urchins -- have a bone structure which is neither endo nor exo but rather a peculiar combination of both.

Figure 11.1 Examples of the Basket Skeleton Metacarpal endoskeletal bone from the wing of a vulture.958 This internal structure is stiffened after the manner of a Warren’s truss in mechanical engineering’ providing both strength and lightness. A possible large-animal analogue of the basket skeleton?

Scanning electron micrograph of the basket skeleton structures in the sea urchin Echinus esculentus.215 In life’ the interstitial spaces are filled with living cells which keep the bony surfaces smooth.

THE BASKET SKELETON (Dalzell and Niven2421)

Instead of a central support column or an exterior support tube’ the basket skeleton is like a piece of calcified Swiss cheese’ a kind of bony trellis. This frame is a curving’ intricate labyrinth of molded biocrystal.2191 Each segment of the internal basketwork is strapped to the rest with sturdy collagen fibers looping through the structure "like laces through eyelets."215 The idea of intelligent aliens with basket bones appeared in science fiction as long ago as 1937’ in a novel by Olaf Stapledon: Then there were men that had developed from a slug-like ancestor along a line which was not vertebrate’ still less mammalian. Men of this type attained the necessary rigidity and flexibility of limb by means of a delicate internal "basketwork" of wiry bones...1946 Another alternative is the multiple endoskeleton. Instead of one spinal column’ aliens may sport two or more major internal support columns. On Earth the flatworm and other free-living turbellarians have a double spinal cord which runs the length of their bodies. While these twin structures serve a neural rather than a support function’ the evolutionary implications are clear: ETs may have at least two’ possible more’ spines. Such a "ladder skeleton" would provide added postural stability’ strength’ and reliability. Although turning or twisting motions of the trunk might be somewhat restricted (even if the multiple support posts were segmented or jointed)’ much heavier loads could be hefted by this physically powerful creature. Ladder skeletons may actually be selectively advantageous in many niches on high-gravity worlds. A still different arrangement is another analogy to terrestrial experience. The "hydrostatic skeleton’" as it is customarily called’ is typically found in rather small marine organisms such as earthworms and nematodes. (Internal pressurization is also found in echinoderms’ some molluscs’ caterpillars and spiders’ although to a lesser extent.) Instead of bone or cartilage’ the hydrostatic animal is supported by pressurized fluid in the interior. The idea is to make use of the incompressibility of water. Any closed container with flexible walls will serve; such a body is really just a bag of water which can change its shape but not its volume. Although perhaps restricted to smallish lifeforms on other worlds’ the hydrostatic skeleton might possibly be scaled up dramatically if a more viscous support fluid than water could be found. This liquid skeleton would be held in place inside a tough fiber-strengthened central tube with extensive reinforcing musculature. And the possibility of devising muscles that push instead of pull has also been raised.878 Then there is the "corkscrew skeleton’" typified on this planet by several of the nemertines. These are predominantly marine’ bottom-dwelling wormlike organisms typically 20 cm in length (a few have measured several meters in length when fully extended). Their bodies are soft and extensible’ with no exoskeleton or vertebral structures whatsoever. Instead’ these creatures have evolved a helical arrangement of firm collagen fibers just beneath the upper layers of the skin. This spiral skeletal construction’ although relatively weak’ allows large changes in shape in response to the contraction of circular and longitudinal muscles by simply changing the pitch of the collagen helices.1730 It is not difficult to imagine scaling up the corkscrew skeleton to larger sizes for serpentine creatures on other worlds. The tremendous stabilizing effects of internal tissue make this possible. Vertebrate tendon has a tensile strength approaching 1000 atm’ which compares favorably with bone and insect chitin. Further’ it is wellknown that muscle tensions are frequently much greater than the loads imposed on the bones.215 The extensive interior sinewy bracing that would be required for adequate support is made more plausible by the observation that the human body itself has more than 400 individual muscles’ representing roughly 40% of the total body weight. Countless other skeletal schemes may be visualized’ including such oddities as telescoping bones (imagine a giraffe with a retractable neck)’ limbs with universal joints (a full 360º freedom of motion’ like an owl’s neck)’ and variable skeletons (an ability to restructure and reallocate the internal distribution of bones). Designing ETs is an enjoyable game for anyone with a sharp imagination’ and can prove both fun and informative if you stick to the rules.

* These limitations are far less severe in the sea. Fossil marine arthropods have been measured up to three meters in length -- most of it hard exoskeleton. Twenty-meter-long invertebrate molluscan squids (e.g.’ Architeuthis princeps) likewise exist with large external carapaces’ although most of this great size consists of soft’ fleshy tentacles rather than hard’ rigid exoskeleton.

11.3 Alien Locomotion Mobility seems to be a central characteristic of all large animal lifeforms on Earth. It may be presumed that this function will be evolved elsewhere in our Galaxy in delightfully diverse ways. There are three distinct media which may be used for locomotion in any planetary environment: Sea’ land’ and air. Life is believed to have arisen in the oceans’ and is likely to have done so again on uncounted worlds among the stars. The first creatures that ever moved evolved in the seas’ so it is appropriate that we begin with aquatic locomotion. The intention here is merely to illustrate’ not to exhaust’ the possibilities.

11.3.1 Aquatic Locomotion The most ancient and respected form of aquatic locomotion is by undulatory movements of the body. Even at the level of the protozoans we find this to be true. Alien fishes in watery oceans of other worlds must often have evolved some similar technique. Earth’s first fish species -- eels’ lampreys’ and so forth -- swam in a serpentine fashion using sinuous motions of the body. More evolved creatures of the sea’ such as the stingray and the skates’ drive forward through the medium by rippling their bodies in a series of back-moving up-and-down waves (rather than the sideways motions of the eel). As time went on’ still more sophisticated methods came into general usage. Aquatic lifeforms developed paired fins for added power and control. Stabilizing vanes appeared. As in the case of the alligator and several other water-dwelling lizards’ many fish use their tails alone as the main source of thrust.* When traveling at a steady pace’ the output of propulsive energy is proportional to the resistance of the surrounding medium. Therefore’ it is in the best interests of the seagoing organism to reduce that resistance as much as possible. How might alien lifeforms accomplish this? We might take a tip from the dolphins. These lissome marine mammals have a unique conformable skin which changes shape slightly as the animal slices through the water. At higher speeds’ the cetacean varies its skin surface to maintain an exactly hydrodynamic streamlined form. The smooth’ laminar flow of water over the dolphin’s body minimizes resistance and saves large amounts of energy. Indeed’ porpoises are known capable of steady speeds of 55 kph’ and still higher velocities are probably attainable by schooling.1708 But there is no need to hurry so. Most animals manage quite well with far less speed at their command. Earthworms’ nematodes and others with hydrostatic skeletons slither along the ocean bottom like tiny accordions. Jellyfish’ squids’ cuttlefish and octopuses all use a kind of biological ramjet for propulsion. After water is passed over the gills for respiratory purposes’ the exhaust is rapidly expelled. The siphon-like apparatus is such that’ by merely gasping harder and faster’ the organism can propel itself backwards in a series of sharp bursts. Octopuses can manage 8 kph or better in this fashion’ and there is no reason why extraterrestrial biological ramjets could not do far better than this. There are more exotic possibilities. One highly unusual technique which has never been exploited on Earth is osmotic power. A permeable sac filled with salty water and placed in a beaker of fresh water will expand. This is the process of osmosis at work: The pure solvent flows through the membrane into the region of higher salt content. This represents a force which’ when distributed over the surface of the sac’ becomes a pressure. Pressure is a force which can be harnessed to do useful work. And osmotic pressures are usually quite high: The pure water in the example above tries to dilute the seawater with a pressure of nearly 25 atm.230 This osmotic force is known to increase directly both with temperature and with salt concentration in the sac. Could osmosis drive an alien fish through some faraway ocean? Imagine a "freshwater" ET constructed in three sections: Head’ torso’ and hindbulb. The head faces forward’ exposing a sac of highly concentrated salts to the surrounding water. An osmotic pressure of many tens of atmospheres forces the pure liquid into the sac in an attempt to dilute the salts. But this working fluid is continuously filtered through a large organ in the torso. There’ energy is expended to reconcentrate the saltwater and to extract the excess water’ which is stored in the hindbulb. When the creature wants to move’ this liquid is rapidly exhausted from the hindbulb through a small nozzle in the tail. There are three evolutionary preconditions for the emergence of the osmofish. First’ there must be some reason why the animal cannot simply inhale the surrounding fluids directly and jet them out again. Perhaps the osmofish inhabits a sea filled with poisons’ or maybe the creature’s organs might be thermally or ionically damaged if contact with the outside were permitted. There is some terrestrial precedent for this: To this day’ cell nuclei exposed to life-giving oxygen are poisoned by it. Second’ the medium must be so viscous that ordinary fin-flapping and body-wriggling are wholly inadequate. On a sulfur thalassogen world’ where the sea alternated regularly from very thick to very thin’ osmotic propulsion might evolve as a backup system for when the oceans became too gluey to swim in. Third’ the diffusion process across the membrane must be sufficiently fast to render the osmotic drive competitive with other forms of locomotion. This is probably do-able. The osmofish is thus a very real and plausible possibility. The surfaces of seas and inland pools of other worlds may harbor still more surprises. There are many forces that may be tapped for motive power. Let us consider just a few of these. The swamps of Earth are inhabited by a fascinating variety of water beetle known to zoologists as Stenus. Thrown to the middle of a pond’ these tiny creatures shoot to the safety of the banks at the water’s edge. The method of propulsion is not unlike that used by toy camphor boats: surface tension. Surface tension is a property of all liquids’ causing them to adhere to themselves at the interface between fluid and atmosphere. This tension represents a considerable force’ and many insects such as water striders are elevated above water entirely by this support. Stenus not only uses the surface for support’ but for propulsion as well. By secreting a substance similar in action to camphor’ the surface tension behind the organism is lowered. The resulting imbalance of forces causes the beetle to be drawn forward rapidly. The data in Table 11.1 suggest that few liquids can compete with water in terms of providing useful energy for surface tension locomotion. Picture a propulsive appendage with reduced tension on one side only. Table 11.1 gives the maximum available force along each meter of appendage for which the surface tension is lowered from its normal value down to zero.

Liquid

Table 11.1 Surface Tension and Alien Locomotion Typical Surface Tension Liquid Typical Surface Tension (Newtons/meter)

(Newtons/meter)

Iron’ molten

1.60

Hydrogen iodide

0.028

Mercury’ liquid

0.450

Hydrogen bromide

0.027

Lead’ molten

0.400

Chloroform

0.027

Selenium’ molten

0.092

Carbon tetrachloride

0.026

Hydrazine

0.092

Methylamine

0.025

Sulfur’ molten (max.)

0.073

Hydrogen chloride

0.024

WATER

0.073

Ethanol

0.024

Glycerol

0.060

Methanol

0.022

Formamide

0.058

Ammonia

0.020

Sulfuric acid

0.055

Hydrogen cyanide

0.018

Bromine

0.040

Fluorine

0.016

Formic acid

0.038

Methyl chloride

0.016

Iodine

0.035

Oxygen

0.013

Sulfur dioxide

0.033

Argon

0.013

Carbon disulfide

0.032

Carbon monoxide

0.010

Acetic acid

0.030

Carbon dioxide

Chlorine

0.028

Neon

0.0055

Nitrogen tetroxide

0.028

Helium (4.15°K)

0.00012

0.001-0.01

How large could an alien surface-sprinter be? Let’s assume 100% efficiency’ propulsive appendages one millimeter in radius with the approximate density of water’ and a total length of all propulsive strands of a hundred meters when unfurled. If such a creature totaled 2 kg in mass’ it would theoretically be capable of accelerative bursts on the order of 0.4 gees -- the approximate rate achieved by Olympicclass human sprinters. The bundled threadlike appendages would represent 16% of the total body mass in this case. If only a tenth as much acceleration is required’ our surface tension beast may weigh as much as 20 kg’ with appendages a mere 1.6% of the total. There are other forms of surface locomotion. The basilisk lizard of Central America has the unique ability literally to walk on water. (Locally’ this has earned it the appellation "lagarto Jesus Cristo.") This small but active reptile’ biologically related to the desert iguana’ speeds across lakes with a gait suggestive of the hasty canter of a terrestrial biped. This ability is of tremendous selective value’ since by scurrying along the water’s surface the animal avoids aquatic predators as well as its enemies back on shore.2433 The basilisk is a cold-blooded animal’ so a warm-blooded ET might be expected to do much better. The coordination and agility required at such high speeds could provide the challenge necessary for the evolution of intelligence on another world. What about the principle of the rowboat? Rowing consists of a series of power strokes by which oars move backwards relative to the boat’ thus driving it forward. Is it possible that extraterrestrial animals could copy this idea and’ fantastic as it may sound’ row across the surface of the sea? Mother Nature has provided ample precedent. The hexapodal water beetles Dysticus and Acilius’ and an insect known as the water boatman (Notonecta)’ use their middle and hind legs to row themselves along near the water’s surface. Hairs on their appendages have a distinctive oarlike appearance’ and it has been calculated that this method of locomotion could be as much as 45% efficient energetically.230 The platypus’ a far larger animal’ may also be said to "row." It is often asserted that rotating structures such as flywheels and paddlewheels cannot be used in living organisms’ because "all parts of the body must be connected by blood vessels and nerves." This simple objection contains two hidden fallacies. First’ it is now known that certain spirochetes have flagellae driven by tiny ionic motors complete with rotor’ stator’ bushings and drive shafts.2432 The feisty bacterium E. coli’ for instance’ comes equipped with a rotor spinning at roughly 60 cycles per second (just like the alternating current from a wall socket). Although admittedly small in size’ this micromotor involves an axle which spins around its long axis through a kind of universal joint. It is in no way connected directly to the main body -- save through the rotating armature itself.1661 This finding contradicts the common assertion that living organisms may not contain detached’ self-rotating parts. Second’ there really is no need to design a paddlewheel as a true rotating assembly. Fins may be stuck out’ scooped through the water’ and retracted again in regular sequence. This would provide both the appearance and the motive power of a true paddlewheel. Many strong paddlers have evolved on this planet. The duck’ for example’ is efficient enough to propel herself through the water at a stately three kilometers per hour.1006 Paddlewheel aliens thus may not be excluded a priori. Wind power is yet another largely unexplored avenue of water surface locomotion. The possibilities are barely hinted at by the fauna of this planet. Whales are known playfully to dive underwater’ leaving only their giant broadleaf tails exposed above the surface. These lighthearted leviathans then "sail’" catching gusts of air on their huge tail vanes and drifting with the wind for hundreds of meters before they’re forced to come up for air.5522 (Since it is far more efficient to swim than to sail’ this is presumably a form of play.) Let’s carry the idea to its logical conclusion.1946 Imagine a mollusc-like organism with a moderately thick concave shell which inhabits the coastal shallows of another world. Over the years this alien species acquires the ability to float boatlike on the inverted shell’ drifting with the shore currents slowly across the face of the planet. Such creatures might feed on floating plant life such as surface scum or the tops of seaweed stalks. With evolution’ the shell might become better adapted for navigation’ perhaps developing a more streamlined underbelly. This would allow the ET to better chart its course between patches of food. Eventually it would discover that its speed could be significantly augmented with a crude "sail’" a thin membrane growing up out of the animal’s back. In time’ the membrane could become retractable’ or even delicately manipulable by muscles. With the emergence of a brain and sensory organs strictly comparable to molluscs on this planet’ a kind of living clipper ship might evolve -- complete with masthead (forward sensors)’ jib’ mainsail and riggings (extensible tendon)’ and probably a rudder. The minds of such lifeforms could be truly awesome. What other glorious mysteries may await us in the star-dusted depths of space?

* As a general rule of thumb’ the top swimming speed of aquatic lifeforms on Earth is roughly ten body-lengths/second. Normal cruising speeds check in at about four body-lengths/second. 224’2424

11.3.2 Travel by Land The surface of a terrestrial planet is a very crude’ rugged environment’ vastly less homogeneous than either sea or air. There are rivers to be forded’ forests to be traversed’ craggy crevasses to be leaped’ and sand and mud and swampy bogs to be waded. Travel by land thus demands the development of extremely versatile locomotive techniques. Xenologists find Earthly zoology most instructive in this regard. Here’ the vertebrates and the arthropods are the only major animal groups which have proved adaptable enough to fill virtually all available planetary niches. Curiously’ they are also the only two groups that have heavily exploited the mechanical principle of rigid levers in locomotion. The implication seems to be: Successful phyla use struts. The ambulatory limb is probably the closest thing to a "universal" locomotive device for surface travel. But how many legs will aliens have (Table 11.2)?

Figure 11.2 How Many Legs? To be classified as in N-ped’ an animal must either; (1) Have N limbs used for walking or grasping’ or (2) customarily ambulate or stand on N limbs. Arguable cases are enclosed in brackets NULLIPEDS (0 - Snakes legs) MONOPEDS (1 - Freshwater clam; snail; sea horse; rotifer leg) BIPEDS (2 legs)

- Humans; kangaroos; seals; many small mammals (squirrels’ Arctic hares. etc.); birds (penguins’ ostriches’ - most common Aves); many extinct dinosaurs (notably Tyrannosaurs’ Anatosaurs’ Hadrosaurs’ Camptosaurs’ and Astrodemus); sea cucumber larvae (Cucumaria frondosa)

TRIPEDS (3 legs)

- (Kangaroo); {Tyrannosaurus} -

QUADRUPEDS - Most land-dwelling chordates (mammals’ reptiles’ and amphibians); most primates; seals; Arctic hares; (4 legs) - inchworm; (praying mantis} PENTAPEDS (5 legs)

- Starfish; platyrrhine ‘prehensile-tail’ monkeys (Cebidae); howler monkeys (Alouatta); capuchin monkeys - (Cebus); woolly monkeys (Lagothrix); woolly spider monkeys (Brachyteles); spider monkeys (Ateles); {elephants}

HEXAPODS (6 - Many insects (cockroaches’ flies’ ants’ chiggers’ etc.); larval myriapods (Pauropoda) legs) HEPTAPODS (7 legs)

- Springtail "catapult insects" (Collembola); (Ichneumon fly (with ovipositor)} -

OCTOPEDS (8 - Octopus; shrimps (ambulatory appendages only); tarantula; scorpion (Vejovis); spiders; sea spiders legs) - (Pycnogonida); spider mites; fowl ticks NONAPEDS (9 - {Scorpions} legs) DECAPODS (10 legs)

- Squid; "Horseshoe" king crab (Xiphosura); spiny lobster; scorpions (counting pincers but not tail); Carribean - and Antarctic sea spider species; geometer or looper caterpillars

MULTIPEDES (many)

- Scorpions (all appendages)’ 11 "legs"; one species of Antarctic sea spider (Pycnogonida)’ 12 legs; dipteran - larvae (Liponeura)’ 12 legs; caterpillars’ 12 legs’ 14 legs’ but most typically 16 legs; myriapod adults (Pauropoda)’ 18 legs; shrimps (all appendages)’ 22 legs; tracheate myriapods (Symphyla)’ 24 legs; centipede (Lithobius forficatus)’ ~30 legs; "house centipede" (Scutigera coleoptrata). ~30 legs; centipedes (Scolopendra morsitans)’ ~40 legs; millipedes (Polydesmida)’ ~40 legs; chambered nautilus’ ~60-90 "legs"; extinct trilobite’ ~100 legs; one slow-moving centipede (Orya barbarica)’ ~200 legs; various millipede species’ ~64-400 legs

On strictly mechanical grounds’ three points are needed to geometrically define a surface plane. Two points define only a line. Any ET attempting to stand on only one or two points of contact must be unstable -- almost by definition. A minimum of three legs would seem to be necessary. Tripedalism appears to have little to recommend it. All organisms will be designed for dynamic rather than static conditions. But when the three legger walks’ it must lift one foot off the ground. The instant it does so’ it is no longer supported by a three point platform but merely by two -- which is dynamically unstable. From an engineering standpoint’ four legs would allow the organism to remain balanced while one leg was moved to walk. Still’ the creature may not mind unstable walking. Bipedalism has been quite common among the birds’ reptiles’ and mammals of Earth’ and should actually be favored on low-gee worlds.736 But it seems difficult to plead for the existence of extraterrestrial tripeds when two legs seem easier to operate and maintain.86 And then there is the old argument that appendages will always come in pairs’ because of our origins in the sea and the need for hydrodynamic symmetry.2435’2436’2437 However’ xenologists remain unconvinced by such reasoning. They dismiss the stability problem as academic’ recalling that most running bipeds and quadrupeds keep only one or two limbs on the ground during the locomotary cycle (as in the pace gait’ or the trot’ the rack’ or the gallop). Also’ terrestrial animals in the same general weight class also have roughly equivalent vestibular balancing equipment’ so going from three to two legs probably wouldn’t save much there. As for the objections to unpaired limbs’ they are pragmatic but unpersuasive.* Many dinosaurs’ such as Tyrannosaurus rex’ and a few large contemporary organisms’ such as the kangaroo’ run bipedally but stand tripedally. These creatures’ tails are as thick and strong as the forelegs’ and are regularly used as postural support. Furthermore’ when kangaroos fight they are known to rear up on their tail to free both legs in order to deliver crushing kicks at their opponents.450 In some sense’ then’ these massive marsupials may be considered "facultative tripeds." Pure tripedalism appears rather rare on Earth’ but this is insufficient to rule it out elsewhere. Advanced aliens on other planets may have different evolutionary ancestors than we. For these reasons’ xenologists expect to find at least a few intelligent three-legged species in our Galaxy. At the heart of the multipedia controversy is the issue of neural control. How much independence of movement is each appendage to have? Must quality be sacrificed for quantity? Humans and other primates’ basically quadruped in design’ have: full and complete control of each of the four limbs. But there is some recent evidence that other four-leggers are not so fortunate. At moderate speeds’ horses appear to be naturally predisposed toward either of two distinct natural gaits. One is the trot’ in which the diagonal legs swing in unison. The other is the pace’ with the two limbs on the same side swinging together. It turns out that a horse which trots cannot be made to pace’ and vice versa’ without extensive training in special harnesses.400 So even among quadrupeds there is a hint of pre-programmed leg motions. Many otherwise perfectly acceptable gaits are generally ignored -- four-leggers have twelve symmetric gaits available’ but only about four of these are used much at all.2439 The hexapodal insects are still more wasteful. With a total of some thirty-six symmetric gaits available’ cockroaches and flies use just two. Limb movements have become almost totally "hard-wired." The extreme case of the centipede and millipede drives this point home. These creatures perambulate by sending a single signal pulse the length of their partitioned bodies. As the message reaches each segment in turn’ the connected limbs automatically sweep forward’ robotlike’ in a downsloping arc. (Otherwise’ the appendages do not move at all.) It is quite impossible for a millipede to wiggle just one leg. As a general rule applicable to extraterrestrial lifeforms’ then’ we might suspect that fewer limbs means more control per limb. But why? The late John Campbell and others have suggested that extra arms and legs means extra demands on the brain. Six legs are impossible in large aliens’ asserted Campbell’ because there would be substantial neural-coordination problems in guiding so many limbs.1380 No brain could meet such an enormous challenge. Most xenologists today would probably dispute this contention.400 The neurological equipment needed to operate an additional appendage is far less complicated than the circuitry required for’ say’ an extra eye. While the processing of visual data takes millions of neuron interconnections in the typical mammal’ that same organism requires only on the order of thousands to actuate the muscles independently.501 We see that only a relatively small slice of the brain is dedicated exclusively to motor control’ whereas about one-third of the entire organ is wholly committed to sensory functions. It should therefore be orders of magnitude less difficult to add extra arms and legs to ETs than extra eyes. There are many who seriously believe that hexapodal aliens are quite plausible.1216 One recent fan of hexapedia is Bonnie Dalzell’ a writer trained in paleontology who has been called "the best designer of alien life in the United States."2423 Ms. Dalzell insists that vertebrates on Earth have four limbs solely because of their common descent from fishes adapted to free-swimming conditions in large’ open oceans. Fish needed only two sets of independent diving planes to maintain stability as their powerful tails drove them through the water. Perhaps if we had evolved from the Euthacanthus’ a fish which lived in the Devonian Period with no fewer than seven pairs of fins’ we might be hexapodal or more-podal today ourselves.1222 So’ assuming ETs have limbs’ how many digits (i.e.’ fingers’ toes) are they likely to possess (Figure 11.3)?

Figure 11.3 How Many Fingers? MONODACTYL - Horses; Thoatherium (an extinct mammal the size of a small dog)’. (shrimps); (octopuses) (1 finger) DIDACTYL (2 fingers)

- Camels; sheep; pigs; deer; caribou; pronghorn cattle; giraffe; goats; antelopes; ostriches (massive - running bird); Choeropus; Cyclothurus; some dinosaurs

TRIDACTYL (3 fingers)

- Rhea and cassowary (massive running birds); bandicoots (Peramelidae); many extinct mammals - (Litopterna, Chalicotheres); extinct horse (Paleotheres); extinct rhinos (Hydracodonts); extinct reptiles (Struthiomimus); most dinosaurs (Archeosaurus, etc.); rhinoceros

TETRADACTYL - Some primates (Colobus, Ateles); sloths; ancestral horse (Eohippus); hyenas; Cape hunting dogs; (4 fingers) - tapirs; hippopotamus; elephant shrews; octodont rodents; armadillos; chickens and most birds; extinct mammals (Titanotheres); theropod saurischan dinosaurs PENTADACTYL. - Humans; most carnivores; most reptiles; walrus; dolphin; elephant; armadillo; sauropod dinosaurs (5 fingers) MULTIDACTYL. (>5 - Many fish species’ e.g.’ Sargassum (10 fingers) fingers) -

It is generally believed by paleontologists that the original amphibian’ ancestor to virtually all lifeforms on land’ had a hand with five digits. However’ it has been admitted that this really cannot be accurately determined because of "the imperfect state of the earlier fossils."223 Many authors have postulated that one or two additional digits might have existed. In fact’ a few fossils are known in all three major tetrapod classes -- mammals’ reptiles’ and amphibians -- which appear to have marginal bony vestiges from a piscine ancestor.223 There is precedent for multidactylism among the fishes. The Sargassum fish’ to take one example of many’ possesses pectoral fins which operate like tiny ten-fingered (decadactyl) hands.586 But this does seem to push close to the upper limit: It is difficult to understand how more than ten digits could be of utility to any animal. There is a general evolutionary trend toward a reduction in the number of digits’ especially in runners and swimmers. The adaptation to running commonly proceeds in two stages. Dactyls are lost when the animal first switches to running’ taking on a "digitigrade locomotion" -- walking high up on the fingers. In later stages’ the animal progresses to "unguligrade locomotion" -- or walking on the fingernails (hooves). The size of hooves is markedly influenced by the environment. Dwellers on shifting sands and mushy marshes develop larger’ flatter ungulae. Mountain dwellers’ on the other hand’ retain smaller’ pointed’ digit-like hooves. For instance’ the African kopjes appear to be standing on tiptoe -- a specialization for rocky terrain and for taking advantage of every slight irregularity along narrow ledges on cliffs.223 Ungulates tend to be herbivores. The ancestral mammal is thought to have been pentadactylate with an (at least partially) opposable thumb. Unfortunately’ when dactyls are lost this is always the first to go. But exactly how does an animal lose its thumb? The first digit vanishes more often in the foot than in the hand’ which suggests that you will lose your thumb if you walk on it. Also’ animals who use their extremities for non-arboreal progression -- such as locomotion across level ground rather than by swinging through the trees -- do not retain the digit. However’ the mandate to remain arboreal is not infallible. The thumb has retrogressed in many arboreal forms (such as the sloth) when the digit is not used for grasping. Reduction in number seems to be the penalty for disuse.223 Environment plays a key role in determining what evolves. For instance’ Dalzell expects to find six-leggers on worlds with small’ shallow oceans. There’ bottomdwelling fishes would be the predominant marine lifeforms early in evolutionary history’ occupying coastal and freshwater environments. If the planet had a very seasonal climate’ perhaps accompanied by large-scale periodic evaporation of shallow seas’ then few fishes would have the chance to evolve into highly efficient swimmers -- as evidently occurred on Earth. With little open ocean available during most of the year’ potentially adept swimmers might not find it a very profitable niche to occupy. The bottom-dwelling manyfinned fishes and crabs would inherit the land instead’ and go on to produce a rich variety of hexapodal alien lifeforms there. Many advantages can be cited in favor of hexapedia. On a high gravity world’ for instance’ each leg would support far less mechanical stress than those of a quadruped of similar mass in the same environment. This should be of great selective value. An additional consideration is that the loss of one limb through accident or misadventure would be less serious for six-leggers than four-leggers. It’s always good to have spares. Another advantage is better balance. Hexapodal locomotion provides a stable support tripod for the ET even at high speeds’ unlike quadrupedal running.2605 And as pointed out earlier’ there should be no problems with coordination’ Says Dalzell: "Earthly insects with three pairs of legs are hardly noted for their well-developed mental powers but most of them walk just fine."736 Prophetically’ Sir Richard Owen’ a British paleontologist of some repute’ wrote nearly a century and a half ago (1849): We have been accustomed to regard the vertebrate animals as being characterized by the limitation of their limbs to two pairs’ and it is true that no more diverging appendages are developed for station’ locomotion’ and manipulation. But the rudiments of many more pairs are present in many species. And though they may never be developed as such on this planet’ it is quite conceivable that certain of them may be so developed’ if the vertebrate type should be that on which any of the inhabitants of other planets are organized. The conceivable modifications of the vertebrate archetype are very far from being exhausted by any of the forms that now inhabit the Earth’ or that are known to have existed here at any period.2422 Despite the tremendous versatility of legs’ there are many other kinds of locomotion possible on land in specialized niches. The freshwater clam’ for example’ has a single hatchet-shaped muscular foot protruding from its shell which allows it to plow along the bottom at a leisurely pace. As the organism "walks" its foot is thrust forward through the bivalve shell. Blood flows into many sinuses’ causing the organ to expand and anchor the animal securely. Retractor muscles contract’ pulling the clam a few centimeters forward. Blood is then drained from the foot’ which shrinks and is withdrawn from the sand. The cycle repeats. The giant clam of Earth has reached masses of more than a third of a ton. It is entirely possible that huge pelagic lifeforms may scour the bottoms of alien lakes and streams in this fashion. Another monoped is the common snail’ which slides along on a cushion of slime. Its movements are similar to those of the clam’ but its foot doesn’t appear to move much at all. This is because the snail takes shorter "steps." The creature advances in a peculiar loping motion by forcing a wave of tension down the length of its foot. This oscillatory thrusting causes it to slide gently forward. One of Larry Niven’s fictional extraterrestrials’ the Bandersnatchi’ locomotes in this way. Although there are no direct large-animal analogues of the protozoan pseudopods of amoeboid movement’** the "tube feet" of the starfish might be considered a distantly related metazoan form. Starfish’ sliding silently over rocky surfaces’ give no hint of the source of the graceful fluidity of motion. But upon turning one on its back’ one sees hundreds of tiny sucker-tipped tubes lining the underbelly. These are the tube feet’ opening into a water-filled canal running the length of each of the five arms. By pumping water in or out of the canal’ the organism can control the actions of its feet. Motion is very rapid: The tubes are pushed forward in the direction of travel and then fixed by their suckers to the rock. Successive waves of tension and relaxation waft the animal along. ETs too may try this trick. There are many alternatives that have never been tried on Earth. A world covered with vast tracts of snow’ one writer has suggested’ might favor aliens with feet shaped something like skis or snowshoes. Or’ creatures in such a habitat might evolve bodies shaped like snow sleds. (It is well-known that Antarctic penguins’ with few predators around to disturb them’ can travel faster by tobogganing on their bellies than by walking.2157) An ice planet could give rise to extraterrestrial critters with cleats or specialized treads to improve traction. On a flat world with few large lakes or oceans’ great furry globe-shaped creatures might be found rolling serenely across the landscape. There are precedents for this on Earth: The tumbleweed of the American Southwest (Sisymbrium altissimum’ or tumbling mustard) and the wheel-like motions of various spherical seeds. The extinct trilobite could curl itself into a smooth ball capable of rolling downhill’ and wood lice and certain other arthropods retain this ability today. Other adaptations of "undoubted utility’" such as the possibility of tractor treads in swampy environments’ have been put forth lightheartedly from time to time. The potential of rotary motion seems to cry out for fulfillment. And yet the evolutionary process has never invented the wheel on Earth’ and Carl Sagan explains why: Why are there no wheeled spiders or goats or elephants rolling along the highways? Wheels are only of use when there are surfaces to roll on. Since the Earth is a heterogeneous’ bumpy place with few long’ smooth areas’ there was no advantage to evolving the wheel. We can well imagine another planet with enormous long stretches of smooth lava fields in which wheeling organisms are abundant.15 Of course’ rotary motion is not unprecedented in the animal kingdom. We have already seen that E. coli has a tiny rotor motor to drive its flagellae. But consider instead the significance of pearl production in oysters’ initiated by tiny grains of sand or other microscopic irritants. Imagine an alien world the size of Earth’ with continental shelves well-flooded to a depth of tens of meters during warm spells. A creature not unlike the molluscan cuttlefish Sepia hovers near the bottom’ stalking small fish’ shrimps’ and crabs. Occasionally’ sand particles enter its water-jet exit portals’ clogging them up. The body responds by encasing them in perfectly smooth spherical pearls’ much like the modern oyster. After millions of years’ an Ice Age arrives and the water slowly recede. There are few mountains due to extensive erosion’ and the retreating shoreline leaves behind vast tracts of smooth’ exposed continental surface. We might imagine our cuttlefish species’ forced to live in ever shallower waters near an increasingly turbid bottom’ evolving into a kind of "caster creature." Its several jet ports permanently plugged by large pearly structures’ such an alien might develop the ability to roll along the smooth continental raceways. Its speed would be controlled by internal contiguous sphincters’ aided by heat sensors to allow guided braking on downhill stretches and a "low gear" muscular assist for steep climbs. Degenerate tentacle arms could provide additional stability on fast runs along the coastline. The caster creature’ hotly pursued by interstellar astronauts or xenozoologists’ might prove rather difficult to capture!

* Odd appendages are often used for highly specialized tasks’ as with the trunk of the elephant’ the prehensile tail of primates and the sea horse’ the hind catapult bar of the spingtail insect’ the Ichneumon ovipositor and the scorpion’s massive stinger. ** Amoeboid locomotion’ whether by "ectoplasmic contraction" or protoplasmic streaming’ is extremely slow. The track star of the amoebas’ Flabellula citata’ can only make about 0.1 bodylengths/second forward motion. 48 Large alien amorphs probably could not better this by much.

11.3.3 Avian Propulsion The air is such a useful niche that it will probably be occupied on any world with atmosphere. The ability to fly has been evolved by each of the three major animal phyla of Earth. Among the molluscs there is a cephalopod of the genus Omnastrephes’ often called the "flying squid’" having broad lateral flippers or fins which allow it to leap far out of the water. Most prominent among the arthropod fliers are the insects’ whose aerial acrobats are well known. The chordates too have many avian species. Flying fishes (e.g.’ the "flying gurnards") can leap from the water and glide hundreds of meters before touching down. The South American Gastropelecus has been observed to progress through the air by rapid beats of the enormous pectoral muscles of its fins. With its keel hardly cutting the water’s surface’ this fish eventually emerges into true (but not prolonged) powered flight. The Catalina Flying Fish is also reputed to be a strong flier.224 Reptilian gliders are widely known’ including the extinct giant pterodactyl (9-12 meter wingspan) and archaeopteryx’ the flying lizards (Draco)’ the so-called Flying Snake of Borneo’ and so forth. Birds are an entire class of chordates subscribing to an avian existence’ and most members of Aves can fly. There are also the gliding mammals’ such as the flying lemur and the many species of flying squirrels’ and flying foxes and bats beat the air with their wings much like birds. There are at least three species of aerial marsupials.450 Powered flight presents a unique challenge for lifeforms on other planets. The central problem is the need for a high power/weight ratio -- that is’ to generate enough power to get above the stall speed for the design and into the air. (The stall speed is the slowest an object can fly and still remain aloft.) Typical power utilization curves for extraterrestrial avians are shown in Figure 11.4. (The exact details of the curves are governed by something called the Reynolds number of the wing’ which relates power consumption to the actual shape of the airfoil.) As we see’ for any given wing shape and given atmospheric conditions’ there is some optimum velocity at which minimum power is required. Flying faster or slower is less efficient and costs more energy.

Figure 11.4 Avian Power Utilization Curves2426 Small Avians

Large Avians

Power required for flight is high during hovering (far left of each curve) and greatest at high velocities (far right of each curve) than at the intermediate "optimum velocity" in the trough. Small avians such as pigeons tend not to have serious power/weight ratio problems. Continuously available muscular energy is sufficient to propel the animal comfortably through a wide range of speeds (shaded area in trough). Short duration "sprint power" permits an even wider velocity range’ and is often enough to allow jump-takeoffs from a standing start ("grasshopper effect") or brief periods of hovering. Large avians such as vultures and albatrosses are not so fortunate. Their power/weight ratio is too low to allow protracted flight even at the optimum velocity for their wings. Hence’ the large aerial animal must find a long run way’ or dive from a high perch’ to reach stall speed (the minimum for flight)’ and then use short duration sprint power to remain airborne long enough to attain optimum velocity and begin relatively exertionless soaring flight.

If the creature flies too slowly it cannot remain aloft’ and will stall out. The speed at which this stall occurs is inversely proportional to the square root of the density of the atmosphere.224 Given the same aerodynamic design’ avians on a world with air as thick as the atmosphere of Venus could remain airborne at speeds ten times slower than on Earth. Conversely’ on planets with Martian-thin air the stall speed would be ten times faster than on Earth. Stall speed is also inversely proportional to the square root of the surface area of the wing. An ET with huge wings can fly much slower -- and not stall out -- than an avian with the same shape but with tiny wings. An alien with 100 m2 of wing should be able to cruise as much as ten times slower than a creature of similar design with only 1 m2 of airfoil -- assuming identical atmospheric conditions. Exactly how do we go about designing an extraterrestrial avian? How big can they be? On Earth’ the albatross is pretty close to the maximum. This 10 kg bird has been known to achieve wingspans of up to four meters. (The most massive aerial animal that has ever lived probably weighed less than 20 kg’ although there are reports of an enormously fat cock bird shot down over the Transvaal in 1892 which measured 24½ kg.360) The albatross requires a lengthy "runway" for takeoff. When it lands’ it must use wing flaps like a commercial jetliner to lower the stall speed sufficiently to land safely at about 20 kph. The primary determinant of avian size turns out to be atmospheric pressure’ not gravity as many erroneously believe. It should also be pointed out that the two are unrelated. High gravity does not imply high surface pressure’ as is clearly demonstrated by the members of our own solar system. For instance Venus’ our sister planet’ has 9000% more pressure but 12% less gravity than Earth. A good empirical relation that seems to work well for most aerodynamic lifeforms is: S = 0.24P-1(MG)0.82’ where S is total wing surface area (m2)’ P is air pressure (atm)’ M is total body mass (kg)’ and G is planetary surface gravity (Earth-gees).1749 So on high pressure worlds’ alien avians can make do with vastly smaller wings. If larger wings are retained’ massive bodies can be maintained aloft. An extraterrestrial with the mass of a man’ standing on the surface of a one-gee’ 5-atm world’ could fly with the wings of an albatross. An albatross’ on the other hand’ could make do with less than half the original wingspan. On a 100-atm world’ the 10 kg bird could be supported by stubby finlike airfoils a mere 30 cm in breadth. Low-pressure worlds are not amenable to large avian lifeforms (Figure 11.5). Lift falls off rapidly’ and nothing more massive than perhaps a small pigeon would be able to take to the air. The force of gravity plays a secondary role in fixing the size and flight characteristics of extraterrestrial bird life. On a heavy 2.2-gee planet’ the wing area would have to be about 90% larger than an Earthly avian of comparable design. On a bantamweight 0.16-gee world’ wing area could be reduced by as much as 80% without losing the ability to fly.

Figure 11.5 Power Requirements for Active Flight vs. Walking Compared, for Earth-Dwellers

Full line at lower right indicates the power/weight ratio needed to sustain steady flight. Animals in the hatched area generate insufficient power to fly. Values are calculated on the basis of aerodynamically optimal wing design’ at the given mass on a 1-gee planet. This "minimum power" line varies for different worlds’ and in fact: P ~ 1/SQRT(r) and P ~ g where P is the minimum power for flight’ r is the atmospheric pressure (or density)’ and g is surface gravity. Horsepower may be converted to watts by multiplying by the factor 745.7 watts/horsepower.

Minimum cost of transport is given both for surface and for aerial niches. Open circles are the insect data’ squares are for birds’ and filled circles are land mammals. The values represent the coat to an animal of transporting one kilogram of its bulk one kilometer of distance. Note that it is generally much cheaper to fly than to walk or run’ except for very large organisms. The best-fit curves for the above data are as follows: AIR: Cost : 1.25(MG)-0.227 LAND: Cost 10e-1’ e = 1.67(MG)-0.126 where M is total mass of the animal (kg)’ G is planetary surface gravity (goes)’ and "Cost’ is in Kcal/kg-km. Kcal may be converted to joules by multiplying by the factor 4190 joules/Kcal.

Gravity also affects the stall speed. In fact’ the minimum velocity at takeoff ~g1/2. This has several interesting consequences. On a 2.2-gee planet the stall speed would be about 50% higher. An extraterrestrial heavy-world albatross would require a correspondingly lengthened runway to get off the ground. The problem of takeoff is greatly simplified on lighter planets. At 0.16 gees’ liftoff occurs at a speed 60% below the nominal Earthly value for the same animal. Avian ETs could perhaps take advantage of what has been called the "grasshopper effect": An animal the size of a large pigeon could easily hop into the minimum airspeed from a standing start on the ground.86 In light of all the evidence’ we are most likely to encounter large’ intelligent winged avians on relatively small worlds with high atmospheric surface pressures. How many wings are best? The first winged insects on ancient Earth probably had no more than three pairs. A few modern insects retain vestigial traces of the third pair’ notably the Stenodictya of the Order Strepsiptera.1212 By and large’ however’ aerial arthropods have cut down on the number of wings’ Locusts’ ant lions’ fishflies’ termites and aphids each have two pairs apiece’ but a single pair is far more common in the animal world’ There are good reasons to reduce the wing count. The usual arrangement is a single pair’ which serves more or less in the capacity of a helicopter rotor -- that is’ to generate active lift. Another less common design is to use one pair of wings to generate passive lift (like the wings of an airplane) and a second pair taking the more active role. (Beetles come close to doing just this.) But no useful purpose is served by adding more wings’ which would only interfere with the smooth airflow and ruin the aerodynamics of the design.1212 Using the principle of economy’ extraterrestrial avians will have one pair’ or at most two pairs’ of wings. Or they may have no wings at all. Thus far we have discussed only the most common techniques of flight known on Earth. But there are many other -- wingless -ways to get into the air. On this planet’ the principles of the rocket’ the kite’ and the balloon have not been widely exploited. Imagine a world with a thick atmosphere rich in oxygen and abundant seas. Evolution might favor large but slow-moving insects as discussed earlier in connection with respiration. We might expect a kind of "rocket fish" to arise near the coasts’ feeding where such insect life swarmed thickly in the air. Like the small plastic toy projectiles that shoot high into the air when fully charged with water and compressed gas’ the rocket fish suddenly would bolt from the sea skyward and mouth their aerial prey at high speeds. To be able to eat on the run’ this jet-propelled alien predator has to evolve a sturdy posterior pressure canister which can be discharged rapidly through a rigid nozzle. The rocket fish might have a recycling time on the order of minutes’ and might charge their canisters using osmotic pressure. Another class of alien creatures might take to the air on other worlds. A low gravity planet with fast rotation and a thick atmosphere could be ideal for the evolution of "parachute beasts." These ETs could travel virtually anywhere for free’ simply by extending their retractable ‘chutes. With strong winds’ they could tack across the planetary surface. With a good stiff breeze’ even fairly massive parachute beasts could kite hundreds of kilometers each day without effort. There is some precedent among Earthly fauna. In the majority of spider species’ aerial dispersal of the young takes place. A spiderling crawls to the end of a blade of grass or other protuberance’ raises its tiny abdomen’ and lets fly a thin thread of silk into the wind. As the gossamer strand is caught by a breeze’ the spiderling leaps from its perch and climbs to the middle of this floating "magic carpet." Air currents carry the animal to considerable distance: Spider threads have been sighted at least as high as 8 km and as far seaward as 500 km from shore’ Couldn’t extraterrestrial "hang gliders" do just as well? The idea of the balloon principle in relation to living organisms is a common one’ both in science and science fiction.20’442’2427 It appears’ for instance’ in a nineteenth-century novel by the French writer Charles Ischir Defontenay -- Psi Cassiopeia (1854): Here is what the Starian naturalists say of this animal’ which they call the psargino: Its skin’ which has great extensibility’ is only attached at the eyes’ the mouth’ the other natural openings of the body and the soles of the feet. Over the rest of its expanse’ it is only juxtaposed to another membrane or internal skin having the property of secreting’ at the animal’s will’ {hydrogen} gas. The psargino’ thus surrounded by gas’ becomes a sort of balloon lighter than the atmosphere’ and it makes use of this property to rise into the air and escape its enemies. A kind of aperture furnished with valvules on its abdomen relieves it of part or all of the gas burdening it and serves for descent to earth when the predator has lost its track.564 Bonnie Dalzell has designed an "airship beast" for a planet with cold winters’ heavy gravity and a thick atmosphere.736 Twice a year this herbivorous 100 kg animal inflates its lifting bags with metabolically generated hydrogen gas* and drifts to the opposite hemisphere to avoid the cold. Strong winds are an advantage’ but predators are widespread. And many of these living balloons are lost during their semiannual migration when lightning from an electrical storm strikes and ignites their bodies. There are a few indirect precedents for such a creature among the lifeforms of our own world.2574 For example’ the Portuguese man-of-war (Physalia) is a shapeless’ baglike marine organism whose large air sac serves both as a float and a sail in the water’ Its numerous tentacles perform many functions’ including stinging its prey into senselessness’ Another creature even more analogous to the airship beast is the chambered nautilus. Some 3000 species of this animal once flourished in the primitive’ shallow seas of our planet. They are found as deep as 700 meters’ and although they measure a mere 0.2 meters today their ancestral forebears left fossil remains up to three meters in diameter.584 The nautilus is a miniature submarine’ consisting of a series of as many as forty individual chambers partially filled with air. All are connected by a thin tube called the siphuncle’ which is thought to control the buoyancy of the animal as it dives and ascends in water. As the man-of-war and the chambered nautilus utilize the principle of buoyant lift in the seas of Earth’ why could not giant living extraterrestrial gasbags ply the skies of alien worlds?

* Many bacterial photosynthetic autotrophs generate hydrogen metabolically. Examples include Clostridium’ Chromatium’ Athiorhodaceae’ and green algae under certain special circumstances.

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Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 12. Alien Sex "This is indelicate of you’ Louis. One does not discuss sex with an alien race." A head emerged from between Nessus’s legs and focused’ disapproving. "You and Teela would not mate in my sight’ would you?" "Oddly enough’ the subject did come up once’ and Teela said -- " "I am offended’" the puppeteer stated. -- from Larry Niven’ in Ringworld (1970)753 So -- Martia was a female. Female at least in the sense that she carried eggs -- and’ at times’ young -- within her. And there was the so-called worm. So called? What could he call it? It could not be designated under one category. It was many things in one. It was a larva. It was a phallus. It was also her offspring’ of her flesh and blood. But not of her genes. It was not descended from her. She had given birth to it’ yet she was not its mother. She was neither one of its mothers.... "There’s no reason to get upset’" he told himself. "After all’ the splitting of animals into two sexes is only one of the ways of reproduction tried on Earth. On Martia’s planet Nature -- God -- has fashioned another method for the higher animals. And only He knows how many other designs He has fashioned on other worlds." Nevertheless’ he was upset. -- from Philip Jose Farmer’ in Strange Relations (1960)2500 "We’re humans’" he said. "I'm Jos Parner. This is my wife’ Gela." "What is a wife?" asked the Lut. "Why -- a wife -- " answered the human in astonishment. "I’m a man’ she’s a woman. Male -- female -- " "You mean’" demanded the Lut’ "that your race is bisexual?" "Of course’" answered the man. "Isn’t everything? Aren’t you -- " He broke off and stared at them. "You mean it’s not usual?" -- from Gordon R. Dickson’ in "The Odd Ones"2165 Conway drifted off to sleep finally’ his mind seething with the hot’ vivid imagery more normal to an adolescent seriously disturbed for the first time by a member of the opposite sex. Only on this occasion the girl of Conway’s dreams was a six-legged’ intelligent crab called Senreth.... -- from James White’ in "Countercharm"2175

Reproduction is unique among the many biological functions performed by living things. Take away an animal’s food or drink’ or drain away its blood’ or remove its skeleton’ and death rapidly overtakes its enfeebled body. But deprive it of the ability to reproduce and nothing happens. The species may die out’ but the individual organism lives on. Reproduction’ while an enormous convenience’ is not an absolute essential of life. This is true despite all protests that duplication is "the point of biological activity."20 The vast majority of social insects never engage in personal reproduction’ and such species are extremely successful. One highly evolved contemporary terran lifeform’ the mule’ is quite sterile. It is relatively easy to imagine a nonsentient alien species designed such that’ when mating occurs in a certain way or in a special environment’ sterile but intelligent offspring are the result of the union. Clearly’ there is no bar to the rise of intelligence in such a situation: Perhaps the hybrid’s brain mass or neural complexity is twice that of its nonsentient parents. At any rate’ we can conceive of a race of intelligent but sterile alien hybrids residing somewhere in this commodious Galaxy. Their numbers would be supported entirely by a subrace of nonsentient breeders. The hybrids would corral and manipulate the teeming parental population’ much as stockmen raise cattle and stablemen breed champion thoroughbreds. An extraterrestrial culture based on this peculiar inversion of the standard parent-offspring relationship would be fascinating to observe. Still’ reproduction is not without its advantages. Whole-body duplication allows rapid expansion and fast evolution in new niches. We might expect that many’ perhaps even most’ alien races will involve reproducers. When the first exploratory manned starships from Earth touch down on the continents and seas of distant worlds’ will we discover that aliens’ too’ know sex? Is the uniquely human preoccupation with matters lustful more or less universal? If extraterrestrial lifeforms do enjoy sex as much as we’ then exactly how many sexes do they enjoy? Two? Three? Ten? Might sex be alterable at will’ or could more than one somehow be incorporated into a single individual? What about alien sex practices? Do ETs have orgasms? Are interspecies sexual relations possible? The curious Earthling demands to know.

12.1 Is Sex Necessary? If reproduction is merely a useful convenience’ we must admit that sex is pure luxury. There is no fundamental reason why evolution and diversity cannot thrive in its absence. There is no law against asexuality. In point of fact’ asexual reproduction is vastly more prolific in the short run. Bacterial lifeforms churn out literally billions of offspring in the space of hours’ relying solely on such simple techniques as binary fission and budding. No "opposite sex" is required. And while it is true that many sexual species are also quite fecund’ as a general rule fewer offspring are produced and survive to adulthood than among the asexuals. Furthermore’ asexual reproduction is good economics. An organism which copies itself without sex passes its entire genetic heritage to its young undiluted. Offspring are exact duplicates of the originals. A sexual parent’ on the other hand’ may contribute only half of its own genes towards the construction of a child. The other half’ in the case of a bisexual species’ must be donated by the other parent. From the standpoint of the selfish gene’ sex has a lousy profit margin in comparison to no-sex. Nevertheless’ there is a more subtle difficulty with asexuality that turns virtue into vice. A completely asexual species produces a population of virtual duplicates -- except for an occasional mutation. Since variation is the raw material of evolution’ and the lack of sex decreases this variation’ such lifeforms should be at a distinct disadvantage when competing with their sexual brethren. New genetic combinations in asexual species can only proceed through a sequence of fortuitous mutations in the same family lineage. Asexuals therefore must "stand in line" to wait for a series of rare mutations. Change spreads only slowly through the gene pool.1044 But sex allows the accumulation of variation in parallel’ rather than in series.1045 A sexual species is able to spread many new genes rapidly throughout the population’ because gene-jumbling allows a new combination’ a new throw of the genetic dice’ with each act of reproduction. Rare mutations become widely dispersed. So great are the advantages of sex that even many normally asexual organisms have occasional sexual encounters to beef up the waning gene pool. This is especially true in harsh or rapidly changing environments. For example’ the freshwater hydra and the aphid reproduce asexually for most of the year. As winter approaches’ with hard times ahead’ these animals switch over to sexual reproduction. This ensures genetic diversity when the colonies disband and disperse with the arrival of cold weather. In the billion years or so since its invention’ sex has proven remarkably successful -- if we are to judge from the fossil record of life on this planet. Sexual species have come to dominate the animal world’ and the most widespread and important groups are all but exclusively sexual in their mode of reproduction. These broad brush strokes of nature should paint a similar picture elsewhere in the universe. Of course we don’t know if aliens have genes’ or even if information-carrying molecules are necessary at all. For all we know’ extraterrestrials may reproduce by xerography85 or in direct response to the environment by inheriting acquired characteristics.22 But one fact is clear: Variability is an advantage in the quest for biological complexity. And sex provides a unique opportunity for shuffling the data deck -- genetic or no -- which asexual techniques simply cannot match. If sex is necessary’ then how many sexes are best? Can there be more than two? Terran lifeforms provide several examples of multisexuality’ although they are few and far between. The lowly paramecium’ for instance’ has between five and ten sexes -depending on how you count. These are distinct mating forms which arise at different times under definite conditions’ and which can only mate in certain specific combinations. Another example includes fungi’ notably Basidiomycetes’ in which there are four distinct sexual groupings. Fungi are quadrisexuals. Still another example is found among the greylag geese -- a rather clear case of behavioral trisexuality.455 (One goose "marries" and mates with two male ganders.) Multisexuality is clearly a viable alternative.* Why’ then’ is the vast majority of sexual terrestrial lifeforms bisexual? The answer seems to be that two sexual partners are just enough to provide the requisite genetic recombination. Each healthy individual has a reasonable chance to mate with a member of the opposite sex. Apparently’ two are both necessary and sufficient. More than a single pair of sexes may seriously impair the chances for species continuity. The more sexes required for successful reproduction’ the more difficult it becomes to bring them all together properly at just the right time. If there is a weak link in the mating chain -- as where one member of a reproductive triad is characteristically vulnerable to certain predators or other environmental severities -- the future of the entire species would be jeopardized. Finally’ it is not clear how’ say’ three sexes could shuffle the genes very much better than two. There are no compelling reasons to exclude the possibility of a thriving population of alien multisexuals on another planet. That is’ extraterrestrial multisexuality cannot be ruled out. But requiring more than two sexes for reproductive activity seems to be an unnecessarily complicated solution to a problem elegantly solved by only two. It’s a safe bet that bisexuality is the overwhelmingly dominant mode of sexual reproduction among the biological alien lifeforms in our Galaxy.

* Science fiction writers and many others have toyed with the implications of intelligent trisexual and multisexual aliens for years. See especially Asimov’2485 Farmer’2500 Niven’ 753 Ritner’ 1550 and Stapledon. 1946 Norms of marriage’ inheritance’ language’ religion and social behavior would be profoundly affected by this state of affairs. Indeed’ they might prove virtually incomprehensible to us. The normal social tensions caused by sexual competition would be greatly aggravated in a society in which every member was a potential mate. In their eyes’ humans might appear perverted. 97

12.2 The Bisexual Universe The apparent general restriction of ETs to only two sexes is no cause for alarm. An incredible number of variations can be played on the single theme of bisexuality. For example’ bisexuality -- contrary to popular belief -- does not demand the existence of distinct male and female forms. A case in point is the black mold Rhizopus nigricans’ which displays an unusual type of sexual behavior known as "heterothallism." This species of fungus is bisexual’ inasmuch as two organisms are required for fertilization and reproduction. However’ the two sexes are indistinguishable! There are no constant differences between members of opposite mating groups other than their reciprocal behavior when crossed. Thus’ it is impossible to designate one form of the black mold as male and the other as female. The complementary groups are labeled merely "‘" and "-" for convenience during experiments. One can imagine a race of intelligent extraterrestrials’ apparently unisexual to our undiscerning eyes but which actually practices heterothallic sex. Such creatures would most certainly lack secondary sexual characteristics’ those hormone-induced physical landmarks such as beards and breasts to which we humans are accustomed. They might even lack distinctive primary sexual characteristics such as internal or external gonads.

12.2.1 Intersexuality While we might expect maleness and femaleness to be well defined among most bisexual alien species’ intersexuality constitutes a major exception to this rule. Intersexuality is a state in which an organism is neither strictly female nor strictly male. Rather’ it displays some alternate’ intermediate’ or variable condition that lies somewhere in between.2494 There are two major classes of intersexes. The first of these is illustrated by a strain of fruit fly (Drosophila) which has three copies of all its chromosomes instead of the normal two. In most bisexual hereditary systems’ each parent contributes one set of genes -- including the sex-determining ones -- to the offspring. But with three sets’ this special strain of fly can attain intermediate states of sexual expression. Using artificial breeding techniques’ any desired degree of intersexuality may be arranged: 30% male/70% female’ 60% male/40% female’ and so forth. These insects’ and various higher animals such as the bovine freemartin (the female of a male-female twin pair in cattle)’ are called spatial intersexes. They are stuck with their ambiguous constitution for the rest of their lives. They cannot change’ and are often sterile. Hermaphrodites represent an interesting special case of spatial intersexuality. A "simultaneous hermaphrodite" is an organism which possesses at once both female and male sex organs. Ovaries and testes are present together in the same individual. Planarians’ earthworms’ annelids’ sponges’ hydras and snails exhibit this form of bisexuality.2493 A few vertebrate simultaneous hermaphrodites are known’ such as the banded flamefish (Serranus subligarius). But the intersexual animal can be a sex-mosaic in time as well as space. There are many organisms’ of which the gypsy moth Lymantria is but one example’ which start life as one sex and finish it as another. This condition’ in which the two sexes are separated temporally’ is called temporal intersexuality or "sequential hermaphroditism." Sequential hermaphrodites come in many varieties. Protoandry is a system where an animal is first male’ and later female; proterogyny is the converse’ with young females metamorphosing into functional males as they age. And there are many other more complicated arrangements. Populations of sea anemones’ for example’ consist only of females and simultaneous hermaphrodites’ a condition known as gynodioecy. What would a temporal intersexual extraterrestrial be like? We can take a few clues from the freshwater shrimp Gammarus pulex. Each individual crustacean is both male and female’ but not at the same time. Newborn animals spend early life in a neuter stage’ after which they pass through puberty and enter the first sexually active phase as functioning males. After a while’ the maleness is exhausted. Latent ovaries ripen into maturity’ and the organism spends the remainder of its life as a full-fledged female. Eggs are shed by middle-aged mothers and fertilized by energetic youthful males (who are still in the middle of their first cycle). It is a magnificent bisexual system’ one that works quite well on this planet. No one is excluded from any phase of the reproductive process. Still more significant’ each member of the colony plays both male and female roles during his/her life. This cannot fail to have major effects on the intensity and depth of interpersonal relationships among these beings. In the case of such hermaphroditic aliens’ the impact on the development of society’ patterns of competition and aggression’ laws and government’ and attitudes toward the young are scarcely imaginable. (Science fiction writers have had a field day with this theme.97’226’442) If there exist extraterrestrial hermaphrodites patterned after the freshwater shrimp on some other planet’ what would their lives be like? Dr. Norman J. Berrill’ Professor of Zoology at McGill University in Montreal’ gives us some insight into the lifestyle of a temporal intersexual alien: [Measured against a human yardstick]’ all half-grown individuals’ about ten years old and weighing about 34 kilograms’ would be males’ the only males’ ready to act as such both sexually and probably in other wayward ways. But as troublemakers like their truly human counterparts they would undoubtedly be kept in place by a closed society of matriarchs’ roughly equal in number to the males’ each twice the weight and much older and wiser. And not only wiser in a general way’ but in the special sense of having each been a male herself’ as understanding as a mother with a child and as little likely to put up with any nonsense’ perhaps wistfully looking back to her youthful manhood. Girlhood would bud as usual when masculinity had faded’ with growth continuing and full female maturity yet to come. Apart from lovelife the only question is’ who would do man’s work? Little men browbeaten by large women who once had been little men themselves’ or the women themselves’ whether full-grown and breeding or not?89 Of course’ the reverse of the above is also quite possible in ET races’ although it appears much less common among the fauna of Earth. There is no reason why bisexual alien hermaphrodites could not develop along a cycle in which young females transformed into old males. An example of this appears in the sword-tailed minnow (Xiphophorus helleri)’ a teleost fish that bears live young much as the mammals do. Xiphophorus females typically produce offspring until they are a few years old. Then’ during a period of only a few short weeks’ they take on the characteristics of the male of the species. They produce sperm and are capable of fertilizing females. Exhaustion of the ovaries is believed to trigger the changeover. We see that both male-first and female-first alien intersexuals may be common’ if not abundant’ among the many intelligent extraterrestrial races in the universe.

12.2.2 Optional Sex What about the fascinating possibility that extraterrestrials might be able to choose their sex voluntarily in some fashion? How much different the world would be if sex were a matter of choice rather than accident or compulsion! It would also matter a great deal whether the decision to switch was made by society’ by pressing cultural or environmental exigencies’ or by the individual himself (who might exercise his sexual option at puberty). Xenologists are convinced that optional sexuality is a real prospect for alien lifeforms because of the many times this system has arisen independently on Earth. One common transformation’ found among starfish’ the slug (Limax maximus)’ and the molluscan gastropods Crepidula plana and Patella’ involves a changeover from male to female. The cause in this case is environmental. When necessary to maintain proper ecological balance’ some members of the colony will voluntarily transmute from male to simultaneous hermaphrodite. Soon thereafter’ they blossom into full females without any trace of maleness remaining. Given the relatively major body alterations that occur during puberty in the higher mammals’ it is not inconceivable that ETs might be capable of altering sex in response to the environment. Extraterrestrials may also be able to change sex as a purely personal prerogative.2863 Quite a few terrestrial creatures can switch back and forth between male and female on a regular basis -- and at their own pleasure. The most notable examples include the oyster and the clam. The native oyster begins its life as a male. After a year or two’ it may change to female much like a sequential hermaphrodite. But after the animal has "ovulated" (deposited its ova into the mantle cavity)’ it becomes "white sick" and reverts to maleness. While still carrying its own embryos’ the female oyster can fully retool as a working male in a matter of weeks. Male and female phases typically follow one another’ in irregular cycles a few months long. This ensures that all fertilized eggs are the product of different parents’ and eliminates the problem of accidental selffertilization. Intelligent extraterrestrials modeled after the changeable oyster would probably experience fewer psychological conflicts’ in many ways’ than humans. Each individual would have the advantage of knowing the world from the viewpoint of either sex. Furthermore’ the opportunity to assume the role of either mate at any time could encourage what some earthlings might regard as a promiscuous social and cultural code of liberal sexual behavior. Their political’ legal’ religious and humanistic traditions would doubtless reflect this added layer of complexity. While the sexual identity of aliens may be regulatable either by the environment or by the individual as discussed above’ it may also be subject to sociocultural management. There is ample precedent for this on Earth. Numerous behavioral adaptations exist which allow colonies to regulate their sex ratio (the fraction of each sex in the population). These systems usually favor the female’ and it is easy to see why. The female carries the egg. This is the basic raw material of reproductive activity. On the other hand’ the male’s function is clearly ancillary. He is expendable. Consider the purely "parthenogenic" species’ in which the male is dispensed with altogether. In such systems of virgin birth’ eggs develop into full adults without ever being fertilized at all. The sawfly is a case of an all-female species. All of their eggs develop into more insect females’ with no males -- or sex -- required in the process.89 This amounts to practical unisexuality. In less extreme systems’ the male is not totally expendable but is still optional. A typical colony of the crustacean waterflea Daphnia is all-female’ producing offspring by parthenogenesis like the sawfly. But at the first sign of trouble’ such as overpopulation or the approach of winter’ an interesting thing happens. The females "panic’" and lay some eggs which quickly develop into males. If the trouble passes without incident’ the males have no duties to perform and are ignored by the females -- who continue breeding parthenogenically as before. But if major difficulties do materialize’ the females deign to use the male stud service to increase variability in the gene pool and ensure survival of the colony. Says one marine biologist of this arrangement: "Males are necessary’ but only as a last resort."* So we might expect that if society has the final say’ alien races will consist mostly of females when optional sex is available. Many females can be sexually serviced by a single male’ so this choice is hardly surprising. What is striking and unusual is the degree of social stratification which frequently results. Biological caste systems are not uncommon. Honeybees are a case in point. The focus is on the only fertile female’ the queen bee. A hive’s queen mates but once in her lifetime’ and then only with a single male and only on her nuptial flight.** All the eggs the queen will ever produce must be fertilized by the sperm stored from that single mating. As a general rule only female offspring are produced’ and the beehive is populated almost exclusively by sisters. Males appear only occasionally in small numbers’ whenever a new queen is needed either to replace an aging matron or to found a new colony. The apian assembly line is faintly reminiscent of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. All eggs start in the queen’s ovaries. If they are not fertilized they grow into male bees called drones. Most eggs’ however’ are fertilized and placed in tiny compartments in the hive. Those which are fed the regular pap of the drones mature into female bees called workers. Larvae raised on a specially enriched nutrient mix (royal jelly) grow into queens. Notice that the honeybee has a genetically programmed three-caste system. Queens constitute the reproductive caste. Workers’ while technically females’ are really neuters because their sex organs are degenerate. They represent the laboring caste’ able to carry on with the daily chores of the hive without the distraction of sex. The drones’ or stud caste’ are virile males who lack this admirable detachment and are not good for useful work. They are usually exterminated by the workers at the approach of winter. Ant and termite societies have four castes -- generally two classes of royalty and two classes of industrious eunuchs. As with bees’ the queen retains many fertilized eggs in her swollen belly. Kinghood and queenhood is the reward for those few active larvae who are fortunate enough to make an early escape from the maternal womb. For the vast majority’ however’ the exit is delayed and a horrible thing happens to them: They begin to be reabsorbed back into the body of the gravid female. The longer they delay’ the smaller they are at birth. The largest become soldiers’ the smallest workers. (All are sterile.) It is a kind of merit system. The more active the organism’ the bigger its body and the higher its social status. The extrapolation of a breeding system with genetic castes to a race of intelligent extraterrestrials has been attempted by science fictioneers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle in their recent collaboration The Mote in God’s Eye.668 Their aliens’ the Moties’ have many tens of biological castes’ each one specializing in a particular societal function. Depending on the details of birth’ there are Engineers’ Farmers’ Mediators’ Warriors’ and so forth. Though the Moties are fictional’ can reality be much less strange? As suggested earlier’ there is no real limit to the dimensions of bisexual reproduction. To some ETs’ optional sex may mean more than mere changeability. It may mean instead the decision to reproduce’ the option to mate’ the choice between life and death. Consider the common mole’ Antichinus stuarti. These tiny animals have a brief but concentrated rutting season spanning only a few days in June. Shortly after copulation’ a sudden surge of hormones automatically kills the male. This makes available greater quantities of food’ water’ and other critical resources for the pregnant female and’ later’ for the developing fatherless family. The price of love is death. Extraterrestrials patterned after such a scheme may exist on some arid world in our Galaxy. Could humans hope to fathom the psychology of an alien species in which marriage was the culmination of the life of every father’ in which only females lived on from year to year and provided social continuity’ and in which a single act of sex meant inevitable’ almost instant’ death? Conversely’ could such sentient ETs comprehend our peculiar addiction to erotica’ our marriage vows’ our complex family life’ our political institutions’ or our social sexual mores and taboos? And which of us would better know’ and understand’ the true meaning of ecstasy?

* Parthenogenesis (all-female reproduction) is not limited to insects. Many species of lizards’ for instance’ commonly reproduce without males. 2583 ** The penis of the male honeybee breaks off during mating’ and he promptly bleeds to death. The severed organ remains inside the queen for some time thereafter’ serving as a plug to prevent the semen from dribbling out.

12.3 Alien Sex Practices We have examined just a few of the many possible variations in pairwise reproduction. Bisexual aliens’ who may comprise the majority of higher lifeforms in this Galaxy’ will undoubtedly display an even richer variety of reproductive styles than we can imagine. But exactly how will biological ETs execute their sexual functions? The fundamental need for a joining of male and female is clear’ but the details of this fascinating operation (e.g.’ Table 12.1) remain indeterminate where ETs are concerned. Of course’ it is far too early in our exploration of space to be offering detailed speculations on this matter. Nevertheless’ the grand diversity of sexual practices among the fauna on this planet can give us some idea of what to expect from aliens. Earth is typically exotic; terrestrial animals are typically peculiar.

Table 12.1 Approximate Coition Times for Various Animals Animal

Coition Time

Animal

Coition Time

Cattle

several seconds

Elephant

30-60 sec.

Antelope

several seconds

Roman snail

2-3 minutes

Porpoise

3.8 sec.

HUMAN

2-120 min.

Baboon

7-8 sec.

Garter snake

10-20 min.

Mouse

10 sec.

Dog

20-45 min.

Cat

10 sec.

Wolf

up to 2 hours

Chimpanzee

10-15 sec.

Pig

up to 2 hours

Y. fever mosquito (typical insect)

10-20 sec.

Earthworm

several hours

Tiger

12.4 sec.

Lion

20-60 sec.

Mink

2-8 hours

Sable

2-8 hours

Dragonfly

3-70 hours

Consequently’ we may demolish the age-old myth that it is the male who always chases the female. In crickets’ it is the female who courts the male and later mounts him. ETs may conduct themselves in similar fashion. Another instance of the unusual: humans are not the only beings concerned with the virtuousness of their female mates. While men once fashioned chastity belts to keep their ladies safe’ other creatures must improvise without the benefits of technology. The male garter snake’ to take one example’ is so suspicious of his companion’s attentions that he installs a "chastity belt" inside his mate after copulation. This hardened plug effectively ensures the fidelity and continued continence of the female. Certainly one of the most outré sexual fashions on this planet is found in a small fish that lives in the upper strata of kelp beds in the sea. Shaped like the head of a chessboard knight’ the tiny sea horse challenges our traditional conceptions of normality. In these curious creatures’ it is the female who impregnates the male with her eggs’ and the father who becomes pregnant and carries the child to term! German naturalist Herbert Wendt describes how they mate: Two sea horses ready for mating put on the tenderest and most charming of courtship spectacles. As among the closely related pipefish’ the female is an active partner. In her resplendent wedding dress’ far showier than the modest male’ she dances around her mate and grasps him with her prehensile tail. Both swim through the water’ head against head’ in a close embrace’ like human lovers. They sway to every side’ rock back and forth’ and then rise to the surface of the sea. Thereupon something altogether extraordinary happens. The male puffs up his abdomen so that it presents a kind of sac’ and the female protrudes a sort of penis from her body. With it’ the female gropes about along the male’s body and tries to introduce it into an opening in his abdominal sac. An observer of this process cannot help feeling that the male is being fertilized by the female. But what is taking place is not breeding in the proper sense of the word’ but only a transmission of eggs. The female wants to deposit her spawn in the male’s pouch. Again and again she thrusts her organ into the opening in the pouch and drops one egg after another inside. This act apparently exerts an irresistible stimulus upon the male. For at the same moment that the female’s "penis" enters his body’ he pours his sperm into the brood pouch. After a while the couple terminate their embrace. The female swims away’ but the male sea horse has been "impregnated" and must now undertake the nourishing and raising of the brood. He continues to behave like a female. The embryos develop in his brood pouch. They hatch out there. And as the small sea horses grow’ the father’s abdominal region swells like a balloon...1028 Actually’ some form of copulatory organ’ or "penis’" has probably been around virtually since the invention of sex an eon ago. This organ has arisen independently in so many vertebrate’ arthropodal and molluscan species as to suggest its tremendous utility in accomplishing the designated purpose. (Even the rare male rotifer has a ciliated sperm duct that could be viewed as an early version of the penis.2493) Using a convergent evolution type of argument’ we might advance the proposition that male penises will be common but not universal among alien races. The vagina has a related’ but more involved’ evolutionary history. Most female animals which engage in copulation’ up to and including the amphibians’ the reptiles’ most birds and the lower mammals’ do not have any distinct reproductive organ.* Instead’ these concupiscent creatures accept the male member in their cloaca’ an opening which doubles as a passageway for the excretion of intestinal and liquid bodily wastes. Only in the higher mammals has the female evolved a sexual orifice separate from the anal and urethral tracts. Males of various species’ including frogs and many birds’ also have a cloaca in place of the penis. The cloaca is a mere rear opening’ used in mating as alternative to the penis-vagina combination. Like pressing two pairs of rubbery lips together in carnal embrace’ sperm are transferred to the female by the "cloacal kiss." Multiple organs are quite possible.** Some lizards and snakes exude not one but two penises during mating’ although usually only one of these actually passes semen. These copulatory organs are "truly terrifying" in appearance’ covered with spines’ warts and hooks. Snakes are also known to attend public orgies unabashed: Among vipers and adders we will sometimes see a whole knot of males and females in sexual congress. The reptiles which have thus transformed themselves into a Gorgon’s head are attached in pairs’ anus to anus’ and if disturbed cannot extricate themselves from their tangle. They can do no more than extend their heads from the knot’ hiss and strike at the disturber. Courageous foresters and rangers have sometimes amused themselves by gathering the whole hissing lot in a canvas bag and carrying them away.1028 Alien hermaphrodites may take after the Roman snail in their sex practices. In this Earthly organism’ the major sex glands and penis are situated near the top of the body rather than in the lower regions near the sexual orifice. As simultaneous hermaphrodites’ snails are two sexes in one’ having at once both sperms and eggs. Copulation thus involves two penises (one from each partner) and two "vaginas" (again’ one from each). The loveplay of the Roman snail is shocking indeed: Its penis is a gigantic’ erectile generative tube’ and its wooing is more passionate and tempestuous than any human Casanova’s. Moreover’ the creature is apparently inclined to sadism. For after a wild love dance in which the partners rear up sole to sole’ rock back and forth and even exchange regular smacking kisses’ the excited snail suddenly releases a dagger of chalky material from a kind of quiver and drives it into the body of its mate. Other varieties shoot arrows of chalk at their victim-mates’ and these are not aimed at the genital orifice’ but are merely intended to wound some part of the mate’s body. The wounded snail visibly twitches with pain’ and indeed the act seems like the prelude to a veritable sex murder. In fact the love daggers of the Roman and garden snails occasionally penetrate the lung or the abdominal wall of their partners’ inflicting deadly wounds. But so far we have described only one of the mates. The other behaves in exactly the same way during the sex act. It’ too’ is extremely excited’ and its excitement mounts when it is struck by the love arrow. Whereupon the masochist likewise becomes a sadist; it too fires a dart or stabs with a dagger at the body of its partner. It too protrudes a huge penis. And after fierce efforts and writhings’ each of the two inserts its member into the genital orifice of the other. For several minutes the snails remain united in this mutual copulation. The male organ must penetrate as deeply as possible into the female genital canal in order to deposit the semen at the right place’ in a bladder-shaped receptacle where it will fertilize the eggs some time later. Each partner in this act is both male and female. And both seem to discharge sperm at the same time. Then they separate and both snails drop exhausted to the ground’ where they remain lying motionless for some time. At last they crawl away’ each in a different direction.1028 Snails’ then’ appear also to experience that strange and wonderful phenomenon known as orgasm’ an explosive discharge of muscular tension at the climax of sexual tension. We shall have more to say about this in regard to alien sex life in Section 12.3.1. One might naturally suspect that hermaphrodites would enjoy even better orgies than the snakes. Since they have both female and male organs’ snails’ leeches and others are not limited to a single partner during the mating ritual. The European mud snail’ and a variety of marine snail called Acera bullata’ regularly form copulatory chains of as many as six mates among them selves. In these gastropodal "daisy chains’" the lead snail serves only as a female. For the rest’ each performs as a male for the one in front and as a female for the one behind. The last in line functions solely as a male. The American slipper snail Crepidula fornicata has perfected this fine copulatory style: Grown slipper snails are sessile’ like most molluscs’ but in their youth the animals are motile and all are males. Once a slipper snail attaches itself to some base for life’ it transforms itself into a female. Soon it is mounted by a male and fertilized. The male settles on the female’s shell; a third snail mounts it’ and so on until at last a tower of ten to fourteen individuals is established. The lowest and largest specimens in this tower are female; the middle ones will be gradually changing from males to females; and only the topmost indicates by its penis that it has remained a male.1028 What human sexual mores might regard as "perverted" is a way of life for the slipper snail. Whatever opinions we may harbor as to the propriety of these sexual practices are irrelevant -- for the snails’ like the intelligent extraterrestrials we may encounter on another world someday’ cannot change what they are. Arthropods’ those fearsome looking organisms with jointed legs and hard-shelled bodies’ comprise roughly three-quarters of all known animal species on this planet. Carapaced creatures are the most prolific and diverse lifeforms on Earth. They are also the most ruthless’ murderous lovers. The late French entomologist Jean H. C. Fabre observed two scorpions retiring to the nuptial nest: The foreheads touch’ bend a little to left and right’ as if the two were whispering in each other’s ears. The little forelegs flutter in feverish caresses. What are they saying to each other? How shall we translate their silent epithalamium into words? But connubial bliss hardly lasts until dawn: The idyll of the evening is followed’ during the night’ by a hideous tragedy. Next morning’ we find the scorpioness under the potsherd of the previous day. The little male is by her side’ but slain’ and more or less devoured. He lacks the head’ a claw’ a pair of legs. I place the corpse in the open’ on the threshold of the home. All day long’ the recluse does not touch it. When night returns’ she goes out and’ meeting the deceased on her passage’ carries him off to a distance to give him a decent funeral’ that is’ to finish eating him.2491 The gold ground beetles have been described as "notorious nuptial cannibals." Having observed such a beetle pair mating’ Fabre saw the female hurl herself at her mate in a savage attack as soon as the unfortunate suitor had finished his business: A vain struggle to break away -- that is all the male undertakes toward his salvation. Otherwise’ he accepts his fate. Finally the skin bursts’ the wound gapes wide’ the inner substance is devoured by his worthy spouse. Her head burrowing inside the body of her husband’ she hollows out his back. A shudder that runs through the poor fellow’s limbs announces his approaching end. The female butcher ignores this; she gropes into the narrowest passages and windings in the thoracic cavity. Soon only the well-known little boat of the wing sheaths and the thorax with legs attached are left of the dead male. The husk’ sucked dry’ is abandoned.2496 The most hideous of all is the praying mantis’ a ferocious centaur-like carnivorous insect that can grow to more than nine centimeters in length. These arthropod monsters have been known to attack and devour small frogs’ birds and lizards’ so it is hardly surprising to learn that their mates receive no better treatment: I find’ by themselves’ a horrible couple engaged as follows. The male’ absorbed in the performance of his vital functions’ holds the female in a tight embrace. But the wretch has no head; he has no neck; he hardly has a body. The other’ with her muzzle turned over her shoulder’ continues very placidly to gnaw what remains of the gentle swain. And’ all the time’ that masculine stump’ holding on firmly’ goes on with the business! Love is stronger than death’ men say. Taken literally’ the aphorism has never received a more brilliant confirmation. A headless creature’ an insect amputated down to the middle of the chest’ a very corpse’ persists in endeavoring to give life. It will not let go until the abdomen’ the seat of the procreative organs’ is attacked.... The Mantis’ in many cases’ is never sated with conjugal raptures and banquets. After a rest that varies in length’ whether the eggs be laid or not’ a second male is accepted and then devoured like the first. A third succeeds him’ performs his function in life’ is eaten and disappears. A fourth undergoes a like fate. In the course of two weeks I thus see one and the same Mantis use up seven males. She takes them all to her bosom and makes them all pay for the nuptial ecstasy with their lives.2496 (Apparently the reflexes of male mantis copulation are restrained by the brain ganglia’ so the organism must be decapitated to copulate.) As enlightened and rational sentients’ we are urged to ignore the wanton brutality and utter callousness of such mating behaviors. Cannibalism’ the experts tell us’ is a purely instinctual act. The mantis’ the gold ground beetle and the scorpion are compelled to eat their-mates’ not by cruel premeditation’ but rather because of a biological urge that is simply irresistible for them -- "protein hunger." But are humans capable of displaying such stolid’ rational objectivity in the face of intelligent extraterrestrials known to eat their mates while copulating? Would we’ could we’ ever feel truly comfortable in the presence of such creatures? Will man be able to retain his sanity and businesslike demeanor long enough properly to conduct interstellar commerce with these beings? Of course’ not all animals are as deadly serious about their sex as the arthropods. Others consider it the purest of fun’ such as the spritely orangutans: Making smacking sounds with her tongue’ the female loudly greeted the orang male sitting in the bed of straw. She put her arm around his shoulders and caressingly scratched his abdomen. Then she climbed up to the ceiling of the big enclosure and hung with all fours from a crossbeam’ her hind legs straddled. The jungle giant straightened up to his full height and looked up longingly. One rapid movement and his hands grasped the beam. Body dangling’ he swung toward his mate’ who for her part loosened the prehensile toes of her spread legs and affectionately embraced him. He too now clasped her with his thighs and feet twined around her back. Breast to breast they mated’ hanging by their hands and rocking back and forth.2497’2498 If there are sentient primate forms on other worlds’ humans may find them selves at once embarrassed and challenged by the limberness of these distantly-related sexual acrobats.***

* In some jellyfish’ the sperm enter through the female’s mouth and fertilize her eggs. Later’ the larvae exit via the same route. 2493 ** Some male ostracods (mussel shrimp) have a double penis’ and the females a double vagina. A few species of flatworm have up to twenty extra penises’ although only one is customarily used for reproductive purposes. 2493 Another peculiarity is the "pseudopenis" of the female hyena. When approaching a group’ she wags it back and forth in a conspicuous display. This is a vital part of the greeting ceremony and pack communication among these dangerously aggressive animals. 2499 *** Man has no monopoly on face-to-face copulation. Young chimpanzees often experiment with this position’ although they soon give it up in favor of the more classic mammalian posture. Whales and other cetaceans’ due to the turbulent nature of their watery medium’ also must copulate belly-to-belly. Sailors have spotted pairs of blue whales leaping from the water’ their midsections pressed tightly together in a few brief moments of airborne ecstasy. Beavers’ too’ sit upright in shallow water to copulate’ facing each other and embracing with their arms like human couples kissing. Alternatively’ beavers can drift along the surface of the water’ holding each other lovingly breast to breast. Finally’ most male crabs’ crayfish and lobsters make love with the female lying on her back’ and in many species of millipedes the couples lie abdomen to abdomen and hold each other with all of their many legs. It is unknown at present whether these examples constitute sufficient evolutionary convergence with humanity to warrant any conclusion as to the probable mating posture to be assumed by highly advanced alien lifeforms.

12.3.1 Alien Orgasms While a large fraction of male animals possess a penis or a penislike organ’ the majority of birds do not. Female birds and reptiles also lack that all-important female organ of stimulation -- the clitoris. Only mammalian females appear to have this.1028 Nevertheless’ research indicates that most mammals and many birds do experience a paroxysm of neuromuscular release’ that is’ an orgasm’ during mating. This has been determined with some reliability by measuring pulse rates and blood pressure in these animals during copulation. Sexologist Alfred C. Kinsey once noted that "there is only one other phenomenon’ namely sneezing’ which is physiologically close in its summation and explosive discharge of tension. Sneezing is’ however’ a localized event’ while sexual orgasm involves the whole of the reacting body."2486 A state of relaxed exhaustion and quiescence is observed in most mammals following coition: The body can be so violently affected that some mammals subside into a state of exhaustion or total rigidity after mating. This is especially observable in mice and other small rodents’ which lie curled up as if they were dead. Cattle stand apathetically in their pasture. Other animals’ in a condition of unwonted quietude that is like a half sleep’ exchange a variety of gentle caresses. Gazelles allow the bucks to rub them with their horns. Horses nibble one another with their teeth. Even cats’ which exhibit such excitement in the immediate postlude of coition’ end by licking their mates peacefully.1028 Will lickerous’ lustful aliens necessarily follow suit? The orgasm may be regarded as an evolutionary invention which drives animals to mate. The reward of pleasure is a most useful expedient to induce individuals voluntarily to engage in procreative behavior.2440 Since such an inducement to mate is necessary only for those species intelligent enough to be capable of choosing to do otherwise’ we might reasonably expect the following to hold true: The smarter the lifeform’ the more intense the orgasm. Still’ it is not a universal feature of animal lifeforms on this planet’ even among mammals. For this reason’ xenologists remain extremely cautious in extending this extraordinarily satisfying response to all bisexual aliens.*

* One unresolved question is whether technologically advanced ETs will have any need for sex at all on an individual basis. 1622 In a perfectly stable environment’ sex is not really necessary at all. 1042 Artificial parthenogenesis (maternal clones) or androgenesis (paternal clones) are possible using a genetic-surgical technology that will surely be available to extraterrestrial bioneers. Since natural childbirth is a rather messy affair’ advanced aliens may dispense with normal reproduction altogether’ preferring instead to clone their children and mate only for recreation’ pleasure’ or competitive sports.

12.4 Xenogamy One last important issue must now be addressed: Are interspecies sexual relations possible? Many science fiction authors have tried sensibly to deal with this touchy question’ such as Philip José Farmer in The Lovers’ in Flesh’ and in Strange Relations’ Walter Tevis in his The Man Who Fell to Earth’ and a host of others. There have been reports of sexual molestations of humans by the occupants of UFOs.1672 And Star Trek’s own Mr. Spock is a prime example of xenogamy -- the product of a marriage between a human female and a male alien from the fictional planet Vulcan. It is not at all implausible that interspecies copulation can occur. Given the prevalence of the penis and the complementary female organ’ such activity may indeed be possible even between creatures of "gross morphologic disparity." Kinsey’s researchers turned up accounts of attempted copulations between a female eland and an ostrich’ a male dog and a chicken’ a female chimpanzee and a tomcat’ and a stallion and a human female.2486 Obviously’ relations between humans and other beings even roughly humanoid in shape are possible in theory.

Figure 12.1 Is xenogamy possible?2569

"John! Quick! Jane Weismann is eloping!"

If such activity is possible’ is it likely? Or to rephrase it in a slightly different way’ could two alien races derive sexual pleasure from a mutual encounter? This is a very difficult question’ mainly because the ET is such an unknown quantity. Extraterrestrials may have organs’ sensitivities and responses wholly incompatible with any conceivable human style of lovemaking. And yet -- in 1948’ Kinsey reported that some 17% of all rural farmboys had experienced sexual congress with various barnyard animals’ and had achieved orgasmic satisfaction in this way.2486 (Less than a tenth of a percent of all females interviewed admitted such coition’ although 1.5% of the sample reported some form of sexual contact with animals.) What does this mean? If bestiality occurs so regularly among human populations’ can we state with any assurance that "xeniality" will not also occur when humans mingle socially with biological alien races? This author thinks not. The evidence’ scanty though it may be’ definitely indicates that interspecies sexual contacts’ between humans and sentient extraterrestrial lifeforms’ is not only possible but probable. One last question remains. When humans and aliens join’ will anything result from the union? Again’ this is a difficult question because an unknown physiology is involved.1388 Different species on Earth have been mated successfully -- the hybrid offspring of a mallard and a pintail duck are fertile -- and even interkingdom clones (combining plants and animals) have been attempted in this decade.1617 But in the first analysis’ we suspect that inter-species fertilization’ as a general proposition’ is unlikely in the extreme. Why should this be so? We know that slight changes in the environment can cause enormous variations in planetary biochemistry. Nucleic acids’ genes and codons may not be needed by ETs’ or they may be essential but in permuted forms. For an alien/human mating to prove viable’ many complicated and highly unlikely coincidences must occur. The two species must have identical amino acid sequences for proteins’ the same optical rotation in their molecules’ matching numbers of chromosomes with identical size and shape’ the same kinds of genes located on the same chromosomes at the same locations’ etc.’ etc.1387’1391’1870 Humans cannot even produce viable interspecies offspring with their own immediate ancestors -- apes’ chimps’ and other primates. We conclude that an interspecies mating involving humans is unlikely to result in pregnancy. If pregnancy does occur somehow’ the hybrid offspring probably won’t be viable. After all’ it is estimated that 50% of all normal human pregnancies end in spontaneous abortion.2440 If somehow viable and carried to term’ the offspring will most likely be sterile or maladapted’ like the mule and the liger. Hybrid vigor is improbable among lifeforms of such widely varying genetic constitution. This does not augur well for Mr. Spock (Figure 12.1). Back to Contents

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 13. Sensations "It was the face that made Otis stare. The mouth was toothless and probably constructed more for sucking than chewing. But the eyes! They projected like ends of a dumbbell from each side of the skull where the ears should have been’ and focused with obvious mobility. Peering closer’ Otis saw tiny ears below the eyes’ almost hidden in the curling fur of the neck... -- attr. to H.B. Fyfe (1951)70 "Those races that had the electric sense gave us some difficulty; for’ in order to understand their thought’ we had to learn a whole new gamut of sense qualities and a vast system of unfamiliar symbolism. The electric organs detected only very slight differences of electric charge in relation to the subject’s own body. Originally this sense had been used for revealing enemies equipped with electric organs of offense. But in man its significance was chiefly social. It gave information about the emotional state of one’s neighbors. Beyond this its function was meteorological...." -- Olaf Stapledon’ in Star Maker (1937)1946 "A being who hears me tapping The five-sensed cane of mind Amid such greater glories That I am worse than blind." -- unidentified American poet81

Of all the abilities possessed by creatures of other worlds’ perhaps none is so important as information processing. According to negentropic definitions of life’ the gathering and utilization of environmental data is somehow the point of living. On our own planet’ neurons’ nervous systems and brains have been instrumental at the highest level of organismic functioning: Intelligence. If intelligence is data processing’ senses must provide the data. It’s a good bet that any entity complex enough to have intellect will also have evolved a fairly complicated sensory network to keep its mental equipment well-supplied with information. The sensoriurn of any extraterrestrial creature must’ at the very least’ be sufficient to ensure survival. There will be few if any monosensory (having only one sensory modality) races in the Galaxy. Even the lowest microscopic lifeforms on Earth are not so restricted. Aliens will have a multitude of complementary senses which "support’ confirm’ modify and duplicate the major one."1000 On the other hand’ there’s no point in evolving more senses than the brain can handle. Those which are essential to survival will be developed’ but there will be high efficiency and little surplusage. New senses will arise only if they clearly increase the organism's chances for survival’ or if the basic environmental constraints -- the rules of the game of living -- change. So extraterrestrials should have just those senses which are optimal or optimized for survival’ and none which are superfluous or which might overload the brain. The sensorium will be based on natural phenomena commonly occurring in or around the immediate habitat. Of course’ any form of energy that can be emitted’ transmitted’ modulated or received theoretically may serve as a basis for sensation. But there do seem to be a few normal limits on the diversity of biological sensors. For small organisms tactile senses (touch) are usually sufficient to get by’ since the immediate vicinity and the imminent future are all these creatures care about. Taste’ touch’ vibration’ temperature’ and all other qualities of the external world that can be communicated by direct physical contact alone are valid possibilities for tactile beings. Among larger creatures’ contact senses tend to be less important because the organism now must be apprised of distant events and more extensive time spans. Remote sensing is of greater significance -- perhaps chemical diffusion (smell)’ acoustic radiation (sound)’ electromagnetic radiation (seeing)’ particulate radiation (alphas’ betas)’ and so forth. Seldom do we pause to consider just how many separate worlds exist side by side on Earth. Every lifeform has its own way of knowing and its own unique brand of intelligence’ because each operates with a different set of input data. The dog lives in a world of scent; the porpoise in a world of ultrasonic sound; the frog in a world of motion; the human in a world of color. Each of these organisms has a singular window on reality’ a novel way of looking at the material universe. Indeed’ each sentient creature occupies a different subjective universe altogether. If we attempt to "see" through the senses of other beings’ how different would be our view? Without sight’ or sound’ what would human culture and science and society be like? What would it mean to be able to sense the myriad electrical fields around us’ or the variations in barometric pressure which herald the arrival of a thunderstorm? With other kinds of knowledge directly accessible to our brains’ how much differently might we think and act? The windows on reality of intelligent extraterrestrials may be wider than ours in some places’ narrower in others’ and occasionally absent altogether. Vistas of natural beauty and panoramic splendor may be available to them about which we can only dimly speculate. If they draw different conclusions about the cosmos’ we shall not be surprised. Indeed’ we should be delighted’ for it is one of the highest aspirations of xenology to elevate humanity to a new awareness of itself and its limitations.

13.1 Tactile Senses The contact or tactile senses are the most primitive of all. Virtually no terrestrial organism alive today fails to respond in some manner when physically touched. Pressure receptors seem useful in almost any environment imaginable’ so it appears reasonable to presume that aliens will have at least some simple tactile sensitivity. Vibration sensing is a direct extension of the sense of touch. The blow fly is an excellent example. This amazing creature has an elaborate network of vibration sensors along the leading edges of its wings. This serves two purposes. First’ the insect is alerted to changes in speed of the prevailing winds. When local gusts greater than about 1 kph are detected’ the animal drops down and quits flying against this dangerous headwind. Second’ air passing over the wings sets up vibrations of particular kinds. In response to this tactile information’ the blowfly carefully adjusts the shape of the airfoil and the frequency of flapping during each wingbeat cycle.82 It is a remarkable example of sophisticated biological avionics. There are many other vibration sensitive creatures on Earth. Earthworms have no eyes or ears’ yet they are so responsive to ground vibrations that they can actually feel the footfalls of an approaching shrew.79 Among honey bees’ ants and other insects touch is both a method of sensing the environment and a means of social communication. Bees are known to be thoroughly distracted by vibrational frequencies between 200-6000 Hz. (One in particular’ an octave or two above middle-A’ produces virtual anesthesia in the insects.82) Bees also seem to have an "absolute architectural sense." This enables them to construct perfectly hexagonal honeycomb structures to engineering tolerances of less than 0.1 millimeter. This extreme accuracy is achieved by the use of many tiny tactile hairs located on minute sensory bristles on the creatures’ legs.1000 Could touch be the sense modality of choice for some advanced alien species? It is admittedly difficult to conceive of a plausible environment which would favor touch over all other competing senses. Still’ one can imagine dark’ turbulent’ noisy surroundings which render seeing’ smelling and hearing virtually ineffectual. Organisms evolving in such a milieu might be able to glean reliable nonconflictory data only by slowly feeling their way along’ sampling the taste’ texture’ and vibrations in the solid surface below. It would be a kind of two-dimensional existence -- "up’" a direction both dangerous and without useful sensation’ would have little meaning for these entities. Such beings’ relying almost exclusively on tactile data’ could easily develop a most precise and detailed system of communication. Aside from such familiar passive systems as Braille books and typewriters’ active techniques might easily be employed even be less intelligent alien lifeforms. About two decades ago’ Dr. W.C. Howell and his colleagues at’ the University of Virginia attached a series of vibrators to the chests of male human volunteers. These devices could be triggered at any of three different frequencies’ three intensities’ and with any of three distinct types of signals (akin to "dot’" "dash’" and "long dash" in Morse code). A 27-letter "alphabet" was thus set up. After about 75 hours of training’ one student was able to master a language jokingly called "vibratese" by the experimenters. He had become proficient enough to understand sentences vibrated through his skin with better than 90% accuracy’ and at a rate of up to 38 five-letter words per minute. (This is better than "proficient Morse" in radio telegraphy.) It was estimated that with further practice’ rates approaching 67 words/minute might have been achieved.1694 The significance of "vibratese" to xenobiology is driven home when we realize that many animals on Earth have at least the latent capability for such tactile languages. Consider’ for instance’ the octopus. These clever cephalopods possess highly responsive sensory tentacles which allow them to chemically sample and feel their way around the ocean floor. In addition to these amazing organs of taste-touch’ however’ octopuses are also known to be extraordinarily sensitive over all parts of their bodies to tactile stimuli. This could be an important factor in social communication among these animals’ because the octopus can alter the texture of its skin at will. Like a shifting mosaic of brailed skin’ the cephalopod’s integument can be altered to display many shades of roughness -- from perfect smoothness’ to slightly corrugated’ to a kind of "gooseflesh" or tiny raised dots’ to larger pimples called "papillae’" to even coarser irregularities which have been described as "arborescent projections." A kind of interactive tactile Braille-talk seems quite possible among octopoids’ should they ever be of a mind to develop it. What sort of technology could be mustered by predominantly tactile creatures? Dr. Frank A. Geldard and others at the University of Virginia have extended the earlier work of Howell in a way that gives some insight into the possibilities. Geldard provided ten subjects with cutaneous vibrators similar to the ones used in Howell’s experiments. The chest devices were buzzed in sequence to give the illusion of direction and speed’ and the volunteers were required to turn an automobile steering wheel in response to the perceived motion. The humans proved capable of keeping on target using chest-vibratory tracking just as well as they could using visual clues alone. Writes Geldard: Although the visual conditions are not optimal for this sense -- the target was "traveling" at the rate of only 3.5 degrees per second’ and the eye can handle speeds many times at great -- the tracking task imposed on the subjects was one that would keep all but the speediest vehicles comfortably on course’ and the skin was handling the assignment fully as well as the eye.1694 The "Optacon" (OPtical-to-TActile CONverter) developed by NASA is another step in a similar direction. The device converts normal inkprint into a tactile format on an array of small vibrating rods and enables the blind to feel-read without Braille at speeds as high as 90 words per minute. Various attachments allow the unsighted to read typewriter and electronic calculator displays in a similar fashion. Of course humans are visual’ not tactile’ beings. The fact that people can do so well is incredible’ given that the skin is one of our least sensitive organs. How much more might ETs on other worlds be able to accomplish after their sense of touch has undergone millions of years of evolutionary honing and polishing? Geldard’s experiments and the results of NASA research seem to suggest that much as radar converts radiation we cannot see into useful visual information on a glowing screen’ perhaps tactile aliens’ likewise aided by their machines’ may be able to drive cars’ fly airships’ and communicate over long distances using a tactile telegraphy technology. While a sensorium based mainly on touch seems horribly restrictive to sighted and auditory beings such as ourselves’ there may be others in this Galaxy who think otherwise. With eons of natural evolution behind them’ such tactile systems could be fantastically complicated’ beautifully refined’ and far more versatile than any comparable means found on Earth.

13.2 Olfaction What about the sense of smell? While the related sense of taste may be too restricted for use as a primary sensory modality’* could intelligent extraterrestrials on some distant planet find that olfactory cues are optimal for survival? In man’ the organ of smell is quite small -- a total of 5 cm2 of odor-sensitive tissues representing some five million olfactory sensory cells. With their sense of smell’ humans are remarkably responsive to a wide variety of odors. Sherlock Holmes once stipulated that a good detective should be able to recognize at least 75 distinct scents’ but anyone restricted to so few would be the olfactory equivalent of "deaf and dumb." Humans normally can distinguish literally thousands of different smells’ and extreme sensitivity to certain key substances does exist. (For example’ a man can detect ally mercaptan in concentrations as low as 60 million molecules/cm3.1695) Yet humanity is a visual species’ in the main. Our language for describing scents is virtually destitute. Other animals are vastly more smell-conscious than we’ proving that the adoption of such a strategy may well be a viable alternative for intelligences on other worlds. The nostrils of an unaspiring rabbit hide some 100 million olfactory cells. Dogs do even better. Dachshunds have 125 million cells’ fox terriers nearly 150 million’ and the German sheepdog 225 million smell cells -- enough for 45 human noses’ all packed into a single snout. (This figure should be compared with the 125 million optical sensory cells in man’s eyeballs.) Experiments have suggested that the dog’s sense of scent is a million times more acute that of a human being. An even better smeller is the silkworm moth Bornbyx mori. The female of this insect species secretes minute quantities of a fatty alcohol called "bombycid" which evaporates rapidly to permit wide dispersion. A male moth can become "drunk" on this sexy scent from as far away as 20 kilometers’ catching the chemical messengers on some 17’000 sensory hairs located on each of two feathery directional antennas. Each hair responds to single quanta of odor’ and the male takes to the air when the concentration of bombykol rises to about 14’000 molecules/cm3. Test subjects released several kilometers from their prospective mates have returned’ like sexual guided missiles’ in less than half an hour.565’2511 The idea of substituting smell for sight as the primary mode of perception for intelligent beings is hardly farfetched’ despite its relative neglect by science fiction writers.2510’2536 According to the renowned Harvard University entomologist Edward O. Wilson: It is conceivable that somewhere on other worlds civilizations exist that communicate entirely by the exchange of chemical substances that are smelled or tasted. Unlikely as this may seem’ the theoretical possibility cannot be ruled out. It is not difficult to design’ on paper at least’ a chemical communication system that can transmit a large amount of information with rather good efficiency. The notion of such a communication system is of course strange because our outlook is shaved so strongly by our own peculiar auditory and visual conventions.2533 Chemical signals have many advantages over visual ones which might make them more competitive. For instance’ pheromones (scent-messages) travel around obstacles rather easily’ and pass through cracks’ tubes’ tiny holes’ and around corners -- unlike light. Smells can be transmitted through total darkness or in extreme brightness’ or through audibly impenetrable regions of high sonic noise. From a strictly energetic standpoint’ pheromone transmission is quite efficient. Less than one microgram of a compound (which is very cheap for the organism to manufacture) can produce a beacon covering many square kilometers for hours or even days.565 Odor broadcasting is also a very simple operation’ requiring only the exposure of a chemical-soaked gland to the passing winds. Consequently’ smell-talk probably has the greatest transmission range of any normal sensory or biological signaling mechanism - including vision or sound. Humans and other visual creatures depend to a large degree upon instantaneous line-of-sight communications. We see’ we react; we don’t see’ we don’t react. Our past is sharply distinguished from our present. But scents linger in the air. The odors that identify and describe events for the osmic intelligence tend to blur the passage of time. Olfactory cues have the peculiar ability to transmit data into the future. Indeed’ the same creature who released the signal in the first place can return later and use the information again. Intelligent ETs relying heavily on smell would differ profoundly in their manner of thinking from sighted animals. From the human point of view’ the osmic alien lives in a world of echoes. Smell signals’ buffeted by tiny breezes and trapped in every little nook and cranny’ would seem to reverberate again and again as they are redetected long after emission. Were our noses sharp enough to pick out the subtle olfactory distinctions and patterns’ we might regard them as a meaningless cacophony of insensible jabber. From the alien point of view’ human would be deaf and dumb -- anosmic illiterates incapable even of baby-talk. They would doubtless be perplexed by the brief human attention span’ but might be equally astonished at our rapidity of movement and thought and at our emotional transparency. Along similar lines’ Doris and David Jonas have suggested that reliance on scent could lead to more serene’ stable interpersonal relationships between intelligent ETs. "Apparently forewarned of mood changes by pheromone messages’" the Jonases tell us’ "the Olfaxes find it easier to adapt to each other’s emotions before they become extreme or frustrated."1000 Xenobiologists’ by and large’ remain skeptical of such simple conclusions. It may be that emotions are more easily sensed by olfaction -- although R.L. Birdwhistle believes that the human face alone can convey an enormous amount of emotional data for sighted beings’ some 150-200 distinct paralinguistic signals.2523 But even granting the primacy of smell in this respect’ it is anyone’s guess whether sensitivity to the emotions of one’s fellows would result in greater or lesser provocation. Surely the argument may be advanced that osmic aliens would tend to be creatures of the heart and the instinct’ rather than of the intellect’ since the constant bombardment by emotional cues from perhaps an entire city-full of beings would provide a most compelling distraction. As regards interspecies contact’ there is no guarantee that all pheromone messages will have universal meanings. For all we know’ humans may normally (and quite innocently) emit odors which to the scent-conscious aliens are sexy’ rapacious’ or obscene. Such unintentioned misunderstandings could have fearsome consequences. The slowness of olfactory transmission and message fade-out have long been viewed as tremendous disadvantages for osmic aliens. It is difficult to convey signals over a long distance and to swiftly change from one signal to another’ because odors must diffuse slowly through the air. Of course’ ants react quickly to "fear" and "attack" pheromones laid down along trails’ and rats in the midst of combat will suddenly cut off the attack when the opponent releases the odor of submission.2546 But there is little evidence among Earth's creatures that pheromones are used to transmit rapid-fire messages -- representing changes in aggressiveness’ status’ or attitude -- which are so routine in audiovisual biocommunications systems. In other words’ the odor vocabularies of the inhabitants of Earth appear to be extremely limited. But there are other ways for intelligent osmic ETs to get their meaning across. When people talk’ the sound emerging from their voice boxes consists of pressure waves in air of variable frequency and amplitude. Why couldn’t aliens’ by analogy’ transmit modulated waves of scent? No case of information transfer by such means has yet been reported in any animal species on Earth. However’ it is also true that this possibility has scarcely begun to be considered by zoological researchers. Dr. William H. Bossert at Harvard University has calculated that the theoretical information transmission rate using olfactory communication is surprisingly high.2509 As has been pointed out by others’565’1693 transmissions over large distances in a steady moderate wind are both practical and highly efficient. Under favorable conditions’ an optimal system could transmit roughly 104 bits**/second of information by modulating the emission of a single pheromone. Using more realistic assumptions -- say’ sending messages 10 meters in a steady 14 kph wind -- the maximum potential information flow is still encouragingly high. About 100 bits/second could be transmitted’ the equivalent of four 5-letter English words each second. This is much faster than most humans can speak. Of course’ this is only the value for each modulated pheromone channel used. The capacity of the system increases by 100 bits/second for each additional chemical substance which the osmic alien is able to generate and properly modulate. Ants (typical insects) have a pheromone vocabulary of at least ten distinct odor messages. If olfactory ETs have as few as ten channels at their command’ they could "speak" at the truly astounding rate of 40 words/second. Another apparently serious disadvantage of smell as the primary sensory modality is its relative inability to fix direction accurately and the corresponding lack of spatial resolution. It is probably impossible to thread a needle’ play a fast game of darts’ read a newspaper’ or soldier electronic components onto a circuit board using a sense of smell alone. However’ there are two very good reasons why this need not be an insurmountable problem. First of all’ the language of the osmic aliens may consist of a very large number (say’ a thousand) of alphabetic characters much like modern Chinese or the hieroglyphs of the Mayans and ancient Egyptians.*** Interpretation of written or spoken symbols would then depend far less upon positional cues than on the character of the symbols themselves. This would make possible such technological marvels as osmophones and smellprint’ as well as the ability to publish books and newspapers readable by predominantly olfactory ETs. In addition’ the olfactory bulb in vertebrate brains may permit a spatial patterning analogous to the three-dimensional quality of vision.1000’1701 If this is the case’ animals receiving scent messages from their environment can actually "see" in a kind of 3-D "smell-space" -- a mentally reconstructed depth-perceptive odor-hologram of sorts. Most flora and fauna vary in constitution (and thus in scent) over the surfaces of their forms’ and also smell differently if they are hot or cold’ wet or dry’ dead or alive’ etc. An osmic creature could see another animal three-dimensionally by perceiving separately the odors emitted from its tail’ legs’ the fur on its back’ its mouth’ and so forth. By adding together the bits and pieces of data entering through the nostrils’ an extremely accurate composite model of the object under observation might be built up by the brain. What about the technology of these beings? Could a sophisticated scientific dialogue take place in a language of odor? The Jonases believe so: The Olfaxes {an hypothetical race of ETs whose primary sense is scent} would not see the sun’ moon(s)’ or stars of their planetary system. However’ they feel the warmth of the hidden sun’ or sense cosmic electromagnetic emanations. Using this information’ they will be able to construct instruments that can penetrate their atmosphere and receive signals that they can translate into olfactory terms’ just as the instruments of our astronomers can receive electromagnetic and other energy pulses and register these in visual terms.1000 Finally’ where might we expect to find a race of "Olfaxes"? One oft-cited argument against the possibility of osmic aliens claims that it is comparatively difficult to imagine an environment which would favor smell over sight or hearing. But on a perpetually foggy or extremely hot planet’ visual images would be wavering’ dimly perceptible’ and highly distorted. In rarefied atmospheres’ sound waves would be weaker and less audible. Since pheromone molecules travel the farthest the fastest in hot’ thin atmospheres’ such an environment might favor olfactory modalities. Furthermore’ both audition and vision were fairly late developments in the evolution of life on this world. Osmosensory mechanisms’ on the other hand’ were among the first to evolve. It is entirely conceivable that else where in the Galaxy the early development of a highly refined sense of smell reduced the need for more elaborate alternatives. Evolution might never have had to go to the trouble of bringing forth complicated ears and eyes if complicated noses were already available and were adequate to ensure the survival of the species. There is no reason why alien lifeforms who rely on smell as their primary source of information about the surroundings should not be common among the sentient extraterrestrial races of our Galaxy.

* A few science fiction writers’ especially Stapledon’1946 might dispute this. The dolphin is known to have a fairly well-developed system of taste-navigation’ as do the salmon and the snake. 217’2537 It has recently been discovered that the tiny laboratory bacterium E. coli has a highly sensitive gustatory response capability: It can taste a chemical concentration gradient of only 0.01% over its two-micrometer length. 2452 ** "Information" may best be thought of as a choice of one message from a set of possible messages. The simplest type of choice is one that is made between two equally likely alternatives. The "bit" (binary digit) is the single unit of information’ the answer to a simple yes/no question. *** Chemically’ this is very easy to do. Countless molecular species may act as "alphabetic" information carriers. The typical pheromone has a molecular weight from 80-300’ with 5-20 carbon atoms. 2547 Even assuming the fixity of these rather restrictive ranges’ there are still literally thousands of different substances to play with.

13.3 Acoustical Senses Hearing is extremely important in many animal species on Earth’ so we may expect it to be widespread among the lifeforms of other worlds as well. Modulated waves of pressure’ impressed on the gaseous or liquid medium in which the creature dwells’ can convey much valuable information relevant to survival.

13.3.1 Two-Dimensional Sound One fascinating but little-discussed acoustical sense is the surface wave communication found among a few specialized terrestrial species. There are many insects that have utilized the peculiar two-dimensional quality of their environment to develop a rather exotic mechanism for transmitting and receiving data. For instance’ water striders (Gerris buenoi) are small’ stilt-legged insects that skim over quiet ponds’ supported by the force of surface tension. Much like the kinesthetic sensors in human bodies which provide continuous positional and velocity data for each limb’ water striders can detect the slightest disturbance traveling across the surface of the water. This is highly useful survival-oriented information’ because it alerts these organisms to the presence of various dangers such as predators’ competitors’ and obstacles. A somewhat more sophisticated surface dweller is the whirligig beetle (Gyrinus)’ which has devised a kind of "sonar" or echolocation system for use in its peculiar two-dimensional world. This creature senses the vibrations of its own ripples over the water’s surface as they are reflected from the shore or from objects moving within a certain range. Depending upon the exact nature of the return’ the clever beetle can determine size’ distance’ velocity’ and even texture of all nearby targets. Not a few small animals on this planet use surface waves directly for communication. One species of water striders (Rhagadotarsus) is known to conduct its entire courtship display using complex patterns of modulated surface waves: The sequence begins when a male grasps a floating or fixed object on the water surface and vibrates it in a way that sends out waves at the rate of 17-29 per second. Females nearby respond by moving toward the source. When one approaches to within 5-10 centimeters of the male’ he switches to "courtship calling" and finally to pure courtship signals. At 2-3 centimeters the female responds with courtship signals of her own’ followed by a series of tactile signals that finally lead to copulation.565 Several species of spiders are known to use a form of surface wave communication which involves strumming the webs they weave in specific rhythms and patterns. (This is usually used to pass data between mother and offspring.) Desert scorpions can also detect compressional and surface waves in sand to locate prey.2573 There is no reason why surface-dwelling aliens could not respond to and utilize this exotic 2-D "way of knowing." Because of the peculiar nature of the medium’ the universe inhabited by such creatures would be strange indeed. This is due’ in part’ to the fact that two-dimensional waves are fundamentally and qualitatively different from three-dimensional ones we’re used to hearing. One striking feature would be the amazing persistence of messages. We know that 3-D acoustical waves pass an observer located at a fixed point in space only one time’ never to return again. Except for the single wavefront’ the medium is relatively undisturbed. In contrast’ oscillations in 2-D media die away only very slowly from frictional forces. The entire surface space is set in motion by such stimuli’ and damping is often very weak. The media continues to "wave" for a long time after the emission of the original signal. ETs speaking by means of surface waves would sound like they were in an echo chamber. Words would have a peculiar drawn out quality’ persisting long after they have been spoken. And since the higher frequencies always travel faster than the lower ones’ each repetition of the echo will sound distinctly different. The word will stretch itself thin’ the higher pitched treble notes bunching together at the beginning of the sound and the progressively lower bass tones trailing behind.

13.3.2 Three-Dimensional Sound The most common acoustical sense on Earth is 3-D sound perception. Such sound waves normally don’t carry much energy. For example’ the pressure variations in a room due to people talking are only about 10-6 atm. Yet our ears can detect waves with so little energy (10-16 watts/cm2) that our eardrums only vibrate 10-9 cm in response.79 It is a fact that the primary human acoustical organ is extremely well-developed’ able to distinguish at least 1600 discrete frequencies and to hear the quantum hiss of molecular motion of the air -- the theoretical lower limit of sonic sensitivity. A good sense of hearing is highly advantageous for a number of reasons. Much like scent signals’ sound waves diffract around obstacles in total darkness -- at night’ in dark caves’ deep underwater -- or in blinding light to reach the recipient. And while pheromones are a less expensive way to transmit data over large distances’ auditory signals are considerably more efficient than optical ones in biocommunication. Unlike visual displays which require whole body motion or complex lighting patterns’ or scent-talk which requires a separate glandular "voicebox" for each chemical letter in the odor alphabet’ sound may be adequately generated by a single organ. A relatively simple system can produce wide variations in pitch’ tone’ intensity’ wave shape’ and timing. This means higher data flow between brain and terrain’ significantly increasing the chances for survival. Perhaps the only real disadvantage to audition is that the sonic alien must provide its own source’ since natural sounds in the environment are rarely sufficient to permit a thorough surveillance of the surroundings. But sonic senses may be highly directional with fine resolution: Even humans’ who have no echolocation system at all’ can accurately separate distinct sound sources located only 10-20° apart. Animals with built-in sonar fare much better.* Many can virtually "see" with sound. For instance’ bats are small mammalian avians able to navigate at high speeds using ultrasonic echolocation. Although visually blind’ these creatures easily avoid millimeter-wide wires strung across their path by investigators. Even when 0.3 mm wires were substituted the animals managed to avoid them more often than not. Only when tiny threads the thickness of human hair -- about 0.07 mm -- were used in the obstacle course were the bats unable to dodge them.219’2514 The upper limit for spatial resolution of targets is a function of the wavelength of sound. The tiniest object that can just be discerned has a size roughly equal to the wavelength. Smaller objects are too small to give an appreciable reflection and so remain invisible. Typically’ the sonic beings of planet Earth use frequencies from 20-100 KHz or higher for echolocation (Table 13.1). This corresponds to a wavelength on the order of millimeters in normal dry air at a range of several meters. Much higher frequencies’ say’ 500-1000 KHz’ would permit the resolution of targets 0.1 mm in size. This is quite enough to thread needles and soldier circuit boards at distances of about 10 centimeters from the creature’s face.

Table 13.1 Range of Hearing for Terrestrial Animals48,1698 Species

Frequency Range (Hz)

Species

Frequency Range (Hz)

Axolotl (salamander)

up to 240

HUMAN (adult male)

15 -- 20’000

Alligator

up to 340

Chimpanzee

up to 33’000

Turtle

up to 1’200 Monkey

up to 34’000

Goldfish

up to 2’700 Rat

up to 40’000

Minnow

up to 7’000 Dog

up to 40’000

Canary

up to 10’000 Guinea Pig

up to 40’000

Characinidae fish

up to 10’000 Grasshopper

300 -- 45’000

Frog

50 -- 10’000 Katydid

430 -- 45’000

Cricket (Gryllus)

250 -- 10’000 Cat

30 -- 50’000

Pigeon

100 -- 12’000 Bat (Plecotus)

20 -- 80’000

Catfish

up to 13’000 Deer mouse

50 -- 95’000

Harvest mouse

up to 17’500 Bat (Myotis)

20 -- 120’000

Opossum

100 -- 19’000 Dolphin

100 -- 200’000

Cricket (Acridium)

up to 20’000 Moth

up to 240’000

Of course’ aliens using sound waves with that kind of resolution would take a great deal of energy to produce. They would be "decidedly dangerous to human explorers’" according to science fiction writer Hal Clement: A story could be built on the unfortunate consequences of the men who were mowed down by what they thought must be a death ray’ when the welcoming committee was merely trying to take a good look. But there is no fundamental reason why sentient extraterrestrials couldn’t use sound as their primary sense’ and to build and create as well as any sighted being. Audition has been developed as the primary sense modality among many aerial and land based animals on Earth. Creatures evolving on planets with unusually thick atmospheres with heavy refractive effects might tend to rely far more on hearing than on seeing. Also’ there is much evidence that the sea is also a most auspicious environment for the development of sonic senses. It’s quite possible that hearing may even be the sense of choice for intelligent organisms residing in the murky oceanic media of other worlds. Why is this so? Sound travels about four times faster in water than in normal air. This allows faster response times and greater ranges of communication and data collection. For example’ at sonic frequencies of 500-1000 KHz’ spatial resolution in ordinary seawater is equivalent to that in air at 100-200 KHz -- but the range is about a hundred times greater. Sound fares well against competing senses in the watery environment. Pheromones are relatively ineffectual in water’ since diffusion in liquid media generally proceeds 103-104 times slower than in air. Smell signals are emitted’ but creep slowly away from the source. Ocean currents are tamer than atmospheric ones’ so pheromones would have to be about a million times more concentrated in water than in air to achieve comparable results. Vision doesn’t compare much better. Light and other electromagnetic radiation cannot penetrate most liquids to any appreciable degree and are subject to countless distorting effects. In a tropical sea at high noon under very clear water’ useful visual information can be gained only out to about 30 meters. Using acoustic channels instead’ this range is extended to many kilometers -- comparable to vision in air on a hazeless day. These facts are reflected in the physiological differences between humans and dolphins. The eyeballs of a man receive an estimated 50 million bits of information each second’ while his ears manage only 2 million bits/second. In porpoises the emphasis is exactly reversed: Dolphin sonar handles perhaps 40 million bits/second’ while the eyes manage only 5 million bits/second of information.**201 We can easily imagine that sound may be the preferred sensory modality among many’ if not most’ intelligent aquatic races scattered throughout the universe. There are many properties of sound that make it a totally unique window on reality. For instance’ the ultrasonic world is very quiet in comparison to the normal range of human hearing. This is because of the relatively short range of ultrasound. There is little noise because sources remain localized. In a dense fog’ both sighted and sonic organisms are ill at ease: The former’ because light is scattered away causing everything to appear visually white; the latter’ because the droplets of moisture or particles are excellent ultrasound absorbers and cause the entire field of view to appear acoustically black.2514 Human vision is limited to the surfaces of objects’ but sound penetrates and exposes the insides of targets to view. Objects may be scanned for composition and internal structure using almost distortion- and reflection-free sound waves. A pelagic sonic alien (perhaps modeled after the dolphin) thus views its fellows’ not as a sharp contour of lines and edges and distinct boundaries’ but rather more like an x-ray snapshot. Skin’ muscles’ and fatty tissues are virtually transparent to ultrasound. Bones and teeth’ internally-trapped gas bubbles’ and cartilaginous structures give good reflections. Hard parts’ as well as the digestive and respiratory tracts’ stand out in clear relief. Might aliens with such sonic sight be more honest and less deceitful than humans generally? Physiological reactions to other individuals might be instantly perceived by those others’ a kind of body-telepathy. At least one writer has remarked: "If your visceral reactions are obvious to everybody’ you don’t waste much time trying to lie."2855 Dolphin echolocation may properly be compared to human vision. Just as people are able to see by the reflected white light of the sun’ porpoises emit ultrasonic clicks and trills that illuminate the surroundings with white noise. Differences in texture and composition are as obvious to their sonic senses as to our visual ones. As Dr. Winthrop N. Kellogg points out; "Wood simply 'sounds different' from metal to a porpoise in the same way that it looks different to the human eye. It is the sound spectrum of the returning vibrations which gives the clue to the nature of the reflecting surfaces."1698 Even more sophisticated’ the dolphin has sound generators on either side of its head’ which allows sonic depth perception176 using binaural hearing -- what Lilly has called "stereophonation."201 Acoustically-oriented aliens will also have a rather clever use for color. The color of an object is just the frequency of radiation it emits’ and we may expect that objects may take on various sonic colors. But there is more. Objects moving rapidly towards a sonic sensor will reflect sound at a higher frequency because of the Doppler effect. Likewise’ objects in the field of view which are moving away will reflect lower frequencies. If sonic beings divide their audible frequency spectrum into colors’ then the sonic Doppler effect will cause approaching targets to appear "bluer" and retreating targets to appear "redder." As objects pass in front’ their color alters noticeably depending on relative speed’ angle of approach’ and distance. If the medium is in motion’ as with gusts of wind or surging water currents’ the apparent color will flicker in frequency -- a phenomenon quite alien to normal human visual experience. The linguistic significance could be enormous. Much as the Eskimos have more than fourteen different ways to say "snow" (depending on its firmness’ wetness’ age’ etc.)’ intelligent marine ETs will have words without analogue in our language. There might be terms describing approaching-red’ receding-red’ stationary-red’ stereophonic-red’ circulating-red’ gulfstream-red’ and dozens of other subtle distinctions we cannot begin to imagine. Or perhaps these sea-folk communicate in a manner which is possible only among creatures who use the same sense to see as to talk. Many researchers believe that the language of dolphins consists not of words as we understand them’ but rather of a series of sonic images transferred into speech: In this view a dolphin does not "say" a single word for shark’ but rather transmits a set of clicks corresponding to the audio reflection spectrum it would obtain on irradiating a shark with sound waves in the dolphin’s sonar mode. The basic form of dolphin/dolphin communication in this view would be a sort of aural onomatopoeia’ a drawing of audio frequency pictures -- in this case’ caricatures of a shark. We could well imagine the extension of such a language from concrete to abstract ideas’ and by the use of a kind of audio rebus -- both analogous to the development in Mesopotamia and Egypt of human written languages. It would also be possible’ then’ for dolphins to create extraordinary audio images out of their imaginations rather than their experience.2552 It is difficult to emphasize too strongly how unfamiliar the world may appear when viewed through other senses. Extraterrestrials will have experiences and capabilities that are difficult for humans to fully appreciate. A case in point in the perception of a peculiar sea phenomenon known to oceanographers as the sofar channel. The speed of sound in water increases with pressure and decreases with temperature. Moving downward from the surface the temperature plummets’ and about 100 meters down the speed of sound reaches a minimum value of 1480 m/sec. At greater depths the temperature remains fairly constant (close to freezing) but the pressure begins to build’ causing the speed of sound to go back up. This region of minimum sound speed is called the sofar channel. Sonic radiation’ due to the physics of refraction’ is actually attracted towards the channel. As with astronomical black holes (from which light waves cannot escape)’ acoustical signals sent from within the sofar channel likewise can’t get out. Transverse waves cannot cross it easily’ which must cause it to appear sonically dark and foreboding when "viewed" from above or below. If sufficient courage can be mustered’ the channel has one very interesting property as regards long range marine communications. Sounds generated at the proper depth remain trapped in the zone’ much like light in a strand of optical fiber. Messages may travel virtually unattenuated for literally thousands of kilometers in all directions. Sentient oceanic creatures of other worlds may regularly broadcast long-distance calls to other "universes" in the sea.

* Part of the difficulty is ear design -- most of the energy in sound is reflected away at the surface of the structure. There are various solutions to this problem. Star Trek’s Mr. Spock’s ears are adaptations to the thin air of his home planet Vulcan. They permit greater directionality of sonic reception by utilizing a back-curving pinna ("pointed" ears). Another solution commonly found on Earth is the independently targetable ears of goats’ cats’ dogs’ and others. ** Lilly’s figures are probably overoptimistic. Homer Jacobson and others have done a more careful analysis’ and have concluded that the human eye is capable of transmitting only 4.3 million bits/second and the human ear only about 50’000 bits/second maximum. 955’979’980

13.4 Electrical and Magnetic Senses Nearly all organisms’ including humans’ emit direct-current electricity when swimming in ordinary seawater. This is due to the gradient in electrical potential between normal body fluids and the saline electrolytic ocean. Voltages are actually developed across different parts of the body. Sharks -- rather large animals of low intelligence -- are sensitive to incredibly minute electric fields. They can detect the equivalent of a single flash light battery at a distance of 1500 kilometers (about 10-8 volt/cm). A small wound can double a person’s voltage gradient in water’ and sharks have no trouble sensing this.574 Intelligent extraterrestrials may have developed an electric sense’ given the proper evolutionary environment. By maintaining a carefully shaped field around their bodies’ such creatures could detect the entry of foreign objects and other lifeforms into its personal space. Electrosensitive aliens could clearly identify the exact nature of the intruder by noting the location’ magnitude’ and shape of the distortion in the static field. Also detectable are such nonbiological sources as motions of and compositional changes in seawater’ subsurface ore concentrations’ earthquakes’ thunderstorms and other meteorological disturbances. Many terrestrial animals use a kind of electropulse reflection system analogous to sonar. Such mechanisms have evolved independently on Earth at least six different times among fishes. The most familiar include the electric eel (Electrophorus electricus)’ the electric ray (Torpedo)’ the skate’ the knifefishes’ the electric stargazers (Astroscopus)’ and the electric catfish (Malapterurus electricus) of the Nile. The electrosonar fishes generate pulses at regular intervals. Amplitudes rarely exceed a third of a volt’ and the frequencies range from 55 Hz for the Gymnotid species Sternopygus macrurus up to 300 Hz for Eigenmannia.474’2516 (Peak surge rates as high as 1600 Hz have been recorded’ though.) Sense organs located in the head of Gymnarchus niloticus respond to currents as small as 0.003 picoamperes and voltages as low as 0.15 microvolt/cm. Dr. Hans W. Lissmann of Cambridge University believes that this typical electric fish uses its 300 Hz electrosonar for navigation. Its natural habitat is the muddy waters of Ghanese rivers in Africa. Since light cannot penetrate’ the organism is forced to rely heavily on its inboard electronics. The fish uses its electric sense both to avoid obstacles and to detect and capture prey.2516 The knifefish Eigenmannia has been closely studied by marine biologists because it uses its electrical sensitivity for social communication as well as navigation. When two of these animals meet’ each adjusts his frequency up or down to avoid jamming the signals sent out by the other. And these high-speed discharges aren’t simple sine waves; rather’ they are rich in harmonic variability and might easily serve as highly sophisticated communication systems in more cerebral alien creatures.2545 Dr. Carl Hopkins of Rockefeller University in New York has studied the sex habits of the electrical fish Sternopygus. When the male of this species passes a female’ his normally polite and mild-mannered electronic emissions suddenly become an impassioned tangle of impulses -- the chaotic mixture of harmonics and timing that are his love song to potential mates. Literally’ the female "turns on" the male.2541 The Mormoryd or "elephant trunk" fishes provide our last example of social electrics. These organisms send pulsed electrical messages to each other as a form of territorial display to warn off competitors. When a stranger intrudes on the home turf’ the defender raises his frequency in angry protest. Mormoryds also show a distinct fondness for playful activity’ and at least one researcher has documented what might be called a "listen mode" of behavior. In this mode’ one fish attentively ceases all electrical emanations when certain of its fellows pass by.2540 Similar patterns of electrocommunication have been observed in Gymnotus carapo’ a knifefish.2550 One major question remains: What kind of planetary environment might give rise to intelligent aquatic beings who relied primarily on an electric sense? As first Lissmann and later the Jonases have suggested’ there would appear to be two basic requirements. First’ to evolve electrosensitivity as the preferred sensory modality’ the medium in which the creature dwells should be quite dark. This must be a permanent (not diurnal’ seasonal’ or sporadic) condition. Otherwise’ eyes are so useful that it would be very difficult to rule them out as the primary modality. Even Gymnarchus’ living out its entire existence in darkened and perpetually muddy waters’ has a set of weak’ poorly-developed eyes which it uses to tell day from night. Second’ virtually all electrosensitive creatures on Earth live either in the ocean depths or in a turbid’ fast-flowing watery habitat. If evolution is to favor these beings’ the environment should probably be both dark and turbulent. Sonic senses would then be scrambled’ vision virtually useless’ and olfactory messages rapidly mixed’ diluted’ and swirled away. Electric field sensing could then become the sensation of choice. So we might expect to find electric intelligences in the deep oceans of fast-spinning pelagic worlds. Another possibility could be a terrestrial planet with some oceans but which orbits a bright star at a great distance or a feeble star at a moderate distance. (Subjovian worlds might work well too.) A third alternative might be the dark side of a tidallylocked one-face planet located near the inside edge of the stellar habitable zone’ a set of conditions likely to give rise to violent oceanic currents and turbulent winds. How would electrosensitive ETs view their world? We can imagine that it would be an utterly alien environment compared to anything in normal human experience. Sensations could be detected only at relatively close range due to the high electrical resistivity of water.82’565 The creature’s immediate sensory universe might extend out to about 100 meters for small objects’ perhaps to a kilometer for larger ones. It should be a simple matter for these creatures to locate and distinguish various objects. Electric field lines diverge from a poor conductor -- such as rubber’ plastic’ glass’ and other insulators -- and converge toward good conductors -- such as metals. Tests with electrosensitive fishes have proven that they are capable of detecting tiny glass rods 2 millimeters in diameter which are optically invisible in water. Two objects of the same size and shape’ but constructed of different materials’ are also easily distinguished.2516 Depending on the texture’ conductivity’ and chemical composition of the target’ electrosensitive extraterrestrials might have an equivalent to our "color" which we could scarcely understand or appreciate. The natural magnetic field of the planet’ or submerged ferromagnetic ore lodes’ would produce minute variations and distortions in the electrosensory field. A warmer or cooler layer in the watery medium could give rise to similar effects. And electrical impulses can play over the skin of an object or penetrate it to varying depths’ permitting both interior and exterior views. A related but more restricted sensory modality is the perception of magnetic fields. Zoologists have not yet found any creature on Earth capable of generating its own magnetism. Such ability cannot be ruled out elsewhere’ since terrestrial fishes can generate electric fields and circulating electric fields give rise to magnetic ones. Nevertheless’ the uniform absence of biomagnetism on this world seems to suggest that it may be restricted to a somewhat passive role elsewhere -- as on Earth. The magnetic sense has been documented in the common mud snail (Nassarius)82 and in planarian worms.765 Magnetotaxis -- attraction to magnetic sources -- has also been clearly demonstrated in marsh bacteria and a few other microscopic species. These diminutive organisms have tiny chains of iron-rich beads incorporated within their bodies which allow them to orient themselves along Earth’s north-south axis and swim towards Magnetic North.2518 Insects’ too’ make use of the planetary field. Bees are known to build their hives in perfect alignment parallel to Magnetic North. If a strong magnet is placed nearby’ the insects obligingly construct their new home in accordance with the new distorted direction of the magnetic field vector. (In one experiment a deflection of more than 40° from true north was achieved in this manner.438) Some species of termites are similarly affected’ building their nests either parallel or perpendicular to the geomagnetic field at that location.219 These insects are believed to be sensitive to a mere 10-5 gauss’ yet to date no organs or receptors have been isolated that could serve in this capacity. Finally’ one of the leading theories of bird navigation holds that these avians (besides sighting on familiar landmarks and the stars2532) take some of their directional cues from the position of the planetary magnetic field. There is much recent experimental evidence that birds can respond to fields as weak as 10-3 gauss (Earth’s field is about 0.5 gauss at the surface).2517’2519 There is also some unconfirmed evidence of a tiny organ in the corner of the eyes of the homing pigeon which is sensitive to magnetic flux.79 Magnetosensitivity may well serve in at least an auxiliary role for many extraterrestrial animal species.

13.5 Vision Virtually all higher lifeforms on planet Earth have some optical sensing capability’ testimony to the tremendous advantage in being able to see. Light is most familiar to us’ but there are also many other forms of electromagnetic radiation. Likewise subsumed under "vision" must be eyes that see by gamma rays’ x-rays or ultraviolet rays in the higher frequencies’ and by infrared (heat)’ microwave or radio waves at the lower end of the spectrum. There are many advantages to sight. While all but radio frequencies cannot diffract around obstacles or turn corners’ vision provides the greatest accuracy’ highest directionality’ and the finest resolution of any sense available. Since photons travel faster than any material pulse -- as with olfactory or auditory signals -- vision permits virtually instantaneous response times. And light can carry far more bits/second than any other stimulus.980 One possible disadvantage of vision is that it requires elaborate whole body motions’2534 body color changes’2506 or complex biochemical mechanisms such as are found in bioluminescent insects and "flashlight" fishes2522’2526’2544 for social interaction to take place. So visual messages may be an inferior mode of communication between individuals unless there are overriding environ mental factors at work -- such as an unusually thin atmosphere which transmits sound poorly. But this difficulty is more than offset when we consider vision as a means of sensing the surroundings generally. The sighted animal has a tremendous advantage enjoyed by no other: An external source of illumination. It has been suggested in earlier chapters that most lifeforms will probably evolve on planets circling other stars. If this is a valid assumption for the majority of extraterrestrial races in the Galaxy’ it follows that most of these environments will also be reasonably well-lighted. While osmic alien must emit their own pheromones and auditory beasts must radiate homemade sonar pulses if they desire high resolution’ light falls from the sky like sensory manna from heaven. Photons bounce off everything and thus collect information which is free for the taking by any organism equipped with eyeballs. Naturally’ there are a few restrictions. Despite the fact that stars emit radiation at all frequencies in varying intensities’ planetary atmospheres tend to absorb a great deal of it. Depending on the composition of the air’ its pressure and a hundred other factors’ there will exist one or more "windows" through which environmental illumination may pour. As a rule’ gamma rays and x-rays are absorbed by energy-level jumping in the atoms of air. It’s true that snails are known to be especially sensitive to x-ray’s’551 and Arthur C. Clarke has speculated on the possibility of an x-ray sense’81 the fact is that such high energy photons will probably be unable to penetrate any planetary atmosphere of reasonable density. Ultraviolet (UV) is absorbed too’ although to a lesser extent. In a thin or unshielded (e.g.’ ozone-free) atmosphere like that of Mars’ ultraviolet rays might reach the surface and become useful for vision. It is a surprising fact that the human retina is quite sensitive to UV down to at least 3300 Angstrom.2528 This soft-ultraviolet radiation normally never reaches the retina because it is filtered out by the lens. A few persons have undergone lens replacement operations to remove cataracts’ and since the artificial lens passes UV the full potential of the retina is finally realized. Such people can see a "color" that the rest of us cannot!* Unfortunately’ on most planetary surfaces any scene viewed in ultraviolet light would probably be quite dark. Near-infrared (IR) radiation is partly removed by the vibrations in molecules of water’ carbon dioxide’ methane’ ammonia and a variety of other atmospheric constituents’ and far-IR is absorbed by molecular rotational transitions common in the air of all planets. Still’ some infrared does get through and may become useful for seeing. We are left with "visible" light’ some near-infrared’ and some radio frequencies to which normal atmospheres are transparent. Thus there are three main bands of electromagnetic radiation which may profitably be exploited for vision on the surface of any world: The visible’ the infrared’ and the radio.

* During World War II’ senior citizens who had undergone lens replacement operations were used by the Office of Strategic Services to pinpoint the flashing UV signals from agents stationed on enemy coasts. Secrecy was maintained be cause these messages were completely invisible to anyone else. 2529

13.5.1 Visible Vision The "visible" range of light is actually slightly broader than the visual spectrum for human eyes. Our sight is normally limited to 4000-7000 Angstrom. Bees’ however’ are fully sensitive to ultraviolet radiation down to about 2500 Angstrom but they cannot see red. All animals have somewhat different reactions to visible stimuli’ as shown in Table 13.2 below. Table 13.2 Wavelength of Maximum Sensitivity to Visible Light Among Terrestrial Fauna Organism

Wavelength (A)

Organism

Wavelength (A)

Honeybee

3600

Blowfly larvae

Fruit fly

3600

HUMAN

5110-5540

Hydra

4300-4900

Freshwater fishes

5400-6100

Amoeba

4300-4900

Cat

5600

Snake

5600

(Green plants)

(4650)

5030

Crab

4800-5000

Frog

5600

Squid

4800-5000

Lizard

5700

Euglena

4830

Chicken

5600-5800

Guinea pig

5000

Pigeon

5800

Rat

5000

Tortoise

6200

Saltwater fishes

5000

Seagulls

~6500

Many have advanced the interesting notion that ETs evolving under the light of other suns will necessarily have eyesight which is most sensitive to the frequency of peak output of their home star. Hotter stars’ under this scheme’ would spawn creatures with bright-light accommodation and heightened sensitivity to blue light. Cooler stars would give rise to organisms more attuned to the red. (See especially Anderson’63 Clarke’81 Clement’292 Macvey’61 and Shklovskii and Sagan.20) There are strong reasons to doubt the above hypothesis. Consider Table 13.3 below’ which shows the visible radiation from various stars incident on planets located near the center of the Earth-normal habitable zone. Note that among all stellar classes of xenobiological importance the shift in the visible power spectrum is not dramatic. While some small variation exists in the relative intensities of blue’ green and red from star to star’ the differences are decidedly underwhelming -hardly sufficient to represent a decisive evolutionary selective factor.

Table 13.3 Electromagnetic Power Delivered to Planet, Orbiting in EarthNormal Ecosphere, by Various Stars in Visible Wavelengths of Light Visible Wavelength l (A)

Power Incident on Planet from Star (watts/m2-Ang) A0

F0

G0

K0

M0

2000

0.3

0.05

0.01

0.002

0.00005

5000

0.2

0.2

0.2

0.1

0.08

10’000

0.03

0.05

0.07

0.07

0.1

Furthermore’ the peak sensitivity of terrestrial lifeforms is highly variable’ ranging from 3600 Angstrom for bees (the equivalent emission peak of an A7 sun) up to 6500 Angstrom for seagulls (the equivalent emission peak of a K3 star). And yet all of these creatures evolved under the same sun. It seems clear that eye sensitivity probably relates more closely to other environmental factors than the stellar class of the home sun. For example’ it is often suggested that the wavelengths of light to which humans are most sensitive are virtually identical to the color of sunlight filtering down through a dense forest canopy of green vegetation and foliage’ thus reflecting our arboreal origins. Aliens will answer in similar fashion to their own peculiar evolutionary heritages. If sight is so important to living beings’ then what kinds of photoreceptors might we expect to find on other worlds? Will ETs have eyes like ours’ and if so’ how many? One of the most striking examples of parallel or "convergent" evolution in the terrestrial animal kingdom is the incredible similarity between the eyes of creatures with vastly different evolutionary histories. Animals in many separate phyla -- Chordata (amphibians’ fishes’ reptiles and birds)’ Mollusca (octopus’ squid)’ Annelida (the alciopid worms Torrea and Vanadis2482)’ Coelenterata (the cubomedusan jellyfish2816)’ and even Protista (the elaborate lensed eyes of dinoflagellates2856) -have independently evolved photoreceptors surprisingly similar in structure to the mammalian eye. There are some discrepancies; for instance’ the photoreceptor cells in molluscs point towards the light’ the opposite of vertebrates.1697 Nevertheless’ close comparison reveals that the adjustable lens’ retina’ pigments’ focusing muscles’ iris diaphragm’ transparent cornea’ and eyelids all are immediately recognizable. The ubiquity of the eyeball is perhaps the clearest indication that it’s simply the best design for the job. Similar evolutionary forces and physical laws should lead intelligent ETs down much the same path. Of course’ the "camera lens" eye used by mammals isn’t the only imaging system lifeforms can use (though it’s probably the best for larger organisms). The next most common -- indeed more common if you just count species -- is the compound eye of insects and crustaceans.2535 Each organ looks like a small multifaceted jewel’ but is actually a bundle of optical tubes. Light is directed down each of these tubes onto a large matrix of individual photosensitive spots on the retina. The image appears as a composite mosaic of tiny light-bits. Dragonfly eyes’ to take an example’ have more than 28’000 facets each.79 Motion may be discerned as far away as 12 meters. Unfortunately’ the compound eye has only very poor resolving power. (See Table 13.4.) It has been pointed out that an insect’ poring over this page of print’ would be quite unable to make out the individual letters.81 This is why larger creatures who need large amounts of accurate’ well-resolved visual data will probably find the compound eye an unattractive alternative on any planet. Yet for smaller organisms it is ideal. Part of the reason for this is the laws of physical optics. If a flea had a spherical lens eye like that of humans’ the pupil would be so minute that diffraction effects would make clear imaging impossible.958 Once again we see that the worlds of size are truly worlds apart.

Table 13.4 Resolving Power of Some Common Animal Eyes Minimum Resolvable Angle

Animal

Minimum Resolvable Angle

Animal

(minutes of arc)

(minutes of arc)

Camera Lens Eyes

Compound Eyes

Hawk

0.1-0.3

Honeybee

Pigeon

0.38-0.5

Ant

Cat

0.45-1.0

MAN

0.5-1.0

Monkey

0.95

Chicken

4.1

Pigmented rat

26

Frog

29

Albino rat

56

Lizard

54-60 ~60

Fiddler crab

235

Fruit Fly

560

30-60

Other image-forming techniques are of limited importance on Earth’ but this is no guarantee that the emphasis on other planets will be the same. For instance’ alien species may utilize the pinhole camera concept. Such a system uses a open optical pit without lenses that is exceptionally useful in water. The beauty of the pinhole eye lies in its simplicity’ and it has been adopted by at least one group of animals on Earth: the chambered nautilus.584 Another curious mechanism is the scanning eye of the snail. The image formed by a simple crystalline lens is scanned by moving a single retinal nerve sensor over the field of vision. The entire picture is slowly reconstructed from a series of these scans. Scanning eyes aren’t particularly useful for spotting rapid movements’ but may be of value in highly viscous environments. The principle of the optical reflector telescope has never been directly employed to form images by terrestrial lifeforms. But it is clearly possible to do so. And while pinhole and compound eyes cannot gather light but merely serve to redirect it’ both lenses and reflectors can.439 Some animals have developed biological reflectors for other purposes. The luminous squid has retractable reflectors which’ when coupled with its bioluminescence’ produce a kind of searchlight. This elaborate apparatus’ constructed of lenses’ concave mirrors’ diaphragms and shutters’ emits a beam of illumination with which it sweeps the vicinity in search of prey.1000 The common house cat also makes use of curved reflectors. When light enters the feline eyeball not all of it is absorbed by the visual pigment in the retina. In most mammals this light is simply wasted. But the cat has evolved a mirrorlike coating on the inward-facing front side of its eye’ called the tapetum. This specialized device reflects unused photons back into the retina for another try at absorption. Efficiency is increased and sensitivity heightened’ although the image is blurred very slightly. Another specialized adaptation is the split-pupil eyeball. This allows an organism swimming along the surface of a liquid body to enjoy bifocal vision.61 The Foureyed Fish’ one of the largest tropical tooth carps (Anableps)’ actually has this remarkable feature. It is an elongate fish with eyes projecting upwards’ each member of the pair divided into an upper part adapted for vision in air and a lower part adapted for vision in water. Any creature so equipped -- alien or Earthly -- can keep tabs on events above and below at the same time! Another kind of visual perception is the sensation of polarized light. Many animals on Earth have this sense -- insects’ crustaceans’ birds -- although most mammals do not.* Radiation coming from the sun is unpolarized. But when these rays are intercepted by a planetary atmosphere the plane of vibration is altered depending on the position of the star in the sky during the day. Honeybees’ to take one example of many’ monitor these shifting patterns of light and use this information to map out the shortest direct air route home. Sky polarization thus serves as a highly accurate navigational aid for these creatures.2530 Since sunlight reflected off a lake or ocean also is polarized’ sentient avians of other worlds who must seek their prey by diving through a shiny water surface may be equipped with internal Polaroid filters. (Herons’ kingfishers and other terrestrial birds have these.961) Species inhabiting a "glassy" desert planet (with large expanses of volcanically or electrically fused surface sand) might also find this sense quite useful as sunlight bouncing off glass is polarized. And in constantly swirling irregular media’ the detection of polarized light could help to maintain a proper orientation of "up" and "down." We can imagine still more exotic schemes. Nature may have use for an eye with the ability to integrate light from a scene over a long period of time’ much like photographic film. Such a system might be useful on a torpid’ dimly-lit world (such as Venus) or in an environment populated by creatures with very slow response times. Since human rod cells are able to soak up dim light like a sponge for seconds at a time’82 there is no reason why aliens could not go us an order of magnitude or so better. This same ability could be used to design "wraparound eyes" for panoramic viewing. What about eyes on stalks? Despite the attractiveness of this idea among devotees of the outré’ both omnidirectional viewing (as found in some insects and terrestrial fishes) and independently swiveling eyes (like the chameleon) are generally seen by most xenobiologists as rather unlikely adaptations for thinking animals. It is said that eyes on mobile stalks are a feature more of animals likely to be preyed upon’ and that "no superior intelligence could evolve in circumstances in which it lived in constant fear of being struck down and eaten."50 Bonnie Dalzell has produced three additional arguments against eye stalks for intelligent ETs that are very persuasive: 1. Eye stalks require an hydraulic support mechanism’ which is very inefficient except in small animals. 2. Eye stalks are too dangerous. Eyes are often the most vital sense’ yet a predator could just clip them off with the stroke of a claw or pincer. And such organs are more prone to normal injury -- in an accident’ stalks could be bumped’ slammed’ or squashed rather easily. 3. Stalks’ in fact all independently-targetable eyes’ present severe problems for the brain in making the correct parallactic computations necessary for binocular vision.400 (However’ the chameleon seems to triangulate on his food quite easily.474) How many eyes are best? It’s clear that nature usually chooses the cheapest way to do a given job. Certainly for senses that are not highly directional’ it would seem that a single receptor organ should suffice. This is perhaps why most larger organisms have but one organ of smell and one of taste. On the other hand’ senses that are highly directional can make good use of the benefits of stereo. The ability to accurately triangulate a source depends on the simultaneous operation of at least two physically separated receptors. One organ of sight or sound gives 2-D resolution; a second organ’ by making use of binocular or binaural sensing’ gives three-dimensional coverage. But there appears to be little to gain from using more than two sensors. A single pair is sufficient to ensure spatial resolution with depth perception -- a quantum leap over single organs but not much poorer than three or more. Notes one xenologist: "Three eyes represent not nearly the same improvement over two that two represent over one."20 Since the Principle of Economy tells us that nature invariably chooses the cheaper of several ways to do the same thing’ this may partly explain why we have exactly two eyes and two ears. The advantages of having more than this number are slight or nonexistent’ a conclusion bolstered by the apparent convergent evolution of stereoscopic vision among mammals’ birds’ and other animal groups on this planet.2520 Still’ there is plenty of biological precedent for alternatives. Cyclopean organisms are common in the microscopic world’ but these are mere eyespots’ useless for imaging or any discrimination between all but fuzzy patches of light. Scorpions and water fleas have a pair of compound eyes set so close together that they appear almost as one -- but these are not truly monocular. It is possible that monocular vision might suffice even for large alien creatures. For example’ a single eyeball that vibrated slowly from side to side could provide limited depth perception. Nearer objects would seem to move faster across the field of view than more distant ones’ giving clues to their relative positions in space. (The human eyeball constantly quivers to prevent "visual accommodation’" but the effect is too small to permit stereoscopy.)** Very few animals have more than two imaging eyes’ because third eyes don’t tell the being anything it didn’t already know. Reptiles (and man) have an ancient third eye called the pineal gland. In today’s reptiles it is only a day/night sensor and has no imaging capability whatsoever’2521 and in humans it is fully degenerate. But such may not always have been the case. The skull of Cynognathus’ an extinct Triassic Period theriodont reptile’ definitely shows three eyes. This animal was mammal-like’ possibly warm-blooded and probably hairy.600 Nereis’ the common sandworm or clamworm’ has four eyes. The Horseshoe Crab (Xiphosura) is also tetraocular’ though two of the four are degenerate. Most insects are pentaocular’ with three small eyespots called ocelli located on the upper part of the head between the two compound eyes. Once again’ how ever’ there are only two image-forming eyes.965 In a few cases’ several batteries of eye-pairs are used during the successive phases of the hunt for food. Dr. Norman J. Berrill describes the dinnertime antics of the spider’ which has four pairs of eyes: The rear pair serve to watch behind for either food or danger. The other three pairs work together but in succession. If something comes within the range of vision of one of the outermost pair’ the head turns until the object is brought into the field of the two pairs of eyes in the middle’ and the spider then advances. When the object is brought into focus of the forward pair’ the spider jumps to attack. The whole business is much like a self-operated mechanism with seeing instruments’ and the eight eyes together do not compare with the camera or the compound eye of a bird or a bee.89 The ultimate limit is probably reached by the scallop’ whose literally hundreds of tiny’ beautifully constructed "eyes" are spread around the circumference of its mantle like running lights on an ocean liner. These sense organs are very limited in function’ however’ as they cannot image. They serve only to initiate an automatic escape reaction at the approach of a hungry starfish (the scallop’s natural predator) heading in from any direction. Specific environments can be imagined in which more or less than a single pair of eyes might be selectively advantageous. But the cost in added neurological equipment will usually be prohibitive. From the many examples above we know that more or less than two eyes have seldom proven more adaptive than exactly two. Large sentient aliens’ if they see by visible light’ will most likely be binocular.

* Humans can see polarized light’ but just barely. In natural skylight "Haidinger’s Brushes" appear as a small yellow and blue Maltese cross in the center of the visual field’ the blue segment oriented parallel to the plane of polarization. The phenomenon is so close to the borderline of perception’ so faint and unreliable’ that it cannot serve a navigation function for man.2531 ** It should be pointed out that the possession of two eyes does not guarantee stereoscopic vision. The rabbit and the woodcock’ for instance’ have eyes located on opposite sides of the head -which provides almost no binocular field. 82

13.5.2 Infrared Vision The second range of electromagnetic radiation generally considered useful for vision is the near-infrared. While about 45% of Sol’s energy arrives as visible light’ and 10% as UV’ most of the remaining 45% comes in as infrared of various wavelengths. But seeing in the IR has another great advantage which is independent of atmospheric conditions. Every material body in the universe’ provided its temperature is above absolute zero’ emits a continuous spectrum of "black body" radiation (Figure 13.1). Simply because they have some heat’ all objects "shine" in the infrared. So to infrared eyes’ all the world illuminates itself.

Figure 13.1 Peak of Blackbody Radiation at Various Temperatures2524

WAVELENGTH OF RADIATION emitted by heated bodies varies with the absolute temperature. The wavelength of the most intense emission is given by Wein's displacement law’ which states that for a thermal radiator the product of the peak wavelength and the absolute temperature is a constant. In the units used here the constant is about 3000 micron-degrees. Thus the sun’ whose temperature is about 5700 K’ has a peak emission near 0.5 micron. The eye responds only to the narrow band of wavelength between 0.4 micron (violet) and 0.7 micron (red). The arrows along the bottom of the diagram indicate the center of narrow infrared "windows" where the atmosphere allows the passage of 50 percent or more of the incident radiation. There are poor windows near 35’ 350 and 450 microns that can be exploited by observatories in dry locations. The atmosphere becomes essentially transparent to incoming radiation at about 800 microns. Astronomers use photographic emulsions and photomultipliers out to one micron in the near-infrared. Infrared techniques are used between one micron and a few thousand microns’ where they overlap with radio techniques.

The rattlesnake is remarkably good at sensing heat waves. This creature has four eyes -- two imaging eyeballs operating in the visible’ and two conical pits on either side of the head which house its binocular infrared cameras. Each one measures 2 cm2 in area and is packed with 150’000 receptors sensitive to the near-IR from 15’000-150’000 Angstrom. To this reptile’ the world of heat is as important as the visible world. The typical rattler can sense a mere 0.005 watt/cm2’ equivalent to the infrared radiated by 1 cm2 of human skin.2525 Temperature differences of only 0.002°C can be seen by the snake. This allows it to hunt mammalian prey even in darkness’ and to penetrate protective coloration ruses and camouflage ploys during the daytime. What about visual acuity in the IR? Would the accuracy of sight be much impaired? Arthur C. Clarke has suggested that infrared eyeballs would give "coarse and fuzzy pictures’ for the images they produced could not be sharply focused." Furthermore’ since "a typical heat wave is about a hundred times longer than a wave of visible light’ infrared eyes with vision as sharp as ours would have to be a hundred times larger." Clarke then conjures visions of monstrous two-meter-wide alien eyeballs which’ he then concludes almost casually’ "would certainly be inconvenient!"81 This result is extremely misleading. Extraterrestrial infrared sensors need not be grotesque at all. For example’ let us consider an intelligent ET peering at a crowd of Homo sapiens through infrared eyeballs. The black body radiation emitted by a warm human body peaks at about 93’000 Angstrom. How large must the sensor be? At the stated wavelength’ the aperture* of the alien eyeball only needs to be 3.9 cm to enable it to resolve one minute of arc -- about as good as a man’s eye. This size is comparable to the diameter of the eye of the horse (5.0 cm) and the Indian elephant (4.1 cm)’ and is nowhere near as large as the eyeball of the largest cephalopods (up to 37 cm) or even the largest mammal’ the blue whale (14.5 cm).1697 So infrared eyes have to be just a few times larger than our own to achieve comparable optical resolution. An extraterrestrial stargazer with IR eyeballs would not see what we see’ however. Most of the familiar constellations would be gone because most of the brightest stars radiate only faintly in the infrared. New constellations would appear’ comprised of stars visible to humans only with telescopes in the visible range but which burn brightly in the IR. Beings capable of seeing down into the infrared may have divided the spectrum into heat-colors. The coldest objects would appear "red’" the hottest "blue." This is easy for us to conceptualize’ even though we are incapable of making such fine distinctions of temperature and have no absolute sense of temperature. That is’ the perception of a given temperature is variable’ depending upon whether our skin was previously hotter or colder. But there are creatures indigenous to Earth that do have an absolute temperature sense. Many insect’ birds’ fishes and rodents possess the ability in a limited way. Fish have been trained to respond to a specific temperature -- say’ 14 °C -- regardless of whether they had previously been kept in warm or cold water.2543 Honeybees are known to have an exact thermoregulatory mechanism by which they maintain the hive at a constant temperature. And one large bird -- the Australian bush turkey or "incubator bird" -- can keep its nest within 0.1 °C of precisely 33°C.2542 With this kind of absolute heat sense’ an intelligent alien brain might interpret an entire rainbow of color in the heat spectrum. Since electrical permittivity varies widely in the infrared from substance to substance’ "seeing" the chemical composition of the surroundings should not be too difficult for these beings.1703 With both visible and IR vision’ like the rattlesnake’ complicated visual messages and intricate works of interactive thermal art would be possible. Heat’ of course’ is a persistent phenomenon. The footprints of a barefoot person across a cold floor or the jet blast on an airport runway well after departure remain visible in the infrared long after the source of these traces has departed. Like olfaction’ thermosensitivity produces a world of echoes. The past gradually melds into the present as the traces of hot objects that passed by earlier begin to dissipate. Not only would such a clear view of the immediate local past be extremely useful survival-oriented information’ but ETs with this sense would perceive reality and the flow of time in ways we can scarcely imagine.

* Calculated using usual approximation to Rayleigh’s criterion for optical resolvability of two point sources in air (diffraction pattern overlap): qR = 70l/A’ where qR is resolution in degrees’ l is wavelength and A is eye aperture both in meters.

13.5.3 Radio Vision In so many ways the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum seems ideal for use by living beings. The atmosphere conveniently allows these wavelengths to pass’ and most photosensitive chemical substances respond well in this region. Photons of visible light are energetic enough to excite our senses’ yet not so energetic as to damage our tissues. Wavelength is small enough to permit the resolution of extremely small objects without distortion. As if this was not enough’ we find that our sun emits its maximum power smack in the center of the visible range. Our sight spans just those frequencies in which the greatest power is available for illumination -- a most auspicious arrangement. Let’s take a closer look at this. The peak wavelengths in the power spectra of all classes of stars are shown in Table 13.5. Note that all stars of xenobiological interest have peak emissions well within the visible range. So choosing a star other than Sol won’t alter our conclusions -- alien worlds will be impinged with quite similar wavelengths of bright visible light’ though the mixture of colors may vary slightly. The fact that F0 through K5 stars peak in the human-visible optical window argues strongly for the evolution of visual’ rather than radio’ eyesight. It has also often been asserted that radio eyes would be difficult if not impossible from a bioevolutionary point of view. To achieve the same resolution as the human eye’ a radio eyeball using 1-meter radio waves (300 MHz) would have to be several kilometers in diameter.1338 If 1-centimeter waves (30 GHz) are used’ the radio eye need only be about 40 meters wide’ but Carl Sagan’s cryptic remark is still appropriate: "This seems awkward."20

Table 13.5 Peak Emission Wavelength of Radiation from Various Stars Spectral Class

Photosphere Temperature (K)

Approximate Amax (Ang)

Visual Color of Maximum Wavelength

O5

36’000

800

ultraviolet

B0

25’000

1200

ultraviolet

B5

15’000

1900

ultraviolet

A0

10’700

2700

ultraviolet

A5

8400

3400

ultraviolet

F0

7300

4000

violet

F5

6500

4400

blue

G0

6000

4800

blue-green

G5

5500

5300

yellow-green

K0

4900

5900

orange-yellow

K5

4200

6900

red

M0

3600

8000

near-infrared

M5

2900

10’000

near-infrared

No organisms on Earth are known regularly to use radar as a functional part of their normal sensorium. Of course’ we cannot exclude such a possibility elsewhere on this basis alone. Electrical senses are quite well-developed on this planet’ and there’s no reason why alien creatures could not learn to manipulate kilocycle and megacycle signals with ease. Recordings have been made of electric fish sputtering along at 1600 Hz for brief periods’2516 and experiments conducted by Clyde E. Ingalls’ Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Cornell University’ have demonstrated the ability of some humans to actually "hear" radar waves beamed at the head.79 And there really is no need at all for a single’ localized viewing organ. To demand such is to become an "eyeball chauvinist." For instance’ the entire body of a moderate-sized macromorph could be used for this purpose’ much as arrays of electric field sensors are embedded in the outer skin of sharks and the electric ray. The central’ most critical test is to find a good reason to evolve a radar sense. Certainly it is not an easy matter’ and the rewards appear marginal because of the low radiative power of most natural sources of radio waves. In other words’ if we hope to find radar beings elsewhere in the Galaxy’ we must think up some excellent reasons why nature should go to so much trouble. The power output of Sol in the visible is compared with its radio emissions in Table 13.6. The radio window’ while far broader than the visible’ has more than ten orders of magnitude less energy available for sight! With hotter class-F stars the disparity is even greater.

Table 13.6 Radiative Power Output at the Surface of Sol ----- Visible Window -----

----- Radio Window -----

Wavelength

Power Output

Wavelength

Power Output

l (A)

(watts/m2-A)

A

(watts/m2-A)

2000

450

1 cm

2 × 10-12

5000

8300

10 cm

9 × 10-16

10’000

3400

1m

1 × 10-18

10 m

4 × 10-22

If radio is to be competitive with sight as a primary sensory modality’ the levels of environmental illumination should at the very least be roughly equivalent in magnitude. This guesstimate is probably a trifle optimistic since the information-carrying capacity (bit rate) of radio is about a million times lower than for visible light -- but we’ll stick with it anyhow. Where might we find the proper conditions? The planet Venus has a surface temperature of about 750 K. The hot rocks emit blackbody radiation in the radio at roughly the same intensity as in the visible. This would give radar eyes a fighting chance’ except that we still have the enormous influx of visible light from Sol to contend with. It appears that if radio is to win’ the visible window somehow must be closed. It was once believed that the thick cloud cover over Venus would preclude the illumination of the planet’s surface by Sol’s rays. But on-site measurements made by the Russian space probes Venera 9 and Venera 10 have shown that such is not the case.2386 Sunlight penetrates the Cytherian gloom rather easily’ providing light equivalent to Earth’s on a rainy’ overcast day. It’s doubtful whether cloud covers very much more opaque can feasibly be designed. Unless we resort to such planetological oddities as chlorine or sulfur atmospheres to blot out the light’ vision in the visible range must still be preferred over radio in any reasonable solar system. If we cannot easily close the visible window’ only one alternative remains: We must turn out the lights! Probably the best environment for the evolution of radio-sensitive creatures would be the surface of starless’ self-heating planets. Ensconced in the cold’ dark blanket of the interstellar void’ these worlds might sustain life and intelligence. Radar beasts with 40-meter-wide sensors may well be found on subjovian’ jovian’ or superjovian planets in the dead of space. No sun shines; all illumination must percolate up from below’ and most of that is in the radio. What might extraterrestrial radio eyes see on such a world? From orbit’ the night sky would appear suffused with a faint radio glow. Normal stars -- as we know them -- would all be gone. All constellations would vanish. In their places would be found a few brightly flaring pulsars and quasars’ visible to the naked radio eye because of its greater sensitivity. Tiny creases and splashes of multicolored light would mark the titanic explosions in distant radio galaxies. The Milky Way itself would cut a bold’ wide circular swath around the field of view’ a glorious aurora-like ribbon of brilliance punctuated by a giant "radio moon": The Core of the Galaxy. Probably visible even from the ground as a spot of light about the size of a dime held at arm’s length’ it would inspire the awe and curiosity of the inhabitants of the starless world below. On the surface of the planet most of the astronomical universe visible from the orbital platform would be blotted out by ground and sky glare. Since the ground is the source of all energy’ it will appear the brightest. The atmosphere’ in close equilibrium with the ground temperature but slightly cooler’ will be brighter but appear as a "colder" (redder) color. A radio snapshot would look surprisingly like a photographic negative of a scene on Earth: A brightly gleaming world nestled beneath a soft hazy blanket of swirling’ cloud-pocked’ multicolored’ dully-glowing sky. On Earth there are an estimated 100 lightning flashes each second worldwide. On a radio world’ the atmosphere would be constantly flickering with "fireflies" dancing in the distance. Radio waves generated by electrical discharges any where on the planet would spread over great distances. The horizon would literally sparkle with light all around. Water and many other liquid surfaces would appear shiny and bright’ but outcroppings of dry’ solid rock must look dark and foreboding. If there are any clouds hanging over the planet’ they probably won’t be seen because they are generally transparent to radio waves. Radar sensing can be used to peer deep inside nonmetallic objects heated nonuniformly1338 (such as a living body). "Radio blue" might be defined as the radio color coming from the hottest parts of such objects’ whereas "radio red" would be perceived from the coolest regions. How can we comprehend what it means to simultaneously view all parts of a solid body’ heated from within or with layered surfaces’ which appears "red" on the outside’ "green" on the inside’ and "blue" at the center? This is three-dimensional see-through color vision with a vengeance! If radio-sensitive extraterrestrials have developed some form of space travel technology’ they might tend to beware the blinding radio brilliance of stars. Should they happen to approach Sol’ our sun would not appear to be the well-behaved’ steadily-shining object we know it to be. The total radio flux can wander over as much as five orders of magnitude during periods of intense solar activity (during which the variations in optical brightness rarely exceed 1%).1339 Enormous storms lasting many days would be observed near sunspots’ releasing powerful blasts of radio energy resembling bombs bursting. A typical outburst raging across the shimmering surface of Sol would last tens of minutes’ but the star might suddenly flare up unexpectedly’ climbing several orders of magnitude in brightness in a matter of seconds. To radio-sensitive aliens’ all stars must appear to be quite dangerous places indeed -- variable’ inhospitable’ random’ violent’ and very uninviting in comparison to the tranquil’ stately quiescence of the home planet. But suppose for a moment that some foolhardy adventurer ventures close to our solar system in search of life. The terrestrial worlds would be only faintly visible’ so the alien astronaut would first be drawn to the gas giants. The jovians emit vivid and colorful flashes "as if an enormous electrical storm were raging over its entire surface."49 With proper shielding and access to powerful telescopes’ however’ the alien might journey to Earth at last. On our world’ there would be three sources of radio-light by which our strange visitor could see: (1) Radio emissions from our sun (a kind of flickering daylight to the ET); (2) black body emissions (given off by all warm bodies -- air’ ground’ human bystanders’ etc.); and (3) artificial sources. It is the last of these which is most likely to cause an early breakdown in interstellar relations. Earth-based radiotelescope transmitters’ TV and radio broadcasting antennae’ and BMEWS defense radars would appear as hot and bright as the unshielded surface of the sun to the alien’s eyes. When our military radar first scans the incoming spacecraft’ it may be interpreted as an act of war. A beamed radio "welcome" signal would fare no better. After all’ would we take kindly to a megawatt optical laser beam trained on our vessel as we came in for a landing on another world?

13.6 Alien Senses We are far from having exhausted all of the sensory possibilities. Man himself has many others -- the vestibular senses relating to body position and accelerations’ pain’ time (circadian rhythms)’ blood sugar level monitoring’ thirst and hunger’ internal temperature’ and so forth. Most organisms’ including jellyfish’ shrimps’ octopuses’ and virtually all vertebrates are able to sense gravity to some degree. Even most of the higher plants have gee-sensors to keep them growing upright.* The water scorpion Nepa uses a fathometer sensitive to hydrostatic pressure gradients to keep itself informed of the depth to which it has dived’2358 and the alciopid worm Torrea has an unusual double-retina eyeball which may serve as an accurate depth gauge.2482 Honeybees and a species of fire ant (Solenopsis) can detect changes in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air. Other organisms have humidity sensors’ brightness sensors’ salinity sensors’ and so forth. Any of these could be quite useful in combination with the more important modalities discussed earlier. One possible extraterrestrial sense that is often overlooked is the ability to detect radioactivity. Such a sense could be much in demand on a world with highly concentrated radionuclide ores near the surface’ or on a planet in the throes of recovering from a global nuclear holocaust. Biological Geiger counters would give warning to steer clear of large tracts of radioactive hazards. The ability to respond to radioactivity has been artificially bestowed on a small group of experimental animals. Several cats were outfitted with portable Geiger counters which telemetered impulses directly to the "fear centers" of the feline brains. When confronted with a pile of radioactive materials in one corner of their cages’ each cat shied away.92 We could also imagine a sophisticated meteorological sensorium’ especially useful for ETs native to a world with highly volatile’ perpetually inclement weather. Barometric (like the pigeon’s) and humidity sensors would be helpful’ as would an anemometer to measure wind velocity (like the blowfly’s). It’s also well-known that atmospheric turbidity’ which is closely related to developing weather patterns’ greatly influences the degree of skylight polarization. A sensor responsive to the intensity and distribution of polarized light might permit its owner to seek shelter from the elements before disaster struck. The ability of many animals to "sense" an earthquake or tornado before it strikes is documented fact. The phenomenon is thought by some to relate to the perception of very low frequency infrasonics or minute electrical field variations which immediately precede the event. And elephants are said to be able to sense water located a meter or so underground’ as in a dry river bed. Although this allegation remains unproven’ biological "dowsers" would be far more likely to survive on a drought-stricken planet. Two unrelated points should be made in closing. First’ it is not necessary for an alien’s primary sensory modalities to be located near the brain or even on the head. There are many lifeforms on Earth which disobey this seemingly essential rule. Some animals carry their ears on their stomach (grasshoppers) or on the knee-joints of their front legs (crickets)’ or which hear through antennae (mosquitoes) or their whole body (cicadas). Still others smell and taste with the soles of their feet (flies)’ the tips of their tentacles (octopuses) or their antennae (bees). Then there is the scallop’ a headless mollusc with hundreds of eyes distributed around its perimeter. The argument is often heard that senses should be located close to the brain in order to minimize neural response times’ facilitate navigation’ and maximize safety. But it must always be borne in mind that these are only broad generalizations and not the holy grail. Nature may see fit to violate them if there are good enough reasons. Second point: The role of the brain must not be neglected when we consider the kind of world an alien sees. The mechanisms and patterns of perception may depend on sociocultural factors as much as on biophysical ones. An interesting example of this is the phenomenon in humans known as "color hearing." This is not just a matter of vaguely associating sounds with colors’ which many people do’ but rather of rigidly linking specific musical tones to specific colors. Sir Isaac Newton supposedly associated middle-C with red’ D with orange’ E with yellow’ etc. The composer Alexander Nicholaevich Scriabin is said to have experienced the piano keyboard as a sequence of particular colors. Indeed’ such is often interpreted as a symptom of mental disorder’ in which a patient is literally incapable of distinguishing whether a given color stimulus is a sensation of sound or of light.79 The explanation seems to be that as infants we make little distinction between the various forms of sensory input -- the sounds’ sights’ and smells of the world around us. In our culture we are taught this demarcation at an early age. Yet anthropologists have reported the discovery of whole cultures in which the young are not taught to differentiate between audio and visual data. Their native languages reflect this fact. Learning alters perception. Other worlds mean’ not just other senses’ but other ways of dealing with sensation. In the English language’ smell and taste are closely linked; in other societies’ seeing and hearing are allied instead. What peculiar patterns and combinations of information might alien cultures put together? If so many different senses are available’ are not the permutations and synergistic blends almost uncountable?

* In the absence of nervous systems’ sensors remain uncomplicated. A few "vegetable sense organs" have been discovered. The sensitive pea has scarlet beads at the base of its stalks. When this tropical plant is stimulated with heat’ light’ or various chemical substances’ the beads can control the drooping of the leaves.90 Venus flytraps are pressure-sensitive’ and plants are known to grow in the direction of an increasing gradient of moisture or light. But this’ apparently’ is the best that nonsentient leafy lifeforms can do.

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Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 14. Extraterrestrial Intelligence "In the fossil record contained within the rocks of the Earth we have watched the succession over billions of years of one more-capable creature after another’ each trying some new device to aid survival’ be it camouflage’ many legs’ large size as in the dinosaurs’ and so forth. Of all the things that have been tried by the creatures of Earth’ only one characteristic has continuously been retained and improved throughout the entire succession of species -- intelligence." -- Frank D. Drake (1967)54 "There does not seem to be any evidence for evolutionary selection against intelligence once it has begun to appear." -- J. P. T. Pearman (1963)1055 "Knowledge that other beings had safely passed their nuclear crises would give us renewed hope for our own future. It would help to dispel present nagging doubts about the survival value of intelligence. We have’ as yet’ no definite proof that too much brain’ like too much armor’ is not one of those unfortunate evolutionary accidents that leads to the annihilation of its possessors. -- Arthur C. Clarke (1973)81 "They’ll be extinct soon -- and -- and they don’t even care." She shuddered. "All they do’ all they can do’ is sit before their caves and think. Probably they think godlike thoughts’ but they can’t summon even a mouse-like will. That’s what a vegetable intelligence is; that’s what it has to be!" -- Stanley G. Weinbaum’ "The Lotus Eaters" (1935)1561 "The price of awareness is eternal uncertainty." -- Janet O. Jeppson’ The Second Experiment (1974)2164 "There’s a story about a psychologist who was studying the intelligence of chimpanzee. He led the chimp into a room full of toys’ went out’ closed the door and put his eye to the keyhole to see what the chimp was doing. He found himself gazing into a glittering interested brown eye only inches from his own. The chimp was looking through the keyhole to see what the psychologist was doing." -- from "Keyhole" by Murray Leinster (1951)3206

In Chapter 3 we suggested that there are basically two distinct ways of viewing the question of intelligence. First’ there are the "structural" approaches which attempt to define intellect in terms of specific physical characteristics of neural equipment -- brain mass’ neurological complexity’ and so forth. These were briefly discussed in that earlier chapter’ and were found to be somewhat useful in comparing relative intelligence levels among the fauna of a single world (Earth). But structural definitions are suspect in xenobiology because they tend to restrict the universe of discourse. While we hope that we have at least a vague notion of what intelligence does or ought to do’ there may be many physiological -- structural -- ways of building a biological unit to do the same job. For this reason’ probably the majority of xenobiologists would favor a functional definition of intelligence over a merely structural one. This would appear to be the only way to avoid the peculiarities and limitations of the mental organs found on Earth. What is the best way to set forth a functional definition of sentience? Some writers have advocated a "checklist" approach. The suspect creature should be carefully observed’ they urge’ and watched for signs of a specific constellation of behaviors from which smartness can be inferred. Typical list items include: Faculty of reason; ability to fashion and use tools; proficiency with language; predisposition to learn from experience’ or "mental plasticity"; forethought and equilibration; creativity’ insight’ and intuition; ability to transmit culture; sociability; use of logic; ability to symbol; curiosity; ability to perceive spatial’ temporal’ numerical’ or abstract relationships; imagery and the ability to construct perceptual worlds; memory; and self-awareness or consciousness. Such definitions’ while perhaps adequately circumscribing the bounds of human intelligence (and this is questionable)’ actually tell us little about the nature of intellect as a general force in nature. Checklists tend to be anthropomorphic’ culture-limited and starkly geocentric’ and as such afford no real insight into the possible character of alien intelligence elsewhere in the Galaxy. A somewhat more generalized intellect-defining behavioral hierarchy has been suggested by the well-known Harvard University entomologist Dr. Edward O. Wilson. He divides evolved intelligences into three distinct levels: 1. Lowest grade -- the complete instinct-reflex machine. Representative organisms (sponges’ coelenterates’ flatworms on Earth) are so simply constructed that they must depend largely or wholly on token stimuli from the environment to guide them. 2. Middle grade -- the directed learner. These organisms (arthropods’ cephalopods’ cold-blooded vertebrates and birds) have a fully elaborated nervous system with some programming’ some learning. Typically it is narrow in scope and limited in responsiveness to a narrow range of stimuli. It results in behavior as stereotyped as the most neurally programmed "instincts." 3. Highest grade -- the generalized learner. These organisms (humans’ primates’ social canids) carry a wide variety of memories’ some of which have only a very low probability of ever proving useful. Insight learning may be performed’ yielding the capacity to generalize from one pattern to another and to juxtapose patterns in ways that are adaptively useful. Few if any complex behaviors are wholly preprogrammed morphogenetically at the neural level. Perception of history’ in the broadest sense’ is a key feature.565 Wilson’s system provides an evolutionary progression’ a standard against which extraterrestrials might theoretically be measured. Yet this definition -- rather’ identification -- of intelligence suffers from many of the same weaknesses of the checklist approach. The fundamentals of thinking simply are not addressed. Roger A. MacGowan’ an aerospace computer scientist formerly at the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama’ recognized that the key to understanding alien intelligence lies in data processing.729 The thinking process’ he notes’ consists of an arbitrary number of information-processing functions which may be carried out by living creatures. MacGowan selected five criteria which he believed to be both necessary and sufficient to specify intellectual functioning in any life-form in the universe: 1. Input -- An organism must be capable of reacting to physical events occurring in its environment. If it has no sensory input’ it has no information to process and thus cannot think. 2. Storage -- Without the ability to remember’ a creature could not learn. All data processing would have to proceed in real time’ with full throughput and no delays. Such a being would perceive no past or future’ merely an ever-present now. Since the primary function of life is to accumulate information and structure’ it is hard to see how a creature without memory could possess an adaptive and useful intellect without recollection of the past. 3. Deduction -- The ability to compare current input information patterns with stored information patterns is a crucial intellective function. By making such an association’ the creature becomes able to respond to the present on the basis of its past. The ability to use the generalizations formulated yesterday to respond to the problems of today is of great selective value in the struggle for survival. 4. Induction -- Inductive thinking must be considered a prerequisite for thinking’ because it provides "a means of altering stored information patterns as a function of each input information pattern in such a way as to form or modify generalizations on the basis of experience." With induction’ an organism is able to respond to its future on the basis of its past. 5. Output -- After it has decided what to do’ an intelligent being must act. This output may manifest itself either as physical or mental activity. MacGowan’s criteria for intelligence’ if we accept them at face value’ are probably sufficient for the purposes of the First Contact Team. Yet they provide more identification than explanation of what intelligence does. Our search is not quite ended’ but we sense that we are on the right track. It is interesting to note that the processes of intelligence are remarkably similar to those of life itself. The methods used by brains to collect and order environmental information recapitulate the methods used by natural evolution. To perform the functions suggested by MacGowan’ for instance’ brains or nervous systems must collect data’ filter and reject irrelevancies’ store and process that which is relevant’ and then arrive at some conclusion based on the input stimuli. The techniques of natural selection are quite similar. Thousands’ millions’ or even billions of organisms -- the "data bits" of evolution -- are "fed" into the environment. There they are shuffled’ ordered’ discarded and selected according to fitness -- that is’ they are "processed" through the environment. The species as a whole picks up information thereby and collectively "learns" how to survive’ storing the hard-won data in the community gene pool. It is easy to view intelligence’ on the one hand’ as a kind of speeded-up evolution of sensory data’ or to view natural evolution’ on the other hand’ as a "painstaking and slow’ but implacable’ intelligence."1000 Life is a negentropic process that extracts order from the environment and stores it in a complex structure. How much alive is determined by how complex the structure is. Life is properly defined along a spectrum -- the greater the data’ the more alive the lifeform. Similarly’ intelligence is a negentropic process by which information is extracted from the sensory data stream generated by stimuli in the environment. Again’ we claim’ the greater the data flow the smarter the lifeform. Intelligence’ like life’ cannot be defined in a yes/no manner but must be viewed in terms of a spectrum of functionality. Even primitive protozoans have rudimentary neural apparatuses’ and can be trained to do simple tasks such as swim up glass capillary tubes and cling to sterile platinum wires. More advanced creatures such as earthworms and snails are easily trained to perform more complicated "tricks." We find the glimmerings of higher intelligence in the most modest of Earth’s inhabitants’ a striking example of evolutionary convergence on a grand scale which should provide some clue as to its ubiquity on other worlds. Intelligence’ indeed’ seems as inevitable as life itself.3241

14.1 Evolution of Intelligence We may perhaps glean some insight into the evolutionary processes underlying the emergence of intelligence by examining how human intellect arose on Earth.* While details may differ from planet to planet’ the outcome of mental evolution elsewhere in the universe should be at least functionally similar.

* What is the optimum body shape for sentient ETs? Scientific opinion remains sharply divided on this question’ and two schools of thought have emerged. The pro-humanoid camp (including Bieri’ 1706 Blumrich’ 1058 Campbell’ 1380 de Camp’ 2572 Fletcher’1935 Howells’ 330 Hynek’597 Ley’212 MacGowan’ 600 Ordway’2571 Puccetti’71 Rall’ 445 and Spall1137) claims that the primate form is best for tool-using aliens. The non-humanoid camp (see Blum’ 1668 Broms’1191 Clarke’ 81 Dobzhansky’ 1705 Eiseley’ 135 Huygens’ 602 Muller’ 1184 Oparin’1558 Ornstein’327 Ruzic’ 559 Sagan’ 85 Shapley’ 1554 Simpson’ 334 Vertregt’1171 and Wald867) holds that the human form is a unique evolutionary accident that will not be repeated elsewhere. (There is also a middle-of-the-road camp’ such as Anderson’ 63 Gardner’ 1555 and Molton’ 1129 but this is a minor faction.) The debate has raged for decades’ and will not be detailed here. Suffice it to say that the humanoid form is a very useful one’ so it probably will not be rare. Whether it will be common remains an open question.

14.1.1 In the Beginning The amoeba is one of the most primitive microorganisms on Earth today. In its own limited environment’ it does quite well without any nervous system. The amoeba responds to chemical gradients and bits of food floating by’ towards which it extends its pseudopods’ engulfs’ and consumes. Another protozoan -- the paramecium -- is vastly more sophisticated by comparison. This animal is covered with a kind of "fur’" a coating of tiny hairlike cilia growing from the outer wall of the single cell. As paramecia move through the water the tiny cilia beat in unison’ coordinated by small filaments connecting the roots of the hairs. Each organism also has a ciliated mouth so that food may be fanned into the microscopic gullet. While it has only the simplest of nervous systems’ the paramecium does have a crude "memory." For instance’ when it bumps into an obstacle’ it has the ability to back up’ turn slightly to one side’ and move forward again. It can thus remember whether what it did last was wrong’ and If so’ it can correct the situation. The sponge exemplifies the next stage in the evolution of multicellular intelligence on Earth. This organism is really just a colony of single-celled creatures with abilities similar to those displayed by paramecia. The hundred or so individuals in the collective manage to beat their cilia in the same general direction’ thus setting up a flow of water and food for the benefit of all. But there is no whole-body coordination -- a stimulus applied to one part of the animal causes only a local disturbance close to the site of application. Cells farther away are never informed of the problem’ and do not react. The hydra is probably the simplest terrestrial creature alive today with what is called "global coordination." If there is some noxious stimuli’ the entire organism will bend away. It has a rudimentary "true" nervous system which permits impulses to traverse the entire body. But there is no brain’ so the hydra is incapable of very sophisticated responses. It cannot pool a variety of stimuli’ and it cannot really choose among alternative actions. The development of early life’ from simple reactivity in the amoeba to full global coordination in the hydra’ seems fairly straightforward. If the Hypothesis of Mediocrity holds true and Earth is typically exotic’ the evolution of whole-body coordination may be expected to be basically similar on other worlds. But above the level of Hydra’ evolutionary convergence begins to break down. According to the paleontological record’ there is a fork in the road. The animal kingdom divides into two distinct classes representing wholly different stratagems for gaining increased intelligence. Nearly a million animal species -- arthropods’ molluscs’ and many other in vertebrates -- opted for what paleoneurologists call the "ganglionic" nervous system. The earthworm is typical. Each of its many segments is almost an individual organism unto itself -- each having its own set of kidneys’ muscles’ sensors and so forth. Coordination is achieved by a thin latticework of nerve fibers crisscrossing the animal from side to side and lengthwise. The ganglionic system resembles’ more than anything else’ a ladder with bulbous neural ganglia at each of the joints. The invertebrate organism thus is comprised of a collection of sub-brains’ each of which controls a separate part of the animal with fairly complete autonomy. The organizational structure is not unlike that of a political confederation. Sensors tend to cluster nearer the head. A brain of sorts -- enlarged ganglia -- accumulates there’ but it isn’t a true brain as we understand the term. Perhaps it is better described as merely a large collection or bundle of separate ganglia. Nevertheless’ such a nervous system proves to be highly efficient for getting quick response to stimuli. Each clump of nerve cells becomes "expert" as some particular function -- detecting and passing along sensory information’ sweeping leg or wing in wide uniform arcs’ opening and closing the jaws in slow munching motions during feeding’ and so on. The entire system is orchestrated by "consultation" with the "chairmanship" of the bundle of ganglia concentrated in the head’ but there is no real centralized control. The ganglionic system has proved an enormous success on Earth. The invertebrates’ representing perhaps 97% of all animal species alive today’ have discovered a data processing technique adequate to ensure their survival. Information is processed fast enough and in sufficient quantities to enable ganglionic organisms to thrive and proliferate. If this is no measure of biological success’ what is? Might extraterrestrials develop extremely high intelligence using a ganglionic nervous system’ by far the most common on this planet? The chances are strongly against it. Half an eon ago the invertebrates ruled the Earth. Huge trilobites crawled the shores’ gigantic dragonflies with impressive wingspans patrolled the skies’ and monstrous squids plied the oceans with little competition. But since that time’ in all the hundreds of millions of years that have followed this period of early dominance’ there has been virtually no improvement in the design. Why? Evolutionary biologists have suggested several answers which are interesting from a xenobiological point of view. First’ it is believed that the system simply is too complicated when it is scaled up in size. With more and more units’ ganglia become inefficient’ unwieldy’ and bureaucratic. While invertebrates tend to be restricted to smaller sizes for unrelated technical reasons’ it’s even true that large invertebrates of greater mass than vertebrates are not nearly as intelligent. For example’ many lobsters are larger than squirrels’ and many squids are vastly bigger than most vertebrates -- and yet these ganglionic creatures invariably are stupider kilogram for kilogram. The system itself appears to be at fault. It has also been suggested that the ganglionic system is self-limiting. Typical invertebrate structure has only enough room to accommodate programmed "hardwired" behavior’ with no space left over for surplus neural matter that might eventually evolve and enlarge into higher intellect. Still another factor is that the endless cross-connections within the body can become so entangled and interwoven that they actually begin to strangle other body organs. A case in point in the spider’ whose head ganglia happen to ring its gullet. But they have grown so massive that they squeeze the throat very tightly’ and the poor animal can only swallow its food in a thin trickle. It is hard for us to imagine the mentality of beings with ganglic intelligence. Dr. H. Chandler Elliot’ Professor of Neurology at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine’ describes the peculiar disconnectedness of the world-view of the invertebrates: We humans usually disregard our internal organs: We suffer discomfort from an empty stomach’ and we heed a stomach’s demands for relief of indigestion’ but normally we disregard its activities. The head of an insect apparently regards not only its viscera but also its legs’ wings’ and so on’ with similar detachment: If one deftly clips off the abdomen of a feeding wasp’ the head may go on sucking’ obviously not distressed. The mind of such a creature must be alien to us almost beyond comprehension.90 We come at last to the second distinct stratagem for achieving intelligence. A long time ago’ a small band of daring organisms set out to explore a totally new system of neurological organization. The chordates (vertebrates plus a few others)’ who even today number only in the tens of thousands of species’ began to experiment with "neural monarchy." As we shall see presently’ this "central nervous system" is probably the intelligence of choice for sentient extraterrestrials even though it represents only a tiny percentage of all living animal species on Earth. The flatworm (Planaria) was perhaps the earliest organism to advance beyond the simple nerve net of the hydra. With its primitive central nervous system’ the flatworm can actually combine different types of stimuli and then act on this processed information. The animal has two eyespots’ a pair of photosensitive cups which give it a curious cross-eyed look. Depending on which side is brighter’ the flatworm wriggles away’ for it fears the light. Olfactory sensors spread over the surface of its body can sense the smell of rotting meat -- a repast the flatworm heartily enjoys -- and off he goes in the direction of the scent. If contradictory input is received (the smell of rotten meat under a bright light) the organism is able to decide whether dinner is worth braving the intervening glare. One of the first true chordates probably was the ancestor of the modern lancelet (Amphioxus)’ a small wormlike aquatic mud-dweller. Amphioxus takes the global coordination of hydra and the deductive ability of the flatworm and packs it all into a neat’ centralized neural tube. Under dissection there appears to be little difference between brain and spinal cord. But the distinction is of fundamental significance. The lancelet’s central nervous cord is vastly simpler than the ladder-like ganglionic system of the earthworm. Any number of additional sensory’ analytical’ or information-processing units may be plugged into the "central data bus." With this simple invention organisms could evolve to any size’ yet continue to increase their intelligence simply by plugging in more "peripherals." The spinal column could grow into something far more massive than ganglionic nerve nets’ yet never entangle or choke off other organs of the body. The simple brain was more compact and had plenty of room in which to expand. Over millions of years’ it began to grow (Figure 14.1).

Figure 14.1 The Rise of the Brain in Terrestrial Biological Evolution

Dr. Elliot explains the evolutionary significance of this invention in the development of intelligence on Earth: Thus our worm-fish ancestor could learn. As an individual’ of course’ he must have been an unteachable dolt’ compared to whom a bee is a gifted scholar. But as a race’ he and his descendants steadily added new resources to their bodies and brains for ages during which the bee was interminably repeating its perfected’ dead-end patterns of living. Till finally creatures arose that could learn freely as individuals -- squirrels’ cats’ and men’ who can expand their unified minds farther in an hour than a bee in all its year or two of life’ and for many thousands of hours. Man’ above all’ aspires to worlds and universes of power and delight eternally closed to the bee. All this he owes to the original neural tube’ simple but overwhelmingly more potent than the highest facile’ flashy’ self-limiting ganglionic system.90 If’ as many comparative neurophysiologists now believe’ the ganglionic or "distributed brain" is the wrong path for higher intelligence’ then it is virtually certain that a great many extraterrestrial races in our Galaxy will have made the same momentous discovery during their long evolutionary trek. If ETs have discovered other alternatives to the ganglia and the central notochord’ well and good. They would be fascinating to observe’ because they would be without precedent on Earth. But we know that the path of the chordates is a sound one’ and this is why we expect the idea of notochords and brains to be familiar to alien xenologists as well.

14.1.2 The Triune Brain Even assuming that evolution on this world has selected the optimum basic configuration for neural components in the development of intelligence’ we cannot expect the specifics of brain development elsewhere to exactly parallel our own. Yet it is fascinating to consider how much of what we are today has been dictated by our neuroevolutionary past. Among chordates’ the most ancient component of the central nervous system is the plug-in spinal cord. As noted above’ all sorts of interesting subsystems and advanced modifications could be hooked on as the organism grew in size and complexity. But it must be borne in mind that evolution is a tendentious’ almost bureaucratic’ process. Once something novel has been invented’ it's generally retained and not thrown away. The new is built upon the old’ but does not replace it. Dr. Paul MacLean’ chief of the Laboratory of Brain Evolution and Behavior at the National Institute of Mental Health’ believes that this is exactly how the human brain evolved over the years.2559 His theory of the "triune brain" is one of the most xenologically important developments in our understanding of the emergence of human intelligence. This theory’ which neuroanatomists agree is a gross oversimplification of reality’ nevertheless provides real in sight into the nature and potential diversity of alien minds. MacLean begins by pointing out that the simplest fishes have small add-on lumps of neural cells which comprise its limited brain. These lumps are in two sections which biologists call the brain stem and the midbrain. The brain stem and midbrain’ together with the spinal notochord common to all chordates’ are probably the minimum amount of equipment necessary to operate any vertebrate larger than a small fish. MacLean groups together these three components and calls them the "neural chassis." The scientist believes that the story of man’s brain involves the slow accretion’ over evolutionary timescales’ of three successive and overlapping brain structures that were plugged in to the neural chassis’ modular-style -- but which were never removed once nature was through with them. Following each evolutionary step’ the older more primitive modules were left in place and new ones plugged in on top of them (Figure 14.2).

Figure 14.2 The Triune Brain in Humans, and Possible Alien Alternatives

A highly schematic representation of the reptilian complex’ limbic system’ and neocortex in the human brain’ after MacLean.2554

POSSIBLE ALIEN TRIUNE BRAINS

The human triune brain’ explains MacLean’ "amounts to three interconnected biological computers’ each with its own special intelligence’ its own subjectivity’ its own sense of time and space’ its own memory’ motor’ and other functions."2559 Each represents a major new evolutionary step. Because the present human brain has this peculiar tripartite structure’ and since each of the primitive components is still present and operational’ "we are obligated to look at ourselves and the world through the eyes of three quite different mentalities." The earliest of the three human plug-in brain systems has been called the "reptilian brain." This structure surrounds the midbrain in the neural chassis and probably arose 300 million years ago with the rise of the first reptiles. The second unit was laid over the first’ eventually taking over the higher organismic functions. This unit is called the "limbic brain’" and probably arose about 150200 million years ago with the emergence of the first mammals on Earth. The third and final unit’ which appears in most of the higher mammals’ is the neocortex. This structure began to develop about 30 million years ago as a small growth on top of the limbic system’ slowly spreading’ enlarging’ becoming more massive over time’ finally reaching the peak of accelerated development a few million years ago with the rise of man. The neocortex now completely encases the underlying layers of reptilian and limbic brain. It is more central to neurological control functions in humans than the other two systems. Each of these brains has a different way of looking at the world. Each has a different mode of operation. And yet each is functioning still within our heads’ causing untoward psychological conflict and’ as we shall see’ much of what is interesting about human behavior. The reptilian brain’ for example’ is now known to play a major role in determining aggressive behavior’ territoriality’ ritualism’ and the establishment of social hierarchies.2552 This dull’ plodding neurosystem’ with its slavish dependence on programmed "hard-wired" behaviors’ may be responsible for a great deal of human ritualistic and hierarchical behavioral patterns -- our political institutions and bureaucracies’ our fertility dances’ and our unparalleled aggressiveness and competitiveness. The reptilian mind is not characterized by "powerful passions and wrenching contradictions’ but rather by a dutiful and stolid acquiescence to whatever behavior its genes and brains dictate."2552 The limbic system’ which overlays the reptilian brain’ appears to generate strong’ vivid emotions of various kinds. This is the seat of the endocrine glandular system’ which is governed by the pituitary or "master gland." The amygdala’ a subsidiary gland’ is known to regulate aspects of fear’ aggression’ and attack behavior. Hormones released into the bloodstream by the hypothalamus and thalamus control such diverse functions as hunger and thirst’ attention span and anxiety’ and visual retention. The oldest part of the limbic brain is the olfactory cortex’ which does for smell what the higher auditory and visual centers do for sound and light. The hippocampus’ another limbic structure’ is believed to control a wide variety of mental functions including short-term memory’ sensitivity to pain’ and sexual interest. There are reasons to suspect that the beginnings of individual altruism’ neonatal and parental care’ even love may have followed the development of the limbic system in the evolving mammalian brain.2552 The neocortex’ home of the higher human cognitive functions’ represents perhaps 85% of the entire brain volume in man. As mammals evolved this gigantic "tumor" swelled outward like a balloon’ increasing the cranial volume -- and intelligence -- markedly. The neocortical brain carries on a wide variety of highly sophisticated data processing functions. The frontal lobes are concerned with deliberation’ initiative and caution’ anticipation and planning’ and overall regulation of complex behaviors. The parietal lobes handle spatial perception’ three-dimensional orientation’ and the exchange of information between the brain and the rest of the body. They also provide the ability to manipulate symbols which is so crucial to the development and use of language. The temporal lobes contain the auditory centers were acoustical data is monitored’ processed’ and rerouted. The occipital lobes are charged with processing visual information coming from the eyes. What do xenobiologists have to say about all of this? It is not unreasonable to suppose that alien evolutionary patterns may also include some form of neural chassis with plug-in components. Certainly this is an adaptive course of development that encourages survival. But it is asking too much of evolutionary convergence to expect that natural selection on other planets will produce exactly the same neural chassis structural overlays as our own. ETs might have only two higher brain systems’ or four’ instead of our basic three. And the distribution of behavioral functions and memory subsystems will likely be vastly different. Nevertheless’ and purely as an hypothetical exercise’ let us examine the kinds of alien minds we might encounter elsewhere if the three major stages of vertebrate mental development on Earth (ritual’ emotional’ and reasoning) prove to be more or less universal. It has been suggested that one prerequisite for neocortical development is a stable internal body temperature -- that is’ homeothermy or warm-bloodedness.85 This hypothesis receives at least tentative confirmation by the appearance of both limbic and neocortical systems only after the rise of the warm-blooded mammals. On a world where homeothermy was never invented’ the reptilian complex might eventually come to dominate the brain of sentient extraterrestrials. Dinosaurs’ bearers of the largest of the reptilian brains’ are traditionally regarded as extremely dumb animals. Typical is Diplodocus’ a monstrous beast weighing twelve metric tons and guided by a tiny brain the size of a golf ball. The dinosaurs ruled the Earth for a hundred million years’ yet their brains advanced little during that time. Still’ we must take care to avoid "mammal chauvinism." In point of fact’ there were a few dinosaur species that were slowly evolving towards higher intelligence using the reptilian brain. One good example is the species Saurornithoides’ whose members weighed in at 50 kilograms with brains of about 50 grams. These small reptiles were bipedal’ with four-fingered hands and an ability to catch and eat small mammals. Their intelligence has been compared to that of the modern ostrich. On another world’ given enough time and a slower introduction of homeothermy’ might high alien reptilian intellects emerge? Sentient creatures in whom the Rbrain dominated the others might have learned to hunt collectively and perhaps prevent the proliferation of mammals at a later date. The psychology of such creatures would be a fascinating blend of ritual and peculiar species-specific responses’ and their dogged aggressiveness and unyielding devotion to duty could make them quite fearsome warriors. Most of the mammals on Earth did quite well with only a limbic brain perched atop the ancient reptilian complex. Perhaps the neocortex isn’t necessary for higher intellect at all. What if conditions on another world were such that the limbic brain’ rather than the neocortex’ came to represent the highest level of brain development? How could this state of affairs ever come about? Xenobiologists recognize that the limbic component of the mammalian brain is very closely connected with the sense of smell. It is a fact that the olfactory cortex takes up a considerable portion of the limbic brain. It’s also known that in those animals for whom scent is the primary sensory modality’ such as dogs’ the olfactory cortex is far more intricate and elaborated than it is in man. In the previous chapter we suggested various environments which may tend to favor the evolution of beings who rely more heavily on olfactory’ rather than visual or auditory’ stimuli. These same environments’ given enough time’ should also tend to favor the enlargement and articulation of the olfactory centers in the limbic system which no subsequent neocortical development could ever hope to match. In other words’ osmic aliens will have brains designed to handle olfactory data’ which in turn implies the evolution of high limbic intelligence. Sentience which is predominantly limbic will be more subject to emotional distractions than other forms of intellect. These extraterrestrials may be unduly concerned with ameliorating hunger’ thirst’ and other "creature comforts" of life. They might also be inordinately preoccupied with sex’ even by the most libidinous human standards. We see that diverse forms of alien intelligence can be imagined’ simply by allowing that extraterrestrial brains may be dominated by reptilian or limbic’ rather than neocortical’ components. But even if ETs are predominantly neocortical’ this is no guarantee that their minds will be equivalent to ours. Reptilian creatures first appeared during the Mesozoic era on Earth’ a period in our planet’s history marked by a very mild’ warm’ uniform climate on a global scale. Mammals didn’t take over until’ so to speak’ the weather turned from fair to foul. Let us imagine a world which is perpetually inclement’ varying widely from hot to cold and dry to wet without respite. On such a planet’ there might be significant advantage in developing homeothermy far sooner than on Earth. If warm-bloodedness arrived early enough’ perhaps even predating the rise of cold-blooded or reptilian creatures’ then the rapid unfolding of biological evolution could leave the reptilian component of the brain relatively small and insignificant. ETs might have few traces of the R-complex’ a few scant shards of the limbic system’ and would possess brains comprised primarily of neocortical material. These aliens would think far differently from humans’ even though they share with us a large neocortical component. The ancient drives of aggression’ dominance’ and impulsive hierarchical organization might be wholly foreign to them’ and they could have great difficulty fathoming the significance of our many cultural rituals and our religious and political institutions. To them’ our emotionality would appear primitive’ even barbaric. Along similar lines’ Doris and David Jonas point out that while intelligence arises because lifeforms must adapt to their environment’ it will continue to evolve only so long as the adaptation is not perfect.1000 Higher intellect leads either to greater survivability or to superior control of the environment’ either of which in turn lead to a decrease in the need to develop still greater intelligence. In the last 30 million years of terrestrial history’ the neocortex of mammals has enlarged from a mere wisp to a massive structure dominating the human cranial cavity. The Jonases hypothesize that this trend will continue’ because human society is not yet perfectly adapted to the technological environment it has created. The ability to comprehend and analyze increasingly complex and abstract problems is of greater selective value than ever before. The knee-jerk emotional reactions radiated by the limbic system appear maladaptive in a society in which rationality is the hallmark of success. And the ritualistic and aggressive behaviors caused by the reptilian brain seem incompatible with a healthy’ undogmatic’ liberal culture on a small planet with limited resources and finite territories. So it is not unreasonable to suppose that the neocortex may continue to enlarge with the passage of future human generations. Perhaps it will eventually grow to replace most or all of the cognitive and behavioral functions presently assumed by other brain systems. The resulting intelligence’ which the Jonases feel may be in the cards for humanity’ may be called Homo neocorticus. Like the ancient alien homeotherms described above’ extraterrestrials whose culture is highly technologically oriented may undergo similar evolution’ slowly casting off their primitive drives one by one as they become highly rational and unflappable thinkers. It could be that the timescales in such projections are all wrong. Millions of years were required even for the abnormally rapid expansion of the human neocortex’ whereas social and technical changes require time periods on the order of tens’ hundreds’ or thousands of years. However’ it is unlikely that the ultimate evolution of Homo neocorticus or his extraterrestrial counterpart is impossible. The very rapidity of technological processes may permit a kind of artificial evolution to an equivalent state. Advanced genetic engineering’ for example’ could make possible the design and development of altered humans with reduced or restricted limbic and reptilian brain components. Artificial biological brain components or bioneered modules could be used to replace ancient brain sections with more advanced neocortex-like structures. Then there is the possibility of Homo bionicus’ with his snap-on input monitors’ his plug-in memory modules’ and his subcutaneous microcomputer logic circuits. Each of these are reasonable models of conceivable alien intelligences with whom we may someday have to learn to deal.

14.2 Juvenile Extraterrestrial Intelligences Any organism that must sense its environment and react to it’ or seek mates and reproduce’ or hunt for prey and avoid being preyed upon; or which has some form of locomotion or mobility probably will discover that added intelligence is of enormous benefit and selective value. In the game of life’ smarter animals generally do better than dumber animals. Certainly one of the most interesting questions from the standpoint of xenology is: Will extraterrestrials have "advanced" intellect? To the extent that intelligence is data processing’ the more information a creature and process and store the smarter it is and the more competitive it will be in the struggle for survival on its home world during its natural evolutionary phase. The fundamental unit of information is the "bit’" or binary digit’ briefly discussed in the previous chapter in connection with sensory apparatuses. A bit’ in the parlance of information theorists’ is the amount of information needed to correctly choose between two equally likely answers to a simple yes/no query. Let’s take an example. The English alphabet has 26 letters. If you play "Twenty Questions" with a friend who has some single letter in mind’ it’s possible to guess which one it is by asking as few as five independent yes/no questions. (Try it.) Thus’ theorists argue that a printed letter represents exactly five bits of information. The average five-letter word therefore has 5 x 5 = 25 bits’ and so forth. Figure 14.3 is a map of the various forms of biological information storage found on planet Earth. There are three curves’ defining a clear progression from lower to higher capacity.

Figure 14.3 Information Stored in Genes, Brains, and Cultures Stored Information (in bits)

Years Before Present

The lowest curve represents the amount of data stored in the genes of terrestrial organisms. Judging from its antiquity’ genetic information storage appears to be the slowest’ most time-consuming means available to living creatures. On timescales of millions of years’ changes in the information stored per genome are imperceptible. Evolution evidently is a very slow intelligence. The middle curve shows the storage of data in the brains of animals. This is a much faster process -- large changes are readily apparent over time-scales of millions of years. The number of bits stored per entity’ as well as the complexity of behavior’ is greater with brains than with genes. Still’ on timescales of millennia there is little change in the maximum quantity of information capable of being stored by a single biological brain. The highest curve at the far right displays the amount of data stored in human cultures as a function of time. Sociocultural bit-storage is at once the most volatile and the most efficient technique’ representing another quantum leap in overall capability. Change is rapid on timescales of millennia’ and long ago surpassed the levels of the other two curves. In a sense’ social evolution may be viewed as an extremely fast intelligence. From these three curves’ we may define three distinct orders of possible "advanced" alien sentience. Accepting tentatively the speculation that level of intelligence may depend in part upon the ability of an organism to assimilate information’ we can imagine three distinct ways in which the quality of intellect may be worked out in biology. We shall call these "genetic sentience’" "brain sentience’" and "communal sentience’" three steps along the path of ever-increasing intelligence.

14.2.1 Genetic Sentience Imagine an alien species which for some reason is trapped at the level of genetic information storage. Unable to progress to more efficient forms with higher data ceilings’ the intellect of each individual entity is limited to what can be done with genes alone. The insects of Earth are a case in point. It will be recalled that the majority of the animal world consists of invertebrates without notochords. instead’ a network of smaller sub-brains called ganglia is used. The main brain in the head is merely a larger-than-normal aggregation of ganglia’ so the basic system appears to be selflimiting as regards maximum size and complexity. Finding the road to bigger brains -- the next step up in intelligence -- blocked’ a few clever insects decided to make do with what little they had. Unable to become better at coping with the environment by individual intellectual effort’ the social insect species (ants’ bees’ termites’ etc.) reworked their genetic structures in order to increase their adaptability. Instead of storing information in their limited brains alone’ they stored it in their genes. Their DNA’ rather than their individual minds’ learned. Can we really say that the social insects are sentient’ though? There is nothing wrong with this at all. If one considers the anthill or the beehive as a single superorganism -- as do several xenobiologists565 -- each clearly displays many of the attributes of higher intelligence. Data from the immediate environment are absorbed and acted upon. Judgments are made almost exclusively at the community level as regards foraging for food’ reproductive activity’ temperature and humidity control in hive or hill’ military defense of the colony’ and so forth. And if sentience requires an ability to recognize the self’ the social insect superorganism clearly meets this test. Colonies of ants or bees are acutely aware of their own identity’ since individuals have no difficulty recognizing members of foreign colonies (even of the same species) as strangers. In this sense’ each nest is aware of itself as an entity or living system distinct from all others. Many variations on this theme may readily be imagined from the vantage point of the xenological perspective. ETs with genetic sentience (often called “group intelligence ) may achieve communication between individual units in a wide variety of different ways. Ants respond strongly to pheromone (smell) signals’ and bees to visual cues (e.g.’ the waggle dance). Aliens might choose auditory’ tactile’ magnetic or electrical* modes to achieve community-wide information processing and control. Radioastronomer Ronald Bracewell has proposed a slime-mold colony with genetic sentience’ which he disparagingly refers to as an "intelligent scum."80 But there is no reason why individual members of societies with genetic sentience need be small and insignificant creatures’ There may be valid evolutionary pathways that lead to genetic overspecialization before an advanced’ self-aware brain can gain a foothold. The result of such evolution might be a society of genetically distinct breeds within the main species’ each specialized to perform specific societal functions -farming’ construction’ administration’ recordation’ soldiering -- and each possessing a fairly complex technologically-capable mind without individual sentience. At least one modern psychological theorist has claimed that it is possible to think’ calculate’ and build complex technical civilizations without the capacity for individual self-awareness.2599 Science fiction writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle created such an alien race in The Mote in God’s Eye.668 The extraterrestrial creatures in this novel had a diversity of different castes’ determined genetically’ for specialized forms of labor. The society was highly technological’ despite the superficial resemblance to a termite colony’ and was capable of radio’ nuclear fusion’ and interplanetary travel. Individual self-awareness’ while apparently possessed by a few castes on a limited basis’ was not the norm. Genetic sentience and high technology’ then’ are not necessarily mutually incompatible.

* In Olaf Stapledon’s excellent science fiction novel Last and First Men’2567 the author describes the evolution of sentience among a collection of biological components which he calls “virus types." What appears to he a mere cloud of particles on the surface of Mars is actually a diffuse mass of physically separated units’ whose intelligence arises through the integration of the whole by means of an electrical information transmission capability in the larger aggregates. The radio signals used by the human astronauts scramble the aliens’ "mind’" precipitating an outbreak of hostilities. Dr. Thomas Gold also has suggested the possibility of a society of “electric ants with “group intelligence and immortal consciousness. 22

14.2.2 Brain Sentience Genetic sentience involves a community of organisms that is aware of itself’ but whose members are not individually aware. For such lifeforms’ automatic behaviors and duty are all. To a social insect’ each of its neighbors are virtually indistinguishable and fully interchangeable (within each caste or age grade). There is no sense of individuality; there is no word for "I." And with no sense of self there can be no sense of empathy for the selves of others -- their thoughts’ their drives’ or their pain. The brain sentient ET is aware of itself as a unique being different from all others. In the higher lifeforms’ many subtle and complex clues are used to distinguish each of perhaps thousands of other local members of the species from the self. These distinctions are achieved without the penalty of genetic overspecialization. Much societal information is not "hard-wired" as in the social insects but rather is learned during childhood and possesses a flexible’ or "plastic’" nature. The lowest brain-toting creatures on Earth’ such as fishes and amphibians’ seem incapable of telling their own offspring apart from members of physically similar species which are their prey (the kids are eaten at birth if the parents happen to be hungry). Reptiles improve on this somewhat.2566 However’ it is mainly among the birds and the mammals -- the two animal groups with the most highly evolved brains on this planet -- that familial and social ties begin to be taken seriously. Many birds are known to have complicated pecking orders with dozens of independently identifiable animals in the chain. Among primates’ particularly the chimpanzees’ orangutans’ and’ of course’ humans’ xenologists find a developing or well-developed sense of the self2563 as well as a complex awareness of the individuality of others. Possible variants of brain sentience’ involving the concept of the triune brain. have already been discussed in an earlier section.

14.2.3 Communal Sentience Cultural information storage is clearly the most efficient and well-integrated technique available to biological lifeforms. As the graph indicates’ it represents as great an improvement over brain-dependent systems as the brain represents over genetic systems. Sentience based on an internalized sociocultural awareness must be equally advanced beyond our own.3329 Beings with genetic sentience are physiological and social specialists. Both body and mind are strictly "mission-oriented." Individual initiative is stifled and behavior is. stereotyped. Brain sentient individuals have cast off the shackles of biological specialization. Members of these species are more or less physiologically generalized. Such creatures’ of which humans are a typical example’ are nevertheless forced to retain their social specialization patterns -- pecking orders’ dominance hierarchies’ governments’ etc. Extraterrestrial species that have achieved communal sentience will be both physiological and social generalists. Not only will physical form be roughly equivalent throughout the society’ but each individual member will be capable of handling virtually all sociocultural tasks with ease. While the individual members of a genetically sentient group are totally unconscious’ and brain sentient humans are aware of themselves but not of their society’ communal sentient aliens will have a well-developed’ very real sense of their community as well as of themselves. Individuality need not be sacrificed: A new level of awareness is simply tacked onto the old. Somehow -- perhaps by electronic telepathy or psychological synchronization -- each creature can sense what is good for society just as a human knows that it is good to eat when he is hungry or to scratch when he itches. The alien feels personal anguish at offenses against the community’ and perhaps even views it as a real’ physical extension of his own body. One wonders what such a race might think of us. To them’ humanity would appear at best partially conscious. Our continual relapses into states of war’ our dependence on elaborate’ formalized and highly specialized institutions’ and our lack of empathy with others would seem pitiful and barbaric. Just as humans can train a dog to perform certain useful tasks for purposes incomprehensible to the animal itself’ perhaps communal ETs could teach us a few sociopolitical "tricks" to enable us to live together in harmony -- though we understand them not at all. The distinctions between the communal and genetic modes of sentience should perhaps be made more explicit. In a differentiated genetic society’ the individuals are physically different from members of other castes and perform only very specialized physical and social tasks. In comparison’ the communal society consists of individuals with similar bodies (no castes) and who perform highly generalized physical and social tasks. In the former’ the individual member has no selfawareness whatsoever; in the latter’ the individual has a deep and abiding (almost visceral) understanding both of his own self and of the corporeality of his society. Communal sentience is difficult for human beings to imagine. Just as insects can only be dimly aware of the implications of their tiny brains’ we humans can only vaguely appreciate the plethora of historical forces and sociocultural processes which circumscribe our social existence. The idea that alien beings may exist who can sense the pulse’ the hunger and the mood of their community as easily as we can of our physical bodies is a mysterious and alluring possibility.

14.3 Alien Consciousness and the Sentience Quotient At last we arrive at the fascinating question of alien consciousness -- whether it exists’ what form it may take’ and how advanced it may be. From our awareness of our own consciousness’ we suspect it may be the most significant and unique aspect of the human thinking apparatus. Will ETs be conscious too? Despite several millennia of avid theorizing’ philosophers’ theologians and psychologists still cannot agree exactly what consciousness is. The standard dictionary definition is fairly popular: "Consciousness is the awareness of one’s self as a thinking being." (Indeed it has been argued by some that the emergence of self-awareness represented the true dawn of human ity.2564) Other definitions abound’ ranging from "awareness of awareness" to mere "wakefulness" or alertness. According to Dr. Julian Jaynes’ a Princeton University psychologist’ most people feel that consciousness is the most self-evident thing imaginable about the human psyche: We feel it is the defining attribute of all our waking states’ our moods and affections’ our memories’ our thoughts’ attentions’ and volitions. We feel comfortably certain that consciousness is the basis of concepts’ of learning and reasoning’ of thought and judgment’ and that it is so because it records and stores our experiences as they happen’ allowing us to retrospect on them and learn from them at will.2599 Unfortunately’ most if not all of these statements may be false. Consciousness does not appear to be a copy of experience’ storing up experience’ copying it like a camera to be reflected upon at some future time. Rather’ suggests Jaynes’ "conscious retrospection is the retrieval of what you have been conscious of before’ and the reworking of these elements into rational or plausible patterns." Consciousness is not necessary for conceptualization either. One of the great functions of language’ Jaynes says’ is "to let the word stand for a concept’ which is exactly what we do in writing or speaking about conceptual material’ {which} we must do because concepts are usually not in consciousness at all." Similarly consciousness seems unnecessary for learning’ which snails and flatworms can do. In fact thinking’ judgment’ verbal association’ deductive and inductive reasoning’ intuition’ creativity and abstraction all do not require consciousness in order to be displayed by an intelligent lifeform. Concludes Jaynes: Consciousness is a much smaller part of our mental life than we are conscious of’ because we cannot be conscious of what we are not conscious of. How simple that is to say; how difficult to appreciate! It is like asking a flashlight in a dark room to search around for something that does not have any light shining upon it. The flash light’ since there is light in whatever direction it turns’ would have to conclude that there is light everywhere. And so consciousness can seem to pervade all mentality when actually it does not.... Consciousness does not make all that much difference to a lot of our activities. If our reasonings have been correct’ it is perfectly possible that there could have existed a race of men who spoke’ judged’ reasoned’ solved problems’ indeed did most of the things that we do’ but who were not conscious at all.2599 Consciousness’ much like intelligence itself’ appears to be an example of what is called an "emergent" by evolutionary theorists. According to Dr. James Grier Miller’ President of the University of Louisville and a pioneer in systems science’ more complex living systems at higher levels of organization manifest characteristics’ more than the sum of the characteristics of the units which comprise them’ not observed at lower levels.3071 These new characteristics are emergents’ made possible by the increased complexity present in higher-level systems. Dr. A.G. Cairns-Smith’ Professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow in Scotland’ describes emergents from the standpoint of biological evolution: One can see natural selection as conserving and improving biological machinery. But this is far from the whole story: sometimes a quite new function is discovered’ or some new way of performing an old one. Maynard Smith3303 has discussed how this can happen. He says: "This is a very common feature of evolution: a new structure evolves first because it confers advantage by performing one function’ but in time it reaches a threshold beyond which it can effectively perform a different function." Lungs seem to have arisen through such a threshold’ through fish finding another use for the esophagus -- as an auxiliary respiratory organ. This set in train a series of modifications that was to lead’ eventually’ to the exclusive respiratory organs of animals. The "improving" aspect of selection was an essential part of the story’ but lungs are not improved gills’ they did not evolve through a succession of design modifications from gills. Lungs took over. Objects often turn out to have uses other than that for which they were originally designed: headlamps are signals’ books are flower presses’ and so on. Indeed often a machine may be curiously well adapted to an inadvertent function’ or a material developed for one purpose be found to have diverse uses. We might say that bone is stiff for load bearing functions’ but this property was to be important too’ in connection with efficient sound transmission’ during the evolution of the mammalian ear. For higher evolution generally’ such function ambivalence has not been simply an odd side effect. It has been part of normal strategy. Above all it has provided means of escape from initial design approaches.3302 Miller offers another clear-cut example of emergents by comparing three different electronic systems: One of these -- a wire connecting the poles of a battery -- can only conduct electricity’ which heats the wire. Add several tubes’ condensers’ resistors’ and controls’ and the new system can become a radio’ capable of receiving sound messages. Add dozens of other components’ including a picture tube and several more controls’ and the system becomes a television set’ which can receive sound and a picture. And this is not just more of the same. The third system has emergent capabilities the second system did not have’ emergent from its special design of much greater complexity’ just as the second has capabilities the first lacked.3071 How does all this relate to consciousness? A number of scientists today suspect that the phenomenon of consciousness may be an emergent arising naturally from the organizational complexity and processing efficiency found in the human brain. Neurobiologists recently have delved more deeply into the workings of the brain’ and many have concluded that a general physiological theory of human consciousness soon may be possible. Dr. Gerald M. Edelman’ Nobel. prize-winning immunologist from Rockefeller University in New York’ has made a tentative step in this direction.3005 At a 1977 meeting of more than a hundred neuroscience researchers in Colorado’ Edelman outlined his theory.2562 The human thinking organ’ he claims’ is not infinitely malleable as previously supposed. Instead’ there are a large number of different kinds of neural circuits hardwired into the brain. These respond to input from each of the senses like a tuning fork stimulated with resonant vibrations. The hardwired circuit groups consist of aggregates of from 50 to 10’000 individual neurons (the human brain has a total of about 10 billion)’ and together comprise the "primary brain repertoire." According to Edelman’s theory’ the primary repertoire responds when the message to which it is susceptible is received. Such receipt causes the neuron group to emit its own signal’ which is recognized in turn by a second level of neural groups called the "secondary brain repertoire." The secondary level equipment’ presumably since it receives greater amounts of compounded and pooled data’ lies at a deeper level of awareness than the primary sensory hookups. Consciousness arises when impulses and patterns generated by the secondary repertoire are cycled around and fed back in as fresh input for other units in the secondary repertoire. While the primary system only responds to direct sensory data from the outside’ the secondary system can also respond to internally-generated data as if it were externally-generated. This self-monitoring effect’ according to Dr. Edelman’ gives rise to human consciousness because it allows a review of internal states. In other words’ the brain can watch itself work. Science fiction writers are fond of pointing out that there may exist many different levels of awareness among the extraterrestrial races of our Galaxy.1543 Perhaps the most classic example of this may be found in The Black Cloud’ written by astronomer Fred Hoyle.62 In the novel it is suggested that natural grades of consciousness may exist’ and that it is virtually impossible for a being at one level to comprehend the mentality of another being at a higher level of consciousness. In a similar vein’ Carl Sagan draws a fanciful analogy from our relation to the insect world: The manifestations of very advanced civilizations may not be in the least apparent to a society as backward as we’ any more than an ant performing his anty labors by the side of a suburban swimming pool has a profound sense of the presence of a superior technical civilization all around him.15 These writers may not be far of the mark’ for it appears quite possible that a variety of different grades of awareness may emerge at successively higher levels of organization and processing capability. Why is this so? The essential characteristic of all intelligent systems constructed of matter-energy is that they process information. As noted earlier’ smarter lifeforms tend to survive more often than dumber ones’ so we should observe a strong evolutionary trend toward increasing intellect. Translating this into the language of information theory’ we might say that the more bits per second a given creature can process’ generally the more successful it will be and the stronger the evolutionary pressure to increase the bit rates that brains can handle. Furthermore’ since more efficient organisms preferentially survive’ all else being equal’ there should also exist strong evolutionary tendencies to increase the efficiency of information processing -- that is’ to process more information using less energy and less material supportive bulk. If these notions are basically sound’ then xenologists may define a "figure of merit" applicable to all sentiences in the universe’ one which expresses both capacity and efficiency in a single number. This we shall call the Sentience Quotient (SQ). It is expressed. as the log10 of the quotient of two numbers: The maximum bit rate a sentient creature can process per unit time interval (in bits/second)’ divided by the quantity of mass-energy the entity needs to do it (in kilograms). What is the theoretical maximum SQ of any thinking entity in the universe? While this question may at first appear intractable’ actually it is not. According to H.J. Bremermann’ if energy levels are used as information markers (the most efficient markers imaginable) then the theoretical maximum amount of information that can be processed by a totally dedicated lump of matter is 1.4 x 1050 bits/sec-kg.3072 (See further discussion in Section 24.0.) An alien being capable of handling data this rapidly would have to be considered a "perfectly efficient" thinker. In any given mass category’ such an entity would possess the greatest intelligence theoretically possible in this universe. Hence’ the highest SQ is about log10(1.4 x 1050) ~ 50. Consider’ as a purely speculative hypothesis’ that there may exist a natural order of awarenesses in the cosmos. At each higher level of mentality’ a new kind of thought process emerges which is unique to mental systems of equal or higher values of SQ. That is’ there may exist a number of higher-order intellectual emergents’ analogous to but qualitatively vastly superior to consciousness. What might these higher-order emergents be? The author’s own speculations are offered in Table 14.1 below. According to this scheme’ the most primitive emergent of intelligence is simple "reactivity" -- the differentiation of body cells into specialized cells whose sole function is data processing. Perhaps this requires a minimum of 1 bit/sec-kg in the most primitive organisms. Consciousness of the human type is the next highest emergent. Human brains have about 1010 neurons with about 103 interconnections each and a bit rate on the order of 103 bits/sec/neuron.3071 But brains have tremendous redundancy; assuming a redundancy of 1:104 and a body mass of about 100 kilograms’ the human organism works out to about 1010 bits/sec-kg’3233 or SQ ~ 10. This seems near the minimum for the emergence of consciousness. Taking similar steps of ten orders of magnitude for each new emergent to appear’ at least four successively more sophisticated mental classes should exist above the level of ordinary human consciousness. The first of these is "communality’" or the emergent of communal sentience discussed earlier in this chapter’ perhaps at the 1020 bits/sec-kg level. Second could be "hypersociality’" a yet higher order of mentality capable of internalizing the processes’ functions’ and interrelationships between many different societies and species of sentient beings (1030 bits/sec-kg). Third might be "galacticity’" a single creature’s comprehension of the complexities of a galactic community (1040 bits/ sec-kg). Finally there could be "universality’" the ability of a single sentient entity to hold in its mind the seemingly incalculably complex orderings of an entire universe-full of living systems at all levels of intellectual sophistication (1050 bits/sec-kg).

Table 14.1 Universal Scale of Sentient Emergents Emergent Sentience of the Individual Entity

Data Data Data Data Data Processing Data Processing Processing at Processing at Processing at Sentience Processing at the Level of at the Level of Quotient at Level of the Level of the Level of the Level of CONSCIOUSNESS COMMUNALITY HYPERSOCIALITY GALACTICITY UNIVERSALITY REACTIVITY

(SQ)

(bits/seckg)

(bits/sec-kg)

(bits/sec-kg)

(bits/sec-kg)

REACTIVITY

0

100

10-10

10-20

10-30

10-40

10-50

CONSCIOUSNESS

10

1010

100

1010

10-20

10-30

10-40

COMMUNALITY

20

1020

1010

100

10-10

10-20

10-30

HYPERSOCIALITY

30

1030

1020

1010

100

10-10

10-20

GALACTICITY

40

1040

1030

1020

1010

100

10-10

UNIVERSALITY

50

1050

1040

1030

1020

1010

100

(bits/sec-kg) (bits/sec-kg)

Naturally’ at each higher level of data processing fewer data may be processed at that level. For instance’ human consciousness can only handle in formation at about 0.1-1.0 bits/sec-kg’3071 even though our brains may be able to process reactivity (nonconscious) data at much higher rates. Note also that a conscious brain-based entity such as a human can only process communal-level data at the rate of 10-10 bits/sec-kg (because communality has not yet emerged)’ which perhaps helps to explain why humans have such great difficulty comprehending the intricate workings of the societies in which they live. Finally’ note that an intelligent entity at any one level should also possess all simpler levels of awareness as well. Thus for example an hypersocial sentient ought to have communality and consciousness as well as simple reactivity. Further implications of the Sentience Quotient concept in "first contact" situations are explored in greater detail in Section 25.2. Back to Contents

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 15. Energy and Culture "Other factors remaining constant’ culture evolves as the amount of energy harnessed per capita per year is increased’ or as the efficiency of the instrumental means of putting the energy to work is increased. The energy factor is the primary and basic one; tools are merely the means that serve this power. And’ since increase of energy fosters improvement of tools’ one may say that it is energy that’ at bottom’ carries the culture process onward and upward." -- Dr. Leslie A. White’ in The Science of Culture (1949)36 "As soon as {a sentient race} begins to master and transform the solar system’ {their} energy and material resources will increase incomparably. The value of 1026 watts is not a limit’ since part of the mass of the planets can be utilized as fuel. Based on various criteria’ we can consider that the time scale for the mastery and transformation of the solar system is of the order of several thousands of years’ in any case less than 104 years’ that is’ negligibly small compared with cosmic times." -- I. S. Shklovskii (1972)25 "It is highly improbable that civilizations will develop to a stage where they have harnessed power resources on the galactic scale’ of the order of 1037 watts. If intelligent beings occupy a galaxy in 1-10 million years’ most of the galaxies should have been inhabited by now. This is obviously not so. The spread of intelligent beings in galaxies’ if at all feasible’ is apparently an extremely slow process." -- V. A. Razin (1964)28 "And’ as a bird each fond endearment tries To tempt its new-fledg‘d offspring to the skies’ He tried each art’ reprov‘d each dull delay’ Allur‘d to brighter worlds’ and led the way." -- from The Deserted Village’ by Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774)

It is only in the last decade or two that a true "science of culture" has begun to emerge. The systematic and rational treatment of human civilization as a process has passed in and out of vogue on several occasions during this century. There is considerable hostility in many quarters to the basic notion that cultures must conform to certain basic rules of construction’ expression’ and evolution’ and frequently this has led to what one "hard science" science-fiction writer grumblingly describes as "a couple of anthropologists sitting in a semi-dark room and dictating great thoughts."2857 But progress is now being made. One of the best efforts to date has been by Dr. Leslie White’ a social anthropologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In his book The Science of Culture (1969)’ he presents the beginnings of a theory of culture which is utterly fascinating from a xenological point of view.36 Dr. White suggests that all civilization is founded upon’ and determined by’ the sources of energy which it controls. The processes of society are in some sense "powered" by energy. He goes on to propose that any cultural system -- human or extraterrestrial -- may be divided into three fundamental subsystems; the technological’ the sociological’ and the ideological. The technological subsystem is comprised of all the physical’ mechanical’ biological’ and chemical instruments that are available to sentient members of the culture’ for the purpose of manipulating matter. Technology is the sum total of a race's material environment’ together with the instruments of manipulation and the techniques of their use. The sociological subsystem consists of the various interpersonal relation ships between members of a culture. These may be expressed in collective as well as individual patterns of behavior’ psychology’ and modes of social conduct. The ideological subsystem is made up primarily of symbolic articulations of ideas’ beliefs’ attitudes and knowledge. Cultural ideology encompasses the philosophy’ artistic forms’ patterns of logic’ and epistomologies peculiar to a given society. How are these three cultural subsystems interrelated? According to Dr. White’ the rigors of existence (the demand for food’ shelter’ protection’ companionship) can only be met by resorting to technology. This technology may be extremely primitive -- stone knives’ bearskins’ and a blazing campfire -- but it is technology nevertheless. Social systems are subsidiary’ described by White as "the organized effort of {sentient} beings in the use of the instruments of subsistence’ offense and defense’ and protection." Philosophical systems are the means by which technological and social experience finds its interpretation. In fact’ there is a type of philosophy appropriate to any conceivable class of technology: A pastoral’ agricultural’ metallurgical’ industrial’ or military technology will each find its corresponding expression in philosophy. One type of technology will find expression in the philosophy of totemism’ another in astrology or quantum mechanics.. . .Social systems are therefore determined by technological systems’ and philosophies and the arts express experience as it is defined by technology and refracted by social systems.36 We may imagine a pyramid’ grounded in energy and constructed in three tiers (Figure 15.1).

Figure 15.1 The Cultural Pyramid Theory of Civilization36

Each tier represents one of the basic cultural subsystems which’ in the aggregate’ comprise the entire civilization. Leslie White elaborates on the idea: We may view a cultural system as a series of three horizontal strata: the technological layer on the bottom’ the philosophical on the top’ the sociological stratum in between. These positions express their respective roles in the culture process. The technological system is basic and primary. Social systems are functions of technologies; and philosophies express technological forces and reflect social systems. The technological factor is therefore the determinant of a cultural system as a whole. It determines the form of social systems’ and technology and society together determine the content and orientation of philosophy. This is not to say’ of course’ that social systems do not condition the operation of technologies’ or that social and technological systems are not affected by philosophies. They do and are. But to condition is one thing; to determine’ quite another.36 As Freeman Dyson has often pointed out’ a sharp distinction may be drawn between intelligence and technology. One needn‘t imply the other. That is’ it's easy to imagine a society of intelligent lifeforms with little or no particular interest in advanced technology.80 But White's cultural subsystems must be given broad interpretation if they are to be applied to extraterrestrial races. "Technology’" for instance’ may have an organic rather than an inorganic basis.389 Instead of mechanical devices and machines’ alien technology may consist of trained animals’ slave labor’ architectural coral and so forth. How does this relate to energy? The business of life is to accumulate information and complexity. This is accomplished by using energy to suck in data from the natural environment and build the elaborate structure represented by a living organism. The process of culture’ though on a different plane’ serves an analogous’ function. By absorbing information from the social environment’ an aggregation of organisms can build an intricate social structure by the proper application of energy and tools. Just as a living being is a highly complex arrangement of individual molecules’ so is a society an intricate association of individual organisms. The process of civilization’ as of life’ is negentropic. Cultural development’ in the very widest sense’ thus is a product both of energy and of technology: Culture confronts us as an elaborate thermodynamic’ mechanical system. By means of technological instruments energy is harnessed and put to work. Social and philosophic systems are both adjuncts and expressions of this technologic process. The functioning of culture as a whole therefore rests upon and is determined by the amount of energy harnessed and by the way in which it is put to work.36 The remainder of this chapter is devoted to the general evolution and utilization of sources of energy by extraterrestrial cultures and races anywhere in the Universe. The following four chapters detail many of the possible alien technological advances’ thus completing our discussion of the foundation of Dr. White's three-tiered "cultural pyramid." The last four chapters in Part Three consider the more speculative -- and perhaps more interesting -- social and philosophical upper strata we may discover among extraterrestrial civilizations elsewhere in space.

15.1 Type I Civilizations: Planetary Cultures A primitive intelligent alien race’ slowly evolving and spreading across the face of its native world’ eventually will discover and utilize a wide variety of elementary energy supplies. In the beginning’ such creatures would rely mainly on natural sources such as hot springs’ fires set by lightning. and their own muscle power. But soon their intelligence’ and the Principle of Economy’ would impel them to develop new and easier ways to generate and harness energy. They‘d learn to set their own fires’ and how to control them. Animals might be harnessed for transportation’ hauling’ and agricultural activities. Better fuels’ such as coal or natural oil secured from local tar pits’ would replace wood in campfires. On our own home planet’ this early period was marked by a relatively slow growth in worldwide energy usage. The increase amounted to no more than perhaps 0.3% per year’ a doubling time of about 200 years. The speed at which basic resources could be pressed into service’ with primitive technology and finite manpower’ was extremely limited. Such an early "incubation period" of leisurely growth should be common during the first stages of cultural evolution on any world. It is entirely possible that ETs on some planets may call a halt’ or even reverse’ this upward trend in energy consumption. This does not necessarily imply an immediate halt to all technological development -- for instance’ the culture may simply be shifting its attention from energy-intensive projects to information-intensive ones. However’ it does place rather stringent limitations upon the material achievements to which the society may aspire. Without abundant energy’ an economy of scarcity management is virtually inevitable. Finding this prospect rather unattractive’ and driven onward by the curiosity and aggressiveness that enabled them to take dominion over their world’ many intelligent extraterrestrial races would seek to further improve both the sources and the distribution of power. On Earth’ the widespread initiation of fossil fuel burning (stored solar energy) provided a powerful new source of abundant energy. While great effort was required to harvest tiny amounts of power from wind and water’ a tiny bit of oil or natural gas went a long way. In addition’ steam and electricity came into their own during the last two centuries of human history. There was getting to be an abundance of raw energy’ powerful ways of harnessing it to perform useful work’ and efficient means of transmitting it over great distances. The dawn of global culture was at hand (Figure 15.2). Figure 15.2 The Night-time View of the Eastern United States, as Seen from Space2603

The thermal burden of energy usage on Earth is a planetary’ not local’ issue. In the last two centuries’ humanity has maintained a 3% per year growth rate in energy consumption’ a full order of magnitude above the early stages of cultural evolution on Earth. The doubling time is now measured in decades rather than in centuries. Let's see exactly what this means. It is believed that the Roman Empire’ at the height of its expansive construction and military activities’ annually consumed power at a rate roughly equivalent to 3 x 109 watts (1 watt = 1 joule/second) . Nearly two millenia later’ humanity has increased its energy usage a thousandfold. By 1975’ global power consumption reached about 7 x 1012 watts. In only two thousand years’ mankind's per capita energy production has leapt from about 30 watts/person in ancient times to nearly 2000 watts/person today. Xenologists want to know whether or not energy usage will also increase exponentially among alien cultures’ as it appears to have done here. Perhaps more interesting and germaine’ however’ is the following related query: Are there any limits to growth’ assuming the ETs adopt an expansionist philosophy? It turns out’ not surprisingly perhaps’ that there do exist very definite limits to growth for any culture that remains confined to the surface of a single planet. There are three fundamental factors which delimit the quantities of energy accessible to a sentient race: (1) availability; (2) efficiency; and (3) planetary carrying capacity. Our first consideration is the availability of a given energy resource. In general’ sources compete with one another depending on their relative scarcity. or abundance. To take one trivial example’ an alien culture located on a world with little water and strong winds might be expected to place greater emphasis on the development of windmills rather than waterwheels or dams. A corollary to the fact that a civilization is planetbound is the inevitable finiteness of all resources. There is only so much wind’ water’ geothermal steam’ wood’ fossil and nuclear fuels at the surface of a world. Once the population of an extraterrestrial culture has expanded to the point where these resources are in danger of exhaustion’ the civilization faces drastic modification’ degeneration’ or possibly even extinction on a global scale. Such is the early and quite predictable result of sole reliance upon nonrenewable sources of energy. Fortunately’ there exist two sources which should be available to all ET societies and which are virtually inexhaustible. First’ there is nuclear fusion. This involves mashing together two atoms (usually of hydrogen) which yields a single heavier atom plus lots of energy. About one hydrogen in every 6000 in ordinary seawater is deuterium’ the most likely hydrogen isotope to be used in controlled thermonuclear power generation. It is estimated that if all the deuterium in Earth's seas were collected and burned in fusion power stations’ it would supply all our energy needs at the present rate of consumption for the next 5-10 billion years -- roughly the expected lifetime of Sol. An alien civilization that opts for fusion power may expect to have enough energy to endure over geological timescales provided there is no growth. If there are oceans of water sufficient to spawn life’ there will probably also be enough deuterium to provide all "Type I"* planetbound cultures with virtually inexhaustible energy.** The other major energy source available to planetary cultures is solar power. Unless blocked by a thick cloud cover’ filtered out by the atmosphere’ or attenuated by great distances’ radiative energy from the stellar primary can serve as a bountiful and virtually infinite "renewable" source of power. Since stars in habitable solar systems may be expected to have lifetimes measured in eons’ a Type I extraterrestrial civilization could again expect a long healthy existence before its energy supply ran out. So on the question of availability’ a large-scale Type I planetary culture should ultimately benefit most from either deuterium fusion power or solar fusion power. The second consideration involves the question of the efficiency of the particular energy resource chosen. Since the technology of a civilization limited to the surface of a single world will ultimately experience severe restrictions on its finite resources’ it is important to make the best use possible of what little is available. Earlier in this century’ the late Albert Einstein demonstrated that mass and energy are interchangeable. According to the famous E = mc2’ a given amount of matter (m) is exactly equivalent to a certain quantity of energy (E). (The constant of proportionality’ c2’ is the speed of light’ squared.) All energy’ whether from fusion’ fission’ or chemical reactions’ ultimately derives from the conversion of a tiny bit of matter into heat’ light’ sound’ etc. If their civilization is to long endure’ ETs must find the most efficient means for converting mass into energy. Table 15-l provides a representative sampling of various common and theoretical energy sources available to Type I planetary cultures on any world in our Galaxy. In each case the efficiency is calculated’ based on the fraction of matter which is changed into usable energy. The most efficient is "total conversion" (100% of the matter goes to energy)’ but it is difficult to imagine the cheap production of sufficient quantities of antimatter to make this process competitive with thermonuclear fusion.

Table 15.1 Conversion of Matter into Energy: A Comparison of Efficiencies Fuel CHEMICAL Nitroglycerin

Fuel Efficiency Energy (Fraction of Reaction Mass per Unit Mass Converted into Energy) (joules/kg) 0.000000007 %

6.3 x 106

Wood

0.000000021 %

1.9 x 107

Bituminous coal

0.000000036 %

3.2 x 107

Fuel oil

0.000000052 %

4.6 x 107

Hydrogen’ liquefied

0.00000016 %

1.4 x 108

0.085 %

7.7 x 1013

0.7 %

6.3 x 1014

0.9 %

8.3 x 1014

100.0 %

9.0 x 1016

FISSION U235 —> decay products FUSION Hydrogen —> helium Hydrogen —> iron TOTAL CONVERSION Matter —> antimatter

Indeed’ fusion appears to be the most efficient energy generation technique for which the fuel is exceedingly abundant. Once again’ both deuterium fusion power and solar fusion power qualify as most efficient. So on the basis of the two factors we‘ve looked at’ it is a pretty sure bet that advanced Type I alien cultures will adopt either or both of these techniques. But even using the most efficient’ abundant sources of energy’ planetbound societies cannot continue to expand indefinitely. This is because of the third critical limiting factor: Planetary carrying capacity. The history of our own planet is typical. In the past century’ world energy production has escalated at an average rate of 3% per annum. Approximately every twenty years’ human power consumption doubles. In 1975 we used 7 x 1012 watts. If the historical 3% growth rate is maintained’ then by the year 2300 A. D.’ mankind's energy budget will be up to 2 x 1017 watts. Why is this significant? Simply because 2 x 1017 watts is also the total power received from Sol on planet Earth. To sum up’ by 2300 A.D. humanity will be generating as much energy artificially as is received at the planet's surface from its sun (Figure 15.3). We will then face the most critical "energy crisis" in the history of Earth. Rather than a crisis of scarcity’ however’ it will be a crisis of overabundance.

Figure 15.3 Curve of Growth of Technological Energy Usage for a Typical Emergent Type I Civilization: Humanity

Calendar Year

All forms of energy -- electrical’ thermal’ mechanical’ nuclear -- ultimately return to the biosphere in a single degraded form: Heat. Such thermal pollution can rapidly reach catastrophic proportions. As more and more energy -- heat -- is liberated at the planetary surface’ the global temperature begins to rise and the precarious energy balance of the biosphere begins to suffer irreversible damage. At what point in the development of a Type I civilization will this ultimate "hypsithermal catastrophe" occur? Certainly by the time artificial energy production equals total solar influx’ the planet will have suffered serious ecological damage.29 Earth’ for instance’ would no longer be inhabitable by humans’ our lush green world converted into a stewing’ steamy hellhole much like Venus. Most experts believe that irreversible destruction of environmental equilibrium would occur at far lower levels of energy production. Conservatives usually draw the line at the photosynthetic energy limit’ or the total solar energy fixed by green plants worldwide. This is only about 4 x 1013 watts. The best guess seems to be about 1% of the total solar influx as the critical limit.29’688 This is about 5% Of the energy stored in Earth's hydrosphere’ and would probably be sufficient to melt the polar icecaps and thoroughly disrupt the entire ecology. On planets with smaller oceans’ or with non-water oceans’ the climatic turnover point might occur far sooner. We estimate’ therefore’ that the maximum upper limit of artificial energy generation for any Type I planetary culture limited to a single world in our Galaxy is roughly 1015 watts.

* Dr. N.S. Kardashev’ a well-known Russian astrophysicist currently associated with the Institute for Cosmic Research at the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow’ devised a particularly fruitful classification scheme which includes all conceivable ET civilizations and is based on system-wide energy consumption. 1320 However’ Kardashev limited his analysis to the energy available for the purpose of interstellar communication between alien cultures. In this book the original concepts are broadened to provide a general taxonomy for all extra-terrestrial civilizations -- whether communicative or not. ** Cultures native to planets with ammonia or methane oceans similarly will have an abundance of deuterium fusion fuel at their disposal. Inhabitants of worlds with sulfur or liquid carbon dioxide seas will not be so fortunate.

15.2 Type II Civilizations: Stellar Cultures In the earliest stages of social evolution’ alien societies will be pretty much restricted to the surface of their planet. Type I civilizations are de-fined as those which consume power at the carrying capacity of the planet. Such cultures are limited to the energy obtainable on a single world. We've seen that planetbound societies can have a long and healthy existence’ and may expect to survive for eons barring some unusual major global catastrophe of some kind. But this imposes rather stringent limits to growth on planetary cultures. The price that must be paid for stability and long-term survival on the limited surface of a single world is energetic stasis. This may well lead to cultural stagnation. Alien races may discover that the only escape from this trap is to move out into space. A Type I society will remain one forever’ until and unless it becomes spacefaring. With the first flights of the American space shuttle’ humanity has taken the first tentative step in the evolution from a planetbound Type I to a space-faring Type II stellar culture. In the centuries to come’ space industrialization will proceed with vigor as man becomes more aware of the countless ad-vantages of space-based manufacturing. Of these’ the two most highly significant benefits for long-term’ large-scale heavy industrial development are vast size and vast energy. First’ whether in orbit around the home planet or swinging freely in circumsolar territory’ physical stresses on material structures are always minute. For this reason’ giant artifacts which would be impossible on the surface of a planet will be commonplace in space. Flimsy constructions many tens of kilometers in diameter are possible even with present-day human technology! Huge factories and physical plants may be assembled. Once manufacturing activities in orbit reach a point of relative self-sufficiency -- a kind of economic "critical mass" -- .further expansion will be breathtakingly rapid. Second’ habitats lofted to planetary or solar orbit will find a vast abundance of solar energy. A single world intercepts only a tiny fraction of the entire solar output’ less than one one-billionth of the total. But the spacefaring Type II civilization can collect energy from anywhere on a theoretical spherical shell surrounding the central star -- a potential energy preserve perhaps ten or eleven orders of magnitude greater than that available at the surface of the home world. The swarm of technological artifacts orbiting in successive shells around the primary will grow thick as development proceeds. These space factories and habitats ultimately will enclose and capture virtually the entire stellar energy output. This amounts to what xenologists usually call a "Dyson Sphere." Originated by Freeman Dyson at Princeton’ the Dyson Sphere is the end result of full space industrialization by a Type II civilization. An almost solid sphere of artifacts envelops the sun’ absorbing and directing each watt to the purposes of the gargantuan interplanetary industrial complex. But even solar energy is not limitless. All spacefaring cultures ultimately must run afoul of the "Dyson limit" -- the sum total of all energy emitted by the home star. This is’ in some sense’ the "carrying capacity" of the entire solar system. Even if the jovian planets are disassembled and cannibalized for fusionable hydrogen’ the Dyson limit cannot be much exceeded without sacrificing cultural longevity (e.g.’ by cannibalizing the home star itself). How long will it take for an intelligent species to evolve from a planet-bound Type I culture to a spacefaring Type II civilization pressing fitfully against the Dyson limit? A typical sun of the habitable variety illuminates alien transsolar space with about 1026 watts of power. Assuming a modest 3% per year growth rate in the interplanetary industrial complex’ a Type I civilization (1015 watts) could make the transition to a fully industrialized Type II civilization (1026 watts) in a mere 900 years. Even if we take the incredibly conservative primitive growth rate of 0.3% per year’ the transition is accomplished in just 9000 years -- long by human standards but only the wink of an eye on geological and evolutionary timescales. We know that it has taken humanity about 10’000 years since the invention of agriculture and basic toolmaking to build a planetary culture’ so the estimates above are certainly reasonable.

15.3 Type III Civilizations: Galactic Cultures Extraterrestrial societies’ frustrated by the Dyson limit’ may push outward still further’ spreading their influence from stellar system to stellar system across their galaxy. In time’ such a culture -- comprised of many millions or even billions of Type II civilizations -- may come to dominate the entire galactic corpus. Such a "Type III civilization" could be capable of diverting the power of a hundred billion thermonuclear stellar furnaces to its own cooperative purposes. The nature of galactic community is very much dependent upon the peculiar aspects of the physical environment. Interstellar distances are vastly greater than interplanetary ones. While a Type II culture might evolve along the lines suggested above (filling transsolar space with the artifacts of industrialization and commercial development)’ the endless empty regions between stars are unlikely ever to be similarly occupied. Rather’ the typical Type III civilization most likely will consist of a collection of Type II civilizations. A synergistic interaction will take place giving rise to a hybrid galactic culture’ a melting pot of countless millions of worlds. A galactic community may resemble a mammoth archipelago of solar system societies’ a multitude of civilized islands separated by the vastness of the oceans of space. Despite this wide dispersion’ a Type III culture at its peak would command the power of a hundred billion suns -- upwards of 1037 watts. Longevity could be measured in hundreds of eons. The time required for galactic civilization to expand to its full potential depends on the assumptions we make. Xenologists hesitate to use a simple exponential extrapolation of the 3% growth rate’ because the spatial scale of interstellar expansion is qualitatively different from planetary and inter planetary scales. If we assume’ for example’ that the galaxy is teeming with sentient life forms’ and that none have advanced beyond the Type II stage of development’ then direct interstellar colonization by any one race requires war and imperialism and so is probably not a viable ethical alternative. In this case’ cultural unification will be accomplished by an exchange of valuable information and ideas using radio waves or laser beacons whose messages travel at the speed of light. This is within the limits even of a lowly Type I society such as our own. The 300-meter dish at Arecibo’ Puerto Rico’ could communicate with its twin located almost anywhere in the Milky Way. Clearly’ Type II cultures will have the energy to transmit vast quantities of data to their interstellar neighbors. The typical spiral galaxy spans perhaps 100’000 light-years’ so the fastest news can travel from one end to the other is about 100’000 years. If we allow for search and acquisition (first you have to find your neighbors)’ and for the probability that at least ten exchanges would likely be necessary for cultural integration and homogenization’15 then we find that a unified polyspecies galactic civilization might conceivably begin to take form after only about a million years.* On the other hand’ what if we assume that the galaxy in question is not teeming with life? Perhaps it consists of a few scattered Type I societies’ an occasional and very rare emergent Type II culture’ with the great bulk of all galactic real estate consisting primarily of undeveloped planetary systems. In this case’ preemptive colonization efforts by one of the Type II societies might be appropriate. This ultimately will lead to a "united" galactic culture under the leadership of a single sentient race. How long might this take? We might imagine that a highly industrialized stellar culture could launch a large interstellar fleet of colony starships to nearby suns. They'd take along the basic implements which would enable them to set up a thriving planetary civilization. it may require 103-104 years to tame and populate the new solar system’ and to build another budding Type II community around the new star. Only after the position of the original colony was secure could the pioneers seriously consider the possibility of dispatching a colonization armada of their own. The subjugation of the galaxy would thus proceed in a series of waves’ pulsing at thousand-year intervals. The alien race could sail the sea of stars at an average rate of perhaps 0.001 light-years of penetration per year. A single aggressive species could dominate an entire galaxy in less than ten million years. While this period seems fantastically long by human standards’ we must remember that the potential lifespan of a galactic civilization should run into the hundreds of billions of years. The initial colonization period represents less than 0.01% of the total lifetime of the Type III monospecies culture in question.

* While it's true that the use of tachyon communications might greatly reduce this "cultural incubation" time’ it is also true that the faster a tachyon beam travels’ the lower is its maximum theoretical bit rate. 3119 The advantages of speed thus may be outweighed by the disadvantage of lower information transferral.

15.4 Type IV Civilizations: Universal Cultures Finally’ we must mention the possibility of Type IV civilizations’ intergalactic cultures spanning the breadth and width of the Universe. Such a community would commingle the individual cultures of a billion galactic associations’ and might command the power of a billion trillion suns -- perhaps 1047 watts. A universal civilization could seriously consider attempting such truly Herculean projects as changing the structure of spacetime’ the deliberate slowing or reversal of entropy in our universe to achieve ultimate immortality’ or the colonization of other universes (if they exist). Back to Contents

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 16. Xenobiotechnology "If man does not use his tools’ his tools will use him." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) "But here is still more of the truth and all I’ll try to say about it. Although long life can be a burden’ mostly it is a blessing. It gives time enough to learn’ time enough to think’ time enough not to hurry’ time enough to love." -- Lazarus Long’ in Time Enough For Love (1973) by Robert Heinlein2601 Larry’s irritation showed. "You are just a machine! Don’t talk about a mechanical recharge as if it were an act of lovemaking." "Why not? My neural apparatus is at least as complex as yours. My experience -- well’ I’m over a thousand years old. Why shouldn't I sound like I enjoy a good recharging? It does give me renewed strength." -- from T. J. Bass’ The Godwhale (1974)2644 "I cannot understand your description of the biped’s interior’" Hundred said practically. "Soft’ porous material soaked in sticky red liquid; acrid vapors -- how do they work? Where is the mechanism?" "They are perhaps not functional at all’" Seven proposed. "They may be purely artificial devices’ powered by chemical action." "Yet they act intelligently’" Zero argued. "If the monster -- or the monster’s masters -- do not have them under direct control -- and certainly there is no radio involved -- " "There may be other means than radio to monitor an auxiliary’" Seven said. "We know so little’ we persons." -- from Poul Anderson’ "Epilogue" (1962)983

Sir Peter B. Medawar’ British Nobelist in medicine and a pioneer in immunology and transplantation research’ once remarked that "people are so constituted that they would rather be alive than dead."1646 A trivial observation’ perhaps’ but significant nevertheless because it highlights the importance of the survival instinct in all living creatures -- sentient’ extraterrestrial or otherwise. Indeed’ medicine is one of the oldest technologies known to man. Aboriginal peoples who have never seen a wheel or struck a fire guard their lives by employing "medicine men." These specialists in incantation and retaliatory voodoo perform curative rituals to relieve suffering among the sick and the dying’ and dole out primitive herbal preparations (some of which work quite well) to alleviate pain. Virtually all human societies have been concerned with biotechnology’ and there is no reason why alien cultures on other worlds shouldn't display similar interests. Scientists increasingly tend to speak of the concept of "participative evolution’" the notion that a race of technically-oriented sentient beings can seize a certain measure of control from Mother Nature and alter their physiology as they wish. With advanced genetic techniques’ mankind is learning to control its own biological destiny. It is unreasonable to expect ETs to lag far behind. Admittedly’ the arguments for advanced xenobiotechnology are not compelling. It may be that some alien species have biochemical hereditary mechanisms that are not easily susceptible to intelligent tampering. Other races may inhabit planets poor in the materials necessary in the research and development of artificial bionic devices and mechanical prostheses. Still others may have the native ability to evolve in direct response to the environment by the inheritance of acquired characteristics or by xerography’ and thus would view biological technology as irrelevant. Still’ the arguments are persuasive. As a general rule’ science "evolves" as a whole. There are few cultures on record that display grossly disparate or uneven technical development. (One notable exception was the Mayan civilization’ which apparently had some skill in surgical techniques yet never developed the simple wheel.) On timescales of millennia’ the methods of chemistry’ physics’ mathematics’ biology and engineering usually mature at roughly comparable rates. We might expect’ therefore’ that all Type III galactic cultures-having either sophisticated interstellar transportation or advanced transgalactic communications -- most likely will have developed their medical and biological sciences to an equivalent superior level. What about Type II stellar cultures? It is certainly possible that early spacefarers might lack advanced biotechnology’ but this situation would not seem likely to continue. To remain alive and healthy in the environment of space’ a great deal of radiological’ physiological’ biochemical and ecological information must be available. It’s probably safe to assert that the survival of planet-evolved beings in space should be viewed as prima facie evidence of a developed biotechnology. As for Type I planetary civilizations’ the arguments for advanced biotechnology are still valid but become a bit more complicated. Random short-term factors may enter the picture. Some sciences may lag far behind others for peculiar environmental or cultural reasons. The very philosophy of participative evolution itself may be rejected as unholy’ inelegant unnatural or unwise by some planetbound alien societies. But if we consider only those races among whom heredity proceeds genetically and whose population swells exponentially (as with humans)’ a strong case for high xenobiotechnology may be made. The virtually inevitable development of some kind of medical science’ coupled with the gradual loss of challenging physical frontiers (due to the inherent finiteness of planetary surfaces)’ may eventually lead to a weakening of the gene pool of the population. Genetic load -- the slow accumulation of maladaptive genes among members of tool-using’ protective species -will become acute within a few millennia following the introduction of medicine and the disappearance of frontiers (as the planet fills to capacity). Symptoms of genetic disability may be masked by quick medical fixes’ but congenital defectives will no longer be culled by the rigors of frontier existence. Eventually’ the population as a whole will become so dysfunctional that only four alternatives will remain: 1. Do nothing’ become more dysfunctional’ and ultimately become extinct as a species. 2. Eliminate a root cause of genetic load by rejecting all medical science. Nature can then cull defectives and maintain a healthy’ vigorous gene pool. 3. Eliminate a root cause of genetic load by expanding physical frontiers and becoming spacefaring. Although stay-at-home defectives won’t be culled’ the rigors of space living will ensure a staunch pioneer gene pool. 4. Eliminate genetic load by taking direct control of biological evolution. Gene defects are remedied prenatally’ so that every newborn is a perfect (but nonstandardized) genetic specimen. Societies which choose (1) aren’t around any longer. Those which choose (3) go on to become Type II cultures’ whom we have argued will have biotechnology just as those who choose course (4). Alternative (2) is unlikely’ both be cause the fruits of medical science are sweet and addictive’ and because such a solution will reduce the population-carrying capacity of the planet by several orders of magnitude -- which means death on a massive scale. Participative evolution among any sentient race will progress primarily along two major fronts: the genetic and the cybernetic. Biological organisms may be improved either by genetic engineering (repairing’ replacing’ or augmenting body organs with other new ones) or by cybernetic or bionic engineering (exchanging living parts for mechanical ones). In either case’ the extraterrestrial sentients become masters of their own heredity.

16.1 Bioneering Biological engineering -- "bioneering" for short -- is the technology of genetic engineering. While the nucleic acids represent the blueprints for all Earthly organisms’ the biochemical specifics may vary from world to world. Still’ the general principle of manipulating the executive molecules of life -- whatever they are -- should be more or less universal. Xenobiologists today believe that it will soon be possible to splice’ repair’ recombine’ synthesize’ and transplant specific terrestrial genes and chromosomal patterns between individuals and even between species. What humanity will probably achieve in the coming century may already be well-known to countless advanced extraterrestrial bioneers as well.

16.1.1 Intelligence Amplification People have long been astounded by the feats of so-called "human calculating machines." An 18th-century Englishman named Jedediah Buxton reputedly could multiply three 6-digit numbers in his head almost instantly’ but his mind was otherwise dull and he remained a day laborer all his life. Zerah Colburn’ a rather shy Vermontian born in 1804’ attracted even more attention as a child by solving involved mathematical problems. Taken to London at the age of eight’ he gave math professors instantaneous answers to such questions as raising 8 to the 16th power and extracting the cube root of 268’336’125. Another mental marvel’ Johann Martin Dase’ was born in Hamburg’ Germany in 1824. Dase once correctly multiplied together two 100-digit numbers in his head in only nine minutes. Since there really was nothing unusual about the upbringing of any of these individuals’ the simplest explanation is that their abilities were congenital in origin. Through some odd shuffling of the genetic deck’ some gene or sequence of genes produced a brain of incredible calculational capability rivaling at least that of early-generation electronic computers. If ETs encouraged the spread of some similar hereditary pattern throughout their own gene pools’ their entire population could become a race of arithmetic wizards. Other aspects of intelligence similarly may be upgraded. One well-known case of fantastic memory was Elijah of Vilna’ a Lithuanian rabbi’ who during his lifetime read more than two thousand treatises. He could recall any sentence on any page in any book at will’ without error’ and was unable to forget anything he’d read -- an ability the rabbi regarded as a curse. His memory represented a storage capacity of at least five billion bits of information -- again’ a capacity comparable to the large magnetic disk memory units used in modern computers. It is entirely possible that aliens’ by judiciously selecting specific constellations of genes’ could arrange to give themselves and their offspring total-recall eidetic memories’ fast arithmetic ability’ and a host of other genius-level mental qualities. In a series of experiments’ Dr. Allen L. Jacobson of the University of California showed that RNA functions as a carrier of memory in the mammalian brain. Jacobson taught rats and hamsters to retreat into a feeding box at the flash of a light or the sound of a click. The conditioned animals were sacrificed and the RNA carefully extracted from their brains. This material was then injected into untrained animals of the same species’ who subsequently proved far easier to train than their predecessors. One unexpected finding was that the transfer of learning worked cross-species: Untrained rats benefited from injections of trained-hamster RNA. If these results can be confirmed’ the implications of such "memory molecules" are staggering. Injected directly into the bloodstream’ synthetic viruses consisting of nothing more than a central core of nucleic acid (commonly RNA) surrounded by a sheath of protein could be used to "infect" a brain with knowledge. Remarks one writer: We would be able to learn French’ or algebra’ or anything else whose code we knew’ by injection. One can imagine education by mass inoculation’ or the use of bacteriological warfare techniques for beneficent purposes by spraying entire populations with "good" viruses. The teaching of many subjects would become obsolete).1860 Drs. Alexandre Monnier and Paul Laget’ French geneticists’ have suggested that these coded forms of knowledge be written directly onto the original genetic specifications. Like the social insects’ who carry a plethora of pre-programmed knowledge in their genes’ humans of the future or extraterrestrials of other planets might be able to arrange to be "born smart." Each infant could carry the genes to manufacture RNA information equivalent to several university doctoral degrees. Much basic knowledge -- the ability to walk’ to speak in many tongues’ to swim and dive’ to pilot a spacecraft’ to perform intricate mathematical calculations using established techniques’ to play a piano -- could be incorporated directly into the nucleus of the fertilized egg so that the organism would possess all these abilities without ever having to learn them. The evolution of physically larger brains by deliberate breeding and selective gene transplantation is another practical option for ETs seeking intelligence amplification. "Is it very rash’" asks Dr. Jean Rostand’ "to imagine that it would be possible to increase the number of brain cells?" His answer: A young [human] embryo has already in the cerebral cortex the nine billion pyramidal cells which will condition its mental activity during the whole of its life. This number’ which is reached by geometric progression or simple doubling’ after 33 divisions of each cell (2’ 4’ 8’ 16’ 32’ and so on)’ could in turn be doubled if we succeeded in causing just one more division -- the 34th.2645 Many neurologists remain skeptical of such suggestions’ claiming that normal birth would be quite impossible with a head so large. According to Dr. H. Chandler Elliot: The man of the future was depicted by early fantasy writers with a huge head to house a superbrain; but this picture is discarded by modern sophisticated science fiction as naive and implausible’ even for inhabitants of other worlds.90 But as Rostand has pointed out’ the supercranial fetus could be produced in an artificial womb. Since the opening could be made as large as required’ the impossible-birth consideration is largely irrelevant. It is impossible to rule out the possibility of genetically amplified’ bioneered aliens’ possessing memory’ mental acuity and speed of thought com parable to some of the finest computers available on Earth today.

16.1.2 Genetic Surgery "Genetic surgery" is a term used to describe the manipulation of DNA and RNA -- the executive molecules of terrestrial life -- for specific purposes. Many scientists believe that in the near future human biotechnology will be able to "delete undesirable genes’ insert others’ and mechanically or chemically transform others."92 The methods of genetic surgery will often require the deft insertion of new genes into the nuclei of malfunctioning cells. This is called a "gene transplant’" a technique already proven by tests involving human subjects. In one early experiment conducted by Carl Merril’ Mark Grier’ and John Petriccione at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda’ Maryland’ specially prepared virus were used to carry DNA into cultured cells taken from people suffering from galactosemia (an enzyme-deficiency disease). After the viruses and the human cells were mixed together in solution and warmed to normal body temperature’ the researchers found that the cells had absorbed a gene which had been placed in the virus that was capable of repairing the deficiency. The transplant complete’ the cells began to manufacture the previously deficient enzyme in adequate quantities. In 1970’ Dr. Stanfield Rogers’ a medical geneticist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee’ performed one of the first experiments on human subjects. A group of children had a rather rare genetic disease called Argininemia’ a congenital disability to produce an important enzyme called arginase because of defects in the chromosomal DNA. Rogers selected a microorganism called Shope virus which’ while harmless to humans’ causes the cells it invades to produce an excess of arginase. A few months after the young children were injected with Shope virus’ their bodies began producing the needed enzyme -- proof that the viral treatment was beginning to work. The foreign arginase-producing genes had been transplanted into some of the children’s cells.2365 Genetic surgery and transplantation biotechnology may give ETs the ability to regenerate lost limbs or damaged organs. Each cell contains all of the organism’s genetic information’ but most of it is suppressed because of specialization as a nerve cell’ liver cell’ or brain cell. If the expression of these hidden parts of the gene package can be unblocked’ new limbs and organs could be grown by stimulating the correct genome sequences at the right locations. Nerves might be regenerated’ eyeballs repaired’ arms and legs regrown from scratch. Similar techniques could possible minor modifications in physical appearance -- such as skin or hair color change -- or major modifications in body form such as extra arms’ fingers’ or special organs. The degree of genetic individuality may be so great among extraterrestrial bioneering races that each organism might represent his own distinct and unique "species."

16.1.3 Genetic Hybrids and Synthetic Genes Where will participative evolution lead? Eventually ETs’ as man’ will no longer be satisfied merely with correcting errors and improving upon the old models. Rather’ they will have the urge to go nature one better’ to create new synthetic organisms for specialized purposes. Dr. Paul Berg of Stanford University (one of the first scientists to perform "recombinant DNA" experiments) in 1973 mixed together fragments of a bacterial "plasmid" (tiny circlets of DNA imparting resistance to antibiotics) with genes from a virus that produces cancerous virus in monkeys’ in a single test tube. These combination virus-plasmids were then allowed to invade normal E. coli bacteria’ which soon began churning out viral protein. Using simple gene splicing’ Dr. Berg had created a "genetic hybrid" organism -- a cross between a cancer-producing virus and a bacterium -- which had never before existed in nature. The methodology’ says Berg’ "is simple and can probably be done as a high school science experiment."2365 Since 1973’ scientists have used plasmids to introduce mouse and frog DNA into bacterial cells. It appears quite possible to create hybridized plants and animals’ beings not found in nature.* It would be’ as one participant at the 1976 Asilomar Conference on recombinant research jokingly put it’ "like crossing an orange with a duck." Much as man learned long ago to domesticate and cultivate the lifeforms of his world’ sentient bioneering races will learn to exploit the gene as well for their own purposes. As regards most biochemical substances’ mankind is still in the "food gathering" stage. Many needed hormones’ such as insulin’ must be laboriously collected from scores of individual animal organs. But this situation has begun to change in the last few years. Scientists have succeeded in transplanting a gene for rat insulin into bacterial cells which is reproduced when the cells divide’ and it will soon be possible to switch the gene on as well. By cultivating insulin-making DNA’ keeping it supplied with the raw materials and energy it needs’ hybridized cells can be harvested for hormones much as a farmer reaps a field of wheat. Along these lines’ Drs. Herbert Boyer’ Arthur Riggs’ and Wylie Vale spliced the gene for somatostatin into the DNA of E. coli bacteria. Somatostatin is a hormone in the brains of mammals that inhibits the secretion of pituitary growth hormone. The hybridized bacteria multiplied and began producing somatostatin in copious quantities. Before’ nearly half a million sheep brains were needed to isolate 5 milligrams of somatostatin. Using the E. coli "hormone factory’" scientists required only 8 liters of bacterial culture to obtain the same amount. The key to genetic cultivation is the synthetic gene -- artificial nucleic acid sequences that have never occurred in nature. The first total synthesis of a complete gene starting from scratch was first accomplished by Nobelist Har Gobind Khorana and his team at MIT. The experiment involved the re-creation of a "tyrosine transfer RNA gene" found in E. coli which is 207 nucleotide base pairs in length. While it took the MIT group nearly a decade to do it’ they are confident that genes as complex as those of humans (10003000 nucleotide base pairs long) will be amenable to synthesis in the next fifty years.2646 It is then a relatively simple step to the production of "unnatural" genes. With the ability to create artificial genomes with specific desired characteristics’ alien bioneers can better exploit the whole animal kingdom. Domesticated beasts with augmented intelligence and specially modified limbs and organs might function as excellent animal servants. Genetically altered horses might be used as intelligent’ selfsteering’ self-feeding’ self-cleaning’ self-reproducing personal transport vehicles. Arthur C. Clarke points out that something resembling a compact elephant might be preferable in this regard’ since it is the only quadruped with sufficient dexterity to carry out delicate handling operations while remaining a quadruped.55 Such animal slaves should be herbivorous because "carnivores are much too expensive to feed and might take a fancy to their riders." Lesser lifeforms may be pressed into service by ETs. Genetically upgraded birds could be used as aerial messengers and scouts’ and would be trained to speak some simple language. Traitor fish could be developed to steer schools of their unsuspecting fellows into the waiting nets of fishermen. Vicious insects’ giant crustaceans and monstrous mollusks could be bred as offensive weapons of tactical warfare. Freeman J. Dyson of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University has suggested the possibility of exotic’ genetically-modified artificial mining organisms’ trolling the seas of planets for valuable minerals and metals. Says Dyson: Oysters might extract gold from seawater and secrete golden pearls. A less poetic but more practical possibility is the artificial coral that builds a reef rich in copper or magnesium. Other mining organisms would burrow like earthworms into mud and clay’ concentrating in their bodies the ores of aluminum or tin or iron’ and excreting the ores in some manner convenient for human harvesting.27 At least one mining company already uses bacteria to help recover copper metal from a variety of low-grade ores.88 The extraterrestrial bioneers may themselves be the subjects of genetic modification. Instead of creating expensive’ cumbersome artificial environments to sustain their lives after planetfall’ ETs may decide to undergo a change in basic physical form enabling them to survive the natural conditions encountered on each new world. Conforming to the alien environment should facilitate both exploration and first contact’ should it occur’ with sentient natives.2651 Advanced xenobiotechnology will allow extraterrestrial astronauts to decide which form was most convenient. Should they wish to explore and inhabit Jupiter for a period of time’ for example’ they could infect themselves with a carefully tailored virus containing modified genetic material. Cells in their bodies would be taken over by the intruders. Some would metamorphose into’ say’ jovian "gasbag beasts’" while the rest would simply die away and be sloughed off like molted skin. Later’ the gasbag genes might be replaced with new ones coded to produce a large-chested surface creature capable of breathing the 0.1% oxygen atmosphere of Mars. Finally’ their survey completed’ the ETs would be returned to their normal spacefaring designs using yet another application of a different transmutation virus -- perhaps a small’ agile humanoid form with a dexterous prehensile tail and a high tolerance for conditions of low gravity and sudden atmospheric decompressions. When first contact with extraterrestrials occurs’ we won’t know if the aliens are truly as they appear or rather inhabit genetically doctored bodies. Perhaps those tan-skinned humanoids we just shook hands with are really a race of chlorine breathers with twelve greasy tentacles and porcupine-bristled fur!

* In 1976’ researchers at Florida Atlantic University at Boca Baton created the first "interkingdom protoplast" which they call the "plantimal." 1617 Joined were a human cell nucleus and a tobacco cell nucleus’ and’ in another experiment’ a human nucleus and a carrot nucleus. Extraterrestrial bioneers may have developed photosynthetic meatlike "blobs" to serve as protein livestock’ shapeless amorphs which convert sunlight directly into edible meaty material. Autotrophic animals such as "plant men" similarly may be possible.

16.1.4 Ectogenesis and Cloning Ectogenesis is the process of "test tube pregnancy" as exemplified by Aldous Huxley’s science fiction classic Brave New World. If an artificial placenta can be designed’ complete artificial development of an entire human being will be possible starting only with sperm and egg. As long ago as 1959’ a plastic womb designed by Italian surgeon and medical experimentalist Daniele Petrucci carried developing human embryos for nearly two full months. There are recent reports that the first human test tube birth has already taken place’2871 although these are discounted by most reputable scientists.2872 Aside from using ectogenetic techniques to control birth rates or maintain rigid biological castes’ aliens might find test tube birth an ideal solution to the problem of interstellar colonization. Instead of keeping adult ET travelers in suspended animation for hundreds of years in transit between stars’ compact frozen embryos could be dispatched to the target solar systems. Upon arrival’ these ectogenetic astronauts would be fertilized and carried to term in an artificial womb. At birth’ cybernetic devices or RNA memory molecules could be used to teach the infants about their culture’ their science’ and their mission. The starship would then enter orbit around the new world and finally land’ the now-adult alien colonists emerging to begin life on foreign soil. Cloning is a related biotechnology that ETs will probably have. It’s a form of genetic engineering by which many exact duplicates of the original organism may be produced. Except for blood corpuscles’ every cell in the mammalian body has identical and complete sets of genes which uniquely specify the entire organism. The nucleus from a human skin cell transplanted into an ovum and carried to term ectogenetically should produce an exact twin of the original donor. In 1969’ Dr. John B. Gurdon at Oxford University succeeded in creating countless cloned frogs by transplanting genes from adult frog cells into the nuclei of frogs’ eggs. Aliens will find many interesting uses for cloning. According to technologist Robert W. Prehoda’ a combination of cloning and cryobiology (low-temperature preservation) could permit useful plants and animals to be conveniently transported with interstellar colonizers to make it easier to quickly populate barren planets with the flora and fauna of home.67 Cloning may also allow alien plants and animals to be reproduced in great numbers back on the home world’ after interstellar expeditions across the Galaxy return with frozen cell samples of exotic foreign lifeforms. Extraterrestrial bioneers may also clone duplicates of themselves as successors in political office’1947 as standardized military units’ or as nonsentient living warehouses for biological spare body parts for organ transplantation operations.

16.2 Immortality Recalling Medawar’s assertion about human nature cited earlier’ can we be as certain that aliens too "would rather be alive than dead"? Maybe not. Consider the alternative forms of sentience discussed in Chapter 14. Beings with genetic sentience -- "intelligent ants" -- may harbor no desire for personal immortality whatsoever. Since they aren’t aware of their individual selves’ they could never sympathize with Ionesco’s very human lament: "Why was I born if it wasn’t forever?" Since the society of these creatures would be virtually immortal’ genetic-sentient ETs may have no use for the concept of (effectively) perpetual personal existence. Similarly’ beings with communal sentience (visceral social awareness) may be able to take solace in the comparatively eternal character of society. It may be that the appetite for immortality displayed by many humans is a hunger unique to brain-sentient species. Only among these races must the individual deal with personal death in the absence of any stronglyfelt’ well-internalized and supportive societal framework. Of course’ even among brain-sentient extraterrestrial species there may be cultural’ psychological’ or biological reasons why the drive for immortality might be suppressed. Yet the basic survival instinct must be very deeply ingrained in many alien races. This’ in concert with a sophisticated biotechnology’ provides both motive and opportunity for the development of immortality among extraterrestrial civilizations.

16.2.1 Xenogerontology Gerontology is the science of physiological aging and death. Modern researchers have concluded that while no single cause of aging exists’ it may soon be possible to sharply reduce or eliminate this process in many Earthly animals -- including man. The prospect of such great advancement in human biotechnology raises the presumption that alien gerontologists -- xenogerontologists-can do at least as well. Death from old age is no more "natural" or inevitable than smallpox or plague. As the twice Nobel laureate Dr. Linus Pauling asserted more than twenty years ago: Death is unnatural. Theoretically’ man is quite immortal. His body tissues replace themselves. He is a self-repairing machine. And yet’ he gets old and dies’ and the reasons for this are still a mystery.2647 To paraphrase the venerable Seneca: Old age is a curable disease. The general consensus among gerontologists today is that there exist within humans identifiable "clocks of aging." These clocks are genetically determined programs which dictate when and how fast we shall age and die. Since such mechanisms appear to be rather common throughout the entire animal kingdom’ there is good reason to suspect that ETs should possess something functionally similar. While the mystery of aging has not yet been solved’ a tripartite theoretical model with three primary "clocks" has begun to emerge. The first of these is rather simple: Wear and tear. Medawar’ one of the earliest scientists to link genetics with aging’ has called this the "broken test tube" theory. Say that we start off with 1000 brand new test tubes in a chemical laboratory. Over time’ the number of "survivors" would steadily dwindle. Some tubes with factory flaws (birth defects?) would be thrown out first (die?)’ while others would break from chance accident or hard usage after a number of years. Eventually the entire population of test tubes will have broken in this manner’ and we then may plot a "survival curve" of aging and death for the glassware entities. The analogy to the mortality of living beings is inescapable: Wear and tear does us in. The second clock of aging is called the Hayflick Factor after UCSF researcher Dr. Leonard Hayflick. In 1961’ he discovered that young human cells growing in a culture medium could divide only a limited number of times (roughly 50 generations) before all their descendents aged and died. Cells taken from adults divided even fewer times (about 20) before death ensued. Hayflick then compared the growth cycles of human cells to those taken from other animals. Not surprisingly’ tissues taken from nonhuman creatures differed markedly (between species) as to the total number of generations they could produce before dying. It was also found’ however’ that animals with longer lifespans also had the longestlived cells. (See Table 16.1.) Hayflick concluded that cell death in all organisms was an expression of aging at the microscopic level. Aging thus appeared to be a built-in genetic limitation to cellular regeneration and growth.

Table 16.1 The Hayflick Factor: Lifespan and the Number of Cell Divisions Animal

Lifespan

Mouse

Total Cell Divisions Before Death

2-3 years

12 divisions

Chicken

20-30 years

25 divisions

Human

70-80 years

50 divisions

Tortoise

150-200 years

90-125 divisions

In the last two decades’ Hayflick’s work has been largely verified. Studies of identical twins -- who’ like clones’ have identical DNA -- show that both individuals generally have about the same lifespan. (This is to be expected if genes control longevity as Hayflick suggests.) In another series of experiments’ a number of cultured human cells of various "ages" were placed in cold hibernation at liquid nitrogen temperatures. These were then thawed out’ a few at a time’ over a period of ten years. Each cell "remembered" its correct "age" and proceeded to divide up to the normal allotment of 50 generations’ at which point death set in as usual. In yet another study’ nuclei from young cells were transplanted into the protoplasm of old cells. Cells which had already doubled’ say’ 37 times’ which were renucleated with a nucleus from a young cell that had passed through only 10 generations’ went on to divide for about 40 more cycles before old age set in. On the basis of the normal 50 divisions found in human cultured cells’ Hayflick calculated that the normal lifespan of man should be about 110-120 years. But we know that only a negligible fraction of the human race ever attains such advanced age. This brings us to the last factor in the tripartite model of aging. Dr. W. Donner Denckla’ a medical researcher at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology’ believes that the third clock of aging is hormonal in nature and resides somewhere in the brain -- most probably in the human endocrine glands. Denckla found’ after a detailed study of autopsy data and death records’ that most people die because of a failure of one of the two major body systems: The cardiovascular or the immune systems. Death occurs in the former instance from heart stoppage or from an inability of the blood vessels to deliver oxygen and nutrients to vital organs’ and in the latter instance from a failure of the body’s immune system to ward off an attack of invading microorganisms. The thyroid gland’ Denckla believes’ may be of central importance because its product -- thyroxine -- appears to be the master rate-controlling hormone. Then humans age’ they don’t lose the ability to produce thyroxine. Rather’ they lose the ability to utilize whatever quantities of the hormone are available. Denckla suspects that the pituitary may release some kind of blocking hormone -- which he calls the "death hormone" -- that prevents cells from using thyroxine. The diminishing utility of the vital secretion in later life could cause a number of critical imbalances’ increased destructive oxidation’ chromosomal mutations and heart tissue dysfunction. Another endocrine gland -- the thymus -- has been implicated in the process of human aging. The thymus is a soft’ flattened organ just behind the breast bone in man. Older medical texts say that the function of the gland is unknown’ but many modern specialists link it to the production of "T cells" (a variety of lymphocyte or "white cells") under the direction of the pituitary and the hypothalamus. During life’ the thymus changes dramatically in size. At birth it weighs about 12 grams. At puberty it reaches its maximum at 37 grams. Thereafter’ it shrinks rapidly until by the age of 40-50 years it has all but disappeared in many people. By age 60 it weighs at most a paltry 6 grams. According to Dr. Allan Goldstein of the University of Texas Medical Branch’ Galveston’ the level of thymosin -- the secretion of the thymus gland -- falls off with age in direct proportion to the diminishing size of the organ. As the concentrations of thymosin drop’ the failure rate of the human immune system rises markedly. Lymphocytes’ our "white cells’" become increasingly incompetent. They fail to rid the body of hostile pathogens and mistakenly attack the body’s own cells as if they were foreign invaders. As a result’ older organisms are vastly more susceptible to a wide range of potentially lethal diseases. To test his theory’ Goldstein has injected thymosin into children afflicted with severe immune-deficiency diseases. The revitalization of the youngsters’ immune systems was dramatic’ but more verification is necessary. The next step will be to try to revitalize aging immune systems in adult humans using similar therapy. If these experiments succeed’ immune failure as a cause of death could virtually be eliminated. Regardless of the exact mechanisms of hormonal control’ argues Denckla’ the control is there. And it would appear to have great survival value. So far as we know’ Earthly species evolve naturally only by mutation’ a fairly slow process. To speed it up’ more parents must be cycled through the system. The faster the turnover rate in the reproducing population’ the more variability will be available quickly from the gene pool. Mortality of individuals thus has selective value because’ in the words of one writer’ "species survival requires a large enough quantity of individuals in any given generation to ensure that a significant number of them will be the beneficiaries of chance mutations that can be passed along’ and a short enough lifespan to permit the necessary turnover."2137 According to modern gerontologists’ then’ aging is "an absolutely fail-safe killing mechanism without which the species would not survive." Under the general tripartite theory (Figure 16.1)’ three clocks of aging are simultaneously ticking against us. If one stage of the death process is escaped’ others remain: Stage 1 -- Denckla/Goldstein hormonal imbalances occur which cause the cardiovascular and immune systems ultimately to fail. This is the body’s primary selfdestruct mechanism. Typical life expectancy: 30-80 years. Stage 2 -- The Hayflick cellular aging program causes body cells to cease dividing after a fixed number of generations. It is designed to set a second limit in case the Stage 1 hormonal malfunction is ineffective. This is the body’s secondary self-destruct mechanism. Typical life expectancy: 110-120 years. Stage 3 -- Medawar’s "broken test tube" wear and tear on body structures. Irreversible genetic deterioration or severe accidental trauma eventually cause senescence and death. This is the body’s last line of defense against immortality’ a tertiary backup system. Typical life expectancy: ~1000 years.

Figure 16.1 Human Current (upper) and Future (lower) Mortality

STAGE 1 DEATHS: Hormonal imbalance causes failure of cardiovascular G immune systems. STAGE 2 DEATHS: (Hormone imbalances corrected.) Genetic cellular aging program shuts cells off automatically. STAGE 3 DEATHS: (Genetic cellular aging program erased.) Accidents and general irreversible deterioration.

While the tripartite aging model may turn out to be correct for mammalian life on Earth’ this is no guarantee that beings of other worlds must be designed in the same way. Still’ the basic evolutionary concept of the survival value of death for naturally evolving species should be as valid in alien ecologies as it is on this planet. There is no reason to suspect that extraterrestrial aging mechanisms will be any more or less complicated than our own.

16.2.2 The Limits of Immortality Brain cells do not reproduce and cannot replace themselves once destroyed. Each human possesses ten billion irreplaceable neurons; when some are lost due to concussion’ consumption of alcohol or tobacco’ or from natural causes’ our brains are permanently diminished. Dr. Harold Brody of the State University of New York at Buffalo attempted to measure the rate of natural attrition of brain cells. While losses range from none at all to very many in various parts of the organ’ the approximate brainwide average runs about 100’000 neurons lost per day. At this rate’ Brody calculates’ the organ should entirely decay away in a period of about 250-350 years.2648 Whether cell loss would actually continue to the vanishing point or would taper off asymptotically is unknown at present. There are at least three solutions to the so-called "brain barrier" problem. First’ genetic engineering could permit each individual to start out with a larger brain. If the ETs have 100 billion neurons -- ten times more than we -- and the same neural attrition rate’ senility might not set in for thousands’ instead of hundreds’ of years. The full millenium of Stage 3 aging would then become available to the aliens. A second solution is to cause brain cells to regenerate and reproduce them selves as others died. If neuron division could be exactly balanced against cell losses’ the brain would remain the same size and theoretically could go on forever. This again will only be found among extraterrestrial races capable of advanced bioneering’ since there is no natural selective value in developing complex brain regeneration mechanisms which aid survival only if the organism manages to pass the primary and secondary selfdestruct systems of the body. What if aliens did have divisible brain cells? In his book The Immortality Factor’ Osborn Segerberg’ Jr. writes: [Brain cells] store our memories’ experiences’ knowledge and learning as well as operate voluntary and autonomic nervous systems. New brain and nerve cells presumably would "forget" what their predecessors knew. If the [being] survived the neurological havoc’ he might not be able to retain his identity. He would forever be turning into someone else.69 Or’ as another writer puts it: "That would be the fun of attaining great longevity if the lucky winner couldn't remember what had gone before?"2137 Of course’ the counterargument goes like this: We know we lose 100’000 neurons every day. If this causes personality change from day to day’ we certainly do not notice it. Why should the random addition of 100’000 neurons every day wreak any more cerebral havoc than their random subtraction? Brain regeneration may be quite possible’ after all. A third solution to the brain barrier problem is simply to prevent neural cells from dying at all’ or at least to significantly slow the rate of attrition. We don’t know how to do this yet -- perhaps more robust and wear-resistant cells could be designed -- but alien sentients elsewhere may have already found the answer. Assuming ETs and earthlings manage to lick the brain barrier problem’ then exactly what are the limits to immortality? Saving the organ of sentience doesn’t get us out of the woods yet’ because there is still the problem of accidental death associated with Stage 3. Individuals may be hit by a truck’ slip in the bathtub’ be shot in battle’ or die in a plane crash. Still’ the lifespan in Stage 3 may be an order of magnitude greater than in Stage 1 (where humans are now). For example’ the death rate in the United States in 1973 was 942 deaths per 100’000 people. The maximum lifespan attainable was about 100 years. If all purely medical deaths were eliminated’ leaving only suicide’ homicide and accidental causes (fire’ drowning’ lightning’ and other sudden traumas)’ the death rate would have dropped to 78 cases per 100’000 people. This works out to a maximum attainable lifespan of nearly 1300 years’ as shown in Figure 16.1. Is this the upper limit’ then? If accidental causes of death can be eliminated we can get more. But how could this be done? One recent science fiction story proposes the development of a sense of precognition or foreknowledge to enable the creature to anticipate accidents in the near future and avoid them.2650 This accomplished’ there should be no further real limits to immortality’ save boredom or a brain jammed to capacity with memories like a well-worn palimpsest. Death would occur only as a matter of affirmative’ intelligent choice.

16.3 Androids and Cyborgs As we have seen’ there are few limits to the possible accomplishments of alien biotechnologists. But the biological forms which nature has provided are especially well-adapted to a pretechnological planetary environment. ETs may need to design new forms to accomodate the requirements of a fast-paced industrialized technical society. Genetic manipulation might turn out to be a natural prerequisite to man-machine coupling. For example’ gene surgery may permit body proportions to be altered to better fit the dimensions of mechanical systems such as computers and starships. Sentient extraterrestrials thus may turn to synthetic biological or to bionically-augmented designs which possess the desired characteristics of high reliability’ great longevity’ and which interface more perfectly with various technological aspects of the environment. There are three general classes of such entities: Androids (purely biological)’ cyborgs (part biological and part mechanical)’ and robots (purely mechanical).

16.3.1 Androids and Organleggers Exactly what is an android? There seems to be much confusion on this score even among science fiction writers. Some hold that an android is an automaton in human form; others describe it as a robot that can think. Still others require it to be biological’ while a few permit both biological and mechanical "androids." Perhaps the most consistent traditional definition is the one offered by Groff Conklin in 1954: "An android is a living being that has been created partly or wholly through processes other than natural birth."1836 The classic biological android was the fictional Frankenstein monster created by the pen of Mary Shelley -- a living organism assembled in pieces by men. Under the Conklin definition’ clones would probably also be regarded as androids. What of nonhumanoid forms? Arthur C. Clarke has coined the word "biot" (short for "biological robot") to refer to all animal androids’ nonhuman beasts created by the hand of sentience. Remarks Freeman J. Dyson of the biot: I would say that when we learn to use these biological techniques ourselves’ and to build machines with biological materials’ we shall probably be able to create intelligence. I think it will not look like an electronic computer’ but rather more like a living organism.1558 Jeremy Bernstein’ Professor of Physics at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey’ echoes this sentiment when he states: The lesson of modern biology is that the distinction between living and nonliving material is almost arbitrary. So it is possible that one would be able to make machines biologically’ in test tubes rather than in an electronics factory’ and then it will be almost an arbitrary question as to whether one wants to call such objects machines or living animals.1558 Terrestrial organ transplant technology has advanced markedly in the 1970's. As shown in Table 16.2’ transplants of virtually every major human organ have been attempted with increasing success.* Furthermore’ the art of microsurgery -- essential fine detail work with tissues and capillaries involved in transplantation -- has made fantastic progress. Skilled microsurgeons now suture tiny capillary walls and can reconnect delicate wisps of nerve tissue’ working under a microscope with needle and thread smaller than human hair.2882 For more than a decade’ Chinese doctors have been replacing severed limbs with great success -- arms’ legs’ feet and fingers. (Since the thumb accounts for 50% of the efficiency of the hand’ microsurgeons can salvage it even when it's smashed beyond repair. One of the patients big toes is transplanted onto the thumb stump. "Close up it looks a little strange’" remarked one writer’ "but it does the job."2652) Table 16.2 Human Organ Transplant Biotechnology as of 19762365 Number of Transplant Operations Performed

Success Rate

many thousands

Good

Kidneys

16’690

Good

Cornea

4’000

Excellent

Heart

286

Fair

Liver

201

Fair

Pancreas

46

Fair

Lungs

38

Poor

Umbilical cord grafts

30

Good

Bones

23

Good

Organ Arms’ legs’ feet’ hands’ and fingers

Where might replacement organs come from? They could be cloned from the patient’s own cells’ but this takes time. Another way would be to store donated or pre-cloned organs "on ice" until needed. Scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a technique which may soon make it possible to store human organs for a century or more before thawing for use in a transplantation procedure.2653 William Gaylin’ President of the Institute of Society’ Ethics’ and the Life Sciences’ has proposed the controversial idea of using living cadavers’ which he calls "neomorts’" for medical experimentation and salvaging body parts. Neomorts -- living’ breathing’ feeding and excreting organisms -- would nevertheless be legally dead because of the cessation of electrical brain activity (brain death). Gaylin suggests that "bio-emporiums" be maintained using the victims of suicides’ homicides and other accidents. Neomorts would serve as body part banks. Organs would be preserved in the still-living bodies’ and there would be a regular supply of blood since the living corpses "could be drained regularly."2654 Science fiction writer Larry Niven predicts that widespread demand for donor organs might create a new type of crime which he calls "organlegging." As body parts change from a luxury for the few to a necessity for the many’ demand will almost certainly outstrip supply. Niven claims that a black market in illegally-obtained organs would spring into existence’ offering disassembled kidnap victims to the local Organ Bank at inflated prices.2020 As man becomes more android’ will his crimes become more heinous? What about brain transplants? About a decade ago’ Dr. Robert J. White of the Brain Research Laboratory at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital carefully removed the brains of six dogs. Each organ was placed into the cranium of a new canine and connected to its bloodstream. Some animals perished within six hours of the operation’ but one survived for two days. During this time’ the living transplanted brain produced electrical signals on the electroencephalograph that was monitoring it.1646 Similar experiments have been conducted successfully on monkeys.2656 But to transplant an entire brain and restore it to full capacity’ extraterrestrial microsurgeons must be capable of severing and reconnecting countless millions of individual nerve endings in a very brief span of time. This will be a most challenging operation because the neural configurations in the donor brain’ much like the uniqueness of fingerprints’ will display a complicated pattern that probably won’t match the connections in the recipient’s cranium. If the whole head is transplanted’ however’ the cranial nerves continue to function normally.2655 For this reason it has been suggested that aliens may prefer to transfer heads rather than brains. Human scientists have already tried this. In 1957 a Russian surgeon named Vladimer Demikov grafted a second head onto the neck of a dog. The twoheaded monstrosity survived nearly a week with apparently "normal" functioning. For instance’ when exposed to light and sound both heads responded by trying to bark.2365 Aliens may use similar methods to graft old heads onto freshly-cloned headless neomorts.

* A review of the medical literature available in 1976 fails to produce a single instance of penile transplantation. 1621 However’ 13 cases of replantation of the traumatically amputated penis are noted’ and 10 cases of penile reconstruction are recorded in which a new penis was fashioned from other neighboring tissues. A major impasse to penile transplantation appears to be donor organ procurement.

16.3.2 The Bionic Alien The word "bionics" describes the science of constructing artificial systems that resemble or have characteristics of living systems. Specifically’ the reference is to a device which mimics some natural function of the lifeform or improves upon it. The use of artificial parts in man results in a hybrid entity which has been dubbed a cybernetic organism’ or "cyborg." The term was originally applied in astronautics’ but now is widely used to describe any creature possessing bionic components -- a being created by joining living flesh with nonliving devices. Because of the great potential utility of artificial prosthetic equipment’ and because the space environment is far more hostile to biology than to bionics’ the extraterrestrial cyborg is a very real possibility. A bionic alien undoubtedly will represent a vast physical improvement over the original biological model. He may have better senses -telescopic or infrared vision’ high frequency and hypersensitive hearing’ perception of radar or x-rays’ acute smell or taste. He may have powerful limbs like Steve Austin of Six Million Dollar Man TV fame’ or perhaps the astrocyborg will simply be more flexible and agile than the original -- there’s no premium on raw strength in the weightless conditions of space. He may have bionic blood (a special synthetic formulation based on fluorocarbons which is protein-free and thus generates no immune rejection response) and a bionic beatless heart. Extraterrestrial cyborgs may possess bionic skin’ a tough rubbery silicone material with enormous tensile strength and high resistance to vacuum and radiation. This skin could be photosensitive’ absorbing photons and combining them with blood gases and water directly to produce valuable carbohydrates -- a new twist on the "autotrophic man" concept. A step in this direction has been taken by Dr. Joseph J. Katz’ a chemist at the Argonne National Laboratory. Katz and his research team have constructed what amounts to a "bionic leaf’" a contrivance of metal’ glass’ plastics and chemicals. The device is designed to produce hydrogen’ rather than carbohydrates’ from sunlight.2698 And bionic aliens may come equipped with advanced abilities that have no direct biological analogue. For instance’ ET astronauts could have a "radiation gland" to warn them of rising radiation levels in the vicinity and to automatically inject protective chemicals directly into the bloodsteam. Aliens may have a direct hookup to their pleasure or sleep centers in the brain’ to permit them to while away long hours of waiting without succumbing to acute boredom or depression. Other artificial organs may be implanted which provide radio contact with others’ or which monitor internal bodily processes for signs of impending stroke or exhaustion. Appropriate stimulants and energizers could be dumped into the bloodstream during emergency situations. It is worth taking a brief look at the state of the art in human bionics technology because it's suggestive of just how well aliens may be able to do. Take’ for example’ the bionic arm. One artificial limb called the "Utah arm’" developed by Stephen Jacobsen at the University of Utah’ can flex at the elbow’ rotate at the wrist’ and manipulate fingerlike attachments capable of holding forks’ bottles’ or pencils.2659 The bionic arm is fitted to volunteer amputees and controlled through a computer. Using sensors on the subjects’ arm stump’ tiny muscular contractions are interpreted and translated into the delicate motions of the artificial limb. Dr. Frank Clippinger’ Jr. at Duke University Medical Center have created a similar device with feedback’ to impart a sense of feeling and touch.2692 While Steve Austin’s superstrong attachments are mechanically improbable’ much progress has been made toward the goal of a bionic arm which performs better than the original. Dr. Vert Mooney at the Rancho Amigos Hospital in California has built a prototype 3½ kilogram artificial arm with self-contained battery pack and motors. Sensors connected to muscles in the forearm allow the device to respond almost as well as the original. It was first used on Reid Hilton’ a 24-year-old karate expert from Santa Ana who lost his right arm in an automobile accident. Hilton was able to perform extremely fine movements such as tying shoelaces’ as well as the larger motions required in karate. Amazingly’ the bionic arm has a grip strength of nearly 20 kilograms’ as compared to only 10 kilograms for the average man.2691 Another example is the bionic eye. Opthalmologist William Dobelle of the University of Utah’ with the cooperation of blind volunteers’ has developed a primitive system for artificial sight. In his experiments’ a teflon strip with an array of 64 platinum points is inserted between the two hemispheric halves of the brain’ in direct contact with the visual cortex. This grid is wired to external TV cameras through a coaxial cable plug mounted in the subject’s skull. When electrical stimulation from the lab cameras reaches the patients’ brains’ they report seeing flashes of light -- called phosphenes -- which are about the size of a small coin held at arm’s length. Most are red’ yellow or white in color. One subject’ blinded by a gunshot wound more than a decade ago’ said that they resembled small lights "like a time and temperature sign on a bank’ or a scoreboard at a football game."2660 This same man has been trained to read in a phosphene-Braille system with 85% accuracy at a rate of six words per minute. Says Dobelle of the system currently in use: "Our objective is not normal vision. It is low definition black and white -- analogous to the first television pictures sent from the moon by the astronauts. We do not propose to create a reading system. Mobility is more important to the blind than reading." Still’ the ultimate objective of the bionic eye project is considerably more ambitious: "We hope to develop a functional artificial eye for the blind’ consisting of a small TV camera in a glass eye’ a small computer system perhaps built into the frame of a pair of glasses’ and an array of electrodes on the visual cortex."2447 Dobelle estimates that the entire system may be on the market in about ten years’ and might sell for a few thousand dollars each.2661 The development of artificial replacements for human body parts is one of the fastest growing areas in medical research today. Bionic ears’ complete with sound pickup’ amplifier’ and rechargeable implantable power supply’ will be on the market in the early 1980's.2365 Bionic lungs’ kidneys’ livers and pancreases have been developed with reasonable success. The spare-parts catalog runs into the hundreds’ including dentures and artificial jaws’ skull plates’ bionic joints and bones’ orthopedic pins and shanks and spinal disks’ bionic tracheae’ larynxes’ sphincters’ tendons’ ligaments and muscles.* If sentient extraterrestrials invest heavily in bionics’ the brain/machine interface will become all-important. Much research is now in progress in human laboratories to enable computers to "read minds." Dr. Lawrence Robert Pinneo at Stanford Research Institute’ for example’ has constructed a "thinking cap" which picks up the subject’s electrical brain wave activity via scalp electrodes’ analyses them’ and then translates them into action. Pinneo’s volunteers can move dots from side to side on a computerized television screen’ or run an object through a video maze’ simply by thinking.2365 The executive computer can also recognize words’ spoken aloud or silently thought (it makes no difference)’ by comparing them to prerecorded characteristic brain wave patterns of the particular subject.2662 Dr. Grey Walter at the Burden Neurological Institute in Bristol’ England’ has devised a similar computer-directed brain reading apparatus which operates as a remote controlled TV channel selector. By sheer force of thought’ subjects can cause pictures to change or to hold on a television screen placed before them.92 Speaking at the 1976 annual AAAS Conference’ Dr. Adam Reed claimed that within fifty years miniaturized computers implanted under the scalp will be programmed to read and speak the electrochemical language of the human brain. In ten years -- by 1986 -- Reed believes we will have cracked the code the brain uses for information processing. According to one science writer’ "once that’s done’ information can be fed directly into the brain’s central processing unit without going through peripheral equipment such as eyes and ears. You don’t read a book: the computer literally squirts its contents into your head."2664 To achieve these results’ it is estimated that at least 100’000 electrodes/mm2 will be required in the implanted matrix (Figure 16.2).

Figure 16.2 Practical Electronic Telepathy?2699

Wearing the latest in this fall’s’ scientific hat fashions is Tom Santoro’ a researcher at the California Institute of Technology. Arrays of 30 to 50 scalp electrodes in the hat are designed to measure distribution of nerve activity in the brain that is evoked by visual stimulus. Studies of scalp potentials have shown they are related to certain visual perceptions Hence the brain-wave hat is able to detect what a subject thinks he sees or’ in other words’ measures the brain’s visual acuity.

Alien cyborgs outfitted with such "biocybernetic links" would be able to plug into modular units containing vast quantities of data in specialized areas. Internal or external storage devices could increase memory capacity by a billionfold. Bionic ETs with computer implants will have access to virtually all knowledge possessed by their civilization -- mathematical’ physical’ medical’ psychological’ and cultural. Alternatively’ each individual could have an on-line radio link to a mammoth external computer intelligence -one need only think of some problem’ request a solution’ and patiently wait for the answer to appear in his thoughts moments later. Such systems would also make possible a form of practical electronic "telepathy." Messages and other information might be dispatched from one brain to the master computer network’ and then relayed on to any other biocybernetically equipped brain. Like telephone conference calls’ ETs may be able to link minds together through an electronic medium to confer rapidly and obtain solutions to particularly complicated dynamic problems. And if a generalized’ mathematical computer language is used in the external system’ this may also provide an ideal channel for interspecies communication when first contact occurs. Of course’ there’s really no need for fragile organic brains to venture out into wild foreign environments. Detachable bionic senses and effectors-called "teleoperators" -- may be sent out to explore strange planetary surfaces while the alien’s flesh-and-blood brain remains safely in geosynchronous orbit high above. If ETs are receiving data via biocybernetic channels’ what difference does it make whether the bionic eyeball which is doing the actual seeing is located in the eye socket of the skull or halfway around the planet? Except for minor time delays due to the finite speed of radio wave propagation’ perception would be as instantaneous on "local" as on "remote." Alien astrocyborgs may send their eyes’ ears’ arms and legs wandering through space or across the surface of a world’ leaving their minds safely at home.

* Artificial penises and bionic erections are now available’ although at considerable cost. Developed as a treatment for physical impotence’ the device is made up of two collapsible silicone rubber cylinders placed inside the corpus cave nosum of the male organ. Upon squeezing a tiny pump tucked away behind the scrotum’ hydraulic fluid is transferred from an implanted spherical reservoir to the cylinders in the penis’ causing the member to become erect. 349 This can be maintained for an indefinite period of time’ and permits full sensitivity and normal ejaculation. Says neurologist William Bradley’ one of the proud developers of the "bionic penis" at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston’ Texas: "It isn’t like a real erection -- it is a real erection. Enlargement’ growth in diameter... it's great!"2365

16.3.3 Enter the Robot? (aka. Uploading) What about the possibility of totally bionic brains? Might extraterrestrial biotechnologists be able to transfer personality and consciousness into virtually indestructible and immortal bionic bodies? In theory’ there are no technical objections to "total prosthesis’" as it is sometimes called. Using advanced atomic or molecular electronics’ fully synthetic brains which function as well as or better than the originals can easily be imagined. However’ one major difficulty is frequently overlooked. In most schemes’ the subject’s brain contents are somehow "read out" and recorded using sophisticated high-capacity computer data storage devices. This data is later played back and imprinted upon the tabula rasa bionic brain. The mortal flesh-and-blood organ is then replaced by the immortal synthetic one in the cyborg body. Upon awakening’ it is discovered that the words’ thoughts’ and behavior of the new entity are indistinguishable from those of the original in every way. But it is not the original! The cyborg is only a copy. A duplicate person has been created and the original (presumably) destroyed -- its sentience’ its self-awareness’ its personal consciousness. The new bionic brain’ perhaps graced with a blissful continuity of memory’ may not be aware of the change at all. But the original self is dead nevertheless. (The author’ for one’ would hesitate to accept such immortality by proxy.) This fundamental problem is difficult’ but by no means impossible’ to resolve. It may turn out to be relatively easy to transfer from a biological to a synthetic brain without any loss of self or interruption of consciousness in the original. Dr. Jonathan Boswell’ a nuclear physicist at the University of Virginia’ recently gave me one simple example of such a process: I visualize the process of consciousness transfer as taking many years. First’ biocybernetic electrodes would be implanted permanently in the brain of the aging patient. Many of them’ so that the data pathways are wide. As the body decays -- let us suppose it first goes blind -- the consciousness inside finds that it can "see" through the cameras of the machine it's connected to. Later’ it could hear’ touch.... Placed in direct contact with the bionic brain’ the two minds would begin to share the thinking function. Ultimately’ when the old hulk of the body finally shrivels up and dies’ the shared mind lives on without interruption in the synthetic brain.2665 Artificial intelligence expert Hans Moravec has come up with a somewhat more elaborate scheme: You are in an operating theater’ and a brain surgeon (probably a machine) is in attendance. On a table next to yours is a potentially human equivalent computer’ dormant now for lack of a program to run. Your skull’ but not your brain’ is under the influence of a local anaesthetic. You are fully conscious. Your brain case is opened’ and the surgeon peers inside. Its attention is directed at a small clump of about 100 neurons somewhere near the surface. It examines’ nondestructively’ the three dimensional structure and chemical makeup of that clump with neutron tomography’ phased array radio encephalography’ etc.’ and derives all the relevant parameters. It then writes a program which can simulate the behavior of the clump as a whole’ and starts it running on a small portion of the computer next to you. It then carefully runs very fine wires from the computer to the edges of the neuron assembly’ to provide the simulation with the same inputs the neurons are getting. You and it check out the accuracy of the simulation. After you are satisfied’ it carefully inserts tiny relays between the edges of the clump and the rest of the brain’ and runs another set of wires from the relays to the computer. Initially these simply transmit the clump’s signals through to the brain’ but on command they can connect the simulation instead. A button which activates the relays when pressed is placed in your hand. You press it’ release it and press it again. There should be no difference. As soon as you are satisfied’ the simulation connection is established firmly’ and the now unconnected clump of neurons is removed. The process is repeated over and over for adjoining clumps’ until the entire brain has been dealt with. Occasionally several clump simulations are combined into a single equivalent but more efficient pro gram. Though you have not lost consciousness’ or even your train of thought’ your mind has been removed from the brain and transferred to the machine. A final step is the disconnection of your old sensory and motor system’ to be replaced by higher quality ones in your new home. This last part is no different than the installation of functioning artificial arms’ legs’ pacemakers’ kidneys’ ears and hearts and eyes being done or contemplated now.3233 Moravec then goes on to point out the many advantages that would become apparent as soon as the process was complete: Somewhere in your machine is a control labeled "speed." It was initially set to "slow’" to enable the simulations to remain synchronized with the rest of your old brain’ but now the setting is changed to "fast." You can communicate’ react and think at a thousand times your former rate. Major possibilities stem from the fact that the machine has a port which enables the changing program that is you to be read out’ nondestructively’ and also permits new portions of the program to be read in. This allows you to conveniently examine’ modify’ improve and extend yourself in ways currently completely out of the question. Or’ your entire program can be copied into a similar machine’ resulting in two thinking’ feeling versions of you. Or a thousand’ if you want. And your mind can be moved to computers better suited for given environments’ or simply technologically improved’ far more conveniently than the difficult first transfer. The program can also be copied to a dormant information storage medium’ such as magnetic tape. In case the machine you inhabit is fatally clobbered’ a copy of this kind can be read into an unprogrammed computer’ resulting in another you’ minus the memories accumulated since the copy was made. By making frequent copies’ the concept of personal death could be made virtually meaningless. Another plus is that since the essence of you is an information packet’ it can be sent over information channels. Your program can be read out’ radioed to the moon’ say’ and infused there into a waiting computer. This is travel at the speed of light. The copy that is left behind could be shut down until the trip is over’ at which time the program representing you with lunar experiences is radioed back’ and transferred into the old body. But what if the original were not shut down during the trip? There would then be two separate versions of you’ with different memories for the trip interval. When the organization of the programs making up humans is adequately understood’ it should become possible to merge two sets of memories. To avoid confusion’ they would be carefully labeled as to which had happened where’ just as our current memories are usually labeled with the time of the events they record. This technique opens another vast realm of possibilities. Merging should be possible not only between two versions of the same individual but also between different persons. And there is no particular reason why mergings cannot be selective’ involving some of the other person’s memories’ and not others. This is a very superior form of communication’ in which memories’ skills’ attitudes and personalities can be rapidly and effectively shared.3233

16.4 Machine Life Can machines live? Evolve? Think? Many scientists would answer in the negative. Gears’ relays’ and integrated circuits certainly aren’t alive in the traditional sense. Evolution typically involves reproduction and natural selection’ but no Earthly machines are known to reproduce themselves. And’ it is said’ cold steel cannot cogitate. From the xenological point of view’ however’ we’ve already determined that the most useful definition of life involves the concept of negative entropy’ or negentropy. That is’ to be considered "alive" an entity must (1) feed on negentropy (absorb order from the environment) and (2) store negentropy (create order within itself). The amount of stored information in a living organism determines exactly how alive it is. Philip Morrison at MIT has taken a first stab at a quantitative analysis of "how much life" is present in any entity of specified complexity. It will be recalled from Chapter 6 that a refrigerator or other similar contemporary machine technically is "alive" by our definition’ because it feeds on negentropy and uses this to create internal order. But most machines "alive" today aren’t very alive because they store only miniscule amounts of information at the molecular level. Morrison has shown that patterns imposed on lumps of inert matter will not begin strongly to affect the matter thermodynamically "until the pattern is constructed with molecular fineness."1704 His calculations’ summarized in Table 16.3’ pertain to an hypothetical black-and-white checkerboard pattern superimposed on a slab of otherwise inert matter. Table 16.3 Molecular Fineness and the Thermodynamic Significance of Patterns of Information (modified from Morrison1704) Characteristic Size of the Pattern

Contribution of the Pattern to Thermodynamics of Inert Matter (Relative Intensity of Life)

Macroscopic mechanical pattern

1 centimeter

~10-22

Visible pattern

½ millimeter

~10-18

1 micron

~10-10

0.1 micron (1000 Angstroms)

~10-7

X-ray lithographic pattern

100 Angstroms

~10-4

Molecular pattern

10 Angstroms

~10-1

Nature of the Pattern

Microscopic pattern Electron micrographic pattern

We may view the last column of Table 16.3 as representing’ in a sense’ the intensity of life achieved by an information-laden pattern imposed on inanimate matter’ Clearly’ the finer the pattern (Figure 16.3)’ the more "alive" is the entity. By implication’ we cannot concede that machines are "very alive" until their components are constructed with molecular fineness. Only then will the information storage in machines be comparable to those found in biological lifeforms.

Figure 16.3 Microstructure in Machine Lifeforms and Biological Lifeforms Inhabiting the Planet Earth

SCALE (both photographs)

An x-ray lithograph of a magnetic bubble computer memory device developed by IBM (state-of-the-art’ 1977). 2700

An electron micrograph of a polygon-shaped bacterial virus’ or phage’ of a strain designated as "lambda" by microbiologists. The smaller splotches peppering the picture are bacterial ribosomes’ the RNA containing protein factories of living cells. 2701 The scale in both photos is identical. The average bacteria would fill this entire page if photographed on the same scale.

The need for a biochemistry as a prerequisite of organic life is far less compelling for beings of purely artificial construction. As such creatures perhaps can be modified or repaired simply by replacing modular parts’ the only fundamental requirement appears to be Morrison’s "molecular fineness of construction." The distinction between biological and mechanical life be comes quite blurred -- are not machines constructed of iron and silicon with molecular patterns examples of "ferrosilicon-based lifeforms"?

16.4.1 Artificial Intelligence Intelligence may be broadly defined as any system capable of processing information -- a negentropic ordering process of higher capacity than life itself. It is of critical significance that the actual physical form of the system is of comparatively little importance to what is taking place. The ability to reason -- to think -- is not a property of biological organisms alone. Rather’ it is a property of specialized’ highly-organized’ complex patterns. Whether these patterns find expression in biological’ artificial’ extraterrestrial or even nonmaterial form is largely irrelevant to the fact of intelligence. Time does not permit a detailed discussion of the arguments favoring the proposition of intelligent thinking machines. The objections are many’ but their refutations are sound.* Projecting the advances in human computer technology over the past century into the century ahead’ many leading scientists are now predicting the creation of artificial machine intelligence of extremely high order. And if we can do it’ so can ETs. Many decades ago an English mathematician named Alan Mathison Turing defined a crucial test to prove the existence of machine intelligence.2667’3698 According to the "Turing Test’" a computer is intelligent if a man is unable to distinguish it from another human being by talking to it over a teletype communications link. This is the ultimate objective test: If an entity speaks and acts like a man’ presumably it is just as intelligent. To date’ no machine on Earth has passed the generalized Turing Test. However’ the Test has been passed by computers restricted to limited areas of discourse or to certain well-defined human emotional or psychiatric states. For instance’ in the early 1970’s Dr. Kenneth Mark Colby at Stanford University created a program called PARRY that imitates the verbal behavior of a human paranoid. The system was designed to give psychiatry students useful experience in talking to severely mentally ill patients. PARRY is supposedly 28 years old’ unmarried’ and a postal clerk. He is sensitive about his looks’ education’ religion and sex. He once attacked a bookie for not paying a bet at the racetrack’ and he’s afraid that the underworld is out to get him. A sample conversation with PARRY follows (his words in capitals): Are you connected with the Mafia? YOU KNOW’ THEY KNOW ME. How do they know you?

THEY SPY ON ME.

Why do they?

THEY WANT TO GET FALSE EVIDENCE TO FRAME ME.

What do they have against you?

THEY ARE OUT TO GET ME.

What for?

I HAVE INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE AGAINST THE MAFIA.

Are you sure of all this?

YOU DON’T BELIEVE ME?

I am doing my best.

(SILENCE)

(Silence)

CAN’T YOU THINK OF A DECENT QUESTION TO ASK?

You seem hostile to me.

SOME OF YOUR REMARKS ANNOY ME.

I am sorry.

FORGET THE EXCUSES’ YOU GUYS ARE ALL ALIKE.

Don’t you trust me?

I HAVE GOOD REASON TO BE THIS WAY.

Okay’ tell me more about the Mafia.

THEY KNOW WHAT I’M DOING.

Can PARRY pass the Turing Test? Forty-eight psychiatrists were given paired transcripts of conversations with the computer and with a genuine human paranoid mental patient. Only half of the doctors could distinguish man from machine. Realizing that psychiatrists might not be able to recognize the subtle cues that might tip off a computer science expert’ Dr. Colby sent similar transcripts to a hundred members of the Association for Computing Machinery. Of the 67 respondents’ 32 guessed correctly and 35 guessed wrong.2670 On his own’ very limited turf’ PARRY passed the specialized Turing Test with flying colors. Besides mimicking human psychoses’ computers have been programmed to play intellectual games as well as men. Machines are now World Class checkers players. In 1965’ A. L. Samuel estimated that only a dozen of the world’s checkers masters could defeat a program he’d written.2673 Far more challenging’ however’ is the complex game of chess. Attempts to devise computer programs to play chess have been underway for decades.2674’2675 In August of 1968’ David Levy’ then Chess Master of Scotland and later International Master’ made a bet of $2100 with several computer scientists that no machine program could beat him at regulation chess within ten years. In the early 1970’s’ Lawrence R. Atkin and David J. Slate of the Computation Center at Northwestern University wrote "Chess 4.5." This program held the United States computer chess championship title in 1977. In the Spring of that year’ Levy sat down with Chess 4.5 to play a regulation 40-moves-in-two-hours game. Levy won’ but the machine made him work hard for it. Then came the real shocker. After the regular match was concluded’ the two contestants played an off-the-record "blitz" game in which each side was allowed only 5 seconds per move. Chess 4.5 won handily. Experts estimate the official ranking of Chess 4.5 in regulation play to be about 2000-2200 points on the standard scale’ as compared to 2325 for Levy and 2690 for the current World Champion. It is believed that in "blitz" chess the computer improves its rating by 200-400 points over human opponents.2676 Thus’ in blitz matches at least’ Chess 4.5 is already at the grandmaster level. Earthly computers may be quite clever’ but how much can they really understand what is communicated to them? Dr. Terry Winograd at MIT has developed an amazing machine program’ named SHRDLU. This complex system was designed for the express purpose of understanding English.2696 Like a small child secluded in a playroom’ SHRDLU inhabits a world that includes a toy box’ building blocks and pyramids of various sizes colored blue’ green’ and red. Mechanical arms and mobile camera eyes give SHRDLU the ability to stack or assemble the blocks in any desired configuration on the playroom floor. Most important’ the computer responds to commands and gives answers to questions in an intelligent manner.** Extracts from conversations between Winograd and SHRDLU (in capitals) follow. SHRDLU can understand spatial relationships: How many blocks are not in the box?

FOUR OF THEM.

Is at least one of them narrower than the one which I told you to pick up? YES’ THE RED CUBE. Is it supported?

YES’ BY THE TABLE.

Can the table pick up blocks?

NO.

Can a pyramid be supported by a block?

YES.

Stack up two pyramids.

I CAN’T.

SHRDLU can identify its own motives: Had you touched any pyramid before YES’ THE GREEN ONE. you put the green one on the little cube? When did you pick it up?

WHILE I WAS STACKING UP THE RED CUBE’ A LARGE RED BLOCK AND A LARGE GREEN CUBE.

Why?

TO GET RID OF IT.

Why did you do that?

TO CLEAN OFF THE RED CUBE.

Why did you clear off that cube?

TO PUT IT ON A LARGE GREEN CUBE.

Why did you do that?

TO STACK UP THE RED CUBE’ A LARGE RED BLOCK AND A LARGE GREEN CUBE.

Why did you do that?

BECAUSE YOU ASKED ME TO.

SHRDLU can assimilate novelty in its environment: Is there a steeple?

SORRY’ I DON’T KNOW THE WORD "STEEPLE."

A "steeple" is a stack which contains two green cubes and a pyramid.

I UNDERSTAND.

Are there any steeples now?

NO.

Build one.

OK. {the machine does so}

SHRDLU makes assumptions to help resolve ambiguities in speech: Call the biggest block "superblock."

OK.

Have you picked up superblock since we began?

YES.

Is there anything to the right YES’ FOUR THINGS: THE BOX’ THE RED CUBE’ THE BLUE of the red pyramid? PYRAMID’ AND THE BLOCK NAMED SUPERBLOCK. Why did you drop it?

BY "IT’" I ASSUME YOU MEAN SUPERBLOCK... I CAN’T EXPLAIN A NONEXISTENT EVENT.

Can Winograd’s program really think? Is it truly intelligent? We aren’t permitted to dismiss SHRDLU solely because it's "just a computer." The Turing Test for machine intelligence is an objective one: If the entity appears to be thinking’ Turing maintained’ it is pointless to deny that it is thinking. Although SHRDLU passes the Test only in a limited way’ recent developments in the artificial intelligence field have clearly demonstrated that computers can be taught to interpret meanings by the same processes that humans use.2851 Dr. A.M. Andrew’ cyberneticist at the University of Reading’ England’ predicts: Turing’s test will be passed…with no restrictions on topics of conversation or manner of reply by the year 2000 A.D. However’ even then the computer will seem like a person behaving rather stiffly and refusing to be drawn into small talk. Perhaps by 2050 A.D. a computer will seem to be someone with whom a joke can be shared’ and with whom the conversant identifies to the extent that it becomes important not to hurt the other’s feelings.2707 It appears not only possible but probable that many different sentient extraterrestrial races will develop advanced artificial intelligences. It is not yet clear exactly how complex these systems must be. Dr. Marvin Minsky of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory claims that 106 bits would probably be enough to create true intellect -- provided they "were all in the right place."22 Winograd’s program has about this many -- a million bits -- and the spunky Viking Mars Lander computers carried preprogrammed instructions amounting to a few million bits. In the animal world’ this would correspond roughly to the intelligence level of amphibians such as frogs. Says Minsky of Winograd’s SHRDLU: We see here a computer program that has a small but noticeable fraction of the intelligence of humans. The fraction is somewhere between 10-6 and 10-1. I cannot conceive that it would take 1012 bits {mammal and primate brains) to hold a superintelligent being.22 Some scientists believe that intellect is the direct consequence of the enormous intricacy of interactions among ten billion active neural components. Experiments performed by Dr. S.A. Kauffman at MIT in 1961 lend some support to this notion. Kauffman wanted to know what would happen if a large number of arbitrary computer components -"electronic gates" -- were connected to each other at random’ with inputs and outputs linked higgledy-piggledy throughout the network. With 100 units’ one might suppose that approximately 2100 (or 1030) different states would be possible’ thus rendering the system totally unpredictable. But Kauffman discovered that for a 100-element network there are rarely more than ten distinct cycles of about ten transitions each.2678 This result has since been confirmed by others’1785 and demonstrates that intelligence may be a necessary adjunct to complexity. If alien electronic artificial intellect is possible’ how physically small might it be? The theoretical lower limit of cell size is about 400 Angstrom’ a bit smaller than the tiniest known living organism (the PPLO). A brain with 1010 neurons of this size would neatly fill a minute cube one-tenth millimeter on a side. But artificially designed alien microbrains theoretically could be vastly smaller still. Using molecular electronics with components on the order of 10 Angstrom in size’ 1010 microneurons could be packed into a space of a few microns. This is small enough to hide inside a bacterium’ a fact which may have several very interesting consequences.2873 Also’ if a brain the size of the head of a pin were constructed’ it could house as many as ten million times as many neurons as a single human brain. Alternatively’ an intelligent space probe the size of a grapefruit might carry a "city" of billions of advanced cybernetic intellects.

Table 16.4 Energy Consumption and Efficiency of Natural and Artificial Data-Processing Devices

Device

Power per Unit

Binary Acts per Second

(watts) Vacuum tube TTL Semiconductor Gate Human Neuron Experimental Superconducting Josephson Junction Gate Theoretical Minimum at 3 K

Energy Expended per Binary Act (Relative Efficiency)

~6

105

6 x 10-5 joules/bit

10-3

108

1 x 10-11 joules/bit

3 x10-9

103

3 x 10-12 joules/bit

10-7

1011

3 x 10-18 joules/bit

3 x10-9

1012

3 x 10-23 joules/bit

The great late Princeton mathematician von Neumann once calculated the power consumption of brains designed with maximum efficiency’ using thermodynamic criteria.1726 There is a certain minimum amount of energy that must be expended to accomplish a single "binary act’" or simple decision’ within a brain. In Table 16.4’ this value is compared both with human biological neurons and with a variety of modern electronic devices. The relative efficiency of artificial devices is just now passing that of the biological ones’ here on Earth’ but terrestrial technology clearly still has a long way to go. Intelligent alien robots may have more closely approached’ or already achieved’ the ultimate thermodynamic limit of cerebral efficiency.

* Cynics and the otherwise unconvinced are referred to Armer’ 957 Clarke’ 55’81 Cosma’896 George’952 McCarthy’85 Michie’ 953 Puccetti’71’977 Putnam’1803 Raphael’ 2687 Rose’583 Sagan’ 318’2552 Turing’ 955 and Wesley.1717 ** The system’ while not perfect’ is capable of carrying on a real-time discourse. Analysis of and response to each sentence requires from 5-20 seconds. 175

16.4.2 Robots and Robotics Robots are now on the human scene in all but their most advanced forms. One writer has observed that "robots are at about the same stage as electronic calculators about a decade ago.... Specialists in the field suggest that ten years from now robots will be as common as calculators are today."2681 The word "robot" itself comes from a 1920 play written by the late Czech author Karel Capek entitled Rossum’s Universal Robots. In this early science fiction tale of the future’ sentient robots revolt against human-enforced slavery and conquer the world themselves. One of the first writers with the courage to portray intelligent mechanical beings as benign’ or at least indifferent’ was Dr. Isaac Asimov. His well-known Three Laws of Robotics -- intended to be incorporated into the basic psychology of every sentient machine -- were designed to prevent a revolt against biological creators such as was envisioned by Capek: First Law Second Law Third Law

-

A robot may not injure a human being’ or’ through inaction’ allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.2682

While these rules may guide human planners’ there is no guarantee that extraterrestrial robots will obey the Three Laws or any similar failsafe system. ETs may choose to give their automatons considerably greater freedom of action’ especially if they are the products of "total prosthesis" (biological consciousness transferral). Mechanicals from other worlds designed to perform military’ emergency rescue’ or political functions may require considerably more autonomy than Asimov’s Laws would permit. Terrestrial robotics technology is actually fairly advanced in the area of physical locomotion (Figure 16.4). Human roboticists at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) have constructed an computer-directed automaton with wheels’ two retractible arms’ and a television camera mounted in its "head." The device’ nicknamed "Shakey’" is free to roam about a room strewn with objects of various shapes and sizes. The SRI robot can be programmed to perform specific lifting’ moving and stacking operations. (E.g.’ "Pick up the smallest cube and take it to the doorway."1779)

Figure 16.4 Humanoid Robot-Building Technology: Terrestrial State-of-the-Art Century I Century I is a 2-meter’ 300-kilogram (7-foot’ 650-pound) bullet-proof automated security guard. The $75’000 robot was unveiled at the 1977 annual seminar of the American Society for Industrial Security. The humanoid’s sensors detect movement’ body heat’ or noise and lock onto the source. At speeds up to 30 kph (20 mph)’ Century I closes on its quarry. When it gets within about 3 meters’ it orally instructs the intruder to halt with an imperious voice. If disobeyed’ the robot gets tough. Standard equipment includes an ultrasonic sound transmitter that causes extreme pain in the inner ear. A blinding strobe light’ an electronic pistol that shoots powerful shocks’ and a spray gun filled with laughing gas are also available. While admitting that Century I could be programmed to kill’ Anthony J. Reichelt of Quasar Industries Inc. (Rutherford’ N.J.) added that his firm plans to use only "nonlethal restraint" in its machines. Quasar is also developing a $125’000 Century II robot for the U.S. Army. "Once he’s put on program’" explained inventor Reichelt in regard to the improved model’ "nobody can stop him."2702

Klatu Another product of Quasar Industries’ Klatu is seen as a possible prototype for the first "domestic android." At 1¼ meters tall and 80 kilograms (5 feet’ 180 pounds)’ the robot reputedly may be programmed to accept a wide variety of household chores. According to Reichelt’ president of Quasar’ Klatu can: Vacuum floors’ greet guests and take their coats’ serve drinks and dinner’ guard the house’ walk the dog’ clear dishes from the table’ wash windows’ speak "intelligently" with a 250-word vocabulary’ and play nursemaid to the children and the bedridden. Robotologists and other experts in the scientific community are skeptical. The price -- a cool $4000. 2703

Leachim Grade school students at Public School 106 in the Bronx receive instruction from a robot substitute teacher. The picturesque 1¼-meter’ 90-kilogram (5'5"’ 200-pound) automaton with black plastic arms and legs was created by Dr. Michael Freeman for only $1000. (The legs are motorized’ but the robot is chained to a table for security.) The humanoid’s brain is a computer’ made partly from components cannibalized from an RCA Spectra 70. Leachim has memorized parts of Compton’s Encyclopaedia’ Webster’s New World Dictionary’ a Ginn science book’ a thesaurus and a Macmillan reading series’ as well as the national anthem’ the Pledge of Allegiance’ Aesop’s fables’ a round of jokes’ a few words in Spanish’ and detailed biographical and educational information for each student.2693

The Russian automated lunar rover Lunakhod is a mobile eight-wheeled robot with TV camera eyes’ able to navigate the surface of the Moon. Soviet scientists also are developing a spider-like surface exploratory vehicle that will be able to cross obstacles impassable by wheeled or caterpillar-tracked machines. This device’ now under development at the Leningrad Institute of Aviation Instrument Makers’ has six legs’ a computer "brain’" and a laser eye that scans ahead for trouble.1138 It reportedly can negotiate steep slopes’ stairs’ narrow corridors with sharp turns’ and landscapes littered with stones or fallen trees.2694 Mechanical "feeding" has also been accomplished. Robots have been designed that are capable of searching for "food" and thus of maintaining their own active existence. Dr. W. Grey Walter designed a small electronic turtle in his laboratory in Bristol’ England’ decades ago. Dubbed Machina speculatrix by its creator’ Walter’s "machine lifeforms" each consisted of two tiny radio tubes’ a photoelectric cell and a touch sensor’ motors for crawling and steering’ and a light bulb for "speaking’" all hooked up to a miniature 6-volt storage battery.1783 Each robot exhibited various interesting behaviors. When the battery ran low’ the turtle was programmed to hunt for its "hutch" where it could plug in and recharge.* When placed in front of a mirror’ the device displays a primitive form of self-recognition. An encounter between two mechanical creatures is described by Walter thus: "Each’ attracted by the light the other carries’ extinguishes its own source of attraction’ so the two systems become involved in a mutual oscillation’ leading finally to a stately retreat."2106 Later models were equipped with microphones so they could respond to whistles. More complicated circuitry allowed more variable behavior as well as the ability to "learn."60 With a behavior repertoire attributable to no more than 1000 bits’ the intelligence of Machina speculatrix probably rivals that of the rotifer. The purpose behind Walter’s work was to demonstrate that quite simple machines could fairly well mimic the goal-seeking ability of animals. All the major attributes of life on Earth -- feeding’ metabolizing’ mobility’ response to stimuli and so forth -- can and have been designed into various machines built by humans.1782 We’ve seen that emotions and intellect can be impressed upon artificial structures. There appear to be no real limits to the complexity of organization and behavior that might be displayed by alien robots. Indeed’ extraterrestrial automata may even have the ability to reproduce.85’956 Von Neumann demonstrated during the 1940’s that self-reproducing machines are quite possible in principle.1726 Basically’ the problem is to find the proper parts and to know how to put them together. Von Neumann envisioned a machine that could move around in a special stockroom’ selecting the pieces required to build another machine exactly like itself -- and then doing so. Such a device necessarily consists of two parts: One part to build a duplicate copy’ and another part able to program the duplicate so it can make more copies too. (This is analogous to the distinction between phenotype and genotype in biology.2364) According to one computer scientist’ such a reproducing system could be as small as 150’000 bits of information.1737 A large population of such organisms would constitute an ecology. They will evolve. Wrote von Neumann: If there is a change in the description. . . the system will produce’ not itself’ but a modification of itself. Whether the next generation can produce anything or not depends on where the change is. So’ while this system is exceedingly primitive’ it has the trait of an inheritable mutation’ even to the point that a mutation made at random is most probably lethal’ but may be nonlethal and inheritable.1726 Sentient alien automata thus may be "alive" both in the popular as well as the technical sense.

* Anyone interested in building such a device should consult Huber’s article "Free Roving Machine’" which contains specifications and circuit diagrams for a similar system. 1784 A more ambitious design for a "mechanical pet" may be found in Heiserman’s Build Your Own Working Robot.2683

16.4.3 Machine Evolution Tools have been used on Earth for many millions of years. Baboons use handy sticks to pry up tasty roots and grubs. Thorns are used by birds to probe for insects. Wasp and bee hives are splendid examples of architectural perfection. But each of these represent a static technology. Only with the advent of higher intelligence’ the mind of man’ could tools -- machines -- really begin to improve and evolve. This is not to say that machine evolution must occur among all sentient extraterrestrial races. Consider the well-known Van Loon’s Law’ which states: "The amount of mechanical development will always be in inverse ratio to the number of slaves at a country’s disposal."972 The more slaves that are available to do drudge work’ the slower machines will evolve. The ancient Greeks’ with a population of only five million freemen as against twelve million slaves’ neither needed nor invented any startlingly new labor-saving contrivances. The Romans’ too’ developed no power engines and made few significant improvements in machines or tools. It is said that the emperor Vespasian’ when offered a mechanical device with which to cheapen construction work’ bought the only model and had it destroyed. Still’ we may expect that many ET races will develop machines because they make the business of survival and reproduction easier. Barring technological stasis’ three distinct classes of machine evolution may be clearly identified: Directed Evolution’ Participative Evolution’ and Natural Evolution. Directed Evolution is mechanical development authorized’ planned and executed wholly under the direction of sentient biological lifeforms. As organic beings successively design’ build’ and test improved models of labor saving or data-processing devices’ these machines "evolve." The term is not inappropriate in this context. In the 20th century on Earth we have witnessed the explosive evolution of the automobile’ airplane’ radio’ and digital computer. Each year new models come out. Improvements are added’ troublesome parts deleted or modified. The least versatile or desirable machines become extinct’ while the more adaptive ones survive and spawn new generations. The evolution of terrestrial machines’ directed by man’ is a fact. Elsewhere there must be machines evolving under the guidance of alien minds. Directed Evolution proceeds much faster than normal biological evolution. In just 1000 years’ the tools of man have advanced from axe and shovel to Saturn V moon rockets and 95-ton caterpillar earthmovers. This represents an increase in raw physical power of from four to six orders of magnitude over bare human muscle. Yet Nature required 10-100 million years to achieve comparable results’ when giant dinosaurs evolved from their weaker ancestors during the Mesozoic. Another example: It has taken 300 years for human stablemen to create a diminutive breed of horse that bears remarkable similarity to ancient Eohippus. The partial unraveling of 30 million years of natural evolution in only 300 years of directed evolution is again a factor of about five orders of magnitude. As a rough guess’ then’ we might suppose that Directed Evolution may be anywhere from 104-105 times faster than natural evolution. Marvin Minsky claims it might be as much as a million times faster. This is’ he says’ be cause a sentient race "can combine separate improvements directly’ where nature depends upon fortuitous events of recombination."92 If Directed Evolution is fast’ Participative Evolution must be even faster. Participative Evolution occurs when the sentient biological race turns over its executive functions to an artificial intellect. Further mechanical evolution then occurs at the behest and under the direction of an intelligent computer sentience. We have already seen the benefits of participative evolution in connection with genetic engineering’ as when man takes control of his own evolutionary development. Once flesh-and-blood creators abdicate their directive role’ machines will participate in their own evolution. Dr. N.S. Sutherland’ Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Sussex’ believes it will be easier to engineer a superintelligent machine lifeform than to breed a more powerful biological one. If this turns out to be correct’ alien civilizations may experience what some writers have termed an "intelligence explosion" -- a chain reaction of rapidly increasing intellectual capacity and mental sophistication.1174 Computers on any world’ claims Dr. Sutherland’ could rapidly "bootstrap themselves on the experience of previous computers" to create advanced artificial intelligence almost instantaneously on evolutionary timescales. Such machines may quite literally lie beyond the comprehension of any biological being. Participative Evolution should provide the fastest means for improvement available to any race’ mechanical or biological. As in Directed Evolution’ superior characteristics are accumulated by each successive generation. But since the executive intelligence is also improving by leaps and bounds’ the rate of evolution actually accelerates. We can estimate how fast this will be. In the last century man has begun to use his computers to design new machines as well as other computers. Total memory capacity of terrestrial artificial intelligences has gone from a few thousand bits of information up into the ten terabit range (1013 bits).583 A similar ten-billionfold rise in biological brain capacity -- from primitive animals to man -- has required on the order of one billion years of natural evolution on Earth. So we might guess that Participative Evolution proceeds perhaps 106-107 times faster than Natural Evolution’ or about 100 times faster than Directed Evolution. All of the above is not to imply that technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilizations must all be robotic’ androidic’ or bionic. There may be cultural taboos’ mineral shortages’ or fundamental biological reasons for the lack or slower pace of machine evolution on any given world. ETs may vary widely in their motivational structures’ or may be so adaptive or immortal that they have no need for machines. Still’ we must remain alert to the possibility of advanced alien automata in the context of culture contact. For many extraterrestrial races’ and perhaps our own’ James Wesley’s prediction may prove chillingly accurate: In terms of the 4½ billion years of carbon-based life on Earth’ the advent of machines has been amazingly abrupt. Yet the evolution of machines is subject to the same laws as the evolution of ordinary carbon-based life. Machines have also evolved toward an increased biomass’ increased ecological efficiency’ maximal reproduction rate’ proliferation of species’ motility and a longer life span. Machines’ being a form of life’ are in competition with carbon-based life. Machines will make carbon-based life extinct.1717 Natural Evolution is the third and slowest alternative for the emergence of machine life on other planets. In this case’ automata evolve slowly under the forces of natural selection in an environment favoring their development. The main problem is finding the right environment. Poul Anderson’ a well-known science fiction writer’ has concocted an imaginative scenario that would readily permit natural robot evolution. In his story "Epilogue’" human space travelers return to Earth after a hiatus of three billion years because of unusual relativity effects. They discover to their horror that Earth has been rendered sterile by global war. The planetary ecology is wrecked beyond repair; mankind died out when biology disintegrated around it. The spacemen descend to the surface for one last farewell look’ and discover that the planet is teeming with life: Machine life. "Robot evolution’" Frederika said. "After man was gone’ the machines that were left began to evolve." "Before the Traveler departed’ self-reproducing machines were already in existence. Each had electronic templates which bore full information on its own design. I expect that hard radiation would affect them’ as it affects an organic gene. The {floating sea-mining robot) rafts started making imperfect duplicates. Most were badly designed and foundered. Some’ though’ had advantages. For instance’ they stopped going to shore and hanging about for decades waiting to be unloaded. Eventually some raft was made which had the first primitive ability to get metal from a richer source than the ocean: namely’ from other rafts. Through hundreds of millions of years’ an ecology developed. The land was reconquered. Wholly new types of machine proliferated.982 Machines with the ability to mine and reproduce may be turned loose on purpose by their alien biological creators. Evolving on the home planet or on some foreign world’ these automata would quickly radiate into a multiplicity of machine species under the influence of normal selective forces. However’ there may exist environments which don’t require any initial "pump priming" by a biological race. There might be a few locales in the Galaxy where machine life of some form can arise spontaneously much as carbonbased life did on Earth many eons ago. Electromechanical life may be able to evolve on jovian worlds or at the surface of black dwarf stars. The chemistry of substances at very high pressures is well understood.1177 Many insulators become conductors at pressures above 105 atm. Experiments with metallic hydrogen -- believed to constitute the core of Jupiter -- show that there is a sharp transition in electrical resistivity from 108 down to 102 ohms between 1-3 million atm pressure.2684 Diamond’ silicon dioxide (sand)’ and other common materials have been crushed into the metallic state around 106 atm. Semiconductors such as silicon and germanium collapse into a tin-like material and become electrical conductors under high pressure. Since different materials conduct differently’ an ordered regime of metallized substances may become functional as a kind of primitive electronic intelligence. Evolution of such lifeforms could be possible at or near the Jovian core. Note that this environment will strongly favor machine life over carbon life. Sugar and most other carbohydrates become violently unstable above 50’000 atm’ decomposing explosively to carbon dioxide and water.1177 Another possibility is that beings elsewhere may have evolved with superconductive brains. Polymeric sulfur nitride has been shown to be superconductive a low temperatures’ and strands of this or related materials may comprise the nervous systems of low temperature creatures on other worlds. But extreme coldness may not be required at all. A room temperature solution of the enzyme lysozyme’ when subjected to magnetic fields in excess of 600 gauss’ apparently exhibits distinct regions of superconductivity.2686 And other substances are known to be unidirectional conductors -- a kind of one-dimensional metal. They may have the conductivity of copper in one direction yet are excellent insulators in the other two. According to V.L. Ginzburg of the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow; "It is not science fiction to assume that evolution on some other planet’ evolution by the methods and materials we know’ has given rise to superconducting organisms."22 Still another possible site for the spontaneous natural evolution of machine life might be the surface of a hot planet about the size of Mars at the orbit of Mercury. V.A. Firsoff claims that such a world could not hold on to an Earthly atmosphere for long and would soon shed all lighter gases. All gaseous components with molecular weight less than 30 would be lost. This results in a high-molecular-weight atmosphere’ rich in hydrogen sulfide and’ perhaps’ such oddities as diborane’ silane’ and carbon disulfide. One planetary solvent’ available in limited quantities’ might be a form of phosphorus sulfide. P4S3 is the most stable of these.352 A porous surface and a network of caves are cooked in scalding sunlight. There is no oxygen’ so free silicon is available at the surface in amorphous form.2192 Planetary rotation’ coupled with temperature and pressure gradients’ give rise to violent gales of variable composition. By day’ the hot phosphorus-and arsenic-laden winds whistle through the surface caves which hide the layers of free silicon’ "doping" it with excess electrons. At night the cooler boron-rich atmosphere "drifts" the substrate with electron holes. Arbitrarily fine photosensitized patterns slowly crawl across the cave floors and walls as the sun passes overhead’ due to the changing angles of intense solar radiation filtering through the porous ceiling. Countless random channels of N-doped and P-doped material are slowly carved over the millennia. Caves located near coastlines or on lakeside beaches are periodically flushed with rain and rising tides. Complex electronic "circuits" eventually arise. Photosensitive spots permit this "intelligence" to see. A piezoelectric crystal formation gives it a limited sense of touch. Contact with sunlight generates solar power.2813’2815 After much time has passed’ the intelligence manages to establish "an immense number of dipoles along a polymer thread with regularly spaced charged groups along it" to form a sheet of contractile polymer.2685 (Drops in current across a cell membrane are thought to be able to move certain molecules in the membrane. It’s believed that sodiumion-driven currents help bring about limb regeneration in salamanders and other small amphibians.) Current passed along its length causes it to contract. After sufficient effort’ manipulatory appendages emerge. The geographically-dispersed sentience sets itself the task of constructing a more complex’ compact’ and mobile physical form. Eons old’ a grey-skinned bloodless humanoid lifts its sensors to the night sky and beholds the glory of a billion suns. Back to Contents

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 17. Interstellar Voyaging "Upon a slight conjecture I have ventured on a dangerous journey’ and I already behold the foothills of new lands. Those who’ have the courage to continue the search will set foot upon them...." -- Immanuel Kant (1755) "Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done’ and why. Then do it." -- Lazarus Long’ in Robert Heinlein’s Time Enough for Love (1973)2601 "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible’ he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible’ he is very probably wrong." -- Arthur C. Clarke’ in Profiles of the Future (1962)55 "There was a young lady named Bright’ Who traveled much faster than light’ She started one day In a relative way And returned on the previous night. -- Arthur Buller (1874-1944)’ in Punch’ December 19’ 1923 "Lacombe looked down into its...face. It was changing -- from something embryonic’ unformed’ into a face of something a thousand years old. Suddenly’ Lacombe knew that all the wisdom’ all the superintelligence’ the experience it had to take to build these vehicles’ to travel these dozens of light-years was there in the aging countenance and the...yes’ the smile of this fantastic little creature." -- from Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)2729 "I must down to the seas again’ To the lonely sea and the sky’ And all I ask is a tall ship’ And a star to steer her by..." -- John Masefield (1878-1967)’ in Sea Fever

Many reputable Terran scientists have argued’ or attempted to "prove’" that starflight is impossible or at least grossly unfeasible. (See Asimov’1403 Morrison’2750 Oliver’2749 Opik’2748 Purcell’1024 Simons’2361 and von Hoerner’1025 to name just a few.) However’ in each case the only thing that was proven was that initial assumptions could be chosen to give the appearance of immense difficulty. The fact is that without violating any of the principles of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity’ an astronaut theoretically may travel anywhere in the known universe in less than a century -- faster’ if he can stand the acceleration. Strictly in accordance with the laws of physics as we understand them today’ a physical object may be moved from any point A to any other distant point B in as short a period of time as is desired. If you have the energy’ it’s just a problem in engineering.* As members of an emergent Type I civilization’ we humans exhibit a natural tendency to measure the achievements of the future against the standards of the present and the limitations of the past. Dr. Edward Purcell’ for example’ has calculated that a 10-ton relativistic rocket traveling at 98% the speed of light over a 24 light-year round trip starcourse may require a propulsion system capable of handling 1018 watts of power. Since this is more than a hundred thousand times the current total output of humanity’ such a proposition must be "preposterous"! Concludes Purcell’ winner of the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physics: "All this stuff about traveling around the universe...belongs back where it came from’ on the cereal box." But let us look at this a bit more closely. Is a 1018 watt starship really preposterous? Even an early Type II stellar culture will have 1020 watts at its command. Humanity itself may well achieve this state of affairs just a few hundred years from now. Is it logical to assert that we would begrudge a mere 1% of our total energy output for an interstellar mission? It seems useful to recall that the mighty Saturn V rocket booster that carried twelve American astronauts to the moon developed more than 1011 watts in its power plant -- which represented roughly 2% of humanity’s total annual power output at the time. It’s simply a matter of perspective. To a planetbound’ 1013 watt developing Type I culture such as ours’ a 1018 watt interstellar vehicle appears a fearsome project indeed. But to a 1020 watt early Type II stellar culture’ a mission to the stars will seem no more unreasonable nor expensive than Project Apollo or the Space Shuttle seemed to us. And to a mature Type II civilization (1026 watts)’ the dispatch of a 10-ton starship to neighboring stellar systems will represent the same relative drain on total energy resources as driving a Volkswagen automobile to market represents against the entire planetary power output of Earth.

* A complete bibliography of interstellar travel and communications has been compiled by Dr. Robert L. Forward. 1680 Preliminary programs for interstellar exploration by mankind have been developed by Forward’ 718 Gillfillan’ 2845 Stine’672 and the Project Daedalus Study Group of the British Interplanetary Society. 2953

17.1 Communication vs. Transportation Many scientists who might admit the possibility of starflight nevertheless question it on grounds of necessity. Why’ they ask’ should we or any other sentient race go to the trouble of transporting massive material structures from star to star when information about extraterrestrial intelligences can be gained much more cheaply by listening with radio waves? Indeed’ notes Purcell’ "a 10-word telegram can be transmitted over a 12 light-year path with a dollar’s worth of electrical energy." And ET communications might not be limited to the speed of light’ either. It is well-known that the equations of Special Relativity (and other theories too*) yield solutions for particles that go faster than light. These hypothetical particles’ called "tachyons’" have rest masses represented by "imaginary" numbers. Since no one could see how objects with "imaginary mass" could possibly exist’ the solutions were long ignored. Then’ in 1962’ Drs. O.M.P. Bilaniuk’ V.K. Deshpande’ and E.C.G. Sudarshan of the University of Rochester in New York reexamined the entire question. In their seminal paper "Meta-Relativity" they pointed out that if tachyons were always in motion’ and at speeds perpetually faster than light’ it wouldn’t matter what kind of number represented the mass. What really mattered was that tachyonic energy and momentum be "real" -- which they are. According to the three physicists: In classical mechanics the mass is a parameter which cannot be measured directly even for slow particles. Only energy and momentum’ by virtue of their conservation in interactions’ are measurable’ therefore must be real. Thus the imaginary result for the rest mass of the {tachyon} offends only the traditional way of thinking’ and not observable physics.1515 In recent times scientists have managed partially to resolve many of the apparent causality violations engendered by faster-than-light tachyons. (See especially Antippa and Everett’1495’1477 Bilaniuk and Sudarshan’1516’1517 Feinberg’1492 Harwit’1478 Newton’645 Parmentola and Yee)1493 Recami and Mignani’1511 and Trefil.2026) Several experimentalists are now quietly searching for the controversial and elusive particles in what one describes as "a low key effort."646 Confirmation of the existence of tachyons would have dramatic implications in the field of interstellar communications. Normal matter as we know it’ when propulsive energy is applied’ goes faster. Tachyons’ in contrast’ are expected to speed up as they lose energy. At zero energy they should have infinite velocity’ and be present everywhere (along a Great Circle route) in the physical universe at the same time. (This is called a "transcendental tachyon.") If tachyons exist’ information could be transmitted between stars and even galaxies arbitrarily fast. Any location in the cosmos could remain in direct communicative contact with any other. With such a perfect means of communication’ extraterrestrial races need never leave home and venture out into space. Conversely’ let us imagine a civilization with perfect’ instantaneous transportation. Any location in the physical universe can be reached in the blink of an eye. In such a society there may be no need for communications at all -- it’s quicker just to travel. We see that there is a kind of complementary relationship between travel and communications: The better either is’ the less is the need for the other.81 There is’ however’ one very critical difference. A single party may engage in travel’ but it takes two parties to communicate. If alien societies are to talk’ both communicants and recipients must exist. Yet either can launch an interstellar exploratory mission without any knowledge of the other. Furthermore’ if extraterrestrial cultures are to communicate’ each must make a series of correct assumptions about the motivations’ psychologies’ and technologies of the others in order to be successful. Interstellar exploration by starship’ on the other hand’ requires no such ad hoc assumptions to succeed. There are many other reasons why xenologists have concluded that interstellar travel is the preferred mode for first contact and galactic unification. Communication by radio does not permit contact between an advanced society and one that is intelligent but is not in possession of electronic technology. Such a culture need not necessarily be "unlikely to be of interest to us" as asserted by some radioastronomers. Aliens without radio may have other forms of technology -- biological’ chemical’ social’ economic -- that would be fascinating to observe and yet do not involve electromagnetic radiation. As Arthur C. Clarke says’ only starflight makes it possible "to gain knowledge of star systems which lack garrulous’ radio-equipped inhabitants."2731 Interstellar travel also would allow the exchange of artifacts and biological specimens’ direct observation of a multitude of independent biologies and societies’ and the making of symbolic gestures of sociopolitical and cultural community. The sciences of astronomy and astrophysics would prosper. Direct astronomical samplings of stars in various stages of evolution’ distant planetary systems’ ancient globular clusters’ and interstellar gas clouds could be made. Cooperative scientific ventures could be undertaken with other races’ such as performing trigonometric parallax experiments on extremely distant objects. And direct contact is probably the most effective way to achieve a meeting of minds between beings with utterly different histories and ways of thought.1317

* In one mathematical model of particle motion in a special five-dimensional space-time’ velocities as high as 1021 times the speed of light appear possible. 2893

17.2 Relativistic Starflight Alien and human astronauts alike must conform to the dictates of Relativity when traveling at velocities near the speed of light. Einstein’s theory’ generally accepted today by the scientific community’ predicts a host of fascinating consequences of near-lightspeed voyages. First’ we should briefly mention some of the jargon commonly employed by physicists and writers in this field. Relativity predicts that no material object can be accelerated up to the speed of light without an expenditure of an infinite amount of energy. Since the entire universe contains only 1081 joules of energy’ attaining the speed of light becomes a practical impossibility. The velocity of light’ designated as "c"’ thus is a kind of "cosmic speed limit" imposed on all material objects within the physical universe. (Other jargon for c includes "100 psol" or percent-speed-of-light’ and "Mike 1.0" after Dr. Albert A. Michelson.) Velocities below c are referred to as "suboptic" or "subluminal"; those faster than light are called "FTL’" "hyperoptic" or "superluminal." The speed of light itself is "optic velocity." Now back to the fascinating consequences. According to Relativity theory’ time passes more slowly at near-optic velocities than at low suboptic ones. This apparent breach of common sense is traditionally presented in the form of a paradox. Imagine twin brothers A and B. A becomes an astronaut and flies away in a relativistic starcraft capable of a peak velocity of 98%c. B stays behind on Earth. A travels 12 light-years out into space’ and then 12 light-years back to Earth. Because A has been moving slower than light’ B must wait a total of 28 years for his return. B is thus 28 years older than his age when the brothers parted. But when he meets A in the Debarkation Area’ A has only aged 10 years. A is 18 years younger than his identical twin. This unusual consequence of near-optic flight’ often called the Twin Paradox’ has been confirmed indirectly by scores of experiments over the past half-century. There is little doubt in the minds of most physicists that the Paradox is a correct prediction of the consequences of traveling close to the speed of light. The contraction of time at high velocities is known as the phenomenon of time dilation. The frame of reference of the observer is of critical significance here. Those observers who remain at rest with respect to the universe at large (such as the twin who stays on Earth) will always observe a relativistic starcraft to travel at suboptic velocities. But to the astronauts on board the spaceship’ the contraction of distance between the points of origin and destination (another peculiar consequence of Relativity theory) will make the trip seem shorter. They will’ from their frame of reference’ actually be moving at a faster apparent velocity than that perceived by stationary observers (say’ back on Earth). In fact’ when the starship reaches exactly 70.7%c as measured by stationary observers’ the astronauts calculate their own effective velocity as 100%c! As acceleration continues still further’ shipboard-determined speed increases to seemingly hyperoptic velocities (which Earthbound observers still see as suboptic from their frame of reference). What does all this mean in plain English? Simply this: An astronaut’ provided his starcraft has sufficient energy’ can effectively travel faster than the speed of light relative to a stationary frame of reference! (See Table 17.1 for details.)

Table 17.1 Effective FTL Starflight Using Relativity Theory Energy Effective Starship Energy Required Velocity Velocity Required Effective Velocity Starship Velocity for a 100- Calculated Perceived for a 100Calculated by Perceived by ton by By Stationary ton Astronauts Stationary Observers Starship Astronauts Observers Starship (joules)

(joules)

1% c

1.0 % c 4.5 x 1017

10 c 99.5% c

8.1 x 1022

10% c

9.95% c 4.5 x 1019

20 c 99.88% c

1.7 x 1023

20% c

19.6 % c 1.8 x 1020

50 c 99.98% c

4.4 x 1023

50% c

44.7 % c 1.1 x 1021

100 c 99.995% c

8.9 x 1023

100% c

70.7 % c 3.7 x 1021

1’000 c 99.99995% c

9.0 x 1024

2c

89.4 % c 1.1 x 1022

10’000 c 99.9999995% c 9.0 x 1025

5c

98.1 % c 3.7 x 1022

100’000 c 99.999999995% 9.0 x 1026 c

Time dilation permits very long journeys within a single human lifetime. Consider a starship that accelerates uniformly to the midpoint of the trip and then decelerates uniformly at the same rate the rest of the way to the destination -- called the Standard Flight Plan. With an acceleration of 1 gee -- appropriate for inhabitants of terrestrial worlds similar to Earth -- only a few years of ship-time are required to reach the nearest stars. (See Table 17.2.) Only 21 years are spent reaching the Galactic Core’ and in 28 years of shipboard time the intrepid explorers can visit Galaxy Andromeda in person. Since Andromeda is about 1.7 million light-years distant’ this works out to a mean effective velocity of 61’000 times the speed of light. Of course’ there is no time dilation on the home planet -- since it went nowhere. If our intergalactic astronauts turned around at Andromeda and immediately returned to Earth’ they would have aged a total of 56 years. The Earth and all of its inhabitants’ however’ would have aged 3.4 million years. This is a "twin paradox" with a vengeance!

Table 17.2 Duration of Interstellar Travels, Using a Standard Flight Plan at One Gee Acceleration Trip Duration Ship Time

Trip Duration Home Planet Time

Distance Traveled From Home Planet

(years)

(years)

(light-years)*

1

2.2

0.26

47.2%c

2

4.8

1.12

77.3%c

5

21.

10.8

98.8%c

10

200

1.63 x 102

99.9931%c

15

2300

2.15 x 103

99.999959%c

20

28’000

2.8 x 104

(1 - 2.4 x 10-9)c

25

370’000

3.7 x 105

(1 - 1.4 x 10-11)c

30

4’800’000

4.8 x 106

(1 - 8.4 x 10-14)c

35

62’000’000

6.2 x 107

(1- 4.9 x 10-16)c

40

810’000’000

8.1 x 108

(1 - 2.4 x 10-18)c

45

11’000’000’000

1.1 x 1010

(1 - 1.7 x 10-20)c

50

140’000’000’000

1.4 x 1011

(1 - 1.0 x 10-22)c

* S= (2c2/a)•(cosh(at/2c) - 1)’ where ** V= (1

Peak Ship Velocity Home Planet Reference Frame**

- (1 ‘ aS/2c2)-2)½c.

a is acceleration (m/sec2)’ t is time (sec)’ S is distance (m)’ and c is speed of light.

When science fiction writers and others speak of "FTL" they are usually referring to true (rather than "effective") FTL -- that is’ faster-than-light travel from the point of view of both astronauts and stay-at-homers. We shall discuss the theoretical possibility of true FTL later in this chapter. But for now it is important only to realize that Relativity does permit effectively hyperoptic interstellar journeying’ at least from the standpoint of an astronaut setting forth to explore the universe. This fact is highlighted by the data shown in Table 17.3 on the following page. It is assumed that an astronaut wishes to travel a certain distance out into space’ but he doesn’t want to use up more than 10 years of his life in getting there. Table 17.3 lists the starship accelerations that must be sustained throughout the entire trip in order to arrive at a destination at the specified distance within exactly one decade as measured on the astronaut’s own wristwatch. A Standard Flight Plan is assumed.

Table 17.3 Acceleration Required to Complete Journey in One Decade Shipboard Time, Using Standard Flight Plan Acceleration to Reach Destination Years in 10 Shipboard Years

Destination Distance

Acceleration to Reach Destination in 10 Shipboard Years

Destination Distance

(light-years)

(light-years)

101

0.32 gees

106

2.9 gees

102

0.88 gees

107

3.4 gees

103

1.4 gees

108

3.9 gees

104

1.9 gees

109

4.3 gees

105

2.4 gees

1010

4.8 gees

Note that any point in our Milky Way galaxy can be reached in ten years of shipboard time’ at accelerations tolerable to human beings for long periods of time. Accelerations of 2-4 gees’ perhaps sustainable by inhabitants of jovian or heavy subjovian worlds’ or by bioneered former inhabitants of terrestrial worlds’ would put the entire known universe within 10 years’ reach’ Naturally’ the faster a starship is pushed the more energy is required. The levels of power expenditure needed to achieve the benefits of relativistic time dilation are enormous by today’s standards’ even for fairly small vehicles. (See Table 17.1.) But as we shall see presently’ this by no means bars interstellar or intergalactic commerce. Indeed’ such commerce should be commonplace among Type II and Type III civilizations. Let us consider three illustrative classes of starflight missions: 1. Interstellar personnel transport; 2. Intergalactic personnel transport; and 3. Intergalactic cargo transport. Too many writers have succumbed to the Fallacy of the Big and the Costly. That is’ if it’s big and it costs a lot’ it must be impossible. The Fallacy lies in the simple observation that what seems big and costly to one culture may be negligible and cheap to another. The relative costs of missions to the stars may perhaps best be appreciated by a comparison with the familiar. Humanity has launched about ten Saturn V rocket boosters to date. Each of these blustering behemoths developed 1.3 x 1011 watts of power for about 150 seconds each. This is the equivalent of harnessing the entire human energy output for exactly 4 seconds. Keep this quantity in mind as we work through the following examples: One Saturn V equals 4 seconds of humanity’s aggregate power output. First we consider the interstellar personnel transport mission. We assume a flight distance of 100 light-years’ appropriate for short hops between neighboring Type II civilizations. To make things comfortable for the pilots and passengers’ we further assume a Standard Flight Plan at a constant 1 gee acceleration. Using the equations of Special Relativity’ total trip time works out to a mere 9 years. How much energy is required? If we take the mass of the vessel to equal that of the Starship Enterprise of original-series Star Trek fame (190’000 metric tons)’ then about 9 x 1026 joules of energy are required for the mission. A mature Type II civilization’ having 1026 watts (joules/sec) at its disposal’ should have no trouble with this at all. The interstellar personnel transport mission uses only nine seconds of the culture’s total power output’ a feat equivalent in stature to the launching of two Saturn V rockets by modern human engineers. For a Type III civilization’ this mission is inordinately trivial. In fact’ roughly 44 billion such starliner missions could be dispatched if only 4 seconds of the galactic society’s aggregate energy output were utilized -- a feat comparable to the launching of a single Saturn V from Earth today. What about our second class of starflight mission -- the intergalactic personnel transport? These are somewhat more difficult’ probably well out of reach of a lone Type II civilization. Again’ using a Standard Flight Plan at 1 gee acceleration to keep crew and passengers at ease’ a trip of 1.7 million light-years to Galaxy Andromeda (the nearest giant spiral) would require only 28 years shipboard time. Approximately 1.5 x 1031 joules would be consumed making the journey. Such a mission would tax the resources of Type II culture to the breaking point. More than 41 hours of the stellar society’s power output would be needed to launch a single intergalactic starliner’ a feat analogous to the firing of 38’000 Saturn V’s by present-day humankind. Such an enormous sacrifice and commitment of resources would require some overwhelmingly compelling purpose to justify it. For a mature Type III galactic civilization with 1037 watts under its control’ however’ the intergalactic personnel transport mission would again prove utterly trivial. Such a culture could launch more than 2.5 million such sorties to Galaxy Andromeda for a mere 4 seconds’ worth of its total power output -- again’ a feat comparable to our launching a single Saturn V rocket. Finally’ we consider the case of the intergalactic cargo transport mission. Since these ships can be unmanned’ far higher accelerations may be tolerable. We assume a robotcontrolled’ 190’000-metric-ton cargo ship’ dispatched to Andromeda at an acceleration of 106 gees (probably the upper limit for normal physical materials) on a Standard Flight Plan. Fortunately’ the shipboard time of flight is only 1724 seconds’ a bit under half an hour’ so the ship and its contents are subject to extreme forces only for a very brief period of time. A total of 1.5 x 1037 joules are required for the mission’ about 1½ seconds of the aggregate power output of a galactic culture. To a Type III civilization’ the launching of two such high-acceleration cargo vessels requires a resource commitment equivalent to the launching of one Saturn V by human technologists. So we see that galactic and intergalactic commerce and tourism are very real possibilities for advanced extraterrestrial societies. The dispatch of an interstellar personnel carrier by a Type II culture’ or a high-acceleration intergalactic cargo transport vehicle by a Type III culture’ represents about the same allocation of energy and resources as the launching of a Saturn V rocket by human Type I civilization.

17.3 Conventional Interstellar Propulsion Systems Three fundamental requirements must be satisfied if starflight is to be considered plausible for alien or human civilizations. First’ the kinematics must be right. Second’ the energy available for the mission must be sufficient. Third’ there must exist an astronautic technology capable of performing the requisite kinematics using the available energy. In the preceding section we saw that the kinematic and energetic requirements are satisfied by Type II and Type III civilizations operating within the bounds of Einsteinian Relativity theory. For the remainder of this chapter the third requirement is examined in more detail -- the technological aspects of interstellar voyaging. Consider the nature of technical progress. There is an orderly progression from the emergence of new ideas’ further research and development’ then finally a reduction to practice and economic exploitation. Thus’ the realization of new technology normally proceeds in four stages: 1. IDEA -- the basic philosophical idea’ discovery of a new physical law’ a new branch of mathematics’ a new possibility within the existing framework of science. (See Hogan2916 for an excellent example of this in science fiction.) 2. THEORY -- development of the mathematical/physical theoretical framework which ties the new idea to other known phenomena. 3. PRACTICE -- research and engineering; building a device which utilizes the new idea in its manufacture or operation. 4. PROFIT -- social’ political’ and economic acceptance and exploitation; who pays for it’ is it worth the effort’ who will benefit’ etc.? Matching this progression against current human achievements’ we find that radio’ television’ computers’ automobiles’ and chemical rockets all have arrived at the profit stage here on Earth. Such advanced technologies as nuclear power planets’ SSTs’ and fission propulsion rockets are at the practice stage’ awaiting full societal and economic commitment to move them into the profit stage. Laser fusion and satellite solar power stations are presently in transition from theory to practice. The five conventional interstellar propulsion systems described in this section are all at the theory stage in human technological development. Each has received sufficient study to tell us that they have the basic physical and energetic feasibility to be considered for missions to the stars. All retain a number of technical uncertainties which will require significant engineering effort to overcome. Nevertheless’ xenologists expect that all five propulsion systems are likely to advance at least to the practice stage within a century or less on this planet. So it is likely that these same systems also accurately represent the interstellar transport technologies of many extraterrestrial sentient races in the universe. A sixth conventional interstellar propulsion system employing paired high-energy mass drivers for efficiently transporting massive cargoes between distant stars is briefly described in Section 21.4.1.

17.3.1 Nuclear Pulse Propulsion In the 19th century Hermann Ganswindt proposed the use of a series of gun powder charges behind a vessel to propel it into space.2762 The concept of nuclear pulse propulsion’ the modern extension of this basic idea’ was developed under USAF contract at Gulf General Atomic during the years 1958-1965. Dubbed "Project Orion" by the scientists who worked on it’ the system operates by tossing out a nuclear bomb’ exploding it astern of the ship’ and absorbing part of the momentum of the resulting debris. The rocket thus consists of at least five distinct parts: An hemispheric ablation shield or "pusher plate’" an enormous shock absorber’ a mechanism for ejecting the bombs’ the bomb magazine’ and finally the payload at the front end. Small test models using steel pusher plates and TNT charges were successfully flown during the experimental phase of Project Orion’ but the work was shelved after the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty entered into force late in 1963. (The Treaty prohibits the explosion of nuclear devices in the atmosphere or in space.) Freeman J. Dyson of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton’ New Jersey’ who worked on Project Orion’ described a prototype model of a space vehicle utilizing the principle of nuclear pulse propulsion.476 His "Ablation Space Ship" has a total mass of 400’000 metric tons’ consisting of 300’000 tons of one-megaton H-bombs (weighing 1000 kg each)’ 50’000 tons of structure and payload’ and 50’000 tons of ablation shield. The pusher plate construction is such that about 30 meters/second forward velocity are imparted to the vessel with each explosion. A smooth 1-gee acceleration is maintained by the detonation of one bomb every three seconds’ which requires a shock absorber stroke length of about 75 meters (Figure 17.1).

Figure 17.1 Project Orion (from Dyson478)

Dyson’s nuclear pulse vehicle exhausts its bomb supply in ten days’ having reached a final velocity of 10’000 km/sec (about 3.3%c). The flight time from Earth to Proxima Centauri would then be 130 years for a simple flyby mission. For an encounter-capture mission the payload must be decelerated at the target’ which more than doubles the time of flight for a vehicle of this size.

Figure 17.2 Nuclear Pulse Vehicle (from Forward718,2812)

More efficient variants of the nuclear pulse technique have been suggested in recent times (Figure 17.2)’ particularly the idea of igniting tiny deuterium pellets instead of huge bombs behind the ship. Ignition would be achieved using pulsed laser beam fusion2751’2752 or heavy ion or electron beam fusion.2764 This latter technique has been selected for use in the Daedalus starprobe’ an interstellar vehicle designed as part of a feasibility study sponsored by the British Interplanetary Society during 1975-1977.2953 In the Daedalus system’ a 54’000-ton craft is propelled up to 12%c using a stream of frozen deuterium/helium-3 pellets which are zapped by a megavolt electron gun 250 times a second. The designers claim that the probe should be able to reach Proxima Centauri in 35 years with a 500-ton payload.2761

17.3.2 Controlled Fusion Rocket Another highly promising starship propulsion system is the technique of using a controlled’ continuous thermonuclear fusion reaction as the main power source. Because of the tremendous temperatures involved (upwards of 10’000’000 K)’ no known material can physically contain a fusion reaction. Magnetic fields therefore must be used to contain’ compress’ and heat the plasma fusion fuel (hydrogen’ deuterium’ tritium’ etc.). Scientists are currently engaged in designing and testing various "magnetic bottle" configurations strong enough to hold such an energetic plasma’ in connection with electrical power generation at major fusion research facilities around the world. The biggest problem is to make the magnetic bottle leakproof enough so that fusion reactions occur in sufficient abundance for the process to become selfsustaining. In terms of propulsion’ however’ a leaky bottle is exactly what is required. Hot plasma’ energized by fusion energy’ streams rapidly from the site of the "leak" and produces the desired rocket thrust. According to Dr. Robert L. Forward’ Senior Scientist at Hughes Research Laboratories’ a deuterium fusion rocket capable of a steady 1-gee acceleration and consisting 90% of fuel (by mass) could reach a final velocity of 10%c.718 This would mean a travel time to Proxima Centauri of 45 years. Theoretically’ a fusionpowered starship could be fueled by hydrogen isotopes drained from the atmosphere of Jupiter or from the icy rings of Saturn’ and writer Alan Bond has estimated that a 10 light-year mission could be completed in 60 years.1159 One major problem to be overcome from a practical standpoint is to learn how to deal with the various forms of energy released by a fusion engine. Only about 20% of the energy liberated by nuclear reactions appears as kinetic energy -- direct propulsive thrust -- in the leaking plasma stream. Ten percent is thrown off as heat and ultraviolet radiation’ but the lion’s share (70%) is released as X-rays. G.L. Matloff and H.H. Chiu have suggested that this energy may be reclaimed by using an auxiliary laser thruster surrounding the fusion reaction chamber.2754 Waste X-rays’ absorbed by’ say’ xenon-doped gas in the laser’ are converted into a collimated light beam which serves as a photon thruster.*

* A wide variety of related but "futuristic" propulsive energy systems may be possible. These may include condensed cold neutron reactions’ pion fusion (which has been demonstrated experimentally)’ muon catalysis fusion’ 2737 Hawking black hole induced fusion’ 1947 and compact monopole fusor and energy storage devices or magnetic monopole metamatter. 1224 Fission rockets are not ruled out’ 2758 and high-energy superpropellants such as monatomic hydrogen’ metallic hydrogen’ 2684 cryogenic metastable triplet helium (stores 0.5 megajoule/gram) may be available. 2736

17.3.3 Interstellar Ramjet The interstellar ramjet’ first proposed by Dr. Robert W. Bussard at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in 1960’ is a propulsion system which acquires energy and reaction mass from the surrounding medium.2766 Using some combination of electric and magnetic fields’ the ramjet scoops up ionized interstellar gases to fuel its fusion rockets. This eliminates the need to carry large masses of fuel on board. Conventional chemical or nuclear rockets must be used to accelerate the starrammer up to about l-5%c’ the threshold velocity at which the ramscoop mechanism becomes reasonably efficient. The forward scoop would be immense (Figure 17.3). Bussard originally calculated that a 1000-ton vehicle would require a funnel diameter of 3600 kilometers to achieve a one-gee acceleration in normal interstellar space (~1 H-atom/cm3). In regions of dense hydrogen clouds’ with perhaps 103 atoms/cm3’ the ramscoop diameter could be as small as 120 kilometers. Theoretically’ the acceleration could be maintained indefinitely’ making possible the circumnavigation of the entire universe in less than a human lifetime.2755

Figure 17.3 Bussard Interstellar Ramjet2812

Such monstrous scoops’ of course’ need not be constructed of physical materials. Most probably electromagnetic fields will suffice. To generate such fields’ A.J. Fennelly of Yeshiva University and G.L. Matloff of the Polytechnic Institute of New York proposed in 1974 an annular copper cylinder coated with a layer of superconducting tin-niobium alloy (Nb3Sn).1454 The device would be rather modest in size (as starships go)’ measuring 400 meters in length and 800 meters in

diameter. Energized with electrical current’ an electromagnetic scoop with an effective diameter of 104 kilometers would be generated. For braking at the destination’ a drogue chute made of boron (noted for its high melting point) about 10 km in diameter is recommended. (An electrically charged wire mesh would give sufficient drag without being destroyed by erosion.1066’1061) As if to underscore the tremendous engineering difficulties involved in scoop design’ Fennelly and Matloff announced in 1976 their original device was simplistic and probably would not work: It is not possible’ we have found’ to design such a scoop. The {forces} induced. . . stress a scoop beyond the elastic limit of the substrate material and shear the superconductor to such an extent that it will be driven to a normally resistive state’ with a subsequent catastrophe from the almost instantaneous Joule heating.1615

Nevertheless’ assert the authors gamely’ "we have hope that further analysis will lead to feasible scoop designs with some type of electromagnetic field to give a large scoop effective radius." It is now believed that a mixed electrostatic/electromagnetic field design will give the best results. (See Matloff’2759 Matloff and Fennelly’2766 and Powell.2760) By adding "wings" to the starrammer’ travel times may be cut in half.2782 Explains one writer: The wings are two great superconducting batteries’ each a kilometer square. Cutting the lines of the galactic magnetic field’ they generate voltages which can be tapped for exhaust acceleration’ for magnetic bottle containers for the power reaction’ and for inboard electricity. With thrust shut off’ they act as auxiliary brakes’ much shortening the deceleration period. When power is drawn at different rates on either side’ they provide maneuverability -majestically slow’ but sufficient -- almost as if they were huge oars.2180 The Bussard ramjet is perhaps the most intensively scrutinized potential interstellar propulsion system. As a result’ scientists are beginning to call attention to collateral problems involved in the design and operation of ramscoop vehicles.1155 One objection voiced by John Fishback in 1969 is fundamental.1461 He points out that the section of the starship which contains the sources of the magnetic scoop fields must be strong enough to withstand the forces generated by those fields. As the starcraft goes faster and faster’ the required field strengths also increase. Since materials are limited by their maximum tensile strength’ at some point the acceleration of the vehicle will have to be reduced to avoid the breakdown of its structure caused by the pressure of magnetic forces.1462 For realistic building materials’ this cut-off velocity at which further acceleration must be drastically curtailed occurs at about 99.999998%c. This is high enough to be of no practical significance for galactic travel at 1 gee’ but may prove restrictive for higher acceleration rammers or for starships on intergalactic missions. Another major difficulty’ noted by Bussard and many others since’ is that the proton-proton nuclear reaction is a poor candidate for fusion rockets. Most of the gas likely to be scooped up by the interstellar ramjet will be ordinary hydrogen’ and hydrogen is very finicky when it comes to fusion. Deuterium reactions have a crosssection roughly twenty orders of magnitude greater’ but this heavy isotope of hydrogen is relatively rare in the interstellar medium. Recently’ Daniel P. Whitmire has suggested the concept of a catalytic nuclear ramjet to overcome this problem.1471 In Whitmire’s scheme’ the starship would carry on board a supply of "nuclear catalyst" consisting of carbon’ nitrogen’ and oxygen atoms. This fuel additive should catalyze a vastly in creased reaction rate among ordinary hydrogen atoms without itself being consumed. Calculations indicate that this technique will yield a rate of fusion more reasonable from the standpoint of interstellar missions. For this scheme to succeed’ of course’ a workable heavy ion fusion reactor must be developed’ but’ in Whitmire’s words’ "the difficulty seems to be of a technological rather than fundamental nature." (He also proposes the use of a bank of forward lasers to ionize neutral atoms approaching the rammer’s maw’ thus greatly increasing the reaction mass available for the starship’s engines.) An interesting hybrid variation of the basic ramscoop technique involves a vessel that carries its own nuclear fuel supply and exhausts the reaction products for thrust’ much like a conventional fusion rocket. However’ this Ram Augmented Interstellar Ramjet’ or RAIR as Alan Bond of the British Aircraft Corporation calls his device’ enhances its performance by scooping up atoms from the interstellar medium and using them as reaction mass rather than for energy generation.1455 In other words’ fusion fuel is carried by the spaceship and additional reaction mass is collected from gas clouds through which the vessel passes. Preliminary calculations show that the RAIR design may save at least an order of magnitude of fuel savings at speeds up to 50%c’ and as much as two orders of magnitude of fuel savings up to 70%c. Performance characteristics of RAIR starships have been worked out by Bond1455 and Powell.1117’1115’2769 Two other fascinating variations on the interstellar ramjet have been proposed by Whitmire and A.A. Jackson IV.2733 The first of these is called the Fusion Ramjet Runway. Micron-sized frozen deuterium pellets are accelerated electrostatically or electromagnetically out into space several years prior to the launching of a standard Bussard ramjet having a comparatively small scoop cross-section (perhaps it would be just a simple physical structure’ such as a giant funnel). The starrammer could then collect a more concentrated fuel en route simply by staying on the "runway." The other suggestion’ rather bizarre and considerably less likely’ is the Stellar Ramjet. This vehicle accelerates up to near-optic velocity across the photosphere of a star. Whitmire and Jackson propose that the envelope of a red giant or a large protostar would be ideal for this technique. Accelerative forces would be large but not prohibitive’ and biological crews should survive if they are somehow immobilized or "frozen" during the starship’s relatively brief period of acceleration.

17.3.4 Beamed Power Laser Propulsion We have seen that it may be best to use an external source of energy to achieve near-optic speeds. The interstellar ramjet discussed above is a good example of this technique. Another possibility is the Laser Pushed Vehicle’ or LPV.122’2767 The LPV obtains its energy and momentum from a solar-system-based laser network which pushes the ship by photon reflection from an onboard mirror. Calculations indicate that a power of roughly 1014 watts delivered to a 100-ton starship should be sufficient to impart a one-gee acceleration to the craft. Focusing would be of critical importance’ and it may turn out that only x-rays will have a small enough wavelength/diameter ratio to forestall gross energy wastage. Upon arrival at a destination’ LPV deceleration is effected in reverse fashion with the active assistance of the receiving civilization.22 What if there is no receiving civilization? Is the Laser Pushed Vehicle strictly limited to one-way flyby missions of exploration? The answer’ apparently’ is no. According to Philip Norem’ a space-based laser system could be used to accelerate a starprobe up to relativistic velocities. After a while’ the craft extends long wires and charges them up to high voltage. These would interact with the Galactic magnetic field’ swinging the LPV around in a slow’ giant arc (Figure 17.4). The course is chosen to aim back through the target star system’ but on a general heading towards Earth. The wires are discharged and reeled in; the orbital laser network is turned on again’ this time functioning to decelerate the starcraft.2756

Figure 17.4 Beamed Power Propulsion Laser-Pushed Vehicle718

Very large space-based laser arrays would be required to carry out such a mission’ perhaps as big as 250 kilometers in diameter. These should be parked in close solar orbit’ drawing their power directly from the high solar flux available there. For maximum efficiency’ the LPV’s mirrored "sail" should be of a size comparable to that of the laser array -- perhaps 250 km wide’ weighing thousands of tons even if it is very thin. Surprisingly’ the laser array energy flux need not be very high to push a vehicle to relativistic speeds. Typically the beam should be no more powerful than ordinary sunlight. A proposed hybrid system combines the best qualities of the interstellar ramjet and the laser pushed vehicle and avoids many of their disadvantages. Called the Laser Powered Ramjet’ or LPR’ the starcraft obtains its power from a space-based laser network and its reaction mass from the interstellar medium using an electromagnetic ramscoop. The propulsion system is greatly simplified because the LPR does not require an onboard hydrogen-burning fusion reactor motor -since all power is furnished by laser beam. Calculations suggests that the LPR may be superior to the LPV under virtually all conditions. It should also outperform the Bussard ramjet at speeds below 14%c during the acceleration phase and at all speeds during the deceleration phase of the mission.2733 Whitmire and Jackson propose two additional alternative propulsion systems that appear promising. The first of these is the Laser Powered Rocket’ which differs from the LPR because it carries along its own reaction mass onboard instead of gathering it from the interstellar medium. Extraordinary energy efficiency may be possible because the exhaust velocity is controllable.2733 The second possibility may be called the Particle Powered Ramjet’ which obtains its reaction mass’ its fuel’ or both from space-based particle accelerators: After acceleration’ the particles could be neutralized by the addition of electrons or positrons to avoid coulomb spreading of the beam. The neutral particle current required would be relatively modest -- for antimatter’ about 105 amps to produce 1014 watts on board at low velocities. The problem seems to be collimation since there is no particle analogue to the laser.2733

17.3.5 Total Conversion Drives The basic idea of using antimatter to power starships has been discussed in the technical and fictional literature for many decades. The most common system is the "photon drive"*: Simply bring together equal quantities of matter and antimatter’ allow annihilation or "total conversion" to take place’ and then convert the products to useful thrust. Gamma rays as well as high energy electrons and positrons are thrown off’ but about half of the energy liberated is in the form of neutrinos which escape isotropically and are wasted. The usual antimatter propulsion scheme thus amounts to no more than "partial conversion" with an efficiency well below 50%. Better results may perhaps be obtained by using cold or "frozen" positronium gas as fuel. Positronium consists of pseudo-atoms in which a negatively charged electron orbits a positively charged positron (the electron’s antiparticle) -- this has been observed experimentally. As the fuel is warmed’ electron and positron annihilate’ producing a pure beam of gamma radiation. Eugene Sänger proposes using an electron gas reflector to focus and direct the photonic jet.2840 Alan Bond estimates that a million-ton starship with a mass ratio (fueled/unfueled’ by weight) of 7.4 and an acceleration of one gee could reach 60%c.1159 Dr. D.D. Papailiou at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena claims that for missions to nearby stars optic exhaust velocities are not necessary. A far more efficient technique is to use a small amount of antimatter to energize a large amount of ordinary matter. Preliminary calculations by Papailiou show that a mass ratio of 5.0 and a 2% charge of antimatter (by weight) is optimal to achieve a probe coast velocity of 33%c.2757 So if we wanted to launch a 10-ton starship on an encounter-capture mission’ we must built a top stage of 51 tons -- the 10-ton probe’ 40 tons of ordinary matter’ and 1 ton of antimatter -- to obtain a mass ratio of 5. This stage serves to decelerate the probe at its destination. To get it there’ we will need a 205-ton bottom stage -200 tons of ordinary matter and 5 tons of antimatter -- in order to accelerate the top stage up to 33%c. Delivery of a 10-ton space probe with a coasting speed of 33%c to another star system thus requires a total ship mass of about 256 tons’ of which 6 tons are antimatter. A related scheme is the Antimatter Ramjet’ which gathers normal matter in the forward scoop primarily as reaction mass. In a manner similar to Papailiou’s antimatter drive outlined above’ interstellar matter would be commingled with bits of antimatter stored onboard. In this case the probe need only carry the requisite 6 tons of antimatter fuel when it leaves the planet of origin (perhaps stored in the form of frozen antihydrogen maintained a few degrees above absolute zero)’ and can pick up the remaining 240 tons of ordinary matter en route to its destination. Many physicists object to the feasibility of total conversion drives such as those mentioned above because of the difficulty today of generating macroscopic quantities of antimatter. But the problems of creation and control should not prove insuperable. Writes Dr. Forward: The present methods for producing antimatter involve the use of large accelerators which can produce a proton beam of 1015 protons per second. When such a beam collides with a target’ antiprotons are produced as part of the debris. The antiproton yield of present machines is very low. However’ the presently used methods are not designed for antimatter production but rather for studies in the physics of elementary particles. Rough calculations assuming special purpose high amperage colliding beam accelerators indicate that the generation of kilograms of antimatter per year is not out of the question. The containment and control of the antimatter’ once made’ should not be too difficult since we have a number of ways of applying forces to the antimatter without touching it. Electric fields’ magnetic fields’ rf fields and laser beams are all used in present day technology to levitate and control small amounts of regular matter that we do not want to contaminate. These would all be equally effective on antimatter.718 Another considerably more speculative total conversion system involves so-called Hawking Black Holes (HBHs). According to Dr. Stephen H. Hawking at the University of Cambridge’ all black holes (if any exist) radiate energy due to quantum mechanical "tunneling" effects. This is equivalent to mass loss’ so eventually the entire corpus of the black hole "evaporates." A stellar-mass BH is very "cold" -- in fact’ close to absolute zero -- but a low-mass HBH is extremely "hot" and prone to explosive evaporation.2021 For instance’ a million-ton HBH should radiate about 1018 watts at a temperature of about 1015 K’ and will take about one year to finish evaporating.

Table 17.4 Black Hole Power Generation and the Spontaneous Evaporation of Hawking Black Holes Mass of Hawking Black Hole

Lifetime Without Being Fed

Mass Required in "Diet" to Preclude Evaporation of Hawking Black Hole

(kilograms) (years)

Hole Radius Temp. (meters)

Spontaneous Power Output

(K)

(watts)

1014

1015

1.8 pg/second 1.5 x 10-

1010

1.6 x 108

1013

1012

0.18 mg/second 1.5 x 10-

1011

1.6 x 1010

1012

109

18. mg/second 1.5 x 10-

1012

1.6 x 1012

1011

106

1.8 gm/second 1.5 x 10-

1013

1.6 x 1014

1010

1000

180. gm/second 1.5 x 10-

1014

1.6 x 1016

109

1

18. kg/second 1.5 x 10-

1015

1.6 x 1018

13

14

15

16

17

18

The HBH becomes a total conversion engine when we start "feeding" it. Evaporation can be indefinitely postponed simply by shoveling in raw matter -- any matter -at an appropriate rate (Table 17.4). Such a device could be used to construct an extremely high-efficiency photon drive propulsive system. The main problem is how to construct an HBH in the first place. Dr. John A. Wheeler estimates that a black hole of mass 109 kilograms might be generated artificially by the controlled thermonuclear fusion implosion of approximately 5 x 1013 kg of deuterium.2022 This involves the handling of some 5 x 1028 joules of energy’ which looks like a job for an ambitious mature Type II civilization or an early Type III galactic society.

* Acceleration A (m/sec 2) of a perfect photon rocket of mass M (kg) and power output P (watts) is given by: A = 2P/Mc’ where c is the speed of light (3 x 108 m/sec).

17.4 Exotic Propulsion Systems The exotic interstellar propulsion systems discussed in this section are all at the "idea" stage in human technological development. There is no guarantee that any or all of them can be made to work. A few have some theoretical support’ but many do not. Nevertheless’ xenologists deem them important because of the likelihood that some may have advanced to the "profit" stage of exploitation in at least a few extraterrestrial Type II or Type III technological civilizations.

17.4.1 Gravity Catapults It is possible to conceive of "machines" that are capable of pushing a body’ using gravitational force’ up to fairly impressive suboptic velocities. These devices violate no known basic laws of physics’ but it difficult to see how to do the required engineering. The most "conventional" of these’ first discussed by Freeman Dyson’ has been called the Contact Binary Catapult.1023 A starship approaches a binary star system whose members are both white dwarfs orbiting each other at close range. By swinging in very near to one star on the proper trajectory’ the starcraft benefits from gravitational slingshot or Newtonian "gravity whip" effect. The vessel withdraws orbital energy from the stellar pair. Dyson estimates that a system involving two 1 Msun white dwarfs could accelerate delicate and fragile objects to a velocity of 0.7%c -- at about 10’000 gees. Since there are no engines or propellants’ there are no physical stresses on the payload -- gravity acts on all parts of a material body equally. (Tidal forces’ on the order of D/80 gees where D is starship diameter in meters’ should not prove troublesome.) Dyson also considered the possibility of using a pair of orbiting neutron stars as a gravity catapult. Unfortunately’ they cannot exist! A neutron star binary would radiate away all of its orbital energy as gravitational radiation in less than 2 seconds. The two objects would coalesce almost immediately with a spectacular "gravity flash" at a frequency of about 200 Hz. A more exotic technique is the Black Hole Catapult. This scheme requires that and find a rotating black hole (stellar mass) somewhere in space’ then travel around it in the direction of spin very near to the equator. Besides losing a lot of time because of General Relativistic time dilation effects’ some of the BH’s rotational energy would be converted to linear kinetic energy of the star ship. There would be a substantial increase in velocity. Tidal forces during transit will be rather extreme -about 500 million gees per meter -- but apparently there are tricks with dense masses in a space vehicle that can be used to cancel the tides.2014 A Neutron Star Catapult is also possible’ with similar effects.1099 The most speculative gravity machine of all is the Smoke Ring Catapult’ which consists of a rotating torus of dense matter (such as neutronium) turning inside out like a smoke ring.2739 Relativity theory predicts a force in the direction of the rotation’ so a starship fired through the center of the massive hoop could be kicked up to very high velocities -- depending upon the rotational energy of the torus.

17.4.2 Antigravity and Reactionless Field Drives Over the years the theme of antigravity and inertialess propulsion systems have been widely discussed’ mostly in the fictional or pseudoscientific literature. From H.G. Well’s cavorite gravity screen in his First Men in the Moon’ to such questionable propositions as the Biefield-Brown effect’137 Blackett’s Spin-Magnetic Coupling Theory1194 (which apparently inspired the late science fictioneer James Blish to write Cities in Flight with its "spindizzy drive"2809)’ F. B. Hli’s Theory of Electrogravitics (see the lively debate in Cashmore and Gordon’1197’1199 Hli’1196 Hli and Okress’1201 Johnson and Hli’1198 and Okress1202)’ Leonard G. Cramp’s G Field Theory’755 and of course the infamous Dean Drive (see Adams’2859 Campbell’1361 Cuff’2773 Davis’1371 Jueneman’2807 Klotz et al’2772 Pournelle’2806 and Stine2771)’ the idea has enjoyed a colorful and vituperative history. A number of U.S. patents have been issued on supposed antigravity machines.2773 Even Einstein himself spent the last thirty years of his life searching for a unified field theory that would relate gravity and electromagnetism’ and the search continues apace today.2774 To construct a gravity screen would theoretically require the ability to achieve gravitational polarization of matter.16 This would imply the existence of two very different kinds of matter -- positive mass’ which is attracted towards the Earth’ and negative mass’ which is repelled. At one time it was believed that antimatter might turn out to have negative gravitational mass’2692 but most physicists would dispute this today.1314’2952 Yet the search for negative mass continues. So far as we know there is no experimental evidence for negative matter’ although it does appear in several solutions to the field equations in General Relativity. Papers by A.K. Raychaudhuri1521 and R. Mignani and E. Recami1519 suggest that tachyons may experience a gravitational repulsion to ordinary mass and thus may be interpretable as "negative matter’" although because of their imaginary masses they will still fall towards a positive mass. Besides gravity shields’ negative masses’ if they exist’ could be employed directly for propulsion. A negative mass at rest beside a positive mass would begin to accelerate. Why should this be so? The negative mass (which repels all matter) would push on the positive mass’ but the positive mass (which attracts all matter) would pull on the negative mass1190 If the two objects "weigh" the same’ they will chase each other and will neither separate nor collide. Energy and momentum is conserved’ since they each sum to zero. Presumably the negative mass could be created out of empty space if a positive mass of equal "weight" was created simultaneously. The net energy cost would be zero’ since (-m)c2 ‘ (‘m)c2 = 0. To achieve reasonable starship accelerations’ compact masses with densities like black holes should be used. Dr. Robert Forward elaborates: What we really want to do is make a dense negative mass and a dense positive mass down in the engine room. We’d just pull them out of empty space’ put a charge on the positive one and couple it with the spacecraft with electric fields. Now we have the two masses down in the engine room; they’re probably about 10-23 cm across and they weigh a little more than the spacecraft. The positive one is coupled to the spacecraft and the negative one pushes the positive one which pushes the spacecraft. Our vehicle’s acceleration can be as high as we can tolerate.2014 A related concept is the idea of inertia control. Gravitational mass represents the force of gravity’ and inertial mass represents the force of physical acceleration. The Eotvos experiment demonstrated that the two kinds of mass are identical out to eleven decimal places’ under normal terrestrial conditions. But suppose we (or clever aliens) could arrange abnormal conditions which would allow the inertial mass of a chunk of matter to vary. When inertia is decreased’ the same force imparts a higher acceleration; as inertial mass is brought close to zero’ tiny forces would be able to produce huge accelerations. Lowering the inertial mass of fusion rocket propellant tanks would eliminate most of the normal constraints on lengthy interstellar missions for such vehicles. Three other antigravity machines have been discussed by Robert Forward which involve no violations of the basic and established laws of physics (Figure 17.5).

Figure 17.5 Three Possible Antigravity Machines2014

SPECIAL RELATIVISTIC ANTIGRAVITY MACHINE Newton’s law of gravity does not obey Special Relativity. However’ a "linearized" version of Einstein’s gravity theory (General Relativity) does. In this version’ a mass flow gives rise to a "protational field" much as a charge flow gives rise to a "magnetic field" in conventional physics. This is called the "Lense-Thirring Effect."

The Special Relativistic Antigravity Machine is a torus wrapped in helical tubing. A dense mass flow is rapidly circulated through this tubing’ causing a protational field to arise along the circumferential axis of the torus. Just as a changing magnetic field generates an electric field’ a changing protational field should generate a unidirectional gravity field. This field’ directed upwards’ would cancel planetary gravity and provide vertical propulsion. GENERAL RELATIVISTIC ANTIGRAVITY MACHINE According to Einstein’s General Relativity theory’ the presence of mass in a flat spacetime will cause that space to become curved. Mass is intimately connected with space -- a rotating mass causes spacetime to "rotate" too. The General Relativistic Antigravity Machine consists of a torus of dense mass which is turning inside-out like a smoke ring. A mass with this motion’ according to Einstein’s theory’ "drags the metric" through the center of the torus. Unidirectional general relativistic forces arise which are equivalent to gravity’ and may be used to neutralize planetary surface gravity or as a space propulsion system. INERTIA REDISTRIBUTION ANTIGRAVITY MACHINE While not widely accepted by theoretical physicists’ there is a theory that the inertia possessed by all matter is a "tensor" quantity -- that is’ a multidimensional vector. In other words’ inertia is not just a simple quantity but rather must be measured in the three separate directions of normal space. The Inertia Redistribution Antigravity Machine does not destroy inertia or convert it into energy’ but merely redistributes it in different directions. The starship to which the device is attached becomes "heavier" in the horizontal plane (thus imparting navigational stability) and "lighter" in the vertical direction. An object with minuscule inertial mass in one direction can be accelerated to fantastic velocities with negligible force.

The first of these’ which he calls the Special Relativistic Antigravity Machine’ involves a mathematical analogy between gravitational and electric fields.2740 A "linearization" of General Relativity gives a version of Newtonian mechanics which obeys Special Relativity. (Classical Newtonian mechanics does not.) In electromagnetism’ something called charge is surrounded by a spherically symmetric electric field. In gravitation’ something called mass is surrounded by a spherically symmetric gravity field. It may be said that the simple Newtonian gravity field is the gravitational analogue to the electric field. The linearized General Relativity theory provides a similar analogy to magnetic fields. Much as a magnetic field is due to the motion of an electric charge or current flow’ the linearized theory suggests that a moving mass’ or "mass current’" will give rise to a new kind of gravity field by a mechanism known as the "Lense-Thirring Effect."2890 Scientists plan to try to measure this field as it is produced by the rotating Earth in future satellite experiments.3320 Forward calls this new field a "protational field." He claims that’ based on the existence of the field’ an antigravity machine might theoretically be constructed in the shape of ...a torus with a tube wrapped around it’ filled with very dense matter. If we started accelerating that mass flow through the tube around the torus’ we would get a constantly increasing protational field’ inside the torus. A changing protational field will create a gravity field just as a changing magnetic field will create an electric field. If we did it right’ we would have an upward gravity field that could be used to cancel the field of the Earth.2014 A second kind of antigravity machine suggested by Dr. Forward couples directly to "the fabric of space-time." His General Relativistic Antigravity Machine makes use of the notion that the presence of mass in a flat space-time causes a curvature’ and that a rotating mass causes space-time to rotate too: Imagine a rotating torus of dense mass’ turning inside out like a smoke ring. An inside-out turning ring of very dense mass will create a force in the direction of the motion -- a "dragging of the metric" as it is sometimes called. There will be general relativistic forces in the direction of the velocity of the mass. These forces are equivalent to a gravity field which again’ theoretically’ can be used to cancel the gravity field of the Earth.2014 And’ as Willy Ley once pointed out’ such a weightless body "would be squeezed out of the atmosphere by the weight of the air around it."2808 Finally’ there is the Inertia Redistribution Antigravity Machine. The main principle behind inertia redistribution is the idea that inertia is a "tensor" quantity.2740 A tensor is just a multidimensional vector’ so all this means is that we are accepting for the sake of argument the hypothesis that inertia may be a quality of matter that can be resolved into distinct directional components. That is’ in our normal three-dimensional world’ inertial mass becomes a three-dimensional quantity. While current experimental evidence does not support the tensor theory of inertia’ if it is correct it leads to an interesting possibility for propulsion. The Redistribution Machine does not get rid of inertial mass’ but rather redistributes it so that some of it is pointing in new directions. If the machine makes the starship’s mass heavier in the horizontal plane and proportionately "lighter" in the vertical direction’ a relatively tiny amount of force applied vertically would cause relatively large accelerations in that direction. The benefits are similar to those achieved using inertia control’ discussed above’ with the added advantage that inertia is conserved. (Note that since gravitational mass is unchanged’ spacecraft will still feel the same attraction to planets and other massive bodies.) Inertialess starships would have a number of interesting performance characteristics. Such a system must necessarily act upon every atom of the vessel in order to be effective. Far from any planet (so gravitational mass can be ignored)’ the inertialess craft could start and stop almost instantaneously. Since passengers have almost no inertia in the direction of flight’ hideous accelerations can be tolerated (in that direction) with equanimity. For instance’ if vertical/forward inertia is cut to 1% of normal and the ship accelerates at 100 gees’ passengers would feel only an effective 1 gee of force. Inertialess starcraft would be virtually crashproof’ since with no forward inertia people would not be thrown from their seats if an obstacle was struck. And’ depending on how fast inertia can be suddenly redistributed’ right-angle turns and hairpin bends should also be quite possible.

17.4.3 Tachyon Starships We have already mentioned the possibility of using tachyons for faster than-light communication. But could aliens use them for FTL space travel too? Gerald Feinberg of Columbia University has divided all matter into three general classes: Tardyons’ particles which can move at any velocity less than the speed of light (normal matter); luxons’ which can travel only at 100%c (photons and neutrinos); and tachyons’ particles restricted to superluminal velocities.1492 All three classes may exist on the basis of Relativity theory. If we desire to travel at hyperoptic velocities and achieve "true" FTL’ somehow our starship must be converted from tardyon matter into tachyon matter at the start of the journey and then back again at the destination. While "conversion" may sound a bit like magic’ actually it violates no laws of physics to presume it can be done. In fact’ such conversion between classes of matter’ to a limited extent’ has already been verified experimentally. Of course’ no tachyons have been discovered yet. But nuclear physicists long have known that an electron and a positron’ both tardyons’ undergo "annihilation" when brought together with the release of two or three gamma-ray photons’ which are luxons. Another example is the decay of the neutron’ a tardyon’ into among other things an antineutrino’ which is a luxon. Still another example is "pair production’" in which a gamma-ray (luxon) striking an atomic nucleus gives rise to an electron/positron pair (both tardyons). Conversion between tardyons and luxons’ and back again’ may be regarded as a verified physical phenomenon. There would seem to be no theoretical objection to conversion from tardyons to tachyons and vice versa’ although the process may have to be moderated by luxon intermediaries. The real technological trick will be to discover a procedure for interconversion which leaves undisturbed the essential molecular relationships upon which life and physical structure are based. Dr. Gregory Benford’ nuclear physicist and science fiction writer’ has suggested one highly speculative possibility in his story "Seascape": In the laser the problem was simply to produce a coherent state -- to make all the excited atoms emit a photon at the same time. Okawa reasoned that the same problem appeared in the faster-than-light drive. If all the particles in the ship did not flip into their tachyon states at the same time’ they would all have vastly different velocities and the ship in one grinding instant would tear itself apart. Okawa’s achievement lay in finding a technique for placing all the ship’s atoms in excited tachyon states so that they could all be triggered at the same instant; the particles of the ship Jumped together’ coherently. .. .All this was accomplished by maximizing the cross section for transition from real particle to tachyon. Complex modulated electromagnetic waves controlled the transition through microelectronic components’ which operated on the scale of atomic dimensions. Another conversion technique involves the use of the concept of quantum mechanical "tunneling." Quantum mechanics predicts that it is possible for particles to pass through energy barriers which would otherwise be "too high" for them to surmount. (This’ in fact’ is Hawking’s explanation for the evaporation of black holes.) Using the tunnel effect’ a particle with insufficient energy to pass "over" a barrier instead passes "through" it. This peculiar behavior has been verified in the laboratory’ and is exploited in modern electronic devices (e.g.’ tunnel diodes) as components in computer circuits. Presumably’ if we can get up close enough to the lightspeed barrier’ it may be possible to "tunnel" across into tachyonland. The starship will then have to lose energy to go faster. A third technique for achieving superluminal tachyonic starflight has been suggested by Dr. Forward. Mathematicians have long known that certain wave phenomena can be represented by "complex numbers." A complex number is a two-dimensional quantity’ having a real dimension and an "imaginary" dimension. (Recall our earlier discussion of the imaginary mass of tachyons.) Electronics engineers regularly use complex numbers to describe the behavior of alternating current (AC) circuits. If physical mass can be represented mathematically as a complex "something" in "mass space’" then objects in that space may be able to rotate to new orientations along the real and imaginary coordinate axes. Since tachyons have imaginary mass’ a full 90o rotation would correspond to a conversion to tachyons. Says Forward: Since we want the mass to be imaginary’ we would have to get our spaceship off the real-line in that complex space and onto the imaginary-line. This would require that we make a right angle turn in mass space. When we do that’ our ship becomes a tachyon.2014 Finally’ what would tachyonic astronauts see during their hyperoptic journey? The tardyon and tachyon universes seem to possess symmetric equivalence’ an intuitive observation borne out by careful mathematical reasoning.2770 Consequently’ travelers in tachyonland should observe what appears to be another tardyonic universe (assuming there is as much tachyonic mass as tardyonic mass in all the cosmos). That is’ a tardyon starship moving at 50%c in our universe which suddenly converts into tachyons will be traveling at an effective 200%c relative to our universe; but in the tachyon regime’ where the vessel really is’ it will still appear to be moving only at 50%c.

17.4.4 Momentum Interconversion Drives Terran scientists already know that electricity and magnetism are inter changeable’ based on the work of James Clerk Maxwell in the 19th century. Mass and energy are too’ according to Albert Einstein’ as well as space and time. It is not unreasonable to hypothesize that angular and linear momentum may be similarly related. If such interconversion were possible’ theory has it that some fundamental physical constant would be required’ having the dimensions of length’ to balance the mathematical equation involved. According to John Wheeler’2741 one of the fundamental constants of nature is the Planck length’ written L’ based on the Planck constant (h)’ the universal gravitation constant (G)’ and the speed of light (c).* Robert Forward suggests that if we use the Planck length a suitable interconversion formula may be derived: Angular momentum (L) equals linear momentum (p) times the Planck length’ or L = pL. Using this purely hypothetical relationship’ it is simple to calculate that the destruction of a unit spin from a single tiny atom (about 10-34 kg-m2/sec) would yield 6.6 kg-m/sec of linear momentum. This means 6.6 kilograms of mass moving at 1 meter/second. The interconversion of only 45 billion atoms -- about 0.1 picograms of hydrogen -- would thus be sufficient to propel a 100-ton starship at l%c. The above scheme’ of course’ requires the violation of conservation of linear and angular momentum. This difficulty may be made somewhat more palatable in the following way. Physicists recognize that the source of gravity in General Relativity theory is what is called the "stress-energy-momentum-mass tensor." That is’ mass alone isn’t the only source of gravity. Kinetic energy’ stress energy’ linear and angular momentum also contribute to the field. We already know that mass and energy can be interconverted’ according to the relation E = mc2. It may turn out to be possible to interconvert everything in the stress-energy tensor’ perhaps according to an equation like E = mc2 = pc = Lc/A. Vast amounts of propulsive energy would become available. Says Forward: "If we took one unit of spin which is 10-34 units of angular momentum (very small)’ we would get 6.6 kg-m/sec of linear momentum or 10-8 kg of mass or’ equivalently’ 109 joules of energy -- all from one atom."2014

* The formula Wheeler gives is: L = (hG/2pc 3)1/2 = 1.6 x 10-35 meters.

17.4.5 Statistical Transport The mysterious’ often apparently "magical" results of modern quantum physics have enticed many writers to try their hand at devising propulsion systems based on the principles of quantum mechanics and statistical thermodynamics. Most of these fall reliably into two general categories: Bootstrap Drives and Heisenberg Drives. To visualize a Bootstrap Drive’ consider a cylindrical vessel filled with ordinary gas. Although each of the molecules is rushing madly about at speeds in the kilometer/second range’ the net effect of trillions of particles darting in random directions is a wash-out. The molecule motions are averaged out over the walls of the container’ yielding a net system velocity of zero. About half a century ago’ the late John W. Campbell’ Jr. suggested that it might be possible to devise an external field that would induce the molecules subject to its influence to assume the highly improbable state of collective upward motion.1110 Much of scientific experimentation involves the judicious rearrangement of probabilities to achieve desired results’ so this idea is certainly not impossible. The result would be a reactionless Bootstrap Drive that could be used to propel spaceships to other worlds. It is fairly clear that the technology to achieve a bootstrap effect will not be trivial. The magnitude of the difficulty may be made plain with a fairly simple example. Imagine a pan containing a liter of water’ placed on a stove that can bring it to a full boil in 15 minutes. Our experiment consists simply of heating the liter of water to the boiling point over and over again. According to the laws of statistical thermodynamics’ there is a very small but nonzero probability that during one experimental cycle the molecules will spontaneously arrange themselves in crystalline form -- that is’ freeze instead of boil. But calculations show that this event is so improbable that it is expected to occur only once in every 1010’000’000’000’000’000’000 years’ assuming 15 minute cycles. Clearly’ to enhance such miniscule probabilities will not be easy. But if it could be done’ the Bootstrap Drive would permit a container of gases to move on its own without the ejection of any reaction mass. The ship would rise up’ so to speak’ by tugging on its own bootstraps. In normal operation’ the Bootstrap Drive would give up thermal energy and become very cold. To maintain the propulsive force’ it should be necessary to supply additional energy to the system in the form of heat. In the 1940s Campbell also came up with a number of starship propulsion system designs operating on Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle in quantum mechanical theory. Arthur C. Clarke describes the functioning of the Heisenberg Drive: In the Uncertainty Theory’ a particle cannot be said to have a fixed position in space but has a very small’ though finite’ probability of being anywhere in the universe. All you had to do’ therefore’ to get an instantaneous mode of transport was to manipulate the Heisenberg equations until you were more likely to be somewhere else than where you started’ and -- presto!1110 In essence’ starships using the Heisenberg Drive "move" by going from maximum probability of existence at one position in the universe’ through universality’ to maximum probability of existence at another position elsewhere.2642

17.4.6 Black Holes and Space Warps Severe gravitational distortion of space-time offers several scientifically plausible mechanisms for extremely fast interstellar communication and travel.2798 Dr. John A. Wheeler of Princeton University has predicted the existence of "wormholes" -- a warpage of free space -- based on his own version of General Relativity which has come to be known as geometrodynanics.2741 Wheeler wormholes should be exceedingly small (subatomic dimensions’ say’ about 10-35 meters). They would allow point-to-point linkages of all locales in the universe; pointlike particles’ such as electrons’ could be used to communicate without traversing the intervening space. Wheeler draws an analogy to the sea: Space is like an ocean which looks flat to the aviator who flies above it’ but which is a tossing turmoil to the hapless butterfly which falls upon it. Regarded more and more closely’ it shows more and more agitation’ until...the entire structure is permeated everywhere with worm-holes Geometrodynamic law forces on all space this foam-like character.77 J.C. Graves and D.R. Brill at Princeton have shown that electric field lines threaded through the throat of a wormhole may prevent it from closing.2777 Such a tunnel in space should stay open indefinitely’ allowing particles of matter to pass through to known destinations. Wormholes may connect a vast number of alternative universes at the subatomic level.2778 Black holes’ predicted in 1939 by Oppenheimer using General Relativity theory’ are concentrations of mass so dense that even light cannot escape the tremendous gravitational pull. Stellar-mass BHs are typically several kilometers in diameter. The standard black hole model predicts a "singularity" at dead center’ a point at which density becomes infinite’ This collapse of physical laws as we know them’ fortunately’ is hidden from view behind an event horizon -- the surface below which photons cannot escape. However’ in the case of a rotating black hole things are quite different. According to relativistic solutions first obtained by R.P. Kerr in 1963’ the singularity is no longer a point but has expanded into a ring.2742 Many theorists believe that the region lying in the disk of the ring singularity may be a gateway to other universes or to our own universe at a different point in space and time. Rotating BHs have two event horizons instead of one’ passage through which by a starship may involve such peculiar phenomena as negative mass effects and time running in reverse.2746 The Kruskal Diagram illustrated in Figure 17.6 shows one interpretation of possible trajectories through a rotating black hole assuming a Kerr spacetime metric.2747

Figure 17.6 Using Black Holes for Interstellar Travel THE WORMHOLE In the Einstein-Rosen model of the nonrotating black hole’ a wormhole connects portions of two separate flat-space-time universes. This wormhole’ called the Einstein-Rosen Bridge’ may be interpreted either as connecting two distinct universes or as joining two distant points in the universe of origin. According to this theory’ starships passing through the event horizon of a black hole would find the curvature of space-time growing less severe’ eventually emerging through a "white hole" in distant space.2954 The diagram at above right shows the Einstein-Rosen Bridge as it might connect two distant points in the same universe. The event horizon lies at the center of the wormhole. The diagram at below right is an "unfolded" version of the Bridge’ for those who would rather view universal space-time as essentially flat. The two are mathematically equivalent.

KRUSKAL DIAGRAM FOR ROTATING BLACK HOLES The figure at left represents a possible space-time configuration of a rotating black hole’ using "Kruskal coordinates." There are now two event horizons instead of one’ so there are three classes of space. It is possible to reach other universes like ours by selecting the correct trajectory upon entering the black hole. (Trip C) A collision with the ring singularity is possible (Trip B)’ and cowardly astronauts can avoid the black hole altogether (Trip A). Some "Type I" universes cannot be reached at all until tachyonic star travel is permitted (Trip D).

FOLDED KRUSKAL DIAGRAM The Kruskal diagram of the Kerr solution to the equations describing rotating black holes may he folded cylindrically as shown in the diagram at right. Using this interpretation of the wormhole caused by a rotating BH’ a starship is theoretically capable of circumnavigating the entire Kruskal space-time and returning to the universe of origin anywhere in space and anywhen in time. This would appear to violate causality and permit time travel.

A few writers have offered fabulous accounts of galactic commerce among sentient extraterrestrial races’ using black holes as the entry gates to a kind of hyperspatial subway system.* Says astronomer Carl Sagan: I can imagine’ although it is the sheerest speculation’ a federation of societies in the galaxy that have established a black hole rapid-transit system. A vehicle is rapidly routed through an interlaced network of black holes to the black hole nearest its destination.... Great civilizations might grow up near the black holes’ with the planets farthest from them being designated as farm worlds’ ecological preserves’ vacations and resorts’ specialty manufacturers’ outposts for poets and musicians’ and retreats for those who do not cherish big city life. In such a galaxy the individuality of the constituent cultures is preserved but a common galactic heritage established and maintained. Long travel times make trivial contact difficult’ but the black hole network makes important contact possible.15 There are a number of practical difficulties associated with the use of BHs as an interstellar rapid-transit system. First’ there is the problem of navigation. Until you jump into a black hole’ you don’t really know where you will end up. Once you emerge at your destination (from a "white hole")’ it is difficult to know how to get back. Many theories predict that it may be impossible to return. If you have entered another universe’ the journey is probably irreversible and strictly one-way; if you have remained in your own universe’ it would be an extraordinary stroke of luck to find another rotating BH in the immediate vicinity whose exit terminus happens to lie near the original starting point. Tidal forces are yet another problem. Astronauts venturing even within a few hundred kilometers of a stellar-mass black hole would be savagely ripped apart by the simultaneous squeezing and stretching forces which would amount to hundreds of gees. While it may be possible to compensate for these effects by using special arrangements of ultradense matter within the starship structure’ it may be better instead to search for supermassive black holes. Several theoretical physicists have proposed that gigantic BHs may exist at the center of many galaxies -- possibly even our own -- with masses ranging from 106-1010 solar masses. Surprisingly’ such monstrous objects need be no more dense than air’ and tidal forces would be measured in milligees rather than megagees at the event horizon. Catastrophe theory’ first devised by French mathematician Rene Thom more than a decade ago’2800 offers a totally new conceptual variation on the theme of space warp drives. Catastrophe theory is a controversial new mathematical tool for examining highly discontinuous events -- such as bridges buckling’ sudden economic depressions’ rapid emotional changes from fear to rage’ and a host of other abrupt alterations in physical structures’ lifeforms’ and societies. The theory explains how slight changes in the initial state of a system can result in major divergence in the course of its evolution and subsequent behavior. Since the Big Bang was a highly discontinuous event’ creating a universe out of nothingness’ it is quite conceivable that a catastrophe cosmology may eventually be devised. Perhaps it would involve catastrophe surfaces rather than simple spherical space-time geometry. Indeed’ the coordinates need not all be spatial or temporal’ but could include axes representing energy’ momentum’ spin’ mass’ charge’ angular velocity’ or whatever else is appropriate. If this is so’ then the proper combination of fields and physical parameters could cause a packet of photons (a message) or a chunk of matter (a starship) suddenly to assume new parameters in a single’ "catastrophic" leap. These new parameters might correspond to changes in energy’ spatial position’ or time.

* We will not here discuss the fascinating possibility of tachyonic black holes’ although these have already been investigated theoretically. 1520

17.4.7 Teleportation and Transporter Beams The first type of matter transfer system we’ll consider may be called the Teleportation Booth. To travel’ the subject is seated in the transmission chamber. Complete data on the composition’ position’ and energy states of each atom in his body are read out by means of a sophisticated scanning device’ and recorded in computer memory. The original may or may not be destroyed. The data is transmitted at the speed of light (radio waves) or faster (using tachyons) to a distant receiver’ which picks up the data and places it in the memory banks of a second computer. A new human body’ an exact duplicate right down to the last atom’ is then reconstructed using the information taken from the original. The replica emerges from the booth’ indistinguishable from the original in every way.* If you think about this scheme’ what has been accomplished here is not true matter transmission but rather transmission of information about matter. There is nothing fundamentally impossible about this process. In fact’ in one dimension -- sound -- the problem may be regarded as solved by human technology. With the very finest audio equipment’ duplicated sounds can no longer be distinguished from the original variations in air pressure that caused them. Further’ these "replicas" can be transmitted over vast distances by radio waves. Television represents the solution in two dimensions. In a typical system’ a sophisticated TV vidicon scanner reads the information from the surface of’ say’ a human face’ transmits the data to distant receivers’ and the image is reproduced on the picture tube. Admittedly the visual reconstructions are far from perfect’ but the electronics engineers are busily working to correct that defect. The Teleportation Booth is the answer to information transfer concerning three dimensions. It operates in such a manner as to transmit a 3-D image through space. As with radio and television’ the original goes nowhere. It is entirely possible to imagine the construction of the Booth by making a direct extrapolation of currently-foreseeable human technology (Figure 17.7). Our present techniques of x-ray diffraction scanning’ neutron-beam crystallography and field-ion microscopy easily permit resolutions at the atomic level (say’ 1 Angstrom)’419’2801 and subatomic scanning is already available using large cyclotrons and linear particle accelerators. Indeed’ high energy neutrino beams have been used to examine details of subnuclear structure as small as 10-18 meter’ or about 0.00000001 Angstroms.2825

Figure 17.7 Teleportation Booths: Precursor Technology on Earth Biostereometrics is a new scientific discipline which allows the three-dimensional measurement of living things using techniques similar to aerial mapping. The figure at LEFT is the result of a lowresolution computer-generated optical replica of a male human body. The data stored in the computer may be used to rotate the replica to any angle or position’ or to "dissect" the figure and examine any single part in greater detail. 2835 As for the present state-of-the-art in examining the insides of human bodies’ the "CAT Scanner" is about the best there is. Essentially an automated x-ray machine’ the Scanner looks at the body in very thin slices and can detect variations of only a few percent in transmitted intensity. The photos BELOW are a Scanner record of a human female across the chest area’ showing the spine’ aorta’ and even a small pancreatic cyst just to the right of the spine and aorta. 2835

At RIGHT are the first direct images of atoms of magnesium’ oxygen and carbon in a section of crystal’ using a technique called x-ray holography in conjunction with a digital computer system. 2810

How about computer memory? Ten terabit (1013 bits) memories are already available for use in Booth construction.583 Will this be enough? The human body consists of roughly 3 x 1027 atoms’ so at first blush we might expect that at least 1028 bits of information should be needed to completely specify the human transmittee. Fortunately’ the vast majority of these data are redundant. Our genes’ a considerably more compact specification or "blueprints" for our bodies’ represent only about 1010 bits. Our brains’ however’ contain at least 1013 bits of information -- so this turns out to be the limiting factor. According to Tim Quilici of Collins Telecommunications Systems Division of Rockwell International’ a fairly new technique called electro-optical modulation may soon permit transmission rates through space of 1010 bits per second per channel.2779 The information detailing the construction of the human body thus could be completely transmitted’ perhaps using a 1 mm infrared space-based laser beam’ in just one second -- although it would require another twenty minutes for the subject’s entire brain-map to arrive’ if only one data channel is utilized. Once the information has been received’ the subject could be physically reconstituted using an extended and more exact version of the present-day techniques of molecular beam epitaxy’ electron beam microfabrication’ or some similar process.2804 The living subject would probably have to be assembled cold’ close to absolute zero dissociative and degenerative chemical reactions’ and would later be warmed and reanimated. It would seem that the Teleportation Booth is a great way to scatter copies of one’s self throughout the universe or across a planet’ but it is a lousy way to travel -- because you don’t go anywhere.** Booth technology would also make possible a device which Arthur C. Clarke has called the Replicator.55 The Replicator has access to a vast library of information which specifies all known physical objects and consumer goods’ and is able to reproduce any number of exact copies of them at will. If practical matter transmutation is also available (see Chapter 19)’ bags of sand could be dumped in at one end and Univacs and Mona Lisas would emerge from the other. The second major class of matter transmission techniques is called the Transporter Beam. This system’ familiar to viewers of the television series Star Trek’ involves what computer specialists refer to as "destructive readout." The transmittee is somehow converted into patterned electromagnetic radiation which is fired across space’ reassembling itself back to normal matter at a predetermined "focus." The original is destroyed during the conversion into photonic radiation. Only a transmitter is required and the subject is self-assembling at the destination without the assistance of a receiver mechanism. Such a procedure’ while seemingly improbable’ is not wholly inconceivable in terms of modern science. We know that electrons can be converted into patterns of gamma rays by the addition of positrons. Furthermore’ optics theory tells us that unsynchronized light waves give rise to regions of destructive and constructive interference. If the phase and frequency of electromagnetic radiation could be forced to enter into constructive interference in a compact volume of space’ pair production might be initiated along with other related processes giving rise to structured matter. Or’ if the theory held by a few physicists that mass consists of "standing light waves" has any plausibility’ then it might be possible to induce the spontaneous conversion of energy into matter at remote points. The real trick would be to retain the complex structure of the living organism throughout the process of beamdown’ and to handle the nearly 1019 joules of interconversion energy without mishap. A third major class of teleportation technology’ known as Matter Transposition’ involves the passage of physical objects from point A to point B without traversing the intervening space (and without being destroyed or merely duplicated). In this case it is the original who completes the journey’ unharmed. Similar in concept to the idea of space warps discussed earlier’ transposition depends on the proposition that space is not only curved’ as predicted by General Relativity’ but is also wrinkled and discontinuous. To make a trip’ some mechanical or electronic device is used to render two points in space -- say’ where the passenger is and where he wants to go -- contiguous. The subject is then fixed in the new position’ and space allowed to snap back to its original configuration. As Donald Wollheim describes the process: Two segments of space may be separated by thousands of light-years traveling along the visible three-dimensional continuum of space’ yet may be touching each other like two pages of a book. The Gate then is merely an extradimensional means of cutting across this touching point and thereby avoiding the problem of having to travel those thousands of light-years inch by inch.984 If it turns out to be theoretically possible to selectively bend space-time locally by artificial means’ the technological problems will be immense. For one thing’ the energy required to adequately bend space would probably be prohibitive over distances of more than a few kilometers. A stellar-sized black hole’ the best spacewarper known to human science’ has a mass-energy on the order of 1048 joules. This represents the entire power output of a mature Type III civilization for ten seconds’ and yet the BH causes severe distortion of space-time over distances of less than 100 kilometers. Also’ as Larry Niven has pointed out’ the simultaneous operation of two or more Matter Transpositors in close proximity could prove embarrassing.2744 At best’ space would be bent in some unanticipated way’ causing transmittees to arrive at some arbitrary and unscheduled destination. At worst’ passengers could wind up gravitationally collapsed. Two other teleportation schemes also involve the idea of point-to-point transmission without crossing the intervening space. The first of these’ and easiest to understand’ is the Tunnel Transporter. This hypothetical device operates on the same principle of quantum mechanical tunneling discussed earlier in connection with tachyon starships. Explains Larry Niven: Apparently physics students are now taught that a tunnel diode takes an electron here and puts it there without allowing it to occupy the intervening space. If you can do it with quantum physics’ why not with larger masses? With people? The theory looks good’ and it hasn’t been used much in science fiction.2744 The second teleportation scheme’ called the Fourier Transporter’ requires a bit more explanation.2780 In the early 19th century’ a brilliant French mathematician and physicist by the name of Baron Jean Baptiste Fourier determined that almost any function of a real variable could be mathematically represented as a sum of sine waves’ each of whose wavelengths are integral multiples of the variable. Any three-dimensional function can be transformed mathematically into "Fourier space’" a coordinate system which uses inverse wavelength for the axes rather than spatial position. An object sitting in space near Sol has a representation in Fourier space (say’ S) that is distinctly different from the representation of that same object in orbit around the star Arcturus (say’ X). Terrestrial electronics engineers already know how to build digital "filters" that will accept any input S and output any response X in one dimension. The Fourier Transporter works as follows. A device near Sol transforms a passenger’ by means unspecified’ into Fourier space as S. A universal filter’ driven by a computer which calculates what X must be in accordance with the traveler’s itinerary’ almost instantly converts S into X. The device then performs a reverse Fourier transform on X-and the passenger is gone! He emerges from Fourier space to find himself in orbit around Arcturus. The validity of Fourier transforms out to mathematical infinity is crucial to the successful operation of the Transporter. If’ as some have suggested’ Relativity only limits the velocity of transfer of mass-energy and not information’ then it might be possible to transmit information very quickly without using any form of mass-energy to do it.2014 The Fourier Transporter would thus provide virtually instantaneous travel’ at little or no cost in energy.

* Some of the natural philosophy and pragmatic aspects of matter transmission may be found in Cleaver’ 1167 Elliott’1162 Gooden’ 1165 Lawden’ 1170’1164 and Niven. 2802 [Ed. Note: And the Saga of the Cuckoo.] ** There is an interesting side issue respecting the accuracy of transmission. It is well-known among radiation scientists that the random alteration of one out of every 108 atoms in the human body will produce death. That is’ if more than one atom in every 100’000’000 transmitted by the Booth is erroneous’ the passenger will get sick and probably die of symptoms resembling acute radiation poisoning. 380 A Teleportation Booth with an error rate of 109 bits/error would allow people to make only ten successive trips through the machine before death ensued.

17.5 Time Travel Interstellar journeying ultimately depends upon manipulating the formula D = V x T’ where D is distance’ V is velocity’ and T is time. So far we have discussed only the possibilities of increasing V or of decreasing (or abolishing altogether) D. But there is a third option available. Alien or human technologists may somehow manage to reduce or otherwise circumvent T.* One-way time travel into the future is no problem at all. Each of us is doing it right now’ at the constant rate of 24 hours/day. The problem is how to alter that rate. We’ve already taken a quick look at relativistic time dilation. Time passes more slowly far moving astronauts than for those who are standing still. For example’ a person traveling at a constant 99%c through space may also be said to be traveling through time at the reduced rate of 3.4 hours/day (hours personal time/standard Earth observer day). In case anyone is interested’ the time dilation rate may be calculated according to the following relation: T = t(1 - v2/c2)1/2’ where T is shipboard time and t is stationary observer time. And time dilation is not just some theoretician’s pipe dream’ either. In 1971 two American physicists’ Joseph Hafele and Richard Keating’ decided to test Relativity and see if they could make themselves age a tiny bit more slowly. They purchased tickets on a jumbo jet for an around-the-world flight’ taking with them an atomic clock’ accurate to one billionth of a second’ to measure more precisely the passage of time. The aircraft flew at 600 mph’ or about 0.00009%c’ circumnavigating the planet. When the trip was over the moving clock -- and the two scientists themselves -- had lost more than 10-8 seconds. That is’ for most of the flight’ personal time had been passing at the decreased rate of 23.999 999 999 9996 hours/day.2891 The time dilation caused by motion is a product of Special Relativity. But similar effects occur near massive objects. According to General Relativity’ time moves more slowly close to matter than far from it. In other words’ mass makes time slow down. For instance’ on the surface of Earth we age about 24 hours/day. But in free space’ far from any planet’ time speeds up and we age slightly faster -- about 24.000 000 016 hours/day.** Near a stellar-sized black hole we could expect time delays ranging from miniscule to enormous (but watch out for the tides). Judicious selection of proper hyperbolic orbits could get our aging rate down to microseconds/day or less.2636 The tides can be avoided by seeking out a supermassive galactic BH -- perhaps 108 Msun or so -- to perform the experiment. Or’ if we could collect or manufacture lots of extremely dense matter’ we will discover that time also runs slower inside a heavy mass’2014 We might construct a hollow spherical shell of dense matter either on Earth or in orbit’ and we’d have a one-way time machine. There is no gravity inside a hollow sphere due to mass in the shell’ and no tides either. But time would pass more slowly inside the passenger chamber. If he could see out’ the world might appear to flash by much as in the movie classic The Time Machine; to outside observers looking in’ the time traveler would seem to be moving in slow motion.

If it is deemed useful for some reason’ it may also be possible to increase the rate at which time passes. A hollow sphere constructed of extremely dense negative mass would greatly speed up time throughout its interior. This could amount to years/day rates or more. A British playwright could enter the fast-time chamber at 3 PM one afternoon’ spend two weeks writing a play’ and emerge at 4 PM the same day in time for tea. This could have a number of interesting technical and social consequences.2020 What about travel into the past? Traditionally’ this has been considered quite impossible because of violations of causality (the proper relationship between cause and effect) that could occur. Causality problems are commonly illustrated in terms of the Grandfather Paradox’ which goes something like this: You build a time machine and use it to go back 80 years in time. Your grandfather’ whom you dearly despise’ is a babe-in-arms’ so it is an easy matter to dispatch him. But now he doesn’t live to marry your grandmother’ so your father is never born and neither are you. So you don’t exist; worse’ the time machine that caused all the trouble doesn’t exist either since you weren’t around to build it. But then you couldn’t have gone back in time to kill your grandfather’ so he lived’ so you were born’ so the time machine was built...etc. -- a real paradox. Such difficulties do not deter the stout of heart and firm of nerve. F.J. Tipler’ a physicist associated with the University of Maryland’ recently published a paper in Physical Review (a highly respected journal) in which he proposed that General Relativity can be used to design a two-way time machine.2894 Tipler suggests the construction of a dense cylinder of mass’ spinning with a tangential velocity of at least 50%c at the circumference. This’ he claims’ should give rise to a very unusual region of space-time -called "multiply connected space-time" -- existing outside the physical boundary of the mass itself. According to Tipler’ any past or present event in the known universe could be reached by passing through the "multiply connected" region near the middle’ but outside’ of the spinning cylinder. Starting at any point (x’ y’ z’ t) and traveling at suboptic velocities around the special region in the proper way’ a starship can return to point (x’ y’ z) at any time t ± Dt -- past’ present’ or future. Tipler makes his prediction explicit: "In short’ general relativity suggests that if we construct a sufficiently large rotating cylinder’ we create a time machine." It remains to be seen whether Tipler’s proposal can withstand critical review’ but it remains a tantalizing possibility nevertheless.

* The literature on time travel and the nature of time is enormous. Interested readers are referred to Anderson’ 2795 Asimov’2817 Gerrold’ 2819 Hoyle’ 2818 Snatsky’636 Vonnegut’ 2480 and Wells 2796 for fictional treatments of time travel’ and to Edwards’ 1166 Finkelstein’ 1502 Fraassen’905 Gardner’644 Lucas’1859 Meerloo’ 903 Niven’ 2743 Taylor’1190 and Whittrow1847 for conceptual and theoretical treatments of time and time travel. ** For the mathematically-inclined reader’ the formula for the general relativistic time dilation rate (t) as a planetary mass (M) is approached to a distance R is given by: t = T(1 - 2GM/Rc 2)1/2’ where T is free-space time’ G is the universal gravitation constant’ and c is the speed of light.

17.6 Interstellar Navigation Without some means of navigational control’ any interstellar transport system is useless. As we shall see presently’ relativistic starship navigation is hardly a trivial affair. At only 1-10%c there are few problems. Just set the crosshairs on the target star’ the home star’ and three reference stars to either side’ and the ship’s navigator can calculate velocity and heading fairly exactly. Problems begin to crop up at higher speeds’ however. Two distorting effects begin to dominate: Aberration and Doppler Shift.2745’1160 Aberration causes stars to appear to be displaced forward into the direction of flight. The situation is analogous to raindrops streaking the windows of a speeding train. Although we know the rain is falling straight down’ the streaks on the window run diagonally’ slanting downward from the front as if the source was ahead rather than above. Aberration of starlight’ similarly’ causes stars to appear farther forward than they really are. At relativistic velocities the effect can be extreme. As the speed of light is approached’ stars will appear to move to the front and huddle together in a small patch directly in the line of flight. The rest of the sky is black. Doppler Shift applies to light as well as sound. The changing pitch of a moving siren as it passes the listener is an example of this effect. On board a starship’ Doppler Shift will blue-shift light from approaching stars (looking forward) and red-shift light from receding stars (looking astern). So suns ahead of the vessel in the line of flight will become bluer in color; those behind will become redder. At 37%c’ a starship leaving Sol would no longer be able to see it. Sol’s light’ severely red-shifted’ would have moved into the infrared and would be invisible to human eyes. If the destination is Alpha Centauri that star would also be invisible’ having been blue-shifted up into the ultraviolet range. As velocity increases still more’ a growing zone of darkness appears directly sternward. It grows larger as the ship picks up speed. A similar patch of starless blackness develops toward the bow. At 50%c’ the cone of invisibility distends an angle of 30° forward and more than 60° astern. The only stars that are still visible are crammed into a "barrel" surrounding the starcraft. The forward rim of the Star Barrel is seemingly dominated by brilliant blue-white stars. Sweeping the eye upwards and rearward’ the hue of star light changes from blue to green to yellow to orange to red’ then to blackness. All the familiar constellations are compressed and distorted beyond recognition. Mounting speed forces the Barrel slightly backwards’ then forward again’ compacting still narrower with even more vivid coloration. The Barrel has now become what Eugene Sänger once called the Starbow.2783 At 99%c the Starbow’ now an annular rainbow-hued ribbon of color leading the spacecraft’ is 12° wide with its forward edge raised up 23° from the line of flight. The rest of the sky it jet black. Precise navigation by external fixes has become utterly impossible’ and the starship pilot must rely on a system of dead reckoning or inertial guidance. Communications between starship and home planet become problemmatical as the vessel moves off at relativistic speeds. Not only will there be a growing time delay due to rapidly increasing distance’1091 but the frequency of the signals received will be altered. If the communication system uses laser transmitters tuned’ say’ to monochromatic green light at exactly 5000 Angstroms’ then the changes in frequency at the receiver are as shown in Table 17.5. A receding starship sees the green light as infrared for speeds above 50%c’ and at excessive suboptic velocities as microwaves. Conversely’ an approaching vessel sees ultraviolet signals above 50%c and x-rays above 99.9%c.

Table 17.5 Wavelength of 5000 Angstrom Laser Light Communication Signals Received by a Relativistic Starship

Blueshifted Signal Redshifted Starship Signal (Starship (Starship Velocity Receding) Approaching) (psol)

(Angstroms)

(Angstroms)

Starship Velocity (psol)

Blueshifted Signal Redshifted Signal (Starship (Starship Receding) Approaching) (Angstroms)

(Angstroms)

0%c

5000

5000 99.9%c

223’500

110.

10%c

5500

4500 99.99%c

707’000

35.5

50%c

8500

2900 99.999%c

2’235’000

11.0

90%c

22’000

1150 99.9999%c

7’070’000

3.55

99%c

70’500

22’350’000

1.10

355 99.99999%c

There are many other hazards to interstellar navigation which we can only briefly mention here. Relativistic starcraft will be subject to radiation damage and erosion caused by the impact of interstellar dust and hydrogen atoms.2761 Besides irradiation of the crew’ there will be extreme heating effects on the starship forebody at near optic speeds -without magnetic shielding’ forebody surface temperature could reach 3010 K at 99.9%c in a 1 atom/cm3 interstellar medium.1116 Besides the possibly devastating effect of even grain-sized meteorites’ Oort Belts of from 1012-1015 cometary objects in the plane of the planetary system must be avoided by choosing superecliptic approach trajectories when entering alien stellar systems.2038 There is also the possible problem of encountering unnavigable "starfog" in dense galactic gas clouds’2885 and the danger of running into unbuoyed free-wandering black holes and neutron stars is ever-present.22

17.7 Generation Ships and Suspended Animation Citing the tremendous difficulties involved in high speed interstellar journeying’ many writers have turned in desperation to the concept of the "generation ship" or "interstellar ark." (See especially Bernal’2820 Clarke’2789 Gelula’2790 Haldeman’2839 Heinlein’2854 Macvey’732 Panshin’2579 and Strong.50) These mammoth vessels would contain selfsufficient communities of the sentient spacefaring species and their offspring.2759 Farfetched’ sophisticated space drives would be unnecessary’ since the revolving crew could tolerate trips lasting hundreds of years to the nearer stars. While the original explorer-colonists might never live to see the New World’ their great-grandchildren and successive generations would survive to carry the great mission on to its conclusion. Science fiction authors have described the social and genetic backsliding that could occur in such closed ecologies.2794 The degree of discipline that each individual would have to accept would be more demanding than that of any present totalitarian regime here on Earth. Birthrates must be strictly controlled’ psychological interactions skillfully managed’ epidemiological and eugenics rules absolutely enforced’ and all aberrant ship-threatening behavior severely punished. From the human point of view the restrictions on personal freedom would be well-nigh intolerable. Still’ as Dyson points out’ "we have no right to impose our tastes on others."2792 The generation ship would provide a pathway to the stars for any patient extraterrestrial species that either could not or would not build relativistic propulsion systems. Speeds from 1-5%c should be ample to commute between neighboring star groups in periods of only a few centuries. This can be done using relatively primitive space hardware. Our own Pioneer 10 probe’ which departed the solar system a few years ago’ is now heading out into the interstellar void at 0.004%c -- a respectable velocity’ considering that the craft was designed solely for interplanetary travel. Of course’ during the long journey the technology of the home planet will not stand still. In more than one science fiction story’ the crew of the first interstellar ark arrives at their destination only to find that they had been passed many times en route by superior starcraft of more modern design’ and that the target system had long since been colonized by others.2791 James G. Strong suggests that "such action will only arouse bitterness among the pioneers’ and it would be kinder to avoid their destination -- certainly never to come within hailing distance of their ship."50 Note that there is no absolute requirement that the full complement of consumables be carried on board the Ark at launch. According to C.A. Cross’ "its materials balance could be sustained by the return to it of unmanned vehicles carrying raw materials on long stern chase trajectories."2793 Like the interstellar ramjet that picks up its fuel along the way’ an "Ark runway" would enable a generation ship to pick up supplies positioned earlier across its flight path by unmanned cargo vessels dispatched from the home planet. There are several other alternatives to the generation ship. As Freeman Dyson once remarked: "Interstellar travel is essentially not a problem in physics or engineering but a problem in biology." For instance’ if medical science can learn how to prolong life indefinitely and create immortal astronauts’ then the crew which began a lengthy voyage would live to see the end of it. The perspective of immortal beings would doubtless be quite farsighted’ and it is not unreasonable to suppose that such creatures would have a leisurely’ relaxed outlook on life. A century or two spent out of a 2000 year lifespan would seem no more painful than a 3-7 year voyage would to a human. Sea voyages of this length were common among sailors and traders of centuries past: Magellan’s global circumnavigation required 2 years’ Sir Francis Drake’s 3 years’ and Marco Polo’s excursion to China totaled 24 years. Another possibility is the "sleeper ship’" a well-worn science fiction theme during the last half-century. There are basically three classes of sleepers: Ectogenetic astronauts (discussed in the previous chapter)’ hibernauts’ and cryonauts. Hibernauts are starship crew members whose metabolisms have been greatly slowed. Like bears’ woodchucks’ bats and many rodents’ these interstellar travelers would "hibernate" for most of the trip. For starfaring hibernauts’ objective centuries would melt into subjective hours’ creating a delightful illusion of near-instantaneous travel. Experiments with small mammals here on Earth indicate that it may be possible to induce artificial hibernation in humans using a variety of specific metabolic inhibitors such as the antabolone found in aestivating lungfish.2785 The addition of antabolone to other anti-metabolic ingredients should permit metabolism to be reduced to 1% of normal at temperatures near 0 °C. Hibernation for extended periods should be possible’ although as in natural hibernation it will probably be necessary to periodically raise the temperature to normal for a few hours each month to allow certain cellular restorative functions to take place.67 Cryonauts are interstellar travelers whose bodily functions have been entirely shut down. Placed in "suspended animation" at cryogenic temperatures’ these starfaring passengers cross the Galaxy in compact’ refrigerated vessels equipped with ultrareliable supercomputers designed to patiently wait out the lonely centuries and then automatically reanimate the frozen travelers when the target star system is reached. Robert Prehoda’ a science writer and technology forecaster’ speculates that: Cryonauts may travel for many centuries between the stars in fully automatic self-repairing spacecraft controlled by immortal super-computers -- descendants of "HAL" in 2001, A Space Odyssey. When they are revived’ the journey will seem to have been only one night long. perhaps they will stay alert for a few years to explore new planets and transmit information about them back to Earth. Then they could be frozen again for another mission to a more distant star’ repeating the freeze-revive-freeze cycle several times before circling back to Earth after an odyssey of many millenia.67 Suspended animation will require only a modest-level biotechnology’ in all probability. The main problem with freezing organic tissues is the extracellular formation of ice crystals which cause tissue damage’ making reanimation impossible. Nevertheless almost every kind of mammalian tissue has already successfully been frozen and thawed under appropriate conditions.3697 For instance’ rabbit skin has been frozen to -196 °C in liquid nitrogen for 7½ months and is still viable when thawed.2786 Successful freezing and thawing of rat pancreas cells down to -196 °C has been shown’2788 and rat heart tissue can be reanimated after indefinite storage in liquid nitrogen.1687 And low temperature preservation of human blood cells’ sperm and ova is now routine. Whole organs have also been reanimated’ though this is more difficult Marshal Shlafer and Armand M. Karow’ Jr. successfully restored isolated rat hearts cooled to -30 °C and perfused with a commonly-used biological antifreeze called "dimethylsulfoxide’" or DMSO.1685’1692 Dr. Isamu Suda of Kobe University in Japan froze a whole cat brain to -20 °C for more than 6 months using a DMSO cryoprotectant perfusate. After thawing’ the brain was shown to have nearly normal electroencephalic wave tracings.3694’3695 What about whole-body freezing? Many experiments during the past few decades have demonstrated that laboratory rats can be cooled to -10 °C and later restored to life in apparently normal condition. However’ the period of "cold sleep" must not exceed a few hours and no more than 50% of the body fluids may be solidified.2787 Lower lifeforms are much easier to freeze. Nematode worms’ for example’ survive suspended animation at liquid nitrogen temperatures indefinitely when subjected to a specific DMSO perfusion treatment.1689 What about whole humans? The well-known mammalian diving reflex’ together with the body’s lowered oxygen needs at temperatures close to freezing’ have permitted people to survive drownings in icy river waters during literally hours of submersion. Dr. Ivan W. Brown’ Jr. of Duke University Medical Center has successfully revived a human child whose body-temperature was reduced to 5 °C.67 Following the successful cryopreservation experiments on dog kidneys performed by Dr. M.D. Persidsky at the Institute of Medical Science in San Francisco and Ronald Dietzman of the University of Minnesota’ Robert Prehoda has tentatively suggested a hypothetical medical procedure for placing human beings into a state of reversible suspended animation: The body temperature is lowered to 0° C and a heavy water (D2O) perfusate now circulates through the body. Soon most of the H2O molecules have been replaced with D2O. A 5%-by-volume addition of fluorinated DMSO is now added to the perfusate. This chemical will partially protect the cells during freezing’ but its main function is to act as a biological carrier’ insuring that the powerful metabolic inhibitors will reach adequate levels within all the cells. Salt-free albumin and ATP are added to the perfusate’ allowing the level of dissolved salts within the cells to be reduced. The pressure is greatly increased’ and large quantities of dissolved xenon gas begin to be circulated through the body. The fluid-filled cavities around the brain’ spinal cord and in the eyes are properly protected by separate perfusion systems. The heavy-water-based perfusate is replaced with a liquid fluorocarbon which can hold large quantities of dissolved xenon. The pressure is slowly raised as the temperature is reduced. At 5000 psi’ an optimum quantity of xenon can be perfused through the body’ thoroughly penetrating every cell. No more xenon is needed. The pressure is slowly increased to 30’062 psi. The perfusate pump is shut off. The body temperature is -24 °C. The pressure is then lowered to 5000 psi and rapid solidification begins to take place through the body. Cooling continues as the pressure is again increased to 30’062 psi’ allowing the heat of fusion energy to be dissipated. The up-and-down pressure cycle is repeated four more times during continuous cooling’ permitting the body to be uniformly frozen. Xenon hydrate protects every cell against freezing damage. The body temperature continues to be lowered at a controlled rate until it is only 4.2 degrees above absolute zero -- the temperature of liquid helium. You are now in a state of complete suspended animation.67 These steps may be followed in reverse order to achieve reanimation.* Cryonauts may not be immortal. Every minute 106 atoms of radioactive K-40 and 2 x 105 atoms of C-14 decay in a human body’ spraying bones and organs with beta particles and other low-level radiation. Accumulation of trace amounts of radionuclides is virtually inevitable for any carbon-based lifeform’ and these minute natural emissions may produce genetic mutations and other irreversible cellular damage over millennia of cold storage. Prehoda estimates that the natural decay of radioactive isotopes in body tissues will cause a lethal accumulation of radiation damage in human cryonauts in roughly 35’000 years. This difficulty can perhaps be avoided by raising potential astronauts from birth in a carefully controlled radiation-free environment. Food’ water’ and air must be purified and made free of the harmful isotopes. This accomplished’ cryonauts should last for millions of years in suspended animation (assuming adequate shielding from the cosmic ray background) and would be prime candidates for long-term low-velocity galactic exploratory and colonization missions.

* Already about fifty people have been frozen’ using somewhat more primitive perfusal techniques’ by several Cryonics Societies around the country. These methods may not prove successful’ but we won’t know for sure until reanimation is attempted on one of the many frozen patients’ perhaps a century from today.

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Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 18. Alien Weapons "Space was full of darting’ flashing’ madly warring ships. The three Black superdreadnaughts leaped forward as one. Their massed batteries of beams’ precisely synchronized and aimed’ lashed out as one at the nearest Patrol super heavy’ the Boise. Under the vicious power of that beautifully-timed thrust that warship's first’ second’ and third screens’ her very wall-shield’ flared through the spectrum and into the black." -- from E. E. "Doc" Smith’ First Lensman406 "Jason’ for the first time I regret never having studied weapons." "You're a puppeteer. Why should you..." "No sentient mind should turn away from knowledge. Especially no puppeteer. We are not known for our refusal to look at unpleasant truths." -- from Larry Niven’ "The Soft Weapon"607 "There is as much art to destruction as construction!" -- Morely Safer’ 60 Minutes221 "I am the spirit that always denies! A good thing’ too’ for all that exists deserves to be destroyed. It would be much better if nothing were ever created." -- Mephistopheles’ in Goethe’s Faust (1808)

War and weapon-making have been an integral part of the millenia of human history on this planet. And yet’ it is generally conceded that most of us have strong innate inhibitions against taking the lives of our fellow men. How can these conflicting tendencies be reconciled? If man hates to kill’ why does he? Dr. Irenaus Eibl-Eibesfeldt’ an Austrian-born ethologist at the Max Planck Institute at Munich’ has suggested that it is the improved technology of weapons themselves that have made it possible for men to ignore their natural revulsion toward murder. A weapon’ he points out’ makes it possible to take life easily and quickly; the weaponeer is spared the psychological contradictions of his acts by seeing his target as a mere object. In close combat’ using primitive weaponry such as spears and knives’ the participants are acutely aware of the corporality of their opponents. But weapons technology -- mass destruction and death-at-a-distance -- has made it possible for combatants to lose that bare thread of empathy that energizes their inhibitions. Weapons technology makes dealing in death an increasingly impersonal affair. As Dr. Eibl-Eibesfeldt observes: "If one asked a bomber pilot to kill his victims one by one’ he would be out raged at the suggestion."452 In view of the above’ can we be absolutely certain that technologically superior aliens may not also wield superior weapons? As science fiction authors are fond of pointing out’ advanced ETs may have many motivations -- conquest among them. It is not enough to say that superior technology necessarily breeds benevolence’ since superior technology here on Earth has often made it easier for humans to kill. But even if it turns out that most alien civilizations are benevolent’ is it correct thinking to ignore the quite disturbing possibility that there may be a few warlike intelligences loose in the universe? The worth of a study of alien weapons may be questioned on other grounds. For instance’ it may be asked how we can hope to comprehend weapons which are by definition far superior to our own’ technologically. But this sort of question ignores entirely the cornerstone of our entire analysis of xenology -- the Hypothesis of Mediocrity. There may indeed exist forces and powers wholly beyond present science. If so’ we can say nothing about them. All we can do is make the assumption that our science has a grasp of certain basics and proceed accordingly. We must work with what we have. Turning our backs on the possibility of malevolent aliens will not make the problem go away. In dealing with extraterrestrial intelligences’ we must be prepared for both the best and the worst. There are many kinds of weapons that aliens might employ against us. Lasers’ "nukes’" biological agents’ energy absorber fields and disintegrators are the stock in trade of science fictioneers. Authors have suggested psychological warfare’ by which the nations of Earth are induced to fight among themselves. In Isaac Asimov’s story "The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use’" the aliens in question perfect a means of severing the link between senses and brain’ thus placing victims in a state of permanent sensory deprivation.674 Larry Niven’s "The Soft Weapon" illustrates what might happen if we were to discover an intelligent alien weapon.607 But most weapons fall into one of several categories’ as discussed below. Surprisingly’ there are fairly adequate defenses for many of them. However’ for reasons that will become clear in the last section’ there appears to be at least one weapon for which there is no defense!

18.1 Chemical, Biochemical, and Biological Weaponry Explosives are perhaps the most common purely chemical weapon used in modern warfare. Destruction is achieved simply by gross mechanical vibration and demolition. We are probably close to the upper limits of chemical explosives technology’ and it is inconceivable that aliens could do much better. Biochemical weapons seem more subtle’ and therefore more insidious’ to most of us. For instance’ mice have been rendered sterile by the addition of about 30% "heavy" water to their normal drinking water.47 (There are no data for humans as yet.) Or’ it has been suggested that if certain items of knowledge can be transferred chemically (as suggested by recent experiments with RNA in rat brains)’ specific chemicals could be introduced into our environment which would cause fear or passiveness’ "suppress intelligence’" or "trigger a desired response on a given signal."573 But the most common biochemical weapons fall into two general categories: chemical agents’ and biological agents. Poisons are typical chemical agents. Plutonium’ for example’ is suspected to be highly toxic -- as little as 0.3 milligrams assimilated into the body would prove fatal.676 However’ lethal doses can only be absorbed effectively by inhaling plutonium dust into the lungs’ inducing death by cancer. There is relatively little danger of death by ingesting plutonium or its soluble compounds’ since the actinides and their chemical brethren aren‘t utilized in human biochemistry in even trace amounts. Because of this’ and other material-handling problems’ the aliens would have to disperse fifteen grams of plutonium dust over a city for each cancer death they wished to cause’ or about ten metric tons for a city of one million inhabitants.676 This is about one cubic meter of the stuff. Nerve gases are equally dangerous. For instance’ VX nerve gas is lethal at about one milligram per person if inhaled;360 when applied to the skin’ about five milligrams.398 Hallucinogenic drugs are in the same league’ although slightly less toxic. Scanty data available on this subject indicate that the lethal LSD dose may be in the vicinity of ten milligrams or less. Other drugs are less effective. It seems unlikely that ETs would choose this sort of weapon for a mass attack’ and although it could be a potent means against individuals’ we shall soon see that far more cost-effective weapons are available. The most lethal of the chemical agents are the toxins. Botulin toxin is often mentioned as one of the most powerful natural poisons known. It is formed by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum’ and the lethal dose for humans is about 0.5 micrograms.677 This particular toxin produces about 60-70% fatalities’ and is extremely resistant to medical treatment. According to a recent United Nations study of the possible effects of biological warfare: "Botulism is...characterized by general weakness’ headache’ dizziness’ double vision’ dilation of the pupils’ paralysis of the muscles concerned in swallowing’ and difficulty of speech....Symptoms usually appear within twelve to seventy-two hours."678 Other toxins are somewhat less dangerous. Batrachotoxin’ derived from the skin secretions of the kokoi arrow-poison frog Phyllobates latinasus of the Choco in western Colombia’ has a lethality dose of about 10 micrograms per person. How do these chemical means compare? Dr. Matthew S. Meselson has estimated that to ensure effectiveness’ 100 kilograms of VX per square kilometer must be used’ versus 300 kilograms of botulin toxin over the same area.398 Theoretically’ it would take 50 million metric tons of VX to cover the entire surface of the Earth’ or about 150 million tons of botulin toxin. This is the best that mere chemical agents can do’ and it seems unlikely that aliens would care to synthesize such huge masses of relatively ineffective substances. We turn’ therefore’ to the biological agents. As pointed out in the United Nations study’ lethal chemical agents are doled out in milligram quantities; for the more powerful toxins’ microgram doses are required. But bacterial agents are so effective that lethal dosages are measured in picograms (trillionth’s of grams).678 One of the most vigorous infectious agents is plague. Reasonably effective treatment exists for bubonic plague’ but not for pneumonic plague. Studies of the disease in primates indicate that exposure to as few as 100 bacteria cause death in about 50% of the animals. Ten picograms could constitute a lethal dose for man. To quote again from the U.N. report: "A large mass of plague bacteria could be grown and probably lyophilized (freeze-dried) and kept in storage. The agent is highly infectious by the aerosol route’ and most populations are completely susceptible. An effective vaccine against this type of disease is not known. Infection might also be transmitted to urban and/or field rodents’ and natural foci of plague may be created."678 A favorite among science fiction writers a decade or two ago was the "anthrax bomb." Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) is normally found as a disease in domesticated animals such as sheep’ cattle and horses’ but most animals are susceptible. It is commonly transmitted to man through the skin’ or by ingestion or inhalation of the spores. The inhalation infectious dose for man is estimated variously as from 20’000 -- 50’000 spores. Early symptoms occur about one day after exposure’ and resemble those of a common cold. Unless there is early treatment with antibiotics immediately’ however’ death ensues two or three days later in virtually all cases. How do biological weapons compare to chemical agents? Using the most infectious bacteriological agents’ it is estimated that 100 grams per square kilometer would be sufficient to "disable" a totally unprotected population of humans.573 To infect every person on Earth should require only 50’000 metric tons of’ say’ pneumonic plague bacteria. This could be accomplished with a fleet of two hundred B-52H Air Force bombers in only ten missions. Such is doubtless the method of choice for malevolent aliens’ who could synthesize still more virulent strains of microorganisms with virtually universal resistance to medical treatment. There are other "genetic" weapons. Prosserman suggests the following: "A water additive that slowly alters the proportion of male-to-female births in the enemy population’ or that amplifies sex-drive’ or counteracts population control measures. 'Cloning' could be used...to serially produce a race of 'super-soldiers' from a single individual."573 More frightening’ perhaps’ is the possibility of genetically tampering with animals or rodents’2012 rendering them more prolific and more vicious. But why stop with mammals? 2015 According to Stanley Baron in The Desert Locust’ a typical swarm of these 6 centimeter-long insects can contain up to ten billion individuals’ massing 100’000 tons in a cloud covering some 500 square kilometers. What if the aliens managed to create a new breed of insect’ extremely vicious and aggressive? Impossible? Maybe not. In 1957’ genetics professor Warwick E. Kerr of the School of Medicine of Ribeirao Preto in Sao Paulo’ was performing experiments in crossbreeding with African bees. By accident’26 African queens escaped into the Brazilian jungle’ carrying their inimical genes with them. In less than a year’ a new race of highly aggressive bees arose through in breeding with the common European varieties. Horror stories of these bees attacking humans are legion. In one case’ a schoolteacher slapped at her arm when one of the "killer bees" stung her. The insect released an alarm odor. Suddenly’ thousands of angry bees engulfed the unfortunate female’ and swarmed around anyone who tried to assist her. She died a few hours later.670 It must be pointed out that bees generally do not attack except in self-defense or to protect the hive. But "killer bees" are apparently extremely "nervous." Could not aliens breed an even more aggressive insect?

18.2 Bionic Weaponry In an earlier chapter we discussed various principles of bionics. We examined some of the designs for mechanical bodies which might be utilized by intelligent biological entities. There is no need to cover this ground again here’ except to briefly review the possibilities of bionics as weaponry. Certainly the most widely discussed application of bionic technology is in the field of ESB research. ESB -- Electronic Stimulation of the Brain -- normally refers to the implantation of electrodes deep within a living brain. These electrodes are pulsed with minute quantities of electrical current in the milliamp range. This interferes with the normal processing of signals by the brain’ resulting in altered behavioral patterns. In animals other than man’ a considerable amount of behavioral control has been achieved. Rats and cats are driven to engorge themselves with food under electrical stimulation’ and starving cats have been induced to refrain from eating even though dishes piled high with food were placed before them.495 The diameter of the cats‘ pupils can’ with suitable electrode implants’ be controlled "as if they were the diaphragms of cameras."92 A small cat’ upon receiving proper stimulation in the tectal area of its brain’ willingly attacks a much larger animal. Moreover’ it will continue to fight even when clearly outmatched by its adversary.92 Female monkeys have been induced to completely lose interest in their young’513 and highly aggressive rhesus "bosses" have been rendered docile under ESB.92 And Dr. Jose M.R. Delgado’ one of the leading researchers in the field’ dramatically demonstrated the power of ESB more than a decade ago by stopping a charging bull dead in its tracks at the touch of a button. The bull had been "wired" for remote control.484 We find that in animals’ ESB techniques have been able to control’ or at least alter’ behaviors of eating’ sleeping’ aggression’ play and sexual activity. But there are also reports of control over motor activity as well. Dr. Lawrence R. Pinneo and his team at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park implanted some thirteen electrodes in the brain stem at the back of a monkey’s head. Small portions of the animal’s motor cortex had been surgically disconnected for the experiment. Pinnec’s device’ the Programmed Brain Stimulator’ fired the electrodes in the proper sequences to evoke motor responses from the monkey. One programmed sequence’ for example’ permitted the animal to reach out with its paralyzed arm’ grab a piece of food’ and return this to its mouth. Another sequence enabled the monkey to reach around and scratch its back’ a complicated series of arm and wrist motions. The motor cortex was mapped in more than 200 locations. The experimenters learned exactly which parts of the brain controlled wrist flexion’ knee and hip twisting’ and grasping movements.516 It would appear that full motor control is possible’ at least in theory. Applied to humans’ ESB has been able to evoke pain and pleasure’ fear’ friendliness’ and "cooperative attitudes in previously recalcitrant patients."513 Are there any limits to this research? Delgado’ now chairman of the Medical School at the University of Madrid’ sees fears of mass control of humans as "fantasies". "ESB may evoke well-organized behavior’" he explains’ "but it cannot change personal identity."484 He cites two examples to support this position.* First’ in all experiments performed to date’ researchers have been unable to use ESB to stimulate a male monkey to attack its mate. That is’ certain strong inhibitions seem very difficult to overcome. Second’ when ESB is used to induce cats to fight one another’ it is not a blind’ wanton aggression. The attacker carefully sizes up its opponent’ selects the best moment at which to strike’ and so forth -- as in a real fight. It would appear that ESB can alter certain emotional states. What ESB seemingly can not do is alter the subject’s will’ except insofar as will is ruled by emotion. Whether or not alien technologies will find this a fundamental limitation is anyone’s guess. If their ESB technology is vastly superior to ours’ they may be capable of surgically implanting electronic stimoceivers in human subjects. We already know that many primate motor functions can probably be remote-controlled’ at least in theory’ and certain emotional states as well. It remains to be seen whether ESB techniques can be extended to mental volitional states as well. ESB is not the only bionic technology that could be employed by ETs. The state-of-the-art of robot building and prosthetic aids has already been examined. Here I wish only to call attention to the possibility of advanced machine warfare. For instance’ the Russians have made no secret of the fact that they are researching the possibility of using disembodied cat brains as control units in air-to-air missiles. The possibility of keeping brains alive outside their bodies has been confirmed by Dr. Robert J. White of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Dr. White has succeeded in keeping several monkey brains alive in total isolation.92 But brains need not be disembodied to utilize machine technology. Possibilities include such devices as Hardiman (an artificial exoskeleton worn like a suit of armor)’ the CAM (Cybernetic Anthropomorphous Machine) electronic horse’ the huge biped CAM pedipulator’ and the proposed fifteen meter high maxipulator -- also a biped. These colossal mechanical "teleoperators" hydraulically multiply the user’s strength and stride by an order of magnitude or more. One is reminded of the giant machines used by the attacking Martians in H.G. Wells’ science fiction classic The War of the Worlds. The invaders may not wish to risk their own bodies in warfare’ even behind the relative safety of a Brobdingnagian automaton.2017 Dr. M.W. Thring’ head of the Mechanical Engineering Department of Queen Mary College’ University of London’ believes that the military robot may soon be a practical enterprise even with limited human technology. In two decades’ he claims’ we may be able to mass produce robot infantrymen for as little as $10’000 apiece -- comparable to the cost of training and equipping a human soldier in a modern army. Such automata would easily out perform their biological counterparts’ having greater durability’ flexible energy requirements’ and no lack of élan for suicide missions.92 There is a fair probability that if we are attacked by hostile ETs’ it will be a battle fought exclusively by specialized war machines.2016

* Unnecessary if we implant direct neural taps to sensory and motor lines.

18.3 Sonic Weapons Sound’ or acoustic radiation’ might well be utilized by extraterrestrials against man and his artifacts. Although clearly limited in usefulness by the need for a transmitting medium (Figure 18.1)’ there are many jobs for which sonic weapons are uniquely suited. The frequency spectrum for sound is chauvinistically’ but conveniently’ divided into three general regions -- the infrasonic’ the sonic’ and the ultrasonic. Infrasonic radiation ranges from about 0.001 Hz (cycles per second) for some seismic disturbances up to about 20 Hz. The sonic range’ the bounds of human hearing’ extends from 20 Hz on up to roughly 20 KHz. Then the ultrasonic takes over’ reaching from 20 KHz up to 1 MHz (one million cycles per second) and beyond.

Figure 18.1 Range of Sound in Air and Water

A few general aspects of bioacoustics must first be appreciated. Figure 18.2 shows the two most important curves to our analysis. The first of these is called the threshold of hearing. This is the contour of zero loudness for normal human ears. It is the absolute lower limit of quietness below which we hear nothing.* Note that in the lower sonic range (20-200 Hz) and in the upper sonic range (above 10 KHz)’ sounds must be considerably more intense for them to become audible than in the middle regions of the spectrum. The second important curve is called the threshold of pain. Sonic radiation of an intensity greater than this value at any frequency can cause permanent hearing impairment and excruciating physical pain’ often described as an uncomfortable tickling sensation in the ears. Certainly’ then’ aliens could use focused sonic beams to quickly deafen their victims with an agonizingly painful blast of audible sound.

Figure 18.2 Sonic Intensity and the Thresholds of Hearing and Pain

But to leave it at this is to miss the most frightening aspect of sonic weapons. Compare the two threshold curves. The pain curve lies below the audibility curve for both infrasonic and ultrasonic frequencies. Beams of acoustic radiation of these kinds could be virtually undetectable by our ears’ and yet carry an intensity well above our pain threshold. Here we have an "invisible" weapon’ a force which can severely affect us physiologically -- yet we are unable to hear it. The specific effects of various frequencies differ’ and we take this up next. Although research in infrasonics is surprisingly scanty’ one important conclusion has definitely emerged: Subsonics can affect humans adversely. Infrasound is felt rather than heard’ and has the potential of shaking bodies and buildings to pieces at high intensities. But what are the usual symptoms of human exposure?2152 At relatively low power levels (about 120 dB) subjects report chest vibration’ throat pressure and interference with respiration’ and visual field vibration.431 Whole body mechanical vibration is very common.628 There are reports that emotional states may suffer some alteration under the influence of low intensity waves. It is entirely possible that fear may be induced’537 or psychological depression.432 At higher intensities’ the effects are far more pronounced. Vladimir Gavreau’ head of the Electroacoustics Laboratories of CNRS in Marseilles’ France’ relates that five minutes’ exposure to 200 Hz at 160 dB caused painful and intense frictional rubbing of his internal organs’ resonating with the sound. The accidental exposure was described as "almost lethal" by one researcher’448 and apparently the resulting pain took days to fully abate. Had they remained in the sonic fluence for another few minutes’ there would almost certainly have been severe internal hemorrhaging’ followed by death. An Air Force study in the early 1960's tested subjects at power levels of 150 dB using frequencies of 50-100 Hz. The following symptoms were reported: coughing’ choking respiration’ pain on swallowing’ headaches’ loss of visual acuity and giddiness’ severe substernal pressure’ gagging’ and tingling sensations.431 Lower frequencies seem to be most energy-efficient in eliciting disabling symptoms from the human organism (Table 18.1). Research in the subsonic range 2-20 Hz indicates the following: Intensities as low as 120 dB cause dizziness’ feelings of lethargy and general lack of control.448 At 150 dB there is intense discomfort related to the organs of balance’ causing nausea’ a sensation of rotating’ and involuntary movement of the eyeballs.622 General disequilibrium’ disorientation’ lassitude and weakness’ and blurring of vision are also common.628 It would seem that high-intensity "subsonic stunners" postulated in various science fiction tales are a practical possibility.231

Table 18.1 Effects of Mechanical Vibration on Man628 Sound Frequency Range

Estimated Human Tolerance Levels

3 Hz – 300 Hz

140 -- 150 dB

0.1 Hz – 10 KHz

140 -- 155 dB

Motion sickness

0.1 Hz – 1 Hz

140 -- 145 dB

Blurring of vision

3 Hz – 1 KHz

140 -- 155 dB

Disturbance of breathing’ speech

1 Hz – 100 Hz

140 -- 150 dB

Interference with task performance

3 Hz – 1 KHz

140 -- 155 dB

Specific Vibrational Effect on Humans Major body resonances Effects on postural control

Infrasonic and low sonic radiation can also cause massive structural damage. The resonant modes of vibration for bridges’ buildings and cars range from 10-100 Hz. Destruction occurs when a standing wave arises along one vibrational mode of the structure. At this resonant frequency the waves are virtually undamped and can build rapidly to a critical level -- as in the famous case of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge at Puget Sound’ Washington’ in 1940. Infrasonic radiation surrounds us all the time. "Quiet" automobiles traveling at the speed limit commonly put out more than 100 dB in this range. Infrasound cannot be stopped by any normal building material’ walls’ or acoustic absorbers’ since its wavelength is too long. Gavreau has already constructed several alarmingly powerful "sonic guns." One such device is capable of emitting two kilowatts of power at 37 Hz. It has never been run at full power’ since even at low levels the ceiling begins to crack and major body resonances are set up. Gavreau is reportedly now at work on the problem of building highly directional sonic projectors; for instance’ an organ-pipe device 24 meters in length designed to operate at 3.5 Hz.628 He has estimated that large sonic cannon more than seven meters in diameter could now be constructed with power outputs close to the theoretical maximum for air -- roughly 200 dB.448 Can the aliens be far behind? But let’s not ignore the opposite end of the sonic spectrum. Medical studies have shown that although ultrasonic radiation has more effect on the white matter in the brain than on the grey matter (the cerebral cortex)’ most neural components can be destroyed in a given region "without interrupting the blood vessels in the same region."623 Only a very detailed autopsy could reveal the true cause of death. Other than effects on hearing acuity’ however’ the primary biological consequence of ultrasonic irradiation is vibrational heating. It is well-known that heat resulting from 20 KHz at 150-160 dB is quite sufficient to kill small animals. But apparently the presence of fur serves to absorb this radiation’ and shaven animals fare much better. Men exposed to 150 dB were not significantly affected in one study’627 but it has been reliably estimated that 180 dB of airborne ultrasound would constitute a lethal dose for humans. Would ETs select an ultrasonic weapon? It’s doubtful. Present human technology has been able to produce focused ultrasonic radiation’ using a curved radiator’ of more than 190 dB. That is’ we‘ve already nearly attained the theoretical upper limit’ and the effects are well known to us. And as we shall see in the next section’ there are much more efficient ways to cause thermal destruction’ techniques not nearly so range-restricted and medium-restricted as ultrasound.

* Intensity is measured in dB (decibels)’ a logarithmic scale of power pressure impinging on the ear. 30 dB is considered very quiet. Normal conversation takes place at about 60 dB. Driving diesel trucks or motorcycles exposes one to about 85-90 dB’ and rock concerts may reach 110 dB or higher.

18.4 Photonic Radiative Weaponry Radiative weapons are comprised of the class of devices which achieve their deadly results by the use of projected radiation -- acoustic radiation is usually excluded from this category. There are two varieties of radiative weaponry: electromagnetic (photonic) and particulate (atomic and nuclear particles). We‘ll look first at the electromagnetic ones (Table 18.2).

Spectral Region Static fields

Table 18.2 The Electromagnetic Spectrum Frequency Range Wavelength Range ------------

VLF

n < 103

Hz

n > 3 x 105

m

Radio (Hertzian)

103 – 109

Hz

3 x 105 – 0.3

m

Microwave

109 – 1012

Hz

0.3 – 3 x 10-4

m

Infrared

1012 – 4 x 1014

Hz

3 x 10-4 – 8 x 10-7

m

Visible

4 x 1014 – 1015

Hz

8 x 10-7 – 3 x 10-7

m

Ultraviolet

1015 – 3 x 1016

Hz

3 x 10-7 – 10-8

m

X-rays

3 x 1016 – 1019

Hz

10-8 – 3 x 10-11

m

1019

Hz

n < 3 x 10-11

m

Gamma rays

Static fields need be considered only briefly. There is little or no evidence that mere electrostatic or magnetostatic fields have any effect whatsoever on the human organism. No gross effects have been observed in tests of laboratory animals subjected to magnetic fields up to several kilo-gauss.568 Likewise’ few significant effects are reported from exposures to time-invariant electric fields. Hence’ we find that static fields won‘t be useful to aliens as weapons. VLF (Very Low Frequency) radiation has long been considered virtually harmless. It is emitted’ for example’ by power lines and electrical appliances we use every day. How could VLF possibly be harmful? There are several interesting effects produced by exposure to slowly oscillating magnetic fields’ such as the magnetic phosphene.566 The French physicist d'Arsonval was the first to describe these colorless "shimmering luminosities" in the last century. Application of VLF frequencies of from 10-100 Hz to the head causes these flickering phosphenes to appear at the borders of the visual field.568 Could ETs make us think we see ghosts? Muscle contractions have also been induced in frog tissue by VLF radiation. Furthermore’ a study conducted in the Soviet Union a few years ago concluded that exposures to 50-100 volts per centimeter have significant effects on humans. Subjects reported tremors in arms and legs’ slowed heartbeat’ fatigue and sleepiness’570 and even anemia.679 Recent Navy research has demonstrated that an electrical field at 60 Hz can alter the concentration of fats in the human bloodstream.463 And according to the late Dr. Norbert Weiner’ a 10 Hz ambient electrical field causes "unpleasant sensations."526 The oscillating field coincides roughly with the brain’s alpha-rhythm frequency. A variation of this technique’ using scalp electrodes’ is used to put human subjects to sleep -- the so-called "Russian sleep machine" or "electrosleep." But these findings are hotly contested by Dr. Otto H. Schmitt’ Chairman of the Biophysics Group at the University of Minnesota. He recently completed a two-year study to determine whether or not man can detect VLF magnetic fields. Schmitt found that not one of his 500 subjects could consistently tell when the field was on or off. "Humans are relatively immune even to strong magnetic fields’" he writes’ "so long as they are not shocked’ burned’ or grossly polarized by the fields."629 He points out’ however’ that persons with prosthetic or bionic equipment (such as a pace-maker implant for the heart) might be particularly susceptible even to relatively low intensity VLF fields. Accordingly’ we can only note that at present the data are inconclusive. If it turns out that VLF is harmful after all’ it’s a fair bet the aliens will know about it too! Of course’ we have been discussing using VLF against humans directly. But aliens could build giant inductors and utilize the well-known principle of inductive heating on any metallic object’ such as cars and spaceships.548 Inductors use frequencies from 10 Hz up to 1 MHz’ the former allowing uniform volume heating and the latter causing mere skin heating. A one-megawatt inductor weapon should be capable of raising one ton of metal about two degrees Celsius every second.* Radio wave’ microwave and infrared effects are manifested primarily as simple radiative heating. The longer radio waves cause thermal agitation and rotation of molecules’ resulting in a rise in temperature of the bulk material subjected to irradiation. Microwave and infrared’ on the other hand’ stimulate molecules in what are called vibrational modes. Both infrared and visible radiation act on the whole molecule’ causing direct heating. But the ultimate result is essentially the same -- increased temperature. As far as specific destructive power is concerned’ suffice it to say that a narrow beam of such radiation could burn a hole through a human with only a few tens of kilojoules of energy. Infrared and lower-energy forms of electromagnetic radiation are known collectively as nonionizing radiation. Such radiation doesn‘t really alter the electronic state of the molecules themselves’ but merely shakes them up a bit. It has been shown that nonionizing radiation doesn‘t cause genetic damage. Fruit flies tested under kilowatt Hertzian radiation for 12 hours evidenced no mutational changes whatsoever.680 Visible and ultraviolet light are considered to be slightly more "penetrating" forms of radiation. These photons are absorbed by the orbital electrons of atoms’ but the energy thus absorbed is sometimes insufficient to knock the electrons clear of the atom. The excited but unionized atom is still plenty reactive’ bringing about the production of deadly photo-products such as hydrogen peroxide in surface cells. UV is selectively absorbed by nucleic acids and proteins’ and the mutagenic effects of UV bring on skin cancer. Exposures to as little as 600 joules over a naked human body causes surface cells to perish’ "not only due to the disruption of nucleic acid synthesis’ but also due to damage to the fine structures and disturbance of metabolism."445 As we move to still higher energy radiation’ we enter the realm of X-rays and gamma rays. The activities of such radiations are not confined merely to the surface’ but are instead deeply penetrating. These are called ionizing radiations. Photons of large energy are absorbed by orbital electrons but’ unlike visible or some UV radiation’ these electrons are hurled from the atom’ leaving behind a charged ion. Such ionized atoms are extremely reactive chemically. The biochemical effects appear only after a period of latency’ usually a few days or weeks. Radiosensitivity is marked in cells with high metabolism and high reproductive rates.604 Lethality doses for man run approximately one kilojoule for X-rays (1.5 x 1017 photons/m2) and three kilojoules for "soft" gamma radiation (2 x 1015 photons/m2).379 How can electromagnetics be applied to the science of weaponry? The earliest use was the invention of radar. It’s generally assumed that if an alien spacecraft were to approach Earth without warning’ our Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS/SAGE) could not fail to pick it up. This is a gross misconception. In addition to the fact that the SAGE computers are specifically programmed to ignore any nonballistic UFO-like targets’ our radars are only effective out to a few hundred kilometers’ at best. An object a few megameters away’ even if in Earth-orbit’ could easily evade detection indefinitely. Farther out than that’ and our chances of detecting the intruder are virtually zero. As Robert Salkeld points out in War and Space’ it took the better part of a month for Earth-based observatories to locate and detect laser echoes from the specially-designed Apollo 11 reflector left behind on the surface of the Moon. Salkeld laments: "The far greater difficulty of picking up a distant target whose location and even existence are uncertain’ and which is designed to be non-reflective’ should be obvious."561 A surprise attack from space is therefore quite possible. But certainly the most alarming photonic weapons technology is the military laser. A bewildering array of possibilities has suddenly become available. For instance’ it’s well known that to gaze into a laser beam of even low intensity can cause permanent blindness. It has been suggested that "satellite blinders" could be placed in orbit by aliens. Anyone who glanced at the sky for more than a few moments would become permanently and irreparably blind. Arthur C. Clarke uses a variation of this idea in his short story "The Light of Darkness."637 Another unusual application is the laser listening device. Victor Marchetti and John D. Marks’ in their collaboration The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence’ relate that in the early 1960's the CIA developed an apparatus which fired a tiny pencil of laser light at a closed window. Vibrations of the air inside the room -- due to people talking -- set the window pane vibrating. This in turn caused minute fluctuations in the reflected laser beam which could be decoded and reassembled back into the original speech’ at the receiver! Although the contrivance apparently had a few technical bugs’ the idea of spying on a nearby alien spacecraft -- in wind-less’ airless space -- is intriguing. The Pentagon is now examining the possibility of placing a network of "defense" satellites in orbit’ each armed with powerful lasers. These orbital robots would approach and destroy "alien" hardware’ or disable missiles that flew within range. The Soviets are reportedly working on a satellite-killer of their own. This brings us to the "big daddy" of laser weaponry’ the so-called laser cannons. The big breakthrough in high-power laser technology occurred when it was discovered that fast-flowing reactive gases could be chemically combined rapidly’ releasing huge quantities of laser energy. The Gas Dynamic Laser (GDL)’ one of the major contenders in the high-power sweepstakes’ produces a concentrated beam of laser light when its reaction gases are combined and forced through tiny nozzles at supersonic speeds. It’s believed that prototype laser cannons will be available in the 1978-1979 period’ and that working field models may be coming into use in the early 1980's.461 Already the U.S. Army has fielded an experimental laser tank’ called the Mobile Test Unit (Mm). From early in 1975’ the MTU has been tested at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville’ Alabama. The driver rides in front’ aiming the turret in the rear at the desired target. The Electric Discharge Laser (EDL) in the turret fires a multi-kilojoule pulse’ powerful enough to burn holes in wood’ metal’ or human flesh. Says a researcher on the MTU development team: "It‘ll go right through you right now with no trouble."392 There is also under development’ by TRW Systems in Redondo Beach’ California’ a semi-portable laser rifle. Designed to be carried and operated by three men’ this highenergy chemical laser is aimed like a shotgun and fired. It is supposedly capable of burning a centimeter-wide hole in an unprotected human body at a range of up to eight kilometers. "Once you‘ve got him in your sights’" says one TRW engineer’ "you‘ve got him. There are no misses."394 As for gross power and destructive capability’ Avco has reported that its eight kilowatt continuous-operation laser cuts through Plexiglas at about 2.5 cm per second.527 The twenty kilowatt laser at the Air Force Avionics Laboratory near Dayton’ Ohio’ is capable of burning three centimeter wide holes in firebrick at the rate of 10 cm per second. It’s also known that the Air Force has since constructed GDLs capable of several hundred thousand kilowatts of contiuous power’ although the exact details remain classified.397 And Dr. J. Paul Robinson at Los Alarnos speaks matter-of-factly about orbiting megajoule lasers in the near future.410 It is a fact that the Pentagon spent nearly $200 million in Fiscal 1976 on laser weapons technology alone. High frequency lasers haven‘t actually been constructed as yet’ but it has been emphasized repeatedly that both X-ray lasers491 and gamma ray lasers’ called grasers’475’506 are theoretically possible. Even though practical feasibility has not been demonstrated’ many scientists are already predicting that when x-ray lasers are constructed’ energy fluxes "greater than one kilojoule per square centimeter" will be available.507 Admittedly’ laser "death rays" have their limitations. Since light travels in a straight line’ beams cannot be aimed at anything below the horizon unless orbital mirrors are used. Furthermore’ laser light is scattered or absorbed by clouds’ mist’ dust’ fog’ and smoke. If the target is shiny and reflective’ most of the laser’s energy can be dissipated harmlessly. And yet it’s still considered a very promising weapon. It fires high-energy "projectiles" that travel at the speed of light. Aiming is vastly improved. Were lasers to be used in space battles’ where beams can travel thousands of kilometers uninterrupted to their targets’ it would represent a formidable weapon indeed. Our extraterrestrial invaders will surely be aware of this. Two other photonic weapons deserve at least a passing mention. The first of these is the idea of using focused solar radiation as an offensive weapon. This idea is really quite old. In fact’ the great Greek mathematician Archimedes was the first -- to the best of my knowledge -- to have actually put the plan to practice. Between 215 and 212 B.C.’ the Roman navy beseiged the Hellenic port of Syracuse. Archimedes set fire to the fleet by using polished reflectors** to concentrate the Sun’s heat onto the attackers. In 1969 Dr. Thomas O. Paine’ a former administrator for NASA’ suggested that it might be possible to place a giant solar reflecting mirror on the lunar surface. This mirror’ he claimed’ could be used to destroy any chosen city on Earth.77 Arthur C. Clarke has hinted that such a weapon might be wielded from Earth-orbit. "It’s theoretically possible’" he asserts’ "to orbit giant mirrors in space’ to hover over the Equator and to reflect sunlight to any spot on Earth. And as they need only be made of mylar film coated with a few atoms' thickness of aluminum’ they would be extremely light even if they were miles on a side. It would be technically feasible to erect such mirrors using Saturn V launch vehicles...."81 The second photonic device is the practical invisibility cloak. It is often pointed out that an invisible man would also be quite blind.53 I can see no easy way around this fundamental objection. However’ what‘ if aliens wished merely to render isolated structures invisible? One suggestion along these lines entails the erection of a hemispherical cap over the buildings. The outer surface of this cap would consist of a 3-D holographic "picture" of the virgin terrain prior to the construction of said building. In this case’ the ETs wouldn‘t particularly care whether or not they could see out from their hideout’ as they could place TV cameras outside the periphery of the cloak. Or’ if it is possible to maintain a radial refractive index gradient around the buildings’ a kind of spherical lens might be created. The resulting image of the refracted background should be at least as good as a fine mirage’ and perhaps even better -- using advanced alien technology. And of course we can always resolve the optics problem by resorting to subjective invisibility. That is’ the alien causes humans to simply ignore his presence’ psychologically. For all practical purposes’ the ET would have become "invisible."55 An interesting variation on this theme may be found in Larry Niven’s science fiction novel A Gift From Earth (Matt Keller’s "plateau eyes").231

* Such a weapon would require only two hours to raise an Apollo command module to red heat. The craft would reach its melting point four hours after heating began’ and would be reduced to a spherical molten mass about ten minutes later. ** coppered shields’ about a hundred of them trained on each enemy vessel.

18.5 Particulate Radiative Weaponry How does particulate radiation affect the human organism? One most unusual effect relates to visual sensations caused by the passage of fast-moving particles through the retina. It has been reported that about 10% of all relativistic nitrogen nuclei shot through a human eyeball are perceived as tiny streaks of light in the visual field.473 High energy muons and pions have been found to cause a similar phenomenon’ appearing as a crescent-shaped flash as large as one-half the entire field of view.529 But by and large’ the biological effects of particulate radiation are quite straightforward. Any particle bearing an electric charge (protons’ electrons) and having a reasonably high kinetic energy will interact strongly with the orbital electrons in any physical medium it passes through. Charged particles lose energy to orbital electrons bit by bit as they pass’ unlike photons which divest all their energy in a single blast. Neutral particles like the neutron cannot interact electromagnetically with matter’ and zip right past the orbital electrons. All their energy is transferred in a single collision with an atomic nucleus -- which absorbs them and recoils violently. We call high-energy charged particles directly ionizing radiation’ whereas photons of very high energy and neutrons of all energies are referred to as indirectly ionizing radiation. Slow moving charged particles and low-energy photons are known collectively as nonionizing radiation. Which of the particles in the "nuclear particle zoo" are germane to our study? At last count’ well over 200 different particles had been discovered. Let us briefly consider just a few of them. We've already mentioned the proton (positive charge) and the neutron (neutral) -- the constituents of atomic nuclei -- and electrons (negative charge). Each of these has its antiparticle. An antiparticle is the "opposite" of a particle’ in the sense that when the two come together they are observed to undergo annihilation (mutual destruction) and release large quantities of energy. The anti-electron’ the first antiparticle to be discovered’ was given a special name -- the positron. The positron-electron annihilation reaction is very specific; positrons would presumably be stable in a universe with out electrons.681 The proton and neutron each have their anti counterparts. However’ they are slightly less specific in their reactions. An antiproton will annihilate both a neutron and a proton; likewise’ the antineutron annihilates both neutrons and protons.681 Pions are particles which come in three varieties -- positive’ neutral’ and negatively charged. They are produced via proton-antiproton and neutron-antineutron reactions’ and also in cases where protons or neutrons collide with nucleons in normal matter. But pions are unstable’ decaying to muons and electrons in very brief times. Muons exist in positive and negative forms and are also unstable’ decaying in about two microseconds to electrons and other particles. Let us turn now to applications. The most common form of electron transfer in our everyday lives is via electricity. Can this be used as a weapon? Dr. John Cover’ a scientist in Newport Beach’ has developed a device he calls a taser. The taser passes a jolt of electricity at 50’000 volts (but very low current) through the body’ temporarily freezing the skeletal muscles with few lasting effects. This "stun gun" is being manufactured and marketed under the trade name Taser Public Defender by Advanced Chemical Technology’ a Los Angeles firm. But this device gets the energy to the human target by firing tiny darts attached to ten meter threadlike wires. Surely there must be a better way! The alien attackers may be capable of actually throwing thunderbolts at us’ those powerful instruments of Zeus' arbitrary whim. One of the larger artificial lightning machines was the one built for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. Its output reportedly exceeded ten million volts at about 200 kilojoules per bolt. This is sufficient to jump more than ten meters through dry air. Voltages of more than twenty million volts are commercially available today. Natural lightning is even more impressive. Discharges from so-called "positive giants" pass energies in excess of several billion joules’ at hundreds of millions of volts electrical potential. The cores of such strokes momentarily reach temperatures of up to 30’000 °C’ several times hotter than the solar photosphere. Its quite possible that hovering alien spacecraft could use a weapon of this kind to destroy houses’ vehicles’ or even crowds or single individuals. A tight beam of ionizing radiation might precede the bolt to the ground’ ionizing an easy conduction path in air straight to the target. It would be difficult to operate a hand-held device of this kind’ such as a lightning bolt rifle’ as it would be virtually impossible for the attacker to avoid being shocked himself. Of course’ there are other forms of lightning. Of particular interest is the phenomenon known as ball lightning. After decades of controversy’ it is now generally accepted that these fiery balls of electrical energy-kugelblitz -- do exist. They are described as being anywhere from one centimeter to one meter in diameter’ in colors ranging from white and blue to red and yellow.459 The plasma globes can be spherical or elliptical in shape.466 Lifetimes are typically about five seconds’ but occasionally a kugeiblitz has been seen to remain intact for more than a minute. Their demise occurs in one of two ways -- silently (fast or slow)’ or explosively with a loud pop -- and they generally travel at about 4 meters per second’ either vertically611 or horizontally.459 How much energy do they contain? One 20 centimeter kugeiblitz fell into a small barrel of water’ causing it to boil for several minutes.549 Another plasma ball was seen entering a heavy oak piling’ which shattered violently moments later. The ball was estimated to contain an energy of 100 kilojoules.610 Energy densities have been variously estimated from 20 megajoules per cubic meter611 up to 100 megajoules per cubic meter.505 One author has speculated that persons standing within a meter or two of a large lightning ball might well be exposed to radiation sufficient to cause radionecrosis’ although the balls are rarely reported to emit heat.505 Since ball lightning requires no ionized path and appears to be self-sustaining’ it should be possible for ETs to wield portable kugeiblitz projectors. A person directly hit with one of these plasma balls could suffer severe radiation burns’ electrocution’ and traumatic shock. There is a small problem with aiming accuracy’ as the motions of the glowing balls are frequently erratic. However’ there have been many reports of ball lightning actually "chasing" people’ apparently attracted to a small accumulated net charge.466 Aim may in fact be a nonproblem after all. Electrons can be utilized more directly in space. A beam of electrons could be fired at the hull of an alien spacecraft’ embedding negative charges throughout its bulk. The craft might then be grappled electrostatically -- a tractor beam of sorts. Unfortunately’ the forces generated are quite weak over normal operational distances’ and the skin charge would be easy to neutralize by the aliens themselves. More reasonable’ perhaps’ are the torch weapons. The muon torch is a prime example. Muons are very inert mesons’ so inert that they comprise about 80% of the cosmic rays at sea level and have been detected in mines’ hundreds of meters beneath solid rock.681 The depth of penetration depends almost solely upon the initial energy of the beam of particles -- the higher the energy’ the farther they go. But muons decay after 2.2 microseconds. We can arrange the beam energy so that’ after the muons have traveled’ say’ one kilometer’ the decay time has elapsed. One kilometer from the source’ then’ the particles in the beam will suddenly decay’ releasing their energy with almost pinpoint accuracy. Range can be adjusted on the muon torch by merely adjusting the energy of the beam. Charged pions can also provide us with a torch effect. However’ since charged pions decay in only 0.03 microseconds’ to get the same range pions must be accelerated to energies about ten thousand times higher than muons (Table 18.3). But the pion torch is superior for one simple reason. When the muon decays’ most of the energy thus liberated is carried away by neutrinos and is effectively lost. But when the pion decays’ its full rest mass energy of 139 MeV is delivered to the target. If the aliens have constructed a pion torch capable of delivering a pion current of one milliampere -- not inconceivable using modern human technology -- the weapon would have a power at the target of about 150 kilowatts.*

Table 18.3 Range of the Charged-Pion Torch in Vacuum Pion Energy

Range

Pion Energy

Range

1 MeV

1 meter

10 GeV

550 meters

10 MeV

3 meters

100 GeV

5.4 Kilometers

100 MeV

10 meters

1 TeV

54 Kilometers

1 GeV

60 meters

10 TeV

540 Kilometers

The problem with charged particle torches in general is that there’s an obvious defense available. Electrostatic screens around an enemy ship in space would repell the pions as easily as electrons are deflected in a TV picture tube. Only if torch weapons aren’t expected would the torchers have a fighting chance for success. Neutral pions are available too’ of course’ and would be quite undeflectable by any electrical field. There would be no elegant defense against a neutral pion torch. There’s just one catch. The neutral pion decays in 10-15 seconds. To achieve the same range as a charged pion torch’ energies must be some seven orders of magnitude greater. Even at the terrific energy of 1000 TeV’ at least three orders of magnitude above the capacity of the largest accelerator on Earth’ the neutral pions would have a range in vacuum of only 2.2 meters. We have not yet exhausted the list of nonphotonic radiative weapons. It has long been believed by many nuclear physicists that whole atoms of antiparticles could be built up -into anti-atoms. An atom of antimatter would have a negatively charged nucleus surrounded by a cloud of positrons. Recent research has revealed the first synthesis of the antihelium-3 nucleus’487 and the antideuteron (anti-deuterium nucleus) has been known for a decade. It is not inconceivable that ETs may be able to fashion macroscopic chunks of pure antimatter’ stored temporarily in some kind of (perhaps) magnetic confinement vessel. A mere 64 grams of antimatter’ released on the surface of this planet’ would provide an explosive yield of one megaton -- the approximate energy requirement to utterly destroy a city of one million inhabitants.573

Figure 18.3 The Starship Enterprise fires its phasers.

Other applications for antimatter may be imagined. A cloud of anti-plasma released at an enemy vessel in space could cause severe structural weakening of the hull’ as in the original-series Star Trek adventure "Balance of Terror" and other science fiction tales.607 Another possibility is the use of antiparticle beams to slice up chunks of ordinary matter. A beam of anti-protons’ for instance’ would cut right through a distant spacecraft. Not only would the ship be physically riven in two’ but fierce radiation accompanying the annihilation reactions would undoubtedly prove quite deadly to the occupants. Aliens would be smart enough not to choose antiprotons for this purpose’ however’ as these are susceptible to electrostatic defenses. ETs would use antineutrons instead. Or they may use other forms of beam weapons that we not yet imagined (Figure 18.3).

* Note also that the pion decay cloud could be materialized inside the enemy ship’ incinerating everything within but leaving the hull intact.

18.6 Nuclear Explosives Nuclear explosives don‘t fit neatly into the above categories’ for the simple reason that the blast products consist of virtually every brand of destructiveness discussed so far. About half of the energy of a thermonuclear device comes off as sonic energy’ in the form of high pressure shock waves and gross mechanical vibration. The other half consists of electromagnetic radiation of all kinds’ primarily x-rays but including ultraviolet’ visible and radio emissions. Nuclear radiation’ primarily fast neutrons’ constitute a few percent of the total. Fallout comprises various amounts of poisonous radiochemicals. Nuclear weapons are very messy affairs. Many fires are started at once by the flash of an H-bomb. The majority of casualties result’ not from the effects of the blast itself’ but by the firestorm sweeping the victim city. Only at the very outermost edges of the hellish thermal maelstrom are individuals able to drag themselves to safety (Table 18.4). Out in space where there is no atmosphere to absorb and scatter radiation’ the destructive range is vastly increased. It has been estimated that a 20 megaton thermonuclear device would be sufficient to kill astronauts in unshielded spacecraft within a sphere nearly 1000 kilometers in diameter. A lethal sphere the size of the Earth itself would require a 10’000 megaton bomb’ "a weapon which probably could be built with today’s technology."561

Table 18.4 Thermonuclear Explosive Blast Effects Explosive Yield*

Radiation Fatality

Thermal Ignition and Second Degree Burns

Severe Structural Blast Damage

50% Blast Mortality

1 kiloton

0.8 km

0.8 km

1.0 km

0.5 km

10 kilotons

1.3 km

2.3 km

2.3 km

1.3 km

100 kilotons

1.8 km

4.0 km

4.5 km

3.1 km

1 megaton

2.4 km

16 km

10 km

7.7 km

10 megatons

3.7 km

37 km

22 km

19 km

*yield is commonly measured in tons of high explosive (e.g. TNT)

Various aerospace magazines have given rough estimates of the state-of-the-art of H-bomb building technology -- roughly 45 kilograms of bomb weight for each megaton of destructive power.563 According to Theodore Taylor in The Curve of Binding Energy’ a well-designed A-bomb could be built as small as a grapefruit. Thermonuclear devices could be disguised as color television sets! Cost? Ten kiloton bombs can reportedly be purchased (authorized customers only!) for $350’000’ but two-megaton devices can be picked up for a paltry $600’000.573 Bombs are cheap. The aliens may be cleverer than we imagine’ however. They may choose to attack our nuclear power plants or our nuclear weapon depositories’ and get us with our own stuff! Or they may turn to the N-bomb. The neutron bomb is a clean’ low-power H-bomb. Now’ A-bombs use the principle of nuclear fission -- a mass of U-235 or plutonium undergoes a chain reaction explosion. In the H-bomb’ fissile components are used to achieve the high temperatures necessary for the initiation of fusion reactions between deuterium and tritium. Explosive yields are further increased by wrapping the H-bomb in a jacket of U-238’ which is highly fissionable only in the presence of high neutron fluxes. On the other hand’ the neutron bomb would be a pure fusion bomb’ employing no dirty fission detonator. The N-bomb would release large numbers of 17 MeV neutrons over limited areas -- perhaps a few kilometers in diameter. These neutrons have high penetrating power’ and produce secondary radiation by colliding with atomic nuclei. These secondary particles are responsible for the lethality of the neutrons. There would be no ordinary fallout’ although the invading aliens might have to wait a short while before entering our cities. Buildings and land would be left virtually unscathed’ although the passage of neutrons would make walls and metal slightly radioactive for a few days. The fusion of as little as one milligram of deuterium could produce enough neutrons to kill 100’000 humans even through one meter of solid concrete. But an N-bomb is more than just a pure fusion bomb. Normal thermonuclear devices have such large blast effects that the neutron damage would be lost in the greater general destruction. The range of the neutrons depends on their energy’ and this is relatively constant. Hence’ the trick is to build a very low yield fusion bomb’ in the kiloton range. If the N-bomb was of proper size’ and was exploded at just the right height’ it would spray the area with deadly neutrons without causing widespread firestorms and structural damage. The N-bomb would be an excellent tactical weapon for aliens who wanted us out of the way but wished to examine our undamaged artifacts at their leisure. Of course’ H-bombs can always be made as large as desired. Gigaton yield devices (1000 megatons) have been seriously discussed’ and are usually referred to as "doomsday bombs." Robert Salkeld suggests that a gigaton bomb burst in our upper atmosphere would ignite all combustible substances (forests’ buildings’ humans) in a 600 kilometer circle below.561 Figures released by the Atomic Energy Commission in the early 1960's show that a one gigaton warhead detonated about 16 kilometers up could be expected to start fires over an area of more than 700’000 square kilometers.525 Others have estimated that 20-gigaton devices could be "salted" to make them dirtier. A bomb wrapped in sodium would release intense’ quick-killing radioactive fallout with a half-life of only fifteen hours (24Na). If the wrapping were cobalt instead’ the fallout (60Co’ half-life 5.3 years) would kill very slowly’ but would last a long time. Or both could be incorporated in a single weapon. As one writer dryly pointed out: "The sodium-24 would knock out those who didn‘t get into deep shelters’ and the cobalt-60 would immobilize those who did."525 But the true doomsday bomb is the one which’ if used’ could destroy all human life on Earth. Physicist W.H. Clark’ a nuclear weapons technologist’ has estimated that at least 1000 gigatons of nuclear explosives would be required to wipe out the human race. Freeman J. Dyson’ at Princeton’ comes up with more conservative figures: 3000 gigatons to kill half the human race.525 The strongest’ and certainly the most obvious’ argument against doomsday bombs from a military standpoint is that the attacker is destroyed along with the attacked. But would this argument be persuasive for marauding off-world aliens intent on planetary destruction?

18.7 Climate Modification and High Technology Weapons The science of weather modification and climate control is still in its infancy. It is therefore much more difficult to assess the possibilities than in earlier "High technology" necessarily implies a more speculative effort -- not to imply that weapons discussed below are any less dangerous or less real. If any of the techniques described below turn out to be unworkable for one reason or another’ it’s probably unimportant. The ETs undoubtedly have far more effective ones at their disposal! Dr. Pierre St. Amand’ doing weather modification research for the U.S. Navy in the mid-1960's’ said of his work: "We regard the weather as a weapon. Anything one can use to get his way is a weapon and the weather is as good a one as any."547 In 1974’ the Pentagon conceded it had used weather warfare in Vietnam for more than seven years. In point of fact’ the CIA allegedly began a rainmaking project over Saigon as early as 1963.471 This disclosure infuriated the Soviets’ who promptly introduced a resolution in the United Nations calling for multilateral renouncement of all geophysical and meteorological warfare.462 Man has been tampering with the weather in earnest since Schaefer and Langmuir's historic snowfall-induction experiments in 1946. Unfortunately’ there have been many failures and progress has been slow. Silver iodide and dry ice have been used to precipitate rain for decades’ and recently another technique -- liquid propane sprayed into supercooled fogs -- has been added to the list.465 Hail suppression research appears promising’464 and snowfall-induction for watershed and recreational purposes has become a commercial enterprise.474 We can disperse fogs’ prevent frost’ and the NOAA's Project Stormfury has had limited success in reducing the severity of tropical hurricanes. But man’s best efforts to date still appear rather feeble. Could aliens find ways to generate earthquakes at will? Small tremors have already been artificially created by pumping water into the ground under pressure. This lubricates the fault lines’ allowing the crustal plates to slip. Another technique is to set off high explosives at a weak point along a fault’ jarring it loose suddenly. If the blast site were judiciously selected by alien geophysicists’ the resulting quake could be devastating. Finally’ there is the suggestion that earthquakes might be triggered by high intensity infrasound. It is well known that microseisms occur regularly at frequencies around 0.1 Hz’628 and the possibility exists that sympathetic resonances of some kind could be set up. Such oscillations could perhaps be induced using sonic booms. Researchers have discovered that infrasonic energy can be transmitted from the air to the ground; they have detected "air-coupled seismic waves resulting from fighter planes -- flying at high altitudes at Mach numbers greater than 1.2. Such waves have also been detected in the ground below the paths of jet-air liners."628 The average house-rattling earthquake liberates a total energy equivalent to hundreds of gigatons (about 1021 joules). Hurricanes are of similar intensity. But these cannot simply be "triggered" as can quakes’ so we‘re faced with a much larger problem in trying to generate one. Tornadoes’ the smaller cousin of the tropical hurricane’ may be slightly easier to manage. D. S. Halacy’ Jr.’ in The Weather Changers’ notes that "there is evidence that a strong air temperature inversion at about 2 kilometers altitude is likely to produce tornadoes."547 Assuming such conditions exist in rudimentary form’ can a cyclonic disturbance be generated? Perhaps. Again’ the sonic boom is our instrumentality. An aircraft flying at supersonic speeds’ presenting an area of several square meters of fuselage to the onrushing atmosphere’ can produce pressures equivalent to "an instantaneous 180-mph hurricane" over a swath a few hundred meters wide beneath it.524 It’s possible that a rapidly circling fleet of supersonic flying machines could induce cyclonic motion in the already unstable air. Bernard Vonnegut’ a General Electric weather modification scientist’ notes that a typical tornado funnel is kept going by a power consumption of roughly 200’000 megawatts.547 Could such a tornado be dispersed? That is’ have we a defense if the ETs shoot tornadoes at our cities? A decade or two ago’ it was suggested that a "weather bomb" could be exploded in or near a twister’ literally blowing it out. This idea has been used in science fiction stories’683 but’ as Halacy says: "Recent studies of the power involved in a typical tornado indicate that an H-bomb would be needed."547 Perhaps the cure is worse than the illness! What about generating huge tsunamis’ popularly known as "tidal waves"? Tsunamis are generally caused by seaquakes on the ocean floor’ and some of the techniques described for earthquake generation might be applicable here. Seismic sea waves have been sighted as high as 30 meters on many occasions’ and there are reports of a 50 meter wave following the great Krakatoa volcanic eruption in 1883. The Guinness Book of World Records lists a record wave at 67 meters which supposedly appeared off the coast of Valdez’ southwest Alaska in 1964’360 but there are reports in reputable journals of still higher crests.684 Other techniques for generating tidal waves have been suggested’ such as the detonation of a one-gigaton thermonuclear device submerged a few kilometers under the ocean surface. This would produce a wave nearly 30 meters high. But the most ingenious idea is the planetoid attack. Meteoroids pass close to Earth all the time. For instance’ on 30 October 1937’ Hermes (a small planetoid about one kilometer in diameter) passed within 800’000 kilometers -about twice the distance to the Moon.563 The Apollo planetoids pass as close as a few million kilometers on a regular basis. These objects range from a few kilometers to as large as thirty kilometers in diameter. It is estimated that the Earth has been struck by one of these larger meteoroids about once every few hundred million years.598 If the aliens were able to latch onto one such chunk of rock and iron’ a few well-placed H-bombs could alter its trajectory very slightly -- just enough to nudge it into a collision course with Earth. If a planetoid one kilometer in radius were to strike our planet’ it would gouge out a trench 80 kilometers in length and at least eight kilometers deep -- more than four times as deep as the Grand Canyon.414 But the surface of our planet is mostly water’ so a sea landing is more likely. What if the object were to strike an ocean (Table 18.5)? Oceanographers have calculated that such an impact in’ say’ the central part of the Atlantic Ocean’ would initially form a transient rim crater -- a monstrous wall of water -- on the order of three to six kilometers high.596

Table 18.5 Seismic Wave Heights for Planetoid Oceanic Impact* (mean impact velocity 10 km/sec) Seismic Wave Heights

Diameter of Planetoid Energy Released on Impact**

5 meters

100 meters

23 megatons

10 meters

200 meters

190 megatons

40 meters

500 meters

3 gigatons

100 meters

1 kilometer

23 gigatons

250 meters

2 kilometers

190 gigatons

*Adapted from tables and equations’504 assuming planetoid density r ~ 5 gm/cm3 **One megaton = 5.76 x 1015 joules

What about planetary flooding? Astronomer Stephen H. Dole has estimated that a multiplication of the terrestrial water supply by a factor of four would be required for complete inundation of all the continents.214 Where might aliens find this much water? Not on Earth’ certainly! One old idea is the atmospheric precipitator’ a device capable of precipitating out all the water held in the humid. atmosphere. However’ simple calculations reveal that if all the liquid in our skies were suddenly condensed’ we‘d be standing ankle deep in water. It’s possible that highly localized flooding could occur’ but a widespread terrestrial deluge is quite impossible using this technique. Perhaps ETs could melt the polar icecaps. The two icecaps contain a total of 23 million cubic kilometers of ice.367 With all this water’ the absolute sea level will rise only about fifty meters’ leaving most of Earth’s surface high and dry. Unfortunately’ many of the world’s most populous cities are located near the coast. Dr. Howard A. Wilcox in Hothouse Earth has shown that 33 of the 50 largest metropolitan areas on Earth would probably be inundated. This would displace about 71% of the population of those 50 cities alone -some 200 million humans.688 Wilcox suggests that icecap melting may occur naturally if mankind continues to increase its worldwide energy consumption exponentially. But we are concerned here with the possibility of aliens purposefully thawing the poles. Halacy relates that the Russians have experimented with in creasing the melting rate of snow.547 This is accomplished by dusting the surface with lampblack’ causing the ice to absorb solar heat more rapidly and melt. Halacy estimates that to spread a film of carbon black one-tenth of a millimeter thick over the entire northern polar region would require nearly two billion tons of the stuff. A fleet of 1000 B-52H bombers would require 50’000 missions to complete the dispersal. This technique clearly leaves much to be desired. Could nuclear devices be used to melt the icecaps? The energy equivalent required for this feat is roughly one billion megatons. If the ETs have this kind of firepower available’ why should they bother melting ice with it? As Robert Frost agonized over the decision of whether to die by fire or ice’ let us now consider a weapon that could cause an ice age to occur on Earth. It has been suggested that clouds of particles be circulated in an interior solar orbit’ or giant sheets of reflective foil interposed between Sun and Earth’ thus causing our planet to cool rapidly. If the Sun’s rays were suddenly cut off’ the atmosphere would cool to freezing’ the approximate temperature of the ocean’ in a matter of days. From then on’ the temperatures would drop much more slowly’ since the huge volume of the ocean would act as a giant thermal buffer. However’ it is believed that the Ice Ages were brought about by temperature changes as small as 10 °C. We could be in big trouble in very short order. Neither of the above proposals is workable’ however. Thermal agitation and the solar wind would rapidly disperse the orbital gas cloud (or the foil)’ and a few warhead-tipped missiles strategically detonated would probably be enough to wreck the entire scheme. The best way to artificially cool a planet is to disperse fine dust throughout its atmosphere’ way up in the stratosphere above the rain clouds. This elevates the planetary albedo’ causing solar radiation to be reflected back into space. The planet will begin to cool. Using particles with diameters of 0.01-0.1 microns’ an effective job could probably be done with about 20 million metric tons of the stuff. If the aliens build a linear induction catapult on the lunar surface’ and each shipment from the hypothetical ET Moon colony contains about ten cubic meters of fine dust’ it would take about one year to blot out our sunlight if they send off one parcel every minute! There are two great advantages to this weapon -- from the aliens‘ point of view. First’ the cooling is probably irreversible and would precipitate an Ice Age on Earth. Second’ there is virtually no defense against its use’ as it would be impossible to scoop out dust dispersed randomly throughout our atmosphere as fast as the ETs could dump it in.685 About the only alternative to surrender would be a direct frontal assault on the Moon colony. There are other devious tricks the aliens could attempt with our aerosphere. As noted earlier’ exposure to ultraviolet radiation can cause skin cancer’ severe burns’ and "snow blindness." The Sun puts out lots of UV’ but these rays never reach the Earth’s surface. This is because the natural protective ozone layer generated by the atmospheric oxygen screens them out. Ozone is present everywhere in our air’ but most of it is concentrated in the stratosphere at an altitude of about 20-30 kilometers. If we could collect all the ozone from a column of air stretching from the ground to the borders of space’ we‘d find that each square meter has only about four grams of this precious allotrope of oxygen above it. Were we to completely destroy this protective chemical layer’ about 64 watts per square meter of harmful ultraviolet radiation would pelt us from the sky. Aliens may decide to try to relieve our atmosphere of its ozone. Nitrogen oxides’ SST emissions’ fluorocarbons and other industrial aerosols are already beginning to do a fine job of this’ but the ETs undoubtedly will want to hurry matters along. How might they go about the construction of a deozonification weapon? Dr. Michael B. McElroy’ professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the Center for Earth and Planetary Physics at Harvard University’ has intimated that bromine is so effective at destroying ozone that "it could be used militarily."414 Any halogen will do’ but apparently the brownish-orange liquid element’ acting as a catalyst to decompose the ozone back into oxygen’ does it best. Each halogenic atom injected into the stratosphere can theoretically catalyze as many as a thousand reactions before it becomes chemically locked in a relatively inert form.520 A simple calculation demonstrates that approximately four kilograms of bromine’ dispersed in the stratosphere over each square kilometer of the Earth’s surface’ will result in virtually total deozonification. To deozonify the entire world would require about two million metric tons of liquid bromine.* The supply officer at Dow Chemical Corporation in Walnut Creek’ California tells me that the aliens can purchase liquid bromine from him for 30¢ a gallon -- provided they buy in 2300 gallon tank car lots. This works out to about $52 million -- not counting the cost of delivery to the stratosphere -- for eliminating our planet’s ozone screen. Studies show that anyone exposed to the downpour of ultraviolet radiation for more than a minute would receive severe second degree burns’ and would be blinded in seconds should he cast his eyes skyward.417 Terrestrial flora would begin to perish within hours.445 There are several other highly speculative "high technology" weapons. These weapons are wholly infeasible using existing human technology -- but of course this doesn‘t restrict the aliens’ who are all the more delighted at our lack of efficacious defenses. Dr. Horace Dudley suggests that it may be possible to induce a runaway chain reaction in our atmosphere. He says that if a large enough nuclear device were detonated in open air’ a worldwide conflagration might result.457 Although many would scoff at this idea’ apparently Compton himself once performed a calculation to estimate the likelihood of such an event. The result? A small’ but non-zero’ probability. We may someday find ourselves attacked by a giant "doomsday machine." Such a possibility was explored in a Star Trek adventure of the same name. A giant robot "planetkiller" was roaming the galaxy’ chopping whole planets into rubble with antiparticle beams and stoking its nuclear fires with light elements extracted from the debris. Our only defenses would be ingenuity and luck. Black holes’ if you believe they exist’ could even be used against us. Quantum black holes may exist’ holes with relatively small masses and unimaginable densities. Theoretical physicists such as Dr. Stephen W. Hawking of Cal Tech (currently Cambridge University) have calculated that quantum holes with masses greater than about a billion tons will not have evaporated yet. If such a hole was to become trapped by a planet’ it would slowly "digest" the body’ eventually resulting in a slightly larger quantum hole -- and no planet.686 But if not the planet’ then perhaps its sun. Niven and Pournelle have suggested’ in the fictional The Mote in God’s Eye’ that if asteroids are shot into a star’ their sudden vaporization may cause severe instabilities leading to an explosion of the sun itself.668 But the "classic" technique’ which is discussed at greater length in the following chapter’ is Shklovskii’s ten billion megawatt graser.3 Supposedly’ it could induce a powerful Type II supernova in any metal rich star greater than about five solar masses. Hence’ using this scheme’ Sol could not be detonated. How ever’ there are at least 200 supernovable stars within 100 light years of Earth’ the distance of minimum biological effect for supernovae.468’469’498 As technologist Adrian Berry remarks of this weapon: "Blowing up the sun... would be a perfect Götterdammerung for a besieged warlord. It would be a spectacle to surpass all others; but the fact that nobody would survive to witness the effects might’ paradoxically’ make the action even more attractive to warped or highly 'poetic' minds."77 Still worse’ the aliens could commit galacticide. Near the Galactic Core’ stars are much more densely packed than out here near the rim. In more than one science fiction tale’ a supernova occurring in the Core initiates a chain reaction of stellar explosions’ spreading outward in a spherical wave at the speed of light. The entire Galaxy is doomed!687’607

* Between 1961 and 1971’ the U.S. military dropped nearly 50’000 metric tons of herbicides on the forests of Vietnam. This represents about 2% of the mass of bromine the ETs would have to use to deozonify the Earth.

18.8 The Ultimate Weapon In 1952’ the late John W. Campbell’ Jr.’ wrote an editorial in Astounding Science Fiction entitled "The Ultimate Weapon."193 The discussion below draws heavily from his work’ as his analysis has retained its luster even after twenty-five long years of human progress on this planet. What’ it might be asked’ would be the characteristics of the Ultimate Weapon -- an irresistible force for which no defense exists? Campbell isolated the requirements that specify this device: 1. It must absolutely wipe out all opposition. 2. It should be of such nature that no resistance to it is possible. 3. It must be such that the opposition cannot turn it against the original wielder. 4. It must annihilate all opposition’ yet must not harm friends. 5. It should not damage any useful or constructive forces. 6. It should be of a catalytic nature’ self-propagating’ such that’ once loosed’ even the destruction of the original source cannot defeat it. 7. It will render all present weapons inoperative. 8. Its power should be such that no power in the Universe can stand against it. 9. Its effect should not depend on surprise’ so that even pre-erected defenses cannot defeat it. 10. It should cost very little to use. 11. The field where it has once been used should be permanently uninhabitable by the opposition’ but freely accessible to friends. What weapon imaginable could accomplish so much’ so perfectly? As Campbell notes’ the Ultimate Weapon must wipe out all opposition’ but this does not necessarily imply that men must die. And since any physical weapon can be countered by physical forces’ the Ultimate Weapon must be nonphysical. The wielder must desire to wipe out opposition’ not fellow sentients. Opposition may be wiped out by inducing friendship. Friendship cannot harm friends or be turned against the original wielder. It is inexpensive and doesn‘t depend on surprise. And’ in the long run’ resistance to it is impossible. Campbell concludes: "It seems to me that in that least developed of all fields of human understanding’ the human mind itself’ must lie the Ultimate Weapon. But there’s one comfort; whoever develops it will be our friend." Back to Contents

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 19. Planetary Engineering and Galactic High Technology "It was a raw’ unpleasant day’ the sort that makes me hate planets..." -- from Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin (1968)2579 "But for Man’ home can never be a single country’ a single world’ a single Solar System’ a single star cluster. While the race endures in recognizably human form’ it can have no one abiding place short of the Universe itself. This divine discontent is part of our destiny. It is one more’ and perhaps the greatest’ of the gifts we inherited from the sea that rolls so restlessly around the world. It will be driving our descendants on toward myriad unimaginable goals when the sea is stilled forever’ and Earth itself a fading legend lost among the stars." -- Arthur C. Clarke’ in Report on Planet Three (1972)81 "There is nothing so big nor so crazy that one out of a million technological societies may not feel itself driven to do’ provided it is physically possible." -- Freeman J. Dyson (1966)1450 "From the roof of the office building they watched Uranus pass. "The planet must be smaller than it had been at Corbell's birth. Its drive was not all that efficient; it must have blown away mega.megatons of atmosphere during eons of maneuvering. For all that’ a gas giant planet was now passing two million miles from the Earth. "It was tremendous. It glowed half full near the horizon: a white half-disk touched with pink’ banded and roiled with storms’ and a night side black against the stars. From the black edge a tiny’ intense violet-white flame suddenly reached out and out’ lighting the night side’ expanding’ reddening’ dissipating...." -- from A World Out Of Time by Larry Niven (1976)2636 "Witness this new-made World’ another Heaven From Heaven-gate not far’ founded in view On the clear hyaline’ the glassy sea; Of amplitude almost immense’ with stars Numerous’ and every star perhaps a world Of destined habitation... -- John Milton (1608-1674)’ in Paradise Lost’ Book 7’ II.617-622 "Too low they build’ who build beneath the stars." -- Edward Young (1683-1765)’ in “Night Thoughts“

Living on the surface of a single planet almost inevitably forces us to think small. We tend to view with awe the mighty works of human technology -- the Panama Canal’ the Empire State Building’ the Aswan Dam’ the Saturn V rockets. But alien engineers may command vastly greater energies and forces than human scientists can dream of today. We are the backwoodsmen of the Galaxy’ the poor inhabitants of a primitive Type I energy economy. Imagining themselves to be galactic engineers’ imaginative xenologists must train themselves to think big. This requires a temporary relaxation of quite normal and natural planetary chauvinisms (respecting both subject and scale). We must recognize and reject the Fallacy of the Big and Costly. Just because a project seems physically huge’ even monstrously so’ or incredibly expensive does not suffice to rule it out. The Great Pyramid of Cheops bears mute testimony to the obvious fact that anything physically possible can be accomplished’ provided only that it is desired badly enough! In short’ we must learn to recognize that Big and Costly are no match for Want. The purpose of this chapter is not to speculate on every conceivable extraterrestrial technology that might possibly exist’ from force fields and perpetual motion machines to flushless toilets with frictionless bowls.668 Rather’ the intent here is to attempt to visualize the broad limits on the technical achievements of alien civilizations of a higher order than our own. Not surprisingly’ we shall discover that most of the grandiose projects that have been proposed from time to time by scientists and science fiction writers can be accomplished by ordinary Type II stellar cultures. It appears to be extremely difficult to conceive of technologies appropriate to Type III galactic civilizations. The ultimate goal of any technology is to enhance survival and to create comfort’ convenience’ and wealth. Princeton physicist Gerard K. O‘Neill has pointed out that there are three necessary conditions for the rapid multiplication of wealth via technical advancement: Energy (see Chapter 15)’ materials’ and land area or living space. That is’ a population of wealthy and secure corporeal sentient beings must have the energy to accomplish great deeds’ the materials with which to build and to create magnificence’ and the physical space in which to live out their immortal lives.

19.1 Alien Materials Technology Before considering the question of living space and artificial habitats’ it is interesting to consider the kinds of materials and tools ETs may be able to use on their construction projects. We may be assured that any currently available human technology will also be known to alien engineers as well’ and probably in its most perfected form. More intriguing perhaps are those technical skills which presently elude our grasp’ yet which theory predicts are possible.

19.1.1 New Forms of Matter Terran scientists concede the possible existence of ultradense matter’ tiny clumps of material into which vast amounts of mass are compressed. Neutron stars formed by the partial gravitational collapse of massive suns are believed to consist of at least 80% pure "neutronium." Such an astronomical object is essentially a gigantic atomic nucleus’ reaching a density of 1017 kg/m3 inside a typical 20-kilometer-wide star. To but this into proper perspective’ a single teaspoon of neutronium would weigh about one hundred million tons -- roughly the equivalent of 30’000 Saturn V moon rockets. While there are many technical difficulties to be surmounted’ it is conceivable that matter of this density could be used as a building material. Ultra-thin sheets of superdense matter would be more than a trillion times stiffer than the hardest steel known to man. Projectiles could not pierce of dent it until they too were made of the same material. Neutronium shields would be impervious to almost all forms of radiation even at extreme intensities. A sheet only 1 mm (10-6 meter) thick would have the strength of a 1000-kilometer-thick block of steel. Neutronium plates could also be used to design a local antigravity field.2740 While the gravity around a spherical mass (e.g. planets) is radial’ the field across a disk is uniform except for edge effects. Newton's law for disks is g = 4Grt’ where r is density’ t is thickness’ and G is the universal gravitation constant. We can imagine placing a 0.4 mm-thick neutronium disk above ground’ care fully supported by a structure with four stilts. The gravity beneath the sheet would be zero’ the upward 1-gee pull of the neutronium exactly canceling the 1-gee downward pull of the Earth. A similar trick could be employed to enable astronauts to withstand higher accelerations in their starships. A vessel accelerating at a steady one gee could be designed with a 0.4 mm-thick neutronium disk embedded in the forward bulkhead. The crew would feel weightless when under weigh at one gee. Another useful advanced alien technology is the production of elementary particle gases. In order to make a gas’ the particles must be long-lived and electrically neutral.2821 Only two particles satisfy both of these criteria: neutrons and neutrinos. There is much recent evidence that it may be possible to design a magnetic bottle to hold condensed cold neutrons’2822 although preliminary calculations indicate that the maximum attainable gas density would be no more than about 10-6 gm/cm3.2740 A neutronium box lined with beta emitter perhaps could be used to contain and store a neutrino gas.2014 If ETs manage to assemble and store dense neutron and neutrino gases’ they will have practical alchemy at their disposal. They will be able to transmute virtually any chemical element into any other simply by immersing the object to be transmuted into the gas. Depending on the object and the gas’ any one of the following four nuclear reactions may occur: a o zM ‘ n —> a‘1 zM

a o a-1 zM ‘ anti-n —> zM

a zM ‘ n

a zM ‘ anti-n

—> z‘1Ma

—> z-1Ma

where M is any atom’ z is atomic number (protons in nucleus)’ a is atomic weight (neutrons and protons in nucleus)’ no is neutron’ n is neutrino’ and anti-no and antin the respective antiparticles. The reactions above also produce a variety of additional particles and so are incomplete as shown’ but the basic idea remains. To turn lead into gold’ the ancient alchemists' dream’ we treat 82Pb208 in a condensed cold antineutron gas until it transmutes to 82Pb197’ after which it is immersed in a trapped antineutrino gas to convert it into 79Au197 -- the naturally-occurring isotope of gold.

More interesting and useful’ however’ is the creation of new superheavy elements that do not occur in nature. Transuranic elements from neptunium-237 up to element-106 have already been manufactured from lighter nuclei in giant cyclotrons and particle accelerators at great expense of time and effort. And only microscopic quantities are available. Neutron and neutrino gases would make things a lot easier. For instance’ a piece of plutonium placed in a magnetic bottle containing condensed cold neutrons would sponge them up quickly and transmute into an extremely high atomic weight isotope -- perhaps a denser and more stable form of matter. Subsequent immersion in neutrino gas could convert this superheavy plutonium into a different element altogether. Elements 118 and 168 -- which have not yet been produced in human laboratories -- should be heavy inert gases like argon and xenon. Element 126 is predicted to have properties similar to normal plutonium’ and might permit much smaller nuclear reactors because of the greater atomic density.2850 There are also military applications. Only small amounts of these superheavy radionuclides would represent an explosive "critical mass’" so it should be possible in principle to design a hand pistol whose “bullets“ are really miniature atomic bombs. Trapped neutrinos would have many other fascinating uses. These particles interact little with ordinary matter’ so neutronium-collimated beams could be used for point-to-point straight-line communication directly through solid masses such as planets. Objects made of ultradense matter could be “x-rayed“ by neutrino beams focused by neutronium lenses. Material objects as we know them are held together by electromagnetic forces. But the nuclei of atoms are held together by the “strong force’“ which is about 100 times more powerful than the electromagnetic. It may be possible to produce neutronium wire utilizing the strong force’ spools of which would be many orders of magnitude stronger than any material known to present human science. Another possibility is subnuclear rope or quark thread. Nuclear physicists today believe that all elementary particles are themselves built up from combinations of “quarks“ stuck together by “gluons.“ A macroscopic chain of these subnuclear building blocks’ fastened by gluons’ should be in credibly strong and thin. Many years ago the famous Italian physicists P.A.M. Dirac hypothesized the existence of magnetic charges analogous to the electron’ which he called magnetic monopoles.2823 According to theory’ monopoles should weigh more than 200 times the mass of a proton. Physicist Paul B. Price at the University of California at Berkeley has predicted that two monopoles together would generate a force 18’000 times greater than the normal electromagnetic interaction between two protons.2824 The science of quantum magnetodynamics’ if it ever comes into existence’ will deal with the strongest nuclear interaction imaginable. Given the high binding energies available in monopole-monopole interactions’ there may exist a whole new class of elements we‘ve never seen before.1224 Monopolium’ or monopole metamatter’ may have a wide range of weird and exotic properties. It will almost certainly be denser and stronger than neutronium. Monopolic hydrogen might consist of a “north“ magnetic monopole orbiting a “south“ monopole’ forming heavy’ stable aggregates of macroscopic matter. Meta matter filaments may be hundreds of times stronger than nucleon chain.*

* Experimental searches for magnetic monopoles haven't found any yet. See Carrigan’ 1506 Ross’1499 and the summary of early work compiled by Karlssen.1513

19.1.2 Energy Storage and Mining Techniques Imagine a chunk of dense grey metal’ roughly the size of a fountain pen and weighing less than half a kilogram. Its continuous energy output is nearly 4 megawatts of power’ falling off to 2 megawatts after two months have elapsed. Even after a year it is putting out as much heat as a large domestic furnace. This substance actually exists!81 It is the radioisotope Californium-254’ an element known to human science but which has never been produced in macroscopic quantities. If aliens have done so’ the possibilities for exploitation of such a compact energy source are staggering -- high performance light-weight electric vehicles’ portable kilowatt-power radio broadcasting stations’ hand-held megajoule laser rifles...the list is virtually endless. Robert Forward has suggested that it might be possible to build "subcritical nuclear reactors."2014 Normally’ atomic fission piles must be made of a certain minimum size. This is because the neutrons which initiate fission reactions arise randomly from within the fissionable material itself. But there is some evidence that nonstatistical means for controlling neutrons may exist.2822 Thus controlled’ neutron emission would no longer be random and vastly improved efficiencies should be possible. Tiny’ portable fission reactors could probably be built to service aircraft and surface vehicles. Reactors using nonradioactive lightweight metals such as beryllium or lithium would also be possible. There are a number of other unusual energy sources. Although we don‘t ordinarily think of it as such’ planetary rotation is an excellent storehouse of energy. The spinning Earth’ if slowed to a dead stop’ would free about 2.6 x 1029 joules -- enough to power human civilization at its current rate of consumption for a billion years into the future. Sol’ if similarly halted’ would liberate 1.2 x 1036 joules. An even better place to store huge quantities of energy is in rotating chunks of ultradense matter. Hawking black holes would be ideal for the purpose. A 1016 kg HBH would be heavy enough not to evaporate very energetically (only about 16 kilowatts spontaneous)’ light enough to utilize in a space-based power storage station (mass equivalent to a 16-km-wide asteroid)’ and stable enough to serve as power center for a long-lived civilization (lifetime about 1012 eons). Its radius would be subatomic’ about 10-11 meters’ and energy could be stored and retrieved by imparting rotation via electromagnetic field coupling. Spun up to a maximum operating tangential velocity of 10%c’ synchrotron radiative losses from the system would be extremely low. The spinning HBH could store up to 2 x 1030 joules of energy -- enough to power present-day humanity for 9 billion years. A wide variety of new mining techniques can also be imagined. In one of his science fiction novels’ Larry Niven speculates on the possibility of specially bioneering organism which he calls “mining worms“: A mining worm is five inches long and ¼-inch in diameter’ mutated from an earthworm. Its grinding orifice is rimmed with little diamond teeth. It ingests metal ores for pleasure’ but for food it has to be supplied with blocks of synthetic stuff which is different for each breed of worm -- and there's a breed for every metal... .What breaks down the ores is a bacterium in the worm's stomach. Then the worm drops metal grains around its food block’ and we sweep them up.231 This idea is not at all farfetched. Various plants and animals are known to be "hyperaccumulators" of specific minerals or metals. For instance’ the so-called “copper flower“ native to Zaire has a dry weight that is 1.3% copper.2852 The subject of artificial mining organisms has already been discussed in Chapter 16. Arthur C. Clarke proposes that subterranean automated probes -- “subterrenes’“ as he calls them -- be designed to explore and exploit at least the entire crustal region of any terrestrial planet. Burrowing through solid rock using powerful rf radiation’ ultrasonics’ or laser heating’ subterrenes could circumnavigate whole worlds down to depths of hundreds of kilometers’ searching for deposits of rare minerals and lodes of precious metals.2841 Says Clarke: All the scientific observations and collection of samples could be done automatically according to a prearranged program. With no crew to sustain’ the vehicle could take its time. It might spend weeks or months wandering around the roots of the Himalayas or under the bed of the Atlantic before it headed for home with its cargo of knowledge.55 The main problem with materials mined from planets is that they lie at the bottom of a deep gravity well. As we have already seen’ space is the proper environment for stellar and galactic civilizations. So it is far more economical for such cultures to mine material that is already aloft. Asteroid mining is within the abilities even of human Type I technology. The late Dandridge M. Cole and Donald W. Cox once calculated that to move a 3 billion ton iron meteoroid from the asteroid belt to a parking orbit around Earth would require about 8.4 x 1018 joules of energy.563 (Recent analyses put this figure slightly higher.2843) This is the same as two hundred 100-megaton H-bombs assuming a 25% propulsive efficiency. According to Cole and Cox’ a small atomic bomb would be set off near the asteroid's surface to form a crater. Subsequent blasts could then be fired in this crude thrust chamber. Another proposal offered by Gerard O‘Neill is to use a “mass driver“ to propel the flying mountain of metal.2710 Using electromagnetic forces small pieces of the asteroid would be flung from the driver as reaction mass’ propelling the giant mother lode to Earth. A prototype mass driver has already been constructed and was successfully tested at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977.

19.2 Extraterrrestrial Habitat Engineering Most of the discussion thus far has centered on the technical advances that could be achieved by Type I civilizations. Domiciled on a planet’ living space will not be a major problem for such cultures. But emergent Type II societies will find no such ready-made living quarters in orbit. A species that wishes to expand its energy base and move into space must learn how to design and construct its own artificial habitats with a closed ecology and a controlled environment. Yet ultimately the key to all technological accomplishment is energy. We have discussed this at great length in an earlier chapter’ but it is now necessary to make explicit the critical difference between energy and power. Simply stated’ energy defines what a civilization can do whereas power defines how fast the civilization can do it. The distinction is important because the maximum technical achievement of any race is energy-limited’ not power-limited. In Chapter 15’ in the interests of straightforward exposition’ we made the tacit assumption that the rate of hydrogen fusion burning in stars was the maximum rate at which energy could be delivered to a technical culture from its sun. This assumption may not be valid for many advanced extraterrestrial societies. Table 19.1 gives the total energy available to each class of civilization. The alert reader will have noticed that the energy figures on the one hand’ and the power and lifetime figures on the other hand’ cannot be reconciled. The reason for the discrepancy is this: Some alien cultures may choose to use up their total energy reserves in a manner which is far more efficient than a stellar furnace normally permits. In other words’ by tampering with the normal processes within its sun a technical civilization can increase the total amount of energy that is available to it. Over its normal lifespan the typical star will convert its hydrogen to energy with a net lifetime efficiency of perhaps 0.06% -- a far cry from the 1% efficiency that may be had if the aliens turn off their sun and use their own fusion plants to burn the fuel.

Table 19.1 Power, Energy, and Mass Available to Extraterrestrial Civilizations in Various Stages of Their Development

Civilization

Class

Nominal Lifetime (years)

Nominal Power (watts)

Total Available Energy (joules)

Total Available Mass (kg)

Planetary

Type I

1010

1015

3 x 1032

1 x 1024

Stellar

Type II

1010

1026

2 x 1045

2 x 1030

Galactic

Type III

1011

1037

2 x 1056

3 x 1041

Universal

Type IV

1011

1047

2 x 1066

4 x 1051

Furthermore’ ETs may elect to burn their hydrogen legacy at a faster rate than natural processes would normally allow. This will inevitably result in a shorter lifetime for the civilization’ but this penalty is offset by the grander technological feats which may be accomplished with the vastly greater power expenditure (Table 19.2). To take a simple example: By accepting a lifetime of only one million years’ and by tampering with its sun’ a Type II civilization should be able to boost its useful power output to 6 x 1031 watts -an increase of nearly six orders of magnitude over the nominal value.

Table 19.2 Summary of Proposed Planetary, Stellar, and Galactic Engineering Projects

Estimated Total Energy Requirement

High Technology Project

Minimum Estimated Total Civilization Mass Able Requirement To Accomplish

(joules)

(kilograms)

TERRAFORMING Venus cloud algae-seeding

1018

109

I

Lunar atmosphere (1 atm)

1024

1018

I

Polar Albedo Change

1021

1013

I

Phobos Tilting

1023

1016

I

Asteroid Capture

1025

1020

I

1024-1025

109-1013

I

Permafrost Water Electrolysis

1023

1018

I

Saturn Ring-Ice

1028

1018

I

Transport

Asteroid Terrestrial Jovian Star Galaxy

1019-1021 1032-1038 1034-1040 1037-1043 1044-1054

1012 1025 1027 1030 1036-1042

I II II II III

Centrifugal Disruption

Terrestrial Jovian

1031 1035

1025 1027

II II

1036 1039

1027 1030

II II

1032 1036 1041 1047-1054

1025 1027 1030 1036-1042

II II II III

1017

1010

I

Cole Planetoid Habitat

1022-1023

1013-1014

I

Dyson Sphere/Cole Planetoid Swarm

1036-1037

1027-1028

II

Ringworld

1036

1027

II

Ringworld Rocket

1040

1030

II

1027-1028

1022

(I) II

Alderson Disk

1045

1034

III

Williamson-Pohl-Dyson Sphere

1043

1031-1032

III

1045-1046

1035-1036

III

Big Megaring

1051

1040

III

Megadisk

1054

1043

IV

Megasphere

1056

1045

IV

Mars

"Planetary Ecosynthesis"

MOVING AND MINING

Fusion Jovian Disassembly Star Terrestrial Jovian Star Galaxy

Explosive Disruption

SPACE HABITATS O'Neill Island One Community

Topopolis

Megaring

The situation is rather like a suicide mission’ Since shortened life has been accepted’ one is free to devote more resources to the present. There is much less future to save for. While this may be viewed as irresponsible by some’ it may also be argued that it is better to experience a brief but glorious career than a drawn-out bland existence. In the final analysis’ an intelligent race that chooses to expand into space is ultimately limited only by the amounts of energy and raw mass that are available to it.

19.2.1 Terraforming If living space is in short supply on the home planet’ one logical alter-native is to move some of the population and growth activities to other worlds. The typical habitable solar system will have from 7-13 planets and as many moons’ but it is highly unlikely that more than one of these has a natural environment tolerable to interplanetary pioneers. As with Sol's family of worlds’ most will be too hot or too cold or too dry or too wet to permit immediate habitation. Terraforming is a form of planetary engineering on a grand scale. Just as buildings and cities are designed to suit human comfort’ it is entirely feasible to consider the modification of planetary environments to suit human (or alien) needs.1977 Worlds which are unearthlike can be made more earthlike and may then be colonized and exploited by man. There have been many proposals and suggestions as to how to go about terraforming the planets and moons of our own solar system. Only a few of these will be considered briefly here’ because it turns out that in all cases the energy and mass requirements are well within the operating budgets of Type I planetary civilizations. In other words’ from the point of view of a Type II culture terraforming techniques should represent a fairly primitive technology. Perhaps inspired by Poul Anderson's short story entitled “The Big Rain’“ published in 1955’ Dr. Carl Sagan in 1961 proposed a terraforming project to modify the environment of Venus.1481 Our sister planet has a hellish climate’ with temperatures upwards of 750 °C and pressures of 90 atm at the surface. To prepare it for human habitation it will be necessary to lower the surface temperature and pressure’ and to elevate by at least two orders of magnitude the fraction of molecular oxygen present in the atmosphere. Most of the air is carbon dioxide’ and this must be eliminated as well. Sagan suggests the injection of blue-green algae into the Venusian atmosphere at high altitudes where it is relatively cool. These tiny organisms would consume the CO2 by growing more algae cells with water and aerial nutrients. Molecular oxygen would be expired as a waste product. Over a period of several years the

carbon dioxide level begins to drop’ thus reducing the green-house effect and cooling the planet overall.2633 When the ground was sufficiently cool’ cargo landers armed with fusion bombs could be de-orbited and set down on the surface. These machines’ able to burrow like moles and detonate beneath the surface’ may be used to trigger new volcanic chains in order to help percolate more water into the dry atmosphere.2836 Eventually the first “big rain“ will fall. Says Sagan: “The heatretaining clouds will partly clear away’ leaving an oxygen-rich atmosphere and a temperature cool enough to sustain hardy plants and animals from Earth.“ How reasonable is the astronomer's proposal? In 1970 a number of biologists conducted experiments to see if earthly algae would actually grow under the extreme initial conditions found on Venus.2847’2846 It was discovered that the most suitable strain is Cyanidium caldarium’ a single-celled form that is found in hot springs on Earth. This algae produced oxygen vigorously in a hot’ high-pressure atmosphere of CO2. In a typical experiment the researchers found that each million algae cells were increasing the oxygen concentration in the test tank by 380% per day. To terraform the atmosphere of Venus is not a very difficult undertaking from the standpoint of energy and mass requirements. If we dispatch an armada of 500 seeding probes to our neighbor world’ each armed with a thousand in-dependently-targetable payload capsules containing 1 ton of Cyanidium caldarium per capsule’ this would result in the dispersal of a kilogram of living blue-green algae cells over each square kilometer of the planet's surface. The total mission mass is about 109 kg’ and the total energy required is about 1018 joules -- both well within the budgetary limitations of a Type I civilization. Small’ airless terrestrial worlds such as Luna are also suitable for terraforming projects. Richard R. Vondrak of the Department of Space Physics and Astronomy at Rice University recently suggested a method for creating a comfortable artificial lunar atmosphere.656 The present lunar air has a total mass of about 10 tons. This arises mainly from outgassing from the interior’ without which the entire atmosphere would quickly be swept away by the solar wind. Vondrak calculates that if the atmosphere of the Moon was increased to a mass of at least 100’000 tons it would be driven into a “long-lived state“ which would drastically reduce losses to the solar wind. According to him: If one wanted intentionally to create an artificial lunar atmosphere’ gases can be obtained by heating or vaporization of the lunar soil. Approximately 25 megawatts are needed to produce 1 kg/sec of oxygen by soil vaporization. [Another] efficient mechanism for gas generation is subsurface mining with nuclear explosives. A 1-kiloton nuclear device will form a cavern approximately 40 meters in diameter from which 107 kg of oxygen can be recovered.656 To produce a breathable “shirtsleeve“ atmosphere’ about 1018 kilograms of O2 must be pumped into the lunar environment. This should require a total energy

expenditure of about 1024 joules. Again’ both mass and energy figures lie within the budget of an ambitious mature Type I civilization.

A wide variety of Martian terraforming techniques have been proposed from time to time. Joseph A. Burns and Martin Harwit of the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research at Cornell University once speculated that the proper positioning of large masses in orbit around the planet would alter its equinoctal precession period.1282 This would cause a perpetual “Spring“ season planetwide’ similar to that predicted by Sagan's "Long Winter" model of the Martian climate.1267 One scheme involves pushing Phobos from its present equatorial orbit to a new one inclined 45° to the Martian equator. The total energy required to exe cute this maneuver would be about 1023 joules. Unfortunately’ Burns and Harwit admit’ the orbit of Phobos would begin to precess and might foil the entire scheme. Their second proposal involves capturing roughly 25% of the matter in the nearby asteroid belt and using that mass instead of Phobos to swing Mars around. While this might work’ at least two orders of magnitude of energy would be required. Carl Sagan may have hit upon the cheapest way to terraform Mars.1288 He suggests that about 1010 tons of low albedo matter -- such as lampblack or dark-colored vegetation -- be transported to the permanent Martian polar icecaps over a period of about a century. The caps would be less reflective and would thus absorb more of the sun's energy. The ice would warm and thaw’ increasing the atmospheric pressure (and the greenhouse effect) and speeding north-south convective stirring of the planetary atmosphere. A minimum of 1021 joules would be needed to accomplish this feat’ and hundreds of years. There are ways to do it faster. An enormous orbiting mirror could be stationed in polar orbit to melt the icecaps by reflected or concentrated sunlight’ or thermonuclear bombs could be set off to achieve similar effects perhaps in a matter of decades.1978 A more complete analysis was undertaken by a study group at NASA-Ames in 1976. Entitled On the Habitability of Mars: An Approach to Planetary Eco-synthesis’ the final report of the study attempted to pin down the specific requirements for successful terraforming of the Red Planet.1926 It was concluded that “no fundamental limitation to the ability of Mars to support terrestrial life has been identified.“ The scientists proposed a two-pronged attack on the problem. First’ atmospheric mass should be increased by vaporizing the polar icecaps or the subsurface permafrost. If the reflectivity of the icecaps was reduced by only 5% for a period of 100 years’ a kind of runaway de-ice age might be triggered “and a new high temperature climatic regime established.“ Secondly’ mechanisms of genetic engineering currently available or under development could be used to construct organisms far better adapted to grow on Mars than any present terrestrial organism. In principle’ the entire gene pool of the Earth might be available for the construction of an ideally adapted oxygen-producing photosynthetic Martian organism. It was estimated that the creation of an oxygen atmosphere using known terrestrial photosynthetic lifeforms might take hundreds of thousands of years. But by altering the environment of Mars and by seeding it with appropriately bioneered organisms’ the length of time to project completion could be reduced a thousandfold. Total energy expenditure for the NASA-Ames scheme: Roughly 1024-1025 joules. Academician N.N. Semenov’ a Soviet scientist’ suggests that the water locked in permafrost and polar icecaps by subjected to simple electrolysis.2849 Water molecules would be split into oxygen’ which could be released into the Martian air eventually to result in a breathable atmosphere’ and hydrogen’ which could be collected and used for fuel in fusion power plants needed to operate the electrolysis factories. Earthlike air would result from the electrolysis of about 15% of all water believed to be present at the Martian surface’ at a cost of about 1023 joules. If water proves to be too scarce or too difficult to exploit’ scientists are ready with the most grandiose scheme proposed to date. Saturn's rings are believed to consist primarily of flying chunks of water-ice. These icy boulders could be gathered together and welded into “a string of huge’ frozen pearls’ each the rival of Phobos.“2828 Properly outfitted with propulsion and automated guidance systems’ the caravan of giant icebergs majestically peel away from Saturn in a long’ steep dive sunward. What happens next has been eloquently described by Freeman Dyson: A few years later’ the night-time sky of Mars begins to glow bright with an incessant sparkle of small meteors. The infall continues day and night’ only more visibly at night. Soft warm breezes blow over the land’ and slowly warmth penetrates into the frozen ground. A few years later’ it rains on Mars. It does not take long for the first oceans to begin to grow.2829

19.2.2 Space Habitats While we may expect that Type II civilizations will certainly have the energy’ mass’ and technological sophistication to terraform virtually any terrestrial world in their system’ the pressures of population expansion are not long alleviated by inhabiting other planets. Living area is increased by an order of magnitude at best’ a bounty gobbled up in only 300 years assuming population expands at the modest rate of 1% per annum. And by staying on planets’ the species condemns itself to a permanent Type I energy status. The remedy to this dilemma is to build giant habitats in free space’ far from the baleful encumbrances of planetary surfaces. In recent times Gerard K. O‘Neill and other have advocated the construction of enormous artificial habitats in Earth orbit (see especially Heppenheimer’2826 Johnson and Holbrow’2627 and O‘Neill2710) using materials lofted from the lunar surface by electromagnetic mass driver.2844 Preliminary estimates from several sources indicate that it is technically feasible to construct cities in space able to house 10’000 people and having a total mass of about 1010 kg. The main cost in energy comes from pitching the construction materials off the lunar surface. This cost amounts to about 1017 joules altogether. This is low enough to be feasible even for Type I civilizations such as our own -provided we do not build too many of them. A Type II culture’ of course’ is rich enough to build all of them it wants. After a sufficient number of habitats have been erected in space -- which O‘Neill calls Island One communities’ the process of expansion would become selfsustaining. A group of Island One communities could pool their resources to form an economic cooperative’ and engage in the construction of an even larger Island Two community. This monstrous edifice might be a giant’ slowly-spinning cylinder perhaps 2 km in diameter and 6 km in length’ housing a total of 140’000 people. The interior could be designed with a number of small villages separated by parkland or forest areas’ each similar in size and population density to a small Italian hill town.2710 Still larger habitats could be built’ since there is no gravity in free space to give engineers headaches. An Island Three community would measure more than 6 km in diameter and 32 km in length’ with a total land area of 1300 square kilometers and a human population of several million persons. And’ according to O‘Neill’ structures up to four times larger are possible within the limits of current human technology. These Island Four communities would have land areas more than half the size of Switzerland’ and populations numbering in the tens of millions (Figure 19.1).

Figure 19.1 Building Space Habitats

The lunar base. A nuclear plant provides power for the mass-driver’ which is fed with materials scooped up by vehicles such as the one in the (oeegvaisisd (Painting by Pierre Mion’ © National Geographic Society)2853

Recovery of asteroidal chunks using twin-engine mass-driver tug2710

The largest (Model IV) Colonies’ which could be functioning by 2025’ will probably consist of two connected cylinders’ each 19 miles long’ four miles in Exterior of a possible "Island Three" space diameter’ and containing as much as 100 square miles in community. Living areas’ agriculture’ and industry’ total land area. The most beautiful living areas on enrib though located within a few miles of each other’ could be duplicated in the colonies. The bridge shown have separately chosen tmnperdture’ climate’ day- here’ to give an idea of the dimensions involved’ is length’ and gravity. similar in size to the San Francisco Bay Bridge. A Model (R. Guidice’ NASA) IV colony could hold up to several million people comfortably’ but the interior design pictured here is intended for only about 200’000 inhabitants. Drawing: NASA

The Stanford Torus Design2827

Many scientists believe that it is wasteful to construct space cities out of lunar materials. It is cheaper’ they claim’ to use raw materials that are not trapped at the bottom of a gravity well. So’ we mine the asteroids.2864 Dandridge Cole and Donald Cox showed in 1964 that hollow planetoid cities’ similar in size and mass to the largest of the O‘Neill communities’ could be constructed in a fairly straightforward manner.563 The first order of business is the erection of a giant solar mirror several kilometers in diameter.2848 Formed under conditions of zero gravity’ it could have a very lightweight construction. Perhaps an old Echo balloon could be inflated’ sprayed with a thin layer of something to harden it’ then cut in half and silvered on the inside. Next’ an elongated asteroid should be selected’ perhaps measuring a kilometer in diameter and two kilometers in length with a mass of about 1013 kg. The mirror is then used to bore out a hole down the central axis of the object. This is done by focusing the sun's rays on the mountain of nickel-iron and vaporizing away some of the metal. After it has cooled’ the longitudinal hole is charged with large tankards of liquid water. The ends are securely plugged and welded shut using heat from the large mirror. The planetoid is set spinning slowly around its long axis. The entire metal body is bathed in concentrated solar heat directed at its surface by the mirror. Gradually the temperature rises’ finally reaching the melting point all over the surface. Slowly the heat creeps inward until virtually the entire object is molten or soft. The central axis is the last place to melt if the procedures have been correctly executed. So long as this region remains solid’ the melting body retains a cylindrical shape rather than coalescing into a formless spheroid. Just before the central region melts’ the axial water tanks explode into super-heated steam. The immense pressure blows the asteroid into a giant nickel-iron balloon some 10 km in diameter and 20 km in length. Once the hollow world has solidified and cooled off’ construction crews affix the giant mirror to one end and direct solar power down the central axis to bring sunshine to the interior. Water’ soil’ and biology are now moved in. More than 780 km2 are available for habitation. Life would be interesting inside a large O‘Neill community or Cole planetoid. The horizon’ and landscape’ rises overhead in the distance. Since only 3 km of air are required to appreciably scatter sunlight’ the sky will be blue. If the planetoid is given a slight equatorial bulge and the endcaps are shaded from the sun’ perpetual rain and snow will fall at the poles. The ice melt flows down rivers carved into the inside walls into a wraparound central circular lake that rises skyward in a beautiful blue arc at either horizon. Artificial spin-gravity may be set as low as desired’ so it is possible to don a pair of wings and take to the air like birds.2429

19.2.3 Planet Moving and Star Mining We are still thinking small’ unfortunately.* We have not yet mentioned a single engineering project that could not be successfully mounted by a Type I planetary culture’ at least in theory. A Type II society living in the space surrounding its sun will be a proud’ vigorous’ expansive large-scale civilization. They will have magnificent dreams’ and their technology will not lag far behind their ambition. A stellar culture will have access to the entire mass and derivable energy from all the matter in its own solar system. From Table 19.1 we have already seen that this represents considerable potential for energetic economic development of interplanetary space. Theoretically’ a stellar society has at least 1030 kilograms and more than 1043 joules to play around with. How grand may be their monuments to civilization? As even terrestrial engineers are well aware’ any construction project has two basic requirements: (1) Delivery of materials to the construction site’ and (2) proper deployment of those materials once they have arrived. So what can Type II cultures do? While the technology needed to move planets and stars around is absolutely huge when measured against the normal human scale’ the energy requirements for such operations turn out to be well within reach of Type II civilizations. Table 19.3 below shows the energies necessary to move several different kinds of bodies. Values are given both for solar escape velocity (~104 meter/sec) and for the minimum reasonable interstellar transport velocity (1%c).

Table 19.3 Energy Requirements for Planetary, Stellar, and Galactic Transport Operations Mass

Celestial Object

Velocity to be Imparted

Energy Required

(kg)

(joules)

Terrestrial

1025

104 m/sec 1%c

5.0 x 103 4.5 x 1037

Jovian

1027

104 m/sec 1%c

5.0 x 1034 4.5 x 1039

Star

1030

104 m/sec 1%c

5.0 x 1037 4.5 x 1042

Galaxy

1036-1042

104 m/sec 1%c

1044-1049 1049-1054

Clearly’ asteroid and planet-moving are no real problem. The interstellar transport of stars will give Type II societies some trouble’ and it make take a Type III organization to perform the maneuver gracefully. Darol Froman’ Technical Associate Director of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico’ has pointed out that the complete fusion combustion of all the deuterium in Earth's oceans would be insufficient to impart solar escape velocity to the planet.2831 If the hotter-burning hydrogen fusion reactions are used’ however’ Earth's seas could be drained and used as fuel to propel our world to the stars. Froman suggests that roughly a quarter of the fuel be used to escape from Sol’ another quarter to enter the target stellar system many light-years away’ and the remaining half for heat’ lighting’ and propulsion en route. The planetary fusion thrusters should be located at the South Pole’ so that Earth's natural rotation can be used for guidance and directional stabilization. Science fiction writer Stanley Schmidt has done a creditable job in describing the local effects of terramotive operations.2832 How might gas giants be pushed around the solar system? We know Type II societies have the energy’ but what kind of technology might be involved? In one of his science fiction tales of the distant future’ Larry Niven describes how it might be possible to use what he calls a Fusion Pogo Rocket. A tremendous fusion motor hooked up to a reworked military laser cannon might turn the trick on our Uranus: It's a double-walled tube’ very strong under expansion shock. It floats vertical in the upper air. Vents at the bottom let in the air’ which is hydrogen and methane and ammonia’ hydrogen compounds’ like the air that the sun burns. You fire laser cannon up along the axis’ using a color hydrogen won‘t let through. You get a fusion explosion along the axis’ and the explosion goes out and up. The whole mass blasts out the top’ through the flared end. It has to have an exhaust velocity way higher than Uranus's escape velocity. The motor goes smashing down into deeper air. You see there's a kind of flared skirt at the bottom. The deep air builds up there at terrific pressure’ stops the tube and blasts it back up. You fire it again... The atmosphere is fuel and shock absorber both -- and the planet is mostly atmosphere.2636 Stars’ too’ may be moved about’ using a tuned Shklovskii Mining Graser (see below) at reduced power. This powerful gamma-ray laser could be aimed to strike a glancing blow at the target star on the side opposite the direction you want it to move. The sun will spew out star-stuff and begin to move off in the direction dictated by Newton's laws of motion. Scientists agree that this technique may work’ because the same basic principle of propulsion has been observed to occur naturally with comets. These “dirty snowballs’“ swinging close to our Sol’ are heated on the sunward side. Material boils off asymnietrically and jets out into space’ deflecting the orbit by a kind of rocket effect.** So delivery of the materials to the construction site is no problem for stellar cultures. What about deployment? Once a planet or star has been moved to where it is needed’ how do we get the mass out? One of the most popular techniques for taking planets apart is called centrifugal disruption. This requires the accelerated rotation of a planet up to the point at which it fractures under internal stresses. Slowly the world unravels’ sloughing off outer layers like a successive molting. If the speed-up is continued long enough’ the entire body will be disrupted into asteroid-sized chunks of mass. Freeman Dyson has suggested that centrifugal disruption could be accomplished by laying a net of conductive windings around a planet along the lines of latitude’ each strand carrying a current on the order of microamperes per square centimeter.1450 These cables would give rise to a magnetic field. Orbiting electrical generators (which produce an opposing magnetic field) then trace out paths which produce a net torque on the body’ causing it to spin faster. A continuous stream of generators must pass through the correct maneuvers to maintain the electromagnetic accelerative force’ each unit converting its orbital momentum into planetary spin momentum. An alternative disruption technique is available to civilizations that have mastered fusion power -- simple tangential reaction thrust generated by sideways-firing equatorial fusion rockets would also spin up a world to destruction.2833 When the rotation rate of a planet the size of Earth has been brought up to about 100 minutes per revolution’ says Dyson’ “the equator is just ready to take off into space. From this point on’ the process of disassembling the planet will proceed steadily as its angular momentum is increased.“ The total energy required to spin Earth up to the transition point is about 4 x 1030 joules; for Jupiter’ about 9 x 1034 joules will be necessary. (After 97% of Jupiter's mass has been stripped away’ we are left with a large terrestrial world that was once the core of the jovian -- a mass of from 5-10 Earth-masses. We may decide to cannibalize it for heavy metals’ or it may be saved for reasons of aesthetics’ nostalgia’ or terraforming and habitation operations.) J.H. Fremlin and Anthony Michaelis have suggested that gas giants could be disassembled bit by bit.2955 Suborbital fusion satellites and nuclear ram-scoops could dip down into the jovian atmosphere’ scoop up some hydrogen’ fuse it into heavier elements’ and use the resulting energy to propel the transmuted matter into a parking orbit near the construction site. The energy needed to move Jupiter's entire mass into an Earth parking orbit along a minimum energy transfer trajectory is about 1036 joules. Still a third possibility is Explosive Disruption. Theoretically’ with enough energy under harness any planetary body can quite literally be blasted into rubble. While we don‘t know what kind of explosive device might be used (perhaps a 6-km-wide antimatter asteroid?)’ it is a simple matter to calculate how much energy would be required. The total energy to disrupt a world expIosively is on the order of its gravitational potential energy. This works out to about 2 x 1032 joules for Earth and 2 x 1036 joules for Jupiter. Again’ no problem at all for Type II cultures. In a related manner’ stars too may be disassembled. The energy required to blow a sun to bits by brute force explosive disruption is about 2 x 1041 joules’ which would be quite a challenge for an enterprising stellar society. But this is not very elegant. The renowned Soviet astrophysicist Iosef S. Shklovskii has considered the possibility that an artificial supernova might be induced in a single star.20 Shklovskii believes that a Type II civilization should have no difficulty constructing a gigantic gamma-ray laser (or “graser“) operating at a wavelength of 1 Angstrom and at power levels of at least 1015 watts. This Mining Graser (Figure 19.2) would have a forward aperture diameter of about 10 meters and could focus on a 10-km-wide spot at a star's surface from a safe distance of 10 light-years. (Unmanned automated devices can venture closer.) The Mining Graser will probably be “self-critical“ -- that is’ an enormous nuclear reactor that emits most of its laser energy directly as coherent light.284)

Figure 19.2 The Shklovskii Mining Graser

ABOVE: the Shklovskii Mining Graser strikes a glancing blow to an alien sun’ causing it to move off in the opposite direction due to the rocket effect. BELOW: the graser beam is cranked up to maximum power and directed straight at the star. The remnants of the resulting supernovae might appear as the Crab Nebula does in this photograph.

According to an astrophysical theory proposed by British astronomer Geoffrey Burbidge’ a concentrated gamma-ray flux should cause exceedingly high temperatures to arise in the outer layers of a star. If this temperature was hot enough’ a spontaneous supernova might result. It is estimated that a flux of 107 watts/m2 may be sufficient to initiate a supernova explosion.2837 When this occurred’ perhaps 0.1% of the star's mass would be converted directly into energy -- about 1043 joules. In addition to the release of copious amounts of xrays and other radiative energy that could be collected and stored’ a significant fraction of the stellar mass will be propelled outward at speeds up to 1000 km/sec. This rich expanding gas cloud may be harvested by diligent interstellar mining engineers’ using squadrons of robot drones equipped with giant electromagnetic ramscoops. Heavy elements generated by the explosion would be swept up’ refined and milled by a flotilla of gargantuan factory sweepships in a "cage" of circular orbits surrounding the demolished star. The Shklovskii Mining Graser can also be used to turn stars off. The beam strikes a glancing blow first on one side’ then the other’ and so forth. Star-stuff spews equally from either side’ so the sun goes nowhere. Sweepships collect and store the unburned stellar hydrogen as it streams from the photo-sphere. Slowly the star is whittled down to size as the bulk of its mass is siphoned off and taken away. Finally’ down to less than 1% of its original weight’ the once-mighty celestial furnace flickers out. The hot jovian planet that remains may now be disassembled by the more conventional means discussed earlier.

* A sobering example of this appears in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. 2944 Trantor’ the Imperial capitol of all the Galaxy’ is described as a giant ecumenopolis’ a “planetary city“ of gleaming metal covering 190 million km2 (about the surface area of Mars) and extending nearly 2 km deep. There are 40 billion human bureaucratic inhabitants. This seems a rather impressive piece of architecture’ especially since each person would have a generous 107 m3 all to himself which is at least two orders of magnitude more room than most people have on Earth today. But the mass and energy requirements are far less impressive. If made of steel the total mass of the city of Trantor would come to about 1019 kg. Only a million average-sized asteroids need be captured for this purpose’ and only about 1026 joules would be required to transfer them to the site of construction -- say’ Earth orbit. (This is the major energy cost of the project.) So mighty Trantor’ pride of the Galactic Imperium and capitol world of the entire Milky Way’ could be constructed with some difficulty by a mature Type I civilization or with ease by a Type II civilization. ** Galaxy-moving should be possible for Type III civilizations using a related technique. Synchronized application of the Graser to a few percent of the stars in a galaxy would cause billions of suns to move off in the preferred direction. The rest of the galaxy’ bound to the moving stars by gravity’ would slowly follow.

19.2.4 Large Scale Biospheric Engineering Assuming a Type II civilization can find all the materials and energy it may require’ normal expansive development and material growth may proceed. As it matures’ the stellar culture may place more and more artifacts in solar orbit in an attempt to soak up every last joule of the sun's output. They may not want to go to the trouble of turning their star off’ or they may lack the technological acumen to do it’ or they may find the idea unethical’ unnatural’ and morally repugnant. So while it is not inevitable’ the chances are good that at least some extraterrestrial Type II cultures wish to preserve their sun in its natural state. On the basis of this assumption’ Freeman Dyson predicted more than twenty years ago that the end result of interplanetary industrialization may be a shell of artifacts completely encasing the star. Seen from a great distance this "Dyson Sphere" would radiate only waste heat at a wavelength of about 10 jim in the deep infrared.1022 Theoretically’ a normal solar system should have plenty of mass with which to construct a solid Dyson Sphere around a star. (At least one writer has likened this to "a ping pong ball with a star in the middle."673) If the entire planetary mass of Sol's system was spread into a solid shell at the radius of Earth's orbit’ the resulting artifact would run a bit less than 10 meters thick. The interior surface area would be the equivalent of a billion Earths’ about three hundred million billion square kilometers of habitable land. There are a number of mechanical difficulties associated with the solid Dyson Sphere. If rotating’ the equatorial section would bow outward due to centrifugal force. Similarly’ the "poles" would lack support and flatten’ causing dynamic instability and collapse of the structure. If stationary’ solar tidal forces would give rise to large compressive stresses.* The shell seems too thin to maintain proper rigidity. Furthermore’ the gravity on the outer surface would be only 0.6 milligees so no reasonable atmosphere could be held. Objects or gases or people living on the inside would fall gently into the sun. There have been many attempts to save the Sphere by positing antigravity devices at critical points along the surface’ but these heroic efforts remain unconvincing. For a Type II society’ at least’ a solid Dyson sphere is out of the question. Anyway’ the Square-Cube Law predicts that we'll get more square meters of living area out of each kilogram of building materials used if we construct the smallest habitable structures possible. For this reason’ Dyson himself proposed that the Sphere should be comprised of swarms of relatively small space habitats. If we use Cole Planetoids equipped with large’ very thin solar collector mirrors’ we could build about 1014 of them interior to Earth's orbit. Each would weigh about 1013 kg’ and could be pressurized with a breathable oxygen atmosphere. If they were constructed with a doubling time of 25 years’ only 1200 years would be required to complete the transition to a mature Type II stellar industrial civilization. Larry Niven has come up with a fascinating alternative to the Dyson Sphere. His proposal: A giant Ringworld (Figure 19.3)’ a great ribbon of matter shaped like a hoop with the same diameter as Earth's orbit.753 The great structure whirls around the sun at 1240 km/sec to provide a constant 1-gee gravity across the Ring. If the entire planetary mass of our solar system was used’ the Ringworld would measure about 1000 meters thick. At last -- a project truly worthy of a stellar culture.

Figure 19.3 The Niven Ringworld753 Ring mass = 2.5 x 1027 kg Radius = 1.5 x 1011 meters (1 AU) Wall height = 2 x 106 meters Floor thickness = 1000 meters

Walls 2000 kilometers high at either edge of the Ringworld ribbon’ aiming toward the central star’ would be enough to hold in most of the atmosphere. An inner ring of shadow squares -- orbiting panels to block out parts of the sunlight -- provide a day/night cycle for Ringworld inhabitants. By bobbing the structure up and down’ the apparent angle of the sun changes and we get seasons. You could even see the stars’ as well as a beautiful checkered arc’ traversing the nighttime sky. The interior surface area would be equivalent to three million Earths’ and the artifact would require on the order of 1036 joules to assemble -- a project well within reach of a Type II civilization. The engineering effort would necessarily be a massive one. Looking at the outer surface of the Ringworld’ Niven says: Seas would show as bulges’ mountains as dents. Riverbeds and river deltas would be sculptured in; there would be no room for erosion on something as thin as a Ringworld. Seas would be flat-bottomed -- as we use only the top of a sea anyway -- and small’ with convoluted shore lines. Lots of beachfront. Mountains would exist only for scenery and recreation. A large meteor would be a disaster on such a structure. A hole in the floor of the Ringworld’ if not plugged’ would eventually let all the air out’ and the pressure differential would cause storms the size of a world’ making repairs difficult.673 More than one Ringworld could circle a sun’ although this would require additional mass borrowed either from the local star or from a neighboring system. Many different intelligent races could wrap noncoplanar Ringworlds around the same star’ with differing radii to avoid collision and provide a variety of temperature regimes. There is also the possibility of harnessing the basic Ringworld structure for interstellar travel on a massive scale. Niven elaborates: The Ringworld rotates at 1240 km/sec. Given appropriate conducting surfaces’ this rotation could set up enormous magnetic effects. These could be used to control the burning of the sun’ to cause it to fire off a jet of gas along the Ringworld axis of rotation. The sun be-comes its own rocket. The Ringworld follows’ tethered by gravity. By the time we run out of sun’ the Ring is moving through space at Bussard ramjet velocities. We continue to use the magnetic effect to pinch the interstellar gas into a fusion flame’ which now becomes our sun and our motive power.673 Pat Gunkel has designed a structure analogous to the Ring but of considerably lower mass. Imagine a strand of hollow metal macaroni’ about a trillion meters long but only a kilometer or two in cross-sectional diameter and a few hundred meters thick. Gunkel joins the two ends together in a great hoop around the sun’ sets it rotating in smoke ring fashion to get artificial gravity on the inner surface’ and calls it Topopolis.673 With a complete artificial biosphere set up inside’ and solar collectors set up outside for energy’ this huge tunnel world would have a habitable surface area of only about 20 Earths. But each one we make costs us only about 3 x 1027 joules and weighs only about one-thousandth as much as the Earth. So far we've discussed projects for Type II civilizations. Let's have a look at a few designs that will require the muscle of a galactic Type III civilization. Dr. Daniel Alderson proposes a massive structure shaped like a giant phonograph record with the star in the center hole (Figure 19.4). Gravity will be uniform and perpendicular to the Disk everywhere except at the edges. A slow spin should partially counteract the sideways inward pull of the central star and provide a stable celestial pole. A 1000-km-high retaining wall should be constructed on the lip of the inner hole’ to prevent the leakage of atmosphere into the sun.673

Figure 19.4 The Alderson Disk673 Disk Mass = 6 x 1033 kg Inside radius = 5 x 1010 meters Outside raduis = 6 x 1011 meters Floor thickness = 5 x 106 meters Uniform g field over Disk; g = 0.16 gees

The Alderson Disk (see illustration previous page) weighs in at about 6 x 1033 kg’ or about 3000 solar masses. The innermost radius is about 50 million kilometers’ just inside the orbit of Mercury; the outermost radius is set at 600 million kilometers from the sun’ about midway between the asteroid belt and Jupiter. The Disk is 5000 km thick’ so the surface gravity is 0.14 gees (about like Luna). If the air is pressurized to 1 atm at the surface’ then the total weight of the atmosphere is only 2 x 1029 kg’ less than one-tenth of a solar mass extra. Since gravity is so low’ the air thins out very slowly with altitude: 40 kilometers up’ the pressure is only down to 0.5 atm which is still breathable. Also’ note that both sides of the artifact can be inhabited. Since the Disk is far more massive than the central star’ the sun should be bobbled up and down to create seasons. Computer-controlled Shklovskii Grasers mounted on the inside edge could induce vertical motion’ and would also serve to nudge the star back to center if it begins to stray towards the inside annular edge of the Disk. The energy required to assemble the Alderson Disk should be about 5 x 1044 joules’ which should be fairly trivial for a galactic culture. One science fiction writer waxes enthusiastic about the idea: The Disc would be a wonderful place to stage a Gothic or a sword-and-sorcery novel. The atmosphere is right’ and there are real monsters. Consider: We can occupy only a part of the Disc the right distance from the sun. We might as well share the Disc and the cost of its construction with aliens from hotter or colder climes. Mercurians and Venusians nearer the sun’ Martians out toward the rim’ aliens from other stars living wherever it suits them best. Over the tens of thousands of years’ mutations and adaptations would migrate across the sparsely settled borders. If civilization should fall’ things could get eerie and interesting.673 Due to its size’ the Alderson Disk would probably have to be a cooperative venture of a group of Type II cultures (perhaps 10-100 of them) or of a single emergent Type III galactic civilization. The additional land area made avail-able is enormous. The useful living surface would be the equivalent of more than 4 billion Earths. The value of large-scale economic cooperation is fairly obvious. Perhaps’ in view of this’ we should take a second look at the solid Dyson Sphere concept. Is it possible for a galactic community to build one? Probably. It will be recalled that the main problem’ other than simple lack of mass’ was the matter of dynamical instability. Even if the hollow sphere was rotated fast enough to support the equatorial zone of the structure against collapse’ the polar regions would fall in and destroy the Sphere. Veteran science fictioneers Jack Williamson and Frederick Pohl pondered the problem and came up with a most ingenious’ workable solution. Here’ in their own words’ is how it's done: Surround the star with several layers of ring-shaped tubes. The tubes themselves are stationary’ but they contain a heavy’ low-viscosity fluid flowing fast enough to create the centrifugal force required to support the tubes and loads above them. One set of parallel tubes holds up the “equator“ -- which isn‘t really moving -- and other sets’ tilted at suitable angles’ support the regions near the “poles.“ The tubes are also heat engines’ with the fluid driven by energy absorbed from the sun and flowing through generator stations which supply power to all the inhabited levels. Master computers adjust the velocity of flow to fit the loads.2834 The Sphere is massive -- about 15 solar masses. The shell is equivalent to a wall of solid steel more than 3 km thick’ but since much of the room is taken up by living quarters’ passageways and so forth’ the hull is actually more than 60 km deep. The total energy needed to assemble the Sphere would probably run on the order of 1043 joules’ but to propel it through space at 17%c (the stated velocity) will require an additional 4 x 1046 joules of energy. Though the surface gravity is only 1% that of Earth’ this is still enough to hold a tenuous atmosphere just above the external armor plating. Part of this is interstellar gas’ but most of it is a helium-oxygen mixture left over from nuclear power plants which use water for fuel. The oxy-helium air is just barely breathable at the lower altitudes’ with predictable consequences: The outer surface was at first an endless plain of bare metal’ but much of it is now covered with soil from accumulated cosmic dust and the industrial wastes dumped from the occupied levels. Plant life has evolved there’ supported by the energy-flow from below through a process of thermosynthesis. These plants are often luminescent’ so that vast landscapes glow with varied color. There's animal life’ adapted to the low gravity and to varied local conditions of light or darkness’ heat or cold’ wild storms or unending calm -- with no rotation and no external sun. Most of these beings evolved on the surface’ but some are migrants from below. A few are human.2834

* This may not be fatal to the project. According to equations for gravitational tidal stress on large structures provided by Dyson’ 1450 the minimum materials strength needed to hold a solid Dyson Sphere together should be no more than 1012 N/m2. Flawless diamond has a theoretical maximum compression strength of ~1012 N/m2 and shearing strength ~1011 N/m2 so it may be possible to work something out. 2838 At compressions above 1011 N/m2’ the normally colorless diamond takes on a delicate light brown color. 2939

19.2.5 Galactic Megastructures What kinds of projects would really tax the abilities of a Type III civilization? Galactic cooperation among literally billions of worlds will permit construction on a scale never before dreamt of by mankind. From our limited terrestrial perspective’ there is no way that we can easily imagine the technical skills of a race which commands nearly twenty five orders of magnitude more energy than we. Nor can we imagine the legitimate rationale’ if any exists’ for building such massive architectures. Fortunately’ we can make a few educated guesses what might be possible based solely on the limitations of finite energy and mass resources. No matter how big and how powerful’ every culture has its limits. A good example of a galactic megastructure which humans have no idea how to build is the Megaring (Figure 19.5). Megaring is a mammoth ringworld stretching twenty light-years in diameter. The flat habitable surface is a million kilometers wide’ with 60’000-km-high atmospheric retaining walls at the edges. The surface gravity of 1 milligee is slightly augmented by the 0.03 milligee acceleration caused by the rotation of the artifact: Megaring rotates at 10%c. The air pressure at the base of the Megaring floor is a normal 1 atm’ and falls to 0.5 atm only at a height of 6000 kilometers. A man weighing 70 kg on Earth would weigh 70 grams on Megaring. If he could jump 1 meter on Earth’ he can leap at least a kilometer on Megaring -- and it will take him 7½ minutes to come back down. Still more fascinating’ the gravity is low enough and the air thick enough that mankind could fulfill one of its oldest and dearest dreams: A human being could take to the air from a standing start and fly as a bird’ simply by flapping his arms like wings. And he could soar literally thousands of kilometers high.

Figure 19.5 The Megaring Ring mass = 6.9 x 1033 kg Ring radius = 9.4 x 1016 meters Ring width = 1 x 109 meters Wall height = 5.7 x 107 meters Wall thickness = 1000 meters

Perhaps not surprisingly’ most of the mass of the Megaring is air. About 330 solar masses are used in the structural frame’ which is then filled with 3130 solar masses of atmosphere. The ring itself constitutes a mere 3% of the total system weight. Most of the mass -- some 126’000 solar masses worth -- consists of nondisassembled stars. More than a hundred thousand suns circle the Megaring in helical orbits at a distance of 1 AU. (More accurately’ the ring orbits the stars and so must be extremely flexible -- but let's not quibble about dynamics.) Held in place by graser assemblies or powerful magnetic fields’ this circulating stellar bucket brigade provides Megaring inhabitants with warmth and illumination. The total energy cost of this project is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1045-1046 joules’ really a modest price for a galactic culture to pay for such an exotic habitat with a livable surface area of more than a trillion Earths. Of course’ we don‘t know how to build a Megaring. But the mass and energy bills are well under budget. If Want truly overcomes Big and Costly’ and if the expenditure of resources in building this artifact can be ethically justified (Chapter 25)’ then somewhere in this universe someone may have built such an artifact. Leaving aside all considerations of ethical energy use’ and considering only mass-energy consumption and ignoring structural and construction details’ still grander projects are possible in principle’ but they will sorely strain the resources of a single Type III civilization. The Big Megaring (Figure 19.6) is a ringworld a thousand light-years in radius’ spinning majestically at 10%c along the circumference. Due to the extremely low floor gravity (measured in tens of microgees)’ the breathable atmosphere doesn‘t drop to half-pressure for many tens of millions of kilometers. As a result’ the basic shape of the habitat changes. Rather than a thin ribbon’ the Big Megaring more closely resembles the outer section of a very thin canister of movie film -- a kind of hollowed-out Alderson disk’ 600 million kilometers wide and a million kilometers deep with kilometer-thick walls.

Figure 19.6 The Big Megaring Ring mass = 6.3 x 1039 kg Ring radius = 9.4 x 1018 meters Ring width = 1 x 109 meters Wall height = 5.7 x 1011 meters Wall thickness = 1000 meters

Again’ the mass of the air predominates. The Big Megaring structure takes only 34 million solar masses’ but 3 billion solar masses of air are needed to provide 1 atm base pressure. The estimated assembly energy is 1051 joules’ not counting the quasar which has been moved to the center for heat and light. While the construction of the Big Megaring seems a vast undertaking indeed’ a galactic culture will have both the mass and the energy to do the job. There may be quite sound reasons for designing a gigantic space habitat which affords a living area equivalent to 130’000 trillion Earths or more than 240 million Dyson Spheres. An even bigger artifact is the Megadisk’ a scaled up version of the Alderson Disk. The radius of the central hole is 1 light-year’ and the distance to the outer edge is 10 light-years. The design is that of a “floppy disk“ configuration’ as the base structure is only 100 kilometers thick. The total weight is 11 galactic masses (1MG = 3 x 1041 kg)’ of which 10 are in the Megadisk frame and 1 is air. This provides a 1 atm pressure on both sides of the disk. The energy to assemble this beast is about 1054 joules’ so a consortium of Type III civilizations could probably handle the assignment. (There may be political problems in obtaining the 11 MG. Attempting to exercise eminent domain over eleven galaxies cannot be an easy job.) The Megadisk would provide a living area equivalent to 1020 Earths or nearly a thousand Big Megarings.

The Megasphere is probably the ultimate in biosphere engineering. It is a Dyson Sphere 200 light-years in diameter’ with a surface area of more than 130’000 square light-years. The surface gravity is measured in milligees’ and the air pressure falls to half about 6500 kilometers from the surface. The base structure is 10 kilometers thick’ and both sides are equally habitable. The Megasphere is far beyond the resources of Type III civilizations. About 1300 galactic masses are needed as raw materials’ and 1056 joules are required for initial assembly. Over a billion year span of time’ another 1056 joules must be expended simply to maintain the Megasphere at a comfortable 25 ºC. The bill for upkeep is staggering. Only an emergent Type IV universal civilization would dare such an incredible feat.*

* In theory’ larger structures are possible. For instance’ a 2000-light-year-diameter Big Megasphere could be constructed with 4000 galactic masses and a thickness of 1 kilometer. However’ if the air pressure at the surface is more than 0.01 atm (about like Mars)’ the Big Megasphere is smaller than its Schwartzchild radius and thus becomes a black hole. This should not adversely affect its habitability. However’ all journeys to it will be one-way unless tachyonic propulsion is available.

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Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 20. Xenosociology "Frequently consider the connection of all things in the universe and their relation to one another." -- - Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180)’ from Meditations "We humans fight best in armies’ gregariously’ where the risk is reduced; but we generally disapprove of murderers’ and of almost all private combat. With the great cats’ it would have been just the other way around. As a matter of fact’ few of us delight in really serious fighting. We do love to bicker; and we box and knock each other around’ to exhibit our strength; but few normal simians are keen about bloodshed and killing -- we do it in war only because of patriotism’ revenge’ duty’ glory. "A feline civilization would have cared nothing for duty or glory’ but they would have taken a far higher pleasure in gore. If a planet of super-cat-men could look down upon ours’ they would not know which to think was the most amazing: the way we tamely live’ five million or so in a city’ with only a few police to keep us quiet (while we commit only one or two murders a day’ and hardly have a respectable number of brawls); or the way great armies of us are trained to fight’ not liking it much’ and yet doing more killing in wartime and shedding more blood than even the fiercest lion on his cruelest days." -- Clarence Day’ in This Simian World (1936)76 "...we may be unable to convey to him what human emotions such as anger or love mean to us. Perhaps he will be able to follow our explanation in an intellectual way but be unable to feel or identify with experiences that for us are deep-seated." -- Ronald Bracewell’ in The Galactic Club (1975)80 "For three years’ twelve hours a day’ five days a week’ approximately ten months of each year’ I lived the life of an extraterrestrial. I began to study human behavior from an alien point of view. I was becoming alienated’ and I didn’t realize it." -- Leonard Nimoy (1975)1939

Xenosociology’ very broadly’ is the study of alien social systems. Besides the general issue of social evolution on other worlds’ xenosociologists must also study the development of alien psychology (including aggressive behaviors’ motivations’ emotions and personality)’ mating systems and modes of parental care’ the emergence of early technologies’ and various social evolutionary questions such as the origin of agriculture and the possibility of stateless societies elsewhere in the Galaxy. Despite the fascinating character of such issues’ the xenosociological literature is surprisingly sparse. Worse’ much that has been written is superficial or poorly thought out. There appear to be two fundamental reasons for this deficit. First’ the human social sciences today are in a comparatively early phase of development. Until very recently’ sociological research tended to proceed along specialized and anecdotal rather than generalized and systematic lines. But a general’ synthetic science of culture is exactly what we need to place xenosociology on a firm theoretical footing. Second’ sociological truths are largely statistical. Given certain specified biological and environmental conditions’ we cannot predict with certainty the exact societal form which may emerge. Social systems are far too complex’ too interrelated’ too randomized to admit of any straight forward prognostications. In view of these difficulties’ and the vastness of the universe of all social possibilities’ no attempt will be made in this short chapter to integrate the full matrix of physiological’ psychological’ sociological and environmental combinations. The permutations of cause and effect are numerous’2957 and deserve at least an entire book to themselves. Rather’ we seek here only to lay the foundations of basic xenosociological theory. Today’ a whole new generation of "cultural determinists" -- the sociobiologists -- has adopted the position that there exist basic natural forces which guide the evolution of psychology and society on any world.* Sociobiologists believe that behavior’ as well as biology’ undergoes natural selection. But where genes directly control body morphology’ their influence on behavior is far more subtle and plastic. Each species’ say the sociobiologists’ is predisposed to exhibit certain general behaviors such as emotionality’ aggressiveness’ sociability’ and so forth. This means that an alien race’ given a particular environment and biology’ will be restricted to certain general classes of social behavior. To use a rather fanciful analogy’ genes can tell you which stadium to attend but not the rules of football that will be used nor which teams will be playing. So where do we start? According to the Hypothesis of Mediocrity’ most alien life will originate on a planetary surface. Prior to the introduction of advanced technology’ extraterrestrial biological evolution’ behavioral patterns and primitive technologies will be strongly influenced by the immediate planetary environment. Sociobiologists see the prime movers of early social evolution as of two kinds: Genetic and ecological.565 For this reason’ xenosociologists find it necessary to examine the bases of biological evolution and ecological factors to fully comprehend the nature of alien minds and societies.

* See especially Barash’ 3333 Caplan’ 3328 Dawkins’ 2322 and Wilson. 565’3198

20.1 Biological Evolution From the "viewpoint" of living organisms at the level of the species’ biological evolution must be regarded as a predominantly divergent process. The injection of a few members of a given type of lifeforms into a virgin environment normally results in an explosive "adaptive radiation." Species rapidly multiply to fill all possible available niches. From the "viewpoint" of the whole environment’ however’ evolution is primarily convergent. Though there are many exceptions’ the general rule is that species evolving in roughly similar environments tend to find similar solutions to similar problems of survival. For instance’ the deep-sea niche (where high speed may be required to feed on fast-swimming prey) has given rise to a striking example of parallel evolution. The large’ streamlined "fishy" shape has evolved independently at least four times on Earth: The mosasaur (an extinct Cretaceous marine lizard)’ the ichthyosaur (an extinct Jurassic sharklike reptile)’ the tuna (and other modern fishes’ including sharks)’ and the cetaceans (modern mammals’ including dolphins). Examples abound. Ants and termites belong to different insect orders’ yet they have evolved similar societal and architectural forms. Marsupial "psuedomamnals" evolved independently in Australia and South America’ filling niches identical to those occupied elsewhere by their physiological cousins the mammals. In earlier chapters we discussed the convergent evolution of legs’ wings’ eyes and other bodily organs. It is probably safe to conclude that "anytime you get extensive convergence of evolution along different lines you must be dealing with an almost certain process."22 Based on their observations of convergent evolution in similar environments’ human zoologists and paleontologists have proposed a number of evolutionary "laws". These "laws" appear generally true on Earth’ and may be expected to have some measure of applicability to extraterrestrial lifeforms as well. Here are a few of the author’s favorites: 1. The total biomass of the entire system tends to increase and become maximized over time. (Lotka’s Rule) 2. The general process of evolution involves the development of new organ systems’ increasing complexity’ and greater efficiency. 3. Progressively more modern forms tend to have fewer’ more specialized segments and appendages. (Williston’s Law) 4. Species tend to evolve to larger sizes. (Cope’s Law) 5. Major evolutionary steps’ once taken’ are never reversed. (Dollo’s Law) 6. Allied races of warm-blooded animals tend to be larger in colder climatic regions. (Bergmann’s Rule) 7. Mammals inhabiting tropical regions tend to have shorter and less woolly coats than related lifeforms in colder climatic regions. 8. Herbivores have hooves; carnivores have claws. (Cuvier’s Law) 9. Limbs and tails of related species are shorter in colder climatic regions. (Allen’s Rule) 10. Organisms living in warm’ humid areas tend to be more heavily pigmented than related species living in cool’ dry regions. (Gloger’s Rule) Examples of this sort can be multiplied indefinitely. Dr. Bernhard Rensch lists more than 100 such "laws" of evolution’ to illustrate his thesis that "evolution is largely a lawful process’ and with regard to the effect of continuous mutation and natural selection it is also a determinate process."2897 There is one other general rule of evolution’ often ignored but of major significance nevertheless: Species tend to become extinct. This simple truth is rarely appreciated fully. It is a fact that more than 99% of all species that have ever trod the Earth are now extinct. While more than 3’000’000 species are alive today’ more than a billion animal and plant species have arisen at one time or another in Earth’s past.624’2440 Most evolutionary experiments prove to be dead ends or are insufficiently adaptive to changing conditions. Extinction’ not survival’ is the general rule.1668

20.1.1 Evolution Rates How fast does evolution occur on other worlds? At least three different "rates of evolution" have been studied by Earthly zoologists. First there is the "morphological rate" -- the speed at which the size and shape of organisms belonging to a given species evolves over time. For instance’ it has been shown that the average dimensions of horses’ teeth have increased at a rate of about 0.1% per 1000 years.440 Another measure of the velocity of evolution is the "taxonomic rate." As shown in Table 20.1’ the taxonomic evolution rate measures how fast new subspecies’ species’ genera’ and so forth arise naturally. Finally’ the "genetic rate" of evolution specifies the speed at which alterations in genes are occurring in the subject population. Measured genetic rates generally confirm the values given in Table 20.1.*

Table 20.1 Average Taxonomic Evolution Rate, in Millions of Years per Unit of Taxonomic Classification (after Rensch449) Taxonomic Class

Class

Order

Family

Genus

Mammals

190

65

12-25

15

Reptiles

310

185

85

50

Fishes

450

270

80

50

Insects

350

180

160

12

Crustaceans

540

410

160

~12

Species

Subspecies

0.1 - 10

0.001 - 0.1

A wide variety of different factors operate collectively to increase or decrease the rate of evolution of species on any given planet. It is true that modern geneticists recognize evolution is primarily a function of genetic variation stored in the species’ general gene pool. Evolution advances by reshuffling previously accumulated gene types by a process known as "recombination." (See the discussion of the benefits of sexual reproduction in Chapter 12.) Nevertheless’ the primary and ultimate source of all genetic variation is mutation.3208 If the mutation rate is too low little variability is retained’ leaving a smaller inventory of possible adaptations for natural selection to act upon in response to environmental changes. If the mutation rate is too high’ desirable characteristics are mutated away or are selected out before they have a chance to be assimilated into the gene pool. Thus there exists an optimum range of mutation rates for any class of organisms.305 The average background level of radiation at the Earth’s surface is about 0.12 roentgens/year. About one-third of this is cosmic rays from space. The other two-thirds comes from terrestrial sources such as natural crustal radioactivity and deposits of potassium-40 in our bodies.390 What effect on the mutation rate -- and on evolution -- does this background radiation have? Among smaller organisms’ often as much as 100-1000 times the background is required just to double the natural mutation rate. Among larger organisms’ as little as 3-10 times above background may produce a similar effect over the whole body. It would appear that on Earth today natural radiation accounts for only a small fraction of all spontaneous mutations. The situation may have been much different in the past. I.S. Shklovskii and V.I. Krassovskii’ two distinguished Russian astrophysicists’ have calculated that Earth may have passed within 10 parsecs of a supernova event perhaps a dozen times since its formation 4.6 eons ago. In each case’ the scientists believe’ the intensity of cosmic radiation must have risen at least by a factor of 30. This should have caused an increase of one order of magnitude in the natural background’ which would at least double the mutation rate (and so the maximum rate of evolution) for the largest creatures on Earth. The effects could have persisted for more than 10’000 years.20 Extraterrestrial creatures inhabiting a planet in the outer Core regions of the Galaxy should experience such a supernova event far more often -- perhaps once every 10 million years. Over the course of geological history more than 500 local supernovae might occur. This would double mutation rates at regular intervals and keep the pace of evolution high -- especially during the very early stages in the evolution of life on the planet when gene inventories were still small. We might hypothesize that species "turnover rates" may be significantly higher near Core regions than in the Disk of the Galaxy. Many other factors may influence the rate of evolution on other worlds. For example’ stellar class of the primary sun may be important. The hottest stars for which habitable planets are thought to exist are the F5 suns. These objects radiate more strongly in the blue part of the spectrum than our Sol’ emitting about four times as much ultraviolet radiation. Because of this’ many xenologists suspect that the early evolution of alien life on a world circling such a star should be considerably faster than on the primitive Earth. More energy could penetrate the oceanic surfaces’ creating more complex nutrients faster and thus speeding the origin of life. F5 suns will also have stronger solar winds’ which may lead to increased atmospheric ionization and greater climatic variability (and hasten evolution as well). Higher UV levels near F5 stars may also delay the appearance of land plants.1013 Since more of these rays must be filtered out by an ozone layer which necessarily must be thicker than Earth’s’ sea plants of other worlds must wait longer than their cousins on Earth for the atmospheric oxygen content (which yields ozone) to build up. If the alien planet has small or shallow seas’ then the total marine biomass may be too small. In such cases’ oxygen would remain scarce’ a sufficient ozone layer might never be built up’ and land might never be colonized by plants. The larger the planet’ however’ the less likely is this catastrophe. All else being equal’ larger planets have higher gravity and more compact atmospheres’ which means a higher rate of ozone production. In either case’ marine evolution should be comparatively rapid. In contrast’ K- and M-class stars peak in the red portion of the spectrum’ emitting only 1-10% as much ultraviolet as Sol. This tremendous deficit should slow or greatly retard prebiotic evolution and the origin of life because less energy is available at the surface of the primitive planet for chemical synthesis. Tidal locking is more likely in habitable zones around K- and M-stars; if locking occurs the environment could become quite severe (though relatively uniform)’ which will also tend to retard evolution. Finally’ the UV deficit may forestall the dissipation of the primeval hydrogen/helium transsolar atmosphere. In such a system’ even the innermost worlds might remain large’ gaseous’ and quite jovian.376 In this case’ then’ evolution may proceed more slowly. Another factor which may quicken the pace of evolution is the presence of moons. By raising tides on the planetary shores’ natural satellites may assist chemical mixing and catalysis during the early phases of prebiotic evolution in alien seas. Several xenologists have even suggested that mechanical wave motion may encourage and accelerate the invasion of the land by primitive plant and animal lifeforms.2362 An interesting variation on this theme occurs when the alien planet is itself a moon -- perhaps a super-jovian orbiter. While tidal locking will leave it a one-face world’ the severely mutagenic radiations (such as exist near Jupiter) should provide ample genetic variation for selective forces to work with. Planetary factors may also have a decisive effect on the rate of evolution. Perhaps the most influential of these is the relation between land mass distribution and the diversity of species -- a part of the science of biogeography. Biogeographers have discovered what they call the Species-Area Rule.1713 Mathematically’ the Rule may be stated as follows: S = kA0.27’ where S is the total number of species present in a land area of A square meters. (k is some constant’ see below.) In plain English’ the Species-Area Rule says that’ all else being equal’ the number of different species present on any land mass is proportional to the area of that land mass. More land means more species; less land means fewer species. Thus’ the rate of evolution is indirectly correlated with land area’ since the production of more species requires "faster" evolution. The Species-Area Rule has another interesting feature. It predicts that the same land area’ fragmented into pieces’ can support more total species than the original. Take Earth as an example. If we assume there are 2 million animal species (a low estimate)’ distributed over 6 continents with a land area totalling 1.48 x 1014 meter2’ then the constant k = 80.7 for Earth. Now suppose that the continents were broken into 100 pieces. With a hundred separate island continents’ having the same total land area as before’ Earth theoretically could support as many as 15’600’000 species -- more than a 7-fold increase. Let’s try the Rule in the other direction. Today we have 6 continents and 450 taxonomic Families (such as the cat family’ the dog family’ the frog family’ and so forth). But 225 million years ago there was only one global continent -- Pangea -- and only 146 Families. Using the Species-Area Rule’ we would predict that Pangea could support 122 Families. By eliminating the modern continent of Antarctica (which is comparatively lifeless)’ the Rule predicts 139 Families’ which is surprisingly good agreement with the paleontological data. Why does the Rule work so well? One explanation is that the fragmentation of land masses provides a greater number of more heterogeneous environments for development. A variety of isolated habitats provides shelter from competition’ and specialization may accelerate. The same land’ linked together without barriers’ permits competition and tends to eradicate specialized niches. Xenologists expect that the Species-Area Rule should be applicable in some general way to extraterrestrial ecologies located elsewhere in the Galaxy. Another influential planetary factor is ecological complexity. Structurally complex habitats usually can support a wider diversity of species and thus a higher rate of evolution. This observation helps to explain the existence of "latitude gradients" in species diversity.286 That is’ more species are found in equatorial tropical regions on Earth -- where habitats are more plentiful -- than in temperate or northern climes’ where niches are comparatively few. Similarly’ a fluctuating unstable environment favors the survival of "generalized"’ species with high adaptability (and presumably higher intelligence as well)’ whereas stable barrierless environments produce slower evolution and favor the survival of "specialized" species.1712 There are many other planetary factors which may affect the rate of evolution. For instance’ smaller planets generally may have higher mutation rates because the levels of background radiation should be higher. There are various reasons for this. First’ a diminutive world may experience less intense gravitational fractionation of rocky materials during its formation. Thus the proportion of heavy minerals (including radionuclides) should be higher in the crust. Also’ and especially if it condensed in the solar nebula far from the central star’ the planet may have a smaller metal-poor core and thus a weaker magnetic field.2876 With less shielding from the solar wind’ flares’ and cosmic particles generally’ the level of mutagenic radiation reaching the surface will be higher and evolution may proceed at an accelerated rate.214 Another major factor that is often overlooked is planetary surface temperature. For any given biochemical basis’ the reactions involved in life chemistry should proceed at faster rates on warm worlds than on colder ones.1132’1171 But life processes also depend upon the complexity of molecular structures. As a general rule’ chemical species are more stable and more complex at lower temperatures.75 Xenologists who have considered the problem believe that life of a given biochemical type will tend to evolve faster on hot worlds’ but will be more complex on cold worlds. Presumably the faster evolution rate may be sufficient to compensate the lack of biochemical stability on hot planets’ and vice versa. Says astronomer Michael W. Ovenden: On a planet near a star the potentialities of life are restricted’ but those that exist are realized in a short time; on a planet a long way from its star’ the potentialities are greater’ but the rate of development and evolution is very much slower.75 (Note: The effects of higher planetary surface pressure are biochemically similar to the aforementioned effects of elevated temperature.) In addition to prebiotic and early biotic evolution’ planetary temperature may also significantly affect the rate of evolution of macroscopic animal life. For example’ consider a world where the emergence of life from the sea has been swift and warm-blooded species have evolved. A hot environment will selectively favor smaller lifeforms’ whose high surface-to-volume ratio helps to slough off excess heat. Further’ since the planet is hot’ presumably more energy is available to drive the ecology (see below). More biomass can therefore be supported; since animals are generally smaller the total population will be large. Large populations can store more variability in the gene pool (all else being equal)’ and mutant traits are more likely to accumulate in single individuals. Hence’ the rate of evolution should be somewhat faster. Finally’ evolution should proceed even faster on large hot worlds’ since the greater planetary surface area permits a bigger population to be sustained.29 On the other hand’ a generally cold environment should selectively favor larger lifeforms’603 whose low surface-to-volume ratio helps to retain body heat more effectively. Colder worlds should have less energetic ecologies’ so less total biomass can be sustained. Since less biomass must be apportioned amongst generally larger creatures’ the population should be small and evolution comparatively slow (especially on smaller worlds with reduced land areas).718’440

* Change in gene frequency per generation Dq = v ‘ q(s-v-u) - q2s’ where q is the frequency with which the gene occurs in the original population’ q ‘ Dq is the gene frequency in the next generation’ s is the gene’s selective advantage’ v is the mutation rate favoring the gene’ and u is the mutation rate opposing the gene. 1709 Subspecies often differ by only a single gene. The most reason able choices are v = u = 10-6 (unstable genes may have spontaneous mutation rates as low as 10-2’ but 10-5-10-6 is more usual) and s = 10-3 (e.g.’ 0.1% more of those organisms possessing the new gene will survive than those without it). If the frequency of the new gene is to increase from q = 1% up to q = 99% in the general population’ about 9’200 generations will be required (about 10’000100’000 years for most mammals.

20.2 Xenopsychology Knowledge of the fundamentals of alien psychology is a "must" in any first contact or culture contact situation. No real comprehension of ET societies is possible without a thorough understanding of the differences between human and alien motivations’ goals’ and behavioral repertoires. The field of xenopsychology is quite broad’ encompassing issues of motives and drives’ need hierarchies and goal-directed behavior’ personality and "ego" (or "selfness")’ perception’ subjective time’ sleep’ circadian rhythms and other natural bodily cycles’ "instinct’" learning’ habituation and conditioning’ language’ memory’ emotions’ altruism’3331 awareness’ and so forth.1941 Unfortunately’ it is beyond the scope of this book to deal with all of these fascinating areas in detail. Consequently the emphasis here will be upon the most immediately relevant basics. We have already discovered that the environment is intimately involved in the process and rate of natural genetic evolution. Xenopsychologists’ following modern sociobiologists’ believe that a species’ surroundings also shape and direct the evolution of its gross behavioral patterns. Perhaps the single most critical environmental parameter is available bioenergy.

20.2.1 Energy Ecology The psychology of sentient extraterrestrials is closely intertwined with the details of the local ecology. But the most fundamental global ecological factor is energy. A more energetic environment normally can support either a larger number of similar-sized creatures or a similar number of larger-sized creatures. We know that all organisms require energy to survive’ and that on most worlds virtually all of this must come from the local sun. In a sense’ the star "feeds" the planetary inhabitants. How much bioenergy is available to drive a global ecosystem? Clearly the first factors to consider are planet type and biochemistry type. Jovian planets and terrestrials will differ in the energy available to their native lifeforms. (These planetological problems are dealt with in chapters 4 and 5 in some detail’ and will not be repeated here.) Also’ cold ammonia-solvent lifeforms may require less energy to maintain than a similar population of hot liquid-sulfur creatures. But assuming a terrestrial Earthlike world and a biocarbon biota’ we begin our analysis by noting that the total energy available at the top of the atmosphere should be about 2 x 1017 watts. About 90% of this is lost due to reflection’ absorption and direct conversion to heat’ or because it consists of unusable infrared radiation. The remaining 10% is available for photosynthesis -- about 2 x 1016 watts. The theoretical maximum efficiency for the chemical conversion of photon energy into organic matter (food) is about 36%.3220 However’ the net observed efficiency of Earthly chlorophyllic plants generally runs from 1-5% in the field. The global average is even lower -- about 0.2% -- since the large open oceans are essentially lifeless aqueous deserts.48 While other worlds may evolve more efficient photochemistries’ or have a larger biologically active land area’ it is doubtful that the 0.2% rating will be much improved by natural evolution alone. So’ in the case of Earth’ this leaves 4 x 1013 watts. The energy pyramid (also "food chain" or "food web") shown in Table 20.2 illustrates how ecologies are powered by sunlight.3221 At the base of the pyramid are the "primary producers" of food -- on Earth’ the green plants. These producers are eaten by "primary consumers’" or herbivores. The herbivores’ in turn’ are eaten by carnivores’ who them selves are eaten by still larger carnivores. Ecologists customarily refer to each successive stage of predation as a "trophic level." Thus plants are at the first trophic level’ the smallest carnivores at the third trophic level’ etc.

Table 20.2 Energy Flow at Various Trophic Levels in the Terrestrial Food Chain Trophic Level

ENERGY/FOOD PYRAMID

Sample Annual Biomass Maintenance

Energy Budget for Maintenance

5

Top Carnivores

1 Man

80 watts

4

Middle Carnivores (Tertiary consumers)

300 Trout

800 watts

3

Small Carnivores (Secondary Consumers)

90’000 Frogs

8000 watts

2

Herbivores (Primary Consumers)

27’000’000 Grasshoppers

80’000 watts

1

Plants (Primary Producers)

1000 tons Grass

800’000 watts

The Energy Pyramid (Figure 20.1) describes the flow of useful bioenergy through an ecological system. Plants are eaten by herbivores’ which in turn are eaten by higher-level carnivores. Typical food chains have 3-5 stages’ called ‘trophic levels." Only about 10% of the latent bioenergy in each level is passed along to the next -- about 90% is wasted as heat or in respiration. Omnivores’ such as humans’ may eat at all consumer levels. This permits larger populations to be supported. If men ate frogs instead of trout in the above example’ 30 people could be supported. If he ate grasshoppers’ 900 people could live. If he could consume grass’ 2000 persons would survive.997

Figure 20.1 The Energy Pyramid

Also’ in ecology there is something called the Diversity-Stability Rule: Ecosystem stability tends to be correlated with food web complexity. The four equalpopulation food web structures shown in Figure 20.2 illustrate various possibilities. In (A)’ there are too few herbivores; in (B)’ too few carnivores. Predators and prey are too specialized in (C)’ which consists of simple linear food chains. Because of the multiplicity of intertrophic links in (D)’ it has the greatest potential for adaptive stability.297 Alpine and polar environments tend to have fewer links and less stability’ while tropical and oceanic environments are generally more stable.

Figure 20.2 Illustrations of the Diversity-Stability Rule

Experiments conducted in a wide range of different environments have measured ecological efficiency -- the energy gained by an organism when it eats a member of the next lowest trophic level. A good rule of thumb is that at each level 90% of the available bioenergy is lost. Only 10%’ on the average’ is passed along to consumers at the next highest level. Due to the staggering amount of waste’ few ecosystems on this planet have more than five trophic levels. Xenologists expect these generalizations to hold true for extraterrestrial ecologies as well. As Table 20.3 demonstrates’ the effects of limited bioenergy on size of population are striking. If all humans were purely herbivorous’ Earth theoretically could support 50 billion of them. But if people tap into the food web as Level-5 carnivores (e.g.’ man eats trout’ trout eat frogs’ frogs eat grasshoppers’ and grasshoppers eat grass)’ the terrestrial ecology could support only 50 million humans worldwide. If this happened’ each person would have to patrol a home range (personally or by proxy) of about 10 km2 in order to find his daily meal.*

Table 20.3 Maximum Supportable Large-Organism Population in a Typical Terrestrial Global Ecology (Earth)

Trophic Level

Organism

Total Available Energy

Maximum Supportable Population of 70 kg Warmblooded Animals

Estimated Scavenging Range

(watts)

(e.g.’ ~100-watt humans)

(km2/individual)

1

Plants

4 x 1013

2

Herbivores

4 x 1012

40’000’000’000

0.01

3

Carnivores I

4 x 1011

4’000’000’000

0.1

4

Carnivores II

4 x 1010

400’000’000

1.0

5

Carnivores III

40’000’000

10.0

4 x 109

Similar bioenergy assays may be made of smaller ecosystems’ say’ on the continental’ regional’ or local levels. But the conclusions are almost always the same: Herbivores maintain the highest population densities and the smallest home ranges’ while carnivores are usually fewest in numbers and utilize the largest home ranges. Omnivores’ who can tap into the food web at any trophic level beneath’ fall somewhere in between. They are the most versatile and adaptive’ and thus most likely to survive in both the best and worst of times. Xenopsychologists are interested in these results for a number of reasons. The motives’ instincts’ and personality traits of a sentient ET are likely to be strongly influenced by its hereditary feeding habits. An herbivorous race might be more socially-minded and less disposed to kill or commit acts of overt physical aggression. An intelligent carnivorous race might instinctively live in rather small groups’ and value individuality and personal courage above all else.** A species with a large home range tends to be solitary and "antisocial." Of equally great importance is the fundamental lesson of environmental finiteness. This turns out to be one of the central driving forces behind all animal and sentient behavior -- whether psychological’ social’ or political. It is easy to see why this is so. All lifeforms that dwell on planets’ regardless of their shape’ size’ or biochemistry’ must "consume negentropy" to live. This requires a flux of energy. But if biological order and information are to increase -- a process which most xenologists regard as the basic "goal" of life -- then energy flow through the total ecosystem must also increase. But planetary bioenergy is strictly limited. The natural supply of usable energy will be in short supply on any world. Scarcity is inevitable.

* The population density of human beings on Earth today ranges from 0.0003 km2/person in Hong Kong to 1.0 km2/person in Mongolia’ with a worldwide average of about 0.04 km2/person. Humanity’ it would appear’ is already herbivorous (trophic level 2’ on global average). ** Except where large herbivores have evolved without an associated predator (e.g.’ elephants’ 0.3 km2/animal1725)’ carnivores are normally larger than herbivores because a predator must be more powerful than its prey. Larger bodies can support larger brains’ and predation is a more active lifestyle than grazing and thus requires more alertness; xenologists expect carnivores to be more intelligent as a general rule. This conclusion has been tentatively confirmed by modern paleoneurologists.2910

20.2.2 Competition and Aggression Among lifeforms that engage in reproductive activities’ the crisis of ecological scarcity manifests itself as population pressure (a special case of the more general problem of "biomass pressure’" which affects reproducers and nonreproducers alike). The evolutionary drive to increase order and decrease entropy’ among reproducing species’ normally involves the production of offspring. The crisis arrives when there is no longer enough bioenergy to sustain these offspring (it may be local’ regional’ or global in extent). Most commonly’ the limiting physical resource is food. There are at least six different ways by which population pressure may be partially or wholly relieved in nature: 1. Natural modification of the environment (drought/flood cycles’ volcanoes’ earthquakes’ ice ages) 2. Disease and malnutrition 3. Predation by higher-level consumers (overabundance of prey may attract more predators) 4. Emigration (especially useful in homogeneous barrierless environments’ such as the sea) 5. Competition (among species at the same trophic level) 6. Technology (artificial modification of the environment) The list is arranged in a kind of natural hierarchy. Successful use of one method obviates the need for others below it. For instance’ if environmental changeability or disease are sufficient to raise the death rate equal to the birth rate in a given species’ then predation probably will not play a major role. Or’ if predation is severe enough to relieve population pressure’ then emigration and competition may not be necessary. The most sophisticated pressure-reduction technique -- technology -may be viewed as a method of last resort. Furthermore’ the last four methods on the list are active strategies. They are largely under the control of the lifeform’ rather than the random forces of the environment’ and so may evolve as part of the psychology of an alien race. That is’ predatory’ emigratory’ competitive’ or technologic "instincts" or predispositions may be "learned" by a species over periods of evolutionary time. For example’ cats raised in isolation will chase and kill rats even though they’ve never seen a rodent before (instinctual predation). Lemming migrations and bee swarming apparently demonstrate the existence of some genetically preprogrammed flocking behavior keyed to population density (instinctual emigration). Mating ceremonies involving ritual combat between males’ as among stags’ illustrate a predisposition to controlled aggression (instinctual competition). The human hand is preadapted for easy manipulation of tools’ and ants’ termites and bees automatically build hills’ nests and hives according to precise -- and genetically predetermined -- specifications (instinctual technology). Depending upon the situation’ extraterrestrial species may incorporate any of these active behavioral strategies into the basic psychology of the race.* A fine example in science fiction is the "engineer" subrace of the alien Moties (in Niven and Pournelle’s The Mote in God’s Eye.668)’ whose members clearly display an instinctual technologic sense from birth. And since any one strategy may not be completely effective by itself’ ET psychologies may consist of hodgepodge combinations of two or more methods which’ taken together’ do work. While any method or combination of methods of relieving the problem of population pressure may give rise to equally complex behavioral repertoires’ a complete treatment of all possibilities is clearly beyond the scope of this book. In order to reduce the task to manageable proportions’ we shall consider here’ briefly’ only one of the methods in more detail: Competition. The term "competition’" as used by xenopsychologists and sociobiologists’ has a very specific meaning: The active demand by two or more individuals’ either of the same species (intraspecies competition) or of two or more species at the same trophic level (interspecies competition)’ for a common resource or necessity of life that is actually or potentially limited.565 Competition reduces population pressure by reallocating scarce energy resources among the stronger or more intelligent organisms’ and’ more indirectly’ serves to apportion or limit the supply of reproductive mates. Extraterrestrial races may manifest their competitive urges in a wide variety of different behaviors. These need not necessarily include "aggression" (first or unprovoked attack’ assault’ invasion’ fight’ or other hostile encroachment). For instance’ sentient ETs may engage in "scrambling’" a non-aggressive form of competition that involves "getting there first’" The idea is to outperform all competitors while avoiding direct confrontation. Another kind of nonaggressive competition is called "repulsion." Using this technique’ Pharaoh’s ant (Monomoriun pharaonis) is an unusually effective competitor with nearby species for local food sites. Arriving at the site’ colony members release a potent chemical substance from their poison glands and spread it around the entire food collection area. The horrible odor’ to which Pharaoh’s ants are inured’ repels all intruders.2933 Repulsion behavior has been discovered in other Earthly species. If a recently impregnated female mouse is placed with a new male of a different strain than the first suitor’ she will usually abort the fetus spontaneously and become sexually receptive again. The aborting stimulus is a pheromone produced in male urine that is sniffed by the female’ activating her pituitary gland and corpora lutea.2932 Similarly’ a male-to-male inhibitory pheromone is used by male armyworm moths (Psuedaletia unipuncta) to ward off sexual competitors.3218 Extraterrestrials’ too’ may prefer repulsion to direct aggression. Chemical repulsion may be used’ but any means of accosting the senses may be employed -ultrasound’ bright light’ vibrations’ etc. Nevertheless’ on this planet and doubtless many others the dominant forms of competition do entail physical aggression in varying degrees of intensity. Among the most common forms of aggressive competition are "territoriality’" "dominance’" and "fighting." Note that these behaviors’ though distinct’ are not mutually exclusive: A territory may be defended by a social group with an internal dominance order maintained by ritualized fighting. But each alien species may have its own unique blend of these three and possibly other forms of aggression. (Any social structure maintained or controlled by direct physical confrontation between individuals may be considered aggressive.) Territoriality is the defense of a certain resource-containing area’ by an individual or group’ against intruders. Dominance is the establishment of a scarce resource distribution hierarchy within a single social group’ based on "power" (physical strength’ cunning’ wealth’ or whatever). Both techniques reduce the need for fighting (which injures the group) while achieving the same results as continuous raw physical aggression. On Earth’ both are widespread among the vertebrates and among invertebrates with more highly evolved and larger body sizes (chiefly crustaceans and social insects). Xenopsychologists’ with modern sociobiologists’ believe that such behaviors similarly will be common’ though by no means universal’ among extraterrestrial races genetically predisposed toward aggressive reaction. Species on many worlds may never turn to competition and aggression to solve the problem of biomass pressure. But among those that do’ many will choose territoriality or dominance behavior’ or both’ to regulate the severity and social costs of fighting. What determines the choice? Unfortunately’ sociobiology is yet a infant science. We don’t have all the answers. Sociobiologists are fairly certain that the local characteristics of the environment may significantly tip the balance one way or the other. According to two researchers: When important resources are distributed uniformly in space’ there is little opportunity for resource monopolization. If the resources are sufficiently abundant and stable through time’ territoriality typically occurs. When important resources are highly clumped’ the possibility arises for a small percentage of the population to monopolize a large proportion of the available resources. {e.g.’ dominance/distribution chains}2918 But we must keep in mind that the "choice" is genetic’ not volitional’ Basic patterns and predispositions of behavior evolve because they are more adaptive for the species as a whole in the struggle to survive. For instance’ consider the sociobiological explanation of herding behavior. It appears that herding’ flocking and schooling are genetically preprogrammed tendencies’ by which the group avoids predation by utilizing marginal individuals as a living shield against danger. Says Wilson: Since predators tend to seize the first individual they encounter’ there is a great advantage for each individual to press toward the center of its group. The result in evolution would be a "herd instinct" that centripetally collapses populations into local aggregations....Centripetal movement generates not only herds of cattle but also fish and squid schools’ bird flocks’ heronries’ gulleries’ terneries’ locust swarms’ and many other kinds of elementary motion groups and nesting associations.565 Similarly’ xenopsychologists believe that extraterrestrial races evolutionarily will "choose" territoriality’ dominance’ fighting’ etc. based on survivability criteria determined by the local environment.** These generalized behavior patterns’ once fixed in the alien species’ gene pool’ will remain permanent fixtures of the creatures’ psychology. They may decrease in importance with increasing sentience but’ at least until the ET race discovers bioneering or some equivalent technology’ the primitive urges and predispositions will remain: The cultural evolution of aggression appears to be guided jointly by the following three forces: (1) genetic predisposition toward learning some form of communal aggression {among species having such predisposition}; (2) the necessities imposed by the environment in which the society finds itself; and (3) the previous history of the group’ which biases it toward the adoption of one cultural innovation as opposed to another. To return to metaphor’ the society undergoing cultural evolution can be said to be moving down the slope of a very long developmental landscape. The channels of formalized aggression are deep; culture is likely to turn into one or the other but not to avoid them completely. These channels are shaped by interaction between the genetic predisposition to learn aggressive responses and the physical properties of the home range that favor particular forms of the responses. Society is influenced to take a particular direction by idiosyncratic features of its pre-existing culture.3198 Which alien species are most likely to carry a genetic predisposition toward aggressive behavior? Researches into the patterns of Earthly lifeforms have yielded a few tantalizing clues. For example’ aggression is more common among carnivores than among herbivores or omnivores’ and it is also more intensely expressed. Also’ field studies have shown that aggression is more likely among species inhabiting stable ecosystems than among those populating unstable ecosystems. (Stable environments’ all else equal’ are more likely to require competition to regulate population pressure.) Further’ aggression should increase when food is clumped rather than scattered’ allowing domination of food or food-bearing land to become profitable.565 Finally’ combative interactions in most aggressive animal species peak during the breeding season -- usually among males during the female estrus.1830 Sexually reproducing species may be more aggressive. Continuous estrus (as among humans) leads to continuous sexual competition’ but at lower intensity. So aggression is not necessarily’ as is often said’ a bad thing. It is simply one of many highly useful survival-oriented evolutionarily fashioned behavioral adaptations. And we may be in for a few real surprises. As Nobelist Konrad Lorenz once suggested’ personal bonding and individual friendships are found "only in animals with highly developed intraspecies aggression’ never among peaceable herd creatures’ . . .perhaps by way of ritualization of a redirected attack or threatening."455 While modern sociobiologists challenge such categorical conclusions’ xenopsychologists today recognize that the very concept of friendship may not be nearly as universal as was once thought.2913

*Social traits can evolve relatively quickly’ as fast as 10-100 generations. This is because differential mortality rates can reach 10% or higher in certain natural settings (selective advantage s = 0.1). According to Dr. E.O. Wilson’ well-known Harvard sociobiologist’ single-gene substitution can be mostly completed in 10 generations. Wholly new behavioral patterns -- the honeybee waggle dance’ human speech’ etc. -- will normally require from 1000-10’000 generations to evolve. 565 ** Population-density-dependent or "spectrum" responses are extremely common adaptations on Earth. For example’ free-living wolves are mostly pack-territorial with little social ranking. Crowded into a zoo with plenty of food but little territory’ dominance hierarchies quickly emerge. Wilson offers a more complex (but hypothetical) instance in a single species: At low population densities’ all aggressive behavior is suspended. At moderate densities’ it takes a mild form such as intermittent territorial defense. At high densities’ territorial defense is sharp’ while some joint occupancy of land is also permitted under the regime of dominance hierarchies. Finally’ at extremely high densities’ the system may break down almost completely’ transforming the pattern of aggressive encounters into homosexuality’ cannibalism’ and other symptoms of "social pathology." 565

20.2.3 Universal Emotions Emotions play an extremely important role in human psychology. These powerful reactions to external stimuli often help to motivate or activate aggression’ sexual activity’ learning and perception’ and a wide variety of other behaviors. These simple facts suggest many questions to xenopsychologists. Will ETs be more or less emotionally motivated than humans? Will their reactions differ markedly from our own? Will they have emotions foreign to us’ and vice versa? Are there any "universal emotions" that must be common to most’ if not all’ sentient races in the universe? But first we must decide exactly what we mean by "emotion." There is widespread disagreement on the definition’ but one of the more useful versions by Magda Arnold draws a careful distinction between emotional states and emotional behaviors. According to Arnold’s theory’ emotional experience proceeds in several sequential stages: 1. Perception and Appraisal -- External stimulus is perceived’ then judged to be good’ bad’ useful’ harmful’ etc. (mostly based on learned associations). 2. Emotion -- An internal state of arousal or "feeling" arises’ involving physiological effects. 3. Action -- The organism’ motivated by emotion’ engages in some specific behavior (approach’ avoidance’ attack’ feeding) depending on the intensity of the response’ learned behavior patterns’ and the countervailing or reinforcing nature of other motives that may simultaneously be present. We see that emotion is an internal state’ not a behavior or a perception of external reality. While there may exist a few "universally frightening" stimuli involving sensory overloads (loud noises’ bright lights)’ research on mammal emotionality has demonstrated that the perception and appraisal of potentially emotional stimuli is mostly learned rather than preprogrammed by evolution. Similarly’ humans are taught to express their emotions in behaviors that are socially and culturally acceptable. The strong cognitive element in both appraisal and action argue against universality’ especially in view of the widespread divergence in human perception and behavior. We can say little about Arnold’s stages (1) and (3) regarding alien sentients because of the tremendous malleability of these two factors. Without knowledge of the environment’ physiology’ or culture’ it is difficult to understand ET behavior.* For all we know’ an extraterrestrial may be aroused by the wink of an eye or a loud cough; its response thereto may include violent physical attack’ knotting of the tentacles’ or a well-aimed emesis of the stomach contents in the direction of the disturbance -- whatever is considered appropriate in its culture. What about the phenomenon of emotion itself? Recent sociobiological and neurological evidence strongly supports the notion that the seat of emotion is the limbic portion of the brain. On Earth’ emotion appears only among vertebrates possessing emergent or developed limbic brain systems.2542’56 (See Chapter 14.) But why should it have evolved at all? Modern sociobiologists believe that to understand emotion it is necessary to focus on genes rather than individuals or species. In other words’ the basic process of natural selection is not survival of the fittest person or species’ but rather the survival of the fittest genes. Both emotionality and behavior thus evolve as strategies to maximize the spread of genes.565’3176 In the sociobiological view’ species always evolve behaviors which best serve to propagate their genes in succeeding generations. Emotions may perhaps be regarded as "instinctual" behavior transducers’ taking information (on maximizing gene survival) accumulated by the species through selection and adaptation’ and dumping it into the current response structure of the individual. Says sociobiologist Wilson: The hypothalamic-limbic complex of a highly social species such as man’ "knows’" or more precisely it has been programmed to perform as if it knows’ that its underlying genes will be proliferated maximally only if it orchestrates behavioral responses that bring into play an efficient mixture of personal survival’ reproduction’ and altruism. Consequently’ the centers of the complex tax the conscious mind with ambivalences whenever the organism encounters stressful situations. Love joins hate; aggression’ fear; expansiveness’ withdrawal; and so on; in blends designed not to promote the happiness and survival of the individual’ but to favor the maximum transmission of the controlling genes.565 Dr. Irven DeVore’ another Harvard sociobiologist’ in a recent interview put it this way: Millennia of evolution have equipped you with a whole complex of motivations’ inclinations’ propensities’ emotions -- what we call proximate mechanisms -- that guide your behavior appropriately. The fact that love’ friendship’ anger’ or jealousy usually occur when they have adaptive consequences is not to belittle these emotions. The individual might even be aware of the ultimate causes that underlie his behavior’ but the whole point is that while these emotions are authentic’ they also serve the interests of one’s genes. Various aspects of these systems might be quite conscious’ for example’ the mother scheming to arrange the best marriage for her daughter. But in most instances’ the sources of these emotions are beyond the limits of our ordinary awareness. What counts is that we are left with emotions -- love’ friendship’ gratitude -- that are expressions of our deepest biological nature’ entirely natural and adaptive... . Each will occur in conditions that are adaptive from the point of view of the genes someone bears.2946 Emotion’ in other words’ permits every individual to display an instinctual wisdom accumulated by the species over millions of years of evolution. Of course’ extraterrestrial sentients may possess physiological states corresponding to limbic-like emotions that have no direct analog in human experience. Alien species’ having evolved under a different set of environmental constraints than we’ should also have a different but equally adaptive emotional repertoire. Countless recipes may be cooked up using just a dash of imagination. For example’ assume that human observers land on an alien planet and discover an intelligent animal with an acute sense of absolute humidity and absolute air pressure. For this creature’ there may exist an emotional state corresponding to an unfavorable change in the weather. Physiologically’ this emotion could be mediated by the ET equivalent of the human limbic system; it might arise following the secretion of certain strength-enhancing and libido-arousing hormones into the alien’s bloodstream in response to the perceived change in weather. Immediately our creature begins to engage in a variety of learned and socially-approved’ behaviors’ including furious burrowing and building’ smearing tree sap over its pelt’ several different territorial defense ceremonies’ and vigorous polygamous copulations with nearby females -- apparently (to humans) for no reason at all. Would we interpret this as madness? Or love? Lust? Fear? Anger? None of these is correct’ of course. The alien is feeling badweather. While xenopsychologists suspect that even emotional sentients may not share similar emotions’ they are far more certain that no "universal emotions" exist among all extraterrestrial sentients generally -- because intelligence simply does not require it. Intelligent aliens’ in other words’ may be emotionless. Probably the smartest nonemotional creature on Earth today is the octopus. The animal sports eight suckered but dexterous tentacles’ color-and texture-variable skin’ and a highly educable intelligence.2899’2908 An invertebrate mollusc’ the octopus has an advanced ganglionic nervous system. Of the total 500 million nerve cells (5% as many as a human brain)’ 300 million are distributed in the arms and 200 million are collected in the central ganglic brain. (As usual for invertebrates on Earth’ the brain has managed to wrap itself nooselike around the creature’s throat during the course of evolution.)2901 The octopus does have a few minor endocrine systems. For instance the optic gland’ which apparently activates according to daylength’ controls the maturation of sexual organs and the onset of sexual behavior. At least seven other glandular structures have been tentatively identified which control body fluids’ maternal behavior’ etc. Even so’ compulsory hormonal and physiological emotional responses appear to be absent in the octopus. The animal is’ from the strict mammalian viewpoint’ utterly without emotion. Xenopsychologists find octopus behavior both fascinating and instructive. It is a solitary animal with no social inclinations whatsoever. Worse’ it is also a carnivore’ so it’s even more difficult to imagine a large society of the creatures. Each individual is fiercely independent; when crowded into a small tank’ they will fight and establish a dominance hierarchy.2901 Octopuses have no fear of fire and are insensitive to burns.2900 The animal knows sex’ but doesn’t get very excited about it. The heartbeat of a male octopus in the midst of copulation is as steady as in a resting animal. The sexual displays of males during courtship appear to serve only for identification’ never for stimulation’ of the female.2911 Broods are enormous impersonal affairs -- up to 250’000 eggs in a batch. No maternal love is lavished on offspring after birth; the young must fight for their own lives. Females often fast themselves to death guarding their own unhatched eggs. An octopus has no "childhood." The creature may not know what it means to feel hungry. Mammals long deprived of food become excited and venture out in an agitated search for food. The response of the octopus to food deprivation is totally different and utterly alien. When crabs become scarce’ octopuses resign themselves to long watchful inactivity until the day the supply improves. They become lesslikely to emerge from their houses attack possible prey passing by.2911 Motivation is not as adjustable as in mammals’ yet octopus behavior under stress is considerably more "cool and calculating." After hundreds of hours of direct observation’ undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau had this to say: The octopus is a timid animal. Far from attacking a diver’ its first reaction is to flee’ to hide. But its timidity is a reasoned reaction’ one that is based primarily on prudence and caution. It is not an instinctive and groundless fear that persists regardless of circumstances.2900 Octopus mentality seems to be oriented toward calculated prudence’ more plastic than reptiles and more aloof than mammals. Is this’ perhaps’ a clue to the possible behavior of intelligent emotionless extraterrestrials?

* Science fiction writers have had a field day imagining strange behaviors in strange environments. In Hal Clement’s Mission of Gravity’ we expect the aliens to exhibit rather pronounced fears of heights’ walls’ ceilings and falls’ since the maximum planetary surface gravity is 700 gees and even short drops could be fatal.2069 A world which enjoys 2000 years of continuous daylight before it is plunged into a brief nightfall could be expected to engender panic reactions during the unaccustomed darkness. 2920 Wasting water on a barren arid world may cause an angry response from the natives. 2919

20.2.4 Xenophobia The sight of a stranger can provoke some of the strongest aggressive responses among Earthly animals. Wilson claims that the xenophobic reaction has been documented in almost every species showing a high form of social organization’ vertebrates and invertebrates alike: Male lions’ normally the more lethargic adults of the prides’ are jerked to attention and commence savage rounds of roaring when strange males come into view. And nothing in the day-to-day social life of an ant colony’ no matter how stressful’ activates the group like the introduction of a few alien workers.565 Competition and aggression are generally more intense within a species than between different species. Still’ forced into close proximity’ grossly different animals become nervous and uneasy -- especially if the one bears a reasonable resemblance to an established fear-object (say’ a predator) of the other. Zoologists sometimes attribute this to a kind of universal wariness between creatures differing substantially in physical appearance. Wilson admits: "In the primitive lexicon of the emotive centers’ strange means dangerous."565 Adds another writer: Interacting with a creature that is unfamiliar is anxiety-provoking. Its reactions’ motivations’ and desires cannot be assumed to be the same as one’s own’ and therefore its behavior cannot be predicted. A movement that would not provoke anxiety when made by a friend or even a casual acquaintance can provoke an extreme response when made by a stranger. Given that situations involving unknown quantities are inherently anxiety provoking’ it is relatively easy to understand how actions can be interpreted to mean something quite different from what the person who performed the act intended.222 Or’ as yet another expresses it: The mind of man is stocked to the gunwales with emotional parochialisms. Very few men would be self-controlled enough to extend courtesy to a horsesized scorpion who was the master of another world’ even if it were prudent to do so’ even if the scorpion were venomless and exhibited the manners of a Spanish duke."1550 Such gross physical differences may give rise to more subtle difficulties as well. Consider a meeting between a human being and an intelligent crablike creature. Among humans’ the open-fisted handwave is an almost universal sign of greeting.2552 The handshake’ perhaps a display of cultural origin intended to demonstrate a lack of offensive weapons’ is similarly universal among human societies. So when a man sees the crab’ he gives his favorite greeting. But consider the crab’s point of view. To it’ claws are the main weapons of offense. The raising and lowering of claws’ as well as any similar vertical or arclike waving motions’ are characteristic threat gestures among many terrestrial crustacean species.2926 To the intelligent crab’ the human handwave may be interpreted as an invitation to attack’ a sign that the man is of hostile intent and is asking for a fight. The creature may oblige by attacking. Conversely’ what if the crab is angry at us? Its clawwaving threat display might be interpreted by untutored humans as a friendly handwaving gesture of greeting. When the alien is approached peaceably’ the ensuing attack by the mad crab may be regarded as treachery or slyness rather than a simple cultural difference between the two species (Figure 20.3).

Figure 20.3 Claw-Waving Threat Displays In Crabs Among crabs’ claws arc the main weapons of defense and offense. Claw motions have been ritualized as characteristic threat displays. At left are the clawwaves of a variety of fiddler crabs’ including Uca rhizophorae (vertical waving)’ (b) Uca annulipes (lateral waving)’ (c) Uca pugilator (circular wave with outstretched claw)’ (d) Dotilla blanford (double clawwave)’ and (e) Goniopsis cruentata, or the mangrove crab (complex double clawwave)2827 Below are a few more examples of fiddler crab waving. The lateral-waving Fuji Island crab pulls its claw in initially (a)’ stretches it out in a sideways move ment (b)’ raises it high above the head (c)’ then returns it along an arc to the original position (d). Variations on vertical waving are shown in the sequences of the Malayan fiddler crab (e & f) and of the Philippine fiddler crab (g & h). 2926

Besides displays’ a wide variety of behavioral "releasers" may render more difficult all attempts at cross-species communication and understanding’ and make xenophobia more likely.2578’2442 Again’ one example will serve to make the point. According to Konrad Lorenz’ human beings have a rather strong set of instinctual "brood care releasers" (Figure 20.4). Depending upon a variety of physical characteristics a lifeform possesses -- large head’ rounded body shape’ short thick extremities’ and so forth -- people will find it to be "cute" and experience a strong desire to pick it up’ cuddle and fondle it. This particular human releaser has been demonstrated repeatedly in various experimental situations.2923’2924 Such feeling on our part toward the sentient aliens with whom we are dealing could result in behavior which is at best inappropriate and’ at worst’ fatal.

Figure 20.4 Releasers in Human Beings Konrad Lorenz has suggested that behavior patterns of caring for young are released in humans by a number of cues which characterize infants. These "brood care releasers" include:

1. Head large in proportion to the body. 2. Protruding forehead large in proportion to rest of face. 3. Large eyes below the midline of the total head. 4. Short’ thick extremities. 5. Rounded body shape. 6. Soft’ elastic body surfaces’ 7. Round’ protruding cheeks. 8. Specific behavioral cues such as clumsiness. The figures at LEFT illustrate the "baby schema" of human brood care behavior. In the leftmost drawings are head proportions of animal forms generally considered to be "cute"; the rightmost drawings are the adult forms of the same animals’ which do not release the drive to care for young. 2922 BELOW Lorenz also believes that humans have other releasers which affect attitudes towards other creatures. Below are shown the head of a camel (left) and an eagle (right). Lorenz claims that man has an innate releasing mechanism that responds to the relative position of the camel’s eyes and its nose. In man’ this particular combination means "an arrogant turning away’" so we consider the camel to be an aloof and arrogant animal. In the eagle the bony ridge above the eyes is viewed as a wrinkling of the forehead; together with the pulled-back corners of the mouth’ the eagle’s expression is seen as "proud decisiveness" and daring. Unfortunately’ these interpretations of the psychology of our fellow lifeforms have little or nothing to do with the actual mood of the particular animal involved. 2925

Xenopsychologists believe that xenophobic reactions cut across species’ genus’ and even phylum lines. Wariness of strangers is extremely common among the animals of Earth. So while we may be repulsed by the physical appearance of intelligent snakes’ lobsters’ and squid from other worlds’ of one thing we may be almost certain: We will appear just as ugly to them.

20.3 Early Technological Civilizations Technology’ or the artificial modification of the biosphere’ is a unique method for achieving balance between population pressure and ecological forces. As suggested earlier’ it may be used as a population reducing technique. However’ the most important sociological function of technology is to increase production. This is of critical importance in alien social evolution’ Xenosociologists believe there are at least four fundamental requirements for the evolution of a technological civilization on a planet bustling with lifeforms: 1. Motivation or behavioral predisposition to use tools; 2. Manipulatory organs preadapted for tool-using; 3. Sufficient physical resources to build technology; and 4. Sufficient energy to power the technology. High individual intelligence is not a fundamental requirement. Ants’ bees’ termites and other social insects have evolved technologies such as architecture’ carpentry’ dairy farming’ and the domestication of other animals for "equestrian" purposes565 without advanced personal sentience. Great intelligence is certainly an enormous asset in the creation of a technical civilization’ but it is not essential. Early technological cultures may arise in any of three planetary environments: Telluric civilization (land)’ aquatic civilization (sea)’ or avian civilization (air).

20.3.1 Telluric Civilizations All human societies of which we are aware have been land-based. They also have all been found on Earth. How common are telluric civilizations throughout the rest of the Galaxy? The first requirement is motivation. On this planet -- a typically exotic world -- examples abound. Ant lions and worm lions knock insect prey into their capture pits by hurling sand with the head. Termites build structures on the order of 100 "stories" high’ and ants maintain flocks of dairy aphids which are milked regularly. Beavers build dams and dome-shaped lodges. Primates display a wide variety of tool-using behavior -- sticks are used for whips’ clubs’ spears’ anthill fishing poles’ toothbrushes’ and as levers to pry open boxes’ fruits’ or nuts; leaves are used as drinking and feeding tools; and so forth.565 Tool-using behavior seems widespread among land-living species on Earth. The second requirement (manipulators) is particularly easy’ since ambulatory limbs which preadapt a species for tool-using are particularly suited to locomotion on land. Even the most primitive terrestrial vertebrate forms -- the amphibians -- have 5-fingered hands’ two arms and two legs. Several species of lizards are known to have opposable thumbs’ supposedly the hall mark of human tool manipulating ability. A few zoologists have speculated that if mankind were eradicated today it is likely that his technocultural replacement could evolve in as little as 15 million years.400 The raccoon would be one possibility’ since its hands are thought by some to be superior to our own for grasping and manipulating. Pandas have evolved an alternative but satisfactory method of grasping using a thumblike appendage’ and koala bears have not one but two opposable digits on their forepaws.450 Human related simian stock’ such as chimpanzees and apes’ might also replace us. The third requirement is physical resources. As historian Richie Calder suggests’ a technical culture can only manifest itself in the materials that are available from the physical environment: The Eskimo’ although an ingenious people and blessed with a remarkable memory’ never developed beyond the Neolithic (New Stone Age) because of their very limited materials.. They had no access to ores that might have set them on the track of metallurgy; cold and snow prevented agriculture and made them hunters; they had no wood as they were beyond the tree line; and the lack of other plant life denied them fibers for weaving. Without these materials they simply were unable to evolve their own technology.968 Discussions among xenologists on the availability of technology materials frequently center upon the abundance of various metals on planetary surfaces. (See Bova’1400 Huntington and Cushing’2620 and Livesay.2723) Astronomical aspects are best considered first. For instance’ most Disk stars in the Galaxy should have sufficient metallicity to permit terrestrial planetary formation provided other conditions are also favorable. Core stars generally have even higher metallicity’ so the physical resource factor is even more positive for the evolution of metal-using technical civilizations. Also’ the older a star the sooner it was formed from the primordial galactic nebula -- and thus the fewer heavy elements it and its worlds may possess.2876 Planets located in mid-habitable zone (of the biocarbon ecosphere) normally will show heavy element compositions roughly similar to Earth’ having condensed out of the primitive solar nebula at about the same temperature.2050 While the total fraction of heavy elements varies from star to star’ the relative fraction of each metal is surprisingly uniform.1945 While planetary bulk composition may stay relatively constant (in a given ecosphere around the star)’ there may be serious problems in surface distribution. As suggested in an earlier chapter’ large worlds should have thinner crusts (which more easily buckle) and more severe tectonic activity. This activity will tend to thrust rich subcrustal heavy metal deposits to the surface’ making them available for technological utilization. (Prospectors have long known that the richest mineral and ore deposits are generally found in regions of volcanic activity and in mountainous terrain.2909) Less-massive planets should have comparatively few concentrated ore deposits near the surface. The fourth requirement for civilization is energy. Land dwellers are pretty well-off. Fibrous vegetation or animal oils can be burned’ as can natural hydrocarbons tapped from pools or pockets of decaying organic matter. Fires permit smelters and the working of metal products’ and the technology is on its way.*

* There may be a few unusual (to us) cases. For example’ on a planet with a chlorine atmosphere heavy metals might serve as fuel. In Cl2 gas’ hot strips or wires of copper’ or iron wool’ spontaneously burst into flames.

20.3.2 Aquatic Civilizations Many possible variants of aquatic civilization have been named by xenosociologists. Amphibious littoral civilizations’ for instance’ may inhabit the seashore. Pelagic civilizations would occupy the water mass and the surface of the sea. Benthic or abyssal civilizations may live in the extreme ocean depths and sea floor of other worlds. Estuarial civilizations may make their homes in bays’ fiords and river waters. Limnic cultures could live in lakes. But are aquatic technical civilizations possible at all? There has been much written on this point’ and most writers seem to have reached a negative conclusion. (See Anderson’63 Hoyle’1559 Livesay’2723 MacGowan and Ordway’600 Macvey’49 and Strong.50) But this author believes the majority is wrong. Consider the requirement of motivation. Many water-dwelling lifeforms on Earth employ technologies (e.g.’ artifacts) to assist in their survival. One of the most primitive is the archer fish (Toxotes jaculatrix)’ which carefully aims and spits blobs of water at its prey (insects and spiders) to knock them into the water where they can be caught in the fish’s mouth. Another example’ considerably more sophisticated’ is the octopus. This intelligent invertebrate gathers stones’ chips’ and metal scraps to build small cavelike houses in which it resides. Another unusual example is the sea otter (Enhydra lutris). This semiaquatic mammal collects stones and shells from the ocean bottom. Then’ while floating on its back at the surface’ the otter places these objects on its stomach and uses them as anvils against which to pound and crack open mussels and other hard-shelled molluscs.565 It appears that many sea creatures on this planet are strongly motivated to try their luck at technology. If Earth is typically exotic’ water worlds elsewhere in the Galaxy should fare no worse. What about manipulators? The lack of manipulative organs in the most intelligent seagoing animals -- the cetaceans -- implies that their intelligence "cannot be worked out in technology’"1365’15 unless they have outside help. But this may just be an evolutionary fluke. Elephants seals’ a genus of "returned mammals" closely related to the cetaceans’ still retain the in credibly delicate’ 5-digit "flipper fingers" that their cousins the dolphins must once have possessed. On another world’ brains and hands may coincide.* Of course’ there is no reason why boneless tentacles could not serve as technologically useful appendages in the absence of hands and fingers. The cephalopods’ which include the octopus’ cuttlefish and squid’ have from 8-10 limbs surrounding their mouths. These probably evolved from whiskerlike projections near the food cavities of more ancient molluscan forms. The fact that intelligent octopoids do not dominate the seas of Earth may be’ again’ merely an evolutionary fluke. First’ octopuses have hemocyanin blood’ which is less efficient than hemoglobin. The animal tires easily and has little appetite for sustained heavy labor. Second’ octopuses have ganglionic nervous systems which may have limited their sentience on Earth. But there is nothing fundamentally wrong with a tentacular intelligence. The convergence with certain well-known land forms (prehensile-tailed monkeys’ elephants) strongly suggests that tentacles may build technologies on other worlds. How about physical resources? Clays and mud are available for ceramics and pottery’ sand for glass’ and there is a tremendous variety of organic materials available for chemical industry -- dyes’ acids’ drugs’ etc. Stone masonry is quite possible’ since concrete can be mixed that can set underwater. Nodules littering the continental shelves and ocean floors could be harvested for their nickel’ cobalt and manganese. Fantastic quantities of metals are afloat in seawater itself. For example’ a kilogram of iron can be harvested by filtering 50’000 m3 of ordinary seawater past a simple magnetic lodestone. (The liquid volume involved is only about as much as a single shark breathes in a month.) Marine lifeforms could devise an advanced biological technology including "cold light" streetlamps using luminiferous bacteria’ architectural coral’ and "slave fishes." Where do we get the energy to work all these resources? Aquatic ETs may discover superheated underwater volcanoes -- these exist in great numbers on Earth’s ocean floors and should be even more numerous on larger’ more massive pelagic worlds. Submarine oil deposits may be found in sedimentary strata. Natural gas and other combustible vapors upwelling from the planetary interior could be trapped in special containers and burned using oxygen imported from the surface. Lacking combustion’ bubblewheels could be erected over regions of submarine helium gas effluence and the rotary power used to turn mechanical flywheels. There is no bar to the full development of electrical power generation. Electric eels could be domesticated for this purpose’ or simply cannibalized for their organic batteries. Alternatively’ marine extraterrestrials could build their own batteries using pieces of carbon’ tankards of seawater and some other electrolyte’ and a small bit of metal. The electricity thus obtained might then be used to perform electrolysis on water’ splitting each molecule into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen atoms. This gaseous mixture is a potent fuel’ and could conceivably be used to power smelters’ streetlights’ seacars and seabuses’ 2800 °C oxyhydrogen blowtorches’ turbines and jet-propelled devices’ and even rockets. There is little that man has accomplished technologically on land that could not be repeated in some analogous fashion by a race of marine lifeforms on a pelagic world elsewhere in our Galaxy.

* It is interesting to note that cetacean intelligence soared following its return to the sea’ reaching a level of "encephalization" equal to that of modern-day humans 10 million years ago. 2910 There is no truth to the assertion that the sea is incapable of bringing forth high intelligence’ for it was the seagoing dolphins’ not humans’ who first made it to the top. Ethologist John Eisenberg correctly points out that the assumption that the marine environment is homogeneous is false: "There are currents and different temperature and pressure regimes which make it very exciting."3241

20.3.3 Avian Civilizations Almost without exception’ previous writers have concluded that technological civilization among avian creatures is virtually impossible. (See Hoyle’1559 MacGowan and Ordway’600 and Strong.50) Again’ the author strongly disputes this conclusion. First of all’ aerial lifeforms on Earth appear favorably disposed to tool-using. Solitary wasps (Ammophila) pound their nest entrances shut with a small pebble held in their mandibles. The woodpecker finch uses twigs’ cactus spines and leaf stems to dig insects out of crevasses in tree bark. The Australian black-breasted buzzard carries rocks and lumps of soil skyward; released’ the rocks fall on the eggs of other birds which break and are eaten by the buzzard. The black cockatoo of the Aru Islands grasps nuts in its beak with a leaf while cracking them open (like holding a jar in a towel for better traction while the lid is twisted off). And northern blue jays’ held in captivity’ have been observed tearing off strips of newspaper flooring and using them to rake in food pellets placed out of reach beyond the mesh wall of the cage.565 Extraterrestrial creatures evolving in similar aerial niches may be expected to develop similar biological predispositions. How about manipulative appendages? Several writers have argued that when birds evolved wings they lost the use of one of their two pairs of limbs. Thus they cannot have arms or hands to work out their intelligence in technology’ and so there can be no technical civilization of the air. But this line of reasoning overlooks the possibility that the ancestral form of alien avians might be’ say’ hexapodal. If the original reptilian stock had begun with six legs instead in four’ then two could evolve into wings’ two into arms’ and two could remain legs. Alternatively’ the "gasbag beasts" described in an earlier chapter would most likely feed from the underside’ and so might evolve mouth-tentacles much like the cephalopods of Earth’s seas. Such limbs would admirably fulfill the requirement of a manipulatory organ and should permit the emergence of an ET avian technological civilization.3234 As for materials and energy’ resources on the ground will probably have to be tapped because the air is practically devoid of useful minerals. Wind power and rain power are possibilities’ but fire is probably much easier and will directly permit the smelting of structural and ornamental metals. Avian technology should be very similar to telluric technology generally. It is also possible that tool-using avians may be land-dwelling "returned" lifeforms’ adapted to a permanently flightless existence much like the ostrich’ the kiwi’ and the extinct giant moa (a bipedal’ bimanous 240 kg bird) of Earth.3006

20.4 Alien Social Systems In his recent book On Human Nature’3198 sociobiologist E.O. Wilson suggests that human social behavior is best evaluated by comparison with the behavior of other major categories of Earthly species.3646 Human beings are proud of their intelligence and many cultural achievements’ but seldom do they pause to consider how many of their social traits can be traced back to their primate (and mammalian) ancestry. Remarks Wilson: "The general traits of human nature appear limited and idiosyncratic when placed against the backdrop of all other living species."3198 Or’ as Clarence Day pointed out many years ago in his lighthearted essay "This Simian World’"76 many of the strategies people use to cope with the environment are characteristic of our arboreal’ visually-oriented’ curious’ manipulative’ leadership-hungry’ pair-bonding’ verbally communicative simian forebears. Psychologically as well as physiologically’ humans have a lot of monkey in them. Wilson gives several examples. Intimate social groupings among humans usually contain on the order of 10-100 adults’ never just two (as in most birds and marmosets) or up to thousands (as in many fishes and insects). Human males are generally larger than females’ the result of a mild form of sexual competition common to primates and many other kinds of mammals. The young are psychologically molded by a lengthy period of social training’ first by close associations with the mother and later by interaction with other children of the same age and sex. Another common feature is social play’ a strongly developed activity involving role practice’ mock aggression’ sex practice’ and exploration. These and many other properties together identify a constellation of social traits characteristic of the taxonomic group including the Old World monkeys’ the great apes’ and human beings. Notes Wilson: It is inconceivable that human beings could be socialized into the radically different repertoires of other groups such as fishes’ birds’ antelopes’ or rodents. Human beings might self-consciously imitate such arrangements’ but it would be a fiction played out on a stage’ would run counter to deep emotional responses and have no chance of persisting through as much as a single generation. To adopt with serious intent’ even in broad outline’ the social system of a nonprimate species would be insanity in the literal sense. Personalities would quickly dissolve’ relationships disintegrate’ and reproduction cease.3198 An exhaustive inventory of the elements of "human nature" has yet to be prepared. However’ a few partial lists have been compiled. In 1945 the American anthropologist George P. Murdock listed the following root characteristics of man’s society which have been recorded virtually in every human culture known to Earthly ethnographers: Age-grading’ athletic sports’ bodily adornment’ calendar’ cleanliness training’ community organizations’ cooking’ cooperative labor’ cosmology’ courtship’ dancing’ decorative art’ divination’ division of labor’ dream interpretation’ education’ eschatology’ ethics’ ethnobotany’ etiquette’ faith healing’ family feasting’ fire making’ folklore’ food taboos’ funeral rites’ games’ gestures’ gift giving’ government’ greetings’ hairstyles’ hospitality’ housing’ hygiene’ incest taboos’ inheritance rules’ joking’ kin groups’ kin ship nomenclature’ language’ law’ luck superstitions’ magic’ marriage’ mealtimes’ medicine’ obstetrics’ penal sanctions’ personal names’ population policy’ postnatal care’ pregnancy usages’ property rights’ propitiation of supernatural beings’ puberty customs’ religious ritual’ residence rules’ sexual restrictions’ soul concepts’ status differentiation’ surgery’ toolmaking’ trade’ visiting’ weaving’ and weather control.3201 After citing Murdock’s work’ Wilson suggests that few if any of these properties are inevitable outcomes of either high intelligence or advanced social life; "human nature is just one hodgepodge out of many conceivable."3198 An entomologist by training’ Wilson has no trouble imagining a nonhuman insectlike society whose members are even more intelligent and complexly organized than people’ yet which lacks many of the qualities listed in Murdock’s inventory above. The "alien" inventory might look something like this: Age-grading’ antennal rites’ body licking’ calendar’ cannibalism’ caste determination’ caste laws’ colony-foundation rules’ colony organization’ cleanliness training’ communal nurseries’ cooperative labor’ cosmology’ courtship’ division of labor’ drone control’ education’ eschatology’ ethics’ etiquette’ euthanasia’ firemaking’ food taboos’ gift giving’ government’ greetings’ grooming rituals’ hospitality’ housing’ hygiene’ incest taboos’ language’ larval care’ law’ medicine’ metamorphosis rites’ mutual regurgitation’ nursing castes’ nuptial flights’ nutrient eggs’ population policy’ queen obeisance’ residence rules’ sex determination’ soldier castes’ sisterhoods’ status differentiation’ sterile workers’ surgery’ symbiont care’ toolmaking’ trade’ visiting’ weather control’ . . .and still other activities so alien as to make mere description by our language difficult.3198 Civilization’ says Wilson’ is not intrinsically limited to hominoids. Only by an accident of evolution on this particular planet was it linked to the anatomy of bare-skinned’ bipedal mammals and the peculiar qualities of human nature.

20.4.1 Models for Extraterrestrial Societies While it is certainly possible that sentient ETs may also evolve from their world’s equivalent of primate stock’ chances are that many if not most will not. In the absence of high technology modification’ the psychological and sociological constitution of alien sentients will reflect their biological ancestry. Indeed’ the timehonored science-fictional technique for generating new extraterrestrial psyches is to use various Earth animals as behavioral models.2956 While there is some scientific validity to this procedure’ it must always be remembered that basic feral traits will be strongly modified by intelligence. Primitive animal drives and instincts will be "culturalized" by the sentient alien’ an enormously complex process which extends from minor (redirected bare-teeth threat display becomes smile) to major (curiosity channeled into scientific research) sociocultural aspects. For example’ primates are known to be moderately aggressive animals’ and all human societies retain this trait. Some societies have no institutions of mass aggression such as sports or warfare’ but all display personal aggression to varying degrees. The Arapesh of New Guinea’ often cited as the most striking example of culturally determined peaceability’ are not without aggressive displays. The effect of culture has just been remarkably strong: Children are trained to vent their rage on objects rather than other persons’ a habit that continues during adulthood.2928 Similarly’ the Hopi Indians of North America suppress all physical forms of aggression and violence but still vent their feelings by trading vicious verbal insults.452 Still’ employed with proper caution’ the behavioral analog technique can illuminate many fascinating possibilities. Endowed with higher intellect and patterned after a variety of nonsimian ancestral forms’ extraterrestrial lifeforms may have developed societies which display’ articulate’ or attempt to hide the ancient behavioral traits characteristic of the animal group from which the sentient race originally sprang.* Sentient aliens derived from avian stock might exhibit behaviors more common to birds than to simians. Earth birds have response mechanisms that promote group synchronization and integration’ such as call notes and visual cues’ which permit flocking and body contact while in flight. There is also territoriality’ pecking orders’ and pair-bonding (the inclusion of the male in the role of parental care). By contrast’ mammals rarely display pair-bonding. It is generally found only among carnivores and primates. Because of the existence of mammalian milk glands and the need for prolonged care of the young’ mother-child-centered societies are virtually universal among this animal order. In other words’ mammalian social groups tend to be female-centered.2946 This pattern is exemplified by lions: The core of a lion pride is a closed sisterhood of several adult females’ related to one another at least as closely as cousins and associated for most or all of their lives within fixed territories passed from one generation to the next. The adult males exist as partial parasites on the females. Young males almost invariably leave the prides in which they were born’ wandering either singly or in groups. When the opportunity arises these males attach themselves to a new pride’ sometimes by aggressively displacing the resident males. Male bands both inside and outside the pride typically consist of brothers’ or at least of individuals who have been associated through much of their lives. The pride males permit the females to lead them from one place to another’ and they depend on them to hunt and kill most of the prey. Once the animal is downed’ the males move in and use their superior size to push the lionesses and cubs aside and to eat their fill. Only after they have finished do the others gain full access to the prey.565 As young animals’ terrestrial carnivores engage in complex play’ prey-catching’ and aggressive behavior. As adults many become solitary’ especially those who hunt by stealth such as the cat. Aliens based on a feline model will doubtless retain a mentality and worldview characterized by solitary stealth and individual achievement. This outlook will find expression in their science’ politics’ warfare’ and daily labors. Paul Layhausen has hinted that sentient catlike extraterrestrials who try to live together in cities may find it harder than humans do to adjust’ when he writes of the effects of subjecting feline populations to unnatural conditions of crowding: The more crowded the cage is’ the less relative hierarchy there is. Eventually a despot emerges’ "pariahs" appear’ driven to frenzy and all kinds of neurotic behavior by continuous and pitiless attack by all others; the community turns into a spiteful mob. They all seldom relax’ they never look at ease’ and there is a continuous hissing’ growling’ and even fighting. Play stops altogether and locomotion and exercises are reduced to a minimum.2937 (Primate behavior under similar circumstances is surprisingly complacent -- in fact’ the dominance hierarchies become more stable.2950) Canids such as wolves and wild dogs hunt by cooperatively running down their prey in relatively open habitats. They live in packs of from 5-50 individuals’ a social organization admirably suited to predation of larger creatures. Zoologists have found that the African wild dog exhibits a degree of cooperation and altruism unmatched in the animal kingdom save by elephants and primates. Hunters share equally in the brutal kill. Food is taken back to pups’ mothers’ and other adults who remained behind at the den. After the kill’ juveniles are given priority in feeding’ an uncommon gratuity among carnivores. Sick and crippled adults are cared for indefinitely and are rarely peremptorily abandoned. An alien society modeled after canid behavior would be characterized by a peculiar combination of peaceful communal living and savage pack boldness. Wild dogs are generally relaxed’ egalitarian’ and monogamous. Litters of offspring are usually restricted to one or two females -- frequently by violent means (murder of excess pups) -- so pack females vie with one another for the privilege of nursing the pups. No individual distance is maintained’ and pack members often lie together in heaps to keep warm. Just after a kill’ there seems to be a competition among the hunters to see who can make the most submissive gestures. Displaying a wide’ yawning grin’ each individual playfully tries to burrow beneath the others in a gallant struggle to become the "underdog."565 Whiptail wallabies’ Australian marsupials belonging to the same taxonomic family as the kangaroo’ are strict vegetarians who inhabit grassy woodlands. One population was observed to be loosely grouped into three distinct "mobs" that remained quite stable for at least a year. Each mob had from 30-50 members’ and achieved a fairly high population density -- about 0.02 km2/individual’ close to the global human average -- perhaps due to the herbivorous lifestyle: Meetings between mobs were uncommon but amicable. They resulted in a temporary fusion of the groups into single aggregations that rested and fed together. On such occasions the wallabies treated individuals belonging to other groups much as they did members of their own group. Animals of all ages mingled easily’ while the adult males fought for dominance and courted females with no apparent particular reference to mob affiliation.565 Aggression is highly ritualized among these comparatively gentle animals -- even the fighting for dominance is described as "gentlemanly." Wallaby behavior is strongly individualistic’ but despite this they have produced stable aggregations ranging over fixed exclusive territories that are "owned" by a mob. Each animal is capable of personal recognition of many other individuals. Their small’ 5-fingered paws are used for grasping’ and’ although they have no opposable thumb’ it is easy to imagine a race of sentient’ tool-using extraterrestrial wallabies building a mighty civilization elsewhere in our Galaxy. The black bear provides yet another possible model for alien society.3079 These large’ omnivorous mammals normally have low population densities’ from 1-5 km2/individual. Society is organized around the mother. Adult females breed in feeding territories which are exclusively occupied by them. However’ they also permit their daughters to share subdivisions of the maternal land’ and they "bequeath" their property rights to these daughters when they move away or die. Males take no part in this system of inheritance: They disperse from the maternal territories as subadults. During the mating season the fully mature males enter the female territories and displace one another by aggressive interactions’ especially when they meet in the immediate vicinity of the females. Later’ as their testosterone levels drop’ they withdraw from the females and assemble in peaceful feeding aggregations wherever the richest food supplies are to be found. In the late fall they return to the female territories to den.565 Or’ intelligent extraterrestrials may evolve from creatures resembling rodents. One of the more solitary of the social rodents on Earth is the beaver. This amazing mammal designs and stabilizes its own habitats with the dams and ponds it creates. Beavers are highly industrious individuals’ often repairing a damaged dam overnight. They build large dome-shaped island lodges of sticks plastered with mud -- a kind of wood-reinforced earthen house bearing a striking resemblance to Navaho hogans in the American Southwest. The interior is usually a couple of meters high’ large enough for a man to stand up inside. These structures are built sturdily enough to last many generations. Food caches are often stored inside. Beavers live in pond cities of many lodges’ normally with one family to a lodge. A family typically consists of a mated parental pair and two sets of offspring -newborns and youth. The youth disperse from the parental lodges only after several years of residence there. While beavers are of placid disposition and often labor together cooperatively’ their character is basically individualistic and they will defend their own lodge area against members of other families. The animal has very stable populations’ since both birth and death rates are very low. Beavers today measure a meter in length and weigh 30 kilograms’ but fossil forms from the Oligocene epoch exceeded 2 meters and probably weighed as much as a small adult human. With their unwebbed 5-fingered forepaws’ there is no reason why evolution on another world could not have produced a sentient ET race with a behavior similar to that of the terrestrial beaver. A lesser-known but more gregarious rodent species is the blacktail prairie dog’ named for its distinctive barking voice. Living in the exposed habitats of the open plains’ these small-dog-sized rodents tend to form dense local populations. It is believed that predation is the main driving force of social evolution for these creatures -- dense aggregations and a communal alarm system are substituted for the cover of rocks’ foliage’ and the "impregnable fortresses" such as the lodges built by beavers. In the Black Hills of South Dakota’ prairie dogs live in towns consisting of as many as 1000 individuals. These townships are physically divided by natural boundaries such as ridges’ streams’ or bands of vegetation into neighborhoods or "wards." Each ward consists of several burrow-homes’ called "coteries" by ethologists. These are the real social units of the prairie dog community. Coteries typically comprise a group of 4 adults and 6 children’ and are stable family units. Members of coteries share burrows and clearly recognize each other as close associates’ "kissing" each other in greeting each time they meet. Perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of prairie dog society is that’ much like the black bear’ coterie territorial limits are passed along by tradition. Burrow-homes are inherited and descend down family lineages: The population of each coterie constantly changes over a period of a few months or years’ by death’ birth’ and emigration. But the coterie boundary remains about the same’ being learned by each prairie dog born into it. The young animals evidently acquire this information through repeated episodes of grooming from other members of the coterie along with rejection by territorial neighbors. New coteries are formed by adult males who venture into adjacent empty land and commence burrowing there. They are followed by a few adult females. The juveniles and subadults are left behind in the old burrows.565 Of course’ other creatures than mammals may be conceived of as templates for social evolution. In the world of invertebrates’ the societies of insects are familiar. But the social spiders are less well-known.2951 These predatory carnivores live together in "towns" numbering as many as 1000 adults. A large and elaborate central web is constructed by all the members of the community’ and the giant structure is then occupied by several generations in succession. Social spiders collaborate in capturing large prey. Both male and female attack’ feeding on the catch communally. Even the young take part’ swarming over the adults to seek out their own feeding place. Social information is transmitted by two-dimensional vibrations in the central webbing. While each spider lives alone’ company is tolerated in close proximity during feeding. There are no caste systems. Yet intelligent ETs modeled after these creatures could hardly be considered "civilized" in the popular sense -- injured spiders’ or spiders from whom the communal scent has been cleansed’ are viciously attacked by their neighbors. With a little imagination’ a bewildering variety of conceivable alien behavioral patterns may be generated simply by imagining what various Earthly species would be like if only they were a bit more intelligent.

* Examples from science fiction include ETs based on insects’ 668 crustaceans’ 442 molluscs’ 1946 amphibians’ 2935’2615 reptiles’ 2940’3007 avians’ 2929 and both land2873’753 and aquatic 1930 mammals.

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Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 21. Extraterrestrial Governments "In the long run the individualist always loses to the organization." -- Gordon R. Dickson’ from Ancient, My Enemy (1974)2165 "Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men." -- Robert A. Heinlein’ from Time Enough for Love (1973)2601 "In other words’ the 27’000 members of the Galactic Confederation expect Earth to pay for what they receive. This necessitates a form of mutually acceptable exchange commonly called money. Earth valuta is of no consequence in the Galaxy. Galactic currency must therefore be obtained. Only by selling the Galaxy goods or services or luxuries which they fancy can foreign currency be derived. Once obtained’ this Galactic currency can then be used to purchase extraterrestrial goods for our own use." -- Hayford Peirce’ from "Rebounder" (1976)3001 "Because of the Alderson Drive we need never consider the space between the stars. Because we can shunt between stellar systems in zero time’ our ships and ships’ drive need cover only interplanetary distances. We say that the Second Empire of Man rules 200 worlds and all the space between’ over 15 million cubic parsecs. But consider the true picture. Think of myriads of tiny bubbles’ very sparsely scattered’ rising through a vast black sea. We rule some of the bubbles. Of the water we know nothing. . -- Larry Niven’ Jerry Pournelle’ from The Mote in God’s Eye (1974)668

Government commonly is viewed as an instrument of authority over specific groups’ organizations’ and states. Authority implies coercion. Indeed’ as Poul Anderson has claimed’ perhaps the best traditional definition of government is "any organization which claims some right to exert physical force over individual members."78 Xenologists shy away from such limited conceptions of political activity. The idea that physical force’ competition’ or combat are essential to large-scale social organization lacks the generality and universality required of all xenological formulations. Alien governments may indeed be designed to perform strategic’ military’ or policing functions’ but a vast number of other purposes are imaginable as well. Coalitions to promote common economic interests and trading agreements might serve as the basis for government’ such as the European Economic Community (EEC)’ the Central American Common Market (CACM)’ the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)’ and so forth here on Earth. Organizations designed solely for the betterment of social conditions may arise; others might exist only for the purpose of cultural or philosophical exchange’ regulation of agricultural production’ tourism and recreation’ social engineering’ mining’ penal confinement’ or the spread of scientific knowledge. While human governments commonly take on elements of coercion and force’ there is no reason to insist that this must be a universal feature of all extraterrestrial societies. Perhaps the most general definition of government is the "thermodynamic" one: Government is a social system that stores specific information about a society and the way it works’ and which uses this information to establish and maintain order and complexity. As a negentropic system’ government’ much like life and intelligence’ necessarily must exhibit a number of communicative and control aspects.3071 Of course’ the exact mix must vary with incredible diversity among alien societies. Some organizations will stress communication’ others control. But all will manage information so as to regularize and complexify sociocultural behavior. Defined in this broad fashion’ xenologists confidently may assert that all societies -- both human and nonhuman -- must display some form of governance. [Note: See also the author's article "Galactic Empires"’ published in 1983.]

21.1 Dimensions of Extraterrestrial Government The first task before xenologists is to devise a comprehensive taxonomy which subsumes all forms of alien governments. The job is fantastically difficult’ for there are dozens of different ways to describe a given system of governance. (See de Blij’725 Etzioni’832 Katz’1768 Krader’1745 MacIver’818 McLennan’1866 Parkinson’2600 Rodee’ Anderson and Christol’821 Wescott’264 and Wit.817) Human political scientists don’t even agree on how to categorize human polities’ and it is virtually certain that Earthly political forms fail to exhaust the universe of possibilities. But xenologists must start somewhere. So’ despite the enormity of the task’ theorists have attempted to isolate a few of the most critical dimensions of government. Each dimension’ or "governance scale’" may be thought of as a coordinate axis which helps to define the geometry of government. Ordinary physical space as we know it may be described with three coordinate axes set at right angles to each other. Each object in the universe may be uniquely located using a three-dimensional geometry. Political space’ as provisionally identified by xenologists’ can be viewed as having six primary dimensions. Theoretically’ each alien government occupies a unique position in this 6-dimensional "space." Any governance system thus may be described -- albeit incompletely and imperfectly -- by a series of six "political coordinates." These are as follows: 1. Cultural Scale; 2. Leadership System; 3. Organizational Centralization; 4. Economic Basis; 5. System of Exchange; and 6. Sociopolitical Freedom. The entire proposed taxonomy for extraterrestrial governments is summarized in Table 21.1 in Section 21.1.

21.1.1 Governance Scales There are six dimensions of goverance’ as shown in the taxonomy in Table 21.1’ below. The first dimension is called "cultural scale." This is simply the potential power of the organization as measured by energy production. In this book’ civilizations are classed as Type I’ II’ III’ or IV according to a familiar scheme. The chart gives a few extra subdivisions under the Type I planetary culture for added resolution. The second dimension of governance is the system of leadership employed. The Taxonomy gives several different classes of leadership with illustrative examples of each in parentheses. Expanding Plato’s traditional tripartite model’ leadership falls along a spectrum ranging from nullity to totality. There is rule by none (Chaos)’ rule by one (Autocracy)’ rule by a few (Oligarchy)’ rule by many (Republic)’ rule by most (Democracy)’ and rule by all (Pantisocracy*). The main problem in selecting a leadership is how to determine which "one" or which "few" shall head the organization. This normally involves what one writer has called "the myth of legitimacy."3035 That is’ persons must believe their leaders are "legitimate" before they will willingly submit to the organization. If this is accomplished by election’ and an autocracy is the class of leadership’ the result may be called a "limited monarchy." If we have a republic instead’ the result might be called a "representative democracy." if selection is based on military power’ an autocracy would be called "despotism" and an oligarchy might be called a "military junta." The Taxonomy lists 30 bases of legitimacy of leadership that might conceivably be adopted by alien cultures. (Note: These bases are not exclusive. For instance’ "aristocracy" is an oligarchy that may be based on wealth’ heredity’ or both.) Table 21.1 General Taxonomy of Governments Applicable to Extraterrestrial Cultures Sociopolitical Cultural Organizational Economic Exchange Freedom Leadership Scale Centralization Basis System Scale (Class of (Bases for Leadership) Legitimacy) TYPE I (Chaos) PLANTERY Autocracy (Dictatorship; Family/Clan Monarchy; Constitutional Tyranny; Tribe/Horde Despotism) Polls Oligarchy Region (Diarohy; Triarchy; Nation Theocracy; Global Bureaucracy; TYPE II Aristocracy; STELLAR Feudalism) Early Republic Emergent (Limited Monarchy; Nature Representative TYPE III Democracy) GALACTIC Democracy (Direct Democracy; Early Emergent Electronic Demarchy; Mature Collegial) TYPE IV UNIVERSAL Pantisocracy (Organized Early Anarchy; Ordered Emergent Anarchy of the Mature African Nuer, the

Unitary Government Empire or Imperium Federation Confederation Alliance Total Decentralization

BIOLOGICAL Species or Race (Nazism) Nationality (Horde) Heredity’ Kinship’ or Descent (Monarchy; Aristocracy; Chieftain) Age (Gerontocracy) Sex (Matriarchy; Patriarchy) Intelligence’ Diligence (Meritocracy) SOCIOCULTURAL Ideology (Fascism; Marxism; Capitalism) Religion (Theistic Monarchy; Theocracy; Papacy; Sodality) Established Custom Agency of Cultural Change Moral Character or Integrity Written/Express Political Constitution (Constitutional Monarchy; Bureaucracy) SOCIOECONOMIC Wealth (Plutocracy; Aristocracy) Property (Feudalism; Suzerainty) Economic Success (Syndicalism; Corporate Feudalism) Agency of Trade (Guild) Instruments of Production Agency of Communication CONSENT OR COMPULSION Popular Election (Limited Monarahy; Parliamentary Demooracy) Cowardice (Kakistocracy) Cunning and Intrigue (Cabal) Martial Arts (Warrior Chieftain) Military Power (Despotism; Mafia; Military Junta) Defensive’ Economic’ or Constitutional Emergency (Dictatorship; Ochiocracy; Constitutional Tyranny)

Paliyans of South India, etc.; Sociocracy)

Laissez Faire Piracy Manorialism Mercantilism Corporation Welfarism Socialism Communism

No Reciprocity Gift Exchange Silent Barter Open Barter with Fixed Exchange Ratios Open Barter with Bargaining Open Barter with Favorite Medium of Exchange Valuable Money Symbolic Money Reciprocal Obligation

Libertarian Egalitarian Authoritarian Totalitarian

TECHNOLOGICAL Amplified Biological Intelligence Machine Sentiency (Mechanocracy) Bioneered Genetic Superiority (Eugenocracy) Immortality (Athanatocracy) Biocybernetic Communication Agency of Galactic Engineering

The third dimension of governance is the degree of organizational centralization. Unitary governments are most centralized -- there is a single focus of authority to which all decisions are referred. Empires may be regarded as falling within the unitary classification’823 but they characteristically involve two separate governments within a single political system: The internal government’ which controls the interior or homeland’ and the imperial government’ which has dominion over subject peoples or external geographical areas. Empires are normally of two kinds. When the two governmental entities are geographically distinct’ such as the British’ Dutch’ Spanish and Portuguese systems on Earth’ we have a "colonial" empire. "Coterminous" empires exist where the subject areas coincide geographically with the homeland’ as in the Turkish’ Austrio-Hungarian’ and most of the oriental empires. In a federal system’ power is distributed between the central and local governments in such a way that a new unity is established while retaining the original territorial diversity. A federal organization requires a definite surrender of claims of sovereignty by component areas as well as the right of secession.2990 Confederations are the loosest possible associations of independent social or political units having some common governmental machinery. No new central unity is created. An alliance is a special limited form of confederation having as its purpose a single objective or temporary expediency. The fourth dimension of governance is the economic basis of the organization. Laissez faire is total nonintervention by government in economic affairs; communicative activities are okay’ but there must be an absence of control. Piracy is a peculiar form of laissez faire in which economics is reduced to a contest of military prowess and cunning between competing social units’ again without benefit of legal direction by governmental authorities. Manorialism (sometimes called "feudalism") is an institutionalized system of property ownership and personal contracts between individuals as a substitute for "public" control -- the manorial lord replaced the governmental control function within his local fiefdom. Mercantilism involves the emergence of real public control. This may include taxation or regulation of the means and fruits of production’ under the theory that the economic interests of the larger political body are more important than those of mere individuals. The corporation or "conglomerate"1771 format is a way individuals can fight back. A group of persons is legally licensed to act with the powers’ rights and privileges of a single person (a very powerful "individual"). Welfarism represents still further public control of the economy’ in which the welfare of the citizenry is promoted more by the organized efforts of the government than by private institutions. Socialism is the end result -- government exercises complete control of all the means of production. However’ the distribution of economic benefits is still determined in the private sector. Under communism’ both the means of production and the means of distribution are controlled by the political organization of the society.818 The fifth dimension of governance is the exchange system employed.874 Exchange between social units involves an act of giving or taking one thing in return for another as its equivalent. Due to environmental heterogeneity and differing abilities’ individuals are likely to be in possession of different kinds and amounts of resources than their fellows. Economic historians agree that the most primitive system of exchange is gift exchange’ which may perhaps be regarded as an informal method of bartering. Slightly more sophisticated is silent barter’ which enables individuals to rid themselves of surpluses and to enjoy the specialized products of their neighbors -- without having to actually confront a feared or hated neighbor. (The party desiring exchange leaves the merchandise in some place the other party cannot help noticing it’ such as a pathway’ meeting site or game field. If the recipient finds the goods undesirable or insufficient’ he leaves them and comes back later after giving the donor a chance to increase the offer or change its contents. Acceptance of offers were expected to be reciprocated’ failure of which could lead to warfare.) Open barter is more direct.2880 It is usually available only when social units become capable of peaceful and friendly intercourse. All forms involve simultaneous exchange. For instance’ barter at a fixed exchange ratio is the first attempt to assign value to commodities; this mode shifts to barter with bargaining as exchange relations between social groups become more regular and the range of things traded becomes too extensive for simple ratio systems. Open barter with favorite medium of exchange involves the use of some plentiful bartered commodity as a measure of value for all other commodities.873 Valuable money such as jewelry’ coinage’ or ingots of rare metals represents the next evolutionary step’ but this soon gives way to symbolic money -- bank notes’ paper currency’ stocks and so on. Ultimately’ electronic funds transfer technology or the development of a more generalized sentience may permit the emergence of reciprocal obligation exchange systems in which value as well as specie becomes purely symbolic.188 The sixth dimension of governance is the level of sociopolitical freedom granted the individual. There are at least four distinct societal types. Societies may be libertarian’ with full civil’ political’ economic and communicative liberties for each individual. Egalitarian organizations require not necessarily liberty’ but rather only that all group members be treated with absolute equality. Authoritarian governments concentrate policymaking within the leadership; citizens acquiesce out of habit or tradition’ and obedience to authority is pervasive and rarely questioned. Totalitarian regimes are radical versions of authoritarianism.2586 They have been described by the late Benito Mussolini’ a notorious human practitioner of this form of rule’ as "everything for the state; nothing outside the state; nothing against the state."821 The 6-dimensional "political geometry" described above is able to characterize in broad fashion most known terrestrial societies. Despite its distinctly human flavor’ presumably the Taxonomy may be extended to our analysis of extraterrestrial governmental systems consistent with the Hypothesis of Mediocrity. Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the Taxonomy is that it may be used to imagine new political forms that are extremely rare or have never existed on Earth. By selecting alternatives from each of the several columns’ imaginative xenologists can generate literally millions of hypothetical alien governmental entities. For instance’ we might imagine a Type III emergent galactic society ruled by an hereditary oligarchy based on the means of production’ with a tight unitary organization and a socialistic system of wealth distribution to the citizenry. We can envision a global republic of machine sentience’ totally decentralized and egalitarian. Somewhere else we may find a stellar democratic theocracy engaging in piracy on the high frontier’ operating with a loose-knit system of opportunistic alliances. Most feared among galactic governments would be the totalitarian unitary military autocracies; most laggard the republican bureaucratic constitutional confederations; most mysterious the alien pantisocratic agents of communication who trade by silent barter between the stars. Extraterrestrial decentralized monarchies’ libertarian communists’ and democratic empires are all quite possible.** [Note: See also the author's article "Galactic Empires"’ published in 1983.]

* Pantisocracy or "organized anarchy" has been characterized as having fluid participation’ a variety of inconsistent and ill-defined preferences’ and an unclear organizational technology. 837 Sociopolitical anarchies have been treated on rare occasion in science fiction. (See LeGuin’ 2577 Niven’ 2421 Van Vogt’2977 and Weinbaum. 2979) ** Science fiction writers have experimented extensively with diverse political forms’ including Anderson’s Polyesotechnic League’ 2876 Commonality’ 2885 and gypsy pirates of space2959; Asimov’s interstellar theocracy and galactic empire2944; Heinlein’s Constitutional Tyranny 2601; Niven and Pournelle’s Galactic Imperial Aristocracy 668; LeGuin’s Ekumen97 and planetary anarchy 2577; and Vinge’s Interplanetary Demarchy. 2861

21.2 Alien Political Organizations: Xenopolitical Factors Naturally’ not all governmental forms that may exist are equally likely to exist. The Taxonomy devised in the previous section suggested something of the possibilities but failed to address probabilities. Xenologists would like to know which political systems are more or less likely to occur’ why’ and where.

21.2.1 Sentience Probably one of the most important determinants of the nature and scope of alien governments is the type of sentience of the individuals who represent the social units comprising the political system. We have briefly examined the question of extraterrestrial intelligence and consciousness in an earlier chapter’ so we may now proceed to analyze the effects of different minds upon the mode of governance. In Chapter 14 we found that a central characteristic of intelligence is its ability to handle increasingly generalized classes of information. Below is an oversimplified list of "mental types" above mere reactivity’ in order of ascending negentropic efficacy: 1. Genetic sentience; 2. Reptilian brain sentience; 3. Limbic brain sentience; 4. Neocortical brain sentience; 5. Communal sentience; 6. (higher-order sentience...). (Genetic sentience involves a society that is aware of itself but whose members lack individual awareness. Brain conscious creatures have individual awareness but no societal consciousness. Beings with communal sentience will possess a visceral self-awareness both of the individual and of the society.) Creatures with genetic sentience are preprogrammed to operate independently of all other units for the good of the society’ so such lifeforms might theoretically survive at any cultural scale. Brain-sentient ETs likewise capable of independent action because of their individual awareness’ probably also may aspire to any cultural scale. But communal sentients may be somewhat more restricted. Science fiction writer Charles Sheffield has hinted at this problem among humans with biocybernetic implants -- a kind of electronic telepathy. He describes what might happen when such communal creatures attempt to expand their cultural scale: Can you imagine how men with implants would react if they were taken to a place where they were light-years’ or light-hours -- or even light-minutes -away from the supporting memory banks’ and the shared data? I don’t think they could take it. They’d go insane. It’s pretty obvious that the worst punishment you could inflict would be to disable a man’s implant. Like being in solitary confinement’ but probably a lot worse.2962 The effects of mental type on class of leadership are equally surprising. Without personal self-awareness’ genetic sentients cannot recognize any leadership at all. Chaotic government is most likely. Brain sentients may have systems of governance ranging across the entire leadership scale. But communal sentients’ with their social viscera and dualistic insight’ should strongly tend toward pantisocracy because the mechanics of rule by all will be enormously simplified through electronic telepathy. It may be that only communal beings are capable of forming truly successful anarchs.2979 Similarly’ genetic minds might lack concepts of reciprocity -with no sense of the self there can be no empathy for the selves of others. Communal beings should tend toward the opposite extreme’ choosing a highly symbolic exchange system that everyone agrees "feels" right. Centralization may be a concept unique to brain-sentient races. Both genetic and communal sentients will have strong social senses which are missing in brain sentients. It is quite possible that federation and empire are organizational forms that can exist only when individual awareness is present and social awareness is not. Similar considerations may obtain with regard to economic systems -- perhaps only brain sentients can conceive of a system of production and distribution responsive more to individual than to societal needs. Perfect communism may be possible only among genetic or communal sentients. As for sociopolitical freedoms’ genetic-sentient aliens have no individuality and thus should be the natural totalitarians of the universe. As sentience becomes more generalized’ libertarianism should become possible. Communal ETs theoretically are capable of adopting any level of freedom’ depending upon the relative emphasis on self-awareness versus social awareness in the existing sociobiological and cultural milieu. In summary’ increasingly generalized sentience should favor smaller cultural scale’ broader classes of leadership’ more symbolic systems of exchange and more libertarian forms of government. Centralization and individual economic freedom may be concepts unique to brain-sentient species.

21.2.2 Dispersion Another significant limitation on extraterrestrial governments is the problem of dispersion -- the relative distance between social or political units. These units may be individuals’ cities’ planetary civilizations’ stellar communities’ or galactic societies’ depending on the cultural scale involved. Dispersion is a very flexible concept. It may refer to large physical distances between units or to the length of time required for communication between them. Functionally’ the element of dispersion acts to limit the effectiveness of a government by restricting its ability to communicate and to transport the means of control. While the notion of dispersion may be used to analyze governments at all cultural scales’ we shall concentrate on the interstellar regime since this is less frequently discussed in the literature. Distance alone may be the critical factor. The dispersion of social units decreases as their physical separation becomes less: 1. 106 light-years (intergalactic dispersion) 2. 104 light-years (galactic dispersion) 3. 10 light-years (interstellar dispersion’ Disk) 4. 1 light-year (interstellar dispersion’ Core) 5. 10-5 light-years (interplanetary/stellar dispersion) 6. 10-9 light-years (planetary dispersion) To the extent an extraterrestrial civilization technologically is able to surmount physical dispersion and engage in communication and/or control’ it may have government at that scale. Interstellar government thus is sharply limited by the transportation and communications technology available to it. At least four distinguishing technological scenarios may be identified: 1. Suboptic transportation’ optic communication 2. Suboptic transportation’ hyperoptic communication 3. Hyperoptic transportation’ optic communication 4. Hyperoptic transportation’ hyperoptic communication Dispersion is effectively reduced as a culture moves from scenario (1) to scenario (4). Much as radio’ telephone’ and air travel have caused Earth to "shrink" during the 20th century’ so will interstellar dispersion decrease as the carriers of information and control begin to travel at hyperoptic (faster than light) velocities. It must be admitted that communication and transportation are not exactly equivalent. From a control and distribution standpoint’ fast transport may be somewhat more effective than fast message-sending. Still’ a galactic government could position outposts and supply depots near populated centers and dispatch warships or supplies by "remote control." This probably is not a perfect substitute for direct physical presence’ but it’s the next best thing. So the series above from scenario (1) to scenario (4) represents a continuous sequence of decreasing dispersion in the interstellar regime. How will dispersion of sociopolitical units affect the form of alien governance? Let’s consider each of the six political dimensions given in the Taxonomy. Increasing speed of travel and communication between units effectively reduces the time-distance between them. More units can be added to the organization without additional cost in communication or control delay time. As dispersion decreases’ cultural scale is free to increase. Hyperoptic talk/travel will make galacticsize organizations possible. Similarly’ a very high degree of dispersion (lightspeed or slower talk/travel) will render empire virtually impossible.1135 As one science fiction writer explains: Punitive expeditions would be nearly impossible’ hideously expensive’ and probably futile: You’d be punishing the grandchildren of a generation that seceded from the Empire’ or even a planet that put down the traitors after the message went out. Even a rescue mission might never reach a colony in trouble. A coalition of bureaucrats could always collect the funds for such an expedition’ sign papers certifying that the ships are on the way’ and pocket the money .... in sixty years someone might realize what had happened’ or not.1226 As dispersion lessens’ greater organizational centralization becomes possible since the leadership is better able to communicate or enforce its decisions.600 In other words’ while decentralized forms are always possible’ low dispersion should permit centralized governmental entities to emerge. What about leadership? At high levels of dispersion’ probably only chaos is possible in the interstellar regime. As dispersion decreases’ autocracies and oligarchies may emerge where strong’ diligent individuals or small groups are able to command the loyalty of widely separated cultural enclaves. As dispersion becomes small or negligible’ democracy and pantisocracy (which require more debate and communication between social units) become possible. As for economics’ free market laissez faire and piracy are most likely under conditions of extreme dispersion’ since planning and control are virtually impossible across great distances when time delays between data reception’ decision’ and implementation are too great.982 As dispersion becomes less severe’ the economy can be controlled more effectively. Socialism and communism become more likely when dispersion is low or negligible. With high dispersion a "blind" exchange system such as gift exchange or silent barter is most reasonable. As talk/travel becomes quicker’ fixed exchange ratios can be set and bargaining may take place because both communication and delivery are faster and more reliable. At the lowest levels of dispersion’ symbolic valuta become possible as well. Finally’ as regards sociopolitical freedoms’ large distance and high dispersion should make libertarianism all but mandatory. As dispersion lessens’ causing the effective talk/travel distance to "shrink’" tyrants and mobocrats will find it easier to force authoritarian or totalitarian regimes upon subject populations should they desire to do so. There is considerable support for the above speculations from political histories of societies on Earth. Xenologists have searched for examples of human cultures having geographical dispersions analogous to those of widely separated interstellar communities.55’883 The best examples on Earth appear to be the island chain societies of the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.884 Consider the early Hawaiian political system. True to expectations’ it remained primarily tribal (low cultural scale with high dispersion). The leadership was autocratic or oligarchic’ consisting of military chieftains or classes of ruling nobles. Most often’ chaos ruled among widely separated island communities and only weak alliances ever formed. The economic system remained essentially manorial.887 Today’ by virtue of modern communication and transportion technology (decreased dispersion)’ the Hawaiian islands are part of the United States -- a national’ republican’ federal’ corporate/welfare’ egalitarian political system. Our speculations check against the facts. Indonesia is another illustrative island chain society. Prior to colonization the Indonesian group was ruled by an absolute monarch’ symbol of the highest status in the local religious pantheon. The basic cultural unit was tribal’ the central government decentralized and loosely administered’ and the economic system manorial. Today’ the culture remains fractured. In 1955’ just a few years after independence from the Dutch empire was granted’ no less than 170 political parties competed in the national elections and representatives from 26 of these were elected to office in the parliamentary legislature. This so weakened the cabinet that Sukarno was forced to assume dictatorship in 1957 to restore order.1866 The history of the Philippines is remarkably similar.2989 The Tongan islands too were originally ruled by a military dictator theocrat who presided over a confederation of island-states. The economic system was manorial’ involving "lords" and fiefdoms bearing a striking resemblance to medieval European feudalism.886 The Samoans’ who occupy 14 volcanic islands in the southern mid-Pacific’ have a basically tribal society. Individual tribes are organized into districts’ but these are notoriously unstable political units. There is no record of any unified government holding sway over the entire Samoan "nation" (e.g.’ chaos reigns at this level)’ although occasionally a sacred warrior-chief may assemble a short-lived decentralized autocratic alliance on the two largest islands of the chain.888 The record of Caribbean island groups is much the same.2623 There are several other Earthly analogues to high-dispersion interstellar communities.831 For example’ desert societies’ clustering around water holes and infrequent oases’ exemplify an insular existence upon a sea of sand. Desert people tend to be extremely nomadic’ organized into families or small tribes. Alliances are rare; when they do occur’ they take the form of staunchly egalitarian oligarchies or autocracies of convenience. Piracy and laissez faire with open barter are the most common economic forms.2620 The Eskimos’ who inhabit the arctic deserts of the north’ lived in bands of less than 50 persons. They had no chiefs or standing deliberative assemblies’ and there was "rule by none" among bands. Laissez faire was most common and total decentralization the rule’ with controls on social aggression based on informal devices such as kinship systems. The dominant attitude was highly libertarian: Suicide and revenge were considered socially acceptable.1745 Our xenopolitical speculations with regard to dispersion appear to be reasonably accurate. To summarize’ a decrease in the dispersion of social units (whether by decreasing physical distance or by technologically increasing the velocity of transportation or communication) should permit extraterrestrial governments to evolve in the following directions: Bigger cultural scale’ leadership by larger segments of the population’ more organizational centralization’ greater control of the economy’ increasingly symbolic valuta’ and more totalitarian methods of governance.

21.2.3 Size The size of a governmental system is defined as the number of relevant sociopolitical units that comprise it. This is essentially a measure of population in any organization. Note that size does not refer to physical or geographical distribution (which is closer to the concept of "dispersion" discussed in the previous section). What is the effect of size on extraterrestrial government? Size has been recognized as a critical factor since ancient times -- the State described in Plato’s Laws was always to have 5040 citizens (7 factorial)’ a population which the Greek philosopher supposed to be the maximum number of people that any one person could ever know on an individual basis. This suggestion’ while of questionable validity’ embodies a basic truth: As the population of sociopolitical units increases arithmetically’ the number of possible interactions between them necessarily increases exponentially. Communication and control thus become more difficult with increasing size.1867 If size increases and unit dispersion is held constant’ cultural scale tends to rise because more energy and additional living space are required to support a larger population. Perhaps more important is the effect of size on leadership. Organizational theorists long have recognized that increasing the number of interactive units normally causes the fraction of rulers to decrease.851 According to Mosca’s Rule: "The larger the political community the smaller will be the proportion of the governing minority to the governed majority."2960 Or’ framed in another way by Bruce H. Mayhew of Temple University in Pennsylvania: "The relative size of a ruling elite is a decreasing function of the size of the system it governs."851 Formal research studies in recent times have confirmed that the fraction of supervisory personnel decreases as organizational population rises.835 The effects of size have not gone unnoticed by political scientists. Perhaps the best-known of the published formulations is Roberto Michels’ Iron Law of Oligarchy.828 According to Michels’ growing political systems invariably tend toward more oligarchic forms of government. He cites a variety of reasons for this observed phenomenon. First’ the sheer number of organizational members rules out direct participation by everyone in the political decision making process. (In smaller aggregations all individuals may be politically involved; in larger systems’ many cannot.) Second’ larger organizations are more complex because there are so many more interactions possible between units. The division of labor increases and individual roles become more specialized’ so problems become more and more incomprehensible to all but specialists -- and "expert" power emerges. Third’ since information and control can be better wielded at the top by a few rather than by many’ the position of leadership becomes more impregnable and elitist. Finally’ leaders acquire over time a working knowledge of the organization and the particular ways it works. Merely by exercising his leadership functions a top official eventually makes himself almost irreplaceable to the organization. Size also has a significant effect upon political centralization. Among relatively small populations’ all modes from unitary to total decentralization ought to be possible. But as size increases’ despite the shrinking percentage of the ruling elite’ the absolute number of rulers continues to grow (though at a decreasing rate). More leaders means more possible interactions among them’ which implies more chance for conflict and a greater likelihood that leadership units will be working to cross-purposes. Organizational unity will be strained and will tend to break down into less centralized forms. As size becomes huge’ leadership most likely will fragment into smaller and smaller entities -- first federation’ then confederation’ and finally all the way to total decentralization at maximum size.2885’827 All economies from communism to laissez faire probably are possible at low population levels. As the number of units increases’ interactions rise exponentially and methodical’ deterministic economic planning becomes more difficult.974 At some point’ increasing size produces a system so complex that it cannot adequately be planned because there are too many possibilities and too much data.829’2961 (The effects of data overload are well-known to systems theorists.3071) As population becomes vast’ the market must be left to tend to itself. Laissez faire probably is the only realistic option in such circumstances.2885 Rising complexity also sets limits on mode of exchange. Silent barter is fine among small populations which exchange relatively few goods. But some uniform system of symbolic valuation or reciprocal obligation will probably be necessary when astronomical quantities of commodities change hands among vast populations of sociopolitical units. And assuming unit dispersion is held constant’ libertarianism is more likely in political systems of enormous size. This is due to the relative difficulties of control’ dissemination of ideology’ and communication in very large organizations’ all else being equal. The result is somewhat analogous to the effects of increasing unit dispersion -- increasing size while maintaining constant dispersion among units (constant population density) is equivalent to increasing systemic dispersion’ which’ much like increasing unit dispersion’ should favor libertarianism. This seems true even among nonhuman animal communities on Earth. According to sociobiologist E.O. Wilson’ "the more complex the society’ the more likely it is to be egalitarian."565 On the other hand’ as systems become smaller in size it becomes easier to impose authoritarian or totalitarian governments. By way of summary’ an increase in size of a political system should cause an increase in cultural scale’ more oligarchic modes of leadership’2978 decreasing organizational centralization’ a trend towards a laissez faire economy and a symbolic exchange system’ and a more libertarian form of governance.

21.2.4 Heritage The fourth most important factor influencing the character of alien governments is heritage. Heritage is a measure of the biological’ ecological’ cultural’ and historical commonality to be found among social units comprising a political organization. Common heritage generally promotes cohesion; diverse heritage tends to destroy it.3071 Biology is the most fundamental heritage shared by groups of life-forms. Political systems comprised of sentient beings of a single species may be expected to stick together more than aggregations of foreigners. Monospecies cultures should be more cohesive than polyspecies cultures. Political union between races of wholly different biochemical or thermal regimes’ or between natural and synthetic lifeforms’ seems less likely because of the probable lack of any sensible common heritage. Science fiction writers repeatedly have pointed out that we may not be able to understand our own descendants who travel out into space and colonize other worlds.2362’2204 Adaptations to higher or lower surface pressures and alien gravity fields will cause changes in human skeletal design’ musculature’ and blood content. Trace elements in alien soils and plants may affect our colonists’ biochemistry and alter psychological response in many subtle ways. In just a few thousand years’ human space travelers could evolve into a new genetic race altogether.2885 Among planet-evolving lifeforms’ climatic homogeneity and the presence of large ecologically uniform continental land masses or ocean bodies should encourage commonality of culture and history. Climatic heterogeneity and the existence’ say’ of broken island chains or an ecologically diverse network of small seas connected by rivers’ should lead instead to diversity of culture.2619 Island communities on Earth’ as in the Caribbean’ the Pacific’ and Indonesia illustrate quite well the extreme factionalism and ethnicity that can emerge from a splintered or diverse environment. And it appears that heritage and dispersion are inversely equivalent influences. The more widely scattered the social units’ the more diverse will be their historical and cultural experience and the less common heritage they will share. How does the heritage factor apply to extraterrestrial governments? Political systems involving units with a high degree of commonality theoretically should be able to create governments of any cultural scale from planetary to universal. As heritage becomes more diverse and cohesion begins to dissipate’ smaller and smaller governance systems are probably all that reasonably can be held together. A system with total diversity may be expected to be maximally fragmented in smaller cultural groups. Among homogeneous societies’ all forms of leadership from autocracy to pantisocracy should be possible. Introduction of heterogeneity reduces the number of options. Government by common consent (rule by most or all) is likely only when there exists reasonably strong cultural cohesion. With more diverse heritage’ the necessary cohesion may be lacking and a shift to more oligarchic and autocratic modes of rule is expected. Similarly’ unitary government appears virtually impossible in the face of extreme sociocultural diversity. Political systems with no common heritage -- maximum diversity -- most probably will remain decentralized. What about the economic system of an alien polity? Any form is possible when mutual heritage is great. But as biological or cultural heterogeneity increase’ the abilities and needs of the subject population vary greatly. Cooperation becomes more difficult’ cohesion weakens’ and controlled economies such as communism and socialism become more difficult to manage. In the extreme case of maximum diversity’ communism is virtually impossible -- it is likely that only loose-knit impersonal economic systems such as laissez faire will be viable. Also’ as commonality decreases’ symbolic exchange systems may become increasingly difficult to use. Agreement upon the meaning and value of symbolic valuta may be harder to achieve’ leading to the emergence of simpler systems such as silent barter or gift exchange. On the heritage factor alone’ low or moderate diversity should allow everything from libertarianism to totalitarianism to exist. But extreme heterogeneity of biology or culture will make it more difficult for a ruling class to impose stringent values of allegiance and purpose upon subject populations. High diversity implies that a more libertarian ethic should prevail. In summary’ we find that a decrease in commonality of biological’ ecological’ cultural or historical heritage among social units in a political organization should cause a decrease in cultural scale’ a tendency to autocratic or oligarchic modes of leadership’ systemic decentralization’ decontrol of the economy’ a return to simpler and less-symbolic exchange systems’ and an increasing prevalence of libertarian ideals.

21.2.5 Xenopolitics: Tentative Conclusions It must be reemphasized that all of the conclusions reached in this section regarding extraterrestrial systems of governance are speculative and theoretical. No alien polities have yet been discovered or observed’ and human political scientists cannot agree as to the pertinent dimensions of government. There is no consensus on which factors are most important or exactly how they affect social organization. Significant factors may have been omitted from the above analysis’ and there is no guarantee that factors and dimensions are absolutely additive as we have assumed -- there may exist synergistic effects of which we are unaware. It is in this spirit of tentativeness and uncertainty that the two tables comprising Table 21.2 are offered. These represent a cautious compilation of our xenopolitical analysis up to this point. The topmost table permits the reader to select various factors’ and then to read off which form of governance has the highest probability given those factors. The table at bottom is just the first table turned inside out: The desired governmental form may be selected’ and the conditions most likely to give rise to such a system may then be read off by the reader. In making a determination using these tools’ the various measures frequently conflict. When this occurs’ more weight should be given those probabilities associated with the more important factors. In the formulation presented here’ sentience is considered most significant’ followed’ in order’ by dispersion’ size’ and finally heritage. Table 21.2 High-Probability Extraterrestrial Governance Systems Organizational Economic Exchange Class of Centralization Basis System

Cultural Scale SENTIENCE Factor

Sociopolitical Freedoms

Genetic

-All Scales-

Chaos

Total Decentralization

Communism

No Reciprocity

Totalitarian

Brain

-All Scales-

---All Classes---

---All Levels---

---All Forms---

---All Systems---

---All Types---

Communal

I’ II

Democracy’ Pantisocracy

Total Decentralization

Communism

Reciprocal Obligation

---All Types---

Laissez Faire’ Piracy

No Reciprocity’ Gift Exchange’ Silent Barter

Libertarian

All Nonsymbolic Systems

Libertarian’ Egalitarian’ Authoritarian

DISPERSION High

I’ II

Chaos

Total Decentralization’ Alliance

Moderate

I’ II’ III

Chaos’ Autocracy’ Oligarchy

Total Decentralization’ Alliance’ Confederation’ Federation

Low

-All Scales-

.

---All Classes---

Laissez Faire’ Piracy’ Manorial’ Mercantile’ Corporation

---All Levels---

---All Forms---

---All Systems---

---All Types---

---All Levels---

---All Forms---

---All Systems---

---All Types---

Federation’ Confederation’ Alliance’ Total Decentralization

Corporate’ Mercantile’ Manorial’ Piracy’ Laissez Faire

Open Barter’ Money’ Reciprocal Obligation

Authoritarian’ Egalitarian’ Libertarian

SIZE Pantisocracy’ Democracy

Small

I’ II

Large

II’ III

Democracy’ Republic’ Oligarchy

Vast

III’ IV

Oligarchy’ Autocracy’ Chaos

Alliance’ Total Decentralization

Piracy’ Laissez Faire

Symbolic Money’ Reciprocal Obligation

Libertarian

---All Classes---

---All Levels---

---All Forms---

---All Systems---

---All Types---

Corporate’ Mercantile’ Manorial’ Piracy’ Laissez Faire

Open Barter’ Silent Barter’ Gift Exchange’ No Reciprocity

Authoritarian’ Egalitarian’ Libertarian

Piracy’ Laissez Faire

Silent Barter’ Gift Exchange’ No Reciprocity

Libertarian

HERITAGE Common

-All Scales-

Similar

I’ II’ III

Republic’ Federation’ Confederation’ Oligarchy’ Alliance’ Total Autocracy’ Chaos Decentralization

I’ II

Divergent

Oligarchy’ Autocracy’ Chaos

Alliance Total Decentralization

Governance Scale Sentience Dispersion Size CULTURE Type I Planetary Genetic’ Brain’ Communal High’ Moderate’ Low Small Type II Stellar Genetic’ Brain’ Communal High’ Moderate’ Low Small’ Large Type III Galactic Genetic’ Brain Moderate’ Low Large’ Vast Type IV Universal LEADERSHIP Chaotic Oligarchic Democratic

Genetic’ Brain

Low

Vast

Heritage Common’ Similar’ Divergent Common’ Similar’ Divergent Common’ Similar Common

Genetic’ Brain High’ Moderate’ Low Vast Genetic’ Brain’ Communal Moderate’ Low Vast’ Large Brain’ Communal Low Large’ Small

Common’ Similar’ Divergent Common’ Similar’ Divergent Common

CENTRALIZATION Unitary/Empire Brain Low Small Common Federal/Confederal Brain Low’ Moderate Small’ Large Common’ Similar Decentralized Genetic’ Brain’ Communal Low’ Moderate’ High Small’ Large’ Vast Common’ Similar’ Divergent ECONOMY Communist Corporate Laissez Faire EXCHANGE

Genetic’ Brain’ Communal Low Small Common Brain Low’ Moderate Small’ Large Common’ Similar Brain Low’ Moderate’ High Small’ Large’ Vast Common’ Similar’ Divergent

No Reciprocity Gift Exchange Open Barter Symbolic Valuta FREEDOM Libertarian Egalitarian Authoritarian Totalitarian

Genetic’ Brain Genetic’ Brain’ Communal Genetic’ Brain’ Communal Brain’ Communal

High’ Moderate’ Low High’ Moderate’ Low Moderate’ Low Low

Small Small Small’ Large Small’ Large’ Vast

Common’ Similar’ Divergent Common’ Similar’ Divergent Common’ Similar Common

Brain’ Communal Brain’ Communal Brain’ Communal Genetic’ Brain’ Communal

High’ Moderate’ Low Moderate’ Low Moderate’ Low Low

Small’ Large’ Vast Small’ Large Small’ Large Small

Common’ Similar’ Divergent Common’ Similar Common’ Similar Common

Suppose we want to know what kind of government a race of genetic sentients is most likely to have’ given that their transportation and communication technology is fairly primitive (high dispersion)’ huge populations are involved (vast size)’ and all organisms share a common heritage. We go to the topmost table of Table 21.2. On the dimension of cultural scale’ we find the following. Sentience factor: All scales. Dispersion factor: Type I or II only. Size factor: Type III or IV only. Heritage factor: All scales. Since two of the factors conflict’ we weight the more important one more heavily and conclude that a Type II stellar culture is the most probable result. Similarly’ for the other dimensions of governance we conclude: Chaotic leadership; total organizational centralization; a watered-down communism such as socialism or perhaps even welfarism; little or no reciprocity; and very little sociopolitical freedom’ most probably authoritarian. Conversely’ let’s assume we’re trying to find a galactic democratic libertarian corporate empire. From the bottom table of Table 21.2’ such a government is most probable among extraterrestrial creatures with minds roughly resembling our own (brain sentients)’ having either hyperoptic transportation or communication or both (low to moderate dispersion)’ and involving a large population with common or similar heritage.

21.3 Extraterrestrial Organizational Cybernetics Cybernetics is the scientific study of control and communications systems. Since information is the lifeblood of any organization’ the cybernetic analysis of alien governments involves handling flows of data and the management of entropy.822’1030’3071 Xenologists are primarily concerned with the problems of system complexity’ system structure’ and functional system stability in extraterrestrial political organizations.

21.3.1 System Complexity Complexity must be regarded as one of the most fundamental cybernetic parameters of a system. The more parts a system has’ and the more interactions which occur among them’ the more complicated it is.2991 A number of writers have attempted to argue against the possibility of large galactic governments on the ground that the immense number of sociopolitical units would give rise to unmanageably complex information systems.63 One illustration of this effect is called the Galactic Democratic Federation Model’ which goes as follows. Imagine a government responsible for 1000 member worlds’1474’1059 each with 10 billions citizens. The Federation operates under a Constitutional representative democracy much like the United States. In the Galactic Congress’ as in the U.S.’ each Representative speaks for about 500’000 Citizens. Even with such marginally effective representation (how can one really speak for half a million?)’ the population of Congress rises to 20’000’000 individuals (as compared to the present 535 members of the U.S. Congress). Assuming at least 100 research and support staff for each Congress creature in the Federation’ the population of the Capitol Planet rises to 2 billion. (One wonders what kind of global subgovernment would be needed at the Capitol to restrain such a large number of aggressive’ devious politician-lawyers.) The problem of complexity is further exacerbated if more member worlds are added to the Federation’ if galactic high technology and artificial habitat construction techniques permit several orders of magnitude greater population per star system to exist’ or if a better representation ratio is demanded by the citizenry (the U.S. Constitution provides one Congressman for each 30’000 persons). Another favored illustration of the problem of complexity in the universe is the Galactic Encyclopedia’ variants of which include the Cosmic Telephone Directory55 and the Galactic Planetary Survey.63 The Encyclopedia is intended to serve two purposes: First’ to assemble all current information accumulated by all sentient races comprising the galactic civilization’ and second’ to record new data as it becomes available and to update the Encyclopedia on a continuous basis. Most writers attempt to demonstrate the "numbing complexity" of the project’ thereby "proving" that the Galaxy can never be surveyed’ recorded’ governed’ or understood. Consider a Galactic Confederation with a billion (109) member worlds. How much complexity does this represent? Present human planetary civilization generates perhaps 1013 bits of useful new data each year.3521 has been estimated that humanity may be specified by a data set on the order of 1015 bits total. A billion planetary cultures with an average of 1015 bits/world means that the Galactic Encyclopedia starts off with an impressive 1024 bits in the first edition. This is enough information to fill ten billion Libraries of Congress. As for the annual update’ each person alive today on Earth adds’ on average’ only about 2500 bits/year to the sum total of human knowledge and culture. Let us generously assume that future high technology will allow the negentropic output of each individual to rise nearly five orders of magnitude’ up to 108 bits/year. If each member star system has an average population of 100 billion people’ then the annual addition to the Encyclopedia should be 1028 bits/year. Over the course of an eon of galactic history’ the total accumulation will amount to 1037 bits of information. Impressive? Not really. If we calculate the minimum energy theoretically required to process this information it is astonishingly small. According to the late Princeton mathematician von Neumann1726 and others’3073 the basic thermodynamic requirement for information processing is a mere 9.56 × 10-24 joules/bit-K. Hence’ at the minimum universal equilibrium temperature of 3 K’ the first edition theoretically may be assembled for as little as 30 joules of energy. Each annual supplement requires an additional 300’000 joules’ the approximate caloric content of 4 lumps of sugar. Even after one eon of progress’ the Billionth Edition of the Galactic Encyclopedia (1037 bits) could be copied for only 3 × 1014 joules’ or about 0.3 second of the power output of a mature Type I planetary civilization. (Table 21.3 gives the maximum theoretical information handling capabilities for cultures at each of the four major levels’ assuming the information is processed at a system-wide average temperature of 3 K -- at lower temperatures more data can be processed’ but energy costs may rise.) This does not seem unduly expensive or unreasonable.* Table 21.3 Theoretical Maximum Information Processing Rates at the Minimum Universal Equilibrium Temperature (3 K) for Extraterrestrial Civilizations in Various Stages of Their Development Nominal Maximum Nominal Total Available Peak Data Civilization Class Total Power Energy Processing Processable Information Rate (watts)

(joules)

(bits/sec)

(bits)

Planetary

Type I

1015

3 × 1032

3 × 1037

1 × 1055

Stellar

Type II

1026

2 × 1045

3 × 1048

7 x 1067

Galactic

Type III

1037

2 × 1056

3 × 1059

7 x 1078

Universal

Type IV

1047

2 × 1066

3 × 1069

7 x 1088

Still’ the idea that energy and mass requirements for large-scale information handling appear almost negligible should not blind us to the fact that tremendously advanced computational’ cybernetic’ and sociopolitical technologies will be required even to approach the grand theoretical limits suggested by von Neumann’s work. Problems of structure and interrelatedness are central. For several decades cybernetic theorists and organization analysts have tried to study and understand the general characteristics and evolutionary dynamics of large’ complex systems. Often they begin with the basic notion of entropy. According to the Second Law of Thermodynamics’ entropy tends to increase -- in fact’ can never decrease -- in any system that is energetically isolated or "closed." Such systems’ whether of life’ intelligence’ or of society’ cannot accumulate information and complexity without drawing energy from the external environment. Negentropic processes can only occur in "open" systems. On the basis of "social entropy" considerations’ it is expected that organizations which are virtually closed to all outside contact tend to increase in systemic entropy.1030 Disorder and randomness spread’ causing decentralization and generalization of political functions. Conversely’ organizations which remain open to outside contact should experience a decrease in systemic entropy’ the result of progressive negentropic processes. Organization should become more centralized’ jobs more specialized’ and patterns of internal structure more complex.3071 The Square-Cube Law has also been found to affect the size and growth of large sociopolitical systems. Many years ago it was noticed that the components of an organization concerned with its external relations tend to be proportional to the two-thirds power of the number of components having to do with internal relations.824 This is often hailed as demonstrating that organizations are growth-limited by the sheer difficulty in getting communications from the "surface" of the system (where it contacts the environment) to the decision makers scattered throughout the corpus of the organizational body. Since the surface of a body increases with the twothirds power of its volume’ the analogy is certainly compelling. It appears that the Square-Cube law acts on social systems in much the same way it does on biological ones. In a living system’ doubling the linear dimension of an organism quadruples surface areas and octuples volumes. Since lung’ alimentary’ brain and other tissues must service eight fold-increased volumes’ but matter and information inputs will only be passing through fourfold-increased surfaces’ organ surfaces in larger animals must become at least twice as convoluted just to break even. Similarly’ Dr. Kenneth Boulding’ Director of the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado’ has proposed that there exists for all organizations a "principle of increasingly unfavorable internal structure." As a system grows larger’ it becomes impossible for it to retain the original communication and control structure intact. More information regarding efficient survival must be added to the structure to enable the organization to maintain healthy functioning. Says Dr. Boulding: As an organization increases in size beyond a certain point’ it becomes more and more difficult to maintain an adequate system of communication between those people who are directly in contact with the environment of the organization and those who are in major executive positions. If the information system is in adequate’ information which is essential for the survival of the organization does not get transmitted to those who are mainly responsible for its policies. Increasing size is possible only at the cost of increasing complexity of structure.829 So as organizations grow larger and maintain proper open contact with the environment’ both internal structure and leadership tend to centralize. It is Michels’ Iron Law of Oligarchy all over again. In comparison to these centralized’ autocratic-oligarchic systems’ notes Boulding: Acephalous’ nonhierarchical organizations’ like a democratic family or a commune’ or even a producers’ cooperative’ have even sharper limits on scale’ simply because the number of people who have to talk to each other increases much faster than the number of people in the organization. Groups employing participatory democracy have the same tendency for fission as does the amoeba’ for very much the same reason.824 As systems grow larger they tend to become more specialized.3071 The division of labor in society’ as in multicellular lifeforms’ is a cybernetic "trick" that enables an organization to assimilate larger amounts of information and become more complex. Research in the field of organizational evolution indicates that the number of occupational positions increases roughly as the logarithm of system size.835’839 Large size also affects the exact mixture of specializations chosen to solve the problems of scale. According to social cyberneticist John D. Kasarda at the University of Chicago Center for Urban Studies’ the most prominent organizational changes occur in the field of communication: As institutions’ communities’ and societies expand’ substantially greater proportions of their personnel are devoted to communicative functions. It may therefore be inferred that the major role of holding large social systems together rests with those whose primary function is facilitating communication.852 Xenologists are interested in research into the problems associated with large complex organizations because of the insight gained into the difficulties of designing galactic governments and other intricate interstellar regulatory or communications systems. According to recent systems analysis work completed by Duane S. Elgin of the Center for the Study of Social Policy at SRI Inc.’ and Robert A. Bushnell’ former General Counsel for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’ any social system that grows to extreme levels of scale’ complexity and interdependence soon displays the following characteristics: 1. The relative ability of any individual to comprehend the system will tend to diminish. 2. The capacity and motivation of the public to participate in decision making processes will tend to diminish. 3. The public’s access to decision makers will tend to decline. 4. Participation of experts in decision making will tend to grow disproportionately’ but this expertise will only marginally counteract the effects of geometrically mounting knowledge requirements for effective management of the bureaucracy. 5. The costs of coordinating and controlling the system will tend to grow disproportionately. 6. An attempt may be made to improve efficiency by depersonalizing the system. 7. The level of alienation will tend to increase. 8. The appropriateness of basic value premises underlying the social system will tend to be increasingly challenged. 9. The number and significance of unexpected consequences of policy actions will increase. 10. The system will tend to become more rigid since the form that it assumes inhibits the emergence of new forms. 11. The number and intensity of perturbations to the system will tend to increase disproportionately. 12. The diversity of innovation will tend to decline. 13. The legitimacy (popular consent) of leadership will tend to decline. 14. The vulnerability of the system to disruption will tend to increase. 15. The performance of the bureaucracy will tend to decline. 16. The full extent of declining performance of the system is not likely to be perceived by the participants in that system.2963 Social and political systems’ like living organisms’ have a tendency to maintain growth for as long as possible. Duane Elgin and his coworkers have devised a simple theory of bureaucratic evolution which is summarized on the following page. The model bears a striking resemblance to many of the "rise and fall" and cyclical evolutionary theories of civilization published by political scientists over the past century.** (For instance’ C. Northcote Parkinson has assembled historical evidence to suggest that the evolution of leadership in sociopolitical systems may be cyclical’ as follows: Dictatorship’ to aristocracy’ to republic’ to democracy’ then back to dictatorship.2600) Very broadly’ then’ xenologists draw the following general and highly tentative conclusions from modern systems theory: that extraterrestrial governments will tend to increase in size; that these organizations will become more concerned with internal communications as they grow; that they will tend to become more centralized and specialized with increasing scale’ so long as they do not become isolated systems; that xenopolitical organizations may follow a regular course of birth’ growth’ decay’ and death’ except when new and successful techniques are developed which permit additional structural complexity to be acquired while efficiency is maintained; and’ finally’ that extraterrestrial living systems may be subject to the same general systemic laws of structure and function as all living systems on Earth.3071

* On the basis of quantum mechanical considerations’ H.J. Bremermann has estimated the theoretical minimum amount of energy that can serve as an informational marker. 3072 No organized massenergy system’ he claims’ can process information faster than 2 x 1050 bits per second per kilogram of mass. In theory’ a 1 microgram device totally dedicated to information processing with perfect efficiency could accept the Billionth Edition of the Galactic Encyclopedia in only 50 microseconds. A mass of 2 x 1019 kg could process the entire nominal peak data output of a Type IV universal civilization. Apparently a single "Library World" easily could serve as information repository for an entire galactic or universal civilization. ** See especially Appelbaum’ 275 Boulding’ 30 Darwin’ 706 Fried’1893 Harris’ 2896 Hoyle’ 2998 Kroeber’ 280 Marina’ 2587 Marx and Engels’ 3242 Naroll’ 1888 Newcomb’ 1889 Otterbein’1887 Parkinson’ 2600 Quigley’ 35 Sorokin’ 31 Spencer’ 1895 Spengler’ 2999 Stapledon’ 1946 Sumner’1883 Toynbee’ 3000 Vayda’ 1890 Wescott’264 Wesson’823 White’36 and Wilson. 565’3198 For more substantive or more mathematical treatments of sociopolitical evolution akin to Anderson’s "psychodynamicians’" 2997 Asimov’s "psychohistory’" 2944 and Simak’s "behavioral symbolism’" 1059 the interested reader is referred to Berelson and Steiner’ 3075 Bowden’ 265 Calhoun’ 1031 Carneiro’ 3231 Cole et al’ 2983 Forrester’2981’3185 Gray’2985 Harary’2 Hilgartner Randolph’ 1739-1741 Lem’29 LeVine’ 1881 Lomax and Berkowitz’ 3232 Markarian’ 1794 Mayer and Arney’ 2984 Meadows et al’ 2982 J. Miller’3071 R. Miller’ 2986 Ricci’893 Richardson’ 1769 Thompson’ 2987 Wesley’1717 White’3025 Wright’585 and the Journal of Mathematical Sociology’ which commenced publication in 1971.

21.3.2 System Structure The larger an extraterrestrial organization’ the more information it must subsume within its structure in order to survive.3071 Structures which contain more information characteristically are more complex’ more differentiated and specialized. (See Child’839 Melcher’1867 and Presthus.825) Fascinating theoretical work in general systems structure conducted by Ross E. McMurtrie at Princeton University has demonstrated the need for hierarchical structures in organizations. McMurtrie found that in large’ randomly connected systems increases in size or connectedness between components (complexity) have a generally destabilizing effect on organizational performance. The introduction of even a crude hierarchical structure has an enormous stabilizing effect on system behavior.1735 The virtual inevitability of hierarchy is part of modern systems theory. (See Boulding’829 Laszlo’2992 and Simon’826 but compare Thayer.1868) Large complex systems tend to decline in performance after they reach a certain size. Eventually they enter a stage of "systems crisis’" which may lead to very different results: On the one hand’ the systems may move toward total collapse; on the other’ the Systems may be transformed. The far right column in Figure 21.1 suggests the shift in the character of a system if it is to successfully resolve the problems of Stage IV. Note that the "social product" of a bureaucracy may be defined as the improvement in well-being of the clients of a system produced by the operation of that system. The social product might be health care’ education’ or some other public service. Duane Elgin and his fellow researchers2963 developed a composite description of the behavior of a hypothetical bureaucracy as it proceeds through each of the four stages of growth’ as illustrated in Figure 21.1 and the text following.

Figure 21.1 Problems of Large Systems Arrayed by Stages of Growth of Bureaucracies2963

STAGE HIGH GROWTH

STAGE II STAGE III STAGE IV GREATEST SEVERE SYSTEMS EFFICIENCY DISECONOMIES CRISIS

1.

Relative level of systems comprehension

High

Moderate

Low

Minimal/ High?

2.

Degree of public participation in political process

Moderate

Moderate

Low

Minimal/ High?

3.

Degree of public access to leaders

High

Moderate

Low

Minimal/ High?

4.

Role of experts in decision making

Minimal

Substantial

Central

Peripheral/ Substantial?

5.

Costs of coordination and control

Low

Moderate

High

Very high/ Moderate?

6.

Degree to which human interactions are rationalized

Minimal

Moderate

Substantial

Very high/ Moderate?

7.

Level of alienation

Low

Moderate

High

Very high/ Low?

8.

Legitimacy of basic value premises

Unquestioned High

Questioned

Challenged/ High?

9.

Degree of counterexpected systems behavior

Low

Moderate

High

Very high/ Moderate?

Low

Growing Viscosity

Rigidifying

Brittle/ Fluid?

11. Number and intensity of perturbations Low

Moderate

High

Very high/ Moderate?

12 Degree of diversity of innovation

High

Moderate

Low

Very low/ High?

13 Legitimacy of leaders

*High

High

Low

Very low/ High?

14. Degree of systems vulnerability

Low

Moderate

High

Extreme/ Moderate?

15. Level of systems performance

High

Stabilizing

Declining

Dropping/ High?

High

Moderate

Low

Very low/ Moderate?

10. Degree of system's rigidity

16.

Relative capacity of system's participants to perceive systems

Stage 1: High Growth/Era of Faith In the "springtime" of growth’ the relative level of systems comprehension is high’ and the scale’ complexity’ and interdependence of the bureaucracies are low. There is a strong faith in the efficacy of shared values and goals. There is a belief that these values are part of the natural order’ and that basic to this system’s destiny is the natural unfolding (e.g.’ as if by an "invisible hand") of these values. This is also a period of great vitality’ innovation’ and energy as economic and sociopolitical entrepreneurs are the agents of creative expression of this social order. The social leaders have considerable legitimacy’ and the high performance of the system speaks of unbounded potentials. Stage II: Greatest Efficiency/Era of Reason In the "summertime" of growth’ the relative level of systems comprehension is moderate’ and the scale’ complexity’ and interdependence of the bureaucracies have increased substantially relative to the earlier period. The systems have become sufficiently complicated that their effective functioning is not simply a matter of faith but requires the efforts of a brain trust. Creative’ intellectual advisors’ bring rationality and order into the operations of the systems and become an integral aspect of leadership. The level of alienation increases’ but this seemingly reflects a consequence of higher geographic and occupational mobility. Rather than a pathological condition’ this era seems healthy in comparison to the parochialism of the preceding era. The level of systems performance is still increasing’ but the bursts of vitality of Stage 1 have been replaced by a more methodical planning and implementation process. The costs of coordination and control are beginning to mount but can be kept within tolerable limits by the judicious use of rules and regulations to rationalize’ standardize’ and simplify operations. Stage III: Severe Diseconomies/Era of Skepticism In the "autumn" of growth’ the relative level of systems comprehension is low and dropping rapidly as large’ barely comprehensible bureaucracies have grown into largely incomprehensible supersystems. As leaders disavow their responsibility for error and maximize the visibility of their own increasingly modest achievements’ the system’s constituency be comes increasingly disillusioned’ apathetic’ and cynical. Both faith in the basic soundness of the system and trust in rationality to solve the mounting problems are virtually exhausted. Leaders are more tolerated than given active support and legitimacy -- there seems little alternative than to cynically acquiesce to those leaders who say that they alone have adequate information to truly understand what is happening. Yet’ the declining levels of systems performance’ the crisis atmosphere that pervades the management of the system’ the growing numbers of disturbing events and the loss of allegiance to basic values create a situation in which consensus falls to very low levels. Decision-makers are increasingly unable to cope with complex problems that demand superhuman abilities. Costs and problems of coordination and control are mounting rapidly’ and the benefit to the constituency seems to be declining with equal rapidity; consequently people are less willing to support the actions of the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy is becoming increasingly rigid’ distant’ and dysfunctional and yet insists that its constituency conform to its increasingly rationalized and standardized procedures when interacting with the system -- thereby reinforcing the apparent inhumanity of the system and further reducing the system’s legitimacy. Further’ the rigidity of the system engenders a loss of resilience and’ coupled with growing perturbations (many of which arise from the counter-intuitive and unexpected consequences of ill-considered policy actions)’ the system seems increasingly vulnerable to disruption. Stage IV: Systems Crisis/Era of Despair, then...? In the "winter" of growth’ the relative level of systems comprehension is minimal. The systems are on the verge of chaos and collapse. There is a rapid turnover of leaders’ prevailing ideology’ and policy solutions -- yet nothing seems to work. Every attempt at creating order (short of a highly authoritarian structure) seems overwhelmed by growing levels of disorder. The level of systems cohesion is very low which’ in turn’ exacerbates the problem of system’s leaders who govern virtually without support. The rigidified bureaucracy is made somewhat more resilient by the rapid turnover of personnel and policy’ but the vulnerability of the system is so high and mounting crises are of such seriousness that whatever additional resiliency has been added to the system is quickly depleted in a grinding downward spiral into bureaucratic confusion and chaos. The situation becomes simply intolerable and untenable. From this period of systems crisis’ any one of four plausible outcomes may emerge: (1) succcessful muddling through the situation (although muddling through seems more characteristic of the processes which led to Stage IV crisis conditions); (2) a descent into chaos as the size’ complexity’ and interdependence of the system’s problems overwhelm decision-makers; (3) an authoritarian response in an attempt to rationalize and simplify the coordination and control processes; or (4) transformation as the system evolves to a higher level of structure which is both more efficient and more simple. Which of these four outcomes is most likely to occur is impossible to say without specifying the circumstances that surround a system in Stage IV crisis conditions.

Two problems -- communications and control -- must be addressed by any alien sociopolitical system. These may be analyzed in terms of the twin concepts of hierarchy and span of control. Hierarchy represents levels of increasing managerial specialization. Each hierarchical level is comprised of supervisors of roughly equivalent responsibility. Span of control’ the number of subordinates administered by each supervisor’ represents increasing managerial generalization. Studies of governmental and private organizations have shown that the number of hierarchical levels and the span of control tend to increase as the whole system expands. But span and hierarchy are also known to be inversely correlated. That is’ widening the span of control necessitates decreasing the number of levels of supervision’ whereas increasing the number of hierarchical levels necessitates narrowing the span of control. As one writer puts it: "An organization is in many ways like a rubber ball. If you squeeze it in one place’ it bulges somewhere else."827 The traditional organization with its narrow span of supervision and many levels is shaped like an elongated pyramid and customarily is referred to as a "tall" organization. With wider spans and fewer levels’ the pyramid becomes wider at the base and shorter in height. This is called a "flat" organization. The drawings in Figure 21.2 are illustrative.

Figure 21.2 Traditional Unitary Hierarchical Organization

X |

Very Flat Organizational Structure (Control Span 1:8)

--------------------------------------------------------------|

|

X |

|

|

X

X

|

|

|

X

|

|

X

|

|

X |

| X

|

X

|

-------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------|||||||| |||||||| |||||||| |||||||| |||||||| |||||||| |||||||| |||||||| XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX

Very Tall Organization Structure (Control Span 1:2)

At far RIGHT’ the ultimate centralized tall organization. There is a control span of 1:1’ and the number of hierarchical levels exactly equals the number of personnel. Control and behavioral unity are maximized; communication is at a minimum. Personnel job functions are maximally specialized. BELOW’ the ultimate decentralized flat organization. There is a control span exactly equal to the number of personnel. Lateral communication is maximized; control and behavioral unity are at a minimum. Personnel job functions are maximally generalized (nonspecialized). XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X

It’s easy to understand the complementary nature of span and hierarchy on the basis of general systems theory. As systems become more ordered’ they tend to become more specialized and centralized -- or taller. The ultimate in centralization’ as shown on the next page’ is the absolute vertical dominance hierarchy’ in which span of control is unity and the number of levels equals the number of personnel. In this extreme case control of subordinates is maximized because each individual supervises only one subordinate and reports to only one boss. Communication is minimized since each message must change hands a maximum number of times before reaching its intended recipient. Therefore’ tall organizational structures are associated with a policy emphasizing control. Decentralized systems’ on the other hand’ tend to be more generalized. The ultimate flat organization’ also shown in Figure 21.2’ has only one hierarchical level and a span equal to the number of personnel. In this case we see that communication among subordinates is maximized because the length of the channels carrying messages is minimized (direct person-to-person in every exchange). However’ control is virtually nonexistent except insofar as personnel spontaneously decide to cooperate. Therefore’ short organizational structures are associated with a policy emphasizing communication. According to Kenneth Boulding’ extreme centralization fails to optimize performance because of the breakdown in the communications network. Poor communication weakens control.829 But excessive decentralization also fails to optimize because of the relative lack of coordination and uniformity of approach. Communication is inhibited because everyone is trying to talk at once. The trick seems to be to find some balance between flatness and tallness in each system and for each sociopolitical mission.3002’830 It is interesting to note that humans tend naturally to create rather tall organizations’ perhaps due in part to their simian heritage as reflected by the tendency among primate troupes to segregate into vertical dominance chains. Sentient ETs derived from a carnivorous catlike species or a race of intelligent octopuses who valued individuality above all else might be predisposed to form flatter organizational structures. Xenologists recognize that the problems of management in a galactic empire may be serious indeed. Due to the extreme system size’ the number of levels and broad spans required will be enormous. Most human terrestrial organizations have spans of 10 subordinates per supervisor or less. Using this figure’ a galactic empire controlling ten billion planets having ten billion inhabitants each would require at least 21 hierarchical levels of supervision. The performance of such a system may be far from spectacular. It is well-known that human organizations with more than 6-8 hierarchical levels tend to become excessively bureaucratic. Communication upwards’ in the words of one writer’ becomes "an exercise analogous to swimming through progressively hardening concrete."2963 Advanced biotechnology may give extraterrestrials a helping hand in this matter. The installation of individual biocybernetic implants and deep cultural databanks may make information processing somewhat easier for galactic managers. Or perhaps molecular electronic machine intellects must be constructed in order successfully to run a galaxy. If spans of 100 subordinates can be managed properly using some technological device’ then the number of hierarchical levels can almost be halved -- from 21 down to 11. The structure of an interstellar empire might then be as suggested by Table 21.4.

Table 21.4 Possible Structure of Galactic Empire, Assuming Control Span of 100 Subordinates and 11 Hierarchical Levels of Supervision Ordinal Level

Imperial Office or Rank

Size of Class (persons)

Number of Planets Controlled

Number of Subjects Controlled

1

Emperor

1

1010

1020

2

Cabinet Minister

102

108

1018

3

Senator

104

106

1016

4

Knight

106

104

1014

5

Starkeeper

108

102

1012

6

Planetary Governor

1010

1

1010

7

Continental Consul

1012

108

8

Continental Regent

1014

106

9

Mayor

1016

104

10

Centurion

1018

102

11

Imperial Citizenry

1020

1

By the very nature of the beast’ the Emperor will have absolutely no contact with non-interstellar personnel. His relations with his knights would be not unlike the relationship between the United States President and the mayors and city managers of American cities. To the Galactic Emperor the starkeepers’ each responsible for 100 worlds’ will seem much as U.S. citizens appear to their President. Planetary governors will be viewed as "the rabble’" a simple but perhaps surprising fact which may have innumerable consequences in the field of interstellar power politics. Xenologists are also interested in another branch of organizational cybernetics known as "control loss theory." This field has major implications in large extraterrestrial systems with respect to hierarchical structural design. Economist Oliver Williamson recently devised a simple mathematical model based on the standard hierarchy/span conception of sociopolitical organizations.2964 In this model’ goals are generated at the top of the hierarchy and actions to implement them are executed at the bottom. In between there are a number of supervisory levels. At each level’ bosses give orders to subordinates which they in turn received from above’ and which are expected to be passed on down the chain of command. According to Williamson’ at each level there is a small amount of loss of control’ a tiny bit of "slippage" -- orders are misinterpreted or diverted’ personal power tactics take their toll’ and part of the original intention of upper echelons is lost. Noise -entropy -- creeps into the message. Each level adds to the cumulative control loss’ and the total loss ultimately emerges at the bottom as the proportion of production workers’ time that does not further organizational goals. We can get a rough idea of the efficacy of control in the hierarchical Empire outlined in Table 21.4. There are 11 levels of control’ so orders change hands 10 times. If the interlevel control parameter is set at 95% -- the optimistic end of the range suggested by Williamson -- then the net control at the level of the citizenry is (0.95)10 or 60%. That is’ the Emperor’s goals will only be about one-half effective. If the interlevel control parameter is set at 85%’ the lower limit recommended by Williamson’ then net control drops to a mere 20%. Only one-fifth of the Emperor’s plans and commands ever reach fruition at the level of the Imperial citizenry. Peter B. Evans has used Williamson’s control loss model to compare the behavior of several different hierarchical structures.840 According to Evans’ higher efficiencies can be achieved at low cost by switching to a "multiple hierarchy" -- a system in which there is more than one channel of control and communication between upper and lower echelons. The simplest organization of this form is the dual hierarchy (Figure 21.3). Using control loss theory’ Evans shows that dual hierarchies will always achieve superior control than unitary hierarchies’ all else being equal.

Figure 21.3 Dual Hierarchy of the Modified Galactic Empire X’ Y = Imperial Bureaucracy C = Imperial Citizenry

So let us assume that the Galactic Emperor creates a complete second hierarchy of ministers’ senators’ and so forth on down to the centurion class. (Both classes of centurions watch over the same citizenry.) This plan requires the expansion of the Imperial Administration by only 1%’ or the additional hiring of 0.01% of the general population of the Empire to new bureaucratic positions. Thus’ costs are minimal. How about benefits? Since the Emperor is a benevolent and capable leader’ he orders his engineers to produce a hideously expensive but superior electronic implant and personally assumes supervision of the two independent cabinets’ totaling 200 subordinates. What kind of control has he now? An interlevel control parameter of 95% gives a net organizational efficiency of 84%’ an improvement of 40% over the unitary hierarchy. A parameter of 85% achieves a net efficiency of 35%’ an improvement of more than 80%. The superiority of dual hierarchies is well-known in business and public administration. Line-and-staff dual systems have been used in large companies since the late 19th century.2970 The idea of dual hierarchies with parallel channels of access are familiar to students of bureaucratic structures in Communist societies2967’2968 and large multinational corporations in Western societies.2969’1746 Higher-order multiple hierarchies are not uncommon. One study of the Bureau of Employment Security showed that regional offices served not as end points for the tree-like branching of a unitary hierarchy’ but rather as points of convergence for several parallel hierarchies.835 Industrial research’ such as the description of the Milo fractionating plant in the late 1950’s’ demonstrated the existence of no less than six parallel channels of access from the central office to the plant in addition to the obvious chain of command running through the plant manager.2966 Apparently multiple channels enhance control while increasing the potential for conflict (e.g.’ who does the emperor believe when reports disagree’ which chain of communication is more reliable’ etc.?). But’ notes Evans: The disadvantage of this potential for conflict may be outweighed by the necessity of greater control in service organizations like the Bureau of Employment Security’ where measures of output are more vague’ or in cases like the Milo head office’ where surveillance must be from a distance.810 In xenological terms’ the benefits of multiple hierarchies will become most apparent when sociopolitical units are separated by interstellar distances or when extraterrestrial organizational goals are vague and unfocused Still another governmental format which may be adopted by ETs is called "hierarchical lattice structure." Harrison C. White’s analysis of a small manufacturing firm (Figure 21.4) showed that this structure is far more complex than simple parallel hierarchies.2965 The system involves a complex lattice of hierarchical links which provides a startling multiplicity of communicative pathways to the top.

Figure 21.4 Lattice Structure of a Small Manufacturing Oganization840

Lattice structures are difficult to analyze properly using present cybernetic theory. From the viewpoint of control loss models’ the large number of alternative channels of information should serve to centralize power near the top and improve net systemic efficiency. But consider the position of the scheduler in the reproduction of White’s organizational diagram (three pages previous). This individual has more interlinkages than the president of the firm! Asks Evans: Are positions at which channels intersect from both above and below -- like the scheduler in White’s manufacturing organization-powerful because of their centrality to the network’ or oppressed because of the multiple sources of control directed at them?840 Final word on the comparative benefits and costs of various structural forms that may be utilized by extraterrestrial governments awaits the development of a more sophisticated and complete theory of organizational cybernetics.3071’2975

21.3.3 System Stability Stability is an ambiguous term in political science. According to some theorists it may be static’ dynamic’ oscillating or adaptive.585 Others have defined political stability as the absence of such disruptive events as armed attacks and guerrilla warfare’ assassinations’ general strikes’ major governmental crises’ purges’ riots and revolutions’ demonstrations’ and other forms of violence.842 Still others require a static structure of government or equate political stability with system maintenance. In view of its tremendous importance’ political scientists have made astonishing little progress in the field of general systemic stability analysis. One of the notable exceptions is a study recently completed by Ronald J. May at the University of Sydney in Australia. After analyzing a number of federated governments throughout world history’ May concludes that most of them lack dynamic stability. Looking back on the historical record’ he says: Federal government has not proved to be a very stable form of political organization. Instability is inherent in the structure of federal decision making in a dynamic context. Although for a time a balance may be achieved between the forces of separatism and centralism’ in most cases federal systems either succumb to separatist tendencies’ in which case either they disintegrate or they are held together by the coercion of the weaker by the stronger units’ or national integration proceeds’ in which case the original federal form becomes increasingly irrelevant to the political actuality.850 May suggests that the ultimate outcome is a function of a number of factors such as initial differences between units’ the original format of federation’ the extent of interdependence among member sovereignties’ the urgency of the need for unity’ and so forth. Relative wealth and size of the component political units may exert a controlling influence’ however.2971 According to May: The evidence suggests that’ in general’ when large’ rich units are ranged against small’ poor units there is some chance of federation being preserved’ but the likely outcome is centralization with large unit dominance; in the extreme case federalism may yield to a unitary state. When small rich units are ranged against large poor units’ on the other hand’ there is a strong tendency for the small units to secede.850 While there have been several other attempts by political theorists seriously to engage in systemic analysis (see Hurwitz’845 Merritt’975 Russett’843 and Wright585)’ few sufficiently generalized results have emerged that are directly applicable in xenology. Thus xenologists turn once again to cybernetics theory for guidance.831’1867 In the field of stability’ perhaps one of the most useful ideas is the concept of feedback. Feedback is a flow of information that has a reciprocating and moderating influence on organizational behavior. Information generated by the system and presented as output is fed back in as input via a "feedback loop." The system thereby keeps an eye on itself and becomes better able to establish and maintain a state of homeostatic equilibrium.827 Sudden stimuli applied randomly to the system and wildly oscillating inputs are quickly "damped" out. Theoretically a well-designed extraterrestrial governmental organization possessing no time delays in feedback should be capable of instantaneous response to disruptive influences and should exhibit perfect dynamic stability. However’ time delays are inherent in all real physical systems’ and this problem will be further exacerbated in the case of interstellar systems because of the comparatively large lag times in transportation and communication between the stars. And whenever delays exist in any system’ any variation by one of the quantities moderated by the feedback loop may be perpetuated indefinitely.833 In other words’ without multiple control loops certain disturbances introduced in one corner of a galactic empire could propagate throughout the system’ reverberating in continuous oscillations instead of settling down. According to systems analysts’ galactic governments should be designed to be "resilient" with "soft failure modes" (nonlethal)’ When unexpected events occur’ a well-designed xenopolitical system will not collapse but rather will degrade gradually. Tim Quilici of Rockwell International has devised a very simple "systems" model of an interstellar economics system to illustrate the basic concept of feedback (Figure 21.5). Using a single loop mechanism’ a socialistic alien government attempts to hold stable the price of some valuable trade commodity -- say’ "positronic brains" -- by controlling supply. The "brains" are manufactured on the Capitol World’ a center of industrial development and political control’ and are shipped to Outback 10 light-years away. Communication is via microwave’ but interstellar freighters can only make 25%c. Demand for "brains" (to control the agricultural and mining robots on Outback) has remained virtually constant for the last century at 100 units per year. Suddenly’ in 2400 A.D.’ due to poor weather and a series of unusually violent seismic tremors’ demand begins to fall. Over a decade it drops to 50 per year’ at which point it levels off and holds steady. What happens to the price of "brains" that Capitol World is trying to control?

Figure 21.5 A Simple Systems Model of Interstellar Economics

The demand for positronic brains on planet Outback is normally 100 units at the going price of $3 × 106 each’ delivered F.O.B. from Capitol World. The government at Capitol wishes to hold the price constant by controlling supply. In the figure at left’ demand on Outback drops precipitously from 100 units/year to 50 units/year’ due to bad weather. This causes the price to fall to $2 ×106. By halving the number of shipments of positronic brains to Outback’ the Capitol World government can force a return to the old price level.

Above is a block diagram of the proposed systems model of Outback economics. P(t) is the price of positronic brains on Outback. Q(t) is the quantity supplied to Outback by the Capitol World government. C(t) is the consumer demand on Outback for positronic brains. Since Outback is 10 light-years from Capitol World’ messages travel at 100%c’ and interstellar freighters travel at 25%c’ the communication delay dc is 10 years and the transportation delay dt is 40 years. The system thus may be de scribed mathematically as follows: P(t) = e•Q(t-dt) ‘ e•C(t) Q(t) = P0/e - P(t-d0)/e ‘ Q(t-dc -dt) where e is elasticity’ equal to 20’000 $/positronic brain.

In 2400 AD’ Outback’s demand drops from 100 to 50 units in a single decade. Demand remains at 50 units for the next century.

When demand for positronic brains on Outback falls’ so does price. The Capitol World government finds out 10 years later’ by microwave communication. Shipments are immediately cut in half’ but since 40 years’ worth of cargo is already en route’ the effects of the cutback are not felt on Outback until 2450 AD. By 2400 AD’ 60 years after the change in demand’ price has returned to normal.

As we see from Figure 21.5’ the decrease in demand on Outback causes an immediate price reduction there. Suddenly there is a glut on the market. The price remains low as too many new "brains" continue to pour in from Capitol World -- which has not yet had time to react to the changed circumstances. The situation’ in this simple model’ is not fully remedied for 60 years following the initial disturbance. This suggests some of the difficulties inherent in interstellar commerce and government. Systems theory should allow similar modeling of the dynamic behavior of vastly more complex galactic organizations’ provided their modes of operation and multiple feedback loops can be precisely and quantitatively specified. Dr. James G. Miller’ pioneer in systems science and president of the University of Louisville in Kentucky’ has developed what is probably the most comprehensive and far-reaching general systems theory devised to date. Miller claims that his theory’ and the principles which emerge from it’ are applicable to all living systems from cellular lifeforms to organic societies. Xenologists expect that this work may profitably be extended to considerations of xenopolitical systems as well’ primarily because of its general and universalistic approach to systems analysis at all scales of organization. In his fascinating 1100-page monograph entitled Living Systems’3071 Miller considers living systems at seven different levels of complexity: Cells’ organs’ organisms’ groups’ organizations’ societies’ and supranational systems. Based on fundamental notions of evolutionary unity’ he then derives nearly 200 cross-level hypotheses which he asserts may be general characteristics of any living system. The following are six of these hypotheses which xenologists believe may have relevance to the problem of stability in xenopolitical systems at all cultural scales: Hypothesis 5.2-2: The greater a threat or stress upon a system’ the more components of it are involved in adjusting to it. When no further components with new adjustment processes are available’ the system function collapses. Hypothesis 5.2-10: Under equal stress’ functions developed later in the phylogenetic history of a given type of system break down before more primitive functions do. Hypothesis 5.2-11: After stress’ disturbances of subsystem steady states are ordinarily corrected and returned to normal ranges before systemwide steady-state disturbances are. Hypothesis 5.2-12: More complex systems’ which contain more different components’ each of which can adjust against one or more specific environmental stresses and maintain in steady state one or more specific variables not maintained by any other component’ if they adequately coordinate the processes in their components’ survive longer on the average than less complex systems. Hypothesis 5.2-13: Under threat or stress’ a system that survives’ in the common good of total system survival’ temporarily subordinates conflicts among subsystems or components until the threat or stress is relieved’ when internal conflicts recur. Hypothesis 5.2-19: The greater the resources available to a system’ the less likely is conflict among its subsystems or components.3071 One last point about xenopolitical systemic stability. A few cyberneticists have suggested that really complex networks with intricate webs of feedback and feedforward loops "may include processes of consciousness of internal monitoring of certain states of the net."822 Galactic organizational systems which have accumulated vast quantities of information may perhaps in some sense be viewed as having memory’ will’ consciousness’ and various other sentient life functions.3071’827 Intergalactic contact between two such entities would truly be "a meeting of cultures’" and would almost certainly be incomprehensible to any single individual or race of individuals.236 How such communication might effect the equilibrium and stability of each of the two "conscious" networks is unknown’ but the implications are many for the sextillion or so sentient beings involved.

21.4 Strategic Galactography Galactography is a descriptive science which deals with the physical features of galaxies’ their political and economic subdivisions’ their natural resources’ lifeforms’ and industries.3199 As the subject is both massive and complex’ and since many pertinent areas have been touched upon elsewhere in this book’ we shall restrict our discussion here to a brief overview of a few strategic aspects of economic and military galactography.

21.4.1 The Economic Viability of Interstellar Cargo Transport An astonishing fallacy that appears repeatedly in the literature is the assertion that interstellar freight costs must be so prohibitive that not even gold’ diamonds’ radium ingots’ or complex microelectronic devices would be worth their weight in trade between the stars.553 This notion often is used to demonstrate that trade in any commodity other than knowledge (data) is a futile and cost-ineffective endeavor. Fortunately’ this simply is not so. Two civilizations inhabiting different star systems can trade in bulk goods for comparatively little energy. Each culture’ for example’ may erect a giant mass driver which is used to dispatch cargos as well as to receive them. Here’s how such a transport system might work. As the consignment arrives at Solar System A’ traveling at its normal operational velocity (say’ 50%c)’ it is swallowed by the giant mass driver. The driver decelerates the robot cargo vessel by coupling with magnetic fields. Kinetic energy is recovered and converted to potential (stored) energy. (See Chapter 19 for some ideas on how this might be done.) The cargo ship’ now at rest’ is unloaded and filled with goods ordered by the inhabitants of Solar System B. Finally’ using the energy stored during the craft’s arrival (plus a small bit of local energy to balance conversion losses)’ the ship is accelerated back up to 50%c and shoots out the barrel of the giant mass driver bound for B. If A and B are 10 light-years apart’ each trading cycle should require only about 20 years. The total energy which must be handled during each cycle phase is about 3 x 1024 joules’ which looks like a job for a Type II civilization.* However’ most of this energy is recovered because a mass driver constructed by advanced aliens may incorporate superconductive windings and ultra-high-efficiency storage devices. So what is the cost’ in terms we can understand? Assuming roughly $0.01/kilowatt-hour’ the mass driver regenerative system must be 99.998% efficient to achieve costs comparable to the space shuttle (about $1000/kilogram) -- but between stars. If 10%c missions are acceptable’ the required efficiency drops to 99.93%; if 1%c missions are sufficient’ only 92.6% efficiency is needed. And large-scale power generation in space may permit energy to be produced vastly cheaper than on Earth’s surface today. If the price of energy drops by three orders of magnitude’ then the required efficiency for the 50%c mission is only 97.7% and for the 10%c mission a mere 23.8%. With sufficiently refined technology’ interstellar bulk trade in raw materials and manufactured items may actually be cheap!

* A Starship Enterprise-sized cargo vessel (190’000 metric tons) is assumed.

21.4.2 Galactic Trade Routes Generally speaking’ trade routes are fixed along the shortest possible physical pathway between the sources of the principal commodities shipped and the major centers of consumption.1169 Each regime of travel has a unique set of physical characteristics that dictate the distribution of optimum routes. On land’ surface conditions such as mountain chains and passes’ accessible waterways’ impassable swamps and deserts are determinative. On the sea’ the curvature of the Earth’ ocean currents’ wind patterns’ and the presence of iceberg fields’ monsoon tracks and other hazards to navigation are more critical. In the air’ trade routes are fixed mainly by political considerations’ distribution of major population centers’ jet stream and other atmospheric conditions’ and so forth. In the realm of interstellar commerce’ too’ a unique set of problems prove determinative. Probably the single most important parameter in deciding which trade routes should be utilized by an extraterrestrial civilization is the level of sophistication of transportation technology. Starships restricted to speeds below 50%c will gain no benefits from relativistic time dilation. Time of flight between neighboring stellar systems in the Disk will average on the order of decades for the vessel’s crew. Even if physiological longevity is greatly extended’ starships will probably have to call at inter mediate ports to take on fuel and fresh crews. Even vessels able to pull 99%c won’t do significantly better. For such starships’ the time dilation factor will cut trip time down to about 14 shipboard years per 100 light-years of travel. While it is certainly possible to imagine traveling for decades without pausing to refuel’ resupply’ or recrew’ the longer the flight time the less likely starships will not stop at intermediate points. In other words’ starships limited to 99%c or less probably will not be able simply to aim at target star systems anywhere in the Milky Way and journey directly towards them (though "leading the target"’ of course’ to account for proper stellar motions during the journey). Rather’ since the distances are so vast and the travel times so long for the crews’ manned trading missions most likely must follow certain prescribed routes as they crisscross the Galaxy engaging in interstellar commerce. (Unmanned robot cargo ships are another matter -- they can be "aimed and shot.") Regular ports will be visited and many planetfalls made as starvessels "hop" from solar system to solar system along paths calculated to cost minimum time or energy. Eventually these may be legislated into law as a matter of convenience by the ET Interstellar Transit Authority. Intragalactic trade routes may also be fixed in accordance with physical heterogeneities in the Galactic environment. For instance’ hydrogen gas is an order of magnitude more plentiful along the spiral arms than in the interarm regions. Hence xenologists expect that Bussard ramscoop vehicles might adopt trade routes called "ring routes" by network theorists. Ring routes follow a clockwise or counterclockwise pathway around the circumference of the Galaxy (the arms of the Milky Way) and then follow a radial route inwards to the final destination. Using an external ring route the trip path will be about 250% longer than a simple direct (straight) route; using an optimized internal ring route’ however’ this excess distance may be reduced as low as 37%.2629 It will also be recalled that the number of habitable star systems (classes F’ G’ and K) is only a few percent higher in the spiral arms than in the interarm regions’ so self-fueled starships will not tend to follow trade routes aligned with the Galactic spiral structure. To an economic galactographist’ the Galactic Disk is essentially uniform with useful star systems. However’ there are certain clumpings of stars which impart valuable heterogeneity to the intragalactic environment. One example of this is the galactic or "open" cluster. Galactic clusters contain from a few dozen to nearly a thousand suns’ usually confined to a more or less spherical volume ranging from 5-65 light-years in diameter. About 500 clusters are known (see table next page for a few of them)’ and it is estimated that there are about 20’000 scattered throughout the Milky Way.1945 While this imples a mean distance between them of about 1000 light-years’ this figure is very misleading because clusters are largely confined to the spiral arms. Taking this into account’ the true mean separation works out to perhaps 100-300 light-years. Galactographic considerations suggest that civilizations located in clusters may form close-knit economic units. This is possible because solar systems in galactic clusters typically are separated by a mere 0.5 light-years’ which is an order of magnitude closer than normal stars (such as our Sol) in the Galactic Disk. Interstellar trade routes may be designed as a series of overlapping arcs connecting series of galactic cluster trade associations around each spiral arm. (Each cluster may represent individual political units’ small pockets of interstellar civilization scattered across the Galactic wilderness.) There are many other nonuniformities in the galactic distribution of stars which may have economic implications for galactic governments. Stellar belts’ associations’ and galactic star clouds (bright "knots" of suns found in Cygnus’ Scutum’ Sagittarius’ etc. in our own galaxy) are more diffuse aggregations than clusters but may serve to concentrate trading activity to some degree. Globular clusters’ metal-poor and probably also planet-poor’ may be exploitable without danger to sentient lifeforms (since such clusters most likely harbor none). With 104-106 Population II stars each’ globulars (Table 21.5) represent rich lodes of fusionable hydrogen and a possibly very lucrative mining venture for industrious galactic entrepreneurs.

Table 21.5 Galactic and Globular Clusters as Interstellar Trade Route Nodes (modified from Robinson3086) Name of Cluster

Constellation

Distance from Sol

Diameter of Cluster

Approximate Age of Cluster

(lightyears)

(lightyears)

(years)

GALACTIC/OPEN CLUSTERS Hyades

Taurus

130

15.1

4 × 108

Coma

Coma Berenjces

260

22.7

4 × 108

Pleiades (M45)

Taurus

410

14.2

2 × 108

IC 2391

Vela

490

6.4

3 × 107

Praesepe "The Beehive’ (M44’ NGC 2632)

Cancer

520

13.5

2 × 109

IC 2602

Carina

520

9.9

3 × 107

Perseus

Perseus

560

38.7

3 × 107

M7’ NGC 6475

Scorpius

780

11.4

2 × 108

Mel 227

Octans

780

13.7

4 × 108

NGC 2451

Puppis

980

10.5

7 × 107

IC 4665

Ophiuchus

1100

15.7

7 × 107

NGC 2516

Centaurus

1200

17.6

4 × 108

NGC 752

Andromeda

1200

16.2

3 × 109

Trapeziwn (NGC 1976/80)

Orion

1300

19.0

1 × 106

NGC 3532

Carina

1400

21.9

4 × 108

IC 4756

Serpens

1400

20.9

9 × 108

NGC 2422

Puppis

1600

13.7

7 × 107

NGC 2232

Monoceros

1600

9.3

3 × 107

M23’ NGC 6494

Sagittarius

1800

14.1

4 × 108

M6’ NGC 6405

Scorpius

1900

14.1

7 × 107

Tr 24

Scorpius

1900

33.0

1 × 106

M25’ IC 4725

Sagittarius

2000

19.9

3 × 107

M41’ NGC 2287

Canis Major

2200

20.0

3 x 107

NGC 2264

Monoceros

2400

20.8

9 × 106

Tr 37’ IC 1396

Cepheus

2400

41.6

1 × 106

NGC 2546

Puppis

2400

31.6

9 × 106

M67’ NGC 2682

Cancer

2700

14.2

4 × 109

NGC 3114

Carina

2800

29.8

7 × 107

M35’ NGC 2168

Gemini

2800

23.9

7 × 107

IC 2395

Vela

2900

17.1.

3 × 107

M37’ NGC 2099

Auriga

4200

29.1

2 × 108

NGC 4755’ "Jewel Box"

Crux

4400

15.3

3 × 107

NGC 1912

Auriga

4500

23.4

2 × 108

Lagoon Nebula (M8’ NGC 6523 & 6530)

Sagittarius

4800

62.8

1 × 106

NGC 2362

Canis Major

5000

10.2

9 × 106

NGC 188

Cepheus

5100

20.6

5 × 109

NGC 3766

Centaurus

5300

18.6

9 × 106

Rosette (NGC 2244)

Monoceros

5400

42.3

1 × 106

M46’ NGC 2437

Puppis

5400

42.5

3 × 107

M11’ NGC 6705

Scutum

5600

20.4

2 × 108

NGC 6231

Scorpius

5900

27.6

1 × 106

M16’ NGC 6611

Serpens

6200

14.4

1 × 106

Tr 16

Carina

6400

18.5

9 × 106

NGC 6067

Norma

6900

31.9

3 × 107

NGC 869 [ the Double Open Cluster ]

Perseus

7400

64.3

9 × 106

NGC 884

Perseus

7900

68.6

9 × 106

11’000

14.5

7 × 107

"

"

NGC 7790

"

"

Cassiopeia

GLOBULAR CLUSTERS NGC 6397

Ara

9’500

52.3

5 × 109

M22’ NGC 6656

Sagittarius

9’800

74.6

7 × 109

NGC 6541

Corona Australis

13’000

88.1

5 × 109

M4’ HGC 6121

Scorpius

14.000

92.2

9 × 109

NGC 104

Tucana

16’000

209

1 × 1010

NGC 5139

Centaurus

17’000

323

7 × 109

NGC 6752

Pavo

17’000

211

5 × 109

M55’ NGC 6809

Sagittarius

20’000

120

5 × 109

P410’ NGC 6254

Ophiuchus

20.000

95.3

9 × 109

M13’ NGC 6205

Hercules

21’000

77.1

5 × 109

P412’ NGC 6218

Ophiuchus

24’000

151

7 × 109

NGC 6723

Sagittarius

24’000

82.2

2 × 1010

M92’ NGC 6341

Hercules

26’000

92.2

3 × 109

M5’ NGC 5904

Serpens

26’000

82.2

5 × 109

NGC 2808

Carina

30’000

162

7 × 109

MIS’ NGC 7078

Pegasus

34’000

93.7

4 × 109

M3’ NGC 5272

Canes Venatici

35’000

93.5

7 × 109

M2’ NGC 7089

Aquarius

40’000

79.4

5 × 109

NGC 1851

Columba

46’000

153

7 × 109

Another major heterogeneous feature is the general density gradient of suns in the Galactic corpus. Stars are about an order of magnitude more numerous near the Core than in the outer Rim regions of the Disk. As we move inward from the Rim’ number density rises continuously. Stellar metallicity is also about ten times higher in the Core than in the Disk’ so more planets’ lifeforms’ cultures’ and mining ventures are possible nearer the more central regions of the Galaxy. (This is also where globular clusters are most abundant.) Economic and sociopolitical activity is expected to concentrate towards the Core. Galactic communication routes may tend more to be line-of-sight than trade routes. These systems may be organized hierarchically with extremely complex network designs.2991 One writer suggests the following: Local terminals handling ten worlds are constructed in space’ presumably circling a star for free energy. The civilizations in touch with each terminal might range from a few hundred to a few thousand light-years away. The terminal receives signals from each and rebroadcasts them to the other members; in addition’ it bumps a duplicate of the signal to a junction station further up the network hierarchy. From the junction it receives’ and passes along to its member worlds’ the full output of the galactic network’ a great glut of information’ perhaps edited in advance for potential interest to each idiosyncratic world. The more complicated junction stations in turn report to a large central station. A network of one central station and 1000 junctions’ each in turn corresponding with 100 local terminals’ could handle 1’000’000 worlds. Each society then would require only a single antenna’ aimed at its local terminal.2607 Other designs’ perhaps analogous to the decentralized nonhierarchical military ARPANET system or the ALOHANET packet radio network’ may be more practical for complex interstellar communications.2484’2483

21.4.3 Interstellar War Before we can explore the galactography of war’ we first must ask whether war is in any sense a "universal" phenomenon.* If the answer is clearly negative’ our subject matter may be a null set. At least to the extent that competition and aggression are recognized solutions to ecological limitations’ evidence accumulated to date suggests that the concept of war should not be strange to many sentient extra terrestrial races. Purposive murder’ which has been called "individual war’"31 has been observed in countless vertebrate animal species’ including lions’ hyenas’ macaques’ chimpanzees’ gorillas’ baboons’ elephants seals’ wild dogs’ hippos’ seagulls’ bears’ and mountain lions.2946 Organized impersonal murder’ or classical warfare’ is more rare but has been seen among chimpanzees’2994 lions’2974 rats’455 and many species of social insects such as army ants65 and weaver ants.2993 Zoologist George Schaller observed a randomly selected Serengeti lion population for a total of 2900 hours and observed three murders.2974 As pointed out by E.O. Wilson’ this means that lions are excessively violent by human standards: If some imaginary Martian zoologist visiting Earth were to observe man as simply one more species over a very long period of time’ he might conclude that we are among the more pacific mammals as measured by serious assaults or murders per individual per unit time’ even when our episodic wars are averaged in. If the visitor were to be confined to George Schaller’s 2900 hours and one randomly picked human population comparable in size to the Serengeti lion population’ he would probably see nothing more than some play-fighting -- almost completely limited to juveniles -- and an angry verbal exchange or two between adults.565 In his recent book On Human Nature Wilson expands on this point of view: Recent studies of hyenas’ lions’ and langur monkeys’ to take three familiar species’ have disclosed that individuals engage in lethal fighting’ infanticide’ and even cannibalism at a rate far above that found in human societies. When a count is made of the number of murders committed per thousand individuals per year’ human beings are well down on the list of violently aggressive creatures. Hyena packs clash in deadly pitched battles that are virtually indistinguishable from primitive human warfare. I suspect that if hamadryas baboons had nuclear weapons’ they would destroy the world in a week.3198 Xenologists thus have every reason to suspect that alien races exist in this Galaxy both more and less "warlike" than humans.548 (And of course "war" implies only conflict’ which need not necessarily involve any actual killing.1000’1541 There may exist stringent rules’ codes’ or legal requirements of war activity among ETs.933) When is war most likely to occur? Consider the factors of sentience’ dispersion’ size and heritage. Beings having genetic sentience have no concept of the self and thus no empathy for the pain and suffering of others. Genetic warriors should be the most ruthless and persistent’ each individual driven on by the community urge with no thought of self-preservation. Similarly’ communal sentients should be highly pacific among themselves but instantly reactive to any threat to the community at large. Personal sacrifice may be moderated by personal consciousness’ but war will be perceived more as a match between two social organisms rather than as a contest between individual combatants. Patriotism may serve as a primary emotion rather than a vague ethical ideal’ so communal soldiers may fight with a unity of purpose unparalleled in all of human experience. Finally’ brain sentients such as human beings will fear for the integrity of the self without the matching support of a visceral sense of community. Xenologists expect them to be among the poorest warriors in the Galaxy.2980 High dispersion will make warfare more difficult. The late Quincy Wright’ a leading international jurist and political scientist’ showed that the frequency of war on Earth is inversely correlated with the number of barriers to mobility.585 Large populations tend to increase technological scale and accumulate excess resources which both permit and demand a larger scale of competitive activity. As heritage becomes more divergent’ war between the different social units is expected to become more frequent since’ according to Wright: Cultural heterogeneity within a state tends to involve it in wars of two types: civil revolts of cultural minorities to resist oppression or to establish national independence and imperialistic wars to expand empire or to divert attention from domestic troubles.585 A number of writers have asserted that interstellar war is much too expensive to wage.63 This probably is not true. On energy considerations alone’ war may be rather inexpensive. In an earlier chapter we discussed the dispatch of starliners similar in bulk to the Starship Enterprise. Let us convert to wartime status. Our heavy cruiser starvessel is dispatched from Capitol World at a steady 1 gee acceleration’ reaching the enemy star system (100 light-years distant) in 9 years shipboard time using a Standard Flight Plan. The warcraft masses 190’000 metric tons and requires 9 x 1026 joules of energy to perform the maneuver. When it arrives in orbit around the sole inhabited planet of the enemy star system’ it hammers the civilization into submission by destroying all major population centers. This is accomplished by fusing into molten slag the top ten meters of 0.1% of the entire planetary surface area’ a feat requiring 1022 joules. The equivalent of this in antimatter’ if the energy is stored that way’ is a mere 120 tons’ which could handily be carried aboard a 190’000 ton starship. Similarly’ a human-lethal dose of neutron radiation over the entire land surface of Earth probably requires no more than 104-105 megatons of well-placed nuclear explosives’ corresponding to an energy requirement of only 1020 joules. Since either mission easily could be mounted by a mature Type II society’ a galactic (Type III) civilization should find the effort of interstellar warfare rather trivial. Planetary sterilization might well be a standard instrument of foreign policy among ruthless expansionistic or totalitarian alien governments. Will ETs experience the same motivations that have driven human beings to war for thousands of years? A desire for more living space is an oft-cited cause of war. There is no reason why population growth could not motivate competitive confrontations between alien races’ especially during the initial phase of galactic expansion and colonization. Eventually’ of course’ even the Galaxy will be filled to capacity.1120 Even if planets and stars are taken apart for mass and energy’ and artificial habitats are constructed to house the teeming octillions’ relatively low rates of population growth can lead to extraordinarily large numbers in geologically short periods of time (a few million years). At least during the initial portion of galactic enculturation’ interstellar lebensraum cannot be ruled out. Another cause of war is the quest for power and security. Since we know that it is energetically fairly cheap both to attack and to be attacked’ natural predatory alien instincts could find a convenient outlet. Defense may command high budgetary priority once the existence of military competitors with advanced starship technology becomes known. There may exist religious motivations for going to war’ or the attacker’s cultural mores may have been insulted or disregarded during some past interaction between races. Also there are a variety of economic motives. Xenologists suspect that interstellar freight costs may be unexpectedly low’ so lucrative rare metal’ alien artifact’ or slave/animal piracy and trade may be able to gain a foothold in local "black markets" among close cluster or Core star cultures. Or’ on a larger scale of conquest and appropriation’ raw planetary mass or stellar hydrogen might be scooped away for use in high technology projects in progress elsewhere. (Local inhabitants may not be asked for permission.)3386 All this is not to suggest that interstellar war is inevitable or that it is necessary or even likely. But the chances are excellent that many highly intelligent but warlike mentalities may exist in this universe. To blithely assert that warmaking is somehow self-limiting or self-destructive is utterly irresponsible.** (See Clarke1103’373 and MacGowan and Ordway.600) As Murray Leinster once pointed out: "It takes two to make trade’ but only one to make war."2877 And’ according to Wilson’ intelligence itself may be preadaptive for warlike behavior: If any social predatory mammal attains a certain level of intelligence’ as the early hominids’ being large primates’ were especially predisposed to do’ one band would have the capacity to consciously ponder the significance of adjacent social groups and to deal with them in an intelligent’ organized fashion. A band might then dispose of a neighboring band’ appropriate its territory’ and increase its own genetic representation in the metapopulation’ retaining the tribal memory of this successful episode’ repeating it’ increasing the geographic range of its occurrence’ and quickly spreading its influence still further in the metapopulation.565 In other words’ the human predisposition to practice warfare may actually be evolutionarily adaptive.3241 There are a number of strategic considerations pertinent to the practice of interstellar warfare.2995 For instance’ Core civilizations and cluster cultures might be expected to have greater opportunity for conflict’ since the higher number density of inhabited solar systems decreases dispersion and brings more divergent cultures into contact with each other. Galactic clusters straddling valuable trade routes (e.g.’ black hole space-ports?) should be more heavily defended’ just as mountain passes have always been crucial in Earthly warfare.737 Perhaps the most crucial element from the standpoint of military strategy is the physical configuration of the defending system. Even on Earth it is well-known that compact shape is of tremendous advantage to a state.726’737 Attenuated or fragmented borders are hard to rule or defend. The Square-Cube law is relevant in this context. The smaller the outer surface of the Empire in relation to its internal volume’ the less vulnerable it will be to external attack. Simple geometry might predict that the optimum shape of a galactic civilization should be spherical.1474 Of course’ matters are rarely this simple. Since most of the Galaxy is empty space’ the "volume" of an interstellar Empire is mostly "holes."668 There is the possibility of two or more alien governments being physically interwoven’ with or without conflict or even knowledge of the existence of the other. Perhaps one group prefers F and C stars while the other restricts itself to K-class suns. Or maybe one race inhabits jovian worlds and other prefers terrestrials. The possible complications and permutations are virtually limitless. Capitol worlds would appear best placed at the geometric center of an expanding spherical Federation. However’ in view of the possibility of interwoven civilizations and various other tactical and strategic difficulties’ some xenologists would advocate a mobile capitol similar in size and construction to the Death Star of Star Wars fame or the Flagship Plesarius from the original-series Star Trek episode entitled "The Corbomite Maneuver."2996 This would help to prevent crippling attacks on the seat of government. A few have gone even further’ totally rejecting any notion of capitols in favor of a decentralized "distributed intelligence" network of control and military command. Such a system would have the advantage of mobility and the security that the destruction of no single part could seriously damage the whole. However’ it would suffer the disadvantages of increased delay time between communications’ needless duplication of effort at all levels’ and relative lack of tactical unity of command.

* According to one writer: "Man is the only warlike animal’ and intelligence was selected simply because only the stupid get themselves in a position to get killed in a tribal battle." 2930 ** Many have suggested that virtually immortal beings won’t risk centuries of future life on the battlefield. Asks one writer: "Would a solider be willing to fight for his country if he were jeopardizing 20’000 years? What cause would justify exposing a patriot to such a sacrifice?" 69 Automated warfare may be the answer.

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Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 22. Extraterrestrial Cultures "I’ve never understood how God could expect his creatures to pick the one true religion by faith -- it strikes me as a sloppy way to run a universe." -- from Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) by Robert A. Heinlein2643 "The Gowachin: the frog people of Tandaloor whose concept of Law is the strangest in the ConSentiency. To them’ ritual (form) is the foundation upon which Law stands’ but Law must change to meet each new condition. They do not even trust their own Law’ believing that even the most high-minded people will use legalisms for their own benefit. The Courtarena where they try their cases can be a scene of carnage. The losing Legum (lawyer) forfeits his life. Any jurist or client who makes a misstep can be dispatched. This is a situation which makes for infrequent trials and memorable court performances." -- Frank Herbert’3026 on The Dosadi Experiment (1977)2615 "I suspect that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of’ or can be dreamed of’ in any philosophy. The universe is not only queerer than we suppose’ but queerer than we can suppose. Our only hope of understanding it is to look at it from as many different points of view as possible." -- J. B. S. Haldane (1928)974 God created every living creature that now moveth’ and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak. God leaned close as mud as man sat up’ looked around’ and spoke. Man blinked. "What is the purpose of all this?" he asked politely. "Everything must have a purpose?" asked God. "Certainly’" said man. "Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this’" said God. And He went away. -- from The Sirens of Titan (1961) by Kurt Vonnegut’ Jr.2211 "Every sentient creature sees beauty in a different way." -- Tec’ in Janet O. Jeppson’s The Second Experiment (1974)2164

At last we arrive at the apex of anthropologist Leslie White’s "cultural pyramid" -- the ideological and philosophical strata in alien societies. This cultural subsystem encompasses religion’ ethics’ logic’ worldviews and aesthetics. In the present chapter we shall attempt to deal with these symbolic articulations of the nature of the universe which we may encounter in extraterrestrial societies on other worlds. Xenologists attempt such an analysis with some trepidation’ for they heed the warning of sociobiologist E.O. Wilson that many human concepts of ethics’ aesthetics’ law’ philosophy’ and religion may be at least partly traceable back to our primitive biological heritage. If this is so’ then our human notions of "culture" may be grossly anthropocentric at an extremely fundamental level. As Wilson suggests: Although the hundreds of the world’s cultures seem enormously variable to those of us who stand in their midst’ all versions of human social behavior together form only a tiny fraction of the realized organizations of social species on this planet and a still smaller fraction of those that can be readily imagined with the aid of sociobiology theory.3198

22.1 Alien Religion Will ETs be religious? Will they believe in supernatural forces or gods that control or guide their individual and collective destinies? To answer these questions xenologists must decide exactly what they mean by "religion" in the context of an alien culture. Theologians and philosophers generally espouse fairly broad definitions of the phenomenon.797 James L. Christian calls religion "the search for ultimate meaning in life."1620 J. Milton Yinger claims that "religion is a system of beliefs and practices by means of which a group of people struggles with the ultimate problems of human life."812 Robert N. Bellah at Harvard defines religion as "a set of symbolic forms and acts which relate man to the ultimate conditions of his existence."805 Anthony Wallace sees religiosity in somewhat more functional terms’ and presents an inventory of specific religious behaviors: 1. Addressing the supernatural (prayer’ exorcism) 2. Music (dancing’ singing’ chanting’ playing instruments) 3. Physiological exercise (physical manipulation of psychological states through drugs’ deprivation’ and mortification) 4. Exhortation (addressing others as representative of divinity) 5. Reciting the code (use of the sacred written and oral literature’ which contains statements regarding the pantheon’ cosmology’ myths’ and moral injunctions) 6. Simulation (imitating things for purposes of control) 7. Mana (touching things possessed of sacred power’ laying on of hands) 8. Taboo (avoiding things to prevent the activation of unwanted power or undesired events) 9. Feasts (sacred meals) 10. Sacrifices (immolation’ offerings’ fees) 11. Congregation (processions’ meetings’ convocations) 12. Inspiration (pursuit of revelation’ conversion’ possession’ mystical ecstasy) 13. Symbolism (manufacture and use of symbolic objects).3200 Unfortunately’ most of these expansive definitions sweep too wide to be useful in xenology. Many social and cultural aspects traditionally ascribed to and subsumed within "religion" clearly are not unique to it. This is an obvious but oft-neglected aspect of the phenomenon -- a neglect which has led to much confusion in the literature. Music’ ritual’ ethics and morality’ and feasts can and do appear human societies outside of the religious context.853 That is’ a "religion" may adopt a particular system of ethics’ a prescribed set of rituals’ or particular musical forms. But ethics’ ritual’ and music may exist independently and in the absence of religion. Consequently’ xenologists cannot properly use these general qualities and broad activities in a definition of religion that aspires to universality. Xenologists consider that the most significant and unique element of the phenomenon of religion is the belief in spiritual beings and supernatural forces. As the late Sir J.G. Frazer once wrote: "Religion is a proprtiation or conciliation of powers -- conscious or personal agents -- superior to man which are believed to direct and control the course of nature and of human life."804 In this relatively strict conception’ religion must be viewed as virtually synonymous with theism or the belief in gods and spiritual forces. It has been estimated that mankind has produced on the order of 100’000 distinct religions since the time of the Neanderthals some 60 millennia ago.3200 Whether or not extraterrestrials will similarly invent religion -- a belief in the supernatural -- is a difficult question. Xenologists know that magical and religious explanations of reality are extremely common’ though by no means universal’ among simple human cultures. But why believe in gods at all? Objectivity on this question in the literature is hard to find. Countless theories have been proposed’ with everyone from philosophers’ theologians’ and anthropologists to sociologists’ psychologists’ biologists and even physicists trying their hand at explanation. Max Weber’ for instance’ concluded that primitive societies seek the supernatural to ensure long life’ favorable hunts’ good land’ avoidance of physical catastrophe’ conquest of enemies’ and similar mundane reasons. Some talk of distinctions between the "sacred" and the "profane" in cultures’ or postulate a mysterious "religious emotion" or an innate "need for god"; others hail the fear of death as the primary motivation. Paul Radin suggests that man was led to postulate the existence of the supernatural at the dawn of civilization’ when he was helpless and agape before the powerful and seemingly capricious forces of the natural environment: His mentality was still overwhelmingly dominated by definitely animal characteristics although the life-values themselves -- the desire for success’ for happiness’ and for long life -- were naturally already present. No economic security could have existed’ and we cannot go far wrong in assuming that’ where economic security does not exist’ emotional insecurity and its correlates’ the sense of powerlessness and the feeling of in significance’ are bound to develop. ... It is but natural for the psyche’ under such circumstances’ to take refuge in compensation fantasies. ... The main goal and objective of all his strivings was the canalization of his fears and feelings and the validation of his compensation dreams.3235 In this view’ religion is an emotional response to a threatening and in comprehensible situation. Another psychological theory on the origin of religion recently has been proposed by Dr. Julian Jaynes of Princeton University’ in his fascinating but controversial book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.2599 According to this radical new theory’ ancient man was an unconscious automaton acting on orders from voices heard within his head. Much like modern schizophrenics’ people heard the voices of personal "gods" and did what they were told. The occurrence of these bicameral god-voices supposedly was related to human split-brain architecture. Says Jaynes: "The speech of the gods was organized in the right hemisphere’ in what corresponds to Wernicke’s area on the left hemisphere’ and was ‘spoken’ or ‘heard’ over the anterior commissures to’ or by’ the auditory areas of the left temporal lobe."3008 Then’ just a few years ago’ escalating levels of novelty’ change’ and a series of fortuitous catastrophes caused the bicameral mind to break down. Consciousness was learned as the god-voices fell silent. Jaynes’ theory thus proposes a direct biological reason for theism. In his own words’ the result: In the second millennium B.C.’ we stopped hearing the voices of gods. In the first millennium B.C.’ those of us who still heard the voices’ our oracles and prophets’ they too died away. In the first millennium A.D.’ it is their sayings and hearings preserved in sacred texts through which we obeyed our lost divinities. And in the second millennium A.D.’ these writings lose their authority. What we have been through in these last four millennia is the slow inexorable profaning of our species. And in the last part of the second millennium A.D.’ that process is apparently becoming complete. It is the Great Human Irony of our noblest and greatest endeavor on this planet that in our reading of the language of God in Nature we should read there so clearly that we have been so mistaken.2599 Equally controversial’ but perhaps most faithful to reality’ is the sociobiological argument advanced by E.O. Wilson that religiosity may actually be selectively advantageous in the Darwinian sense. Those human societies best survive which are able to produce members willing to sacrifice their own interests in the name of the group or something symbolic of the group. To this end’ the human species may have evolved a constellation of gene sets which predisposes humans to social conformity’ followerism’ and acceptance of authoritarian belief structures -- a kind of genetically preprogrammed "religious emotion." Says Wilson: The mental processes of religious belief -- consecration of personal and group identity’ attention to charismatic leaders’ mythopoeism’ and others -- represent programmed predispositions whose self-sufficient components were incorporated into the neural apparatus of the brain by thousands of generations of genetic evolution.3198 Of all the theories proposed to date’ this one probably strikes nearer the mark than any other. ETs races evolving in similar circumstances may be expected to generate a similar genetic-based religious affectation. Many human societies have a belief in spiritual beings’ but belief in high gods is not universal. In fact’ only 35% of all hunter-gatherer societies surveyed by J.W.M. Whiting in the 1960’s included high gods in their sacred traditions.3020 And the concept of an active and moral god who created the universe is even less widespread’ amounting to less than 10% of all cultures surveyed which derive less than one-quarter of their sustenance from herding.3021 So while sacred traditions and origin-myths of some kind occur almost universally as a basic human cultural trait’ traditional Western theism is far less common. For this reason xenologists find it difficult to say exactly what belief structures alien societies may adopt. It is not certain that ETs will accept spirits and gods’ despite the rather durable human propensity to do so. Indeed religion’ human style’ may be comparatively rare in the Galaxy.

22.2 Alien Ritual Ritual may be defined as the performance of specific rites as a means of social control and communication.3022’3023 Rites are formal or informal procedures and acts conducted in accordance with prescribed rules and established custom. The effect on society appears adaptive’ ensuring social cohesion in community’ educational’ economic’ scientific’ political’ religious and other groups.872 Will aliens have ritual? Nonhuman primates on Earth exhibit tradition and "protocultural behavior";2950’452 dogs’ cats’ bears’ and other mammals3045 exhibit strong ritual-like instinctual behaviors’ and so do birds and the higher reptiles to a certain degree. Sociobiologists today believe that the seat of ritual lies in the R-brain of the triune system (see Chapter 14)’ and that its prevalence throughout vertebrate species implies strong selective value in evolution. If this is a correct conclusion’ then the implication in xenology is that ritual observances may be commonplace though not universal among extraterrestrial communities comprised of beings qualitatively mentally similar to Earthly vertebrates. In virtually all human societies’ important life events with major social significance are usually tagged with elaborate ritual and ceremony. As E.O. Wilson points out’ "human beings have a strong tendency to manufacture thresholds across which they step ritualistically from one existence to another."3198 Rites are performed during betrothal and marriage to enhance commitment and conformity; they occur during pregnancy and child birth’ to lend social support to mothers and to enhance the status of motherhood; they appear frequently at the time of puberty’ perhaps to encourage proper identification with same-sex peer groups or adults; death is commonly accompanied by elaborate funeral ceremonies to promote social cohesion and to test individual commitment to the community. Each rite is adaptive as an alternative mode of socialization. Aliens with poly sexuality or monosexuality’ or having annual estrus cycles’ or ETs gifted with optional sex’ ephemeral lives’ cannibalistic urges’ or strikingly divergent sex-related death rates may have an astounding richness of ritual tradition. How do rites work? Consider the rite of passage known as the initiation ceremony. All initiations’ according to anthropologist A. Van Gennep’ involve the movement of individuals or groups from one social position to another. That is’ rites of passage involve changing one’s status. Van Gennep discovered that initiations in most human societies may be characterized by three distinct ordered stages which highlight the change of status: (1) separation’ (2) transition’ and (3) incorporation.3236 To move from one status to another’ a person is first separated from his present position in the community’ either physically or symbolically. Then he must pass through a transitional state’ usually involving specific ceremonial procedures’ tests of courage’ and so forth. Finally’ the individual is readmitted back into the community as an active member at the new status level. All this ensures that social mobility is not easy. By formalizing the division of labor by surrounding each specialty with ritual initiation barriers’ group solidarity within each specialty is maintained. Hierarchy is made more concrete’ social structure more durable’ and the community less subject to disharmony and dissipation. A moment’s reflection will produce many examples in contemporary society: Entering college’ athletic competition’ fraternities’ seminaries’ lodges and secret clubs’ occupational role groups’ etc. To Van Gennep’ the following description of a typical military rite of passage into the United States Marines would have sounded familiar: The initiate (recruit) is torn away from his family and familiar surroundings; is forced to undergo exhausting’ intensive (and often humiliating) experiences’ during which he must demonstrate his courage and stamina; and generally learns a new esoteric vocabulary and mythology as well as ways of behaving which will be appropriate to his new status. When he successfully completes the initiation’ he returns to society as a new kind of person’ a real "man’" or perhaps a Marine.3009

22.2.1 Religious Rites So far we have discussed only secular or nonreligious rites. It is clear that governments’ organizations and bureaucracies of every functional and ideological stripe can engage in what anthropologists call "enculturation" -- a promotion of social cohesion by means of shared experience and ritual performance. Xenologists expect that any extraterrestrial organization or community populated by creatures with human-analogous mentalities will find the ritualization technique an extremely useful cultural tool.. Since we have earlier concluded that religion may be common but not universal among alien races’ it should come as no surprise that xenologists also believe that religious-oriented rites will play an important role in many ET societies. Of course’ these things are notoriously easy to misinterpret. Xenological field workers must be meticulous in their observations or they may arrive at wholly erroneous conclusions. As in anthropology’ there is great danger in using one’s own culture to interpret an alien one. Care must be taken to correctly analyze the function of specific rites. Imagine a naive alien xenologist from a highly religious culture who attempts to examine certain rites on some arbitrary foreign planet. After observing the doings in a large’ open-air cathedral there’ the ET researcher quickly files the following report to Galactic Central: A large congregation gathered together to witness a ritual combat’ conducted according to precise ritualistic rules. The participants are dressed in appropriate identifiable garb’ or costumes’ as they engage in their ritual combat -- one side representing evil and the other good’ depending upon the viewpoint of the members of the audience. Leading the congregation are priestesses dressed in appropriate garb’ participating in ritualistic dances and chanting various formulas that are supposedly efficacious. Operating on the principle of sympathetic magic’ the priestesses attempt to transfer the enthusiasm of the crowd to the appropriate combatants.801 The alien’ of course’ has really been observing a Saturday afternoon football game in an American stadium’ not a communal supplication to some unseen supernatural deity.* But would hasty observation reveal the distinction? The tool of ritual may take many shapes in alien cultures. As suggested earlier by Wallace’s list of religious behaviors’ ritual behavior designed to promote social cohesion may take the form of prayer’ communal dancing or singing’ sacred feasts’ taboos’ physical contact with amulets or holy water’ drug-induced dream states’ and so on. Extraterrestrial religious cultures may exemplify all these and more. But perhaps most fascinating from the xenological viewpoint are those extreme human religious practices which involve murder and sexual activity. Such extremes may appear normal to other sentient races inhabiting other worlds. Murder and human sacrifice have appeared in literally hundreds of human cultures on Earth. The ancient Carthaginians sacrificed many of their youth to the god Moloch. The children were laid on the hands of a calf-headed image of bronze’ from which they slid into a fiery oven’ while the people danced to the music of flutes to drown out the terrible shrieks of the burning victims. In India’ the old Khond sacrifice of the Meriah involved a human subject held in captivity for long periods prior to the rite. After several days of devotional rituals and sanctification’ the victim was put to death by strangulation or pressure. The body was then dismembered and the pieces strewn among the fields’ except for the portion offered to the earth goddess which was buried. The Pawnees of North America also had an elaborate religious ritual in which human beings were sacrificed to the Morning Star. The blood of the victims was sprinkled over the fields to ensure and enhance crop growth. People have been murdered’ often in quite gruesome fashion’ to appease various gods and spirits. In ancient Siam it was the custom to immure a living person into a wall’ or crush him under the foundation stone of a new building’ in order to give strength and durability to the structure. It was believed that the death created an angry ghost who would haunt the place and guard it against the intrusion of enemies. According to the famous British anthropologist Sir James George Frazer: When a new gate was made or an old gate was repaired in the walls of Bankok’ it used to be customary to crush three men to death under an enormous beam in a pit at the gateway. Before they were led to their doom’ they were regaled at a splendid banquet: The whole court came to salute them; and the king himself charged them to guard well the gate that was to be committed to their care’ and to warn him if enemies or rebels came to assault the city. The next moment the ropes were cut and the beam descended on them.804 In Bima’ a district of the East Indian island of Sambawa’ when a new flagpole was erected at the sultan’s palace a woman was crushed to death under it. The woman must be pregnant at the time’ since the ghost of such a female should be more fierce and vigilant than usual. Also’ when the great wooden doors were set up at the palace’ it was customary to bury a child under each of the door posts: Officers are sent to scour the country for a pregnant woman or little children’ as the case may be’ and if they come back empty-handed they must give up their own wives or children to serve as victims. When the gates are set up’ the children are killed’ their bodies stripped of flesh’ and their bones laid in the holes in which the door posts are erected. Then the flesh is boiled with horse’s flesh and served up to the officers. Any officer who refuses to eat of it is at once cut down. The intention of this last practice is perhaps to secure the fidelity of the officers by compelling them to enter into a covenant of the most solemn and binding nature with the ghosts of the murdered children who are to guard the gates.804 In the old kingdom of Ashanti in Ghana’ several persons used to be put to death following an earthquake. They were slain as a sacrifice to Sasabonsun’ the earthquake god’ in the hope of satiating his cruelty for a time. Houses thrown down by temblers were sprinkled with human blood before being rebuilt. When part of the king’s own dwelling in Kumasi was knocked down’ no less than 50 young girls were slaughtered to appease Sasabonsun. (The mud to be used in the repairs was kneaded with their blood.) On the island of Siau of the Sangihe Island group off the north east coast of Celebes’ Indonesia’ the volcano god received similar homage: A child stolen from a neighboring island used to be sacrificed every year to the spirit of a volcano in order that there might be no eruption. The victim was slowly tortured to death in the temple by a priestess’ who cut off the child’s ears’ nose’ fingers’ and so on’ then consummated the sacrifice by splitting open the breast. The spectacle was witnessed by hundreds of people’ and feasting and cock-fighting went on for nine days afterwards.804 The ultimate in ritual human sacrifice’ which might conceivably also be found in an extraterrestrial culture’ was found among the so-called "cannibal kingdoms." Not only were people sacrificed to appease the gods’ but they were systematically eaten as well. The primary motivation for this behavior appears to be religious and social -- such as a desire to achieve or maintain status in society.3010 We have already mentioned the Bima custom of eating the flesh of children to promote group solidarity among the ruling class. Another example of community unity via cannibalism was found among the Tupinamba of Brazil. According to an eyewitness account by a shipwrecked sailor in the early 1950’s’ the Tupinamba combined ritual sacrifice (of prisoners of war) with cannibalism: On the day of the sacrifice the prisoner-of-war’ trussed around the waist’ was dragged into the plaza. Old women painted black and red and wearing necklaces of human teeth brought out ornamented vases in which the victim’s blood and entrails would be cooked. The ceremonial club that would be used to kill him was passed back and forth among the men in order to "acquire the power to catch a prisoner in the future." The actual executioner wore a long feather cloak and was followed by relatives beating drums. The executioner and the prisoner derided each other. Enough liberty was allowed the prisoner so that he could dodge the blows’ and sometimes a club was put in his hands for protecting himself without being able to strike back. When at last his skull was shattered’ everyone "shouted and whistled." If the prisoner had been given a wife during his period of captivity’ she was expected to shed tears over his body before joining in the feast that followed. Now the old women "rushed to drink the warm blood’" and children dipped their hands into it. "Mothers would smear their nipples with blood so that even babies could have a taste of it." The body was cut into quarters and barbecued while "the old women who were the most eager for human flesh" licked the grease dripping from the sticks that formed the grill.2896 What we have here is a major community event! Menfolk and womenfolk’ married and unmarried’ soldiers and civilians’ young and old’ all join together in the joyous festivities. Babies early learn the taste of human blood and their socialization begins with the experience. Adults’ by focusing their attention upon a single ritual victim’ achieve group solidarity by communal feasting. Elders’ by partaking of the flesh of the victim’ lend continuity and the approval of tradition to the event. Our last exemplar of religious ritual murder is taken from the Aztec culture’ which existed in what is today central Mexico during the 12-16th centuries A.D. Unlike most other cannibal societies’ the Aztecs went in for human meat in a really big way. The first Spanish visitors to Tenochtitlán observed racks containing literally hundreds of thousands of skulls down in the temple cellars. Later they were told that at the dedication of the great pyramid at the Aztec capitol’ four lines of prisoners stretching two miles long each were sacrificed by a team of executioners working around the clock for four solid days. (That works out to about 14’000 victims.) Writes anthropologist Marvin Harris: Aztec cannibalism was not a perfunctory tasting of ceremonial tidbits. All edible parts were used in a manner strictly comparable to the consumption of the flesh of domesticated animals. The Aztec priests can legitimately be described as ritual slaughterers in a state-sponsored system geared to the production and redistribution of substantial amounts of animal protein in the form of human flesh.2896 Each prisoner had an owner’ who kept him plump prior to slaughter on a heavy diet of tortillas. The victim was tended by the owner’s family’ delivered by them to the executioner for public dispatch on behalf of the bloodthirsty sun god’ and was finally eaten by the family after slaughter. (The favorite Aztec recipe’ apparently’ was a stew flavored with peppers and tomatoes.) Again we have a community event providing a focus on unity.** Another extreme form of human religious practice which may have some xenological significance involves promiscuous sexual behavior. Much like ritual public murder’ ritual community sex has proven a very useful means of achieving cultural cohesion. In some societies’ public sex is somewhat limited and informal. Consider for instance the tradition of the Marquise Islanders’ among whom marriage and sexual activity were culturally separate: Before marriage’ girls could enjoy sex with many men. But after marriage they had to confine their sexual activities to their husbands. On the day of the wedding’ the bride gave a sexual farewell party to her old friends: She lay down’ and her old friends lined up for their last intercourse with her. The longer the line’ the prouder the bridegroom.951 Fertility rites are a somewhat more formal observance. Among the Pipiles of Central America’ copulation took place in the fields that the moment when the first seeds of the next planting were deposited in the earth. Men were restricted to having sex only with their wives’ a religious duty in default of which it became unlawful to sow seeds. The Peruvian Indians enforced no such restraints. In December’ when the alligator pears began to ripen’ the people held a religious festival called Acatay mita in order to make the fruit grow mellow: The festival lasted five days and nights’ and was preceded by a fast of five days during which they ate neither salt nor pepper and refrained from their wives. At the festival men and boys assembled stark naked in an open space among the orchards’ and ran from there to a distant hill. Any woman whom they overtook on the way they violated.804 There are many recorded cases of formal institutionalized religious prostitution in world history.*** Most common are the various forms of temporary temple service. It was the Babylonian custom that every woman’ rich or poor’ once in her life must submit to the embraces of a stranger at the temple of Mylitta’ and to dedicate to the goddess Ishtar (Astarte) the wages earned by this sanctified harlotry. The stranger signified his choice by throwing a silver coin into her lap -- no matter how small its value’ the woman had to accept the coin and have coitus with the man. Once the rite had been performed’ according to Herodotus’ the female was absolved of her obligations to the goddess and need submit no more. The sacred precinct was always crowded with women waiting to observe the custom; ill-favored ones might have to wait a long time’ sometimes even years’ before they had performed their service. In Phoenician temples women prostituted themselves for hire in the service of religion’ believing that by this conduct they propitiated the goddess and won her favor. "It was a law of the Amorites that she who was about to marry should sit in fornication seven days by the gate."804 In Cyprus all women were obliged by custom to prostitute themselves before marriage to strangers at the sanctuary of the goddess Aphrodite. The practice was regarded’ not as an orgy of lust’ but as a solemn religious duty performed in the service of the great Mother Goddess. These rites were significant in that they seem to have served as initiation ceremonies into the status of marriage. Other sexual rituals appear to have been puberty rites. For example’ in Armenia the noblest families dedicated their daughters to the service of the goddess Anaitis in her temple at Acilisena. There the girls acted as prostitutes for a long time through adolescence before they were given in marriage. The practice had widespread community approval’ as "nobody scrupled to take one of these girls to wife when her period of service was over."804 A similar case was reported by the traveler Strabo during the 1st century B.C.’ who claimed that beautiful young girls of noble birth served as the consorts or concubines of Ammon in the temple at Thebes in Egypt. They held sacred office only through puberty’ before which they willingly and freely prostituted themselves to any man who took their fancy. After puberty they were given in marriage’ and a ceremony of mourning was per formed for them as if they had died.804 Religious prostitution was often considered a noble calling’ the ancient equivalent of modern missionary work. Among the Chinese’ Syrians’ and Greeks’ nearly every temple had its official prostitutes with whom intercourse (for a small fee) was considered an acceptable form of worship. According to Dr. David R. Reuben: Many of these ladies were volunteers in the sense that they only worked for a year or so’ donating all the proceeds of their labors to the church. When their time was up’ the part-time prostitutes returned home to their husbands and families with greatly enhanced prestige.3011 Finally’ sexual experience was sometimes viewed as a religious act in and of itself. Tantric Buddhism’ as practiced in India’ Tibet’ and briefly in China during the 8th century A.D.’ maintained that the symbolism of sexual union between man and woman represented an ultimate mystical realization of supreme spiritual bliss. Ritual fornication was countenanced’ even encouraged’ in a culture which held that the orgasm was a major religious experience. Xenologists believe that religious rites regarded as extreme or peculiar by humans -- such as sacred cannibalism or ritual prostitution -- may be considered natural and normal by other sentient races in the Galaxy. Indeed alien rites may appear to our eyes even stranger’ even more odious than those which have graced the human cultures of planet Earth.

* Or would ETs interpret our football in unfamiliar (and perhaps upsetting) sociobiological terms’ as for example the suggestion by some psychologists that the game represents a socially approved male homosexual ceremony?3197 ** It is interesting that elements of symbolic ritual cannibalism exist in many "modern" religions. Christians regularly’ for example’ consume "the blood and body of Christ" during their Sunday communion rite. *** Religious prostitution is not of historical interest only. There are a number of contemporary examples’ such as the so-called "Happy Hookers for Jesus" of the Children of God. 3041

22.2.2 Extraterrestrial Cults A cult is a system of the outward forms of religious worship’ ceremony’ custom and ritual’ but lacking the dominant theme of traditional theism. Cults do not require the total absence of spirituality’ but evolve on the basis of a predominantly nonreligious theme or motive. Cultism -- the single-minded fixation by a group of individuals upon a single goal’ purpose’ or cultural aspect -- may be grounded in ideological’ behavioral’ emotional’ technological’ physiological’ or environmental basics of existence on any world. What sorts of cults might we discover on alien planets? Consider first the elements of the environment.2619 Objects of worship are often determined simply by geography. In India’ where the coming of the rains is uncertain but a matter of life or death’ the water that falls from the skies is an object of veneration. ETs inhabiting "monsoon worlds" (stormy pelagic planets dotted with scores of tiny island land masses) might develop a cult of water worship.862 Extremely parched environments may also spawn extreme alien cults of water- or cloud-worship’ a theme which has been dealt with occasionally in the science fiction literature.2643’2919 It is interesting that the Qumran Jews and early Christians’ sects born in arid desert regions’ incorporated religious initiation rites involving total submergence in water. Alien cults may derive from other features of the environment.2622 Since more massive planets are expected to display more tectonic activity’ xenologists would expect to find more instances of volcano’ mountain’ and earthquake worship on larger worlds than on small. River worship’ such as the adoration of the Nile among the ancient Egyptians’ and sun worship’ as in the lofty plateaus of the Central Andes where the shade is always cold’ may take on more extreme forms in peculiar alien environments.2620 Recurrent local weathers’ such as the waterspout of Lake Lanao (now Lake Sultan Alonto) on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines’* could be revered and adopted as integral parts of local ritual and ceremony. Astronomical events may play an important role too.804 The relation ship between the constellations’ the seasons’ the sun and moon’ and the harvest time was discovered and put to use by the Chinese’ Sumerians’ Babylonians’ Assyrians’ Egyptians’ and many other civilizations in a bewildering variety of star cults’ lunarsynchronized regal tenures’ planetary astrologies and sky worships. Many specialized cult buildings were erected -- temple observatories’ sun and moon temples’ altars of heaven’ and so forth -- in service of these beliefs. The astrologies devised by sentient extraterrestrial races’ each based on its own unique set of planetary bodies and configurations of constellations and stellar movements’ should prove diverse and highly entertaining. Many of our present-day ritual celebrations are closely linked with celestial events. Perhaps the best-known of these is Christmas. This holiday was originally a pagan celebration commemorating the Winter Solstice in late December’ the time at which the sun reaches its lowest point in the southern sky (the shortest day and longest night of the year). Christmas was later adopted by the Christians as a religious occasion marking what is believed to have been the repeat conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn during May’ September’ and December of 7 B.C. (the Star of Bethlehem). Other familiar examples include Thanksgiving’ which may be regarded as a harvest celebration during Fall (the autumnal equinox)’ and Easter’ which in the West is customarily celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full Moon following the vernal equinox (when the sun passes the celestial equator and Spring season begins). The existence of one or more highly visible Saturn-like rings around an alien planet may furnish yet another cause for cult worship. Such a grand display would surely dominate the celestial panorama’ and would appear distinctly different from place to place on the ground: In latitudes near the equator they would sweep vertically up from the horizon and’ illuminated by light reflected from the planet’ would cross the sky in the form of a magnificent celestial archway. In those places well-removed from the equatorial zones’ our ring system would give an impression of much greater breadth and would be well removed from its former zenith position. It could be expected to sweep across a large portion of the horizon’ and we would find superimposed upon it a rounded’ black’ conical mass due to the shadow cast by the parent planet.61 Apparent ring crossings by constellations or planetary bodies could be used to mark the seasons and to fix the times of ritual ceremonies; wars might be fought to decide the single "correct" aspect of the rings. (Larry Niven has suggested that a similar celestial archway cult might arise among degenerate civilizations trapped on a giant Ringworld edifice.753) Astronomical factors need not apply solely to "primitive" cultures. Alien scientists inhabiting a planet which orbits a class F star may have developed their science of astrophysics sufficiently far to be able to predict with some certainty that their sun would soon be leaving the Main Sequence and entering the Red Giant stage. Perhaps these ETs might develop a "religion of change" or a cult favoring space travel (which helps them maintain their commitment to interstellar emigration before the final disaster). Other alien cultures’ faced with this same difficulty’ might instead relapse into pathological cults of dispair and nihilism. As one early science fiction writer described it: Their knowledge grew’ faced with the fact that their world was dying’ their home surely turning to a ball of ice’ within which there can be no life. It would be discussed gravely at meetings of scientific societies’ first’ as a novel and interesting theory’ and then as evidence accumulated’ would seep down and down through all the levels of intelligence until the certainty of destruction was ever before all men. Philosopher’ scientist and economist would know that death was the only end of their long ages of evolution from the slime’ and religion would be asked to explain the fact that man had been created only for the purpose of being extinguished in cold and fear.1935 Extraterrestrial cults may also be founded on emotions or behaviors common to all members of a specialized or well-defined group. Hedonistic drug cults are common enough on Earth’ and science fiction writers have long speculated on the possibility of pharmaceutical 3054 and "wirehead"2020 cults in which biofeedback or surgical electronic implants are used to achieve a permanent state of stimulation in the pleasure centers of the brain. Alien cults may rally around nudity or promiscuous sex3412; murder and violence are yet another possibility.812 Alien belief systems may center on hunger or pain’2917 love or friendship’ anger or hate’ pride or envy’ altruism or egotistical selfishness’1946 or group psychotherapy.3210 Cults might even be based on dreams: In the mountainous jungles of Malaysia’ an aboriginal tribe called the Senoi built a social order around its dreams. Tribal members are encouraged to discuss their dreams at break fast and control them at night.3055 The idea of dream cults has already appeared in science fiction.2578 Alien cults may find their expression through a particular ideology. Many writers have described Soviet Marxism as a form of "secular religion."2600’812’857 Others would include scientific rationalism’ Darwinian evolutionism’ immortalism’ etc. in the same category. (See Burhoe’864 Dobzhansky’868 Morison’866 and Yinger.812) Each has its high priests’ rites of passage’ central dogma’ and so forth. Political ideology has frequently been imposed upon local religious pantheons’ as especially in ancient China’ Greece’ and Babylonia’ so it is not unreasonable to suppose that ETs may construct cults enshrining cherished beliefs in the economic’ social’ military’ political’ or cultural ideals of their society.889’807 The contemporary money-worshipping Unification Church of Reverend Moon suggests the lengths to which ideological cultism may be carried. Finally’ there may exist cults relating to extraterrestrial life and space. On the simplest level’ these may focus on the achievement of technical capabilities sufficient for living in space’ or they may pertain to "visitations" or contact events by surrogate "space gods" in flying saucers. (Examples in recent memory include the cult of The Two’1921 the Aetherius Society’1870 and Gabriel Green’s Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America.333) Cults of "supertheism" may arise’ espousing the notion that all superior extraterrestrial societies should be worshipped by all those in an inferior technological or cultural position. More sophisticated versions of space cults have been investigated in science fiction. One notable example appears in "Lifeboat" by Gordon R. Dickson and Harry Harrison. In this story humankind encounters the belief system of the spacefaring Albenareth’ an emergent galactic civilization which holds to the sanctity of space: The Albenareth think of space as if it were Heaven. To them’ the planets and all inhabited solid bodies are the abode of the Imperfect. An Albenareth gains Perfection by going into space -- the more trips and the more time spent away from the planetfall’ the more perfection gained. You noticed the Captain identified himself as "Rayumung" and the Engineer as "Munghanf." Those aren’t names. They’re ranks’ like stairsteps on the climb to a status of Perfection. The ranks stand for the number of trips they’ve made into space’ and the time spent in space. The rougher the duty they pull’ the greater the count of the time involved toward a higher rank. For example’ this lifeboat duty is going to gain a lot of points for this Captain and Engineer -- not because they’re saving our lives’ but because to save us they had to pass up the chance to die in the spaceliner when it burned. You see’ the last and greatest goal of a spacegoing Albenareth is to die’ finally’ in space.3012

* Daily during early Spring of each year’ around midday’ a waterspout forms near the Lake's eastern shore travels westward over the water for some distance’ and then breaks up. 3053

22.3 Ethics and Law While there is no consensus as yet’ xenologists tend to view ethics as the general standards of social conduct and law as the specific rules of social conduct. Theories of ethics strive to ascertain umbrella principles of "proper" behavior’ whereas law attempts (often using physical coercion) to recast and respecify theory in more concrete form. Each legal system thus serves some underlying theory of ethical behavior’ but each theory of ethics may engender many different legal systems. There is much confusion in the literature over the meaning of ethics’ in part because of its frequent connection with religious values and local parochial moralities. It is certainly true that most religions provide elaborate ethical structures and legalistic proscriptions and taboos. But ethics and religion are distinct concepts. Many ethical systems are fundamentally nontheistic and require no religious validation. Ethics without gods is commonplace.3046 Popular examples of such "pure" ethical systems on modern Earth include Buddhism’ Taoism’ Ethical Culture’ Evolutionary Humanism’ Confucianism’ Civil Religion’ and Secular Humanism. (See Cogley’810 Cole and Hammond’856 Humanist Manifestos I and II’3043 Kallen’854 Kolenda’3044 Kurtz’3042 and Rosenfeld.1860)

22.3.1 Extraterrestrial Ethics A bewildering variety of ethical-moral systems have been devised by humans and human societies on this planet. The Golden Rule’ which appears in the teachings of most of the world’s major faiths’ and the Ten Commandments of the Mosaic tradition are prime examples of traditional religion-based ethics. Buddhist moral teachings involve a code of behavior known as the Noble Eightfold Path’ consisting of understanding’ right-mindedness’ careful speech’ moral action’ sane living’ steadfast effort’ attentiveness’ and concentration. Confucius insisted’ alternatively’ that a superior man has nine aims: To see clearly’ to understand what he hears’ to be warm in manner’ dignified in bearing’ faithful in speech’ painstaking at work’ to ask when in doubt’ in anger to think of difficulties’ in sight of gain to remember right. The Navaho people traditionally adhere to five basic canons of ethical behavior: 1. Security -- health’ long life’ and industry are primary goals of life. 2. Decorum -- sobriety’ self-control’ and adherence to custom are valued. 3. Reciprocity -- care for parents in old age to repay them for their parentage; loyalty and altruism among relatives. 4. Benevolence -- behave to everybody as if they were your relatives’ a broad ethical generalization including hospitality and other forms of generosity. 5. Avoid Excess -- excess’ even in approved behaviors’ is evil.3039 Many ethical systems seem "wrong" by Western standards’ as for instance the old Eskimo belief that geronticide (allowing the aged to die) was moral. Still stranger perhaps are the Ik’ a human tribe inhabiting northern Uganda which displays no love. Under conditions of extreme privation’ the society has adopted an every-manfor-himself ethic. Children are turned out to scrounge their own food almost as soon as they can walk. Wives go out in search of food and feed themselves’ bringing nothing back for their starving husbands. One observer reported that in two years he never saw one act that could even remotely be construed as love.2917 There have been few real attempts to forge a general theory of moral systems in keeping with the spirit of ethical relativism urged by cultural anthropologists having field experience in dealing with "alien" cultures.3040 One notable exception is the taxonomy of moral judgement devised by Harvard social psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg in relation to the development of ethical standards of behavior among human children.3024’865 Kohlberg recorded and classified verbal responses to specific moral dilemmas. These he used to define six sequential stages of ethical reasoning through which people may pass during their mental maturation. Typically’ the child moves from primary dependence on external controls to increasingly sophisticated internalized standards. Kohlberg used 25 different "dimensions of morality" to characterize each of the six stages of ethical maturity’ two of which are given in the table on the following page. Sentient beings on other worlds’ given a basically human mentality’ might be expected to pass through similar stages of moral judgement -- or to stress any particular one of them. Some anthropologists hold that there exist a number of universal issues upon which any society must take a value position. In developing this approach’ Florence Kluckhohn and Fred Strodbeck discovered that most societies have a dominant worldview along five major dimensions of value orientation.3070 In theory’ claim the anthropologists’ we should be able to characterize the value system of any society in terms of its position on each of the five issues (Table 22.1). A more refined system will be needed’ however’ before this approach profitably may be applied to extra terrestrial cultures.

Table 22.1 An Anthropological Classification of Major Value Orientations Universal to All Human Societies (after Kluckhohn and Strodbeck3070) Universal Problems

Possible Value Orientations

Human Nature Man/Nature

#1

#2

#3

Evil

Neutral/Mixed

Good

Mastery over Nature Harmony with Nature Subjugation to Nature

Time

Past-Oriented

Present-Oriented

Future-Oriented

Activity

Being

Being-in-Becoming

Doing

Relational

Lineal

Collateral

Individual

However’ the above generalizations may be hopelessly anthropocentric in the extreme. As E.O. Wilson notes: Self-knowledge is constrained and shaped by the emotional control centers in the hypothalamus and limbic system of the brain. These centers flood our consciousness with all the emotions -- hate’ love’ guilt’ fear’ and others -- that are consulted by ethical philosophers who wish to intuit the standards of good and evil.565 ETs having different kinds of sentience and alternative modes of emotionality will undoubtedly also differ from us considerably in their ethics. The hive mentality of a genetic sentient’ for instance’ could not recognize any morality of individual behavior because such behavior is not subject to individual choice (it is preprogrammed genetically).974 A neocortical alien’ freed from the shackles of hormonal emotionality’ might develop a coldly rational but highly complex system of situational ethics in which summed probabilities of success would be balanced against danger in a kind of calculus of personal gain. Intelligent but extremely solitary creatures such as sentient octopuses might harbor no ethical notions of truth or reciprocity’ never having had seriously to deal with other beings of their own kind on a social basis. Theirs may be a perfect libertarian’ "love thyself’ help thyself" morality. Another society of creatures having an excess of female births may permit infanticide or uxoricide (wife-killing) as a dominant component of the local ethos.3096 In still another culture’ cannibalism may be biologically necessary for the survival of the race’ elevating murder or suicide to the stature of deeply moral behavior.2948’3238 Yet it is probably true that the ethicality of each sentient race is in some sense hostage to the biological’ ecological’ and psychological heritage of the species (Table 22.2).3051’565

Table 22.2 Kohlberg's Typology of Moral Stages in Humans865 DEFINITION OF MORAL STAGES

MORAL ASPECT #25 Value of Human Life

MORAL ASPECT #1 Motive for Rule Obedience or Moral Action

PRECONVENTIONAL LEVEL: Individual is responsive to cultural rules and labels of good and bad’ right or wrong’ but interprets these labels in terms of either the physical/hedonistic consequences of action (punishment’ reward’ exchange of favors) or in terms of the physical power of those who enunciate the rules and labels. Obey rules to Stage 1. Punishment and Obedience Orientation Physical consequences of action determine its goodness/badness regardless of avoid punishment the human meaning or value of these consequences. Avoidance of punishment and unquestioning deference to power are valued in their own right’ not in terms of respect for an underlying moral order supported by punishment and authority.

The value of human life is confused with the value of physical objects and is based on the social status or physical attributes of the possessor.

Stage 2. Instrumental Relativist Orientation Right action consists of that which instrument-ally satisfies one’s own needs and occasionally - the needs of others. Human relations are viewed in terms like those of the marketplace. Elements of fairness’ reciprocity’ and equal sharing are present’ but are always interpreted in a physical’ pragmatic way. Reciprocity is a matter of "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours’" not of loyalty’ gratitude’ or justice.

The value of human life is seen as instrumental to the satisfaction of the needs of its possessor or of other persons.

Conform to obtain rewards’ have favors returned’ and so on.

CONVENTIONAL LEVEL: Maintaining the expectations of the individual’s family’ group’ or nation is perceived as valuable in its own right’ regardless of immediate and obvious consequences. The attitude is not only one of conformity to personal expectations and social order’ but of loyalty to it’ of actively maintaining’ supporting’ and justifying the order and of identifying with the persons or group involved in it. Stage 3. Interpersonal Concordance Orientation ("Good Boy--Nice Girl" orientation.) Good behavior is that which pleases or helps others arid and is approved by them. There is much conformity to stereotypical images of what is majority or "natural" behavior. Behavior is frequently judged by intention--"he means well" becomes important for the first time. Approval earned by being "nice’"

Conform to avoid disapproval’ dislike by others.

The value of human life is based on the empathy and affection of family members and others toward its possessor

Stage 4. "Law-and-Order" Orientation toward authority’ fixed rules’ and the maintenance of the social order. Right behavior consists of doing one's duty’ showing respect for authority’ and maintaining the social order for its own sake.

Conform to avoid censure by legitimate authorities and resultant guilt.

Life is conceived as sacred in terms of its place in a categorical moral or religious order of rights and duties.

POSTCONVENTIONAL-AUTONOMOUS-PRINCIPLED LEVEL: Clear effort to define moral values and principles which have validity and application apart from the authority of the groups or persons holding these principles and apart from the individual's own identification with these groups. Stage 5. Social Contract Legalistic Orientation Has utilitarian overtones. Right action tends to be defined in terms of general individual rights and in terms of standards which have been critically examined and agreed upon by the whole society. Clear awareness of relativism of personal values and opin ions and corresponding emphasis on procedural rules for reaching consensus and a "legal" point of yiew which incorporates the possibility of change due to rational considerations of social utility. Free agreement and contract is the binding element of obligation.

Conform to maintain the respect of the impartial spectator judging in terms of community welfare’

Life is valued both in terms of its relation to community welfare and in terms of life being a universal human right.

Stage 6. Universal Ethical Principle Orientation Right is defined by the decision of conscience in accord with self-chosen ethical principles appealing to logical comprehensiveness’ universality’ and consistency. These principles are abstract and ethical (the Golden Rule’ the categorical imperative); they are not concrete moral rules like the Ten Commandments. At heart’ these are universal principles of justice’ of the reciprocity and equality of the human rights’ and of respect for the dignity of human beings as individual persons.

Conform to avoid selfcondemnation. .

Belief in sacredness of human life as representing a universal human value of respect for the individual.

But perhaps a "universal" system of ethics can be imagined. A few xenologists openly have speculated that a fully generalized and universally applicable moral code may have to be based upon negentropic principles inherent in all biological’ intellectual’ and sociocultural processes in the cosmos1532’2617 This viewpoint leads to what the author would like to call thermodynamic ethics. From a thermodynamic standpoint’ both life and culture may be viewed as highly improbable states of matter which absorb information from the environment in order to build internal complexity. According to the Second Law of Thermodynamics’ such processes are permissible if an energy flow may be established. Consumption of negentropy is the major activity of all lifeforms. Absorption of entropy (randomness’ disorder’ loss of information) is the very antithesis of life. Dr. Ernst Fasan’ a well-known international jurist’ suggests that the ultimate immoral act is for one sentient being to "inflict entropy" upon another.372 Robert B. Lindsay’ a physicist’ has proposed a generalized ethical rule which he terms the Thermodynamic Imperative: All men should fight always as vigorously as possible to in crease the degree of order in their environment’ and to consume as much entropy as possible.3013 Thermodynamic ethics dovetails comfortably with many cherished ideals of virtuous conduct. For example’ lying is immoral because it results in the assimilation of useless or erroneous data by another. Sloth is "evil’" since it contributes no negentropy to the universe. Murder is wrong’ unless its commission prevents more severe entropic disturbances elsewhere in the system (e.g.’ prevents a mass murder or terrorist action). Motherhood is "good" in low-density societies’ because each individual born augments the negentropic biological mission. In high-population environments’ however’ motherhood may not be "good’" because the presence of too many individuals tends to break down the social system and destroy stored cultural information. The general theory of thermodynamic ethics permits xenologists to make one further prediction. Civilizations at higher cultural scales control more energy than lower cultures. More energy means that more entropy can be consumed. It therefore follows that energy-rich societies can afford more comprehensive and complex systems of morality and law. In short’ though they may not choose to do so’ Type II civilizations can afford "higher" ethics than Type I cultures.

22.3.2 Legal Universals Exactly what is law? Perhaps the most satisfactory definition from an anthropological point of view is that offered by E.A. Hoebel of New York University. According to Hoebel’ all alien legal systems will have three elements in common: (1) coercion or force’ (2) official authority’ and (3) regularity.1800 What do we mean by "force"? In its traditional and most absolute form’ force means physical compulsion. Xenologists prefer to broaden this concept somewhat in dealing with extraterrestrial lifeforms. Other forms of compulsion than the physical may provide equally coercive effects. Economic sanctions (money damages’ deprivation of property’ work status demotion)’ religious sanctions (excommunications’ acts of contrition’ voodoo curses)’ social sanctions (marriage prohibitions’ dissolution of kinship or disowning’ expulsion from work guild)’ and cultural sanctions (ritual public cleansing ceremonies’ ban from festival events) all may be extremely effective in forcing individuals to tow the line.1865 There are many ways to make life uncomfortable for a person short of physical violence or confinement - the law of alien societies may bite with many different kinds of teeth. The privilege of applying force under law goes to the official authority. The authority is normally endowed with the power of law enforcement by social consent’ except in cases of "tyrannic law" imposed by conquerors or military occupational forces. It is not necessary that the authority hold official legal office -- he may simply be the situational representative of the general social interest as well as his own. Of course’ social structure and form of government are crucial to the concept of official authority. Leadership systems involving oligarchies or decentralized political units may give rise to more "primitive" informal legal structures (private law)’ whereas democratic or highly centralized governments permits the development of "civilized" rigidly formal legal systems (public law). The third requirement’ regularity’ does not mean absolute certainty. Rather’ it implies that decisions will not be made wholly arbitrarily but will build on precedents or generally approved principles and standards. Even "primitive" law found in tribal societies on Earth rests upon precedent of a sort’ relying on older rules or norms of custom. Xenologists thus expect legal systems on other worlds’ as on Earth’ to bear the stamp of regularity. Sociologist Donald Black has attempted to synthesize a general theory of the emergence of legal forms in human social. systems’ based on a wealth of sociological and anthropological evidence.3068 One of his major conclusions is that the quantity of law in any society tends to increase with social stratification’ rank of caste’ integration of roles’ organization or complexity of social structure’ cultural level’ conventionality’ and respectability. So’ for instance’ stratified societies have more law than egalitarian unstratified groups; wealthy and educated people have more law than the poor and illiterate; unitary and communist/socialist governments have more law than decentralized and laissez faire governments; and so forth. With the proviso that human law mirrors human psychology’ Black’s work may prove applicable to extraterrestrial cultures as well. Of course’ more law is not necessarily better or more "civilized." There is evidence that excessive law tends to lessen respect for it. Anthropologist Ruth Benedict once described the Kurnai tribe in Australia’ who had such strict rules regarding choice of marriage partner that young men commonly could find not a single girl in the entire tribe whom they could legally marry. To avoid drastically revamping the entire societal legal. and ethical structure’ the Kurnai institutionalized evasion of the law! It was deemed morally correct to break the law as long as proper forms were observed. In this particular case’ Kurnai who wished to marry would have to elope. All the villagers would set out in pursuit’ even though they too had married in similar fashion. If the couple was caught before they reached a traditional place of refuge’ they would be killed. But if they made it’ they would then be accepted back into the tribe after the birth of a child.3037 Wherever there is law’ xenologists expect also to find courts (but not necessarily lawyers2594). Courts are the specific embodiment of official authority in the legal system. The highly decentralized Yurok Indian society in California provides an example of a very simple kind of court: An aggrieved Yurok who felt he had a legitimate claim engaged the services of two nonrelatives from a community other than his own. The defendant did likewise. These persons were called "crossers" because they crossed back and forth between the litigants. The litigants did not face each other in the dispute. After hearing all that each side offered in evidence and argument’ the "crossers" rendered a judgment on the facts. If the judgment was for the plaintiff’ they rendered a decision for damages according to a well-established scale that was known to all. For their footwork and efforts each received a piece of shell currency called a "moccasin."1800 (Today this process would be called "binding arbitration.") Tribal councils’ the panchayat of India (a court of five men who are the heads of all the families in the village)’ the Soldier Societies of the Plains and Cheyenne Indians all are examples of courts in "primitive" societies.1865 Perhaps among the most unusual is the traditional Eskimo manner of dealing with recidivist homicide.935 A single instance of killing gives rise to a feud without societal legal sanctions’ but a second in stance of homicide by the same offender marks the culprit as a public enemy: It then becomes incumbent upon some public spirited man of initiative to interview all the adult males of the community to determine whether they agree that he should be executed. If unanimous consent is given’ he then undertakes to execute the criminal’ and no revenge may be taken on him by the murderer’s relatives. Cases show that no revenge is taken. A community "court" has spoken.1800 If aliens have their courts’ procedure may not always be formal and rational. For instance’ in centuries past "compurgation" was a permissible form of legal proof in criminal matters. The defendant was allowed to swear off a charge if he could secure a sufficient number of co-swearers called "oath-helpers" or "compurgators." These persons did not swear that they believed the defendant to be innocent but rather that his oath was "clean." Writes legal historian William Seagle: The number of oath-helpers who had to be found by the defendant was usually twelve in the Middle Ages’ although in a case of murder as many as seventy-two were sometimes required. It must be apparent from the mere number of oath-helpers required that compurgation was not so absurd as it may seem’ for only a man of good repute and standing in the community could find them’ even though at first they appear to have been only relatives.2594 Many tribal societies rely on ordeals to decide guilt or innocence. Kenya’s Digo tribe tries a suspect by placing a hot metal against his skin. If he is burned’ his guilt is considered proven.1865 Among the Eskimos of East Greenland’ all grounds for dispute short of murder are settled by singing duels during which opponents are permitted to butt one another with their heads. The style of the songs must follow a traditional pattern’ but the text is composed afresh for each new occasion. The audience is judge and applauds the better singer’ even when he is actually in the wrong!452 Other forms of "trial by ordeal" depend on ancient ritual or resort to magic. In Burma some suits are still determined by furnishing plaintiff and defendant each with one candle’ lighting them both at once’ and he whose candle outlasts the other’s is judged to have won his cause. In Borneo the litigants are represented by two shellfish on a plate. The crustaceans are irritated when lime juice is poured over them’ and the first to move settles the guilt or innocence of its owner. The ancient practice of axinomancy’ a form of divination’ involved a hatchet suspended in midair by a piece of cord. The blade would turn to point at the guilty party. Finally’ the ordeal by bread and cheese -- a kind of lie-detector test -- was practiced in Alexandria during the 2nd century A.D. and by the English during the Middle Ages (known as the corsnaed or "trial slice"). A piece of consecrated bread and cheese was administered from the altar’ along with the curse that if the accused was guilty God would send the angel Gabriel to stop his throat and prevent him from swallowing. Sure enough’ guilty parties were apt to fail when their own fear caused their mouths to become dry and their throat muscles to constrict. Legal procedure was often considerably more violent in character. A common mode of proof in Medieval Europe was trial by battle’ an ordeal in which God was called upon to manifest the truth by aiding the righteous plaintiff to dispatch the guilty defendant (or his champion) in a judicially supervised contest of arms. Similar ordeals have been noted by anthropologists among many human tribal societies. Marvin Harris describes one such instance among the Yanomamo’ a violent group of Indian tribes inhabiting the border between Venezuela and Brazil: A man with a special grudge against another challenges his adver sary to hit him on the head with an eight-to-ten-foot-long pole shaped like a pool cue. The challenger sticks his own pole in the ground’ leans on it’ and bows his head. His adversary holds his pole by the thin end’ whipping the heavy end down on the proffered pate with bone-crushing force. Having sustained one blow’ the recipient is entitled to an immediate opportunity to wallop his opponent in the same manner.3038 Certainly extraterrestrial courts may be no less strange. Do xenologists expect to find any "universal crimes" among alien races? The most likely candidate for the most universal crime must be murder.95 On Earth’ no society exists in which there is a general license to kill fellow humans.452’935 Homicide is perhaps the most direct’ final’ and ultimate means of ‘inflicting entropy" on another person. But the universality even of this crime is open to question. Most modern legal systems recognize categories of excusable or justifiable homicide.936 Among the Eskimos infanticide’ invalidicide’ senilicide’ gerontocide’ and suicide are privileged acts if conducted by a family member. The basic Eskimo ethical postulates ("life is hard" and the "unsupportability of unproductive members of society") permit a variety of socially approved homicides.935 Another well-known example is the Mundugumor of New Guinea’ who believe that it is ethically right and proper to steal’ cheat’ aggress against’ and get the best of one’s neighbors. The average Mundugumor is suspicious’ hostile’ and self-centered; he is convinced that everyone is out to get him’ so he is determined to get them first. Even murder’ to a point’ is considered socially acceptable behavior.2928 Sexual crimes are considerably less universal in scope’931 so there is no guarantee that they will be regarded as offenses in extraterrestrial legal systems. Adultery’ incest’ fornication’ seduction and rape are almost invariably punishable in human societies’ but these offenses are defined in terms of elaborate kinship systems.935 Some cultures’ for instance’ distinguish between the rape of married and unmarried women; others make no distinction whatever between rape and adultery.2595 Since rape’ homosexuality’ and murder during sexual intercourse are commonplace throughout the animal kingdom’ xenologists hesitate to assert that these acts must be universally prohibited among alien cultures. Economic crimes such as robbery’ embezzlement’ or capitalism are heavily dependent upon the economic system used by the government.3056’937 While all primitive and modern societies entertain notions of personal property’2594 this may simply reflect our territorial simian ancestry and may not at all apply to nonterritorial sentient species or to intelligent races descended from other than monkey stock. Socially approved theft has been described among Adelie penguins in the Antarctic.1028 Then there is the old Gypsy legend that these wanderers have been granted divine permission to steal because it was a Gypsy who stole one of the four nails of Christ’s cross’ thus lessening the Lord’s pain. Xenologists remain highly sceptical of the universality of the crime of theft.

22.3.3 Xenopenology Xenopenology is the study of alien forms of sentencing and punishment for infractions of the law. Xenopenologists have identified at least six distinct theories of punishment’ though these by no means exhaust the universe of possibilities: 1. Revenge -- the being who has inflicted harm must himself be harmed in retaliation to assuage the suffering of the victim and his family. 2. Expiation -- wrongs can only be undone by the suffering of the wrongdoer’ a means of atonement by which his "moral account with God" is brought back into balance. 3. Deterrence -- the threat of severe physical punishment will restrain potential criminals (all persons assumed to be acting rationally all the time). 4. Isolation -- public must be protected from the criminal’ so all criminals must be physically isolated from the rest of society ("warehousing"). 5. Rehabilitation -- "punishment" is designed to transform the values and attitudes of the criminal so that he no longer wishes to commit illegal acts (social reprogramming). 6. Restitution -- victims of criminal acts should be compensated by the criminal’ who should do everything he can to place the victim in a condition as close as possible to that existing before the commission of the criminal acts. (See Hoebel’931 Sorokin’31 Sykes’934 and Tiryakian.855) Among human societies’ revenge certainly has the oldest pedigree. The ancient Sumerian code of justice -- "an eye for an eye’ a tooth for a tooth" -- is perhaps the earliest known example of this. According to the Code of Hammurabi’ §195: "If a man has struck his father’ his hands shall be cut off." This Sumerian notion of "sympathetic" punishment was often carried to even greater extremes’ as witness the following articles of the Code: §229. If a builder has built a house for a man’ and has not made his work strong’ and the house he built has fallen’ and he has caused the death of the owner of the house’ that builder shall be put to death. §230. If he has caused the son of the owner of the house to die’ one shall put to death the son of that builder.2595 The Koran’ the holy book of Islam’ prescribes the decapitation of murderers and the chopping off of a hand for thievery. (In North Yemen’ the convicted thief is required to pick up his severed hand and raise it to his forehead in a salute to the presiding judge.3056) Adulterers are to be tied in a sack or buried to the waist and publicly stoned. Assyrian law includes execution’ mutilation (by cutting off lip’ nose’ ear’ or by castration)’ impalement upon a stake’ deprival of burial’ floggings’ and "the pouring of asphalt" as proper punishments for misdeeds.2595 The ancient Chinese recommended decapitation’ strangulation’ and the so-called "lingering death" (slicing to pieces until dead) for numerous crimes.2589 The Ashanti of the Gold Coast of West Africa devised an even more hideous form of punishment by death for interlopers in the chief’s harem. The atopere’ or "dance of death’" involved the slow careful dissection of the condemned victim’ accomplished with such surgical skill that the prisoner was not killed during two or three days of exquisite torture.3014 Among the Cheyenne Indians’ the wife who was suspected of being unfaithful by her husband ("the wife who four times erred") could be "put on the prairie" or "be made a free woman."936 This involved a most brutal form of sexual revenge for adultery: Her husband invited his military society cofreres to a "feast" on the prairie. The pièce de résistance of this stag party was his wife’ who was made victim of a mass raping. Thereafter’ if she survived’ she was free game for any man -- in effect’ an outlaw. The husband and his fraternity considered this to be their legal right.935 One highly unusual method of revenge is found among the Trobriand Islanders’ among whom the victim of a crime often retaliates against the offender by committing suicide. The idea is that the victim will then be avenged by his angry ghost.2594 Punishment systems based on the blood-feud can give rise to peculiar results’ such as among the Australian Dieri who slay the capital offender’s elder brother rather than the offender himself. Another anthropological curiosity is the blood-vengeance chain of New Britain islanders on the Gazelle Peninsula of New Guinea: When a man of low degree has been killed by a person of high degree’ his relatives will kill a member of a kin of slightly higher degree than themselves in the knowledge that the process will continue until the original offender is reached.2594 Alien sentients with different behavioral and ethical predispositions may have a long history of isolation or restitution techniques’ in contrast to the revenge theory which humans instinctively seem to prefer. Given high technology’ many isolation techniques can be imagined for use by extraterrestrials. Entire planets could be commandeered as penal colonies’ and outshipments of convicts of many different races begun.668 Penal planets might best be situated on worlds having poisonous air or lacking any atmosphere at all.3239 Another possibility is that the insane’ the extreme social misfits’ and criminals could be sent forward in time using suspended animation techniques in the hope that future biotechnology could salvage them. If sufficiently cheap to maintain’ cryogenic storage might become the official method of "execution’" satisfying both the proponents and opponents of capital punishment.1863’67 Says Arthur C. Clarke of this procedure: "Our descendants might not appreciate this legacy’ but at least they could not send it back.55 Then there is Robert Heinlein’s idea of a penal Coventry. Criminals are given the choice between psychological readjustment of the offender’s mind and withdrawal of the benefits of an orderly society. If the criminal does not wish to choose mental reprogramming’ he is placed in an untamed unsupervised wilderness environment with other criminals -- a lawless subculture physically separated from normal society.2874 A few have suggested that rehabilitation could best be accomplished by permitting the criminal to experience the suffering of his victims. To high-technology ETs this might include treatment with a biocybernetic "electronic telepathy" hookup. The penal authorities would project images into the prisoner’s brain which would cause him to relive variations of his crime from the victim’s point of view. The sentence for attempted murder’ for example’ might be to experience murder three times.3052 There may be many interesting complications when different aliens are involved in crime. Besides questions of choice of law and conflict of laws’ the punishment must be made to fit the crime. Should the punishment for the murder of an ET whose lifetime is only 5 months be as stiff as the killing of a being who normally lives 5 centuries? There is Edward Wellen’s concept of pro rata sentencing: ETs with shorter lifespans or aliens whose subjective time passes faster than our own should be given shorter sentences.1209 Are instinctual behavioral responses valid legal excuses or justification for acts defined as criminal by the victim’s race’s legal system? The possibilities are delightfully complex.

22.4 Philosophy and Knowledge A few writers have suggested that ETs’ no matter how strange they may appear’ probably will think much like human beings.63’191 Modern xenology does not support this point of view.1171 Xenologists today believe that the ways of thinking employed by sentient lifeforms on other worlds will differ as much or more from the human than their physiologies’ technologies’ or social systems. Earlier we hinted that even relatively minor differences in sensory apparatus and basic mental equipment could significantly alter the perception and thought processes of extraterrestrials. Here we shall examine more explicitly a few of the many alternative modes of thinking that may be exemplified by intelligent aliens elsewhere in our Galaxy.

22.4.1 Alien Logic Logic is the way we know something is true. Denoting rationality and reason’ logic is a branch both of mathematics and of philosophy and lies at the very foundation of all intellectual pursuits. Aristotle is largely responsible for the development of the formal rules of logic which have become the basis for Western thought and science. Perhaps the best-known tenet of the so-called "laws of thought" or "Aristotelian logic" is the Law of the Excluded Middle.* This law holds that if a statement is true’ then its negation cannot be true. If A is true’ then "not-A" must be false. That is’ there are only two choices -- yes and no. For example’ if the statement "the sky is blue" is true’ then its negation "the sky is not blue" must be false. All conditions of sky color are exhausted by the bimodal set of possibilities "blue" and "not blue." This sort of reasoning seems intuitively obvious to humans. Aristotelian logic is somehow naturally suited to the way people think. After all’ we ask’ how could a sky both be blue and not blue at the same time? Well’ it couldn’t’ or could it? The danger inherent in relying on any single logic system is that it tends to limit the number and kinds of problems amenable to analysis. The solution to any problem first requires that a question be posed. If the question does not appear tractable by our normal modes of logic’ we try to reformulate it again and again until it is. When we do this’ however’ our thinking becomes limited by the capabilities of our logic system. One plus one does not always equal two.** It is possible that human science today is beginning to feel the pinch of the limitations inherent in its ancient Aristotelian bimodal logic system. Perhaps the most striking examples occur in the field of quantum mechanics. Consider the following experiment. A solid plate with two small slits is placed in front of a beam of electrons. Behind the slits on the other side is a photographic screen able to record the arrival of electrons. During the experiment’ electrons are sent toward the slits one by one’ some bouncing off the blocking plate and others passing through the slits to be recorded when they hit the screen. The Law of the Excluded Middle demands that any given electron must pass either "through the left slit" or "not through the left slit." These two choices define all of the logical possibilities for an electron-slit-passing event’ and they are exclusive as well: If one is true’ the other must necessarily be false. Unfortunately’ when nuclear physicists actually perform the "two slit experiment" they get seemingly impossible results. It turns out that the pattern recorded on the photographic screen could only have been generated if each electron passed through both slits simultaneously. This is the classic "wavicle" problem in quantum physics. Contrary to traditional bimodal logic’ the statements "through the left slit" and "not through the left slit" are both true at the same time. Aristotelian thinking cannot comprehend the problem because there is no "excluded middle" in the experiment.3015 The behavior of electrons must be impossible’ and yet it occurs. Perhaps the most important development for xenologicians in this century has been Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem. In 1931 an American mathematician named Kurt Gödel devised a brilliant proof that any system of logic must necessarily either be internally inconsistent or incomplete.3027 In other words’ Gödel’s proof demonstrated for the first time that there exist statements that are unprovable in any logic system’ and that all arithmetic as we know it is at best incomplete’ at worst inconsistent. it is logically impossible to construct a single grand "metalogic" capable of subsuming all other modes of logic while remaining consistent.3028 So hunian mathematics -- the language of the physical sciences -- is incomplete. The implications in xenology are far-reaching indeed. We now know’ for instance’ that no single system of thinking (on Earth or anywhere else in the Galaxy) can hold’ even in principle’ all answers to all questions while remaining internally consistent. All logics must harbor unresolvable paradoxes. Therefore each new logic system we uncover in alien cultures most likely will teach us something new’ some novel way of looking at the universe and understanding it in a consistent fashion which may be imperceptible -- even impossible -- from within our own system of logic. To this extent human thinking necessarily must be incomplete. Contact with alien minds will open new vistas of knowledge and beauty to mankind’s purview. Extraterrestrial logicians may find many of our most enduring paradoxes to be trivially solvable’ and we may be able to resolve some of theirs equally effortlessly. No non-Aristotelian logic system has yet been devised which resolves the "wavicle" paradox in the two slit experiment to the satisfaction of quantum physicists. However’ mathematicians have imagined a wide variety of alternative logics which have been used successfully to resolve other paradoxical events recorded by human philosophers. The literature in this field is both difficult and extensive;913 no more than a brief smattering can be provided here. Clearly a system with zero values is meaningless’ and monovalue logics permit no choice. Such single-valued logic may turn out to be sufficient for genetic sentients’ but if we wish to retain choice at least a two-valued (e.g.’ Aristotelian) system is required. We have seen’ however’ that two-choice logics. cannot explain many observable physical phenomena. As logician Clarence I. Lewis of Harvard University once noted: "The Law of the Excluded Middle is not writ in the heavens: It but reflects our rather stubborn adherence to the simplest of all possible modes of divi sion."902 Over the past century’ human mathematicians have come up with "many-valued" logics which permit three or more states of truth instead of the Aristotelian two.908’909 An example of three-valued logic might involve the states "yes’" "maybe’" and "no." Alien computers could be programmed in trinary (rather than our binary) to handle this kind of computation; circuits might read "‘’" "0’" and "-" rather than "on" and "off" as in normal binary digital machines. Another alternative system is the four-valued truth logic which is often used by Buddhist philosophers. (The four permissible truth states are "true’" "false’" "both’" and "neither.") Another kind of approach is to employ "modal" concepts rather than "truth" concepts. (See Bergmann’3031 Haack’913 Lewis and Langford’3029 Quine’3030 and von Wright.910) These types of logic are customarily three-or four-valued’ and are of four principle kinds.3032 The first of these are called alethic modes or modes of truth. Where Aristotelian logic permits only the truth values "true" and "false’" alethic modal logic allows the following modes: "Necessarily true’" "possibly true’" "contingently true’" and "impossible."3033 A second form of modal logic is called epistemic logic or modes of knowing’ including the modes "verified" (that which is known to be true)’ "undecided" (that whose truth is unknown)’ and "falsified" (that which is known to be false). Third’ there is deontic logic or modes of obligation’ which work as follows: "the obligatory" (that which we ought to do)’ "the permitted" (that which we are allowed to do)’ "the indifferent" (that which makes no difference)’ and "the forbidden" (that which we must not do).3034 The fourth main group of modal logics is called existential logic or modes of existence’ which include: "universality’" "existence’" and "emptiness." Higher-valued logics have also been devised. The philosophy of the Jains of India uses a seven-valued truth logic. It is grounded in the religious beliefs of the sect and utilizes the following truth values: 1. True (a thing is); 2. False (a thing is not); 3. Indeterminate (impossible to say either is or is not); 4. Is and Is Not; 5. Is and Is Indeterminate; 6. Is Not and Is Indeterminate; and 7. Is and Is Not and Is Indeterminate.900 Further permutations are possible’ but these only change the way of saying and not the substance of what is said -- so are of no logical significance. (Note that Jam logic has an implicit Law of the Excluded Eighth.) A few mathematicians have even formulated infinite-valued logics.901’899 Infinite logics range over a continuum of real numbers X such that 0 < X < 1. In this notation’ "1" represents absolute truth and "0" represents complete falsity. Other peculiar systems thinking include plurality logic (using quantifiers such as "all’" "some’" and "none’" or such as "all’" "nearly all’" "many’" "not many’" "few’" and "none")’911 tense or temporal logic (systematizes reasoning with propositions that have a temporalized aspect and incorporate the axioms of time in general’ such as "before" and "after" or "past’" "present’" and "future" relationships)’912 probablistic logic’ minimal logic’ intuitionist logic’ Chinese complementary logic’ and so forth.913’894 It is sobering to realize that all of the above described alternative logical systems have been devised by human minds. The human brain operates using neurons with a two-valued firing pattern. It may be that people -- indeed all Earthly forms of life -- are hardwired or preadapted in some sense for Aristotelian modes of thinking. ETs on other worlds may have trivalue or higher-value neuronal firing patterns. To such minds the Aristotelian logic of humankind may seem horribly restrictive and primitive.

* Others include the Law of Identity (subject and predicate are identical) and the Law of Contradiction (nothing is both A and not-A). ** When 1.00 liter of water is added to 1.00 liter of ethyl alcohol’ we get only 1.93 liters of solution -- not 2.00. There is a volume contraction of 3.5% due to intermolecular packing. 3050

22.4.2 Time, Language, and Space All living organisms possess natural cycles and rhythms’ and most sentient species have some finite sense of duration. Speaking of the subjective human attention span’ the so-called "human instant" or "specious present’" J.B.S. Haldane wrote in 1928: I am now aware of a "specious present" of experience about two seconds in length at most’ in which I see moving objects and hear sound sequences. I cannot’ however’ be directly conscious at the same time of a series of events lasting for more than about two seconds. A long life consists of about 109 specious presents or "nows."974 A few writers have suggested that the perception of self permits the perception of time’ since the self can then be distinguished from the volatile environment.906 The inference in xenology is that an inability to sense self destroys the ability to sense time. Using this reasoning’ genetic sentients may have no subjective time sense whatsoever. Factors in the environment also influence the perception of subjective time.28 For example’ objects fall more slowly in weak gravity fields than in strong ones’ so ETs indigenous to small worlds could afford to have much slower reflexes than we.96 Taking into account the expected variation in natural surface gravity on terrestrial planets’ it appears that alien reaction times may vary by half an order of magnitude on this factor alone. Another more obvious effect is the definition of the local year. A "year" for an ET may vary considerably depending upon solar and planetary parameters -- alien years may last from 10-1000 Earth-days within the humanhabitable ecospheres surrounding appropriate stars. Dr. Bernard Aaronson at the Bureau of Research in Neurology and Psychiatry in Princeton’ New Jersey’ has conducted some fascinating experiments in regard to subjective time that may be highly instructive for xenologists. Dr. Aaronson gave posthypnotic suggestions to human subjects to test their reactions to expanded or contracted time frames. The following suggestion is typical: Do you know how we divide time into the three categories of past’ present’ and future? When I wake you’ the future will be gone. There will be no future.2507 The results of changing the perception of time-blocks in people by hypnosis are tabulated in Table 22.3. Subjects with no future experienced a profound mystical sensation -- one person reported that he "found himself in a boundless’ immanent present." Expanded futures cancelled all fear of death’ inducing serene calmness and happiness. Elimination of the present was found to be most disturbing (subjects were inordinately de pressed and behaved almost schizophrenicly)’ whereas deprivation of the subjective past produced drowsiness’ memory loss’ speech difficulty’ and a vague sense of meaninglessness. If alien psyches are so constructed as to lack past’ present’ or future’ or advanced biotechnology has imparted an expanded future (immortality)’ past (biocyhernetic memory)’ or present (heightened awareness)’ these experiments may give xenologists some clue as to the resultant ET behavioral patterns.

Table 22.3 Human Responses to Expanded and Ablated Areas of Time Under PostHypnotic Suggestion2507 No Past Confused

Expanded Past Happy

No Present Immobile

Expanded Present Happy

No Future Euphoric

Expanded Future Happy

Disoriented Reminiscent

Responselessness Fascinated by colors

Semimystical No fear of death

Bored

Relaxed

Deathlike

Exuberant

Anxiety-free

Anticipation

Sleepy

Slow movements

Lonely

Time slowed

Less motivated

Fulfilled

Depth loss

Identity loss

Discouraged

Enhanced senses

Stopped growing

Clarity of objects & sounds

No ambitions More full and rich

Language loss

Withdrawn Depressed

Calm Lots of time

Hostile

Aaronson also used hypnosis to alter the pace at which time was perceived to pass. Persons told to experience three seconds for every one second on the clock developed a manic state and general boredom. Stopping subjective time entirely has an interesting effect: As when the present is eliminated’ there is a sensation of death. According to one subject: "The world moves on’ but I don’t." Admittedly these tests dealt only with humans’ but the basic conclusions may yet be applicable to alien mindsets as well. The perception of time must profoundly influence the way ETs think about reality and their root psychologies. According to the well-known Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis’ the structure and vocabulary of a language directly limits the perceptions and worldview of its speakers.3035’1752 Much like systems of logic’ things can be said in one language that cannot be said nearly so well in another.2643’3047 For instance’ Benjamin Lee Whorf once pointed out that the past-present-future tenses in English are well-suited for geometrical’ linelike representations of time. In such a system’ the self may be viewed as a moving point along a line of nonselves. But the linguistic expression of our sense of continuity is far from optimal. The Chichewa language (of East Africa) has two past tenses’ one for events that continue to influence the present and one for events that do not. The Chichewa tribes thus are better equipped linguistically to appreciate the sense of continuity.903 Even more striking is the language of the Hopi Indians. The Hopi language has no tenses for its verbs’ no reference to any concepts of time (express or implied)’ and no notions of enduring or lasting or of kinematic motion.1752 For the Hopi it is important only that things happen somewhere. There is no idiomatic temporal future with sequences and successions. There is no word for time in their language.903 A few writers have asserted that "certain linguistic habits were necessary prerequisites for the scientific revolution of the Renaissance’"904 implying that certain language systems -- as logic systems -- may effectively preclude a rationalistic scientific worldview capable of understanding and building a high technology. This may be so’ but it is interesting to ponder the possibility of a "time-free" physics and chemistry. Alien languages may incorporate concepts wholly unfamiliar to any human culture. As Doris and David Jonas have suggested’ extraterrestrial senses may play an important role in temporal perception and its expression in language. Intelligent beings who rely most heavily’ say’ upon a primary sense of smell would have an extreme diffuse perception of time frames. To osmic aliens’ according to the Jonases’ "much of the past flows into the present and coexists with it’" primarily because of the lingering character of scents. "Their thinking patterns and their language are based on different premises from ours’ especially in this matter of what is past’ what is present’ and what is future."1000 Even their mathematics could be affected: [Perhaps to osmic ETs] the number 1 represents a field extending from 1 to 2’ and so on along the line. As a result’ their mathematical calculations are expressed in symbols of probability and utilize the concept of statistical averages far more than the absolutes of our digital form of calculation.1000 Another interesting temporal-linguistic twist might be found among sentient extraterrestrials who could see polarized light. This simple physiological modification would add an entirely new dimension to their vision -- and their language. Once again the Jonases’ from the viewpoint of a hypothetical xenological first contact team: We first got a clue about this when we were trying to master some words of their language and found that they had dozens of different words for what to us was a single object -- say’ one of their grass-trees. Slowly it dawned on us that a time element was an integral part of their vision. They never actually "saw" a grass-tree in the same terms as we did; it had separate existences for them as though it were a different thing at different times’ determined by the angles at which the light from their suns reached it. What we saw as a particular grass-tree they saw variously as a one-o’clock grass-tree’ a five-o’clock grass-tree’ or a ten-o’clock one; the different names incorporated their perception of the time element.. What it really amounted to was that for them time was fused with their perception of an object. While their eyes actually saw objects in disparate bits and their brains coordinated these’ simultaneously their brains also coordinated with the sight of an object their perception of the sun’s positions....1000 Concepts of physical space will also have a major influence on linguistic conventions. Many examples of the outré may be cited from Earth’s human cultures. The language of the inhabitants of the atoll of Truk (the Caroline Islands in the Pacific) treats open spaces without traditional dividing lines as distinct and divisible. Featureless spaces on the walls of a bowl’ for instance’ may have separate names’ although there are far fewer terms for edges and boundaries than in Western tongues.3036 In the Hopi language’ there are no terms describing interior three-dimensional spaces -- no words for room’ chamber’ hall’ passageway’ interior’ cellar’ crypt’ attic’ loft’ or vault. In spite of this’ the Hopi have multiroom dwellings which they use for specialized purposes such as storage’ residence’ grinding corn’ and so forth. Still stranger is the Bolivian Quechua language’ in which one speaks of the future as "behind oneself" and the past as "ahead of one." Quechuas explain that because a person can see "in the mind" what has already happened’ such events must lie "in front of one." Since the future cannot yet be seen’ these events necessarily must lie "behind one."2507 Xenolinguists point out the close association between human language and human body form. Extraterrestrial lifeforms will speak differently’ think differently’ and act and feel differently’ simply because they have some other body shape and thus experience a markedly different awareness of space’ position’ and movement.2354 Some comments by psychologist Donald G. MacRae are worth quoting in this regard: The human body is basically bilaterally symmetrical. This external symmetry is imperfect but dominant. The posture we regard -- and I think this universal -- as typical of the body in all societies is upright. This is to contradict experience: during most of the time we are’ even in very physically active societies’ as a matter of fact slouched’ twisted and recumbent in sleep or rest’ or crouched or seated or bent in action. Yet being upright seems a general convention of thought about being human. From the symmetry of this erectness we derive our categories of direction-up-down’ left-right’ before-behind’ over-under’ and beside. Our concepts of relations in space come not only from our binocular vision but above all from our experience of a fixed eye-level above a fixed ground. (How do birds’ or arboreal creatures like gibbons see? How far can sight be said to be the same sense for such unstable observers as for us?) Certainly our ideas of dominance are all connected with the visual dominance of our erect postures. Both our categories for classifying and dealing with space manipulatively and organizationally’ and our emotions about space and the values we attach to direction in space’ derive directly from our body form. For example’ what is superior is up or high and what is inferior is down or low. (Low is often dirty’ but high is not necessarily clean.) Right is law’ morals’ the holy and the strong; left is sinister’ profane’ weak and (often) feminine. Backward and behind are slow’ hence stupid. Forward and in front are active’ oriented and intelligent. Beside is confederate or paranoid: it is an ambiguous category of place. And I could continue this listing and give it an ethnography for pages. What is clear is that these aspects of space derive from our conception of the body and would not hold for an intelligent bilateral but horizontal animal’ far less for a radially symmetrical one like a clever starfish’ or for spherically symmetrical beings like those of the fable in Plato’s Symposium.2355

22.4.3 Science and Paradigmology Will alien cultures have science? If by "science" we mean a rational comprehension of the universe which excludes consideration of the extra sensory and supernatural’ many xenologists would answer with a qualified "yes." The general trend of sociocultural and technological evolution on Earth has been toward increasingly rational explanations of natural phenomena. As Sir James Frazer attempted to show earlier in this century’ the course of the human worldview progressed from magic to religion to science as society and the technical skills of mankind became more sophisticated. Science in the form of objectified rationality should be common though by no means universal throughout the Galaxy. Countless astronomical factors may combine to impede or to encourage the emergence of the "scientific method" on other worlds. For instance’ galactographic position may be important. Planets circling stars near the Core of the Milky Way may have an immense number of nearby stellar neighbors and a superb view of the tumultous central galactic regions. This could spur the development of astronomy’ astrophysics’ and other hard sciences’ as well as the technologies of electromagnetics and spaceflight. On the other hand’ highly isolated worlds may experience no such in centives.3048 A culture on a planet near the Galactic Rim may find itself hundreds of light-years from the nearest stars’ and accumulations of inter stellar dust and gas clouds will block all but the external regions of the Galactic Disk -- a comparatively uninspiring sight. However’ if the Rim world is located high above the Milky Way rather than lying in the galactic plane (admittedly an unusual situation)’ then the contrast between the stark void of intergalactic space and the beautiful whorls of the Galactic wheel may provide sufficient philosophical inspiration to compensate the isolation effects. Stellar characteristics may also be significant. For example’ a civilization which depends on a class F sun may realize their star is about to die. Since the end is nearer’ the prospect of interstellar travel may greet a more welcome audience than humankind on Earth. A K star civilization’ though the effect should be much less pronounced’ may adopt a stay-at-home take-it-easy attitude once they realize their sun will survive literally for hundreds of billions of years. What about binary star systems? A close binary should have negligible effects on the rate of cultural development’ but things may be different for societies inhabiting a planet orbiting one member of a distant binary. One writer suggests that two suns in the sky will mean almost perpetual daylight’ so ETs rarely will see stars and astronomy will advance only very slowly.77 Others have argued that the greater the number of celestial objects moving around in the sky’ the more the curiosity of intelligent observers will be stirred and the less likely they will come to an erroneous conclusion (such as the crystal spheres in Greek astronomy). In this view’ the presence of moons’ planets’ even multiple stars in the night sky will promote the advance of science.2049’2362 Xenologists suspect that intellectual discord and environmental corn plexity will speed scientific development as a general rule. A suggestive hypothetical example of such an intellectually fertile situation has been provided by astronomer Carl Sagan in another context (with reference to our own planet Mercury): Mercury has a highly elliptical orbit. There is a commensurate relation between how long the planet takes to turn once around its axis and how long it takes to go once around the Sun; this ratio is 3:2. Suppose you stood at one particular place on the equator of Mercury. During the course of a day you would observe the Sun do the following. You would see it rising small’ moving toward the zenith and swelling as it does. Then’ one degree past the zenith’ it stops’ reverses its motion in the sky’ stops again’ then continues its original motion’ shrinking’ moving more rapidly’ and then zipping below the horizon. That takes something like 88 of our days; their day’ of course’ is twice that. Now’ if you lived at a place 900 away in longitude along the equator you would see something quite different. You would see an enormous Sun rise very slowly’ stop’ and then set. Then it would rise in earnest’ shrink’ moving faster’ zip through the zenith’ swell’ slow down’ and set. Then it would pop up again to say goodbye and sink again. If there were any beings on Mercury’ you can imagine that the cosmologies developed by those astronomers who lived at the one longitude would be extremely different from those cosmologies developed at the other longitude. Eventually’ two astronomers’ each from a different longitude’ would meet’ and one would say to scornful disbelief’ "Let me tell you what the Sun does."2053 Extraterrestrial astronomers inhabiting Earthlike planets in close orbits around K or M stars may experience similar "observational dissonance’" to the probable benefit of their science. What if the planet inhabited by sentient aliens is cursed with a perpetual cloud cover? Does this necessarily imply a static science? No simple answer is possible. Certainly the lack of starsight will have some negative effects’ as one writer suggests: Imagine the picture of the Cosmos formed by a lifeform bred in a gas planet like Jupiter. Since the energy source is internal’ the background noise level is likely to be extreme’ and most of the electromagnetic signal from outside is overwhelmed or defocused by the time it has penetrated the cloud tops. Such a lifeform is hardly likely to think of crossing space’ though it might conceive of a vacuum as a philosophical abstract.1618 Still’ terrestrial philosophers must be wary of what might be termed "astronomical chauvinism": The belief that the only route to basic science is through astronomy.445’1550 It is certainly true that the Copernican Revolution sparked developments in physics’ with chain reactions and spinoffs into many other fields. But any natural science will do to set in motion the process of scientification -- geology’ oceanography’ hydrology’ meteorology’ biology’ and so on. One wonders what elementary physical laws Sir Isaac Newton might have devised starting from’ say’ a geological rather than an astronomical basis. Perhaps the laws of thermodynamics and diffusion might have predated the laws of kinematics and gravitation. Alien physical sciences could have a wholly different orientation or basis from our own. There is the equally exciting possibility’ first suggested in 1972 by the Russian scientist L.M. Gindilis of the Shternberg Astronomical Institute at Moscow State University’ of so-called "nonintersecting systems of knowledge."25 Others have traditionally assumed that because we share the same physical universe with extraterrestrials’ and must confront similar problems and natural forces’ our sciences and systems of mathematics should at least be comprehensible to each other.49 While this probably will be true in many cases’ our brief examination of alien logics has already demon strated that each form of reasoning must be both unique and incomplete. Gindilis suggests that despite the ubiquity of the physical cosmos’ extremely diverse approaches and conclusions about reality may still be possible. J. Robert Oppenheimer stated the problem is a slightly different way in 1962 when he noted: Will we be able to understand the science of another civilization? Our science has concentrated on asking certain questions at the expense of others’ although this is so woven into the fabric of our knowledge that we are generally unaware of it. On another world’ the basic questions may have been asked differently.3016 Many kinds of science are possible. Magoroh Maruyama’ professor of systems science at Portland State University’ has coined the term "paradigmatology" to refer to the science of sciences’ or’ in his own words and more generally’ "a science of structures of reasoning which vary from disipline to discipline’ from profession to profession’ from culture to culture’ and sometimes even from individual to individual."895 A paradigm is a way of knowing’ an epistemology’ a cognitive structure by which know ledge is assembled and regularized. In essence’ Maruyama is attempting to found a sociology of knowledge. As summarized in Table 22.4’ Maruyarna provisionally has identified three "pure" paradigmatical forms and four others which are mixtures of the three. Scientific and philosophical thought among alien races could conceivably be organized around any of the following knowledge systems: 1. Unidirectional Causal Paradigm -- traditional axiomatic human science. One-way flow of influence from a "cause" to an "effect"; there is nothing in the "effect" that cannot be traced back to its "cause." Past and future can be inferred from the present if we have a complete knowledge of the present. 2. Random Process Paradigm -- basis of information theory and probabilistic action in which all events are independent of all others. Purpose of random process or "stochastic science" is to identify the amount of information’ types of coding and decoding and modes of transmission in living and artificial systems’ and to maximize efficiency and economy as well as maximum use of channel capacity. Causation is probabilistic’ entropical’ thermodynamic. 3. Mutual Causal Paradigm -- complex patterns can be generated by means of simple rules of interaction. "Cause" and "effect" do not really exist; rather’ events are merely the focus of a confluence of forces and other events. There is a nonhierarchical network of action’ rather than a hierarchical causal chain. Reasoning is contextual’ symbiotic’ and synergistic rather than absolutist and isolational. 4. Probabilistic Unidirectional Causal Paradigm -- there is a one-way flow of influence from the "cause" to the "effect’" but the influence occurs with some probability rather than with certainty. Complete information can never be obtained because the act of measuring disturbs the phenomenon’ but "causes" may still be inferred from "effects" with some associated probability. 5. Deterministic Mutual and Unidirectional Causal Paradigm -- not all causal relations are mutual. There are some unidirectional causal relations mixed with mutual causal relations. 6. Probabilistic Mutual Causal Paradigm -- the same conditions may produce different results. Different conditions may yield the same results. 7. Probabilistic Mutual and Unidirectional Causal Paradigm -- has some of the characteristics of each of the three "pure" paradigms.895

Table 22.4 Examples of Paradigms (after Maruyama895) CULTURAL ELEMENT Science

Unidirectional Causal Paradigm Traditional "cause and effect" model

Random Process Paradigm Thermodynamics; Shannon’s information theory

Mutual Causal Paradigm Post-Shannon information theory

Information

Past and future inferrable from present

Information decays and gets lost; blueprint must contain more information than finished product

Information can be generated. Nonredundant complexity can be generated w/o preestablished blueprint

Cosmology

Predetermined universe

Decaying universe

Self-generating and self organizing universe

Social Hierarchical Organization

Individualistic

Nonhierarchical interactionist

Social Policy Homogenistic

Decentralization

Heterogenistic coordination

Ideology

Authoritarian

Anarchistic

Cooperative

Philosophy

Universalism

Nominalism

Network

Ethics

Competitive

Isolationist

Symbiotic

Aesthetics

Unity by similarity and repetition

Haphazard

Harmony of diversity

Religion

Monotheism

Freedom of religion

Polytheistic harmony

Decision Process

Dictatorship’ majority rule or Do your own thing consensus

Elimination of hardship on any single individual

Logic

Deductive’ axiomatic

Inductive’ empirical

Complementary

Perception

Categorical

Atomistic

Contextual

Knowledge

Believe in one truth. If people are informed’ they will agree.

Why bother to learn beyond one’s own immediate areas of interest?

Polyocular: Must learn different views and take them into consideration.

Statistical

Relational’ contextual analysis’ network analysis

There exists a probability distribution; find out what the probability distribution is.

Dissimilar results may come from similar conditions due to mutually amplifying network; network analysis instead of tracing differences back to initial conditions.

Assessment "Impact" analysis

What does it do to me?

Look for feedback loops and for selfcancellation or self-reinforcement

Analysis

Pre-set categories used for all situations

Limited categories for Changeable categories depending the on situation individual’s own use

View of Community People

Ignorant’ poorly-informed’ lacking in expertise’ limited in scope

Egocentric

Planning

Laissez-faire By "experts"’ either keep Community people uninformed or inform them in such a way that they will agree

Methodology Classificational’ taxonomic Research Hypothesis and Research Strategy .

Dissimilar results must have been caused by dissimilar conditions; differences must be traced to conditions producing them.

Most direct source of information’ articulate in their own view’ essential in determining relevance Generated by community people

"The difficulty in cross-disciplinary’ cross-professional’ and cross-cultural communication lies not so much in the fact that the communicating parties use different vocabularies or languages to talk about the same thing’ but rather in the fact that they use different structures of reasoning. If the communicating parties remain unaware that they are using different structures of reasoning’ but aware of their communication difficulties only’ each party tends to perceive the communication difficulties as resulting the other party’s illogicality’ lack of intelligence’ or even deceptiveness and insincerity. Each may fall into an illusion of understanding while being unaware of his misunderstandings’ or all communicating parties may fall into the collective illusion of mutual understanding -- each party may wonder later why other parties do not live up to the "agreement" they have reached. "There exist many different paradigms’ and there will undoubtedly be many more paradigms in the future which do not exist yet. The three paradigms above are illustrative of the use of paradigmatology. These examples are not meant to be exhaustive’ nor are they mutually exclusive. There are mixtures and overlappings between these three paradigms as well as between these and many other paradigms." 895

Extraterrestrial sciences may exemplify these and many other paradigmatical structures of reasoning.

22.4.4 Xenoeschatology An eschatology of a culture in the broadest sense is "the doctrine of last things." It is concerned with final destinies’ the ultimates of existence’ and with the end of time and the universe. Most human religious systems and prescriptive philosophies incorporate some doctrine of destiny and purpose’ so it is difficult to believe that sentient extraterrestrials capable of comprehending their condition will not be bothered by the same questions that have puzzled mankind for thousands of years: Why are we alive? What is our purpose here? Whither lies our destiny? Xenologists generally agree that there are three major classes of eschatologies which represent basic approaches in assimilating reality: The naturalistic’ the eternalistic’ and the historistic. Naturalistic forms are characteristic of "primitive" religious systems and of mass religions in higher cultures. The individual understands himself to be a part of nature’ which is itself embossed with cyclical rhythms. Wrongness is experienced as an alienation from nature’ whereas the Ultimate Good or final purpose is to achieve complete organic unity with nature. Eternalistic eschatologies are grounded in a conception of time as an endless cycle of eternal recurrence. It is from this "vain repetition" that the individual must seek to escape. The "last thing" to hope for is to be delivered from the "unreal" realm of the temporal’ historical and empirical to the "timeless" realm of spirit. For instance’ the people of India hold to the existence of kalpas -- cosmic periods of four phases through which successive worlds appear’ flourish’ disintegrate and die. Hindu eschatology extends cyclicity to individuals as well as the universe at large. Notions of reincarnation and transmigration of souls effectively maintain the rigid caste system (there are today more than 2300 distinct castes in India) and a sociocultural order which is repressive -- from the Western point of view: [Untouchables are] denied access to the interior of a Hindu temple; denied the right of using the public water supply; required to take all they need from a different point in the river; in many cases with children who cannot get access to the ordinary school; and’ what is worst of all’ people who do not themselves make a struggle to get out of their misery’ because it is a part of their faith that their miserable lot is the punishment administered by heaven for some wrong that they may have done in a previous existence.2589 Another variant of the eternalistic eschatology appeared among the Stoics in Hellenistic times’ when it was the belief that: When the planets return’ at certain fixed periods of time’ to the same relative positions which they had at the beginning when the cosmos was first constituted’ this produces the conflagration and destruction of everything which exists. Then again the cosmos is restored anew in a precisely similar arrangement as before. The stars again move in their orbits’ each performing its revolution in the former period’ without variation.1847 This eternalistic viewpoint has much in common with the "oscillating universe" hypothesis espoused by many contemporary cosmologists. Historical eschatologies typically are founded on notions of linear time. There is a beginning and an ending to time’ and at the end there will come a "final judgment’" a "new world’" or some other major event which signifies movement towards a fundamentally new plane of existence. Christianity’ Judaism’ and Islam provide classic examples of historical eschatologies among the human religious systems of Earth. Xenologists are able to imagine many more eschatologies than the basic three displayed -by mankind. For example’ a galactic civilization might adopt a kind of "thermodynamic eschatology’"3076 setting as its foremost goal the halting or reversal of entropic processes in this universe.2616 This might involve finding some way to overcome the Second Law of Thermodynamics on the scale of the universe’ a feat which lies well beyond the bounds of present human science and technology. If’ however’ other universes exist’ the Second Law might be forestalled by borrowing negentropy from those other universes. The central galactic eschatology thus may imply the achievement (at some distant future date) of a higher plane of materially immortal existence accomplished by halting the expansion of the universe and resisting the spread of entropy therein.

22.5 Extraterrestrial Aesthetics Aesthetics is the scientific study of the arts and their function and significance in human cultures. Xenoaesthetics is the equivalent course of study as it relates to all sentient beings -- including man -- in the universe. Exactly what is art? The standard dictionary definition goes something like "creative work generally; the making or doing of things that have form and beauty’ including painting’ sculpture’ architecture’ music’ literature’ dance... ." Many devotees claim instead that "art is life’" while skeptics insist that "art is useless." Science fictioneer Robert Heinlein has written that "art is the process of evoking pity and terror."2643 Then there is the offbeat "cultural gene" view of art suggested by biochemist A.G. Cairns-Smith: After much study a Martian might come to the conclusion that the text of Hamlet is a genotype which interacts with its environment in such a way as to bring about its own preferential reprinting.2364 Perhaps the most satisfactory operational definition from the standpoint of xenology is the following: Art is a means of sensory communication within the context of culture which serves or is intended to evoke emotion in the perceiver.1744 Beauty’ the touchstone of all artistry’ is a quality of a thing that makes it seem pleasant or satisfying in some way beyond its mere pragmatic function -- a profoundly emotional experience. (From this point of view’ emotionless ETs can have no indigenous art forms.) Table 22.5 was suggested by Abraham Moles’ work in the field of information theory and aesthetic perception.1815 The three dimensions shown may be used to classify all known simple art forms and’ most important for xenoaestheticians’ to generate scores of possible modes of aesthetic expression which have never before appeared on Earth.

Table 22.5 Physical Dimensions of Xenoaesthetic Experience Spatial Aspect

Temporal Aspect

Perceptive Aspect

0Static (no element of time) Dimensional (point)

Tactic (touch’ vibration)

Kinetic (incorporates time dimension; 1Dimensional has motion) (line)

Gustic (taste)

2Dimensional Dynamic (incorporates time dimension (planar or and feedback control mechanisms) curved surface)

Osmic (smell)

3Dimensional (spatial or volumetric)

Sonic (sound’ hearing)

Electric or Magnetic Electromagnetic (vision in visible’ infrared’ or radio spectrum)

A printed line of literature in a book is a time-invariant sequence of linearly assembled symbols. Such a mode of artistic communication is classified as 1-dimensional’ static’ and visual (tactic’ if the book is in Braille). A painting or drawing provides messages in two dimensions’ sculpture and architecture in three -- but all are static art forms. Movies and television pictures are 2-dimensional kinetic forms’ but with the addition of a computer gaming circuit become interactive and thus dynamic. Speech and music have no spatial dimension whatever (0-dimensional)’ emanating as they do from essentially point sources. Music may be static’* kinetic (as with recorded soundtracks)’ or dynamic (as with a jazz orchestra’ which may be influenced by the behavior of the percipient audience). Finally’ there are the "complex" art forms which combine two or more of the "pure" classificational types to create artful mixtures -- including cinerama’ dance’ and live theater.

* The American composer John Gage has written a piece called "Silent Sonata" which consists of the performer sitting on his bench before the piano without ever touching the instrument or producing any sound whatsoever. 1550 Here is a form of art’ calculated to evoke emotional response’ which may be classified 0-dimensional and static.

22.5.1 Xenomusicology Of all the forms of human aesthetic expression on this planet’ none has been so carefully studied than the "temporal art" of music. Music’ the "language of emotion’" has been the object of intense speculation among philosophers for many millennia. (See Merriam’1744 Révész’701 and Seashore.700) For modern xenologists’ perhaps the most central question is: Why do people listen to music? If some rational basis can be identified for humans’ the same analysis may be generalizable to our consideration of xenoaesthetic response. Why do we listen? Ethologists have suggested that human beings may have certain inborn releasing mechanisms that automatically respond to rhythm’ percussion and melody.2902 There is no question that the perception of musical sound causes distinct physiological reactions involving nervous control’ blood circulation’ digestion’ metabolism’ body temperature’ hunger and thirst’ sex drive’ posture and balance.700 Sociobiologists point out that various forms of music are produced by animals throughout the world’ including the songs of birds and the carnival displays of primates.565 But musicologists insist that we listen to music both because it gives us pleasure and because music is a system of symbolic communication660 which stimulates emotional’ frequently visual’ imagery. (See Crossley-Holland’669 Merriam’1744 and Swanwick.666) One researcher "had visions of locomotives thundering by" when dozing during a Brahms rhapsody’ and described the reaction of one of his students to a string quartet composed by Ruth Crawford for a class in music appreciation as follows: "It produced a vision of a fly struggling in a spider web while the spider prepared to devour it."663 Probably the view among musicologists that "music transforms experience"662 is not far from the truth. Ethnomusicologists -- scientists who study the anthropology of music -- agree that the effects of the artform are very strongly culture-bound.1744 Western music’ for instance’ is not recognized as expressing emotion by many "primitive" African tribes’ and is often described as a "dull monotone" by Chinese. But to Westerners thoroughly steeped in classical European tradition’ Chinese music and the music of the Middle East often sounds like an aimless cacophony of noise devoid of emotional meaning. Like the expression of emotion itself’ the appreciation of specific musical forms has major cognitive and culturally-determined elements.*1744’697 Why’ then’ do we listen to music? Undoubtedly the real answer lies in the negentropic character of all lifeforms.3071 Since it is life’s business to accumulate information and complexity’ organisms have an inherent predisposition to pursue and to absorb negentropic order whenever and wherever possible. Music and other art forms are perceived by humans as a layer of complexity and structure imposed upon an otherwise chaotic sensory environment’ since art is known to have a major informational component. (See Chamberlain’664 Heyduk’667 and Pierce.1742) One theorist even gives a simple method for calculating the number of "bits" of information contained in a musical score.1815 Leonard B. Meyer has suggested that the best music has a great deal of information designed into it by the composer. He calls this "designed uncertainty." Meyer continues: As a musical event unfolds and the probability of a particular conclusion increases’ uncertainty’ information’ and meaning will necessarily decrease. Systemic uncertainty of necessity exists at the beginning of a piece of music where the relationships between tones are being established. If music operated only with systemic uncertainty’ meaning and information would necessarily decrease. But music is able to combat the tendency toward the tedium of maximum certainty through the designed uncertainty introduced by the composer. On the basis of this analysis we should expect designed deviations’ delays’ and ambiguities to be introduced as systemic probability increases -- as the pattern approaches completion. This expectation is borne out by the practice of musicians.1774 So we listen to music because it satisfies a kind of mental "negentropic hunger’" a hunger we may share with all emotional extraterrestrial lifeforms anywhere in the universe. But there are many’ many different patterns of sound capable of conveying information and structural complexity in tone and rhythm.3699 Indeed’ a simply melody consisting of 100 notes’ each chosen from a field of ten’ may assume 10100 different forms. Why do humans prefer just a few of these? Dr. Richard F. Voss’ a young physicist at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center of IBM’ has found at least a partial answer to this most difficult question.2881 In a seminal paper’ published earlier in 1978 in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America’ Voss identifies the central characteristic common to all forms of human musical experience.3017 (A similar analysis theoretically may be performed on other modes of aesthetic expres sion’ though such has not yet been attempted.) Voss’ technique demonstrates that man’s perception of emotionally satisfying artistic forms is directly related to the organization of the human brain. Dr. Voss' theory is based on the technical concept of "autocorrelation." The autocorrelation of a sequence of musical notes is the measure of how closely the present fluctuations of the signal are related to past fluctuations. A steady tone’ for instance’ is fully autocorrelated’ since the present sound can be predicted with absolute certainty from a knowledge of previous sound (i.e.’ it will stay the same). A completely non-autocorrelated signal does not depend at all upon prior states. Each musical note is chosen entirely independently of all others in the sequence. Information theorists call this kind of signal "white noise." White noise occurs most commonly in nature as the thermal noise produced by random motions of electrons through an electrical resistance. This causes static in radio and "snow" on television screens. Musical compositions can be created by mimicking this random process of selection’ say’ by tossing dice to determine the next note. Voss calls these works "white music." A very highly correlated form of noise’ called "Brownian noise’" takes its name from the physical phenomenon of Brownian motion. This may be observed under the microscope -- the random movements of small particles or organisms suspended in liquid water and buffeted by the thermal agitation of molecules much like bumper cars at carnivals. Each particle executes a three-dimensional random walk’ the sequential positions of which describe a highly correlated sequence. The particle "remembers" where it has been. Voss calls melodies constructed in the pattern of Brownian noise "brown music." Rather than choose the next note in the sequence at random’ brown music is generated by throwing dice to determine how many notes to progress up or down the musical scale from the present position. Velocity’ not position’ is selected randomly. Brown music is highly autocorrelated; white music is very non-autocorrelated. Voss’ insight was to examine a class of noise having an intermediate level of autocorrelation. In electronics it has a special name: Flicker noise’ or "1/f noise." Voss generated several musical compositions according to the white’ brown’ and flicker patterns. Invariably’ test subjects preferred "flicker music" (Figure 22.1) to either white music or brown music. But the reason for this preference remained unclear.

Figure 22.1 Voss' Theory of Flicker Music2861

Then surprising new information began to emerge. 1/f noise was found to be extremely commonplace in nature. For example’ the record of the annual flood levels of the Nile follows a 1/f fluctuation. Variations in sunspots’ the wobbling of Earth’s axis’ undersea currents’ membrane currents in the nervous systems of animals’ errors of measurement in atomic clocks’ and traffic flows on expressways all exhibit a recognizable flicker pattern. T. Musha’ a physicist at the Tokyo Institute of Technology’ rotated a radar beam from a coastal location to get a maximum variation of landscape on the radar screen. The pattern was Brownian. However’ when he rotated the beam twice and subtracted one image from the other (representing all the changes in the scene between the two sweeps) the resulting pattern was distinctly 1/f. The static world is very Brownian’ in other words’ but the dynamic world appears 1/f. It is Voss’ contention that the human brain also may best be character ized by flicker rather than Brownian or white patterns. Human brains prefer compositions of sound with only moderate autocorrelation’ and this is how we choose the music we like. Explains one writer: We are now approaching an understanding of Voss’ daring conjecture. The changing landscape of the world (or to put it another way the changing content of our total experience) seems to cluster around 1/f noise. It is certainly not entirely uncorrelated’ like white noise’ nor is it as strongly correlated as brown noise. From the cradle to the grave our brain is processing the fluctuating data that come to it from its sensors. If we measure this noise at the peripheries of the nervous system (under the skin of the fingers)’ it tends to be white. The closer one gets to the brain’ however’ the closer the electrical fluctuations approach 1/f. The nervous system seems to act like a complex filtering device’ screening out irrelevant elements and processing only the patterns of change that are useful for intelligent behavior.2881 We like flicker music best because it parallels the way our brain works. Our mental "negentropic hunger" demands a sensory diet of "1/f food." And since 1/f is the pattern of dynamic reality’ we may expect that the neural equipment of many alien sentients will be organized in much the same way. There are also a number of. physiological sensory limitations upon the music that extraterrestrials may enjoy. First there is the question of frequency response of alien ears. The average human can hear from 20-20’000 Hz. He can discriminate 600 distinct pitches at whisper loudness (5 dB) and 1800 pitches at the loudness of normal speech (about 60 dB).696 In spite of this’ Western music makes use of no more than 100 distinct pitches’ and even if other cultures are added in the total does not approach the theoretical maxima. Our music is comparatively poor. The human ear has a hearing range of about 10 octaves’ a music range of 8 octaves’ a normal performing range of about 5 octaves’ and a talking range of less than 1 octave. To the dolphin’ with hearing from 100-200’000 Hz (11 octaves) and normal "speech" from perhaps 4000-40’000 Hz (3 octaves)’ our normal speech must sound incredibly dull’ flat’ and monotone. The entire human music range spans only the five bottommost octaves of dolphin hearing’ and our normal performing range spans less than four. ETs with hearing ranges or pitch discrimination markedly different from humans may be unable to appreciate our species’ music’ and vice versa. Fortunately’ however’ evidence marshalled by xenologists indicates the differences may not be too great in many cases. Most land animals on Earth’ including amphibians’ birds and mammals’ have maximum hearing limits between 10’000-100’000 Hz. While there are a number of notable exceptions (such as the alligator and the dolphin)’ aliens who evolutionarily have committed themselves to hearing as a major sensory modality probably will not fall much outside this range. The lower limit of hearing is fixed by even more fundamental considerations. The relative insensitivity of the human ear at low frequencies protects us from the distractions of normal bodily vibrations.82 If we could hear below 10 Hz’ our ears constantly would be bombarded with the creaks and groans of jointed skeletons’ trapped gases and flexing musculature. There may exist ETs with uniformly soft mushy bodies that do not squeak’ groan’ or burble. But if they have any hard parts at all’ chances are that aliens won’t hear below about 10 Hz either. There is also the question of rhythm in music.696 The basic unit of musical time is called a beat. The pace of the fundamental beat is called the tempo. What are the upper and lower limits of tempo in alien music? As for the upper limit’ human nervous tissue imposes a maximum rate of transmission for discrete signals of about 3 milliseconds (18’000 beats/minute).454 This theoretical maximum for human beings cannot nearly be reached in practice’ since musical messages must be processed through a complex network involving ear and brain structures. Generally’ as with flickering light impinging the eye’ musical sequences faster than about 20 notes per second (1200 beats/minute) lose their periodicity and become perceptually continuous phenomena. This is also the fastest speed at which notes may be separately fingered on a piano by human hands.665 It is certainly possible that extraterrestrials may have faster response times than this’ but it is doubtful that it can be much faster if biological building materials are used. The human flicker response of 20 events/second is an evolutionary adaptation which promotes survival by permitting detection of fast-occurring survival-related events in the environment. ETs on high gravity worlds may have reflexes twice as fast as our own (giving them a flicker rate of 2400 beats/minute)’ but it is doubtful that still faster perception would serve any biologically useful purpose. Ambient temperature has been shown to affect circadian rhythms and the flow of subjective time in animals and humans. Temperature and time are directly correlated: As temperature rises’ subjective time seems to pass faster. In one memorable experiment’ humans were required to tap a key at the subjective rate of three taps per second. When body temperature was artificially raised by diathermy’ an acceleration in the tapping rhythm was observed of which the subjects were not aware.91 Biochemical reactions generally go faster at elevated temperatures’ and neurochemistry is no exception. Given similar biochemistries’ xenologists expect warm climate aliens generally to prefer faster musical tempos and have faster flicker rates than extraterrestrial beings indigenous to colder climes. As for the lower limit of tempo’ humans are known to have a neurologically-determined attention span of from 2-10 seconds (6-30 beats/minute).665’1815 Studies have shown that the perception of rhythm disappears when beats follow each other by more than 2 seconds.91 Attention span’ like flicker rate’ is determined by evolution. ETs native to low gravity’ very cold worlds might have very long attention spans by human standards. Since nothing would happen very quickly on such a planet’ lifeforms would need to be more patient to discern developing survival-related patterns in the sensory environment. The music of these creatures’ perhaps involving a minimum tempo of 1 beat/minute’ would prove well-nigh intolerable to human ears. What about the preferred tempo? Human music normally runs at about 50-95 beats/minute’ and a rather striking convergence on 70-80 beats/minute has been discovered among terrestrial cultures all over the world.91’698 Musicologists had long believed that the appreciation of specific tempos was probably a learned product of culture. But since many societies seem to choose the same "most pleasing" tempo’ the explanation may lie in some characteristic of human physiology. One fascinating theory goes as follows.661’698 For the first 9 months of its existence’ the developing fetus is exposed to its mother’s heartbeat (normally 80 beats/minute) and to the periodic swaying due to the normal walking stride of pregnant mothers (also about 70-80 beats/minute). Newborn babies continue to hear the mother’s heartbeat when held to the chest for nursing or fondling. And experiments have shown that 70-80 beat/minute heartbeat sounds played over loudspeakers in hospital nurseries have an observable quieting effect on infants.661’82 So it may be that humans early learn to associate an aural environment of 70-80 beats/minute with warmth and security’ imprinting this preferred tempo upon them for life. Later’ the music they make naturally tends to cluster around 70-80 beats/minute. The implications for xenology are clear. Aliens with different heartbeat timing may have different preference tempos in their music. ETs with markedly different maternal heartbeat and walk-strides may have two distinct preferred tempos around which their songs tend to cluster. Sentient species without heartbeats’ without strides (e.g.’ no legs)’ or which hatch from eggs and so never experience the mother’s heartbeat or stride’ may have no preferred tempo whatsoever’ or it may be fixed by other factors. Of course’ the temporal arts are not strictly limited to the perception of sound. Other beings may make music utilizing other sensory modalities. Creatures who rely primarily on vision for communication may play visual music with flickering lights of varying colors’ intensities’ and tempos. They would doubtless find our Lasariums rather primitive efforts; and could humans ever hope fully to appreciate the nuances of prismatic harmony? The phrase "electronic music" takes on new meaning when applied to electrosensitive extraterrestrials’ and one wonders what mankind could make of dynamic magnetic music. Olfactory aliens may devise smell-symphonies’ performed in giant auditoriums constructed much like wind tunnels. Delicate aromas suggestive of moods or activities such as sex or physical combat could be combined to create emotional musical dramas. (The accidental "breaking of wind" by an embarrassed patron’ the osmic equivalent of shouting scatological curses in a human theater’ would surely be grounds for ejection by the ushers.)

* The political’ economic’ and social ideologies of cultures frequently are enshrined in their music and art. 2363

22.5.2 Alien Painting and Surface Arts If the "negentropic hunger" theory of aesthetics is correct’ then some form of artistic expression should be found among the more intelligent non human animals on Earth. Whales are known to sing half-hour songs that vary from season to season. Dolphins in captivity have been observed to blow echolocation beams in pairs’ playfully creating a sympathetic beat frequency between them.15 But not enough is known about free-living cetaceans to determine if they actually have art. Among the primates "song" and "dance" are common’ and as early as 1962 thirty-two had produced drawings and paintings in captivity: Twenty-three were chimpanzees’ two were gorillas’ three were orangutans’ and four were capuchin monkeys. None received special training or anything more than access to the necessary equipment. In fact’ attempts to guide the efforts of the animals by inducing imitation were always unsuccessful. The drive to use the painting and drawing equipment was powerful’ requiring no reinforcement from the human observers. Both young and old animals became so engrossed with the activity that they preferred it to being fed and sometimes threw temper tantrums when stopped.565 Xenologists expect that the environment will strongly affect the style of alien painters. Gravity’ for instance’ provides visual orientation for land-dwelling creatures. According to one science fiction writer’ describing a creature that grew up in the absence of gravity: The effect was very beautiful’ and totally alien. I saw that he was painting a flowing pattern of lines’ converging on a blue center. The common structure of Earth paintings’ into horizontal and vertical elements’ was lacking completely.3240 The surface arts among humans are predominantly visual. Mixtures of colors and hues in alien works will depend upon eye sensitivity and the characteristics of optical receptors in the eye (recall Table 13.2). The art of ETs with frequency sensitivity like honeybees would appear excessively blue to the human eye. There would be an absence of red hues’ and much of the chomatic tonality would be lost on us because we could not see several "invisible" ultraviolet colors. Aliens with eye responses similar to the seagull would produce predominantly reddish paintings with little blue or green. Other extraterrestrials might have visual sensitivities spanning a mere 1000 Angstroms’ in which case their art would appear monochromatic to us. Conversely’ our art would make little sense to them because of our unskilled use of their single major color. There are other visual surface arts than just the "visible." Infrared paintings’ for example’ might consist of patterns painted with materials of varying thermal conductivity and heated uniformly from behind to produce a static polythermal image. Kinetic heat art could be accomplished by the use of conductive metals: The ebb and flow of heat patterns diffusing across a metal surface may be a beautiful sight to alien eyes. Dynamic art may be commonplace among such creatures’ since touching’ fanning’ or blowing on the composition will cause its heat-colors to change. Radio art may be still more alien to human understanding. A single painting may cover an entire wall of a building and have no "visible" color. Irregularities in metal surfaces on the order of centimeters that strike our eyes as mere bumps and pock-marks will appear colorful and mirror-smooth to beings equipped with radio sight.1337 Sonic paintings are also quite possible. Porpoiselike pelagic sentients may set a sheet metal canvas vibrating uniformly with white noise. This is the sonic equivalent of blankness or whiteness. The aquatic artist then begins to paint by affixing tiny rectangular resonance cavities pointing outward on the metal canvas. These are driven by the white noise from behind (which contains all frequencies) and resonate at specific audio frequencies that represent colors in dolphin soundvision. Such works could be made kinetic by using a driving frequency mixture other than white noise. Drivers sweeping the spectrum in monosonic intervals would cause the Lound-colors in the picture to pop out one by one for separate viewing. Since dolphins also have a Doppler sense’ shifting the driver from blue to red sounds would make objects in the painting appear to move away from the observer’ and vice versa. Entire action sequences could be crammed into a single work. Xenologists admit that sonic and visual aesthetics may be mutually incomprehensible. Suppose we were to translate the Mona Lisa into sonic art using some sophisticated color/sound frequency mapping technique’ in which our blue was rendered as high frequency sound waves’ green as medium frequency’ and red as low frequency tones. The resulting image would not look at all (to a porpoise) like the actual human female would had she been viewed by the marine creature in the water. It is easy to see why. Whereas people live in a world of flesh’ hair and clothing’ dolphins see only solid bones and air pockets internal to the body using their echolocation vision. To them the skin and watery organs are virtually transparent. So sentient alien porpoises would regard most "rendered" human art as’ at best’ highly surrealistic. Conversely’ the equivalent of the dolphin "Mona Lisa’" rendered into human-visible form’ would probably resemble a multicolored X-ray snapshot showing bones and other hard parts’ liberally peppered with unsightly clumps and globules representing the female cetacean’s "beautiful" air vacuoles. Clearly a great deal of the aesthetic experience has been lost in the translation. Extraterrestrials who rely on touch as their primary sensory modality may develop a form of tactile painting (static)’ or some means of transmitting tactile images via "teletactivision" using a picture screen with vibrating embossed patterns (kinetic). Electrosensitive creatures might have what humans could only describe as "phosphene art." Odor-painting is also a distinct possibility’ with subtle blends of perfumes and scents: The Olfax artist’ by associating perfumes that have a connotation of fields’ individuals’ rituals’ or edifices within a framed area could produce in his audience by olfactory means a response similar to ours when we see painted lines and colors on a canvas that combine aesthetically and produce a visual image of the things they represent.1000 One can imagine a number of clever "visual" scent-puns. For instance’ the odor of heavily spiced pepperoni pizza might be juxtaposed with the scent of the alien equivalent of alka-seltzer. An electronic "teleolfactivision" could be used to bring kinetic osmic images directly into the home from across geographical distances.

22.5.3 Dance and Sports The art of dancing is the art of moving the body in a rhythmic fashion’ often accompanied by music’ to express an emotion or idea or to narrate a story.921 Dance of a sort is common among Earthly animals’ usually in connection with courtship activities. Among alien sentients dance will reflect cultural values including love’ religion’ and community.’ and may be used as a distinctive mode of communication.3018 Dance may also serve as a vigorous yet sensitive medium of entertainment and recreation’ and thus is closely related to sports. Dance is circumscribed by physiology. The degree of movement that is physically possible is determined by the flexibility and strength of muscles’ ligaments’ and the bony frame. The least flexible part of the body is the skeleton. As one writer describes humans: The structure of bones and joints governs the amount of bodily movement in any one direction. The ribs and chest can easily be bent to each side and forward but will not bend backward. The ball and socket structure of the shoulder and hip joints permits a small degree of movement. Movement from the hip is easier in a forward direction; it is more difficult to swing the leg up to the side or the back than in front of the body. The ballet dancer must practice until his legs can be raised high in all directions without loss of balance or control. A fundamental of dancing is the control of distribution of weight.921 This description will be quite different for extraterrestrials. Other creatures will have alternative limb structures that permit the alien body to flex in unexpected ways. To the author’s eyes’ even the very best human ballet always seems somewhat awkward and undignified. Perhaps this may be chalked up to man’s evolution on the grassy savannahs of prehistoric Africa. But compared to intelligent octopoid dancers with totally flexible limbs’ human performers must appear as clumsy lockkneed oafs. Creatures connected together with universal jointed skeletons should also prove superior in solo ballet performances. Weird internal structures will permit odd forms of dance which are physically impossible for human beings to emulate. This may result in artistic culture shock among human choreographers and artists’ who may undergo intricate surgical operations and skeletal modifications simply to be able to appreciate first hand the alien mode of emotive dance. Performances under conditions of low gravity (Moon or Mars) or in empty space3018 also should prove strikingly graceful -- something like underwater ballet’ but without the viscous medium. What can we say about sports? Multispecies athletic competition such as an Interplanetary Olympics would be complicated by the gravity factor. ETs native to highgravity worlds would have a natural advantage’ since in any given mass class these beings will have more muscle per kilogram than the others. It is an open question whether the gravity-related physiological differences between alien races will or should be compensated during scoring. Although the aggressivedischarge model of sports activity in humans has now been disproven’1804 other sentient races may use athletics to drain off pent-up emotional energy. Such creatures may instinctively regard compensatory scoring as unfair or unnecessary.*

* Much has been written about the effects of planetary surface gravity on various sports events’ especially track and field’ as for example Eck’ 1350 Lafleur’ 138 Margaria’ 3019 and Richardson. 558

22.5.4 Alien Sculpture and Architecture Sculpture may be broadly defined as the art of representing observed or imagined objects in three physical dimensions. Sculpture may take the form of a biological organism’ a statue’ or a frozen light sculpture involving laser bursts preserved in a cube of photosensitive gel.3058 Sculpturing may be computerized in the creation: An artist designs a composition’ say’ in wax’ and a machine-driven laser scalpel carves perfect copies in gold or stone’ on radium or plutonium ingots’ in miniature (as on a precious gem such as ruby or diamond)’ or in some architectural medium bigger than life.3059 Larry Niven’s "kdatlyno touch sculpture" could be constructed from a vibrating metal surface with variable textural and vibrational modes’ but it would have to be extremely wear-resistant to survive fondling by millions of spectators’ hands. Similar in concept are the "tactoids" imagined by Arthur C. Clarke’ an egg-shaped time-varying polytexturic handheld sculptural form that "does to the sense of touch what a kaleidoscope does to vision."1947 Sculptures need not necessarily involve the solid phase. Ivan Sanderson has described a unique form of dynamic water-sculpture that echolocating pelagic ETs might perfect: Certain substances glow in total darkness owing to the release of photons caused by the breakdown of materials that have become "charged" through the absorption of sunlight. What we see in the sea is called luminescence and is produced chemically by living things’ most notably by a tiny singlecelled animal known as Noctiluca miliaris. These creatures light up when stimulated in various ways -- as mechanically by a ship’s bow waves and wake.... Ultrasonic vibrations of the required intensity could be generated by a large marine animal; indeed’ dolphins and whales generate just such sounds. A beautifully coruscating whorl of light could be engendered by two porpoises’ "singing" in close harmony.632 Sentient dolphins’ in other words’ could create optical interference patterns by echolocating in pairs near the same frequency’ creating a dynamic light and-sound sculpture against a three-dimensional "screen" of luminescent microscopic lifeforms suspended in the ocean.* Rainbows are a form of natural sculpture’ and sentient creatures may be able to generate similar effects artificially. Radio vision aliens might construct a giant diffraction grating in the form of metal picket fences or using closely spaced electrically-conductive natural plant growth. Spaced 1-100 centimeters apart’ such patterns would yield three or four orders of rainbow-like spectra as an observer moved from the front around to the side. Sonic rainbows are also possible. One way to do it is to send white noise through a field of very large bubbles of air about 1 meter in diameter. Just as light slows in water droplets to form a natural optical rainbow in the sky’ sound travels slower in the rising air pockets and is refracted to create what porpoises might call an "airbow." A more elegant technique involves the use of very small air bubbles. As R. McNeill Alexander has pointed out’ when bubbles are blown in water a musical note can be heard because in the act of formation the bubble surfaces are set in vibration.230 The properties of pulsating bubbles are such that a bubble of 1 centimeter radius will emit sonic radiation at about 330 Hz; a bubble 0.1 centimeter in radius radiates at 3300 Hz; and so forth. Perhaps as part of an elaborate dance orchestration’ sentient dolphins could generate distinctive three-dimensional patterns of glowing water-space ("glowing" in the sonic spectrum) by blowing exactly the right kinds of bubbles at the proper locations with accurate timing. Such a sonic airbow could take on any shape or color desired by the artist. What about alien architecture? Sociobiologists are aware of many instances of homebuilding among nonhuman animals on Earth.3057’438 Octopuses live in "houses" which they either occupy fortuitously or build from scratch using rocks’ pebbles’ rusted cans’ bottles’ or anything else they can find on the sea floor.1000 The honeycomb hives of bees are perhaps the best known instance of animal architecture’ and Karl von Frisch has demonstrated that the hexagonal shape of the honeycomb is mathematically optimal in that it encloses the most volume using the least materials.438 And until the coming of mankind the monolithic cities of the termites represented the greatest modification of the natural landscape wrought by animal life. Built of porous clay and oriented exactly along an east-west axis to minimize the heating effects of direct sunlight’ termite mounds often reach heights of more than 5 meters and occasionally have diameters as wide as 30 meters across.1000 So we see that both solitary and gregarious creatures on this planet make use of architectural structures. Virtually all human societies utilize some form of shelter’ even in the Pacific islands where the climate is so benign that no elaborate housing is really needed. These facts argue strongly for the ubiquity of architecture among extraterrestrial societies.3060 What are the gross physical limits to such construction on any world? Gravity is the first problem.20 According to the Square-Cube Law’ the mass of a building which must be supported by its foundation increases as the cube of the linear dimension’ whereas the supportive area of the foundation increases only as the square. The compressive strengths of natural and artificial building materials are well known’924’1852 so it is a simple matter to calculate the maximum permissible sizes of structures on other worlds. Maximum height of a given design will vary inversely with gravity. In other words’ the highest building on a 2-gee planet can only be about half as high as a similar structure with similar materials constructed here on Earth. Another major environmental factor is geological activity.61 As we discovered in an earlier chapter’ massive planets have more internal energy available to drive thermal convection currents in the mantle. This means more earthquakes. Xenologists therefore expect to find sqatter’ more sturdy and temblor-proof buildings on heavy worlds than on light ones’ since quakes topple buildings more easily the higher their centers of gravity are from the ground.926’925 This conclusion is reinforced by the observation that high gravity and tectonic activity appear to be highly correlated. Still another important consideration is wind velocity. Planetologists recognize that planetary rotation is related to wind speed -- generally the faster the rotation’ the faster the winds. Also’ an empirical relation derived from data from the bodies in our solar system indicates that planetary mass and rotation are also correlated (for reasons unknown) -- the more massive the planet’ the shorter its day. Putting these two results together’ xenologists expect that massive high-gravity worlds should have faster winds than less massive’ low-gravity worlds. Tall’ wispy architectures are less likely on planets with ferocious winds.925 Nevertheless’ as Donald Stern once pointed out to the author’ architectural forms on high-wind-velocity planets can still have as much variation and height as on Earth: Wind factor can be compensated for. Under high wind conditions it is not necessary to weight a structure down to make it immovable. A good terran example of this is the Mongolian yurt’ a dome-shaped structure of wood latticework covered with hides and a felt-like material ½ cm thick. This structure weighs only a few hundred pounds and is designed to be fairly portable. Yet it can withstand wind velocities up to 140 kph on the open steppes. Even tall structures should be possible under such conditions. (See "Wicker Wonderland" in Keith Laumer’s Galactic Diplomat.) Spire-like city structures could be constructed to serve as a graduated series of windbreaks. They could conceivably be semiflexible’ but might prove more livable if they could be rigidly fixed in a giant latticework or grillwork system that would still be capable of breaking up the force of the wind. ("Galloping Gertie’" the Tacoma Narrows bridge’ collapsed because solid panels were used in the cable suspension; it was later rebuilt using a latticework system.) If spread across the face of a high-wind planet’ such structures could serve to lower the wind factor by several orders of magnitude.2976 Another possibility for windy worlds is to construct buildings in the shape of vertical airfoils’ streamlined’ gimballed and pointing into the wind for maximum stability.** Rather than using static construction materials’ it has been suggested that ETs may wish to employ what is called "biotecture" or biological architecture. One biostructure grown by architect Rudolf Doernach near Stuttgart’ Germany consists of living hazel trees bent into an arched framework over which dense foliage plants have been grown to form protective walls. Frank Lloyd Wright once designed a mile-high skyscraper with a foundation patterned after the taproot systems by which many plant species anchor themselves to the ground. Biotects dream of using genetically altered plants to grow predesigned habitable shapes’ and crystalline minerals chemically treated to grow into specific forms. Marine animals such as shellfish and coral could be genetically doctored and used in biotecture. As one science fiction writer describes it: A genetic manipulation of ordinary sea coral’ it was the cheapest building material known. The only real cost was in the plastic balloon that guided the growth of the coral and enclosed the coral’s special airborne food. The remnants of the shaping balloon gave all architectural coral buildings their telltale bulge. The exposed walls can be polished to a shining pink sheen’ Even after sunset the house glowed softly.231 Inside living houses we might find living furniture! A genetically altered canine’ bred for patience and furriness’ could serve as a self-moving chair (the "chairdog"); another variety could be used as a bed with a comfy conformable surface (the "bedog");2615 a modified Galapagos tortoise species could serve as living tables and desks (the "tableturtle"); and so forth. A wide variety of unusual architectural forms have been proposed by many writers’ including the cryotectural Ice City’3065 Ferrocement (Ant Farm) Structures’3062 Aerotecture’3062 Cybertecture’3062 Self-Building Symbiotic Structures’3065 the Sensitive House’3064 the Crystal Caves’3064 Archigram and Modular Habitats’3062 Chemitecture and Laser Architecture’3065’3063 Urban Microclimates’3062 Edible Houses’3064 Terratecture and Geotecture’3061 Green house Cities’3062 Kinetic Architecture’3063 the Biopolis’3067 Ecopolis’3062 and the Biomorphic Biosphere Megastructure.3066 Extraterrestrial architects and biotects may exploit these and countless other remarkable design approaches in the construction of buildings and habitats on other worlds.

* The gaseous phase is also a possibility -- "weather sculpture" has been suggested by at least one science fiction writer. 3077 ** Environmental and sensorial factors may also be significant. Olfactory beings may design "smell vents" into their buildings rather than windows and skylights. 1000 The equivalent for tactile ETs would be vibration transducers mounted into walls. And radio-visioned aliens inhabiting starless planets should have a most unique variety of interior lighting. Since radio illumination percolates up from the ground’ and deeper means hotter and thus brighter’ ETs might drill vertical shafts to bring forth "radio light." Houses might be built around these radio wells.

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Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 23. Abodes of Life: The Search Begins "The conditions of life are indeed narrow’ special’ restricted; intelligent’ organic life must’ relatively speaking’ be a rarity in the universe’ but we lack the information that would enable us to affirm with any confidence that such life is only to be found upon this world of ours. Heavy as the odds are against any particular world being an inhabited one’ yet when the limitless extent of space is considered’ and the innumerable numbers of stars and systems of stars’ it seems but reasonable to conclude that though inhabited worlds are relatively rare’ the absolute number of them may be considerable." -- E. Walter Maunder’ in Are the Planets Inhabited? (1913)599 "There are stars billions of years older than the Sun. The very oldest stars lack heavy metals; probably their planets are similarly lacking. Such very old stars are inhospitable environments for the development of technological civilizations. But some stars one or two billion years older than the Sun have no such attendant difficulties. It is surely possible that there are at least a few civilizations hundreds of millions or billions of years in our technological future." -- Carl Sagan’ in The Cosmic Connection (1973)15 "It must not be supposed that the normal fate of intelligent races in the galaxy is to triumph." -- Olaf Stapledon’ in Star Maker (1937)1946 "The universe that lies about us’ visible only in the privacy’ the intimacy of night’ is incomprehensively vast. Yet the conclusion that life exists across this vastness seems inescapable. We cannot yet be sure whether or not it lies within reach’ but in any case we are a part of it all. We are not alone!" -- Walter Sullivan’ in We Are Not Alone (1966)702

In previous chapters we have devoted much time to alternative alien biochemistries’ physiologies’ technologies’ behaviors and cultural forms. Our discussion now turns from consideration of particular extraterrestrial races to the examination of the possibilities of interaction among them. When man meets alien’ the human aspects of the event will be of monumental significance. Xenologists will be called upon to answer a number of very difficult questions. For instance’ what is the optimum first contact procedure’ both from the human standpoint and from the mutual perspective? How should we behave -- and how shall we -- when the fact of contact becomes widely known? What are the tradeoffs between physical security and the possibility of fantastic technological advancement and cultural enrichment? What is the best way to achieve understanding and community with a totally alien yet highly intelligent race of beings from another world’ and what are the implications of their technology (or lack thereof)? Are there strong rationales for contacting other sentient species in the Galaxy? Why should They bother contacting us? Before addressing these and many other fascinating issues’ xenologists must consider a preliminary query: What are the chances that first contact ever will occur? In other words’ is life’ in general’ distributed abundantly or sparsely throughout the cosmos? To answer this threshold question it is necessary to theorize in an informed manner upon the likelihood of extraterrestrial life’ intelligence’ and culture in our Galaxy’ including its distribution and probable frequency. Much in the estimates which follow is highly speculative’ but the methodology appears basically sound and yields a variety of curious results. (See especially Bond and Martin’3223 Bracewell’1041’80 Freeman and Lampton’1306 Hohlfeld and Terzian’2385 Kreifeldt’1263 Oliver and Billingham’57 Sagan’1317’22 Shklovskii and Sagan’20 Stull’3241 Sullivan’702 Tang’3087 von Hoerner’1054 and Wertz.1611) Such studies -- sometimes called Galactic Demographics by xenologists -- are the primary concern of this brief introductory chapter.

23.1 Theoretical Galactic Demography The late Harlow Shapley was perhaps the first astronomer ever to seriously attempt quantitatively to estimate the frequency of extraterrestrial life in the universe.816 It is said that Shapley was more optimistic than his published estimates indicate’ but that he deliberately chose extremely conservative numbers to forestall possible criticism from the scientific quarter. His calculation went something like this. Suppose that only one star out of every 1000 has any planets at all. Further’ let us presume that out of every 1000 worlds’ only a single one is located an appropriate distance from its sun (and thus has a climate suitable for life). Then assume that out of all these well-placed planets only one in 1000 is big enough to hold an atmosphere’ and that of these worlds’ only one in 1000 has a chemical composition appropriate for the origin of life. Combining all of these factors’ we find that only 1 star in 1012 is graced by life. There are at least 1021 stars in the universe so’ according to Shapley’ we may expect to find about 1’000’000’000 life sites in the cosmos. At first blush this seems like a very large number’ but upon further reflection we see it is actually quite pessimistic. Since the typical habitable galaxy has about 1011 stars’ only one galaxy out of ten will harbor any life at all. If this calculation is correct’ humanity is very much alone. It appears that Shapley selected his step-factors of 1000 largely out of cautious conservatism without any real basis in genuine’ established scientific findings. Subsequent formulations have been devised in an attempt to deal with this major failing of the Shapley calculation. The most popular alternative among xenologists today is the so-called Drake Equation1317 (or "Green Bank Formula"2358)’ named for its originator Frank D. Drake’ a well-known American radioastronomer currently associated with the Center for Radio-physics and Space Research at Cornell University.

23.1.1 The Drake Equation The Drake equation was developed to answer a specific and pragmatic question: How many advanced technical civilizations exist in our Galaxy’ having both the interest and the ability to engage in interstellar communications of some kind? The earliest form of the Drake equation’ much like the Shapley calculation’ consists essentially of a string of probabilities that are multiplied together to achieve the final result.* If N is the total number of communicative extraterrestrial civilizations’ then’ according to Drake: N = Nstar fp ne fl fi fc where Nstar is the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy which would be suitable suns for life-bearing planets; fp is the fraction of these "good suns" actually having planetary systems; ne is the number of planets with an environment suitable for life’ per solar system; fl is the fraction of suitable planets on which life finally does arise; f1 is the fraction of life-bearing worlds upon which intelligence appears; and is the fraction of planets harboring intelligent creatures who go on to develop the complex technology of interstellar communication. What values should we assign to these variables? At the end of Chapter 4’ we concluded that about 5% of all stars in the Galaxy -- roughly ten billion suns -- should have characteristics suitable for the emergence of life. Most of these will lie in the Disk and the outer Core regions of the Milky Way. Hence we choose Nstar = 1010 "good suns." What about fp? Astronomers now know that most stars are double or multiple.3260 Many "dark companions" have been confirmed’ circling quite a few of the nearest stars’ during the past century. There are numerous reports of possible planetary bodies (jovian-sized and larger) in orbit around a dozen or so of Sol’s stellar neighbors. In light of all the evidence’ fp = 1 is probably reasonable. How about ne? Based on the work of Dole and others’ many astronomers believe that most single-star solar systems are likely to have from 7-13 major planetary bodies orbiting at various distances.1258’2714 Further’ if we use our own system as an example of the typically exotic’ we see that one out of nine planets has an environment suitable at least for our kind of life (carbon aqueous). So ne = 1 is certainly a plausible estimate. (Note that the possibility of lifeforms with alternative biochemistries merely serves to increase ne.) And recent studies of the origin of life on this planet seem to suggest that abiogenesis is virtually inevitable wherever a suitable environment exists’ given enough time. There is wide spread agreement that setting fl = 1 cannot be too wide of the mark. What about the two remaining factors’ fi and fc? Optimists generally assert that the development of intelligence is evolutionarily inevitable’ since brains must serve the same negentropic master as the life process itself. In addition’ they argue’ intelligence begets society and society begets technology as population pressures mount and per capita resources dwindle. Under this view’ fi = fc = 1. Other scientists are not so sanguine about the inevitability of intelligence and culture. Human intellect has risen only in the last ~106 years’ and culture in only perhaps ~105 years. This represents a mere 0.02% and 0.002%’ respectively’ of the total time life has existed on Earth. Maybe we’ve just been extraordinarily lucky’ and conscious intelligence normally requires much more time to emerge. Or per haps sentience usually fails to evolve at all before the local sun reaches the end of its life. And there are too many examples of technologically static and socially "arrested" cultures on Earth to ignore. Scientists who have attempted to balance these conflicting "optimistic" and "pessimistic" viewpoints generally conclude that fi = 0.1 and = fc = 0.1 are not unreasonable numbers.3241 Multiplying all six factors together gives N = 1010 x 1 x 1 x 1 x 0.1 x 0.1 = 100’000’000 communicative technical civilizations in the Milky Way alone. Or’ omitting the factor we conclude that there may be as many as one billion intelligent alien races scattered throughout the Galaxy’ each separated from the next by an average distance of 34 light-years. Table 23.1 gives the estimated number of sentient extraterrestrial species expected to lie within a radius R of Earth.

Table 23.1 Number of Stars, "Good Suns," and Intelligent Alien Races Within Radius R of Earth, using the Early Drake Equation Formulation Est. Number of "Good Suns" Within Radius R of Earth

Est. Number of Stars in Disk, Within Radius R of Earth

Radius R

Intelligent Alien Races Within Radius R of Earth

(light-years) 10

10

(1)

(1)

20

100

5

(1)

50

5

500

50

5000

500

50’000

5000

400’000

40’000

1000

50

10’000

100 200

100’000 1’000’000

500

8’000’000

1000 2000

40’000’000

2’000’000

200’000

5000

300’000’000

15’000’000

1’500’000

10’000

900’000’000

45’000’000

4’500’000

This simple form of the Drake Equation is static’ however. It assumes that a communicative civilization’ once formed’ survives indefinitely. But all species eventually become extinct; even stars and galaxies eventually must die. Xenologists who work with the Drake Equation methodology prefer to include a dynamic component which takes account of the possible destruction of civilizations. This results in the "traditional" version of the Drake Equation’ as follows: N = Rstar fp ne fl fi fc L where Rstar is the mean rate of "good star" formation in the Galaxy (1010 stars / 1010 years = 1.0 "good suns"/year) and L is the average lifespan of a typical alien technical civilization. Plugging in numbers as before’ we find that N = 1.0 x 1 x 1 x 1 x 0.1 x 0.1 x L = L/100. The mean lifetime of a civilization appears to be of critical significance in the calculation. What do we do with L? Optimists may insist that technical cultures should be able to survive for 108 years. This corresponds roughly to the reign of the dinosaurs on Earth’ and to the time ant society has persisted. There is no reason’ argue the optimists’ why humans and smart ETs could not do at least as well using the benefits of high technology. Accepting L = 108 years’ then N = 1’000’000 sapient cultures in the Milky Way at the present time. Pessimists point out that human technology is highly militaristic (and even that militarism may be necessary for the evolution of intelligence and technology3241). They note that the accumulated global destructive power today exceeds 10 tons of TNT (or its equivalent) per person. This may be viewed as a round ball of dynamite two meters in diameter hanging over the heads of every man’ woman and child on Earth.22 Initiation of global destruction rests in the hands of only a few dozen people’ and the world military balance becomes more precarious with each passing decade. In the opinion of the pessimists’ L may be on the order of decades’ not eons. (Compare Berry77 and Viewing and Horswell3088 with Brown3272 and Hoyle.2998) Choosing the "generous" value of L = 102’ the number of communicative civilizations extant in the Galaxy today falls to N = 1 (that is’ us).85 The traditional Drake Equation may be written in the reduced form N = Lo L’ where Lo is the mean birth rate of new technical civilizations per annum in the Milky Way. Since deaths should equal births in a stable population’ L may also be interpreted as the mean death rate of advanced societies. (Mathematically’ Lo = Rstar fp ne fl fi fc.) In the analysis above we found that N = L/100’ or Lo = 10-2. An optimist’ however’ might choose Lo = 1 society/year’ in which case N = L. A pessimist’ on the other hand’ might select Lo = 10-4 societies/year’ which gives N = L/10’000. (The results of choosing various ET community "turnover" rates are displayed on the graphs in Figure 23.1.) Once the xenologist has selected the cultural birth rate with which he feels most comfortable’ both the number of extant technical communities and the average distance between them may be exactly determined. It is interesting to observe that only by making the most optimistic assumptions possible can we place the nearest advanced extraterrestrial civilization within 100 light-years of Earth.

Figure 23.1 Number of and Distance to Extraterrestrial Civlizations as a Function of Cultural Longevity

Modern xenologists have made still further improvements on the methodology of galactic demography.57 The traditional version of the Drake Equation uses a mean value for Rstar -- the rate of formation of "good suns" in the Galaxy -- which is averaged over the estimated 10 eon lifetime of the Milky Way. Yet astrophysicists recognize that the rate of star production from interstellar gases and dust has not held constant over time. Ten eons ago’ the rate was perhaps two or three orders of magnitude higher than the mean; today’ it is an order or two below. By taking this fact into account xenologists are more accurately able to calculate the number of alien civilizations which coexist (or have coexisted) in the Galaxy at any time t. In mathematical terms’ the number N becomes the time-function N(t). Consider the graph in Figure 23.2 below. The leftmost curve’ marked R*(t)’ represents the total number of solar systems suitable for the emergence of life as a function of galactic time. At each of these useful sites’ xenobiologists tell us’ life should originate within a few hundred million years. This event is then followed by a gestation time during which life and intelligence evolve’ eventually resulting in the rise of a technical culture. For reasons that will become clear presently’ we choose to set fi = fc = 1 (that is’ Lo = 1) for the purposes of this calculation. In other words’ we optimistically assume that every "good sun" eventually spawns an advanced alien civilization.

Figure 23.2 Population of Extraterrestrial Civlizations as a Function of Galactic Time (modified from Oliver1305)

Applying the Hypothesis of Mediocrity and the example of Earth’ xenologists believe that a good average value for the gestation time C should be on the order of that for human culture’ about 4.5 x 109 years. Depending on local environmental conditions this quantity undoubtedly will vary considerably’ but it seems that 4.5 eons is a reasonable mean or "expected" value. After the gestation period has elapsed’ the number of sites in the Milky Way having communicative civilizations rapidly increases’ following roughly the shape of the R*(t) curve. Later’ when the average lifetime L of the typical technical culture has expired’ extraterrestrial civilizations begin to die off along a curve parallel to the growth. (These two curves are labeled "BIRTH" and "DEATH" on the graph.) For reasons that will become apparent’ we choose a very optimistic value for L of 109 years. To obtain the Galactic population (the number of coexisting civilizations) at any given time t’ galactic demographers simply subtract the death curve from the birth curve. The difference is the number of alien technical cultures which have been born but have not yet died at time t. On the graph this population curve is designated N(t).1305 Perhaps the most fascinating result of this analysis is the size’ shape and position of N(t). Apparently the population of coexistent technical civilizations peaked out about four billion years ago’ when primeval ooze still slopped the rocky shores of ancient Earth. Humanity thus appears to be a latecomer on the cosmic stage -- the majority of Galactic history has come and gone without us.442 Seemingly’ advanced life was more common in the past than it is now.57 While there still exist a billion sites of life extant in the Milky Way today (50% of the peak reached 4 eons ago) there are some seven billion sites of extinct alien civilizations for starfaring archaeologists of the future to pore over. In other words’ about 7 of every 8 technological alien cultures that have ever existed are extinct today. It now becomes clear why we chose such optimistic values for fi’ fc’ and L. Changing these numerical assumptions to more pessimistic values does not alter the sobering conclusion that humanity may have missed most of the Galactic action. For L’ we’ve already selected as optimistic a figure as common sense will permit; smaller values merely serve to decrease the galactic population overall and to shift the peak of N(t) further back in time. Choosing more conservative numbers for and in the Drake Equation has a similar effect. In fact’ only by positing an unreasonably lengthy mean gestation time plus mean lifetime (G ‘ L) greater than 12 billion years can demographers arrange for humanity to sit on the rising side of the curve representing the civilized population of the Galactic community.

* Skeptics have wryly asserted that the Drake Equation is nothing more than a clever way to compress a large amount of ignorance into a very small space.

23.2 Experimental Galactic Demography Where might we expect to find alien life and civilization in nearby extrasolar space? The tables on the following three pages may serve as starting points for discussions of this speculative question. Table 23.2 lists the 75 brightest named stars in the night sky of Earth.

Table 23.2 The 75 Brightest Named Stars in the Night Sky of Earth (modified after Robinson3086) Name

Star

Distance

Spectral Class

Luminosity Class

(light-years) Sol

(a Solaris)

Rigil Kentaurus A

a Centauri A

B

0.000016

G2

Main Sequence dwarf

4.38

G2

Main Sequence dwarf

4.38

K6

Main Sequence dwarf

B

Sirius

a Canis Majoris A

8.7

Al

Main Sequence dwarf

Procyon

a Canis Minoris A

11.4

F5

(leaving Main Seq.)

Altair

a Aquilae

16.6

A7

(leaving Main Seq.)

Algenib

b Hydri

21

G1

Subgiant

Fomalhaut

a Piscis Austrini

22.6

A3

Main Sequence dwarf

Vega

a Lyrae

26.5

A0

Main Sequence dwarf

Pollux

b Geminorum

35

K0

Normal giant

Arcturus

a Boötis

36

K2

Normal giant

Denebola

b Leonis

43

A3

Main Sequence dwarf

Caph

b Cassiopeiae

4S

F2

Subgiant

Capella

a Aurigae

45

G8

Normal giant

Castor A

a Geminorum A

45

Al

Main Sequence dwarf

45

A5

B

B

Alderamin

a Cephei

52

A7

(leaving Main Seq.)

Menkent (Chart)

Theta Centauri

55

K0

Normal giant

Diphda (Deneb Kaitos)

b Ceti

57

K1

Normal giant

Ras Alhague

a Ophiuchi

58

A5

Normal giant

Megrez

d Ursa Majoris

63

A3

Main Sequence dwarf

Al Na’ir

a Gruis

64

B5

Main Sequence dwarf

Acamar

Theta Eridani

65

A3

Main Sequence dwarf

Kiffa Australis (Zuben Elgenubi)

a Librae A

66

A3

Aldebaran

a Tauri A

68

K5

Alioth

Epsilon Ursa Majoris

68

A0

Sabik

e Ophiuchi

69

A2.5

Mirach

b Andromedae

76

M0

Normal giant

Hamal

a Arietis

76

K2

Normal giant

Alphecca (Gemma)

a Coronae Borealis

76

A0

Main Sequence dwarf

Merak

b Ursa Majoris

78

Al

Main Sequence dwarf

Atria

a Trianguli Australis

82

K2

Normal giant

Regulus

a Leonis A

84

B7

Main Sequence dwarf

Miaplacidus

b Carina

86

A0

Normal giant

Mizar

Zeta Ursa Majoris A

88

A2

Main Sequence dwarf

Alpheratz

a Andromedae

90

B9

Phecda (Phad)

g Ursa Majoris

90

A0

Main Sequence dwarf

Ankaa (Nair al Zaurak)

a Phoenicis

93

K0

Normal giant

Alphard

a Hydrae

94

K4

Normal giant

Canopus

a Carina

98

F0

Supergiant

Mira

Omicron Ceti A

103

M6

Giant

Algol

b Persei

105

B8

Main Sequence dwarf

Dubhe

a Ursa Majoris

105

K0

Normal giant

Kochab

b Ursa Minoris

105

K4

Normal giant

Eltanin (Etamin)

g Draconis

108

K5

Normal giant

Markab

a Pegasi

109

B9.5

Normal giant

Achernar

a Eridani

118

B5

Subgiant

Kaus Australis

Epsilon Sagittarii

124

B9

Subgiant

Menkar (Menkab)

a Ceti

130

M2

Normal giant

Schedar

a Cassiopeiae

150

K0

Bright giant

Alkaid (Benetnasch)

e Ursa Majoris

210

B3

Main Sequence dwarf

Scheat

b Pegasi

210

M2

Bright giant

Gacrux

g Crucis

220

M3

Bright giant

Spica (Azimech)

a Virginis

220

B1

Main Sequence dwarf

Almach

g Andromedae A

260

K3

Bright giant

El Nath

b Tauri

300

B7

Normal giant

Nunki

s Sagittarii

300

B2

Main Sequence dwarf

Shaula

g Scorpii

310

B1

Main Sequence dwarf

Avior A

Epsilon Carina A

340

B

340

K0

370

B1

370

B3

B

B

Acrux A

a Crucis A

B

B

Normal giant Main Sequence dwarf

Subgiant

Ras Algethi

a Hercules

410

MS

Bright giant

Albireo

b Cygni A

410

K3

Bright giant

Gienah

g Corvi

450

B8

Normal giant

Bellatrix

g Orionis

470

B2

Normal giant

Becrux

b Crucis

490

B0

Normal giant

Agena (Hadar)

b Centauri

490

B1

Bright giant

Betelgeuse

a Orionis

520

M2

Supergiant

Antares

a Scorpii A

520

M1

Supergiant

Alcyone

e Tauri

540

B7

Normal giant

Mirfak

a Persei

570

F5

Supergiant

Polaris

a Ursa Minoris A

680

F8

Supergiant

Adhara

Epsilon Canis Majoris A

680

B2

Bright giant

Al Suhail

g Velorum

750

K5

Supergiant

Enif

Epsilon Pegasi A

780

K2

Supergiant

Rigel

b Orionis A

900

B8

Supergiant

Alnilam

Epsilon Orionis

1600

B0

Supergiant

Deneb (Arided)

a Cygni

1600

A2

Supergiant

Table 23.3 gives a complete inventory of all luminous stars within 20 light-years of Sol.

Table 23.3 Complete Inventory of Luminous Stars with 20 Light-Years of Sol (modified from Mattinson1114) Star Constellation Distance Spectral Class (light-years) Proxima Centauri a Centauri A B Barnard's Star (‘44° 3561) Wolf 359 Lalande 21185 (BD‘366° 2147) Sirius A B Luyten 726-8 A and B Ross 154 Ross 248 e Eridani Luyten 789-6 Ross 128 61 Cygni A B e Indi Procyon A B ‘599° 1915 A S 2398 . B Groombridge 34 A (BD‘433° 44) B Lac 9352 (CD-366° 15693) t Ceti LET 118 (L725-32) Lac 8760 (CD-399° 14192) Luyten’s Star (BD‘55° 1668) Kapteyn’s Star (-455° 1841) Krüger 60 A B Ross 614 A B BD-122° 4523 Von Maanen's Star (Wolf 28) Wolf 424 A and B G 158-27 CD-377° 15492 Groombridge 1618 (BD‘500° 1725) CD-466° 11540 CD-499° 13515 CD-444° 11909 Luyten 1159-16 BD‘688° 946 Luyten 145-141 Ross 780 (BD-155° 6290) 40 Eridani A B C BD‘200° 2465 Altair 70 Ophiuchi A B AC‘799° 3883 BD‘433° 4305 Stein 2051 A (AC‘58) B Lalande 25372 (BD‘155° 2620) WX UMa A (‘444° 2051) B 36 Ophiuchi A (-266° 12026) B C HR 7703 A (-366° 13940) B o Draconis Ross 882 (YZ CMi) d Pavonis ‘11° 4774 Luyten 347-14 -211° 1377 Luyten 97-12 Luyten 674-15 h Cassiopeiae A B Luyten 205-128 (UC 48) HD 36395 (-33° 1123) -400° 9712 Ross 986 (AC‘38) Ross 47 (AC‘12) Wolf 294 (AC‘33) LP 658-2 ‘533° 1320 A and B ‘44° 4048 A B -455° 13677

Centaurus Cantaurus Cantaurus Ophiuchus Leo Ursa Major Canis Major Canis Major Cetus Sagittarius Andromeda Eridanus Aquarius Virgo Cygnus Cygnus Indus Canis Minor Canis Minor Draco Draco Andromeda Andromeda Grus Cetus Cetus Microscopium Canis Minor Pictor Cepheus Cepheus Monoceros Monoceros Ophiuchus Pisces Virgo Cetus Sculptor Ursa Major Ara Grus Scorpius Aries Draco Musca Aquarius Eridanus Eridanus Eridanus Leo Aquila Ophiuchus Ophiuchus Camelopardalis Lacerta Camelopardalis Camelopardalis Boötes Ursa Major Ursa Major Ophiuchus Ophiuchus Ophiuchus Sagittarius Sagittarius Draco Canis Minor Pavo Pisces Sagittarius Lepus Volans Puppis Cassiopeia Cassiopeia Ara Orion Lupus Auriga Orion Gemini Orion Ursa Major Aquila Aquila Sagittarius

4.29 4.38 4.38 5.91 7.57 8.04 8.65 8.65 8.94 9.45 10.29 10.69 10.80 10.95 11.17 11.17 11.21 11.36 11.36 11.48 11.48 11.57 11.57 11.69 11.95 12.50 12.54 12.64 12.74 12.84 12.84 13.10 13.10 13.10 13.94 14.24 14.43 14.50 15.03 15.10 15.24 15.31 15.38 15.76 15.83 15.83 15.76 15.76 15.76 16.15 16.64 16.73 16.73 16.81 16.90 16.99 16.99 17.40 17.54 17.54 17.73 17.73 17.73 18.43 18.43 18.53 18.53 18.64 18.64 18.64 18.74 18.85 19.07 19.19 19.19 19.19 19.19 19.30 19.30 19.41 19.41 19.65 19.65 19.65 19.65 19.89

M5 G2 K6 M5 M8 M2 Al A M6 M5 M6 K2 M6 M5 K5 K7 KS F5 F M4 M5 M2 M4 M2 G8 M5 M1 M4 M0 M4 M6 M5 M M5 G M6 14 M3 K7 M4 M3 M5 M8 M3.5 A M5 K0 A M4 M4 A7 K1 K6 M4 M5 M5 A M2 M2 M8 K2 K1 K6 K3 M5 K0 M4 G6 M2 M7 M1 F M G0 M0 M M1 M4 M5 M6 M4 K M0 M4 M5 M0

Table 23.4 includes a listing of all "good suns"* within 100 light-years (30 parsecs) of Sol.

Table 23.4 Inventory of Good Suns* (F5-K2) within 100 Light-Years of Sol (selected from Hofflied575) Star Name Range

Spectral Class

Star Name Range

(lt-yrs)

Spectral Class

Star Name Range

(lt-yrs)

Spectral Class

(lt-yrs)

a Centauri

4.4

G2

HD196761 (Capricorn)

50

G8

Mu Cygni

72

F6

Epsilon Eridani

10.7

K2

n Phoenicis

51

F8

Theta Antliae

72

F1

Procyon

11.4

F5

111 Tauri

51

F8

HD131923 (Lupus)

72

G7

t Ceti

12.0

G8

Iota Piscium

51

F7

HD53705 (Puppis)

74

G3

40 Omicron Eridani

15.8

K0

26 Draconis

51

G1

HD128020 (Circinus)

74

F5

70 Ophiuchi

16.7

K1

g Cor. Austrinae

51

F8

22 Lyncis

74

F6

36 Ophiuchi

17.7

K1

e Coronae Borealis

52

G2

HD3158 (Phoenix)

76

F6

s Draconis

18.5

K0

KD5015 (Cassiopeia)

53

F8

HD91324 (Vela)

76

F6

d Pavonis

18.6

G6

Upsilon Andromedae

53

F8

HD159964 (Apus)

76

F8

e Cassiopeiae

19.2

G0

81 Cancri

53

K0

66 Ceti

76

F9

82 Eridani

20.2

G5

Chi Cancri

53

F6

Mu Draconis

76

F6

HD10360 (Eridanus)

22

K0

HD122742 (Boötes)

53

G8

16 Ursa Majoris

76

F9

Xi Boötis

22

G8

HD126053 (Virgo)

53

G3

9 Ceti

78

G2

Mu Cassiopeiae

24

G5

45 Boötis

53

F5

75 Cancri

78

G3

Zeta Tucanae

24

G2

6 Ceti

54

F6

68 Eridani

78

F5

24.3

K1

15 Sagittae

54

G1

Rho Coronae Borealis

78

G2

HD17925 (Eridanus)

26

K0

HD24953 (Grus)

54

G1

HD88218 (Antlia)

78

F9

Xi Ursa Majoris

26

G0

n Lupus

55

G2

Kappa Tucanae

78

F6

HD156274 (Ara)

26

G8

y Ceti

55

F8

HD96700 (Hydra)

78

G2

Pi Orionis

26

F6

HD178428 (Sagitta)

55

G4

HD108799 (Corvus)

78

F8

g Lepus

27

F6

HD30003 (Dorado)

55

G5

HD189245 (Sagittarius

78

F8

Chi Draconis

27

F7

HD34721 (Lepus)

55

G0

HD181655 (Lyra)

73

G8

b Comae Berenices

27.2

G0

HD65907 (Carina)

55

G2

y Pavonis

80

F8

HD1923]0 (Capricorn)

28

K0

18 Scorpii

55

G1

HD81809 (Hydra)

80

G2

61 Virginis

28

G6

HD89744 (Ursa Major)

55

F6

70 Tauri

80

F5

a Mensae

28.3

G5

13 Ceti

56

F8

HD50223 (Puppis)

80

F5

g Pavonis

29

F8

99 Herculis

56

F7

HD179958 (Cygnus)

80

G4

HD10780 (Cassiopeia)

29

K0

104 Tauri

56

G4

70 Virginis

80

G5

61 Ursa Majoris

30

08

HD102438 (Hydra)

56

G5

HD221356 (Aquarius)

80

G0

b Canum Venaticorum

30

G0

HD73752 (Pyxis)

56

G5

HD198084 (Cepheus)

80

F8

Kappa Ceti

31

G5

HD182488 (Lyra)

57

K0

12 Persei

82

F9

Chi Orionis

32

G0

a Comae Berenices

57

F5

HD91889 (Hydra)

82

F8

HD166620 (Hercules)

33

K2

HD63077 (Puppis)

57

G0

HD210918 (Grus)

82

G5

54 Piscium

33

K0

HD120690 (Hydra)

58

G5

HD123 (Cassiopeia)

84

04

HD100623 (Hydra)

33

K0

t Boötis

58

F7

HD45588 (Canis Major)

84

F9

b Virginia

33

F8

HD176051 (Lyra)

58

G0

Zeta Cancri

84

F8

Zeta Reticuli A

34

G2

Chi Herculis

58

F9

Omega Draconis

84

F5

Zeta Reticuli B

34

G1

H042807 (Orion)

58

G6

HD111456 (Ursa Major)

84

F6

HD14412 (Fornax)

35

G5

HD48938 (Canis Major)

58

F8

HD184985 (Sagittarius)

84

F6

HD102365 (Centaurus)

35

G5

Omega Sagittarii

59

G5

38 Leonis Minoris

86

F8

HD37394 (Auriga)

36

K2

10 Tauri

60

F8

HD223731 (Cepheus)

86

F5

l Serpentis

36

G0

HD73524 (Vela)

60

G1

89 Leonis

86

F5

d Trianguli

36

G0

58 Ophiuchi

60

F5

HD99453 (Centaurus)

86

F8

Psi Capricorni

36

F5

53 Aquarii

60

G2

19 Leonis Minoris

86

F5

12 Ophiuchi

37

K0

20 Leonis Minoris

62

G4

34 Pegasi

86

F5

HD10307 (Andromeda)

38

G2

83 Leonis

62

K0

Xi Capricorni

86

F8

85 Pegasi

38

G3

g Doradus

62

F5

38 Cassiopeiae

88

F6

Iota Persei

39

G0

HD33564 (Camelopardus)

62

F6

HD12042 (Eridanus)

88

F7

HD131511 (Boötes)

39

K1

HD197076 (Deiphinus)

62

G2

71 Orionis

88

F6

HD13445 (Eridanus)

39

K0

d Equulei

62

F7

HD44120 (Pictor)

88

G0

Zeta Trianguli Australis

39

G0

HD25457 (Eridanus)

62

F6

HD55575 (Lynx)

88

G0

HD72673 (Pyxis)

41

K0

HD3823 (Tucana)

63

G1

HD189340 (Aquila)

88

G0

36 Ursa Majoris

41

F8

Kappa Reticuli

63

F5

7 Canum Venaticorum

88

F6

Zeta Doradus

42

F8

HD212330 (Tucana)

63

G4

HD3795 (Cetus)

91

G3

HD76151 (Hydra)

42

G3

HD68456 (Carina)

64

F7

38 Virginis

91

F6

HD104304 (Virgo)

42

G7

b Caeli

64

F8

HD2O3454 (Cygnus)

91

F8

Theta Persei

42

F7

HD80671 (Carina)

64

F5

HD11007 (Triangulum)

91

F6

HD211415 (Grus)

42

G1

HD90508 (Ursa Major)

64

G1

HD14214 (Cetus)

91

F9

44 Boötis

43

G1

HD159222 (Hercules)

64

G5

91

F7

HD158633 (Draco)

43

K1

HD119124 (Ursa Major)

65

F9

11 Aquarius

91

G1

59 Virginis

43

F8

HD2O4121 (Aquarius)

65

F5

HD122862 (Apus)

93

G1

HD69830 (Puppis)

43

G8

l Fornacis

67

G1

HD184960 (Cygnus)

93

F8

Rho Cancri

44

K0

94 Ceti

67

F8

39 Serpentis

93

G2

Iota Pegasi

44

F5

HD88742 (Antliae)

67

G1

112 Piscium

93

G1

47 Ursa Majoris

45

G0

HD147513 (Scorpius)

67

G5

HD175225 (Draco)

93

G8

51 Pegasi

45

G5

110 Herculis

67

F6

Rho Arietis

93

F5

HD84117 (Hydra)

45

G0

HD2O2940 (Capricorn)

67

G5

HD2O0375 (Aquarius)

93

F5

HD130948 (Bodtes)

46

G2

HD43587 (Orion)

68

G0

HD28255 (Dorado)

93

G0

Mu Arae

46

G5

HD72945 (Hydra)

68

F6

HD41700 (Puppis)

93

F8

HD3443 (Cetus)

47

G5

HD100203 (Ursa Major)

68

F6

HD225239 (Andromeda)

96

G2

Kappa Fornacis

47

G1

g Coronae Austrinae

68

F8

16 Cygni

96

02

HD166 (Pegasus)

47

K0

Xi Pegasi

69

F7

HD43318 (Orion)

96

F6

19 Draconis

47

F6

HD189567 (Pavo)

69

G2

64 Ceti

96

F8

39 Tauri

47

G1

36 Draconis

69

F5

HD44594 (Puppis)

96

G0

HD140901 (Lupus)

47

G6

17 Cygni

69

F5

HD201647 (Microscopium)

96

F7

HD62613 (Camelopardus)

47

G8

HD114613 (Centaurus)

69

G3

HD218630 (Gras)

96

F6

72 Herculis

47

G2

HD114837 (Centaurus)

69

F8

HD2475 (Cetus)

96

G0

HD76943 (Lynx)

47

F5

s Coronae Borealis

69

F6

18 Puppis

96

F7

HD207129 (Grus)

48

G2

64 Piscium

71

F8

Psi Aurigae

48

G0

HD168009 (Vega)

71

G0

t Hydrae

49

F6

t Piscis Austrini

71

F5

HD206860 (Pegasus)

49

G0

Iota Pavonis

71

G0

t Eridanj

49

F6

50 Persei

71

F7

Theta Boötis

49

F7

HD41330 (Auriga)

71

G0

HD39881 (Orion)

49

G0

HD1544]7 (Ophiuchus)

71

F8

HD64379 (Puppis)

49

F5

HD46588 (Camelopardus)

71

F6

58 Eridani

49

G1

HD71148 (Lynx)

71

G4

l Aurigae

49

G0

HD213429 (Aquarius)

71

F8

HD84737 (Ursa Major)

49

G1

HD94388 (Crater)

71

F6

HD193664 (Draco)

49

GS

Psi Serpentis

71

G5

HD224636 (Andromeda)

50

G0

HD136064 (Ursa Minor)

71

F8

HD224635 (Andromeda)

50

G0

HD103437 (Centaurus)

71

F8

Puppis

50

G1

Omicron Aquilae

71

F8

Pi Ursa Majoris

50

G0

HD186760 (Cygnus)

72

F8

Canum Venaticorum

50

G0

HD49095 (Canis Major)

72

F6

107 Piscium

HD219623 (Andromeda)

.

.

*In this context’ a "good sun" is a Main Sequence dwarf (Sol-like) belonging to stellar classes F5-K2. The nearest to Sol is the a Centauri star system’ 3089 which recently has been discovered to be 6 eons old and significantly richer in heavy elements than our own solar system.3224

Due to unavoidably deficient data’ Table 23.4 is complete only out to about 40 light-years. From 40-100 light-years’ data are available only for about 25% of the "good suns" expected to lie at this range. The deficiency is almost exclusively among the class K stars (which are harder to measure at great distances) beyond 40 light-years’ although many late class G suns are also missing beyond 50-60 light-years.

23.2.1 Direct Observation of Alien Planets Assuming habitable worlds circle some or all of these distant stars’ how might they be detected from Earth? There are four basic techniques’ none of which has as yet provided absolutely unambiguous evidence for the existence of extrasolar planets. (See reviews by Gatewood’1567 Huang’1278 Martin1452’1088’1092 Matloff and Fennelly’1614 Morrison’ Billingham’ and Wolfe’2865 O’Leary’1244 and Smith.2866) The present state of the data is summarized in Table 23.5’ below. Certainly the most fruitful approach to date has been the technique of astrometry. This requires a bit of explanation. It will be recalled that all stars in the Milky Way orbit the galactic center much as planets circle a sun. Since each star moves with a slightly different velocity’ celestial objects appear slowly to change position relative to each other over the years. Slowly’ inexorably’ the familiar constellations are torn asunder as the component stars move off in different directions at different speeds. For instance’ the stars Sirius’ Betelgeuse’ Aldebaran and Arcturus have moved about the apparent diameter of the moon (Luna) since Ptolemy mapped them two millennia ago. The path traced in the sky by a wandering star is referred to as its "proper motion" by astronomers. A lone sun traces a straight path across the sky’ but a star with a retinue of invisible companion bodies should wobble slightly as it traverses the celestial vault. This is because the presence of the unseen planetary masses shifts the center of mass away from the center of the sun. The star’ like its planets’ actually circles this center of mass’ which distant observers may observe as a tiny sinusoidal wobble with a period on the order of decades. Astrometry is a form of careful positional measurement which allows astronomers to calculate the mass and orbit of the hidden worlds based on the amplitude and frequency of wobble in the proper motion of the target star. Imagine an hypothetical alien astronomer located 10 parsecs (33 light-years) away who wishes to demonstrate the existence of planets around Sol using astrometry. How accurate must his measurements be? Viewed from this distant observatory’ our sun would subtend only 10-3 arcsec (seconds of arc’ or 1/3600 of a degree) in the sky. One-half an arcsec away from this minute yellow disk is found the giant planet Jupiter’ a shining pinprick of light 10-4 arcsec in diameter. It is helpful to put these numbers into proper perspective in order to fully appreciate their smallness. A second of arc is considered extremely high accuracy in all normal circumstances. One arcsec is the equivalent of hitting a buzzing horsefly with a rifle bullet at a range of 2 kilometers. But Sol would subtend only 10-3 arcsec’ which is like hitting the same horsefly in New Orleans by firing a rifle in Los Angeles (more than 2000 kilometers). To use another example’ consider a level tabletop. When you touch it lightly’ it tilts by at least a second of arc. At the 10-3 arcsec level the table is like the surface of a sea -- acoustic waves from people talking wash back and forth across its surface and "tilt" it by more than milliseconds of arc. To observe Sol’s wobble due to Jupiter’ our hypothetical ET astronomer would have to be able to measure variations in proper motion of about arcsec at a range of 10 parsecs. The displacement of our sun due to the presence of Earth is considerably smaller’ less than 10-6 arcsec at 10 parsecs. The state-of-the-art of astrometric precision was roughly 3 x 10-3 arcsec for human technology in the mid-1970’s’ which means that mankind is now at the threshold of the capacity to detect jovian planets circling neighboring stars.2200 Scientists believe that sophisticated interferometric techniques2387 can increase ground-based accuracy to 50 x 10-6 arcsec’ and that large spaceborne telescopes specially designed for the task can reach 10-6 arcsec accuracies.3092’2865 (NASA’s 2.4-meter Space Telescope has pointing stability of 0.007 arcsec.) The major difficulty with astrometry is that several cycles of the alien planet must be observed to identify and validate a discovery’ which means several decades’ worth of data must be accumulated. Furthermore’ the presence of more than one perturbing planetary body (Sol has 9) greatly complicates the mathematical analysis of periodicities in the wobble in proper motion of the target star.

Table 23.5 Possible Planetary Companions of Nearby Stars Star

Distance

Mass of Suspected Companion

Separation of Star and Planet

Orbital Period

(lightyears)

(Jupiter = 1.0)

(AU)

(years)

0.8

2.5

Doubtful

12 and 20

Possible

8.0

Possible

Proxima Centauri

4.28

1.8

Barnard’s Star

5.9

1.0 and 0.4

Lalande 21185

8.0

10

Luytens 726-8

8.9

Epsilon Eridani

10.7

Ross 128

11.0

61 Cygni A

11.2

8

Luyten’s Star (BD ‘55° 1668)

12.6

20

Kruger 60 A

12.8

9

40 Eridani A

15.8

BD ‘200 2465

2.8

Remarks

Needs more study 6

7.9

25

Needs more study Needs more study

2.4

4.8

Possible

10-30

Needs more study

16

Needs more study

29

3

Doubtful

16.1

10-30

10-30

70 Ophiuchi

16.7

10

BD ‘430 4305

16.9

10-30

Lalande 25372

17.4

Eta Cassiopeia A

19.2

10

6.7

18-24

Ross 986

19.3

13

4.0

18

Needs more study

WB 1259

34

3

Needs more study

‘766° 785

60

11

Needs more study

Luyten 825-14

110

8

Needs more study

Gamma Tauri

160

>30

Needs more study

G93-48

220

6

Needs more study

4.1

6

17

Needs more study Doubtful

20-30

Needs more study

30

Needs more study Doubtful

To date’ only astrometry has been exploited in the search for extrasolar worlds. But three other promising techniques have been discussed at length in scientific circles. The first of these is called the spectroscopic or "radial velocity" method. Whereas proper motion is the apparent movement of a star across the sky’ stellar "radial motion" is its velocity towards or away from us. We recall that light emitted from a moving object undergoes a Doppler shift in wavelength depending on the relative velocity of source and observer. By measuring the Doppler shift in a star’s visual spectrum’ astronomers are able to determine its radial velocity. If a massive planet is present’ then its orbit will cause the star’s radial velocity to oscillate much like the wobble in proper motion discussed in connection with astrometry. Rather than a positional undulation’ however’ the planet-hunting spectroscopist is looking for minute cyclical variations in Doppler-shifted starlight. This requires an instrument accurate to 0.08 mm visible light’ able to detect variations in radial velocity on the order of 5 meters/second.1568 To date’ the most sophisticated equipment has accuracies about an order of magnitude too low’ but astronomers estimate that the state-of-the-art should progress enough in a decade or two to make the spectroscopic method feasible.2865 Photometry is another promising technique. If the orbital plane of the target solar system happens to lie precisely in our line of sight’ then at some point planets will cross the face of the star and partially eclipse its light. If a planet the size of Jupiter crossed in front of a star like Sol’ the decrease in brightness would amount to about 1% change in total luminosity. (Passage of Earth would only cause a minute 0.008% eclipse’ and so on.1259) Astronomers believe that the colorimetric and photometric eclipse signature should be fairly easy to detect and to identify.1266 One writer has calculated the probability of the onset or termination of an eclipse by any one of Sol's planets during a typical 6-hour observation period (a single night’s work at the telescope). For a randomly situated extraterrestrial observer’ using the techniques proposed’ the expected detection rate could be as high as one new solar system per year. About one star in a hundred should have a line of sight close enough to the orbital plane around Sol to allow all four of our inner planets to be detected by alien astronomers.*1259 Human astronomers should prove equally lucky. The third most promising method for spotting other worlds is direct observation. There are two main difficulties involved in this. First there is the problem of optical resolution. Seen from 10 parsecs away’ Sol and Jupiter appear only 0.5 arcsec apart -- close to the limits of present-day ground-based telescopes. And planets smaller than Jupiter at the same distance’ or jovian worlds farther from the star’ probably could not be resolved using present instrumentation. The image of the star and planet would blur together. The second main difficulty is that the extrasolar body we seek is very faint. Shining in reflected light’ the luminosity of the planet is only about 10-8 that of the stellar primary in the visible wavelengths. Dr. Bernard Oliver of the Hewlett-Packard Corporation has estimated that sophisticated "apodization" techniques (a mask fitted over the end of the telescope to selectively reduce the brightness of the star’s diffraction pattern) could be used in a 2-meter spaceborne telescope which would just barely permit a jovian world to be resolved.2865 Indeed the Space Telescope’ due to be launched by NASA in the early 1980’s’ should fulfill these requirements and permit the first direct imaging of extrasolar planets.2103 Another solution to the problem is to shift to lower frequencies where the star is relatively less bright. For example’ in the infrared the luminosity differential falls from 10-8 to 10-4.2865 In the radio things are even better: Fennelly and Matloff have estimated that jovian planets may be detectable out to 10 parsecs using intercontinental interferometry at radio wavelengths.1453 Ultimately it would be nice to be able to take detailed color photographs of terrestrial worlds across interstellar distances. Is this possible?** Lyman J. Spitzer’ Director of the Princeton University Observatory’ has proposed a spaceborne occulter apparatus.3080 In this scheme’ an orbiting large space telescope is pointed at the target star. A disk of black material is then placed in the instrument’s field of view in such a way that it exactly covers up the image of the star. The blazing brilliance of the primary is blotted out’ permitting the detection of much fainter planetary bodies. According to Spitzer’ NASA’s Space Telescope should suffice to resolve a jovian 10 parsecs away if an occulting disk 75 meters wide is placed 10’000 kilometers in front of the telescope. To spot an Earthlike extrasolar world at the same distance’ a 400-meter-wide disk must be accurately positioned 250’000 kilometers ahead of the telescope. Citing the practical problems inherent in such a proposal’ a few authors have advocated using Luna as an occulter.3189’1095 To pick out jovians at 10 parsecs’ a 3-meter space telescope should be placed in a near-polar 8100-km-high lunar orbit. The curved limb of the moon periodically would blot out the star light’ making possible at least minute-long observations of reflected extrasolar planet light. To spot Earthlike worlds’ a 7-meter space telescope should be placed in high Earth orbit’ again using the distant Luna as an occulter. Still larger systems could actually begin to resolve features on the surfaces of these faraway celestial bodies. The possibility of constructing orbital and lunar telescopes comprised of giant mirrors or huge multi-mirror arrays has been discussed in the literature.3091’3085 According to Gerard O’Neill’ the fabrication of large space structures should make interstellar imaging a snap: It might be preferable to take advantage of a zero-gravity location by building a large number -- perhaps 10’000 -- of individual glass mirrors’ each a meter in diameter’ and providing each with a small locator-module’ equipped with station-keeping gas jets. If the 10’000 elements were linked only by light beams’ their spacing could be established by the unvarying number of wavelengths of light between each pair. That nonphysical linkage’ computer-controlled’ would have the further advantage that the mirrors could be programmed to separate and reform’ like dancers in a slow-motion ballet. ... If located in a cross-shaped array’ with individual elements spaced ten meters apart’ a telescope of that kind would have the theoretical capability of resolving something as small as a changing weather system’ one thousand kilometers on a side -- on the planet of a star ten light-years away.2710

* Edward Argyle at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in Canada has proposed a clever variation of the photometric method. Planets shine with reflected light and are located several lightminutes from the source of illumination (the star). If the emitted starlight varies’ the portion reflected by the planet will be delayed in time behind the rest of the solar output. Careful photometric measurement’ says Argyle’ should permit the separation of these "light-echoes" from the normal starlight’ thus demonstrating the presence of reflective planetary bodies and proving the existence theorem for extrasolar worlds. 1289 ** The surface of Betelgeuse’ the giant red star in the constellation Orion’ has been successfully photographed using computer-enhanced "speckle interferometry" techniques. 411’3090 Surface structures are clearly visible in the photos.

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Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 24. Interstellar Communication Techniques "I know perfectly well that at this moment the whole universe is listening to us -- and that every word we say echoes to the remotest star." -- from The Madwoman of Chaillot’ by Jean Giraudoux (1882-1944) "The reader may seek to consign these speculations wholly to the domain of science fiction. We submit’ rather’ that ... if signals are present the means of detecting them is now at hand. The probability of success is difficult to estimate; but if we never search’ the chance of success is zero." -- Giuseppe Cocconi’ Philip Morrison; "Searching for Interstellar Communications" (1959)1033 "And who’ in time’ knows whither we may vent The treasure of our tongue’ to what strange shores This gain of our best glory shall be sent’ T' enrich unknowingly nations with our stores? What worlds may come refin’d with th’accents that are ours? -- from Musophilus’ by Samuel Daniel (1562-1619) "The Pioneer plaques are destined to be the longest-lived works of mankind. They will survive virtually unchanged for hundreds of millions’ perhaps billions’ of years in space. When plate tectonics has completely rearranged the continents’ when all the present landforms on the earth have been ground down’ when civilization has been profoundly transformed and when human beings may have evolved into some other kind of organism’ these plaques will still exist. They will show that in the year we called 1973 there were organisms’ portrayed on the plaques’ that cared enough about their place in the hierarchy of all intelligent beings to share knowledge about themselves with others." -- Carl Sagan’ Frank Drake (1975)3143 "So deep is the conviction that there must be life out there beyond the dark’ one thinks that if they are more advanced than ourselves they may come across space at any moment’ perhaps in our generation. Later’ contemplating the ¥ of time’ one wonders if perchance their messages came long ago’ hurtling into the swamp muck of the steaming coal forests’ the bright projectile clambered over by hissing rep tiles’ and the delicate instruments running mindlessly down with no report." -- from The Immense Journey’ by Loren Eiseley (1957)2110

Most xenologists today earnestly believe that millions upon millions of inhabited worlds pepper the Disk of the Milky Way. Innumerable intelligent extraterrestrial races may await contact and communication with humanity. How might scientists -- human or alien -- best bring this about? More than a century ago the great mathematician Karl Friedrich Gauss set forth the startling suggestion that the only way to communicate with sentient beings on other worlds was by means of a "mathematical language." Gauss’ idea for contacting the inhabitants of Mars was to lay out the figure of a giant right-angle triangle in the middle of the Siberian forests. His plan called for 15-kilometer-wide strips of forest to delineate the lines and golden fields of wheat to fill the interior of the symbol. The geometric solution to the Pythagorean theorem’ Gauss believed’ would communicate the fact of terrestrial intelligence to any Martian astronomers who happened to be eyeing our Earth. (One writer has estimated that the scheme would have involved more than 4 million acres of forest and nearly 13 million acres of wheat’ a total area roughly the size of the entire country of Ireland.45) In Vienna’ the astronomer Joseph Johann Littrow’ a pioneer in spectrography’ is reported to have proposed that great canals be dug in the Sahara desert in the shape of a variety of geometrical figures -- circles’ squares’ triangles’ and so forth. Each would measure perhaps 30 kilometers on a side and would be filled with water. For signaling purposes’ kerosene was to be spread over the surface of the water and ignited. The flaming symbols’ it was expected’ would alert observant Martians to our presence on this planet. Assuming the ditches were 1 kilometer wide and the layer of petroleum many centimeters deep to permit a burn of several hours’ duration’ roughly five million cubic meters of kerosene would be required each night (at a cost of $400 million at current world prices). Another magnificently implausible project was put forth by Charles Cros’ a Frenchman’ in 1869.3101 Cros apparently spent much of his life trying to persuade the French government to help him construct a giant mirror to send messages to Mars. The device was planned to have a focal length equal to the Earth-Mars separation’ thus permitting Cros to focus concentrated sunbeams onto the Martian desert. This would melt the sand’ and Cros could then carve various figures and numbers on the surface. Another technique using mirrors involved the construction of a large checkerboard of shiny surfaces which could be covered and uncovered in sequence to describe patterns and shapes (a kind of slow-motion semaphore). Yet another scheme was advanced by one Schmoll’ who wanted to establish mirror works at Bordeaux’ Cherbourg’ Marseille’ Stockholm’ Amsterdam’ Copenhagen’ and upon the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia to give the appearance of the Big Bear constellation (Ursa Major) as seen from space.* It is hard for us today to fathom how anyone could have taken any of these proposals seriously. But a century ago the state of xenological know ledge was extremely poor. Little was known of the actual conditions on the surface of Mars or any other planet in our solar system; the size and extent of the Milky Way Galaxy was unknown and undreamed of; extrasolar worlds were believed extremely rare; and radio waves had yet to be discovered. Gauss and Littrow were forced to speculate within the bounds of their limited knowledge’ and arrived at conclusions which seemed moderately plausible at the time. It is sobering to consider that hundreds of years from now the people of the future may regard our own current proposals with equal astonishment and disbelief. Xenologists today believe that there are two fundamental avenues of contact that are feasible across interstellar distances: Probes (or artifacts) and signals. As one writer puts it: People in SETI {Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence} can be divided into two groups: listeners and travelers. Listeners believe that interstellar travel is so difficult and costly that the only practical method of contacting an extraterrestrial civilization is by using radio messages. Travelers believe that voyages between stars are practical for advanced civilizations. Travelers are in the minority.3251 Which is the superior mode of communication? That is’ are probes or signals better? The answer to this seemingly innocuous question is not at all obvious. Both talk and travel are commonplace on Earth’ and we cannot use as our guide any current human technology (which elsewhere in the Galaxy may be found in a variety of states of retarded or advanced development). Xenologists most properly must seek to address the question in a manner independent of the vagaries of human technological history. Judgment criteria must be selected which spring from those basic and nigh universal laws of existence which all sentient races and alien cultures share in common. Certainly the most basic goal of life and intelligence -- the accumulation of information and complexity -- involves judicious energy-flow management. Evolution via natural selection generally favors those living systems which manage their limited resources most efficiently. In other words’ of two organisms’ one of which is less wasteful than the other’ the more frugal but equally effective creature has a higher probability of being favorably selected for survival. On this basis’ astronomer Frank Drake has proposed what he calls the Principle of Economy. This is the notion that economy is practiced universally or nearly so’ or at least represents the ideal. Drake argues that technological civilizations everywhere in the Galaxy will attempt to choose those alternatives which are least expensive: They’ like us’ will use procedures which minimize the needs for personnel’ materials’ and energy to achieve their ends. It may seem that economy or thrift is a peculiarity of mankind or of life on Earth’ but in fact it is a principle practiced by all living things simply because the resources to support life are limited on all other planets as on the Earth. Planets have a limited surface area’ limited food supplies’ and limited energy sources’ and this has been in fact the basic cause for evolution in the first place. The ability to practice economy with the available resources has enormous survival value and will be developed in all living things. Therefore’ it is quite reasonable to believe that the concept of economy is well established in civilizations throughout the universe.3284’3123 It is quite possible that some races may not be subject (or as subject) to the same competitive rules of natural selection as are we -- recall’ for example’ Sneath’s "soil creatures" mentioned in Chapter 6. Still others may choose a shorter-lived’ more profligate lifestyle than ordinary thrift would dictate. But general living systems theorists agree that Drake’s principle is applicable virtually at all levels of living systems from cells to societies’ since it appears to be a manifestation of the well-known principle of least effort.3071 If xenologists accept Drake’s Principle of Economy’ then it follows that a technical communicative civilization will choose those means of communication which cost the least to do the job. The "job’" of course’ is the transfer of information and complexity across interstellar distances. The quantitative units of information are bits. (See discussion’ Chapter 14.) Assuming that all data must be carried on markers of matter-energy’ the units of "cost" are joules. Our criterion for judging whether signals or probes are superior thus reduces to the simple query: Which mode of communication maximizes bits/joule transmitted per unit time interval? Unfortunately’ to answer this question we need to do a little physics. Readers who are not mathematically inclined may skip the next three paragraphs. Consider signaling by photons (radio’ microwave’ visible’ ultraviolet’ x-rays). According to Shannon’s classic theory’3186 the rate of information transmission through a channel of frequency bandwidth nmax is nmax log2(1‘S/N) bits/second’ where S/N is the signal-to-noise power ratio. This rate is a theoretical maximum when bandwidth equals carrier frequency; that is’ when nmax = n. From quantum physics we know that the energy per carrier photon is equal to hn joules’ where h is Planck’s constant. Hence we calculate that the maximum theoretical photonic information transmission efficiency eg is: eg = {log2(1‘S/N)} / h bits/joule-second Consider next the possibility of signaling with masses. Any self-contained material system of mass m is subject to a limitation in the maximum energy it can utilize as a marker for carrying information. That limit is the mass-energy of the matter’ or mc2 where c is the speed of light. If we use energy levels as markers’ then Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle defines a minimum measurement accuracy for these markers: DE Dt > h’ where DE is the uncertainty in energy and Dt the duration of the measurement. According to Bremermann’3072 the optimal use of a given amount of mass-energy available occurs when (mc2 / DE) markers with values between zero and DE are used (which permits the representation of mc2 / DE bits). This means that no material mechanism of mass m using energy levels as markers can measure more than mc2Dt / h bits during the time interval Dt. Hence’ the maximum rate of information transmission is mc2 / h bits/second. From special relativity we know that the total energy (mass-energy plus kinetic energy) of any material body is mc2 / (1-v2/c2)½’ where v is the velocity of the mass relative to a stationary frame of reference. Hence we calculate that the maximum theoretical information transmission efficiency for matter em is: em = (1-v2/c2)½ / h bits/joule-second Maximum photon efficiency eg and maximum matter efficiency em for the transmission of information are compared on the graph in Figure 24.1. Photon efficiency is represented by the vertical line at the right’ which shows different efficiencies depending upon the signal-to-noise ratio achieved. (Note that the effect of S/N on efficiency is negligible at the upper end.) The matter efficiency function curves downward to the right’ and lies below the photonic efficiency for all S/N > 1. Strictly speaking’ then’ photons would appear always to give the most bits/joule.

Figure 24.1 Comparison of the Theoretical Maximum Information Transmission Efficiency of Photonic and Matter Markers

But the truly amazing feature of the two curves is their unexpected convergence. If any reasonable velocity and signal-to-noise ratio are chosen for comparison’ the difference in transmission efficiency is only an order of magnitude or two. To advanced Type II and Type III technical civilizations equipped with virtually perfect photon- and matterhandling technologies’ the choice of communication mode probably will depend far less upon energy economy than on other considerations (see below). With few if any techno logical limitations on their activities’ stellar and galactic cultures most likely will view signals and starprobes as energetically indistinguishable alternatives for interstellar communication. Type I societies are another matter’ however. Lacking advanced technological expertise’ planetary civilizations will be forced to rely upon the most primitive’ simpleminded’ easy-to-construct communications devices imaginable. Across interstellar distances radio waves’ which require nothing more complicated than a small metal wire-mesh dish and a few volts of electricity’ seem to be the best bet for technological dullards. Xenologists may draw two specific conclusions from the above discussion. First’ since interstellar travel on a large scale is virtually impossible for any Type I civilization’3078 transmission of signals is probably the method of choice for such technologically-limited planetary cultures. Second’ since starprobes and signals are energetically equivalent exercises for technically proficient Type II and Type III civilizations’ both probes and signals probably will be utilized in interstellar communications depending on the particular purposes and needs of the societies seeking interaction.

* A modern version of the Gauss-Littrow proposals has been suggested by Kh. Geshanov’ a Bulgarian’ who recommends turning all the world’s radio stations on and off in careful synchrony’ providing a regular "blinking" effect in Earth’s artificial radio emissions.1331 In March of 1964’ two Russian science fiction writers put forth the idea that the Great Siberian Meteorite of 1908 was caused’ not by a fallen object’ but rather by an attempt at communication [a powerful laser beam) by the planets orbiting the star 61 Cygni. 3267

24.1 The Cosmic Miracle Before any two sentient races may converse across the interstellar void’ they first must have each other’s attention. Each civilization must know who or what to look for’ where and when to look’ and how’ technologically’ to communicate. This is the problem of "acquisition." Each party must know that the other exists. A number of interesting acquisition techniques have been discussed in the literature’ and will be dealt with in the following sections. But there is another approach -- called the "cosmic miracle" -- which bypasses entirely the need for mutual acquisition. The cosmic miracle method allows one civilization to detect another without that other necessarily being aware it has been discovered. Essentially’ the idea is to try to observe a kind of "cosmic advertisement" that says’ loud and clear’ "Here we are! Look at us!" The advertisement may be purposeful’ or merely the natural byproduct of large-scale astroengineering projects. But it should be obvious. It is surprisingly difficult to imagine a plausible celestial signpost that is clearly artificial. At first’ it seems simple enough. For instance’ imagine we design a brilliant glowing "billboard" in the sky. It should be rectangular in shape with sharp edges and distinct vertices’ and measure some fraction of a light-year on a side (say’ 0.3 light-years). We make its color fiery crimson to attract the attention of visible-visioned creatures. At the exact center of this celestial marquee we place our premiere attraction: The star system to which we wish to call attention. The adjacent star field’ as viewed from the most probable direction of contact’ is nearly empty’ so the star of our show has little competition for the spotlight. Surely such a setup would be "clearly artificial’" a sufficiently strange cosmic miracle to warrant the conclusion of sentient extraterrestrial intervention? Sorry not! The above is an excellent description of the so-called "Red Rectangle" (actually it is shaped more like a very fat hourglass)’ discovered by astronomers back in 1915. The object’ located near the southern border of the constellation Monoceros’ lies 1100 light-years from Earth. The central star (HD 44179) is a visual binary’ and both components are believed to be late spectral class B.3102 Astronomers have attempted to explain the appearance of the rectangle as a complicated reflection of reddish starlight from a surrounding disk of dust.2076 Many unusual possibilities crop up repeatedly in the literature. One proposal is to place in orbit around the target star a cloud of material that absorbs some uncommon band of radiation in the stellar spectrum. Viewed from afar’’ the star would appear to possess an artificial spectral line of unknown origin. The creation of such a stellar marker’ as discussed by Drake and several others’ would require dumping perhaps 400 tons of matter into circum stellar orbit.312 This marker material ought to be of a type that is difficult to explain by natural causes -- for example technetium’ a short-lived element (half-life 2 million years) which does not occur naturally on Earth or’ presumably’ other worlds generally.’ It is said by the proponents of this scheme that the presence of unusual markers in the spectrum of a stellar atmosphere would be difficult to explain as anything other than fairly recent technological activity by alien beings. Unfortunately’ a great many natural "technetium stars’"3103 "platinum stars’"3104 and so forth are already known to astronomers. Philip Morrison at MIT has suggested that a star could be converted into a giant signaling beacon if an opaque screen of dense particles were placed in orbit around it. The clouds would periodically cut off enough light (in certain preferred directions) so that the sun would appear to be flashing when seen from a distance. According to Morrison: [The cloud] would have to weigh about 1017 kilograms (the mass of a comet)’ distributed in micron-size particles over a 50 zone of a sphere surrounding the star’ and moving in an orbit like the orbit of a planet. If this could be modulated every six months or so.’ taken away and put back again’ or changed to affect the interstellar intensity’ we could make it beam a series of algebraic equations at us. Perhaps in that remote galaxy’ some patient signalers have for 50 million years tried to modulate a star.1053 (In 1970 it was reported that the eclipsing binary star CV Serpentis had stopped eclipsing’ for reasons unknown.1163) Still stranger sights have been observed in the sky by astronomers. There are Cepheid stars and RR Lyrae variables’ suns which beat like great cosmic hearts’ expanding and contracting rhythmically over fixed intervals of time. (The surface area of such objects actually grows and shrinks by as much as 40% during each cycle.1810) Cepheids typically are 3000 times more luminous than Sol’ with periods between 1-100 days. RR Lyrae variables are about 100 times brighter than Sol’ with cycles from 7-16 hours. Each star in this class of objects has its own unique period of pulsation from which it never varies. For instance Polaris’ Earth’s "north star’" is a Cepheid variable beating with a period of exactly 3 days’ 23 hours’ 13 minutes’ and 31 seconds.1556 (Brightness oscillates over 0.1 magnitude’ too little to notice with the naked eye.) Cepheids have also been known to change color’ say’ from yellow-green to orange and back again’ during a cycle. What a fine display of "unnatural" behavior for xenologists to attribute to the doings of sentient ETs! There are "flash stars’" cool main sequence suns which blaze up several orders of magnitude in brightness in just seconds’ at irregular intervals. (They return to their normal state minutes or hours later.) Another possible candidate for "cosmic miracle" is the class of suns known as "spectrum variable stars." These suns display a periodic change in the intensity of certain spectral lines’ while all the other lines remain constant. To take an example’ a2 Canum Venaticorum has a spectral period of 5.5 days. During this interval the spectroscopic lines of the chemical ions EuII and CrII vary cyclically with opposite phases’ while the SiII and MgII spectral lines remain unchanged.1945 Then there are the so-called "interstellar masers’" regions in space where natural radio lasers emit perfectly monochromatic radiation.3134 In one case’ a water vapor maser (IC 1795) was observed to "turn on" over an 8-day period’ and then "turn off" again after 1 month.3106 The recently discovered objects known as Cygnus X-l and HZ Herculis are supposedly natural x-ray lasers’3140 and the Crab Nebula provides an example of a natural gamma-ray laser.3163 Recent satellite surveys of x-ray point sources in the Milky Way have uncovered transient sources which flick on’ then off again in the space of a few months. It is estimated that several hundred such objects may turn on and off in our galaxy each year’ but astronomers still don’t understand why.3140 And there is at least one report of a gamma-ray burster with a mysterious "gap of silence" timed to occur exactly at the peak of its burst.3162 Perhaps a beacon consisting of a rare lasing material (say’ ionized deuterium) might be considered sufficiently strange to be judged artificial’ but this is highly problematical. And causing a celestial maser or laser to blink doesn’t help us at all -- pulsars flash in one-second cycles’ and x-ray and gamma-ray* bursts of incredible intensity are observed over periods of 10 seconds or less.3141 Other sources pulse semiregularly. Over an interval of a day and a half’ source Centaurus X-3 emits x-ray flashes that slowly increase in duration from 4.84 to 4.87 seconds’ then suddenly drop in intensity in about an hour’ then return to normal 12 hours after that.1478

* According to the "catastrophe interpretation’" gamma-ray pulses are the remnants of huge nuclear explosions’ the last remaining traces of a vast war fought between distant extraterrestrial civilizations. 3153

24.1.1 Eavesdropping What if we wish to discover extraterrestrial civilizations which are not deliberately attempting to make their presence known to us by posting a cosmic signpost? Xenologists generally agree that probably one of the best ways to do this is to attempt to monitor the putative culture’s "technological garbage."80’57 (But note Sagan and Sullivan.3192) As any first-year anthropology student is well aware’ that which is thrown away often bears much information about the thrower. From the xenological standpoint there are two basic constraints on this mode of contact. First’ since the effluents of technical civilization must cross interstellar distances to be detectable’ said effluents must be of such character as not to suffer undue attenuation during transit. Second’ the technology of the wasting culture must be sufficiently advanced and sufficiently energy-rich so that the flux of garbage into interstellar space is great enough to be detectable far from the original source. The only serendipitous effluents which satisfy both of these requirements are electromagnetic waves (radio’ microwaves’ etc.). Even a backwoods emergent Type I civilization such as humanity emits enough electromagnetic garbage to be detectable over interstellar distances. Assuming for the moment that our planet represents a fairly typical primitive planetary culture’ the radio spectrum of Earth indicates the presence of technological activity at the hands of presumably sentient beings. Carl Sagan explains the reasoning behind this conclusion: Since the Earth is at a temperature of roughly 300 K’ we would expect it to have an emission spectrum following the blackbody curve’ except for some absorption by the atmosphere. Further’ the curve should be centered at about 10 microns in the infrared and fall off inversely as the square of the wavelength to ward very long wavelengths. What we find is a truly remarkable peak in the meter band. The amount of radio emission is extremely striking. Indeed’ it is so large that if one observed only at meter-band frequencies and assumed the emission to be of thermal origin’ the deduced blackbody temperature of the Earth would be about 40’000’000 K. This is an example of extreme disequilibrium. That is’ the Earth’s radio radiation is not characteristic of thermodynamic equilibrium. The strong disequilibrium component is due to the activities of the modicum of intelligence residing on the planet.3287 Woodruff T. Sullivan and his colleagues have completed an extensive survey of all sources of radio leakage on our planet. The video carrier in TV broadcasting is responsible for most of the radiative wastage. Even though power emitted from antennas on tall towers is deliberately concentrated downward to avoid waste’ a thin sheet nevertheless escapes over the horizon as leakage radiation into space. This amounts to a total effective radiated power of about 10’000 megawatts/Hz for the TV video carrier’ 400 megawatts/Hz from FM broadcasting’ and about 200 megawatts/Hz from BMEWS-type military radars. According to Sullivan’ the Arecibo radio dish used by NRAO in Puerto Rico’ if operated by inquisitive aliens on another world looking back at Earth’ could detect a. strong UHF television station at a range of 1.8 light-years. BMEWS radar could be picked up out to 18 light-years using an Arecibo-type radiotelescope. The construction of a system similar to the proposed Cyclops SETI network (see description next section) would permit detection of video carriers out to 25 light-years (which encompasses about 300 stars) and BMEWS radar out to 250 light-years (covering about 200’000 stars). Our hypothetical extraterrestrial observers who were able to detect video carrier waves would recognize them as artificial’ although an additional four orders of magnitude of antenna sensitivity would be required to pick up actual program material. After carefully monitoring the intensity and frequency variations of terrestrial transmitters for several years’ distant ET scientists could deduce an incredible number of important facts about Earth: 1. The complete orbit of our world; 2. The existence of station broadcast schedules influenced by the sun; 3. The presence of an ionosphere and perhaps a troposphere; 4. The size’ rotation rate’ and axis of rotation of the Earth; 5. A complete map of the stations; 6. The mass and distance to the moon; 7. The size of the radiating antennas; and 8. Various cultural inferences concerning our civilization. Sullivan elaborates further: The deductions that might be made from this wealth of information can only be conjectured’ but certainly the extraterrestrial "humanists" and scientists would all have their favorite theories concerning (i) the purposes of these transmitters’ as well as their physical structure; (ii) the nature of this planet’s relationship to the sun’ as well as its geography’ geology’ and atmosphere; and (iii) the nature of this civilization’s biology’ sociology’ commerce’ politics’ economics’ philosophy’ technology’ and science. We feel that far more could be deduced about our culture than one would at first think. For instance’ political spheres of influence could be measured quite accurately by noting the frequencies and other technical conventions of stations. Furthermore’ the varying broad cast schedules of stations (set by policies of national networks in most cases) would sharply delineate political boundaries’ as distinct from spheres of influence. Further possible deductions are left to the imagination of the reader.310 As technology advances and a civilization enters the Type II stage’ the waste products of an aspiring society may become even more readily apparent. For instance’ if we place in Earth-orbit a series of gigawatt-capacity solar power satellites (as many proponents of space industrialization have urged)’ the minor lobes of the spaceborne transmission antenna radiation will make humanity highly visible on the galactic scene. Incessant radio traffic between interplanetary or interstellar ships’ or between such vessels and their home planets’ will contribute to the "garbage." (A gradual increase in strength of such a signal. together with a spectral blueshift might be taken to indicate the approach of a high-velocity starship towards our solar system.1381’49’3138) Powerful defensive radars probably would be detectable anywhere in the Galaxy using a Cyclops-type radiotelescope array. Let us assume a mature Type II culture which has spread itself around the parent star in the traditional Dyson Sphere configuration. Viewed from interstellar distances’ the optical characteristics of the sun itself may appear drastically altered. Independent of specific engineering details’ the Second Law of Thermodynamics requires that a technically advanced society that exploits the entire energy output of its stellar primary must re-radiate every bit of that energy in some degraded form to maintain thermal equilibrium. If the shell lies at the radius of Earth and the central star is like Sol’ the mean temperature of the Dyson Sphere will be 250-300 K. The waste energy will come off as heat’ down in the infrared portion of the spectrum around 7-10 microns. This waste is not easily concealed from nosy interstellar neighbors.* One writer has suggested that beings based on a hotter biochemistry than our own might construct Dyson Spheres with a higher waste-heat temperature. The infrared emissions could run as high as 2-5 microns’ which "would look deceptively like red giant or supergiant stars."673 Marvin Minsky at MIT offers a different viewpoint: In his opinion’ radiative emissions at any temperature above the natural 3 K background is wasteful and a squandering of scarce energy resources. According to Minsky’ "the higher the civilization’ the lower the infrared radiation. We should look for extended sources of 4 K radiation. There should be very few natural such sources."22 (4 K corresponds to a wavelength of about 700 microns.) Indeed’ in recent times a number of large infrared objects with solar-system-sized dimensions and temperatures below 1000 K have been discovered by astronomers’3109’3108 including object T in the constellation Taurus and object R in Monoceros.1344 But regardless of our secret hopes’ says Iosef Shklovskii’ a noted Soviet astrophysicist’ "we must assume all astronomical phenomena natural until proven otherwise."15 Shklovskii’s well-known "Principle of Naturalness’" while questioned by some’3177 is widely accepted by working xenologists. As before’ much information may be concealed in the effluents of Type II societies. Soviet xenologists have given much thought to the question of "civilization detectors" and remote cybernetic analysis of advanced extraterrestrial cultures. Kardashev has suggested a way to distinguish Dyson Spheres from dust clouds across interstellar distances -- the two have distinctly differently shaped emission spectra.22 If the Type II society is viewed as a complex cybernetic system then’ according to Soviet radioastronomer B.N. Panovkin’ much information about how the civilization actually works may be derived from its electromagnetic effluents: [If we consider] the radiation associated with life activity as an output of this system’ on the basis of an analysis of radiation one can draw certain conclusions as to the functional structure of the system and its internal organization. For example’ based on the properties of radiation it can be established that a system belongs to a wide class of objects in which feedback is present. From this class’ after a more detailed analysis’ a narrower sub class of systems can be discriminated in which homeostasis is manifested. From the class of homeostatic objects one can isolate a group of objects possessing even more complicated functional properties -- for example’ "systems logic’" etc. Ultimately’ in principle it is possible to isolate a class of objects which (regardless of their physical structure) can be recognized as equivalent’ let us say’ to our earth civilization in terms of their functional properties and their manifestations.25 When at last we come to an analysis of the expected appearance of the "garbage" generated by the technological activities of a Type III galactic civilization’ we leap ahead at least ten orders of magnitude in available energy and complexity. Such a society should be capable (see Chapter 19) of directly altering the physical characteristics of entire galaxies. According to Freeman Dyson’ the acknowledged premier speculator on the topic of galactic technology’ "tame" galaxies should appear far differently than "wild" ones still in the natural state. Such taming appears largely to be absent from the Milky Way. Says Dyson: It seems to me clear that we could turn the galaxy upside down if we wanted to’ within a million years; there’s nothing in the world of physics to stop us from doing that. There may be good reasons for not doing it’ and there may be good reasons why other intelligent species are not doing it.... I have the feeling that if an expanding technology had ever really got loose in our galaxy’ the effects of it would be glaringly obvious. Starlight’ instead of wastefully shining all over the galaxy’ would be carefully dammed and regulated. Stars’ instead of moving at random’ would be grouped and organized. We don’t see any traces of this when we look in the sky’ which is peculiar. Nothing like a complete technological takeover has occurred in our galaxy.. . .To search for evidence of technological activity in the galaxy might be like searching for evidence of technological activity on Manhattan Island. If an Indian from 400 years ago were to come paddling into New York harbor’ he might not understand what he sees’ but he would at least notice there is something there.1558’1450 Despite the apparently "wild" state of the Milky Way’ astronomers have discovered a number of highly unusual and inexplicable phenomena in the heavens.3135 Perhaps the best-known of these is the galaxy M87’ also called Virgo A. M87 is a giant elliptical galaxy located about 50 million light-years from Earth. Photographs clearly show a string of bright knots -- the "galactic jet" -- extending outward from the nuclear regions. Like a giant searchlight beam’ the jet stretches 5000 lightyears in length and measures 500 light-years thick. Astronomers believe that this artifact has existed only for a few millions of years’ and that its total energy is approximately 1051 joules. If we consult Table 19.2 in the chapter on high technology’ we find that this is sufficient energy to engage in a galactic transport operation at a speed of 40’000 meter/second’ or about 0.01%c. Other celestial oddities are known. Stephan’s Quintet is a congregation of five separate galaxies in the constellation Serpens’ each connected to the others by mysterious gaseous "bridges." Many Seyfert galaxies (characterized by intense radiation emissions from their core regions) exhibit highly unusual shapes’ often including jet-like structures emanating from the nucleus. Object 3C273 and several other quasars also have elliptical jets or tails extruding from the main body. (The tails are visually dim’ but emit 90% of the total radio energy.1214) There are spectacular "radio galaxies" such as Cygnus A in which 0.01% of the total galactic mass has been catastrophically converted into radio wave energy by means unknown.1338 But perhaps most startling of all are the famous Ring Galaxies’3164 of which about 16 have been discovered to date.3159’3110 These monstrous halos of stars are known to be dynamically unstable stellar aggregations with astronomically ephemeral lifetimes of only 100 million years -- which implies fairly recent assembly. Scientists already have devised a number of theories of formation’3111 but xenologists continue to hope. A few speculators have pinned their hopes on some of the recently discovered marvels of the astronomical zoo’ in particular the pulsars. (See Kardashev’1320 McDonough’1384 Verschuur’1337 and Spaceflight1173.) Pulsars are objects which emit regular pulses of radio energy at extremely regular intervals.** These intervals range from 1-30 seconds for different objects. Pulsars are so regular that a variety of putative intelligent functions have been assigned to them by some xenologically-inclined writers. These range from artificial extraterrestrial acquisition beacons (the so-called LGM or "Little Green Men" theory) to waste energy from the exhaust from pulsed x-ray lasers used in some advanced starship propulsion system. The orthodox explanation is that pulsars are fast-spinning neutron stars with asymmetrical surface "hot spots" or polar fusion of infalling gas that traces round and round like a revolving searchlight.3139 While it is most probable that pulsars arise by natural causes’ it is quite possible that advanced technical communities may still he exploiting them as navigational buoys or galactic chronometers. To make proper use of a spinning neutron star’ a Type III civilization should have available the technology required physically to rotate the spin axis of the object. ETs will need to orient the pulsar’s flashes towards certain specific preferred directions -- say’ into the plane of interstellar trade routes -- since natural pulsars may have random orientations. To shift the axis of a spinning neutron star of 1 solar mass and a period of 1 second through a full rightangle turn (90°) will require at least 3 x 1029 joules. If reorientation is accomplished in a single century’ 8 x 1019 watts of power must be expended continuously over that time. If the alien engineers are in a real hurry and choose to do it in only 10 years’ then 8 x 1021 watts are needed. The energies required to meet either of these schedules is well within the means of a Type II civilization’ and a Type III galactic society would have no trouble at all. Another favorite cosmological object for xenological speculation is the quasar.1557’1814 This fascinating phenomenon has a bluish starlike visual appearance and is characterized by strong ultraviolet and (usually) radio emissions. A large spectral redshift seems to indicate that quasars are very very far away -- perhaps at cosmological distances (billions of light-years) -- and their lack of proper motion against the background field of stars tends to support this conclusion. However’ quasars also vary in brightness over time periods as brief as a single day.2638 If it is true that no material disturbance can travel faster than the speed of light’ then the maximum size of the primary quasar energy source should be on the order of a light-day in diameter. Assuming this is correct’ quasars would have to be considerably closer’ perhaps even within our Ga1axy’1482 because it is difficult to visualize the generation of galactic energies in a solar-system-size volume of space. And if quasars were really close’ their computed total energy would drop to approximately of an oversized globular cluster -- perhaps interpretable as a consortium of advanced Type II civilizations. Quasars exhibit rapid fluctuations in radio brightness’ in optical bright ness’ in polarization of visible light emissions’ and so forth.1488’1486 Parts of quasars appear to be flying apart at velocities greater than the speed of light’1485’3166 although several explanations have been offered to avoid violations of Relativity theory.3165 Different spectral absorption lines often exhibit different redshifts.1556 A few quasars’ such as the BL Lacertae objects’ frequently display uncorrelated variations in the radio and visible spectrums (e.g.’ radio power increases while visible power decreases).3160 Still more surprising’ "BL Lacs" and many other quasistellar objects emit radiation with the spectral characteristics of a nonthermal source (non-black-body)’ which implies "that the powerhouse inside must be generating radio power by a rather exotic mechanism.3151’3295 While such unusual behavior certainly is not "clearly artificial’" to the best of my knowledge no serious studies have yet been done in which quasar emission signatures are analyzed for information content and periodicities of the sort which might be expected of the transmissions or electromagnetic "garbage" of advanced alien civilizations. Quasars’ most likely are not extraterrestrial acquisition beacons’ but still it is useful always to bear in mind the First Law of Serendipity: To find anything’ one must first be looking for something.

* It might be possible to hide by arranging all waste heat to be radiated in a tight nonisotropic beam’ straight up out of the Galactic Plane so that only a very few stars could ever hope to have any knowledge of the existence of the civilization by means of eavesdropping. ** For example’ pulsar CP1919 in Vulpecula has a period of exactly 1.33730109 seconds. 1384

24.2 Extraterrestrial Signaling Let us assume that’ for whatever reasons’ an extraterrestrial civilization decides to signal rather than travel. What is the best way to do this? The current majority opinion among xenologists is aptly summarized by Dr. Bernard M. Oliver of the Hewlett-Packard Corporation. According to Dr. Oliver’ in order to receive information-laden transmissions we must at the very least be able to detect the presence or absence of a signal. To reliably pick up a pulse packet’ the average number of particles in each such pulse must be great enough significantly to exceed the natural background noise in the communication channel used. In other words’ signal must rise above noise. Borrowing Drake’s Principle of Economy’ Oliver then suggests that ETs will choose that signaling channel which best conserves transmitter power and which costs the least energy per bit to send. There are five criteria which may determine the particles of choice for frugal alien communicants: 1. The energy per particle should be as low as possible. 2. The velocity of transmission should be as high as possible. 3. The particles should be easy to generate’ launch’ and detect. 4. The particles should not be deflected by fields in space. 5. Absorption by interstellar matter should be as low as possible. In his analysis for the Project Cyclops team’ Oliver continues: Except for photons’ uncharged particles are difficult to accelerate’ direct’ and detect. Charged particles are deflected by magnetic fields’ are absorbed by matter in space’ and’ except at very high energies’ do not penetrate atmospheres. The total energy of a photon at 1420 MHz {radio} is one ten-billionth the kinetic energy of an electron traveling at half the speed. Photons are as fast as any known particle’ are affected very little by the interstellar medium at low frequencies’ and are the least energetic. Almost certainly electromagnetic waves of some frequency are the best means of interstellar communication.57’85 While many xenologists probably remain in basic agreement with this position’22 a few permit themselves the luxury of a nagging doubt. One of these persons is Carl Sagan’ who’ in an oft-quoted passage from his book The Cosmic Connection’ suggests that: We are like the inhabitants of an isolated valley in New Guinea who communicate with societies in neighboring valleys (quite different societies’ I might add) by runner and by drum. When asked how a very advanced society will communicate’ they might guess by an extremely rapid runner or by an improbably large drum. They might not guess a technology beyond their ken. And yet’ all the while’ a vast international cable and radio traffic passes over them’ around them’ and through them.. . .At this very moment the messages from another civilization may be wafting across space’ driven by unimaginably advanced devices’ there for us to detect them -- if only we knew how.15 The answer may lie right under our noses. Until this century it was widely believed that no material object could travel faster than the speed of sound. Yet the crack of a whip’ involving the supersonic snap of the tip of the lash’ had been known (but not understood) for thousands of years. Sagan’ asserting that messages from advanced civilizations may lie in quite familiar circumstances’ puts forth a fanciful suggestion: Consider’ for example’ seashells. Everyone knows the "sound of the sea" to be heard when putting a seashell to one’s ear. It is really the greatly amplified sound of our own blood rushing’ we are told. But is this really true? Has this been studied? Has anyone attempted to decode the message being sounded by the sea shell? I do not intend this example as literally true’ but rather as an allegory. Somewhere on Earth there may be the equivalent of the seashell communications channel. The message from the stars may be here already. But where?15 Philip Morrison once noted that the really logical mode of interstellar communication may be by "Q" waves "that we are going to discover ten years from now."702 Others have proposed highly speculative modes of virtually instantaneous contact’ including wormhole switchboards’2181 L- or T-fields and Universal Mind’2597 and psychic phenomena. Dr. Jack Sarfatti has attempted to invest ESP with scientific validity’ using his theory of Superluminal Quantum Communication. (See Gardner’3145 Sarfatti’3147’3148 and Sarfatti’ Wolfe’ and Toben.3146) The essence of this theory is that it may be possible to transmit the "quality" of energy rather than the energy itself -- which Sarfatti describes as the "nondynamical transfer" of information. Robert Forward articulates a similar notion: Do we need communication media? Communication is the transfer of information by modulation of some form of mass-energy or space/time. But information has the dimensions of negative entropy. It is not energy by itself. It is carried on energy. It might be possible to transfer information without using any form of mass/energy to transmit it. This is of interest because Special Relativity only limits the velocity of mass/energy’ not information. (Some theorists will argue with this.) But still’ this leads to a speculation that we might someday have faster-than-light information transfer even though mass/energy cannot go faster than c.2014 These and many other highly conjectural possibilities today remain only at the "idea" stage of technical development on this world.* Interestingly enough’ however’ there are at least four alternative signaling channels in which significant progress has been achieved in recent decades. The first two -- high energy particle and neutrino communications -have’ perhaps surprisingly’ already reached the "practice" stage of engineering and development here on Earth. The other two techniques we shall discuss -- gravity wave and tachyon communications -- presently remain at the "theory" stage of technological development. They await verification and research before serious engineering efforts may begin.

* It will be recalled from Chapter 17 that technical progress and the realization of new technology normally proceeds in four distinct stages: Idea’ Theory’ Practice’ and Profit.

24.2.1 Alternative Channels: HEPs, Neutrinos, Gravitons and Tachyons In 1977’ D. M. Jones proposed using high energy particles (HEPs) in the attention-getting or acquisition mode of interstellar communication.2201 To avoid the disturbing effects of planetary magnetic fields’ receivers and transmitters should be located in space or on nonmagnetic bodies such as Luna. Taking into account the problem of beam spreading’ Jones calculates that to signal across a distance of 10 light-years ETs will need a 10 ampere transmitter beam consisting of protons’ electrons’ or ether HEPs. The beam energy should average about 1000 TeV (1015 eV).* The transmitter will require about 1011 watts of power’ about two orders of magnitude higher than the largest accelerators constructed by humanity to date. The detector area should span an area of about 10 km2. HEP beams’ according to Jones’ are so unusual that they must necessarily call attention to themselves as artificial in origin. Information may be impressed on these beams in at least three different ways. Most primitive is content modulation -- 10 minutes of electrons’ then 5 minutes of protons’ then 7 minutes of electrons’ and so on. This would be technically difficult because of the large mass difference between protons and electrons (1836:1). The bit rate also would be low. Another possibility is energy modulation of the particle stream’ which can be accomplished at the transmitter end quite accurately. But changing energy alters velocity. Packets will be delayed to varying degrees’ so large pauses must be left between pulses. Receiver technology is complicated’ and again the bit rate is low. Perhaps the third alternative -- pulse modulation -- is best. In this scheme’ an homogeneous beam of particles with equal energy is pulsed in "dots" and "dashes" something like Morse code. If the beam is powerful enough’ maximum bit rates may approach 1000 bits/second. HEP beam communication has already been reduced to practice on Earth. In April 1972’ Dr. Richard C. Arnold at the Argonne National Laboratory conducted an experiment in remote signaling using 0.012 TeV beams of muon particles.3112 Using Morse code’ Arnold successfully transmitted a series of "V"s (dot-dot-dot-dash) via muon beam. The stream of information-bearing particles passed through a two-meter-thick wall and traveled 150 meters before reaching a "receiver" consisting of two coincidence counters. The message was encoded using pulse modulation by mechanically interposing a heavy brass barrier alternately to block or to pass muon packets emerging from the accelerator. This experiment is the first known use of a particle accelerator to transmit a message.3161 Dr. Arnold is of the opinion that muon-HEP beam communication systems are potentially competitive with radio and microwave over planetary distances. This is in part due to the fact that charged particles curve in a magnetic field and thus can be made to follow trajectories parallel to the surface of a world. Unfortunately’ this very property proves to be the principle disadvantage of the HEP scheme in interstellar communications. As the author has pointed out’ the Galactic magnetic field gives rise to unacceptable drifts in beam alignment even over fairly modest distances.2711 Solutions include increasing the beam energy to 10’000’000 TeV (suggested by Jones) or switching to uncharged HEPs such as neutrons.2712 Recent studies indicate that it may be possible to latch onto neutral particles and control their motion by coupling to the nonuniform positive and negative regions within their internal structure.2822 Another exciting possibility for interstellar communication is neutrino beams.2825 Neutrinos are extremely stable’ neutral’ massless particles which travel at the speed of light just like photons. They are ubiquitous throughout the universe’ produced first at the time of the Big Bang of universal creation (power flux about equivalent to that of the photonic 3 K background radiation)2198 and later by the hot fusion reactions occurring in the interior of Sol and other stars.3114 The principal advantage of neutrinos is their tremendous penetrating power. A very high-energy photon can burrow a few centimeters into a chunk of solid lead before it is absorbed’ but neutrinos can pass through about 50 light-years of lead before there is a 50% chance they will be captured. It is estimated that only one particle of every trillion passing through the Earth is absorbed by our planet.1557 Here’ possibly’ is the equivalent of the international cable traffic passing around Sagan’s New Guinea islanders. Each second many tens of thou sands of these phantom particles zip though our bodies without interaction. Could this be the "seashell communications channel" we are looking for? First-generation neutrino detectors were understandably primitive in design. The earliest model was constructed 1500 meters below ground level in the Homestake gold mine in Lead’ South Dakota in 1970 by Raymond Davis. It has since been used to detect neutrinos emitted by Sol. The subterranean location serves to provide a natural shield from cosmic ray "noise." In the main experiment’ a huge tank filled with 400’000 liters of perchloroethylene or C2Cl4 (commercial dry cleaning fluid) was placed at the bottom of the mine

shaft. When a neutrino struck one of the chlorine atoms (of which there were about 1030 in the tank) it is captured. The chlorine transmutes into an atom of chemically inert but radioactive argon gas. Even though Sol gives off about 1038 neutrinos/second’ the interaction of these particles with matter is so weak that only about one argon atom is produced in the tank each week. After a period of months’ the experimenters flush the vat with helium to concentrate the argon and then carefully measure its concentration with delicate radiation counters. Second-generation neutrino detectors have now been constructed which permit the sending of messages by neutrinos. Neutrino telecommunication has been reduced to practice on Earth today.3229 In 1977’ A. W. Sáenz and his coworkers of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington’ D.C.’ established the world’s first neutrino communications link over a distance of 1 kilometer.3113 The 0.4 TeV proton accelerator at Fermilab’ using 40 megawatts of power’ was used to generate a pulsed beam of 1013 protons per pulse at the rate of one pulse every eight seconds. Each pulse lasted only 0.02 millisecond. The protons were sharply focused by a magnetic horn and directed onto an aluminum target. A variety of short-lived mesons were produced’ flying off down a 400-meter tunnel wherein they decay into a 0.015 TeV neutrino beam with a spread of only 206 arcsec (about one-twentieth of a degree). There were about 1010 neutrinos in every pulse. The beam was aimed at a liquid neon bubble chamber measuring 4 meters in diameter. It was located about one kilometer away from the source and served as the receiver for the neutrino transmissions. The particle beam generated by the Fermilab accelerator was sufficiently intense to produce one observable neutrino interaction per pulse in the 25 tons of detector material. The liquid neon receiver picked up a series of Morse "dots" transmitted to it from Fermilab. Communication was established. When neutrinos interact with water’ they emit a forward cone of decay products giving rise to what is called Cerenkov radiation. Cerenkov rays are photons emitted by any material object which is traveling faster than the speed of light in that medium. Sáenz and his colleagues suggest using Cerenkov counters to observe neutrino-induced interaction events in large bodies of water located 10’000 kilometers from the source (here assumed to be Fermi lab). Here’s how such a communications link might work. Neutrinos generated by Fermilab would be directed thousands of kilometers straight through the mantle of the Earth to arrive in a large body of water at the surface containing 100 million tons of liquid. This might be a lake 1 kilometer wide and 100 meters deep. As the particles interact with the fluid’ muons are produced. These travel about 50 meters in water’ emitting along their path a 41°-wide Cerenkov cone consisting of about 200 photons per centimeter of path length in the visible wavelengths of light. These flashes of light would be picked up by photomulipliers and registered as information-carrying’ communicative neutrino signals. Since a single counter can monitor water volumes of about 106 tons’ only 100 Cerenkov counters are needed in the "receiving lake." About 2500 events/hour should be detectable’ a bit less than one per second. In order feasibly to use such a method for interstellar communications’ substantial technological improvements must be made. If we optimistically assume a beam spread of only 10-6 arcsec using huge spaceborne transmitters’ a beam energy of 1000 TeV’ and require a bit rate of 1 bit/second across a range of 100 light-years’ the receiver must consist of a giant sphere of water weighing 1015 tons and measuring about 124 kilometers in diameter. (This is about one-tenth of all the water stored in Earth’s polar icecaps.) About 109 Cerenkov counters would have to be deployed’ a mission which a Type II society could probably handle with ease if it chose to do so. Going still further afield’ imagine that a Type III civilization sets up a Library World near the Galactic Core and receives broadcasts from planets like Earth at a rate of 1013 bits/year using a water receiver as described above. The average distance to the Library will be 30’000 light-years’ so detectors must monitor the equivalent of 50 Earth-oceans’ worth of water to ensure adequate reception. While this certainly is not impossible’ and xenologists recognize that big problems require big solutions’ the neutrino-transmitter/water-detector scheme does seem rather tendentious and inelegant. What we need is more sensitive receivers. One oft-mentioned possibility for third-generation devices involves using gallium to capture a neutrino (which then transmutes into germanium). A large tank filled with liquid gallium metal could be about 100 times more sensitive than Davis’ chlorine/argon system. Unfortunately’ 20 tons of material would be required.1987 This represents about 5 years of the current world production of the element’3114 and at the present price of $550/kilogram the receiver will not be cheap. A related proposal’ in which indium metal is used to absorb a neutrino and change into tin’ would require only 3 tons of the pure element because of its high natural isotopic purity.1562 An indium receiver of this size would be about three times more sensitive than the gallium detector. Many other kinds of advanced receivers have been discussed in the literature. One such was elaborated by Dr. M. Subotowicz of Poland at the 3rd International CETI Review Meeting’ held in Amsterdam on 4 October 1974 as part of the 25th International Astronautical Congress.1093 In his paper "The Use of Neutrinos in Interstellar Communication’" Subotowicz discussed the technical problems involved in generating’ modulating’ collimating’ transmitting and receiving neutrino beams’ and he outlined some possible communication system designs. One of these designs involved a detector consisting of a single crystal of absolutely pure cobalt-60’ weighing about 9 tons (a cubic meter in volume) and maintained at a constant cryogenic temperature of 0.01 K. Such a system would provide a favorable signal-to-noise ratio against the normal solar/stellar neutrino background and would permit extraterrestrial neutrino communications to be detected across interstellar distances. The receiver would be small enough’ to fit in a modest-sized starship’ and at least one writer has speculated that an advanced civilization might use such means to talk only with its peer races’ to the deliberate exclusion of the humbler "peasant societies" using primitive radio wave systems.**1142 Xenologists can imagine still more sophisticated devices. In theory’ to see a neutrino you need a receiver-target which is very rich in neutrons. The optimal detector configuration might possibly involve a free neutron gas (see Chapter 19). A specially shaped ultradense neutronium sheet might serve as a kind of lens to concentrate and to detect neutrino impulses. If magnetic monopole particle accelerators are available and neutron gas receivers are already set up’ an advanced galactic neutrino telecommunications system may be as cheap to operate as an electromagnetic network -- and with competitive performance characteristics as well. While both HEPs and neutrinos are in some sense "proven" or "practical" systems’ the concept of gravity wave signaling remains at the theory stage of development.1345 Much as accelerated charged particles give rise to electromagnetic fields’ General Relativity theory predicts the existence of a radiation of gravity generated by accelerated masses. Theorists are firmly convinced that gravitational radiation does exist’ and there is now growing experimental confirmation of this supposition.3227’3228 Harnessing gravitational radiation will open up a whole new communication band from DC up to GHz frequencies and beyond -- but made up of gravity fields rather than electromagnetic fields. Gravity waves should have penetrating power even better than neutrinos. They experience very little attenuation when they pass through material objects’ and they travel at the speed of light. To set up a working communication system’ we first must have a gravity wave transmitter. In principle’ any mass which undergoes translational or circular acceleration emits gravitational radiation. But gravity energy is far weaker than electromagnetic energy. For example’ a locomotive engine spinning so fast that it is just about to fly apart from centrifugal force (about 6 revolutions per second) would generate only 1032 watts of gravity wave energy.3116 The waves radiated by the whole Earth have an energy of only 10-3 watts’ and the total emission from the entire solar system amounts to just a few hundred watts. This is insufficient for the purpose of inter stellar communication. To make a good transmitter we need lots of mass concentrated in very dense clumps’ and those clumps must be moved very rapidly (close to the speed of light) in order to generate significant quantities of gravitational radiation.2014 Hawking black holes (HBHs) probably would be ideal for this purpose. Once one has been captured or manufactured and an electrical charge imposed upon it’ it may be manipulated by electric fields powered by the spontaneous evaporative energy thrown off by the HBH. For instance’ a 1012 kilogram HBH spinning with a tangential velocity of 130 meter/second should emit 2 x 1012 watts of gravitational energy. This is equal to the spontaneous evaporative power output. (Such a system should be stable for about 1 eon.) Larry Niven has discussed a similar idea in his science fiction story "The Hole Man."686 At the end of every communications system there is a receiver. In a radio receiver’ an electromagnetic wave accelerates free electrons in the antenna; in a gravity receiver’ the passage of gravitational radiation will cause the physical deformation of the mass comprising the receiver. Pioneering work on such detectors was initiated by Joseph Weber at the University of Maryland’ starting in the early 1960’s.658 Weber built a gravity wave detector consisting of a 1-ton aluminum cylinder which could be driven into oscillation by passing waves. These oscillations would then be picked up by piezoelectric strain sensors mounted on the surface of the cylindrical bar. The apparatus was supposed to be able to measure physical deformations on the order of 10-17 meter. Second generation detectors’ currently under construction or already in operation’ aim for two orders of magnitude improvement in sensitivity -- down to about 10-19 meter.3115 At least six different schemes have been proposed. The first approach is to take a Weber-type bar’ make it more massive (say’ 10 tons instead of 1 ton)’ and cool it down to liquid helium temperatures to reduce thermal noise. The system is further isolated from extraneous external vibrations by using superconductive magnetic levitation.3321’3319 A second approach involves using a dielectric monocrystal -- for example’ a large’ very pure’ single crystal sapphire -- instead of a massive metal bar. The gain in the receiver is far higher using monocrystals’ which compensates for the reduced mass. A third approach is to set up a laser interferometer with two arms laid perpendicular. The passage of gravity waves shortens one branch and causes a measurable visual fringe shift. The fourth detector’ called the Braginsky notch capacitor’ records the change in electrical capacitance of a metal bar with a notch cut in it’ as a gravity wave passes and changes very slightly the length of the notch. Fifth’ there is the Doppler shift tracking technique. The Doppler shift in signals emitted from a spacecraft are carefully monitored. When a gravity wave passed by’ it jiggles the ship relative to Earth and thus produces a blip in the Doppler shift measurement’3316 Finally’ there is the superconducting ring magnet detector. In this scheme’ an electric current induced in the superconducting metal ring flows indefinitely. This persistent current generates a magnetic field perpendicular to the plane of the ring. When the shape of the ring is disturbed by the passage of a gravity wave’ the magnetic flux through the ring changes and can be measured by a device called SQUID (Superconducting Quantum Interference Device).3117 Dr. Kip Thorne’ theoretical physicist at CalTech’ estimates that within a decade or so third generation devices will become available and extend sensitivity down to 10-21 meter.3115 This should be sensitive enough to map the entire "gravity wave sky."657 Assuming an HBH gravitational radiation transmitter as discussed above with a power output of 1012 watts and a directional gain of 108 (about 1 arcmin focus)’ Thorne’s proposed devices could probably receive communications from a sender located 100 light-years away. High gravitational antenna gains could be achieved by using an entire star as a lens.3118 Using a body the mass of Sol’ a nearly parallel beam of gravity waves could be created’ a beam with a diameter of 1000 kilometers that would not diverge appreciably out to distances on the order of 10’000 light-years. The focal length of such lenses would be of the same order as the dimensions of the solar system. Xenologists suspect that if the transmitter problem can be licked’ gravity wave communication may be quite feasible across interstellar or even galactic distances. The technology for tachyon signaling does not yet exist on Earth. Indeed we do not even know if tachyons exist at all. But the concept’’ which has only just moved from the idea to the theory stage of development quite recently’ offers the fascinating possibility of hyperoptic (faster-than-light) communications throughout the entire universe. (See especially Alväger and Kreisler’1479 Antippa’1495 Baltay et al’1498 Bers’ Fox’ Kuper and Lipson’1476 Bilaniuk’ Deshpande and Sudarshan’1515 Bilaniuk and Sudarshan’1516 Bilaniuk et al’1517 Everett and Antippa’1477 Feinberg’648’1492 Fox’1504 Kreisler’1518 Mignani and Recami’1507’1519 Newton’645 Parmentola and Yee’1493 Raychaudhuri’1521 Recami’3252 Recami and Mignani’1511 Taylor’1190 Trefil’2026 and the short bibliography by Feldman complete through 1973.1514) As Stephen L. Brown at Stanford Research Institute points out: Tachyons could be used for communication systems. Such systems would be useful only where ordinary electromagnetic radiation is too slow’ as in interstellar communication. It would seem likely that any extraterrestrials with high technology would be aware of tachyons (if they exist) and would use them for communications instead of waiting centuries for replies at the speed of light. Perhaps the Project OZMA concept of monitoring electromagnetic radiation for intelligible patterns will turn out to have much less potential for interstellar contact than a tachyon monitoring system.1517 Tachyons may represent close to the most perfect signaling system we can imagine. The message carriers will always travel faster than light and in fact may go arbitrarily close to infinite velocity. The faster a tachyon goes the less energy it requires -- a transcendental tachyon moving at infinite speed has zero energy. So far as we know there is very little tachyonic background noise’ and these particles (if they exist) should not interact appreciably with ordinary matter or galactic magnetic fields. The only requirement for optimal message carrier not yet satisfied is that message particles should be easy to generate’ launch’ and detect. But ETs may well possess the requisite technical knowledge to make the dream of hyperoptic signaling a reality. The theoretical superiority of tachyons over photons rarely is fully appreciated. Dr. Martin Harwit of the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research at Cornell University has provided several mathematical formulae from which a simple calculation of the comparative bit rates of the two message channels may be made.3119 If bandwidth and detector size are held constant’ the ratio of tachyon bit rate to photon bit rate is equal to (mlc/h)3/N’ where m is tachyon mass’ l is photon wavelength’ N is tachyon velocity in units of c (speed of light)’ and h is Planck’s constant. This ratio may be called the Tachyon Advantage’ and is tabulated in Table 24.1 above for various wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation’ assuming tachyonic mass equal to the mass of the electron. Note the tremendous theoretical advantages of transmitting information with tachyons rather than with radio waves or photons of visible light. The tachyons are also traveling incredibly swiftly’ yet another advantage over photonic signals.

Table 24.1 Theoretical Tachyon Advantage over Photons for Information Transmission, using Tachyon Mass = Electron Mass and Equivalent Bandwidth and Detector Size Tachyon Velocity

Tachyon Advantage over Radio Waves

Tachyon Advantage over Visible Photons

Tachyon Advantage over X-Ray Photons

N

(n = 3 GHz’ l = 0.1 meter)

(n = 6 x 1014 Hz’ l = 5000 Angstroms)

(n = 3 x 1018 Hz’ l = 1 Angstroms)

102c

1030

1014

102

105c

1027.

1011

10-1

108c

1024

108

10-4

1011c

1021

105

10-7

What about energetic efficiency? Although the calculations are highly speculative’ it would appear that the ratio of the theoretical tachyonic efficiency in bits/joulesec to the theoretical photonic efficiency in bits/joule-sec is equal to (mlc/h)2. For tachyons having the mass of an electron’ only high-energy x-rays (1020 Hz and higher) are more efficient. If proton-mass tachyons are transmitted’ only powerful gamma-ray photons (1023 Hz and higher) should be more energy-efficient per bit. If the existence of tachyons is finally verified’*** and if the generation’ transmission and detection of these fleeting particles can be achieved with reasonable equipment.’ sentient ETs races may have at their disposal one of the cheapest and fastest communications systems imaginable. Perhaps someday human scientists may learn to tap this channel. The first tachyonic interstellar signals we receive may say: "Greetings! Welcome to the Galactic Club!"

* The largest machines on Earth today can achieve about 0.5 TeV’ and 10 TeV machines are in the planning stage. ** According to the Conference Report’ strange neutrino "signals" have already been detected on first- or second-generation equipment: Professor G. Marx {Department of Physics’ Budapest University’ Hungary) was interested in Dr. Subotowicz’ theories of neutrino communication and reported that on 4 January 1974’ a Philadelphia team had received bursts of neutrino pulses’ where groups of pulses (approximately 1 microsecond pulse duration and 1000 pulses per burst) were received. Twelve such groups were received and then the counters saturated. Although obviously open to the wildest speculation’ these signals were almost certainly due to the initial stages of supernovae explosion and stellar gravitational collapse. 1093 *** Nuclear physicists have searched for evidence of tachyons for more than a decade. For the records of these experimental investigations’ see Alväger and Kreisler’ 1479 Ashton et al’ 3120 Baltay et al’1498 Bartlett and Lahana’ 1500 Clay and Crouch’ 654 Danburg and Kalbfleisch’ 1502 Danburg et al’ 1496 Davis’ Kreisler and Alväger’ 3121 Feinberg’648 Kreisler’ 1518 Murthy’1510 and Thomsen.646

24.2.2 Electromagnetic Waves and Frequency Selection Based on the historical development of human communications technology’ it is probably fair to say that electromagnetic radiation represents the most primitive technique for signaling across interstellar distances. Advanced cultures may possess particulate’ neutrinic’ gravitic or tachyonic communication channels’ or they may have knowledge of only a few of these’ but it is difficult to imagine any technical society in possession of any of such sophisticated technologies without at least having an awareness of photonic communication techniques. Electromagnetic waves are probably the easiest information markers physically to generate’ and they are ubiquitous throughout the cosmos. Photons are most likely the most primitive communication technology available for interstellar discourse. If this is true’ which photons are the best to use? The electromagnetic communication band spans a useful frequency range of at least 16 orders of magnitude -gamma rays’ x-rays’ ultraviolet’ visible light’ infrared’ radio and so forth. Unless we can identify a preferential region of the spectrum’ our search for intelligent alien signals will be frustrated by the enormous number of possibilities. The most logical place to begin is with the question of energy efficiency. Following Drake’s Principle of Economy’ we should expect ETs to select those photons which transmit the greatest number of bits per second for the least cost in joules of transmission energy. Unfortunately’ both bit rate and photon energy are proportional to frequency’ so when the two are divided the frequency dependence drops out. Hence’ the criterion of energy efficiency is incapable of distinguishing between photons of different frequencies. If we look back at Oliver’s criteria (Section 24.2)’ we see that there are really only two of them which are useful in making a choice between photons: Noise and absorption. Signals transmitted over channels which are too noisy are not detected. Messages transmitted through a medium which absorbs them do not reach the receiver. Consider the graph in Figure 24.2. The vertical axis represents the total electromagnetic flux density in watts/meter2’ assuming a detector which is looking at approximately 8% of the entire celestial sphere (1 square radian of sky’ or "steradian"). Noise from the most important sky sources are plotted over the various frequency ranges in which they occur. Coverage stops at 107 Hz because electromagnetic waves with frequencies less than this are heavily absorbed by planetary ionospheres’ and in any case’ waves below 106 Hz are absorbed by the interstellar medium.

Figure 24.2 Integrated Flux Density of Background Radiation Likely to Obscure Interstellar Electromagnetic Communications3129 Total Interstellar Electromagnetic Flux Density (watt/meter2-steradian)

What conclusions may we draw from the data? First’ it appears that the noisiest part of the electromagnetic spectrum is the region from 1011 Hz up to about 1016 Hz. Any signals sent by photons within this range must compete with starlight’ the 3 K cosmic background’ and a variety of other emissions and absorptions. Although interstellar communications seem least likely in this portion of the spectrum’ a few xenologists have suggested making use of the laser’s ability to produce highly directional’ extremely monochromatic beams. If the laser is tuned to emit in a stellar absorption band (a narrow frequency band where the sun is about an order of magnitude darker than normal)’ distant alien observers would observe an artificial spectral line winking on and off in a clearly intelligent pattern.1039 A better choice is the part of the spectrum which lies above 1016 Hz. X-rays and gamma rays may be useful in interstellar communications because they are not absorbed by the interstellar medium. (See Elliot’3144 Fabian’3137 and Kuiper and Morris.2608) But attempting to search the entire range from 1016-1023 Hz is hardly going to be easy. If we could check a 1 MHz band for ET signals every 10 seconds’ the search time to cover the entire high frequency region would require a period of time on the order of the age of the universe. Somehow the possibilities must be narrowed. One way to do this is to look at "magic frequencies" derived from universal physical constants or defined by well-known physical phenomena. The possibilities are endless.2608 For example’ the Compton Wavelength* of the electron is 2.420 x 10-12 meter’ corresponding to a frequency of 1.239 x 1020 Hz. This falls almost exactly into a noise minimum between hard x-rays and gamma rays on the flux density curve on the preceding page. The Compton Wavelengths of the proton and neutron’ respectively’ are 1.32134 x 10-15 meter and 1.31952 x 10-15 meter’ which define a "narrow" 1020 Hz band between the frequencies 2.26885 x 1023 Hz and 2.27198 x 1023 Hz. This band conveniently lies in another local noise minimum on the flux density curve. Since it is defined by the two major particles from which all stable matter is constructed’ this "baryon gap" may be the preferred region for interstellar communications using high-energy photons. Yet another approach -- one which fills in the third local noise minimum between soft and hard x-rays -- is somewhat biochauvinistic. It assumes that ETs will transmit signals between favored spectral lines of atoms or ions that are biologically important to them. For instance’ silicon-based sentients may transmit between Si- Ka1 and Ka2 lines’ located at 4.20736 x 1017 Hz and 4.20591 x 1017 Hz’ defining sharply what might be called the "silicon hole" with a width of 1.45 x 1014 Hz in which signals might be detected. Similarly’ we might define a "sulfur hole" between 5.58048 x 1017 Hz (Ka1 line) and 5.57758 x 1017 Hz (Ka2 line); a "chlorine hole" between 6.34108 x 1017 Hz (Ka1 line) and 6.33718 x 1017 Hz (Ka2 line) for chlorine-breathers; a "germanium hole" from 2.9464 x 1017 Hz to 2.9428 x 1017 Hz for germanium xenobionts; and so forth. It is clear’ however’ that on the basis of noise/absorption criteria alone the low frequency end of the spectrum (below 1011 Hz) should be optimal for long-distance interstellar communications. The weight of xenological opinion today is that radio frequencies are the preferred mode of photonic information transmission between the stars.57’22 But exactly which radio frequencies are best? The graph in Figure 24.3 represents an expanded view of the quietest portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The vertical axis is no longer energy density. Rather’ intensity is expressed as sky brightness (blackbody) temperature which is what radio-astronomers actually measure.

Figure 24.3 Free Space Microwave Window

There are three fundamental sources of noise associated with all highly sensitive radio receivers. First there is "galactic noise’" caused by synchrotron radiation arising from free electrons orbiting magnetic field lines in space. From the graph we see that this noise rises steeply below 1 GHz’ depending very slightly upon the galactic latitude toward which we point our receiver. Second’ there is "thermal noise’" caused by the 3 K cosmic back ground’ the relict radiation from the Big Bang. Third’ there is "quantum noise" (spontaneous emission or shot noise)’ representing a fundamental quantum mechanical limitation on receiver sensitivity. Above 1 GHz galactic noise falls below the isotropic cosmic background’ and beyond about 60 GHz quantum noise exceeds the cosmic background and in creases indefinitely with frequency. (It is the dominant form of noise at optical wavelengths.) Thus from any point in interstellar space the sky is likely to be quietest from about 1-60 GHz. This is the microwave window out in free space. Now look at the graph in Figure 24.4 on the Terrestrial Microwave Window. Atmospheric absorption must be added for receivers located on a planetary surface under a sea of air. If signals from the stars arrive at frequencies above 10 GHz’ they will be strongly absorbed by water vapor molecules’ oxygen molecules’ and many other molecules not shown. These substances are likely to be present in the air of any terrestrial world that resembles Earth even remotely. We see that the Terrestrial Microwave Window is closed virtually for all radio frequencies save those few between 1-10 GHz. The great majority of xenologists agree that this is the range where alien electromagnetic signals most profitably may be sought.

Figure 24.4 Terrestrial Microwave Window

There is considerably less consensus on exactly where to search within the Window. Philip Morrison and Guiseppi Cocconi first suggested that the search should be made at or near the natural emission peak of neutral inter stellar hydrogen gas (the most abundant element in the universe). According to these early pioneers in SETI’ the preferred frequency was 1.42 GHz: On the most favored radio region there lies a unique’ objective standard frequency which must be known to every observer in the universe: the outstanding radio emission line at 1420 Mc/sec of neutral hydrogen.1033 As the hydrogen line itself is rather noisy’ a few scientists responded that searches ought to be made at integral multiples of 1.42 GHz.1054 Since 1959’ the science of radioastronomy has made tremendous advances. It is now known that there are many other elements and molecules with emission lines within the Window. The hydroxyl (OH) radical has emission lines at 1.612’ 1.665’ 1.667’ and 1.720 GHz. Spectral lines of molecular species are also quite popular in the speculative literature. For instance’ some have proposed listening in at 4.83 GHz -- the natural formaldehyde emission line -- because it is comparatively less noisy than many other natural lines.3122 In the early 1970’s’ interest turned to what is commonly called the "water hole." Much as with the x-ray bands described above’ the water hole is the band of radio wave frequencies lying between the H and OH emission lines. Readers familiar with chemistry will recognize that H plus OH equals water’ the basic solvent for all life as we know it on Earth. Dr. Bernard Oliver’ who originated this idea in connection with his work on Project Cyclops (see below) in 1971’ explains the rationale for the water hole in a particularly poetic fashion: Nature has provided us with a rather narrow band in this best part of the spectrum that seems especially marked for interstellar con tact. It lies between the spectral lines of hydrogen and the hydroxyl radical. Standing like the Om and the Um on either side of a gate’ these two emissions of the disassociation products of water beckon all water-based life to search for its kind at the age old meeting place for all species: the water hole. Waterbased life is almost certainly the most common form and well may be the only (naturally occurring) form. ... Romantic? Certainly. But is not romance itself a quality peculiar to intelligence? Should we not expect advanced beings elsewhere to show such perceptions? By the dead reckoning of physics we have narrowed all the decades of the electromagnetic spectrum down to a single octave where conditions are best for interstellar contact. There’ right in the. middle’ stand two signposts that taken together symbolize the medium in which all life we know began. Is it sensible not to heed such signposts? To say’ in effect: I do not trust your message’ it is too good to be true!3289’57 During the mid- and late-1970’s there has been an outpouring of new ideas and proposals for preferred frequencies in SETI’ so the water hole concept today has a great deal of competition. Drake and Sagan suggest using an "average value" of the H and OH natural emission lines’ obtaining a kind of "molecular center of mass" frequency of 1.65 GHz as the favored interstellar channel.3128 A related proposal is that in space’ where the Free Space Microwave Window allows greater leeway’ we should search the water line itself at 22 GHz2865 (or perhaps the ammonia line at 24 GHz’ if we are looking for ammonia-based beings15). We could adopt the "magic" frequency of 56 GHz’ the point at which the blackbody 3 K background "thermal noise" curve intersects the "quantum noise" curve.22 Argue Drake and Sagan: "The 56 GHz channel has the provocative property of being determined simultaneously by quantum mechanics and cosmology."3128 Using another combination of basic physical constants’ Kuiper and Morris have derived a "magic" frequency of 2.56 GHz.2608 Then there is the intriguing suggestion of Soviet SETI researcher P.V. Makoveskii of the Leningrad Institute of Aviation Instrument Manufacture’ that the most probable frequencies for interstellar radio traffic will be the natural hydrogen line frequency alternatively multiplied and divided by such constants as p’ 2p’ and SQRT(2).3261 This identifies several "uniquely artificial" frequencies’ including 0.23’ 0.45’ 1.0’ 2.0’ 4.5’ and 9.0 GHz. However reasonable they may seem’ each of the above proposals rests on a plausibility argument whose conclusions perhaps are suggested but certainly are not compelled by the basic facts and assumptions of xenology. A few scientists have attempted to predict the optimum interstellar signaling frequency based solely upon fundamental physical laws and conditions expected to apply to all communicative civilizations in the Galaxy. Using his Principle of Economy’ Dr. Frank Drake points out that the best radio frequency is the one in which transmission power is minimized -- that is’ where noise is lowest. This is customarily described in terms of the "brightness temperature" of the sky -- the temperature a black body would have to have in order to duplicate in brightness the observed radio radiation coming from a given spot in the sky. Following Drake’ we write the noise temperature as a function of celestial right ascension a and declination d (the astronomers’ way of specifying sky position) as T(a’d)’ This temperature is not constant for all radio waves’ but varies as a function of frequency n. Typically the variation follows a "power law" -- frequency raised to some variable exponent g -- of the form n-g. Since g is also a function of sky position’ we shall write it as g(a’d). Both T(a’d) and g(a’d) can and have been measured very precisely by terrestrial radioastronomers for every point in the sky. Finally’ Drake derives the following equation for no the frequency of maximum economy (of maximum communication range):

where k is Boltzmann’s constant and h is Planck’s constant.3123 What does all this mean in plain English? Simply this: For each position in the astronomers’ sky there exists a unique frequency of minimum noise and maximum economy. Whatever direction you point your radiotelescope’ range will be greatest if the radio frequency determined by the above equation is used. Best of all’ the numbers that must be plugged into Drake’s formula are already known’ so n0 theoretically may be computed today for any star system in the heavens with whom we may wish to enter into communication. Drake calculates that the range of frequencies of maximum economy span the Terrestrial Microwave Window from 3.75 GHz out to about 10 GHz.

* The Compton Wavelength is the change in wavelength corresponding to a loss of energy suffered by a photon whenever it collides with matter.

24.2.3 Acquisition and Artificiality Criteria There are many different kinds of possible alien transmissions we might receive -- local radio traffic’ beamed messages to regular correspondents’ beacon signals designed to attract attention’ and so on. We are most likely to pick up beacons first because these should be comparatively more powerful. But xenologists disagree on the exact nature of the beacon signals we may detect.3179 Artificiality criteria have not yet been worked out in full detail’ but certainly not for want of trying. A variety of radioastronomical criteria have been proposed over the years which turn out to be insufficient: Small angular dimensions of the source’ characteristic spectral density distribution of intensity’ time-variability or flux pulsations in time’ circular polarization’ alternating left- and right-hand polarization pulses’ corrected orbit-induced or planetary axial-rotation-induced Doppler shifts’ and so forth. (See Kaplan’29 Konstantinov and Pekelis’25 and Tovmasyan.28) According to Vsevolod S. Troitskii’ a well-known Russian radioastronomer’ there do seem to be two basic requirements for all beacon signals that xenologists can agree upon: 1. The signal should not leave any doubt as to its artificial origin. The artificial signal should be distinctly different in its properties from natural radiations. 2. The signal should carry some information about the transmitting civilization.3124 The second of these criteria -- information content -- is highly significant. So far as we know’ only the processes of life’ intelligence and culture are able to impress large quantities of information onto packets of photons. Perhaps we should try to decide if there is some minimum information content than a given transmission must possess before we may regard it as artificial. As Philip Morrison points out: A little more information content is needed than just the existence of a {stellar spectral} line of something rather rare or a very regular pulse’ because if you look for a sufficiently long time’ you are bound to find rare things just in the course of events. This is a very valuable lesson. Although rare things occur rarely’ it is also true that rare things occur rarely.3127 Soviet astrophysicist Nikolai S. Kardashev believes that a signal should contain at least 10-100 bits of information before we may feel confident that it is artificial in origin.3126 Terry Winograd’s artificial intelligence computer program consists of about 106 bits’ but Marvin Minsky estimates that a message with as few as 104-105 bits’ properly situated’ could be considered "intelligent."22 Hopefully the information will not be too difficult to extract. According to E.C. Shannon’s statistical theory of coding’ the most efficient signals will appear indistinguishable from random thermal noise.3186’3187 That is’ a maximally information-saturated message looks like noise -- unless the recipient happens to know the correct translation code. Xenologists suspect that ETs may not attempt to achieve maximum information content in interstellar beacon devices. Signals that look like noise don’t attract much attention. If such highly efficient beacon transmissions are used’ they probably will be accompanied by special attention-getting messages. These are often referred to as "call signals’" and may be expected to satisfy Troitskii’s first criterion on the previous page.*

* Specific search strategies have been proposed by Bihary’3158 Dixon’1266 Gray’ 3150 Haviland’ 1147 Morrison’ Billingham and Wolfe’ 2865 Oliver and Billingham’ 57 Ridpath’3154’3257 Sagan’ 22 Shklovskii and Sagan’ 20 and Walker.158 Timing of the call is also of paramount importance -- we must know when to look as well as where and how. The interested reader is referred to the timing schemes offered by Gindilis’ 22 Makovetskii’ 3263 McLaughlin’ 2719 Pace and Walker’ 651 Tang’1613 and Tovmasyan. 28

24.2.4 Alien Message Contents Once a genuine extraterrestrial signal of some kind has been detected’ the acquisition phase ends and the communicative phase may begin. The recipient must then be able to puzzle out the meaning of the alien messages he receives. If the signals are being transmitted purposefully’ then it is likely that the ETs at the other end will have done their level best to ensure easy decipherability of their messages by the intended recipients. Coding should be relatively simple and considerably redundant’ full of clues enabling SETI scientists to achieve a full translation with high validity. Since this is exactly the opposite goal to that of the science of cryptography (secret codes)’ xenologists often refer to it as the Principle of Anticryptography. According to the Principle’ a beacon message transmitted from another world’ prima impressionis’ should be optimized for easy decoding by intelligent recipients. The Principle of Anticryptography suggests the basic format of messages we may expect to receive from the stars. Consider a sequential transmission consisting of a string of symbols of some kind. If the message is very lengthy’ and later parts are of greater complexity in reliance upon our understanding of earlier parts’ then if we tune in near the middle or the end we probably won’t be able to understand anything at all. On the other hand’ if the message is kept very brief and repetitive then’ in the words of one radio-astronomer’ it "bores us to tears for decades while we try to acknowledge."80 In keeping with the Principle’ we might expect to find "nested messages’" involving a frequently repeated call signal interspersed with short but complete "language lessons."22 Every so often a self-contained package of basic information would be substituted for the language lesson. On yet rarer occasions’ the basic information package would be replaced with a more advanced information package’ and so on to higher and higher levels of sophistication. Such a message format is highly redundant’ repetitive’ error-proof’ informative’ and so may be tapped into at any point in the transmission without loss of meaning. What about message contents? Will we understand what ETs are trying to say to us? A few xenologists have proposed that the "universal language" of mathematics will provide the bridge of understanding between man and alien. (See Hogben’1112 Oakley’329 Pryor’99 and Sagan and Drake.3143) According to one scientist’ it is difficult to imagine the existence of communicative beings unfamiliar with numbers and counting. Thus the earliest messages may consist of a series of irreducible prime numbers’ say’ 1’ 3’ 5’ 7’ 11’ 13’ 17’...’ or the value of pi out to the first twenty digits or so. Assuming for the moment the validity of this approach’ can we do better than mere counting? Dr. Hans Freudenthal’ professor of mathematics at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands’ has designed a purely mathematical language which conceivably could be used in interstellar discourse between alien races. Freudenthal originally devised his system of "lingua cosmica" -- Lincos for short -- as an exercise in logical linguistics’ but he admits it easily might serve as the contact and communicative mode among ETs.3290 Lincos consists of a variety of mathematical terms and phrases’ to be encoded into specific combinations of radio pulses and signal shapes and then beamed out into space. It is devised purely in terms of semantics and human logic’ and accomplishes understanding by building from simple beginnings. Statements are arranged in words’ sentences’ and paragraphs. Freudenthal’s program begins by establishing the meaning of the terms "plus" and "equals." He would’ for instance’ send signals something like "beep bloop beep tweet beep beep" (1 ‘ 1 = 2)’ perhaps followed by "beep bloop beep beep tweet beep beep beep" (1 ‘ 2 = 3) and so on. Eventually it should become clear that "bloop" represents addition and "tweet" signifies equality. In the first chapter of his book on Lincos’ Freudenthal goes on similarly to introduce the concepts of subtraction’ multiplication’ division’ basic symbolic logic ("and’" "or’" and "follows")’ negatives’ integers’ decimals’ fractions’ and zero. In the second chapter the concept of time makes its appearance’ including "seconds’" duration’ wavelength’ frequency’ "before’" "after’" and "occurs." In chapter 3’ Freudenthal develops concepts of correct and incorrect’ right and wrong’ good and had; to count’ to search’ to find’ to describe’ to prove’ to change’ to add or omit; to know’ guess’ understand’ and mention; nearly and approximately’ much and little’ soon and long ago’ age and now; necessary and possible’ enable’ be forced’ allowed’ forbidden; politely; conflict between necessity’ duty’ and desire; and so forth. For example’ Freudenthal’s language lesson to teach the concepts "correct" and "incorrect" to ETs runs as follows: *Ba Inq Hb•? x.100x=1010:

Human-a asks Human-b: If 4x = 10’ how much is x?

Hb Inq Ha.1/10:

Human-b tells Human-a: x is 1/2.

Ha Inq Hb Mal:

Human-a tells Human-b: That is incorrect.

Hb Inq Ha.101/10:

Human-b tells Human-a: x is 5/2.

Ha Inq Rh Ben*

Human-a tells Human-b: That is correct. End of lesson.

As vocabulary slowly builds’ ever more sophisticated statements become possible. In chapter 4 of Freudenthal’s book’ mechanics and spatial extent are dealt with’ including concepts of distance’ position’ length’ growth’ volume’ motion’ waves and oscillations’ speed of light’ mass’ and astronomical concepts. Later chapters delve into geography’ anatomy and physiology including the human reproductive process. By staging "plays" between symbolic human "actors’" Lincos ultimately should be capable of portraying diverse facets of human behavior’ emotions’ social conventions’ philosophies and religious rituals. Unfortunately’ there are many problems with the "universal mathematical language" approach. As we know’ no system of logic is or can be universal. Gödel’s Theorem suggests that alien systems of mathematics’ logic and philosophy necessarily must be at least somewhat incongruent. ETs may not understand our system of numbers’ our Euclidean geometry’ our Aristotelian bimodal logic’ our astronomically-derived Newtonian physics’ or our sequential Periodic Table of the Elements’ simply because they view the universe through different sensors and thus reach different conclusions based on different theories. So aliens may not understand human-designed artificial languages like Lincos. Still’ the possibility of totally nonintersecting systems of knowledge is probably remote in most first contact situations. It is unlikely that man and alien will have absolutely nothing in common. In most cases’ ETs evolving on Earth-like worlds should have much in common with us by virtue of the similarity of our native environments. To the extent the two paradigms do intersect’ a basis for communication may be established from which the areas of nonintersection later can be cautiously explored. The most likely region of intersection in this case probably is in the hard sciences -- physics’ chemistry’ geology’ meteorology’ and so on. Other approaches to the problem of extraterrestrial message anticryptography have been proposed. Perhaps the most popular of these is the interstellar pictogram’ anticipated by H.W. and C. Wells Nieman back in 1920.170 The basic idea is that a string of radio pulses’ coded as on/off’ black/white’ or 0/1 could he arranged in a rectangular raster pattern to form a two-dimensional pictorial image much like modern television systems (Figure 24.5). Imagine you receive a string of 1271 zeros and ones on an appropriate interstellar frequency band. How might this be translated? The mathematically-inclined reader will recognize that 1271 is the product of two prime numbers’ 31 and 41. This suggests that the data should be laid out sequentially on a gridwork either of 41 rows and 31 columns or 31 rows and 41 columns. As illustrated in Figure 24.5’ the former of these makes little sense whereas the latter appears highly informative.1056

Figure 24.5 Sample Interstellar Pictogram

Suppose the above string of 250 pulses ("1") and 1021 pauses ("0") is received by a terrestrial radiotelescope during a scan of the Epsilon Eridani star system. There are a total of 1271 data bits. 1271 is the product of two prime numbers’ 31 and 41. This suggests a two-dimensional message’ in which the data are laid out sequentially in a rectangular grid pattern of rows and columns. There are two possible ways of doing this -- 41 rows or 31 rows. As we see at below left’ the choice of 41 rows produces an evidently random arrangement of dots. But if the same data are set out in a grid with 31 rows’ as shown at below right’ the pattern is striking and informative. 1056

WHAT DOES THE MESSAGE SAY? It appears that the creatures depicted in the lower center part of the pictogram’ presumably the species that sent the message’ are beings having two arms’ two legs’ and an erect posture much like humans. Sexual cues suggest a mammalian physiology’ with long-maturing offspring born one at a time and cared for during youth by pairs of bisexual parents. The crude circle and column of dots at the left suggest their sun and planets’ and the being on the left is pointing at the fourth world which is evidently their home. The planets are numbered down the left-hand side in a ‘binary code" different from the one normally used by human computer scientists. The numbers one through eight are given in this new code. The creature on the right is pointing at the "binary number 1011’ which is six in the alien code. Perhaps the ETs have 6 fingers on each hand. There is also a dimension line at far right. labeled with the "binary" number 11101. In the alien code’ this is eleven’ so we infer that the beings are eleven somethings tall. Since the only length we both know for certain is the wavelength of the radio waves upon which the message was transmitted (say’ 10 centimeters’ corresponding to 3 GHz)’ then the ETs must be 10 x 11 = 110 cm in height. (They are a race of pygmies.) The objects at the top of the pictogram represent atoms of hydrogen’ carbon and oxygen’ so their life chemistry is based on carbohydrates much like our own. The wavy line commencing at the third planet indicates it is a water world’ and the fish-like form shows there is marine life there. Since the bipeds know this’ they must have at least interplanetary space travel capability.

Variations may be imagined. For instance’ we could use perfect squares rather than "rectangular primes." If the message has 1681 bits’ which is 41 x 41 exactly’ then there is only one way to lay the message out and the two-choice ambiguity is avoided. We might also receive a three-prime message’ say with 2717 bits’ which’ when correctly arranged’ permits the reconstruction of a spatial mode complete with height’ width’ and depth. If one of the three primes represents a time dimension’ we will have the equivalent of an extra terrestrial Mickey Mouse cartoon. (The time-prime should be clearly distinguished from the spatial-primes for this purpose. The author suggests a message of 5819 bits’ consisting of 11 sequential frames of 23 x 23 bits each.) Yet another twist’ first proposed by Y.I. Kuznetzov of the Institute of Energetics in Moscow’ is the possibility of transmitting a 3-D interstellar pictogram using variations in frequency’ intensity’ and pulse delay to build up each of the three physical dimensions of the image of a solid object.22 The pictogram mode of contact has appeared repeatedly in science fiction.70’1748 A number of chauvinisms associated with all pictogram schemes may render them significantly less universally interpretable. First’ the idea of laying data out in a grid-shaped raster seems logical enough to human scientists. Our TV sets work in essentially the same way. But aliens may have different ideas and technologies. Perhaps they use spiral scanning (either the Archimedean or logarithmic variety). At least one ancient human language was written in this format’ and spiral tracing once was seriously proposed for use in Earthly television systems.1351 Aliens with spiral scanning video tubes may send messages of 1429 bits (an indivisible prime) to be laid out sequentially in a spiral pattern. Would we ever guess? Another chauvinism is cultural in nature. According to Jan B. Deregowski’ lecturer in psychology at the University of Aberdeen: A picture is a pattern of lines and shaded areas on a flat surface that depicts some aspect of the real world. The ability to recognize objects in pictures is so common in most cultures that it is often taken for granted that such recognition is universal in man. Although most children do not learn to read until they are about 6 years old’ they are able to recognize objects in pictures long before that; indeed’ it has been shown that a 19-month-old child is capable of such recognition. If pictorial recognition is universal’ do pictures offer us a lingua franca for intercultural communication? There is evidence that they do not: Cross-cultural studies have shown that there are persistent differences in the way pictorial information is interpreted by people of various cultures.66 Certain tribes in Africa’ for example’ are unable to recognize photographs as representations of the real world. They just don’t see things the way we do. And these are our fellow human beings. How much more difficult may be the problems of interpretation where ETs are involved? A third and very serious chauvinism is the tacit assumption that all sentient alien creatures must necessarily be visually oriented. Consider a pelagic world inhabited by intelligent technological dolphins: These creatures have devised a special telescope which converts radio waves into acoustical signals which they can hear. One day their equipment is aimed at Earth and they receive the standard 31 x 41 pictogram’ which they promptly arrange into an appropriate rectangular format of sonic pulses. But since the pictogram was assembled from the viewpoint of visual beings’ the sentient dolphins cannot make head nor tail of our message. Reality just doesn’t sound that way to them.

24.2.5 SETI: Yesterday and Today As it has developed over the past two decades’ the science of SETI -- Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence -- today entails a passive listening strategy in hopes of detecting alien beacons or other transmissions. The older acronym CETI (Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence)’ still in use in the Soviet Union’ implies a more active strategy in which humankind might actually converse with ETs. Because "communication" connotes a two-way exchange -- which may people fear -NASA officials and American scientists engaged in this work on a professional basis prefer the isolationist connotations of "search." This’ this believe’ helps to avoid heated popular controversy and to reassure an anxious public that the intention is only to listen quietly’ never to transmit. Actually’ SETI research of sorts has been underway since before the turn of the century. Nikola Tesla’ native Croatian by birth and inventor of the induction motor’ perhaps may be credited as the first SETI worker in history. Tesla believed that the Earth possessed a gigantic electric field that could be set aquiver if a sufficiently high voltage could be made to jump a large enough spark gap. In 1899’ using money furnished by wealthy industrialist J.P. Morgan’ Tesla erected a 70-meter-high transmission tower at a site in Colorado Springs’ Colorado. One night when he was alone in his laboratory’ the inventor observed "electrical actions" which he later interpreted as possible messages from Mars: The changes I noted were taking place periodically’ and with such a clear suggestion of number and order that they were not traceable to any cause then known to me. I was familiar’ of course’ with such electrical disturbances as are produced by the sun’ Aurora Borealis and earth currents’ and I was as sure as I could be of any fact that these variations were due to none of these causes.... It was some time thereafter when the thought flashed upon my mind that the disturbances I had observed might be due to intelligent control.....The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another.146 Italian physicist and inventor of the radio Guglielmo Marconi reported in 1920 that his company’s radio stations had been picking up mysterious signals for the better part of a decade. Some of these sounded like a code’ but were otherwise meaningless. Occasionally Marconi heard three dots and a dash -- Morse code for the letter "V" -- at frequencies ten times lower than were then in common use in man-made transmitters. When asked if these signals might be messages from another planet’ Marconi answered in the affirmative.3291 The next early SETI venturer was David Todd’ chairman of the Astronomy Department at Amherst College in Massachusetts. Todd’ excited by the prospect of the mysterious Marconi messages’ tried to persuade all radio stations in the country to shut down during the closest approach of Mars to Earth in 1924 so he could listen for alien signals. While not entirely convincing’ he managed to persuade the Chief of Naval Operations of the United States Navy to go along with his scheme. On 21 August 1924’ the Chief sent word to the twenty most powerful military stations under his command to avoid unnecessary transmissions and to listen for strange signals from space. Army stations received similar orders’ and in one instance a cryptologist from the Signal Corps was present to provide on-the-spot translations’ if need be. But nothing substantive was detected’ and the entire project died a quiet death. It was to be nearly 37 years before humanity once again would turn its ear to the stars. It is useful to pause at this point and ask what is the likelihood of success of such a search. Many writers have pointed out that continuous transmissions into space would have a fairly low expectation of success in any given year’ yet at the same time would be inordinately expensive. Also’ first contact could bring unexpected trouble. Why announce our presence to the universe’ these critics ask? Why invite danger and unnecessary risk? Hearing this’ many SETI researchers have wondered out loud: "What if all alien civilizations were listening and no one was sending?" At least three requirements should be satisfied if a society is to convert from a passive listening culture to an active transmitting one: 1. The civilization must have sufficient energy on hand that a 1015 watt continuous transmitter represents a negligible cost to the transmitting society; 2. The civilization should command a technology and energy re sources sufficiently powerful to defend itself against invasion or other military threats from any star system to which it directs its signals; and 3. The civilization should have great political and cultural longevity’ in order to ensure continuity of operation and support of the beacon system. It would appear that at least a Type II stellar culture may be necessary to fulfill all three preconditions of a transmitting society.1285’28 Using the Drake Equation (see Chapter 23) and assuming various values for cultural longevity’ it is possible to estimate how deeply into space we must carry our search in order to achieve a specified probability of success. From the figures in Table 24.2’ it appears that the most likely search ranges are from 100-1000 light years’ a volume of space which encloses some 104-106 stars. If we spend just 1000 seconds examining each one’ then the expected search time required to achieve a high probability of success on a modern’ fully-dedicated radiotelescope with full computer guidance and tracking capability is on the order of several decades. Because of this somewhat encouraging result’ growing numbers of xenologists are entering the SETI sweepstakes in hopes of becoming the first to detect messages from an extraterrestrial civilization.

Table 24.2 Probable Search Range Required for Success, as a Function of Mean Longevity of Technological Civilizations2296

Mean Longevity of Technological Civilizations

Probable Search Range to Ensure a 63% Chance of Success

Probable Search Range to Ensure a 95% Chance of Success

(years)

(light-years)

(light-years)

103

2000

3500

104

820

1250

105

350

530

106

160

240

107

76

110

108

35

50

109

16

24

The first scientist to attempt to pick up interstellar signals was Dr. Frank D. Drake.1619 Despite the many technical difficulties at the time’ Drake initiated mankind’s first systematic search for messages from intelligent beings on other worlds in the late evening of 11 April 1960. His equipment had been set up at the newly built National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank’ West Virginia. Drake named his effort Project Ozma after the queen of the mythical land of Oz’ a place very far away’ difficult to reach’ and populated by strange and exotic beings.1535 The Ozma apparatus was operated at the hydrogen frequency of 1.42 GHz with a narrow bandwidth of 100 Hz. Two receiving horns were placed close together at the focus of the 26-meter-wide radio dish’ so that the target star and the adjacent empty space could be monitored simultaneously. By subtracting one signal from the other electronically’ stray emissions and background noise could be eliminated. Drake pointed the receiver at each of two target stars -- Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani. Early in the investigation a strong signal was picked up’ while the equipment was pointing at Epsilon Eridani. A series of high-speed pulses’ roughly eight per second’ were detected "so regularly spaced that they could only be the product of intelligent beings."702 There was’ as Drake later described the scene’ "a moderate amount of pandemonium" in the control room. The strange signals were heard several more times over a period of several months. Eventually it was discovered that they were the product of a secret military experiment in radar countermeasures using airborne transmitters. Listening continued through July 1960. Some 150 hours of total observational time were logged for the two target stars. Though Project Ozma did not detect any messages. from extraterrestrial civilizations’ it cannot in fairness be reckoned a failure. Only two stars out of billions were sampled’ and only in one narrow frequency band with only very poor (by modern standards) receiver sensitivity. The chance that alien signals had been overlooked was great. But perhaps the most significant achievement of Project Ozma was purely symbolic: Drake had proven that it was technically possible to perform scientifically valid SETI experiments. Ozma was the first but certainly not the last. In the two decades since Drake’s initial pioneering effort nearly two dozen SETI searches have been conducted at observatories around the world (Table 24.3). Nearly 1000 nearby stars have now been at least briefly checked for intelligent transmissions’ both in ultraviolet and in a variety of radio frequency bands. Individual whole galaxies have been monitored for evidence of emissions of the sort expected if Type III civilizations were present. Other searches have included simple sky surveys and sweeps of the entire sky for telltale pulsed signals. (Many highly unusual receiver systems have been proposed’ including the Luneherg lens’1570 Siforov’s isotropic scanner’28 and Berger’s "celestial iconospherics" lenses.166)

Table 24.3 SETI Searches Through 1978 Inclusive Observatory* Dates

Investigator F. D. Drake

May-July 1960

G. B. Sholomitskii

1964

N.R.A.O.

Oct’ Dec 1968 February 1969

Troitskii’ Starodubtsev’ Gershtein’ Rakhlin

Troitskii’ Bondar’

March-Nov 1970’ 1971-1972

Starodubtsev

26-rn Dish

Zimenkie’ U.S.S.R.

15-rn Dish

GorkyCrimea Murmansk’ Ussuri

91-in Dish 43-rn Dish

Nov 1972P. Palmer’ Aug 1975’ N.R.A.O. B. Zuckerman and 1976

91-rn Dish

Bowyer’ Lampton’ Welch’ Langley’ Tarter’ Despain

1972-1975 H.C.R.O.

N. S. Kardashev

Sept-Oct 1972

N. S. Kardashev

Dec 1973E.N.I.C.R. Feb 1974

F. Dixon’ D. M. Cole

1973present

Bridle’ Feldman

1974present

F. D. Drake. C. Sagan

26-rn Dish

E.N.I.C.R.

O.S.U.R.O.

A.R.O.

Nov 1974 SummerFall 1975

H. F. Wischnia

Kardashev’ Troitskii’ Gindilis

CTA-102 reported as possible alien signal; later found to be quasar.

926-928 1421-1423

11

11 stars (e Eridani; r Ceti; 380’47’ p' Ursa Majoris; o Coma Berenices; b Canis Venaticorum; h Boötis; i Persei; y5 Aurigae; h Herculis) and M31 {Gal. Andromeda}

700

All-sky omnidirectional search for sporadic pulsed signals’ using cross correlation from 2 or 4 stations 8000 km apart in U.S.S.R. (50% continuous)

T. A. Clark’ D. 1976 C. Black’ J. N. Cuzzi’ J. 1977 C. Tarter

490 6900’ 7200

1415-1425 1420.1-1420.7

Various’ microwave

64000 4000

2500

5 ×10-24 4 -23 8 1.7 ×10

3 stars: r Ceti’ e Eridani’ 61 Cygni A’B Project "OZMA") 10 stars: Barnard’s Star’ Wolf 359’ Luyten 726-8’ Lalande 21185’ Ross 154’ Ross 248’ Epsilon Eridani’ Ceti’ 61 Cygni A.B’ 70 Ophiuchi A’B.

1 ×10-23 3 ×10-24

Project OZMA II’ Searched total of 659 stars. Used receiving system with 384 channels with system noise temperature 50 K.

400 100

Operates as a parasitic experiment on radio telescopes during conventional astronomical research. Precursor to SERENDIP (see below). Semirandom.

1 ×10-21

Dipole

350-500’ 13700-45100

All-sky search for pulses’ using 2 stations in Caucasus & Kamchatka Peninsula

1420.4 rel. to Gal. Center ±190 KHz 1600-1700

Has operated full-time’ 24 hr/day since 1973. Receiver tuned to hydrogen rest frequency relative to Galactic -21 >26000 1.5 ×10 Center (as function of direction). All-sky area search for circularpolarized’ modulated beacon’ over 7° Contactee) I>I

I>II

I>III

I>IV

II>I

II>II

II>III

II>IV

III>I

III>II

III>III III>IV

IV>I

0>0 0 > 10 0 > 20 0 > 30 0 > 40 0 > 50

0/0 0/-10 0/-20 0/-30 0/-40 0/-50

-11/0 -11/-10 -11/-20 -11/-30 -11/-40 -11/-50

-22/0 -22/-10 -22/-20 -22/-30 -22/-40 -22/-50

-32/0 -32/-10 -32/-20 -32/-30 -32/-40 -32/SO

‘11/0 ‘11/-10 ‘11/-20 ‘11/-30 ‘11/-40 ‘11/-50

0/0 0/-10 0/-20 0/-30 0/-40 0/-50

-11/0 -11/-10 -11/-20 -11/-30 -11/-40 -11/-50

-21/0 -21/-10 -21/-20 -21/-30 -21/-40 -21/-50

‘22/0 ‘22/-10 ‘22/-20 ‘22/-30 ‘22/-40 ‘22/-50

‘11/0 ‘11/-10 ‘11/-20 ‘11/-30 ‘11/-40 ‘11/-50

0/0 0/-10 0/-20 0/-30 0/-40 0/-50

-10/0 -10/-10 -10/-20 -10/-30 -10/-40 -10/-50

‘32/0 ‘32/-10 ‘32/-20 ‘32/-30 ‘32/-40 ‘32/-50

10 > 0 10 > 10 10 > 20 10 > 30 10 > 40 10 > 50

0/‘10 0/0 0/-10 0/-20 0/-30 0/-40

-11/‘10 -11/0 -11/-10 -11/-20 -11/-30 -11/-40

-22/‘10 -22/0 -22/-10 -22/-20 -22/-30 -22/-40

-32/‘10 -32/0 -32/-10 -32/-20 .32/-30 -32/-40

‘11/‘10 ‘11/0 ‘11/-10 ‘11/-20 ‘11/-30 ‘11/-40

0/‘10 0/0 0/10 0/-20 0/-30 0/-40

-11/‘10 -11/0 -11/-10 -11/-20 -11/-30 -11/-40

-21/‘10 -21/0 -21/-10 -21/-20 -21/-30 -21/-40

‘22/‘10 ‘22/0 ‘22/-10 ‘22/-20 ‘22/-30 ‘22/-40

‘11/‘10 ‘11/0 ‘11/-10 ‘11/-20 ‘11/-30 ‘11/-40

0/‘10 0/0 0/-10 0/-20 0/-30 0/-40

-10/‘10 -10/0 -10/-10 -10/-20 -10/-30 -10/-40

20 > 0 20 > 10 20 > 20 20 > 30 20 > 40 20 > 50

0/‘20 0/‘10 0/0 0/-10 0/-20 0/-30

-11/‘20 -11/‘10 -11/0 -11/-10 -11/-20 -11/-30

-22/‘20 -22/‘10 -22/0 -22/-10 -22/-20 -22/-30

-32/‘20 -32/‘10 -32/0 -32/-10 -32/-20 -32/-30

‘11/‘20 ‘11/‘10 ‘11/0 ‘11/-10 ‘11/-20 ‘11/-30

0/‘20 0/‘10 0/0 0/-10 0/-20 0/-30

-11/‘20 -11/‘10 -11/0 -11/-10 -11/-20 -11/-30

-21/‘20 -21/‘10 -21/0 -21/-10 -21/-20 -21/-30

‘22/‘20 ‘22/‘10 ‘22/0 ‘22/-10 ‘22/-20 ‘22/-30

‘11/‘20 ‘11/‘10 ‘11/0 ‘11/-10 ‘11/-20 ‘11/-30

0/‘20 0/‘10 0/0 0/-10 0/-20 0/-30

30 > 0 30 > 10 30 > 20 30 > 30 30 > 40 30 > 50

0/‘30 0/‘20 0/‘10 0/0 0/-10 0/-20

-11/‘30 -11/‘20 -11/‘10 -11/0 -11/-10 -11/-20

-22/‘30 -22/‘20 -22/‘10 -22/0 -22/-10 -22/-20

-32/‘30 -32/‘20 -32/‘10 -32/0 -32/-10 -32/-20

‘11/‘30 ‘11/‘20 ‘11/‘10 ‘11/0 ‘11/-10 ‘11/-20

0/‘30 0/‘20 0/‘10 0/0 0/-10 0/-20

-11/‘30 -11/‘20 -11/‘10 -11/0 -11/-10 -11/-20

-21/‘30 -21/‘20 -21/‘10 -21/0 -21/-10 -21/-20

‘22/‘30 ‘22/‘20 ‘22/‘10 ‘22/0 ‘22/-10 ‘22/-20

‘11/‘30 ‘11/‘20 ‘11/‘10 ‘11/0 ‘11/-10 ‘11/-20

40 > 0 40 > 10 40 > 20 40 > 30 40 > 40 40 > 50

0/‘40 0/‘30 0/‘20 0/‘10 0/0 0/-10

-11/‘40 -11/‘30 -11/‘20 -11/‘10 -11/0 -11/-10

-22/‘40 -22/‘30 -22/‘20 -22/‘10 -22/0 -22/-10

-32/‘40 -32/‘30 -32/‘20 -32/‘10 -32/0 -32/-10

-11/‘40 ‘11/‘30 ‘11/‘20 ‘11/‘10 ‘11/0 ‘11/-10

0/‘40 0/‘30 0/‘20 0/‘10 0/0 0/-10

-11/‘40 -11/‘30 -11/‘20 -11/‘10 -11/0 -11/-10

-21/‘40 -21/‘30 -21/‘20 -21/‘10 -21/0 -21/-10

‘22/‘40 ‘22/‘30 ‘22/‘20 ‘22/‘10 ‘22/0 ‘22/-10

50 > 0 50 > 10 50 > 20 50 > 30 50 > 40 50 > 50

0/‘50 0/‘40 0/‘30 0/‘20 0/‘10 0/0

-11/‘50 -11/‘40 -11/‘30 -11/‘20 -11/‘10 -11/0

-22/‘50 -22/‘40 -22/‘30 -22/‘20 -22/‘10 -22/0

-32/‘50 -32/‘40 -32/‘30 -32/‘20 -32/‘10 -32/0

-11/‘50 ‘11/‘40 ‘11/‘30 ‘11/‘20 ‘11/‘10 ‘11/0

0/‘50 0/‘40 0/‘30 0/‘20 0/‘10 0/0

-11/‘50 -11/‘40 -11/‘30 -11/‘20 -11/‘10 -11/0

-21/‘50 -21/‘40 -21/‘30 -21/‘20 -21/‘10 -21/0

‘22/‘50 ‘22/‘40 ‘22/‘30 ‘22/‘20 ‘22/‘10 ‘22/0

IV>II

IV>III

IV>IV

‘21/0 ‘21/-10 ‘21/-20 ‘21/-30 ‘21/-40 ‘21/-50

‘10/0 ‘10/-10 ‘10/-20 ‘10/-30 ‘10/-40 ‘10/-50

0/0 0/-10 0/-20 0/-30 0/-40 0/-50

‘32/‘10 ‘32/0 ‘32/-10 ‘32/-20 ‘32/-30 ‘32/-40

‘21/‘10 ‘21/0 ‘21/-10 ‘21/-20 ‘21/-30 ‘21/-40

‘10/‘10 ‘10/0 ‘10/-10 ‘10/-20 ‘10/-30 ‘10/-40

0/‘10 0/0 0/-10 0/-20 0/-30 01.40

-10/‘20 -10/‘10 -10/0 -10/-10 -10/-20 -10/-30

‘32/‘20 ‘32/‘10 ‘32/0 ‘32/-10 ‘32/-20 ‘32/-30

‘21/‘20 ‘21/‘10 ‘21/0 ‘21/-10 ‘21/-20 ‘21/-30

‘10/‘20 ‘10/‘10 ‘10/0 ‘10/-10 ‘10/-20 ‘10/-30

0/‘20 0/‘10 0/0 0/-10 0/-20 0/-30

0/‘30 0/‘20 0/‘10 0/0 0/-10 0/-20

-10/‘30 -10/‘20 -10/‘10 -10/0 -10/-10 -10/-20

‘32/‘30 ‘32/‘20 ‘32/‘10 ‘32/0 ‘32/-10 ‘32/-20

‘21/‘30 ‘21/‘20 ‘21/‘10 ‘21/0 ‘21/-10 ‘21/-20

‘10/‘30 ‘10/‘20 ‘10/‘10 ‘10/0 ‘10/-20 ‘10/-20

0/‘30 0/‘20 0/‘10 0/0 0/-10 0/-20

‘11/‘40 ‘11/‘30 ‘11/‘20 ‘11/‘10 ‘11/0 ‘11/-10

0/‘40 0/‘30 0/‘20 0/‘10 0/0 0/-10

-10/‘40 -10/‘30 -10/‘20 -10/‘10 -10/0 -10/-10

‘32/‘40 ‘32/‘30 ‘32/‘20 ‘32/‘10 ‘32/0 ‘32/-10

‘21/‘40 ‘21/‘30 ‘21/‘20 ‘21/‘10 ‘21/0 ‘21/-10

‘10/‘40 ‘10/‘30 ‘10/‘20 ‘10/‘10 ‘10/0 ‘10/-10

0/‘40 0/‘30 0/‘20 0/‘10 0/0 0/-10

‘11/‘50 ‘11/‘40 ‘11/‘30 ‘11/‘20 ‘11/‘10 ‘11/0

0/‘50 0/‘40 0/‘30 0/‘20 0/‘10 0/0

-10/‘50 -10/‘40 -10/‘30 -10/‘20 -10/‘10 -10/0

‘32/‘50 ‘32/‘40 ‘32/‘30 ‘32/‘20 ‘32/‘10 ‘32/0

‘21/‘50 ‘21/‘40 ‘21/‘30 ‘21/‘20 ‘21/‘10 ‘21/0

‘10/‘50 ‘10/‘40 ‘10/‘30 ‘10/‘20 ‘10/‘10 ‘10/0

0/‘50 0/‘40 0/‘30 0/‘20 0/‘10 0/0

Notes: A "0 > 10" Contact is a meeting between an SQ=0 Contactor and an SQ=10 Contactee race. A "I > III" Contact is a meeting between a Type I planetary Contactor society and a Type III galactic Contactee civilization. Numbers given in Table 25.9 represent orders-of-magnitude differentials in power and sentience’ respectively; the sign’ "‘" or "-"’ shows Contactor’s advantage or disadvantage. (DP/DSQ): (Power Differential/Sentience Differential)

Most science fiction authors and speculative fact writers have concentrated primarily upon the 0/0’ 11/0’ and 0/10 Contacts. There are several cases where 11/10 or 22/0 Contacts have been discussed’ and there are even a few scattered references to higher-order Contacts in the literature. But’ by and large’ most of Table 25.9 represents a vast uncharted wilderness of unknowns. It is to these gaping holes in our understanding that theoretical xenologists of the future should devote their attention.

25.3 First Contact Protocols and Elementary Astropolitics Our final topic in this chapter is the pragmatic methodology of first contact. What are the proper protocols in establishing contact and communication when two alien races encounter each other somewhere in space? We have already seen that the subject of interaction is very complicated’ both ethically and logistically’ and that the number of different levels of interaction is enormous. We turn now to a discussion of a few "standard first contact procedures" to be used in various encounter scenarios between sentient extraterrestrial species.

25.3.1 Encounters Between Equals: The 0/0 Contact The 0/0 Contact is an encounter between alien races among whom power consumption and information processing capability are roughly equivalent. Such a contact may occur between two Type I civilizations’ or between pairs of Type II's’ Type III's’ or Type IV's. A 0/0 Contact also occurs between pairs of reactivity species’ two conscious races’ two societies which both enjoy communality’ and so forth. All told’ there are 24 distinct contact scenarios within this particular classification. First we consider the simplest cases. Type I societies by definition cannot possess advanced starflight on a commercial basis’ nor can they create and launch a sufficient number of unmanned automatic probes to nearby star systems to ensure first contact. Hence’ a 0/0 Contact between two planetary civilizations will probably involve some form of simple interstellar signaling’ perhaps by means of radio waves. (See Chapter 24.) Round-trip data exchanges will take centuries or even millennia to complete’ and interaction between the two societies will be very weak. There are few ethical issues at stake. Similarly’ a meeting between two reactivity (SQ = 0) races should not be too exciting’ resembling to human eyes more of a contest of creeping forests or at most a dogfight between two packs of wild animals than a congress of sentient alien beings. What about an encounter between two Type II stellar societies’ each comprised of beings of equal conscious sentience? First of all’ the most likely place for such a contact to occur is in the general vicinity of a star. (Encounters near nebulae’ neutron stars and other astronomical oddities are conceivable too.) The depths of space are so vast that even the bustling commercial activity of a mature Type III galactic culture would go unnoticed by a stationary observer nestled deep in the void between the stars. This being the case’ two possibilities immediately present themselves: First’ that the nearby star is the home (or local colony base) of the contactee race’ and second’ that it is not. If the solar system is the home of the ETs’ there will be no way for them to hide and no place to flee. The artifacts of advanced technological civilization will be blatantly obvious. Even if it is only an early Type II culture’ the contactee society will have enveloped individual planets (if not the entire sun) with swarms of orbiting space platforms’ industrial and manufacturing stations’ artificial habitats’ powersats’ starship launching ports and various drydock facilities’ military hardware’ space radar bases’ communications outposts’ orbital astronomical observatories with large space telescopes’ and all the other trappings of a burgeoning stellar society. Countering the contactee’s relative immobility and the contactor’s advantage of surprise’ the contactee should enjoy a tremendous advantage in available military power. Even though the two interacting races nominally command the same magnitudes of energy’ the visitors cannot bring it all with them whereas the home society has all of theirs right at hand. This should help to reduce the vulnerability of the contactee somewhat. However’ in the final analysis it must be granted that solar systems may be sitting ducks unless they are armed to the teeth and constantly maintained on alert status for evidence of hostile intruders. Alien invaders may lie in ambush for years’ decades’ or even centuries’ unseen’ patiently monitoring the radio and other emissions of the target system and learning all about them -- and calling in reinforcements. Small reconnaissance probes could be fired through the system to collect vast quantities of data without detection. The erstwhile conquerors could choose the time’ place’ and manner of. attack exactly calculated best to destroy the defenders. Even the most careful of military preparations might not prove adequate to fend off such an onslaught. As one writer admits: "In the final analysis’ any contacted planet will be at the mercy of its visitors."3257 From this we may draw two basic conclusions. First’ if the contactor arrives at a surprisingly inconvenient time’ supported by an armada of escorts and other unknown vessels’ the contactee should expect trouble. Unfortunately there is little it can do’ and unless it maintains a powerful military force of its own it probably will fall prey to the invaders. Second’ if the contactor arrives in a single ship or among a very small group of vessels’ chances are excellent that he has not come to fight. Any society capable of crossing interstellar space with a few starships could always find the resources to send more. If attack is the plan’ there is no need to send in a few scouts for information that can be obtained more safely’ cheaply’ and surreptitiously. Assuming the peaceful alternative -- the only one in which any options remain open to the contactees -- how should the two parties behave? What can they’ what ought they’ demand of one another? Reasoning from our basic thermoethical principles’ if the interloper has not attacked then he himself should not be attacked by the host race occupying the local star system. Beings of equal negentropy have equal rights. If contactees desire further contact’ they should each be prepared to bear half the cost and intellectual burden of interaction. Beings of equal negentropy have equal responsibilities. The contactee should not give the contactor any technical information which it knows may cause sociocultural entropication in the contactor’s society’ but if it is accidentally harmed in this manner the host is not liable since the visitor assumes the risk of contact on the presumption that the probable benefits would exceed the dangers. Finally’ the author would like to propose a basic rule-of-thumb in all contact situations: Never allow an alien vessel to approach the centers of civilization closer than the Total Conversion Blast Radius. This is defined as the kill or destructionradius of the explosion which would result if (accidentally or purposefully) the mass of the entire alien vessel instantaneously suffered total conversion into pure photonic energy.3204’3482 As for the contactor’ he should never enter a system without careful prior surveillance (unless it’s an extreme emergency). The visitor is allowed to risk entropication from such surveillance under the Self-Jeopardization Rule. The contactor should scout out the solar system and learn all it can about the inhabitants before making its presence known to them’ both to minimize the possibility of harm to itself and to ensure that the contactee will not be harmed by the act of contact (the Entropic Censorship Rule). Once contact has been established the visitor should treat the host as an equal and respect their right of self-preservation. Beings of equal negentropy each have priority in determining how their own information (e.g.’ culture) should best be preserved’ because preservation (Canon II) takes precedence over creation (Canon III). Applying again the Self-Jeopardization Rule’ the contactor should be willing to take the initiative in managing the progress of the encounter (though he should expect the contactee to contribute equally to the exchange) and should be willing to submit to any reasonable nonlethal request by the host which does not violate the Entropic Censorship Rule. Consider now an alternative form of first contact’ in which the site of the rendezvous is not the home solar system or colony site of either party. This is the an example of a so-called Leinster Contact’ named after the author of a 1945 science-fiction story entitled "First Contact": "We don’t know what they’re like and can’t take a chance. We’re going make contacts and try to find out all we can about them -- especially where they came from. I suppose we’ll try to make friends -- but we haven’t much chance. We can't trust them the fraction of an inch. We daren't. They’ve locators. Maybe they’ve tracers better than any we have. Maybe they could trace us all the way home without our knowing it. We can’t risk a nonhuman race knowing where Earth is until we’re sure of them.1213 Murray Leinster’s solution is to have the two races swap ships’ each returning home to its own respective solar system to report the news of contact after arranging for a future meeting at the same place on a specific date. The Leinster Solution is clever’ but unworkable in a practical sense for the following reasons: (1) Lack of training of each crew in the written technical language of the other race and on the method of operation of each other's complex starship technology; (2) incompatibility of food processing equipment and other life support systems; (3) microbiological or indirect ecological damage to the crew or its home culture’ unless each ship is fully decontaminated’ bow to stern and inside out’ prior to the swap; (4) destruction of the other party in such a suspicious atmosphere is likely’ since each party probably knows how to subtly sabotage their own ship (which the other must take home) so it will self-destruct a short while after encounter is broken off (thus giving the surviving group a short-term technological advantage; and (5) the parties are automata’ they are the ships and thus cannot swap. Xenologists can analyze each possible behavior and suggest the most ordered response from the standpoint of thermoethical ideals. For instance’ if one party flees immediately following the encounter the other party should not pursue.2580 Contact would most likely be too entropic for the frightened race. If one party ignores the overtures of the other’ the more active party should increase the bit rate a few times just to make sure the passive ship simply is not bored or impatient.1001 If there is still no response’ the active party should move on without boarding the unresponsive craft. If there are astronauts on board’ clearly they do not wish to make contact; if the ship is fully automated’ the boarding party might inadvertently damage its mechanisms. If one ship attacks the other’ the victim is ethically justified to use whatever defensive force is required to repel the attack. (Acts of retaliation or vindictiveness are not justifiable’ as these merely serve to increase the total loss of information in the living universe.) Immediate withdrawal and flight is preferable if possible. If not’ and if the victim is winning the battle’ he should disengage as soon as the attacker ceases the attack in order to spare the enemy any unnecessary casualties. The victim should then retreat’ following a circuitous route home and perhaps changing ships once or twice in uninhabited star systems to foil possible backtracking by the hostiles. If’ on the other hand’ the victim is losing the battle and destruction seems imminent’ several things should be done. First’ a small’ undetectable automatic marker buoy with a 1-year activation time delay or coded proximity trigger should be released at the approximate velocity of nearby debris’ in a random direction. The buoy should contain full details of the encounter encoded using theoretically unbreakable "trapdoor" cryptography or "Rivest coding’" and broadcast using "spreadspectrum" communications channels under cover of the Galactic background noise. Second’ the victim should not allow knowledge of the location of the home system to fall into enemy hands; navigational charts and records should be prepared for immediate destruction. If the hostiles do find out somehow’ radio silence should be broken and a warning message dispatched at the speed of light (faster’ if possible) -- a signal which’ presumably’ will arrive well ahead of even the fastest possible alien armada. Third’ even if it is possible to get a signal off’ the victim vessel is ethically justified in committing suicide and self-destructing.1550’1001’3273 This will serve at least three useful purposes: (1) to prevent knowledge of the victim’s technology from falling into the attackers’ hands’ (2) to prevent the hostiles from learning details of the victim's physiology (which may help in the design of species-specific weaponry and the exact determination of the location of the home system)’ and (3) to inform the hostiles that the victims value their race more than their own personal existence’ and thus may represent a force to be reckoned with on their home grounds. Hopefully’ though’ the encounter will be a peaceful and active one. Lacking evidence to the contrary’ the assumption of peaceful intentions should always be made. Messages by radio (television) or some equivalent medium may be used to establish a Lincos-type linguistic basis. Ambiguities can easily and swiftly be resolved simply by projecting a movie film of the appropriate object or behavior onto a huge screen on the side of the contact craft’ or by exchanging actual samples and artifacts. If information transferal is continuous’ the bit rates in each direction should be adjusted to rough equivalence; if transmission is discrete’ as an the case of physical samples or movies’ reciprocation is again expected. The rate of interaction should be rapid enough. to ensure progress’ but slow enough to allow the analysts of each race to properly assess whether the exchange of further information will be beneficial or entropic to themselves. If either party decides that further interaction will prove harmful’ then the conversation may shift to other areas of discourse or may be terminated altogether. If full mutual trust can be established’ the two ships may trade information on the location of the home system of each’ set up preliminary trade agreements’ establish common communication modes and media’ and so forth’ if authorized’ to do so by the civilization each represents. If not’ or if full trust cannot yet be established’ a second meeting should be arranged in the same solar system’ at some specified and agreed-upon time. Each party should then withdraw along a random course’ following a circuitous path home. The contact ships of each’ and any artifacts that have been taken aboard during the contact’ should be parked in an uninhabited solar neighborhood far from the home system. A friendly Transfer Vessel should then be dispatched from the home system to pick up the travelers and return them to home; the contact ship and its cargo may be quarantined and examined at leisure’ thus foiling any possible attempts at backtracking by the other less-than-totallytrustworthy party to the contact. Space does not permit a discussion of the many other variants of 0/0 Contact. An exchange between a pair of communal sentients would appear to humans much like two high-speed digital computers transferring gigabits of data as they talked. If two Type III galactic societies came into contact’ the agreed upon procedure might be to set up a Contact World on which the various contacting races could meet and exchange information. All situations’ however’ should be analyzed using the same thermoethical fundamentals as were applied in the cases above.

25.3.2 Gods and Primitives: The 11/0 Contact The 11/0 Contact is a meeting between alien races whose members possess roughly equivalent sentience but one of whose cultures commands 11 orders of magnitude more power than the other. Such encounters may occur between a Type I and a Type II community; between a Type II and a Type III galactic society; or between a Type III and a Type IV universal civilization. Since six sentience differentials are possible’ there are 18 distinct scenarios within the classification of 11/0 Contact. Probably’ the most interesting case from the human point of view is an encounter between two conscious races’ one of which is a planetary Type I society (like us) and the other of which is a stellar Type II civilization. This suggests three distinct scenarios’ as follows: (1) Contact occurs in the Type II’s home system’ (2) contact occurs in the Type I’s home system’ or (3) contact occurs in the home system of neither. The first scenario is extremely unlikely. Type I cultures simply don't have the technological wherewithal to send large numbers of contact craft’ manned or unmanned’ to other stars search for life. True’ they may be tipped off when their astronomers observe a Dyson Sphere around some distant star’ or they may just build and launch one or two starprobes and hit it lucky’ but these are likely to be relatively rare in the total history of the Milky Way. Similarly’ the third scenario is unlikely because the few probes sent out by a planetary civilization are unlikely fortuitously to be visiting the same stars at the same time that a Type II society's contact ship is in the vicinity. (Of course’ should either situation occur the usual thermoethical principles will still apply.) This leaves the second scenario’ in which representatives of a Type II culture cross the interstellar void to make contact with a planetbound Type I society (most likely on or near the Type I's home planet). It will be as if New York harbor suddenly rose up out of the sea to surprise a lone native paddling his canoe. To the native’ the contactors would be as "gods"; to the visitors’ the planetary inhabitants may be regarded as "savages" or "primitives." How should the advanced race best handle the problem of first contact? According to aerospace writer Philip J. Klass: If ETs exist and ever visit our Earth’ certainly their civilization and technology will be considerably more advanced than our own. If and when they come’ I am sure they will have a well-thought-out strategy. If that strategy is to observe us secretly’ they can do so using photoreconnaissance satellites’ much as we and the Russians monitor each other's military facilities without the man in the street ever being aware of these spies a hundred miles overhead. If’ on the other hand’ their strategy at some point is to make their presence known to us’ I am confident that they will do so with the grace and elegance born of a very advanced society.2725 What sort of "well-thought-out strategy" might they have in mind? Provided the ETs subscribe to basic theroethical principles’ presumably they will do their utmost to avoid causing harm to the primitives. These "gods" will not proceed with contact unless and until they are certain (to the best of their knowledge) that the local natives will not begin to kill each other’ or destroy their culture’ or begin to worship the contactors as personal saviors. After all’ the whole purpose of contact is to increase the total information of the living universe’ not to cause it to evaporate or to encourage the contactees to adopt a paradigm that will hinder the further acquisition of knowledge by them. This is in keeping with the three Canons of thermoethical contact as described earlier. There are many ways to effectuate such a policy in the 11/0 Contact situation. One possible procedure’ which has been called the "Seven Phases to Contact’"1347 might be as reported by ufologist Frank Edwards3414 as being described during a joint Army-Navy briefing on the subject of UFOs’ delivered in Washington D.C. during the summer of 1950: Phase One would be the approach. This would take place before we knew whether the planet was inhabited. It would consist of a cautious and careful surveillance from a distance considered safe. If the planet had any satellites which we could use’ we would carefully investigate them as possible sites for close-in bases from which to study the planet for the likelihood of intelligent life. Phase Two would conceivably consist of close-range surveillance of the planet by instrumented probes. These probes would take photographs’ gather samples of the atmosphere’ and locate the nature and extent of the centers of civilization’ if any. Phase Three: If the results obtained by the instrumented probes seemed to warrant further investigation’ that type of craft would be phased out and replaced by faster and more maneuverable manned craft. The purpose of this change would be to check the performance characteristics of vehicles belonging to the planetary inhabitants -- to test their speed’ types of propulsion’ and maneuverability as compared to our own. Phase Four. The really risky phase of the trip is this phase -- where manned craft make near approaches to determine whether the alien beings are hostile and’ if so’ to what extent and by what means. Also to check radar locations and locations of military centers’ if any. Phase Five: Brief touchdowns in isolated areas to secure specimens of plants’ animals’ and (if possible) specimens of the intelligent beings themselves. Phase Six: If we have been successful in acquiring the information we needed by the preceding steps’ we must now decide on the basis of that knowledge whether to abandon the project as too risky or otherwise undesirable -- or whether to put into effect the sixth phase of the program. If we decide that the evidence seems to warrant some kind of eventual contact’ direct or indirect’ then phase six would consist of landings and low-level approaches where our craft and their operators could be seen -- but not reached. These approaches would be made where they could be witnessed by the greatest possible number of inhabitants. If carried out successfully’ this phase would demonstrate our existence and our non-hostile nature. Phase Seven: Referred to by our briefing officers as the "Overt Contact" phase. This would be the deliberate’ carefully planned and executed final step in the program. Contact would not be attempted unless we had excellent reason to believe that it would not be disastrous to either of the races involved. There are some good reasons why it might never come to pass -- even though results of the first six phases might have indicated that it could be physically possible.3414 The above requires a technique popularly known among xenologists as "the snatch’" or picking up members of the local intelligent population and subjecting them (without their consent) to a battery of physical and psychophysiological tests’ There has been much discussion of this method’ both in the scientific1001 and science fiction2729 literature’ as for instance: I and some others went down on ethnic survey in the Island region. I suppose you’ve heard something. about the techniques. Kidnap a native’ use accelerine and hypnosis to get the language and the basic cultural information from him in a hurry’ then dispose of him and go out yourself. Claim to be a foreigner from some other country. It works pretty well with societies that know there are other nations "beyond the horizon" but don't know exactly what they’re like.2884 There is no serious ethical objection to the technique of "snatch’" so long as the native is not harmed’ his original memory is not destroyed or reduced in any way’ and he is returned to where he was picked up without any knowledge of the incident and without any disruption to the culture of which he is a part.1775’3199 However’ it should rarely be necessary to resort to "snatch" in actual field operations -- for instance’ recently buried bodies may be exhumed’ covertly examined’ and then replaced if the contactors require physiological details on the sentient primitives. If the society under observation has no radio technology’ however’ "snatches" may become essential in the determination of psychological and sociological parameters pertinent to the continuation of first contact.* Thermoethics requires that the pre-contact survey should be accomplished as unobtrusively as possible.3396 Stephen Dole of the RAND Corporation recognized this simple truth more than fifteen years ago; in his now-classic work Habitable Planets for Man’ he notes: Any indication that a planet is already inhabited by intelligent creatures would signal the need for proceeding with the utmost caution. In fact’ before a manned landing is made on any likely looking planet’ it would be desirable to study the planet thoroughly from a distant orbit about it for a protracted period of time’ to send sampling probes into its atmosphere’ and to send surveillance instruments down to the surface. Contacts with alien intelligence should be made most circumspectly’ not only for the protection of mankind or as insurance against unknown factors’ but also to avoid any disruptive effects on the local population produced by encountering a vastly different cultural system. After prolonged study of the situation’ it would have to be decided whether to make overt contact or to depart without giving the inhabitants any evidence of the visitation.214 In similar thermoethical vein’ Shirley Ann Varughese writes: It is unlikely that any intelligent culture would intrude on another culture without first making a preliminary study to determine if there were any potential physical or attitudinal threats. These cultural studies would be needed to cope with the rudiments of social interaction. It is safe to assume that the first steps to contact would be listening for radio or TV signals’ such as we have done with project Ozma. If any signals were detected’ they would be followed up first with probes (electronic snoopers)’ to see if further study is warranted. After that’ research teams would be sent to the prospective contact planet. The close range studies would be made from the outer atmosphere’ with occasional trips to the planet's surface. The researchers would try to determine if there had been previous extraplanetary contact’ how it had been made’ and the effects it had had on the alien society. Perhaps after a careful study’ the researchers would find the prospective contactees completely opposed to extra-world contacts of any kind; or they might judge the society too unstable for contact’ or a definite threat to our society and would withdraw without making contact. If they found the culture safe and ready for contact’ the researchers would try to find a compatible means of communication and the best agency to contact.3415 A Type II stellar society may also "contact" a technically inferior Type I planetary culture by using what could be called "covert infiltration."3199 According to William O. Davis: I would say that the most probable case of communication with extraterrestrial beings is an encounter with a race more advanced than we; therefore’ the problem would be primarily psychological on our part. We would undoubtedly be deeply upset by this state of affairs. Thus these beings’ if they are really advanced and subtle’ would know this and would approach us in such a way as not to frighten us. If I were on their staff’ I think I would use my advanced knowledge to learn the languages of the human race through one means or another’ imitate human structure and appearance’ and send representatives down to mingle with the earth’s people. Gradually I would begin to understand the earth's culture and develop means of communication to a point at which at a later time communication could be established in the proper verbal manner after the human race had been thoroughly relaxed. Thus’ it is entirely possible and maybe even probable that extraterrestrial races are already amongst us!171 Such on-site investigations are ethical because they do not disrupt the culture under observation. The risk to the field investigator is justified under the SelfJeopardization Rule. Anthropologists have amassed a great wealth of knowledge on useful procedures for contacting "alien" societies right here on Earth. (See discussion of "culture contact" in Chapter 26.) Xenologists interested in the methodology of first contact would do well to survey the existing anthropological literature for the countless writings on this subject. Just one example of useful material is found in the Ethnocentrism Field Manual for field workers and researchers which’ in part’ explains how to go about collecting sociocultural information in unknown human societies. For instance’ on page 253 of the Manual we have "Selection arid Description of Informants’" which goes like this: In selecting informants’ the ethnographer should use the following desiderata as a guide: 1. Expertness on the Traditional Culture. The informants are not to be selected per se as a representative cross section of the population but’ instead’ as experts on the traditional culture. Thus if there are official or semiofficial trained custodians of the oral history’ they may be ideal. 2. Articulateness, Willingness, and Perspective. Not all persons who fully participated in a culture can report on it fluently. Articulateness and willingness obviously are required. Interest in the content of history’ in the contrast of cultures and in culture change’ may all be requisite to a willingness to talk in detail’ to search old memories’ and the like. We cannot blanketly rule out the use of marginal persons as informants’ although the source of bias and limitation that may accompany this should be noted. (In interview Section III.H we suggest a deliberate supplementary use of interethnic migrants.) 3. Age. Insofar as articulateness and willingness are not jeopardized’ the older the informant’ the better for our purposes. Every informant should have reached adulthood.... 4. Role and Status in the Community. First priority should be given to old persons who once occupied central political positions in the community. Persons who currently are politically active may be suspected of distorting past beliefs and actions as to better justify current political stands and alliances Although past political responsibles have top priority’ if useful informants are sufficiently available’ four replications should be spread over social roles and statuses. Thus traditional followers and soldiers’ as well as leaders’ should be used. If religious’ military’ peacetime’ and judicial leaders were differentiated’ some use of all types would seem desirable. Notice that although we aim at four or more complete replications of the interview content’ these may be spread over 10 or 20 informants’ as it is not expected that one informant will go through all interview content. 5. Sex. Males should be used exclusively for all sections except Section M’ for which there should be two female and two male informants.... The ethnographer is likely to find that it is easier to use numerous informants’ breaking the interview up into parts’ rather than getting all of the material from only four or five. The main advantages are the reduction of informant fatigue and the elimination of the insult of asking for information the informant feels he has already given....1882 Finally’ we should briefly mention the astropolitical issue of interstellar imperialism or "colonization ethics." Much has been written in favor of colonialism in the xenopolitical literature and elsewhere.2884 One political scientist’ who spent five years in the service of the old colonial government of Indonesia’ wrote that: Despite some abuse and exploitation’ colonies served a purpose and had a place in the history of world progress. The colonizing powers can look back with a certain amount of pride on their efforts to make productive those parts of the world in which they held colonies.737 Xenologist John W. Macvey’ in his book Journey to Alpha Centauri’ proposes a scenario involving Type II human colonists swooping down on a. terrestrial world circling our closest stellar neighbor and wresting ownership from the hands of the more primitive autochthones: What would probably be essential during very early days on the new world would be a form of military government with built-in safeguards for the individual. Were it to prove a world of primitive warlike tribes intent on savagely destroying the immigrants this would be especially desirable. In these circumstances much of the early history of the great American West would in a unique way be repeated. Surely this would make it seem as if the needle running along the disk of the space-time continuum had strangely jumped. Lonely forts and settlements amid a great wilderness’ bands of marauding savages and the occasional (or not so occasional) tragedy of a massacre -- surely this is a road along which some of our ancestors have already passed. Perhaps the analogy is not complete. This civilization’ despite a serious lack of numbers’ would still have at its fingertips at least something of the technological skill and knowledge which had sent it to the stars. This could hardly be but an advantage.732 The most detailed and technically sophisticated discussion of "astrocolonialism" which has appeared in the xenopolitical literature to date may be found in the last chapter of Law and Public Order in Space’ entitled "Potential Interaction with Advanced Forms of Non-Earth Life’" written by three prominent space lawyers in 1963.252 In the section on contact with cultures of inferior science and technology; applicable when representatives from Earth travel to other star systems and meet the less-advanced primitives there’ the authors propose a series of Earth policies based on the terrestrial historical experience. These policies include (1) minimum security and the sphere-of-influence device; (2) eventual partnership and the trusteeship device; (3) direct intergovernmental administration; (4) the policy of minimum interference; and (5) the technique of devolving authority and control. The attitude of the three legalists is aptly summarized by the following passage from their text: Assume that when an astronautical Columbus arrives at his destination he finds advanced forms of life which are quite obviously inferior in the science and technology of warfare and production’ though possessed of excellent brain capacity. What policies are appropriate to the overriding goal of human dignity’ interpreted to include consideration on for the dignity of all advanced forms of life? In a divided world arena it is obviously necessary to give primary attention’ not to the long run interests of new communities’ but to the significance of the newly discovered state of affairs for minimum requirements of world security. At the same time it would fatally compromise the fundamental aim to make unnecessary sacrifices of other policies’ such as the protection of the interests of the weaker society while it is being prepared for full membership in the astropolitical community.252 What does thermoethics have to say on the subject of interstellar colonization?** It seems that the usual scenario in which the Type II "gods" take over a world and attempt to "bear the torchlight of civilization" to the natives is unethical in the traditional application because it violates the Principal Thermoethic.1540 An advanced race which imposes its own form of government and colonial administration upon a species of conscious but less technically advanced beings is using valuable energy to copy old data (its own)’ rather than to create new data. Since energy is expended and no new data are generated’ the net consequence is a loss of order (or ability to create order) in the living universe.3389 Note that this is distinctly different from the contact scenario in which information is exchanged rather than imposed. Each sentient species develops a paradigm which it uses to interpret its environment’ collect and analyze data’ and to calculate the parameters of survival. Each such paradigm is unique in all the universe’ and this constitutes new information in favor of the living universe which Canon II demands to be preserved.(Or’ to paraphrase Kierkegaard: "Every race is an exception.") When two cultures meet and information is exchanged’ the data are filtered through two unique paradigms which process them and create new data’ thus augmenting universal negentropy. When two cultures meet and one imposes its data on the other’ one paradigm may be lost -- while the other is simply copied intact. This is entropic’ unethical’ and should be avoided. Note also that in most 11/0 Contacts the contactor will be a Type II society or higher. Since even early Type II cultures have sufficient energy to engage in planetary terraforming operations and artificial habitat construction’2362 advanced colonists have few ethical excuses for encroachment or seizing control of a planet from conscious entities already inhabiting it.81 Advanced beings can build worlds of their own; there is no need to resort to theft.2165’2163 However’ there is no thermoethical objection to peaceful coexistence without imposition -- the sharing of a planet by two races -- so long as entropic harm is avoided and the more primitive culture is preserved or improved.

* If the aliens give us a choice’ theréll be no shortage of volunteers. When a London tabloid in 1951 flashed "British Stellar Passport" (issued by a member of the British Interplanetary Society to his friends as a joke) across its front page’ hundreds of people submitted applications thus to take leave of Earth. 3605 ** Kfrafft Ehriche has pointed out that b Hydri is a nearby class G1 subgiant star which has just "recently" left the Main Sequence and will become a full-fledged Red Giant in perhaps 10-20 million years and that our own sun Sol should be an attractive refuge for any Hydrian colonists who may be fleeing the catastrophe. 1154

25.3.3 Trees and Humans: The 0/10 Contact The 0/10 Contact is an encounter between alien races having equal levels of energy consumption but whose members differ in Sentience Quotient by a factor of 10. (That is’ the individuals of one species processes information ten orders of magnitude more efficiently than the other.) Such meetings may occur between pairs of Type I’ Type II’ Type III’ or Type IV civilizations. On the sentience scale’ contact may be achieved between reactivity creatures and beings which are conscious’ or between conscious ETs and communal entities’ and so forth.* All told’ there are 20 distinct contact scenarios within the 0/10 Contact classification. How can we understand the implications of a contact between races differing in sentience by ten orders of magnitude? Most of the animal life on Earth has an SQ ranging from 7-14 (with humans near the top)’ and so are virtually indistinguishable when measured against the comprehensive universal standard. To a galactic or universal sentient’ all Earthly animal life would appear roughly equivalent in mental potential. Brains built from neurons’ in other words’ carry the potential for conscious awareness. A good analogy for an encounter between beings having a Sentience Quotient differential of 10 may be gained by comparing a meeting between a member of the plant kingdom and a member of the animal kingdom on Earth.** For instance’ one example of a 0/10 Contact might involve an encounter between a human (a conscious entity) and a tree (a reactive entity). Both use about 102 watts to power their internal processes’ but a man can process data at least ten orders of magnitude faster than the tree because of his complex nervous system. These two beings represent qualitatively vastly different orders of sentience. One can read a book each month; the other is hypothesized to "read" one "word" each 8000 years (at the conscious level). What are the ethical duties of the being with the higher sentient emergent in such a contact scenario? We must refer to the Corollary of Negentropy Equality’ which part: "The more negentropic an entity’ the greater are its rights and the deeper are its responsibilities." Conscious beings with SQ=10 (e.g.’ humans) belong to a qualitatively higher negentropic order than mere reactivity creatures of SQ=0 (e.g.’ trees). Hence’ thermoethics grants a limited right of exploitation to the higherorder being in the encounter’ because this entity has access to a qualitatively superior process of data analysis and thus is presumed best qualified to decide how universal negentropy may be maximized by the contact. However’ with greater rights come deeper responsibilities as well. The right of exploitation of creatures possessing lesser sentient emergents than one’s self is not absolute. The superior minds (e.g.’ humans) in each case must assume the role of trustee’ carefully preserving the lesser race’s negentropy except to the extent that its exploitation will enable the superior race to increase total order in the living universe. The duty of the inferior race (e.g.’ a forest of trees) in such a case is to voluntarily submit to the exploitation deemed necessary by the higher race’ because this serves to further the mission of ordered life in the cosmos. Note that sentient emergent’ not Sentience Quotient’ is the critical test in each circumstance. A certain SQ is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the development of its associated sentient emergent. Ten million years ago on Earth’ before human consciousness had emerged’ creatures existed with SQs around 10 but having only neural reactivity. Conscious ETs arriving at that time would have been ethically justified in converting our planet to their own use’ subject to the aforestated restrictions. But once human consciousness emerged’ that justification evaporated. Today it is humanity which must exploit the resources and bear the responsibilities of trusteeship over the total neural reactive biological community on Earth.

* Note that encounters may occur between a high technology’ low sentience race and a species having a higher sentience but a lesser technology. 3490 ** The level of reactivity is emergent in the plant kingdom’ as for example in the Venus Flytrap (SQ ~ 1) and other carnivorous plants 3434 and in the "plant behavior" reactivity exhibited by aroid vines in tropical rain forests. 3416

25.3.4 Higher-Order Contacts Twenty-one distinct classes of first contact remain to be discussed’ but’ sadly’ we have neither the space nor the imagination to do so here. It is virtually impossible for a human being to properly visualize the incredible mental power of creatures able to process information 20 orders of magnitude faster than ourselves. The problem of understanding is crudely analogous to the difficulties involved in comprehending 4-dimensional and higher-dimensional geometry. By taking a simple mathematical projection into three dimensions (the physical space to which we are accustomed) of a 4-D solid such as a hypercube or a hypersphere’ we can gain a very tenuous grip on the reality of the object in question. But 5-D objects are vastly more difficult’ 6-D objects inconceivable. Similarly’ we can get some idea of what a P/10 meeting might be like by visualizing a man and a tree’ but a P/20 encounter appears incomprehensible and a P/30 Contact hopelessly intractable. Perhaps all higher contacts are too entropical for the lesser race and hence are ruled out as unethical. What about out an 11/10 Contact? Such an event lies barely within the human ken. It involves an encounter between races whose members are one step higher than the others in sentient awareness’ and whose societies differ in power utilization by a factor of 1011. What would this kind of meeting be like? Duncan Lunan suggests that beings this far in advance of humanity "are likely to regard us as intelligent animals": Not too bad a situation’ perhaps’ if we are regarded with affection -- hopefully’ encouraged to learn -- though it might be rough on individual humans snatched for the aliens' purposes....A danger which increases with the differential in intelligence is that they’ll be sufficiently unlike us to see our cities only as convenient gatherings of protein’ the way we see schools of whales and used to view herds of buffalo.1001 A more accurately scaled analogy might be an encounter between an anthill and the whole of United States society’ or between a single man and a single ant. Movie producer Stanley Kubrick once remarked: Why should a vastly superior race bother to harm or destroy us? If an intelligent ant suddenly traced a message in the sand at my feet reading "I am sentient; let’s talk things over’" I doubt very much that I would rush to grind him under my heel.1558 It is doubtful’ however’ that an ant could ever learn to write English in the sand. More appropriate for this analogy would be if Kubrick’s ant commenced to bite him periodically in the leg’ chomping a series such as 3 bites’ 1 bite’ 4 bites’ 1 bite’ 5 bites’ and so forth to render the first ten digits of pi. While this could suffice to demonstrate the creature’s mathematical expertise’ the superior Kubrick being might just swat the damn thing away without giving the matter a moment’s thought. After all’ asks John Macvey’ "when applying pesticide who notices the single ‘friendly’ ant?"2724 Philip Morrison in one of his many lectures questioned whether a civilization advanced both in power and sentience would maliciously stamp out other sentient lifeforms. Morrison has been quoted as saying: If [I] were looking through a microscope and saw a group of bacteria spell out’ like a college band’ "Please do not put iodine on this plate. We want to talk to you’" [my] first inclination would certainly not be to rush the bacteria into a sterilizer.702 Again’ however’ bacteria-level sentients (or humans under the microscope of the communal sentients) probably could not learn to speak English. Their efforts at communication might be regarded as little more than an infection’ easily dispatched by the application of antibiotics. There is a chance that communals might recognize and respect conscious beings’ since higher-order sentients should be cognizant of all lower levels’ but there is no guarantee that we will be able to yell loudly enough for them to notice us. And our own treatment of mere neural sentients makes the author skeptical that communals would treat "mere conscious" being any better. Then again’ they might just ignore us altogether. According to Arthur C. Clarke: There may’ of course’ be entities who collect solar systems as a child may collect stamps. If this happened to us’ we might never be aware of it; What do the inhabitants of a beehive know of their keeper? .... That may be an analogy worth pursuing. Men do not interfere with bees -- or wasps -- unless they have good reasons. As far as possible’ they prefer to leave them alone.81 Back to Contents

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm (c) 1979 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 26. First Contact and the Human Response "Take me to your leader!" -- When They Come From Space by Mark Clifton (1962)2166 VOICES She’s off! The top’s loose! Look out there! Stand back! Ladies and gentlemen’ this is the most terrifying thing I have ever witnessed ... Wait a minute! Someone’s crawling out of the hollow top. I can see peering out of that black hole two luminous disks ... are they eyes? It might be a face. It might be... SHOUT OF AWE FROM THE CROWD Good heavens’ something’s wriggling out of the shadow like a grey snake. Now it’s another one’ and another. They look like tentacles to me. There’ I can see the thing’s body. It’s large as a bear and it glistens like wet leather. But that face. It. . . it’s indescribable. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it. The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is V-shaped with saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seem to quiver and pulsate. The monster or whatever it is can hardly move. It seems weighed down by ... possibly gravity or something. The thing’s raising up. The crowd falls hack. They’ve seen enough. This is the most extraordinary experience. I can’t find words. Slowly a humped shape rose out of the pit’ and the ghost of a beam of light seemed to flicker out from it. Forthwith flashes of actual flame’ a bright glare leaping from one to another’ sprang from the scattered group of men. Some invisible jet impinged upon them and flashed into white flame. ... That night forty people lay under the starlight about the pit’ charred and distorted beyond recognition. -- from the script of the 1938 Mercury Theater "War of the Worlds" broadcast by Orson Welles’738 after H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds (1898)1951 "After almost a year’ I decided I wanted to be a real doctor. So I started medical school -- an agency grant was easy to get." His voice dropped off softly. "You know. That’s when the Spican ships started landing. Man’s first interstellar visitors -- and I hardly even noticed. I was too busy boning up for my anatomy finals while the negotiations were going on. A lot of staff and the board members flew up to New York when the Spican bio-med laisons put on their demonstrations. They came back with their minds blown’ talking about medical technology so advanced it might as well be magic. A month later the school was closed down." Bitter’ "Why train people to make fires with flint and steel when the butane lighters are about to be handed out?" -- from "Xenofreak/Xenophobe" by Edward Bryant (1975)2170

If intelligent extraterrestrial races do exist elsewhere in the Galaxy’ then it seems virtually inevitable that someday human and alien will meet. The consequences for our values and beliefs are many and complex’ and would vary profoundly from culture to culture and among subcultures within large societies. If first contact occurs within the next few decades’ in our own solar system’ will humankind be prepared to receive alien visitors with the grace and intelligence of a mature civilization? Will the community of mankind be irrevocably sundered’ or forever united’ by an encounter with an advanced technical society from the stars? There are many ways first contact may occur. Interstellar relations might take place with the whole of the extraterrestrial sentient species’ with representative organizations of their race’ or with individual members. Similarly’ contact may be established with all of humanity’ a part of humanity’ or with single human beings. Contact scenarios may also be classified as to physical location -- encounters could occur on land’ in the air’ under the ocean’ in Earth orbit’ and so on. The consequences of and responses to contact might also vary significantly depending on the motives of the contactors -- it would make a great deal of difference to us if They came as traders’ evangelists’ slavers’ teachers’ or gourmets. Perhaps the most useful to xenologists is a contact taxonomy based on the intensity of interaction. In this scheme’ there are three fundamental levels of contact: (A) Remote Contact’ (B) Direct Contact’ and (C) Surprise Contact. While all encounters with ETs necessarily be somewhat in the nature of a "surprise’" the above taxonomy groups together those modes of contact in which the potential transfer of information -- and the potential for disruption of the contacted society -- is roughly equivalent. Remote Contact’ probably the safest method’ involves interstellar or galactic radio links between neighboring civilizations. Only information and ideas could flow between the two cultures’ and even a single exchange of messages would require decades or centuries to creep across the intervening light-years at the speed of light. (This is the standard SETI approach.) Direct Contact is considerably more risky: A wellpublicized or authorized landing by an alien craft at a designated Air Force base’ or perhaps a prearranged rendezvous on the Moon or in cislunar or interplanetary space. Clear prior notice would be provided by the ETs’ with permission sought and granted before actual physical contact. (An automated messenger probe’ or "Bracewell probe’" would be an instance of Direct Contact.) The most dangerous and controversial of all’ however’ is Surprise Contact -- a sudden physical confrontation between humans and alien beings without warning or advance preparation. Each of the three basic contact scenarios’ graded as above according to the intensity of interaction’ may be further subdivided and refined. For instance’ ufologist J. Allen Hynek proposes a six-part subclassification scheme which could be applied to all Surprise Contacts occurring on Earth: 1. DISTANT UFOs 1. Nocturnal Lights -- UFOs seen at night. Almost invariably only the brightness’ color’ and motion of the light are reported. 2. Daylight Discs -- UFOs seen in daytime. So named because the most-reported shape is oval or disc-like. 3. Radar-Visual -- UFOs reported through the medium of radar’ accompanied by a seemingly related visual confirmation. 2. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS 1. Close Encounters of the First Kind -- UFO sighted at close range’ but there is no interaction with the environment other than possible psychological trauma to the human observer. 2. Close Encounters of the Second Kind -- UFO sighted at close range’ accompanied by physical effects on nearby animate and inanimate matter. (Pressed vegetation’ burn marks’ broken tree branches’ frightened animals; disabled vehicles’ power blackouts’ etc.). 3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind -- UFO sighted at close range’ and its alien occupants are observed in or about the craft. Physical effects and actual contact between humans and ETs may occur.597 Regardless of one's personal view of the UFO phenomenon (the author is highly skeptical)’ and despite the fact that no evidence exists today that can compel scientific acceptance of the extraterrestrial hypothesis’ still the possibility of present-day ET surveillance cannot be ruled out by logic and scientific arguments alone. Based on the conclusions reached elsewhere in this book’ it is fairly easy to see the fallacies hidden in numerous arguments advanced to "prove" that the extraterrestrial hypothesis vis-a-vis UFOs is "impossible." Perhaps most pervasive are the "numbers" arguments’ which purport to demonstrate that since the number of launching civilizations is so small’ and the number of interesting places to visit is so large’ that the average number of starship launchings per year is so great as to be grossly unreasonable. For example’ assuming a million technical civilizations in the Galaxy’ Carl Sagan writes: Let’s assume that each of these million technical civilizations launch Q interstellar space vehicles a year; thus’ 106Q interstellar space vehicles are launched per year. Let’s assume that there’s only one contact made per journey. In the steady-state situation there are something like 106Q arrivals somewhere or other per year. Now there surely are something like 1010 interesting places in the galaxy to visit and therefore at least 10-4Q arrivals at a given interesting place’ let’s say a planet’ per year. So if only one UFO is to visit the earth each year’ we can calculate what mean launch rate is required at each of these million worlds. The number turns out to be 10’000 launches per year per civilization; and 1010 launches in the galaxy per year. This seems excessive.. . . So I deduce from these arguments that the extraterrestrial hypothesis is in some trouble if we’re to imagine that even a smallish fraction of the ten or twenty thousand UFO cases reported in the last twenty to twenty-five years are interstellar in origin.18 Assuming the above calculation is valid’ are 10’000 launches per year per civilization at all unreasonable? Consider first the energetic requirements. In Chapter 17 we showed that a 100 light-year mission at 1 gee acceleration on a Standard Flight Plan using a vessel the size of the Starship Enterprise (of Star Trek fame) would cost about 9 x 1026 joules. This represents about 9 seconds of the total power output of a single mature Type II stellar civilization. To launch starships at a rate of 10’000 per year would require 90’000 seconds’ worth of energy’ about a day’s production of power. Surely it is not unreasonable for an advanced society to expend a mere 0.3% of its annual energy output on. interstellar exploration and commerce? This is the fraction of humanity's present energy output currently expended on aviation (see Scientific American (January 1975):35); perhaps 30% is used for all forms of transporation. How about mass requirements? If each vessel weighs 190’000 metric tons (like the fictional TV starship Enterprise) then the total requirement for a 10’000-ship-a-year operation would be 1.9 x 1012 kg. This figure is only about twice the current world production of iron and steel. The required equivalent amount of metal may be recovered by capturing a single small nickel-iron asteroid (diameter of 700 meters) or by processing about 3 cubic kilometers of earth-crust per year at an average power cost of 1012 watts. This is well within the abilities of a Type I planetary civilization such as near-future humanity’ so should be a snap for any Type II stellar culture. Furthermore’ if such explorations have been going on since the origin of the Milky Way 12 billion years ago’ making the rather harsh (and inexplicably wasteful) presumption that each starship is used for only one mission and is then discarded’18 total mass requirement over the age of the Galaxy is only 2.3 x 1022 kg per launching civilization. This is well within the mass budget even of a Type I planetary civilization’ and corresponds to about one-third the mass of Luna -- a not unreasonable expenditure over a 12 billion year block of time. So assuming Sagan’s calculation is correct’ the results are not unreasonable at all. Far from it -- 106 mature Type II stellar societies probably could easily dispatch 1 UFO to Earth per year even operating under Sagan's pessimistic constraints. However’ Sagan's calculation is most assuredly not correct’ because at least two of his assumptions contain major flaws. The first questionable assumption is that each starship makes only one contact per journey. The error is common in the literature: namely’ that one UFO sighting necessarily corresponds to one interstellar journey. But much as the proposed Project Daedalus starship (see Chapter 24) would carry up to 18 subprobes and 2 "wardens" to be deployed on a wide variety of missions upon arrival’ the target solar system’ a somewhat larger’ also fully automated single alien starprobe might have as many as 100 maneuverable high-performance lander craft. If these were operating secretly around our planet since the late 1940s (or earlier) and if’ on the average’ each craft was sighted by a human and reported only once every month’ this would generate a total of 36’000 sightings during the past three decades of UFO observation. It would be a simple matter for the. "mother ship" to hide behind an asteroid’ or in a small crater or cavern on the dark side of the Moon’ and periodically to recharge itself (and its 100 lander craft) using solar energy from our sun. The second questionable assumption is that there is nothing terribly unusual about Earth’ and so there is nothing to distinguish us from the other 10 billion interesting places in the Galaxy to visit. From our discussion of technological advance in Chapter 25’ we found that technical evolution may carry a sentient race from "impotence" to "omnipotence" in the space of ten thousand years. Technical advance may look like a "step function" (see Figure 25.2) on megayear timescales. Since humanity is almost halfway up the step’ we may properly be regarded as a "transition society." If’ as Sagan suggests’ there are only one million advanced technological civilizations extant in the Milky Way’ then theory suggests there might only be about 100 races in the Galaxy whose development is within 104 years of our own. In other words’ we may be one of a hundred "transition societies" in the entire Milky Way! This could make Earth an object of inordinate interest to extraterrestrial explorers and researchers. Let us redo Sagan’s calculation’ taking into account the above corrections of the two faulty assumptions. Since each interstellar vehicle can count as >100 UFOs because of its lander craft’ there are 108Q arrivals "somewhere or other" per year. Since there are 100 "interesting places to visit" (transition societies like Earth)’ we have 106Q arrivals at a given interesting planet per year. To obtain 1000 UFO reports each year on Earth’ 106Q = 103 so Q = 10-3 launches per year per civilization (or 1 launch every millennium per civilization). This works out to only 1000 launches total per annum galaxywide’ an even more reasonable outcome than Sagan’s original result.* Our study of the theory of first contact and the basic principles of thermoethics suggests that alien encounter programs with the highest ethical content will be characterized by stealth’ caution’ and minimization of harm to the contactee culture. Reckoning from the Entropic Censorship Rule’ we should expect Surprise Contacts to be the exception rather than the rule. Contact may be attempted only after humanity has been carefully "researched" by the advanced alien race for many decades or even centuries. (They may be clonic’ bionic’ robotic’ or immortal.) Such cautious’ evasive behavior is a hallmark of the most reliable UFO "close encounter" cases. Hynek provides one typical example: An airplane took off from the airport and passed overhead of the object. All the lights went out until the plane was past it. Then with approximately four bright flickers’ the object moved from west to southwest and through the overcast. ... It seemed to me that this object was charting a course or investigating different objects on the ground’ as the lights would stop on certain objects such as cars’ pickups’ hedges’ shrubbery’ houses’ utility lines’ and poles.597 If UFOs are piloted by aliens’ this would explain why there have been no landings on the White House lawn as yet. The ETs are still studying us’ and believe that to openly contact humanity at this time might trigger major cultural and global upheavals. Social entropication is to be avoided; hence’ the extraterrestrials are avoiding us. But perhaps they don't mind if a few people spot a few UFOs now and again. In fact’ this may be part of a planned acclimatization schedule to preadapt the modern human psyche to the reality of encounter with alien races when it occurs.171 If we become accustomed to the UFO phenomenon’ perhaps we shall be less fearful when contact actually occurs. It is much like the "dear enemy" concept in sociobiology’ involving the tolerance of neighbors in adjacent territories: "The more something stays around without causing harm’ the more likely it is to be part of the favorable environment."565 The above speculations are not meant to imply that the extraterrestrial hypothesis for the UFO phenomenon is correct. Rather’ it is the author’s sole intention in the above discussion to demonstrate that the ET hypothesis is not inconsistent with present-day science fact or xenological theory. "Proper" first contact techniques are frequently exemplified in many ufological "close encounter" reports. It is in this spirit of openmindedness and acceptance of the possibility of physical encounters with extraterrestrial intelligences that we now consider the rich diversity of human responses to first contact.**

* Of course’ first you have to find the 100 interesting "transition’ societies." But this should not prove difficult. If we spread the 1010 initial exploratory missions over 106 civilizations and a period of 107 years’ the launch rate can still be held to 1 starship per millennium per society. If each starship can cursorily examine as many as 1000 solar systems before heading for home’ then the initial exploratory period can be cut to 10’000 years. ** We cannot leave this subject without making brief mention of planetary landing vehicles. Although noted UFO debunker Philip J. Klass claims that saucer-shaped craft are aerodynamically unstable and unwieldy’ 695 other writers have speculated on reasonable propulsion systems for disc-shaped orbit-to-ground excursion vehicles’ including Blumrich’ 1058 Demetriades and Kretschmer’ 727 Finch’752 Rosa’ 255 and Winder. 760 Another unusual concept is the Orbital Tower’ or "space elevator’" traversing a structure strung from ground up to geosynchronous stationary orbit. 1472

26.1 Military and Political Response In the United States and all modern technological societies on Earth’ the health and well-being of the citizenry is viewed as the proper responsibility of national government and the military. Threats to the general populace are referred to political authorities’ who respond with appropriate protective force and other actions designed to quell the emergency. Most reasonable alien encounter scenarios directly involve either the military’ scientific institutions likely to call for governmental assistance’ or contact with individuals or crowds that are certain to attract the attention of local authorities. Thus it is not unreasonable to expect that. perhaps the single most important factor will be the military and government response to the first contact event.

26.1.1 Remote Contact In the standard SETI scenario’ Remote Contact may occur when human radio receivers located on Earth or in Earth orbit pick up signals beamed at our solar system by an advanced technical race near some other star. First perhaps a beacon; later’ after anticryptography and various frequency and equipment refinements’ the complete text of the Encyclopedia Galactica streams rapidly into the waiting radiotelescopes of humankind. There are three possible avenues of detection: military’ radioastronomical’ and SETI. Of the three’ SETI researchers are vastly more likely to bag a beacon (if one exists) since they are actively and specifically looking for them.3653 Radio astronomers are far less likely to pick up alien transmissions’ since their equipment normally is broadband (wide bandwidth) whereas ET signals are expected to be narrowband. (And if these scientists ever did happen to record a transmission that was clearly artificial’ the data would doubtless be ignored as irrelevant terrestrial radio interference.) As for the military’ direct serendipitous acquisition is unlikely in the extreme’ since military radars are tuned to very exact frequencies that the transmitting extraterrestrial civilizations probably won’t be using. If SETI researchers are most likely to be the first beneficiaries of alien informational largesse’ how would they respond to the event? Would they keep the news entirely to themselves’ or perhaps circumspectly inform selected government officials’ or would they simply treat the discovery in the normal scientific manner? On the whole’ the SETI community appears to favor the latter approach’ but this opinion is not unanimous. For instance’ Canadian signal searchers Paul Feldman and Alan Bridle apparently are concerned about the implications of interstellar contact. They feel the release of SETI information "depends very much on the apparent content of the message."3257 Dr. Benjamin Zuckerman has also expressed some reticence to go public immediately with the data: I think that we would try to confirm beyond a doubt that it was a CETI signal before we let the world know about it. I would also think very hard about replying to "Them" before we made our results public.3257 But most xenologists active in the field favor candor. Carl Sagan’s first response would be to ask for confirmation of the extraterrestrial signal from other radio astronomy observatories around the world. If there were really something there’ he says’ "it would be very hard to hide the existence of a message." In similar vein’ radioastronomer Patrick Palmer notes: Since we use a national facility {the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank is open to qualified investigators from many sources} rather than our own observatory’ keeping something secret is very difficult because of the sheer number of people passing through and the openness of the observatory operation. ... My desire has always been to handle it as a normal scientific discovery. Our greatest interest would be in understanding the message and communicating’ and we would certainly need the aid of many other scientists to do this as efficiently as possible. I believe that it is essentially always wrong to try to withhold basic scientific information."3257 (In three years of SETI work’ Palmer claims he has never been contacted by any government agency.) Finally’ Philip Morrison’ Professor of Physics at MIT and an early SETI pioneer’ recently stated in testimony before the House Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications: What we will first see most likely will be a false’ alarm. We have had many false alarms already. ... That is true in spite of our best efforts when computers and signal processing is new. If they tell you it’s a real signal only a few times’ I think you might still be wrong. The way to be sure will be to conduct the whole thing in the ordinary manner of scientific exploration -- relatively publicly’ with freedom of access to any competent’ well-behaved observer who wants to work with the group. This should be done in the familiar scientific fashion. I don’t think it should be regarded as a secret or a matter of state. It should be regarded as a scientific exploration. I don’t think that means you can allow arbitrary people to come and grab the data’ take it home’ make their own things out of it. It should be done in an orderly’ systematic way’ with great hospitality’ with an effort to show to the press’ especially to those able to judge the validity of the signal’ whether it is a real signal. If we had such a candidate signal the first thing would be to summon an. international committee to study the data. Are we being fooled by something we haven’t understood? It’s quite likely we will in fact be fooled a number of times before we understand that the signal is unmistakably coming from beings alien and yet like ourselves.3286 So much for opinions. But what has actually happened in similar or analogous situations in the past? The first "false alarm" in recent times occurred during the SETI search undertaken by Frank Drake in 1960’ called Project Ozma. On the very first day of monitoring’ Drake and his co-workers picked up what appeared to be an artificial signal coming from Epsilon Eridani. The fleeting transmissions stopped before they could be positively verified. There was no thought of a public announcement.702 What did Drake do next? Day after day’ as we turned to Epsilon Eridani’ we tuned to the frequency on which the signal had been heard. We listened for a half hour or so’ and then we would go back to our frequency scanning. A week went by and the signal didn’t return. To our chagrin’ one of our employees called up a friend in Ohio and told him about the signal. The word was passed to a newspaper reporter friend’ and suddenly we were deluged with inquiries about the mysterious signal -- "Had we really detected another civilization?" "No." "But you have received a strong signal with your equipment?" "We can’t comment on that." And so’ aha’ we were hiding something. To this day many people believe falsely that we received signals from another world’ and that some fiendish government agency has required us to keep this a deep dark secret.3442 In 1967 radio astronomers at Cambridge’ England were confronted with a similar situation when they detected the f lashing radio sources known today as pulsars. Several writers had’ suggested that the most rational alien signal would be a series of pulses’ designed to show intelligent origin. On 28 November 1967’ research student. Jocelyn Bell observed a series of pulses’ equally spaced exactly 1.3 seconds apart. When she contacted her supervisor’ Tony Hewish’ he at first suggested that they were manmade. But careful investigation in the following weeks indicated that the source of the transmissions was definitely outside the Solar System but well within the Galaxy. Such a fast ‘pulsation rate was far too fast for anything like a star. Wondered Bell: So were these pulsations man-made’ but made by man from another civilization?... Just before Christmas I went to see Tony Hewish about something and walked into a high-level conference about how to present these results. We did not really believe that we had picked up signals from another civilization’ but obviously the idea had crossed our minds and we had no proof that it was an entirely natural radio emission. It is an interesting problem -if one thinks one may have detected life elsewhere in the universe’ how does one announce the results responsibly? Who does one tell first? We did not solve the problem that afternoon’ and I went home that evening very cross -- here was I trying to get a Ph.D. out of a new technique’ and some silly lot of little green men had to choose my aerial and my frequency to communicate with us....3443 The discovery was kept a closely guarded secret to prevent the media from publicizing what came to be called the LGM (Little Green Men) Hypothesis. The Cambridge astronomers were still discussing what to do when’ in January 1968’ new data came in which showed that the signals had a natural origin. Only then was a public announcement of the discovery made. In both of the above cases’ putative alien messages were not reported either to the public at large or to any governmental agency. In each instance’ the scientists decided to sit on the information until sufficient data had accumulated so that a proper determination of the nature of the transmissions could be made. As Drake admitted’ however’ this self-imposed secrecy coupled with subsequently accidental publicity may have weakened the credibility of the denials of ET contact later issued by the Ozma staff. Perhaps it would have been better policy to let the public know what was happening at each stage of the operation’ to help allay common fears’ suspicions’ and misapprehensions. What if a real alien message were received? Some scientists probably would feel obligated to alert the authorities before going public for reasons of national welfare. Others would simply want to turn the whole thing over to the government and let them take responsibility for making the hard choices. And of course’ in any event’ once the fact of the discovery is released to the public the government will know about it too and will have a variety of policy options open to them at that point. How might government and the military establishment react in this kind of situation? In a Remote Contact situation’ the primary governmental concern will be the suppression of dangerous extraterrestrial information and the possible military or economic advantages that might accrue to those nations capable of receiving and translating the alien transmissions. While scientists engaged in SETI cannot yet agree on the probable contents of such messages’ there is an excellent chance that data of military interest could be included -- new technologies’ new sources of energy’ or even new ideas so radical that their mere disclosure might constitute an act of psychological or ideological warfare. Remarks one writer: No doubt the generals would itch to classify CETI "top secret’" frantic that the Soviets might get the jump in a decoding race. Congress might agree. A multibillion dollar crash program to decipher CETI for its scientific and technical insights seems an ominous possibility.3310 On a more pragmatic level’ if it could be proven that extraterrestrial life existed’ then it might be possible’ say’ for one side to mimic an invasion’ cause widespread panic and confusion’ and disrupt communication channels.3653 Advanced technical data from the stars’ perhaps detailing the design of machines which render obsolete our telephones’ aircraft’ automobiles’ sources of fuel’ and computers might severely injure major corporations on the stock market’ causing a recession or even a depression. Large companies will be stuck with billions of dollars of investment in equipment that has suddenly become obsolete. For instance’ what will AT&T do with the 133’000’000 telephones in service as of 1978 (total system value $111 billion3540) when the aliens hand us blueprints for simple transporter-booth technology and nobody wants to phone anymore (but would rather travel)? It has been suggested that the tremendous unbridgeable gaps of interstellar space will prevent any sort of harm from ever reaching us. But Arthur C. Clarke believes this is a naive and unrealistic view: Even if star travel is impossible; "mere" communications could do a lot of damage. After all’ this is the basis on which all censors act. A really malevolent society could destroy another one quite effectively by a few items of well-chosen information. ("Now’ kiddies’ after you’ve prepared your uranium hexafluoride....")81 Information’ like technology’ can always be abused. As the Russian scientist-dissident Sakharov has pointed out: "Such information would be useful for sensible and kind men and would be dangerous for silly and rude men."22 What about international political implications? F.C. Durant’ Assistant Director of Astronautics at the National Air and Space Museum’ speculates that receipt of alien messages will further the cause of peace: I think it will have the effect of bringing men closer together’ certainly on our own planet. I suggest at that moment national boundaries might mean very much less.1558 Carl Sagan echoes this sentiment when he infers the uniqueness of the human race from the tortuous evolutionary record of life on this planet. We will come to view ourselves’ says he’ as One Species: The diversity which some people are so quick to see among human populations is going to dwindle overnight. So in a very real sense’ I think that the receipt of an interstellar radio message will make all of mankind brothers and sisters.1620 Others disagree. Political scientists Jiri Nehnevajsa and Albert S. Francis of Columbia University surveyed about 100 legislators and 100 university students in Brazil and Finland’ in April-June 1960. The respondents were asked to indicate which of a series of circumstances they foresaw as being changed by the discovery of civilized alien life in space. As the data in Table 26.1 indicate’ the general feeling was that not much would be changed by such an event.

Table 26.1 Results of 1960 Survey of Brazilian and Finnish Legislators and University Students on the Political Effects of Discovering Alien Life1336 World Political Event

Respondents Claiming Event Would Occur Finnish Brazilian Brazilian Finnish Legislators Students Legislators Students

Increased chances for East-West reconciliation

15%

11%

5%

6%

Increased chances for emergence of third political force

6%

6%

11%

20%

Increased status quo

2%

5%

21%

21%

Increased likelihood of global disarmament

5%

7%

6%

5%

In fact’ it is possible that international relations could actually be destabilized by Remote Contact. Although in theory every country with a radio telescope can pick up the same messages’24 some nations will be in better position to listen than others. Perhaps an orbital receiver station will have to be constructed to ensure continuous 24-hour reception’ giving a tremendous advantage to those governments having a more mature space capability. In the modern environment of global mistrust and resentment’ nonreceiving nations will not be confident that the receiving nations aren’t holding back useful data having military or economic significance. And even if we assume that all nations can hear the extraterrestrial signals equally well’ there still may be trouble. All governments cannot utilize the information equally. Those countries with the biggest R&D laboratories’ the cleverest mathematicians’ the greatest number of linguistic experts’ and the most money available to throw at the problem may develop a real advantage over the others. The ensuing competitive scramble surely will not be conducive to peace. All this is not intended to suggest that only harm can come from Remote Contact. Quite the opposite: It seems most likely that the wealth of information and knowledge of other cultures may enrich humanity beyond our wildest dreams. Benefits almost certainly exceed risks. Nevertheless’ any first contact represents change’ and it is one of the principle duties of modern human government to provide for orderly and regulated nondestructive change in the status quo. Congressman Don Fuqua from Florida’ following-testimony by Philip Morrison that alien messages should be publicized’ made this remark: I concur wholeheartedly in your answer. My response has always been similar to the lines that you have expressed. I don’t think there is any way that the Government should or could keep anything of this type under wrap. I see no reason that it should.3286 Science fiction writers agree. In The Cassiopeia Affair by Chloe Zerwick and Harrison Brown’ the President goes on national television to explain the significance’ of radio contact with the Cassiopeian culture.1748 In The Listeners by James E. Gunn’ the President at first slaps a tight security lid on the radiotelescope installation that receives the alien message’ but later relents and even permits a response to be sent out.70 Philip Morrison’s "international committee" approach is probably the best bet to ensure goodwill among nations. But there always exists the possibility that a government’ informed of the fact of Contact before the news is made public’ could attempt to keep it classified as Top Secret and to quietly pursue the knowledge from the stars for its own selfish purposes. Scientists of all countries who wish to prevent this from happening would do well to call in reporters before notifying their government of the Contact.

26.1.2 Direct Contact Direct Contact can perhaps be viewed as a Remote Contact with a promise of physical contact to come’ at our behest. Possible scenarios include radio contact (on some frequency we’re already using) with an Earth-based station’ an orbital station or habitat’ with a settlement or scientific outpost located on Luna’ Mars’ or some other body in our Solar System’ or with one of our probes with which we still have radio contact (Pioneer’ Voyager’ Viking’ etc.). Another example of Direct Contact with Earth might entail the detection of passive data markers in space or on moons or planets by humans in habitats or on exploratory missions -- that is’ we find evidence of them’ rather than vice versa. (As in the science fiction classic 2001: A Space Odyssey’ by following the directions we may’ by our own choice’ then enter into direct physical contact with Them.) Yet another possibility is that the ETs may send their machines -- these may be information-interactive’ like the concept of the Bracewell probe’80 or they may be informational- and physical-interactive’ as in the concept of what the author calls the "Green probe’" a starprobe that human space travelers must rendezvous with’ activate manually’ and pilot into an Earth-capture orbit after reading and understanding the generalized instructions.3152 Clearly the avenues of possible contact are far more numerous than in the Remote Contact situation. Initiating messages in Direct Contact could be received by military personnel’ astronauts’ research astronomers’ satellite monitoring crews’ space colonists’ commercial broadcasting companies’ or even ham radio operators. Chances that the news will be made public are significantly increased. Nevertheless’ the possibility still exists that the government(s) of the receiving nation(s) could still be able to suppress the fact that a contact had occurred’ perhaps by cajoling and threatening the media in a variety of ways. But would they want to do this? In a Direct Contact scenario’ besides information there is the promise of physical artifacts. Rather than mere hints or suggestions of novel devices of extraterrestrial manufacture’ there is the chance to lay hands on actual working models of alien contraptions -- advanced laser or ?-wave systems’ powerful new fuels and explosives’ or maybe an improved spacecraft with tremendous versatility and hairpin maneuverability. As Dr. Bruce A. Rogers’ member of the NICAP Board of Governors’ once said:. "It could make a nation master of the world. ... Possession of this knowledge could greatly influence the future of the United States and perhaps determine our survival."1623 Once word of the contact began to circulate within the global intelligence community’ the rush would be on. Says Arthur C. Clarke: We can be sure that under the cover of normalcy there would be heroic attempts by all the secret services and intelligence agencies to establish contact with the aliens -- for the exclusive benefit of their respective countries. Every astronomical observatory in the Free World would be pelted with largesse from the CIA.81 There is also the question of ET motivations. The military is believed to serve a legitimate security function for nations and’ in the context of a first contact’ for all of humanity. The military establishment will be greatly concerned that Earth might be laid open to hostile aggression and attack by superior extraterrestrial beings. Of course’ in a practical sense there may be very little we can do about it if we are attacked from space. Such interstellar warriors must of necessity hail from at least a Type II civilization’ and thus should have no trouble whatsoever dusting the biological rust from the surface of the Earth if this is their intention. What government would want to inform its people that it is faced with an unknown alien intelligence and possible aggressor against whom there is little or no defense?814 It is entirely possible that uncontrolled’ uninformed’ sensational publicity about the receipt of an alien message or the upcoming arrival of ETs "in the flesh" could psychologically rip humanity apart. A widespread fear or tone of negativism could spell disaster for the stock market’ banks’ and other financial institutions’ and might create "a field day for every’ doom-laden’ end-of-the-world fanatic’ rapist’ arsonist’ and mugger."2709 Actual physical contact’ if carried out in secret’ could have extremely serious implications for world peace if news of this were ever leaked to the press. At that point it will do no good for the government to hand over all the information it has collected’ because other nations will suspect that vital information is still being withheld. If the contactee country hands the aliens over to some international supervisory agency only after secretive investigations’ it will be suspected of concealing a whole group of ETs -- presumably the most useful minority. All of this may lead to a nuclear confrontation between major world powers: If Nation A believes Nation B is gaining an overwhelming advantage’ it must strike before Nation B achieves invulnerability’ and therefore Nation B must strike first in hopes to avoid the worst of the exchange. This is the basic fallacy of deterrence’ which politicians are growing reluctant to call a "defense." If either side achieves a major breakthrough in weapons science’ the balance of terror which previously prevented war then demands war before the new system can be deployed.1001 Probably the best course of action for the host country would be to alert the major nuclear powers of the contact’ in secret. Representatives of all such nations should be invited to participate in every phase of the operation’ especially at the site of the first landing. The public could then be informed in a suitable manner determined by all governments concerned’ at a time when the situation was deemed manageable. Such is similar to the course of action adopted by the nations of the world during the Cosmos 954 mishap in early 1978 when a Soviet nuclear-powered spy satellite crashed to earth. The incident bears repeating’ since it may provide xenologists with valuable insight as to the most probable behavior of human governments in a Direct Contact scenario. Cosmos 954’ a 9-meter-long’ 2-meter-wide’ 5-ton satellite’ was boosted into a 240-km orbit on 18 September 1977.3541 Designed to detect and to track thermal emissions from American submarines’ the spysat was powered by a 500-kg nuclear reactor containing 50 kg of highly radioactive uranium-235. On December 19 the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD)’ headquartered half a mile beneath Colorado’s Cheyenne Mountain’ detected on its space radar system that Cosmos 954 had begun to drop in its orbit. About 10 days later’ the spysat’s orbit had decayed to about 160 km and failed to respond to ground commands to reignite its engines and fire to a higher altitude. Its fate was sealed. By early January’ NORAD was predicting the most probable impact somewhere in North America. Warnings were flashed at once to countries like Denmark and Canada’ which lay beneath the satellite’s track.3544 All of this was kept secret from the public because’ in the words of one White House security advisor: "We were trying to head off a re-creation of Mercury Theater [the 1938 'martian invasion broadcast' hysteria]." Another Presidential advisor said that secrecy was maintained because some governments that had been informed’ particularly West Germany’ feared that if word leaked out about the satellite and its reactor "the public would develop the mistaken idea that there was a chance that a nuclear device was in danger of falling on them."3543 About January 19’ National Security Advisor Brzezinski issued a National Security Council Directive alerting the CIA’ NASA’ the Department of Defense’ and the State Department to the probable and imminent re-entry of Cosmos 954. Special Air Force teams trained in radiation detection and techniques of decontamination were also placed on alert status’ and were made ready to fly to any impact site around the world. Then’ on 25 January 1978’ at 6:54 AM (EST)’ Cosmos 954 crashed in a relative wilderness area in northern Canada. Operation Morning Light was swiftly lauched. The U.S. and Canada dispatched 4 teams of specialists: A high-flying U2 airplane from Beale AFB with radiation sensors and a large instrumented KC-135 from McClellan AFB’ similarly equipped to detect high-altitude radiation’ and a 44-man search party of U.S. military technicians from Andrews AFB and Nellis AFB to assist a 22-man Canadian nuclear-accident team’ equipped with radiation-proof suits and debris collection gear. Only then’ after the major crisis had passed’ was the public informed what had happened. The gravity of the need for absolute secrecy’* agreed upon by the governments of the world in this case’ is illustrated by the following fact: American space scientists later admitted that if the satellite had failed only one pass later in its decaying orbit’ it would have plunged to earth near New York City at the height of the morning rush hour. In. such important matters as crashing nuclear satellites and’ presumably’ Direct Contacts with alien beings’ governmental and military authorities appear quite willing and able to keep controversial news under wraps.

* Apparently’ European ham operators who regularly monitor Soviet space transmissions knew something was up’ but for some reason the information was not publicized until after January 25. 3542

26.1.3 Surprise Contact In Surprise Contact scenarios’ human beings are suddenly thrust into a direct physical confrontation with sentient extraterrestrials. There is no advance warning’ no opportunity for preparations for encounter. All of a sudden’ They are here. Since such a mode of Contact is probably maximally unsettling (entropic) to the host race’ we might predict that any ETs employing this technique are either hostile’ unethical’ or in trouble. However’ there may exist still other perfectly reasonable motives which we cannot guess at’ so it is probably best if we suspend judgment at this point until we have more information. Nevertheless’ the military response to a Surprise Contact will be swift and sure’ to the limits of available human technology. Consider’ for example’ a scenario in which extraterrestrial lander craft approach Earth from space. What is our response? In the United States and Canada’ NORAD (North American Air Defense Command) has full military responsibility for tracking the more than 4’500 man-made objects and debris now circling the Earth. NORAD's phased array radars scan only the nearest few hundred kilometers of near-Earth space to resolutions of about 1 cm. This is sufficient to detect an incoming alien spacecraft perhaps 20 meters wide -- say’ about the size of the American Skylab space station. At the orbit of Mars’ Earth-based radars could theoretically detect nothing smaller than a 2-kilometer-wide asteroid-sized starship comparable to the planet destroying Death Star of Star Wars fame. Clearly we may not have much warning of the approach of the alien vessel.* Once an object is spotted by NORAD’ or by professional or amateur astronomers and reported to NORAD’ both military and civilian systems would be brought into play to attempt a positive identification of the intruder. The Air Force could track it quite accurately using orbiting spy satellites’ especially those equipped with heatsensors normally used to track Russian long-range missiles. (A good time for a pre-emptive attack’ while nobody is looking?) Computer analyses of the trajectory would indicate whether the object was coasting or under power’ accelerating or decelerating’ estimated maximum power plant energy based on observed thrust’ the probable destination and the estimated time of arrival. Recently an Air Force spokesman discussed the most probable military reaction if a UFO of alien origin entered the national airspace of the United States: There are no plans that separate UFOs from other threats to national security. We do have plans to deal with intruders and security violations. If anything presents such a threat’ we take the appropriate action. ... The Air Force watches our coasts with its Air Defense Identification Zones [ADIZs]. Every commercial airliner has a squawk box that responds to an identify-friend-or-foe-or-neutral (IFFN) signal we send out. If something does not respond and it enters the ADIZ’ we declare it unknown and scramble fighters to go up and take a look. ... If something were to attack the fighters’ we would send up more; if they vanished’ we would use missiles. The Nike Hercules [long-range nuclear antiaircraft missles] is the next line of defense. They’re old but adequate. We’d also judge its intentions by whether or not it tried to jam our radar or send false signals. The NORAD Commander can take action without consulting the President.3545 There exists a considerable amount of evidence’ much of it assembled by ufologists’ that the military is inclined to shoot first and ask questions later. The author feels justified in drawing upon the ufology literature because the incidents described below illustrate the military reaction to UFOs -- regardless of whether those UFOs are balloons’ geese’ sundogs’ or genuine extraterrestrial aerial vehicles. Our first illustration’ however’ is taken from Chapter 33 of Introductory Space Sciences (1968)’ published by the Air Force Academy for textbook use by cadets. According to the book: About ten o’clock one morning’ a radar site near a fighter base picked up a UFO doing 700 mph. The UFO then slowed to 100 mph’ and two F-86s were scrambled to intercept. Eventually one F-86 closed on the UFO at about 3000 feet altitude. The UFO began to accelerate away but the pilot still managed to get within 500 yards of the target for a short period of time. When the range reached 1000 yards’ the pilot armed his guns and fired in an attempt to down the saucer. He failed’ and the UFO pulled away rapidly’ vanishing in the distance.705 Whatever it was the pilot saw’ he fired at it. Major Donald E. Keyhoe’ an ardent ufologist who broke one of the first major news stories on UFOs back in 1949’ reported that in private conversations with General Sory Smith’ Deputy Director of Information’ and Major Jeremiah Boggs’ an Air Force intelligence officer’ he had been told that the Air Force had put out a special order for its pilots to capture UFOs if possible. Quoting Boggs’ Keyhoe writes: "We were naturally anxious to get hold of one of the things. We told pilots to do practically anything in reason’ even if they had to grab one by the tail."1623 Keyhoe continues: Afterward I talked with an interceptor pilot I knew’ who had been in on two chases. When I quoted Boggs’ words about grabbing a UFO by the tail he looked at me grimly. "That’s a lot nearer the truth than you might think’ even if he did make it sound like a joke. In our squadron at least we were told to ram one and bail out’ if we could do it without getting hurt. I don’t know anybody that tried it -- I certainly didn’t. After what happened to Mantell a man would be a fool to try a trick like that."1623 (Captain Mantell was killed in 1948 while pursuing a weather balloon "UFO" to extreme altitudes without benefit of an oxygen mask.). The U.S. military is not alone in its hostility to foreign objects whizzing through its skies. According to the Air-Force Academy textbook: On 24 July 1957 Russian anti-aircraft batteries on the Kouril Islands opened fire on UFOs. Although all Soviet anti-aircraft batteries on the Islands were in action’ no hits were made. The UFOs were luminous and moved very fast.705 On 19 September 1976’ another UFO-attack incident took place over the skies of Iran.4632 The story of four imperial Iranian Air Force pilots was summarized in a lengthy classified report sent to the Pentagon by the U.S. military attache in Teheran’ recently released to the public under the Freedom of Information Act. According to the report’ the Iranian Air Force sent up two F-4 Phantoms to chase a brilliantly glowing object near Mehrabad Airport’ Tehran. The jets’ which carry a pilot and radar operator’ reportedly tried to get close to the object. When one tried to shoot it down with a Sidewinder air-to-air missile’ "both planes temporarily lost navigation and communications but regained them when they broke away from the intercept."3548 It appears that the universal military reaction to a violation of airspace by an unknown object is to attempt to shoot it down. Unless they have adequate defenses’ Surprise Contact may be extremely dangerous for alien visitors to our world.1537’3626 What if an extraterrestrial landing craft made it down to ground level without attracting any attention -- how might the authorities handle such a situation? According to one account: If an object touches ground undetected’ it’s the responsibility of the people farthest down the chain of command who can handle the situation’ be it local’ state or Federal forces. In 1969’ for example’ a Kansas farmer called the local police to report a glowing object in his cornfield. The police weren’t sure what to do and called an Air Force team’ which determined that 200 pounds of Russian satellite had deorbited into the farmer’s back forty. Had aliens gotten out to greet them’ however’ NASA and military scientists -- most likely from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research [AFOSR]’ which funds highly exotic studies and is staffed with top people in all fields -- would have been called in.3545 Once again’ however’ there are instances on record where authorities undertook immediate and unthinking hostile action against unknown landed objects: There seems to be little preparation or even published thought on’ Earth Contact situations. Confidence that the governments of the world would nevertheless be prepared was somewhat shaken by an experiment conducted by British students’ in which oval-shaped "saucers" about five feet across were planted across England after telephoned "sightings." Various official bodies were alerted’ and reacted in various ways without apparent coordination. The Army seems to have blown theirs up without hesitation’ thereby creating a biological as well as a military danger had the Contact been genuine.1001 A few "proper" channels of authority do exist in this country which should be applicable to Surprise Contact situations -- at least during the early phases of encounter. Let us analyze the simplest possible case of Surprise Contact: A single extraterrestrial visitor’ landed in a relatively conspicuous location (park’ open field’ etc.) in a typical state somewhere in the U.S. How would authorities react? First of all’ unless the ET is buzzing houses or cars with his spacecraft’ has a grossly nonhuman appearance’ or is wreaking destruction far and wide’ his presence actually may go unnoticed for quite some time. But eventually a passing motorist or pedestrian will spot the creature’ who perhaps is garbed in a spacesuit or other unconventional attire. The local police station will receive a report of a strange creature roaming the streets. (See Table 26.2.)

Table 26.2 Preference of "Nonsightees" (of UFOs) for Agency to Which to Report a UFO or Contact Incident (modified from Lee721) Percentage of Observers Who Would Report

Agency

Agency

%

Local Police

39.3%

Airport

3.5%

No Report (friends only)

11.2%

Weather Bureau

3.5%

Air Force

10.5%

NICAP

3.5%

Town or City Official

7.0%

APRO

2.1%

Newspaper

7.0%

Other

0.7%

Radio Station

6.3%

Total

100%

Local UFO Organization

5.6%

Since local authorities get mountains’ of crank calls’ they probably won’t bother to dispatch a patrol unit until several reports have been received or until the ET inadvertently maims someone. As one policeman observer recently noted: "We're trying to downplay these sightings as they come in."3690 The police cruiser will arrive at the scene shortly thereafter. Depending upon the alienness of the extraterrestrial’ the officers may suspect a prankster at first (as has happened on numerous occasions1347’695) until the creature either reveals its primary physiological differences or displays command of clearly superior technology. If a large crowd has gathered’ the ET may be in trouble.3565 There are cases on record of crowds mobbing and killing human pranksters acting the role of beings from space’ and it is also true that the people have sometimes been ordered to shoot at UFOs by their superiors.3250 Hopefully’ if the ET does nothing which might arouse strong xenophobic reactions among human beings’ the officers will content themselves with cordoning off the immediate area (to prevent public contact) and in sending for local reinforcements which should arrive in ten minutes or less. The county sheriff will also be notified’ as well as the State Patrol or Highway Patrol. These groups will dutifully respond within twenty minutes’ but will make no further decisions. The police will also quickly alert the local Civil Defense authorities. From there’ the buck passes swiftly up through the county Civil Defense office to the state Civil Defense office’ at which point the governor should be apprised of the situation. He has the authority to declare a state of emergency or invasion and call out the National Guard (state militia) to help out. The militia maintains local bases equipped with jeeps’ tanks and cannons’ should these be required. The Guard (e.g.’ about 25’000 soldiers in California) probably be mobilized and on the scene in less than an hour to assist in the apprehension and detention of the extraterrestrial’ and in crowd and riot control. In the meantime’ the governor or some other state official will have notified the Federal Department of Defense’ and’ of course’ the President. According to existing regulations’ the Secretary of Defense should place the Army Area Commander in immediate charge of maintaining order. The local Air Force and Naval District authorities probably will also enter the picture in specific and relevant areas’ but with clearly subordinate influence. For instance’ special Air Force investigatory teams may be called in to actually handle physical and intellectual contact with the ET’ because of their prior experience in dealing with UFO reports and the like. Pending direct Presidential orders to the contrary’ however’ the Army commander will remain in overall temporary control. The President will undoubtedly notify Congress immediately’ calling an emergency session to obtain specific legislative direction. But it is important to realize that’ on his own’ the President already possesses sweeping authority -- especially in times of crisis -- should he care to exercise it. A vigorous "expansionist" Chief Executive would be likely to assume far greater personal control than a more passive’ wait-and-see President. The personality and mode of leadership of the person in the White House may therefore be a decisive factor in the early stages of Surprise Contact. Until late 1978’ the United States was in a legal state of national emergency and had been continuously since the early 1930s. This fact is not generally known or appreciated by the public. The Presidential proclamations of national emergency issued under Roosevelt (1933)’ Truman (1950)’ and Nixon (1970’ 1971) were not terminated when the crises that spawned them had passed. In 1976’ President Ford abolished these four emergency powers acts’ effective September 1978. The powers returned to Congress; however’ the power to declare future emergencies remains with the President. So broad authority is available to dispose of the ET as the Chief Executive sees fit. Perhaps’ in the context of first contact’ another declaration of national emergency would be forthcoming at this point. But even if the President does assert full and immediate control’ considerable confusion will still result. In the typical Surprise Contact scenario’ all of the problems connected with "less surprising" contacts are compounded by the need for a quick and effective response by national authorities and by the hasty and imprudent actions which may be taken as a result. Top policymakers will be inundated with conflicting intelligence reports’ and the channels of local and global communication will be clogged for a variety of reasons.3552 Decisions will be made on the basis of incomplete’ inaccurate’ strongly biased’ or otherwise inadequate information’ increasing the likelihood of error.3553 The sheer magnitude of the logistics of crowd and riot control’ the rapid spread of terrifying rumors throughout the civilian population and rising incidence of hysteria’ and the recognized biological dangers of radiation and contamination of Earth by unknown alien microbes will add to the confusion. Federal agencies will jockey for jurisdiction’ based on intertwining statutes and overlapping authority that would put a Gordian knot to shame. The CIA and FBI’ suspicious of the possibility of a foreign hoax and the dangers to national security posed thereby’ may try to intervene at the holding area and assert some influence of their own. Even more important’ they will be trying to protect the ET -- a potentially valuable military resource -- from foreign agents’ saboteurs’ kidnappers’ and assassins who presumably would stop at nothing to get their hands on the extraterrestrial visitor. (The entire American defense establishment will be on full alert status by this time.) The Treasury Department’ also suspecting a hoax and fearing for the President’s life’ may try to get into the act by sending in Secret Service agents to verify the authenticity of the ET. Of course’ Army Intelligence’ Naval Intelligence’ Air Force Intelligence’ and the Defense Intelligence Agency will all be vying for power as well. The Public Health Service’ within the Department of Health’ Education and Welfare (HEW)’ will want to establish local quarantine and detention authority under 42 USC §264 et seq of the Federal Code. The Department of Agriculture may try a similar trick under 21 USC §101 et seq’ if they can successfully argue that the extraterrestrial is an "animal" and not a "person" (see discussion below’ in section on legal issues). The Environmental Protection Agency could try to classify the creature as an "endangered species"’ and the Attorney General’ acting under 8 U.S.C. §1222’ has the legal authority to order immigrations officers to "temporarily detain" the ET in contemplation of deportation proceedings. And’ naturally’ the Department of Transporation will be anxiously searching for the space traveler’s vehicle as may the Secretary of the Treasury (50 U.S.C. §191 et seq)’ the military and the various intelligence agencies. (NASA people may be called in as consultants or for technical assistance’ but the NASA Administrator has no basis for authority unless the alien comes to Earth aboard one of our spacecraft.**691’3549) A host of private and civilian organizations will clamor to be heard’ probably within hours of first contact. The SPCA’ Humane Society’ International Society for the Protection of Animals’ World Federation for the Protection of Animals’ Fund for Animals’ Inc.’ Friends of the Earth’ Greenpeace’ the Sierra Club’ and countless other animal protection groups will demand assurances that the ET is receiving "adequate housing’ ample food and water’ reasonable handling’ decent sanitation’ sufficient ventilation’ shelter from extremes of weather and temperature" and so forth’ as required by the "Animal Welfare Act" (7 U.S.C. §2131 et seq’ as amended to include any warm-blooded animal used for "laboratory purposes") and state animal cruelty laws. The National Science Foundation will probably have some complaints to make’ along with the AAAS’ the National Academy of Sciences’ assorted astronomical’ zoological’ and ufological societies and organizations’ and a number of outlandishly-named fringe and cult groups.*** Sooner or later’ the United Nations will get wind of the "capture"; although the U.N. has no real authority within domestic borders’ vehemently unfavorable world public opinion could easily be roused to a fever pitch. We see that federal law provides no clear and unambiguous legal directions for handling a Surprise Contact from the stars. Without the leadership of a strong President’ tremendous confusion and jurisdictional squabbles will erupt almost instantly. The potential for disastrous disorganization is high.1761 And we have assumed a rather passive’ obeisant extraterrestrial. If he is in any sense more active’ there could be fearful and unfortunate complications. It is said that all war departments have plans worked out for every conceivable eventuality. Presumably’ somewhere in the Pentagon are the orders for such lamentable necessities as the invasion of Mexico or the bombing of London. Indeed’ in November 1975 some 50-year old plans the invasion of Canada were declassified (because they had become obsolete). If there are any preparations for the defense of Earth no one has ever mentioned them. Still’ the author suspects a contingency plan lies dusty in some half-forgotten Pentagon file. But one way or another’ at last the creature will be safely in military custody’ under very heavy guard and probably under quarantine. What next? One question xenologists might want to address is whether the political and military authorities would attempt to hush things up and conduct a totally secret investigation of the alien being and his craft’ even in the face of widespread publicity surrounding the initial contact event. Few would argue that the government is not predisposed to classify and treat as secret all sorts of possibly sensitive information. Regardless of one’s position on the reality of UFOs’ it is an intraconvertible fact that the military authorities -- for reasons known only to themselves -- have classified a number of peculiar and potentially inflammatory sighting events which have only recently been pried loose using the 1974 Freedom of Information Act. For example’ from the NORAD Regional Commander’s log (24th region’ Montana) in 1975: 7 Nov. 7 Nov. 7 Nov.

Received a call from the 341st SAC CP saying that the following missile locations reported seeing a large red to orange to yellow object.... SAC advised that the LCF at Harlowton’ Mont.’ observed an object which emitted a light which illuminated the site driveway. L-l reports that the object to their northeast seems to be issuing a black object from it’ tubular in shape.

8 A security camper team at K-4 reported UFOs with white lights’ one red light 50 yards behind white Nov. light. Personnel at K-l seeing same object. 8 Nov. 9 Nov. 10 Nov.

L-5 reported object increased in speed--high velocity’ raised in altitude and now cannot tell the object from the stars. SAC CP reports UFO 20 miles southeast of Lewistown {Mont.} orange white disc object.

UFO sighting reported by Minot Air Force station’ a bright starlike object in the west’ moving east’ about the size of a car. The object passed over the radar station’ 1000 feet to 2000 feet high’ no noise heard. 12 UFO reported from K0l. They say the object is over Big Snowy {mountain} with a red light on it at Nov. high altitude. 12 Second UFO in same area reported. Appeared to be sending a beam of light to the ground Nov. intermittently. 19 SAC command post observed object traveling NE at a fast rate of speed. Object bright white light Nov. seen 45 to 50 sec following terrain 200 feet off ground. The light was two or three times brighter than landing lights on a jet....3548 Even assuming all of the above are simply sightings of weather balloons and other everyday objects’ it must be admitted that these secret reports strongly suggest that the government may try to keep from public view any object or event that the military does not fully comprehend.3602 As Mr. Arthur Sylvester’ Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs’ admitted at a press conference in New York on 7 December 1962: When a nation’s security is threatened’ as that of the United States was during the recent Cuban crisis’ the nation’s leaders are justified in telling lies to its people.757 But adopting a course of secrecy after a well-publicized encounter may be highly dangerous. Strategic and international political issues are brought most clearly into focus in the Surprise Contact scenario. From the point of view of the host nation’ the ET represents a possibly valuable military resource. But from the vantage of others’ the mere presence of the alien’ his knowledge and his hardware in a neighboring (unfriendly) country constitutes a serious military threat. A landing in the territory of either of the two major superpowers may cause strategic destablization and raise the specter of a preemptive nuclear counterforce/countervalue strike. The concepts of anticipatory defense and anticipatory retaliation are not new and might be used to justify wanton military aggression. Unless the investigation of’ the extraterrestrial is "internationalized’" world tensions may increase dramatically. The Russian’ Chinese’ and others’ intelligence agencies might stop at nothing to retrieve the alien from the U.S. in order to interrogate him for military secrets and other technologies that might provide some advantage. If the tables were turned’ the American government might well engage in similar sordid practices. What if military authorities order government scientists to perform brutal experiments on the ET’ perhaps torturing it to force it to divulge its secrets’ or to dissect it to gain physiological knowledge to enable us to design effective weapons? Would they do it? According to the now-classic work of Stanley Milgram’ the answer may be a horrifying "yes." In studies that ultimately included more than a thousand participants’ Milgram demonstrated that obedience to authority is basic to human nature. In the experiment’ a person comes to a psychological laboratory and is told to carry out a series of acts that come increasingly into conflict with conscience. Typically’ the subject is required to test the ability of a "learner" (one of Milgram’s confederates) to recall word pairs; wrong answers are punished by the application of increasingly "higher voltages" to the "learner" by the subject using an "electrical generator." Although no shock is actually applied’ the subject is made to think it is real by the convincing grunts’ protests’ and screams of the "learner." Milgram found that most people will continue to apply shocks’ even though they know they are inflicting pain’ at the behest of the experimenter’ and many will continue until’ the "learner" apparently is rendered unconscious with pain.745 This does not leave the author very hopeful about the possible treatment of extraterrestrial visitors having "military value." Milgram comments upon the ominous significance of his findings: The behavior revealed in the experiments is normal human behavior: the capacity for man to abandon his humanity’ indeed’ the inevitability that he does so’ as he merges his unique personality into larger institutional structures. ... Each individual possesses a conscience which to a greater or lesser degree serves to restrain the unimpeded flow of impulses destructive to others. But when he merges his person into an organizational structure’ a new creature replaces autonomous man’ unhindered by the limitations of individual morality’ freed of humane inhibition’ mindful only of the sanctions of authority. The results’ as seen and felt in the laboratory’ are to this author disturbing. They raise the possibility that human nature’ or more specifically the kind of character produced in American democratic society’ cannot be counted on to insulate its citizens from brutality and inhumane treatment at the direction of malevolent authority. A substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do’ irrespective of the content of the act and without limitations of conscience’ so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority. If’ in this study’ an anonymous experimenter could successfully command adults to subdue a 50-year-old man and force on him painful electric shocks against his protests’ one can only wonder what government’ with its vastly greater authority and prestige’ can command of its citizenry.744

* NORAD's phased array system ignores all targets following nonballistic paths. Incoming meteorites are rejected automatically. NORAD's Electro-Optical Surveillance Tracking System takes pictures of manmade objects in space to provide high-accuracy tracking and identification data’ but can only look for objects it has been preprogrammed observe. If an alien vessel were to approach Earth’ chances are good that neither system would report it. ** See 14 C.F.R. §1204.509 and §1211.100 et seq’ entitled "Extraterrestrial Exposure" *** The Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and representatives from vegetarian groups may clamor for assurances that the ETs neither imbibe intoxicants nor consume animal flesh.

26.2 Public Reaction and the Press There are many reasons why confirmation of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence may bring a more muted public response than might otherwise be expected. To some extent’ a great deal of cultural preconditioning has already taken place.1938 Science fiction and other speculative literature have already introduced people to the possibility’ and the success of the television series "The Invaders" a decade ago and the recent box office hit "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" are testimony to considerable popular interest in and acceptance of the notion of alien life. Reports of UFOs and radiotelescope listening projects conducted by SETI investigators also have been much in the news. In the case of a Remote Contact an alien message may take months or even years to verify’ let alone translate and comprehend. The necessary compactness and complexity of such communications will require much time and effort to unravel’ resulting in a slow trickle’ rather than a raging torrent’ of information about the aliens and their culture. Since radio signals between distant stars must creep along at the speed of light’ decades or centuries may pass between receipt and response to an extraterrestrial transmission. This considerable time lag after the initial discovery is apt to dampen public and media enthusiasm for the story. In a Direct Contact scenario the press will play a more critical role in shaping public reaction to the encounter event. The accuracy and tone of the initial media coverage during the first few days and weeks will direct and fix public perceptions and attitudes towards the ETs for years to come. The possibility of "yellow journalism" cannot be ruled out. Traditionally the news media lose interest in any story that fails to build’ to provide new and ever more exciting details leading to a conclusion or climax.695 The attention span of the general public is quite brief. At least one science fiction writer has suggested that’ in the face of a dearth of sensational newsworthy events’ newsmen might fake their own headlline-grabbing stories: The Des Moines stereocasting station sent mobile units in for spotcast. The pictures they sent out were all long shots’ taken from the air. They showed nothing but a disk-shaped object [on the ground]. Then’ for about two hours’ no pictures and no news’ followed later by close-ups and a new news slant: The thing was a hoax. The "spaceship" was a sheet-metal-and-plastic fraud’ built by two farmboys in the woods near their home. The fake reports originated with an announcer who had put the boys up to it to make a story. He has been fired.2640 Science editor and reporter Kendrick Frazier’ however’ remains cautiously sanguine: My hope is that from the very beginning there would be accurate and restrained news reports’ complete with all the facts available at the moment and including the comments’ insights’ and perspectives of all the scientists and other persons informed and knowledgeable on the subject.1938 The strong desire among scientists and journalists for full’ immediate and accurate disclosure must be balanced against the requirements of military security and the current global political climate. There may be valid reasons for holding back certain inflammatory or unverified information from public scrutiny’ on a temporary basis. The immediate hazards of contact may be seriously aggravated if the Direct Contact occurs in a country having "no tradition of openness and candor in the release of news information." While it might be difficult to keep secret for long the fact of contact’ details could easily be suppressed. Unfortunately any brief’ distorted’ or incomplete report’ followed by a moratorium on further information’ could lead to mistaken ideas’ wild rumors’ international outrage’ mass hysteria’ and serious political misunderstandings. Frazier has pointed out that even if reasonably full disclosure is obtained from a nation without a tradition of a free press Western scientists might still experience great difficulties securing enough data about the event to make a reasoned analysis of the situation. There may be a kind of "dog in the manger" reaction: Already there have been a few claims coming out of the Soviet Union of receipt of radio signals that were initially attributed to extraterrestrial intelligence. (They turned out not to be.) The difficulty that both the science press and scientists in the United States faced in getting further information from the Soviet Union in the days immediately following the initial news reports has not made me especially confident.1938 How should the news be released to the public? Jill Tarter of the NASA SETI Program team at Ames Research Center has revealed that many scientists have spent some time considering this very question. "Assuming the people who are involved in this field’" she says’ "we have this cocktail party game that we play: Compose your press release’ knowing that you'll probably only get one shot at it. How do you get out all the information you want to’ and be sure that it will get a lot of coverage? It is a touchy subject." Kendrick Frazier has the following suggestion: Wherever the discovery of the first evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence is made’ I do hope that the scientific leaders involved will be wise enough to prepare their public announcement with a certain amount of care and with careful attention to the need to supply accurate information and perspective. This would justify a delay of several days to make preparations. In the United States a joint news conference in Washington’ with scientists and officers of the discovering observatory’ the National Science Foundation’ the National Academy of Sciences’ and the White House’ would perhaps be the preferable method of announcing the discovery. The international scientific community would be brought into the matter as rapidly as possible.1938 Still’ when the time comes to announce that mankind is no longer alone’ "those who prepare and issue the statement will have a truly terrifying responsibility." Says Arthur C. Clarke: "Though they will certainly try to sound reassuring’ they will know that they are whistling in the dark."81

26.2.1 Rumor and Credibility Sociologist Tamotsu Shibutani of the University of California at Santa Barbara has remarked that in disasters one of the first things men seek’ after saving themselves’ is news. Often they become so desperate for such information that they become careless about its source. If sufficient news is not available’ it may develop spontaneously.1875 In a Surprise Contact scenario’ and to a lesser degree in Direct Contact situations’ the likelihood of such "spontaneous news" is high. Studies in the psychology of rumor by the late Gordon W. Allport and Leo Postman at Harvard University during the 1940’s showed that scare stories travel fastest and persist the longest when three critical elements are present: 1. Lack of News -- rumor flies in the absence of reliable and authoritative news reportage; 2. Personal Impact -- the theme of the rumor must have some significance both to speaker and listener in a highly personal and private sense; and 3. Ambiguity -- the true facts must be shrouded in some real or imagined ambiguity.741 Each of these elements should be present during a typical Surprise Contact. Simply because of the unusual nature of the event and the natural confusion which would result’ news would be temporarily unavailable during the first few hours or days following the event. A deliberate governmental policy of suppression of the facts would only prolong the dearth of information. As for personal impact’ the event would be of maximum significance in the immediate locality of the contact. Modern telecommunications networks’ which have created a "global village’" would have the effect of spreading impact over greater geographical areas’ statewide and perhaps nationally. Impact will also be heightened if there are reports of sudden confrontations with other unannounced ETs. The normal background of UFO reports may be blown out of proportion’ and wild rumors of new landings and hostile activities by (nonexistent) alien visitors could begin to circulate elsewhere in the host country and in neighboring nations as well. Finally’ ambiguity may be induced by the absence or sketchiness of news’ by the conflicting nature of the news’ by distrust of the news (as where it is perceived that the government is deliberately hiding something)’ or by some emotional tensions that make the individual unable or unwilling to accept the facts set forth in the news.741 Since it is clear that all news of the Contact must necessarily remain ambiguous at first’ we must conclude that highly compelling and disturbing rumors could spread like wildfire through urban population centers around the world. One rather unusual psychological experiment reported by Philip Klass in his book UFOs Explained695 illustrates well the influence of the media on public perception of events. On 13 April 1971’ John Forkenbrock and several of his sociology students at the West Central high school. in Maynard Iowa decided to test local public and media reaction to a UFO sighting. That night students’ after making arrangements with a farmer’ poured gasoline in a circle in his pasture and set it afire to form a three-meter-diameter circle and four smaller "landing pad" circles. Other students’ not party to the hoax’ became aware of the sighting the next morning and’ thinking it real’ called the local radio station KOEL. Soon’ news of the event was being broadcast’ reporters were interviewing students’ and a local UFO expert showed up within the hour. In 24 hours’ news of the UFO landing had been carried by radio stations in Chicago and Minneapolis and by a number of Iowa newspapers’ and NICAP Headquarters in Washington had called to investigate. Later’ when the hoax was revealed’ the participants were interviewed to determine their reactions to the event. Some had accepted the reports at face value and concluded that an alien craft had indeed landed in the field outside the town. Others said they suspected a secret military vehicle might have been involved’ or that the burned circles might have been caused by a meteor or a Russian satellite. Only a few had suspected a hoax from the first. One student remarked: "I didn’t believe it at first’ but I came to school and heard my friends talking and I began to believe it." Another said: "I believed it and was even fooled into going over and seeing it [burned spots]. The main reason it was so convincing was hearing it on the radio and seeing it on television." Said. one of the students who had called KOEL: "On the way back to school’ after we had called KOEL and told them the whole story’ all I could think about was telling more kids about it. Later on I told everybody I could see." Among some local residents the incident provoked fear. One woman reported: "My husband came home from work and loaded his gun and put it on the shelf’ so I knew he was scared. ... I was scared too." Another resident admitted: "I hadn’t locked the door for twenty-five years; but when I heard that’ I ran to my door’ locked it’ and ran underneath the bed and stayed there until I heard it was a hoax." How might people react psychologically to the fact of Contact? In a 1973 study of this question led by social psychologist Leon Festinger’ Dr. Elliot Aronson of the University of. Texas concluded that a person’s reaction to disclosure that the Air Force had been secretly studying a humanoid ET (who remained behind after a surprise encounter at an Air Force Base several years before) would depend to a very large degree upon prior belief and the degree of commitment to that belief. Aronson believes that there may arise two major classes of response to the announcement. To make the analysis more clear’ he selects the most extreme viewpoints: Sam’ a person who is committed to the belief that there is life in outer space and the UFOs are a real phenomenon; and Mildred’ someone who disdains the reality of UFOs and prior to the announcement was that there is no intelligent life elsewhere in space. Aronson continues: When the press conference was held breaking the news of the humanoid’s existence’ Sam’s immediate reaction was intense and unmitigated joy. After all’ his belief was confirmed. His commitment was exonerated. But after an initial hurrah’ his dominant and persistent response was calm acceptance. He was convinced for years that human life existed in outer space and it is certainly not surprising to learn that the government now has absolute proof of that existence -- proof in the form of this person whom they have been interviewing for the past four years or so. They have been in direct contact with this person for four years and no disaster has struck and’ accordingly’ it is highly unlikely that any disaster would occur in the foreseeable future. It should be emphasized that Sam’s calm acceptance of the news that human life from another planet does definitely exist is in part Sam’s way of demonstrating his confidence in his prior beliefs. That is’ the calmer he can react in public and the. more accepting he is of the event without outward show of intense emotion’ the more convincing he will be to himself and to other people. Thus’ when Sam arrives at the office and his colleagues ask him if he’s heard the news’ he simply shrugs and says’ "It was simply a matter of time -- I knew it would happen sooner or later."1640 Mildred’s reaction’ on the other hand’ is extremely different: When she sees the press conference and views the humanoid she immediately suspects that the government is lying. Because of the fact that she has committed herself to the belief that UFOs are a farce and do not exist and to the belief that there is no intelligent life in outer space’ anything that implies she is wrong must be derogated and disposed of.3570 Thus’ Mildred immediately assumes that the government has something to gain by implying or demonstrating that they do indeed have a humanoid from outer space. ("Perhaps Nixon is trying to divert attention from Watergate or the energy crisis.") Thus’ in almost a paranoid manner she convinces herself that it is a sham’ that the so-called humanoid is an actor playing an elaborate role’ hoodwinking the gullible. If she can succeed in doing this’ then she can succeed in maintaining her high self-concept and in not losing the running argument she’s been having with Sam (and others) over the past several years. Now in order to do this’ she has to go to great lengths to convince herself and others that the government has something to gain by doing this and that the government is dishonest and clever. Moreover’ because her belief has been apparently disconfirmed’ she will seek social support for the continuation of that belief. Thus’ she will frantically run around to try to convince other people that there is no life in outer space’ that the so-called humanoid is a fake.1640 Aronson’s reasoning stems largely from Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance.3569 According to this theory’ if an event occurs which is consistent with beliefs to which a person is committed’ then that individual is pleased’ happy’ calm’ relaxed’ and generally unmotivated by the event. On the other hand’ when events occur that are dissonant with the person’s beliefs and commitments’ that individual strives to reduce the dissonance. According to Aronson: One way to reduce the dissonance is to deny the fact that those events have actually occurred’ and in order to deny that fact’ one has to construct an apparently reasonable explanation for the events that is consistent with the primary belief. Moreover’ since a state of dissonance is an unstable and psychologically uncomfortable situation’ one really needs to bolster that explanation for the events and to strengthen one’s initial belief’ in this case’ the belief that there is no life in outer space. The more you can convince other people that you are right -- in this case’ the more you can convince other people that there is a government plot -- the greater will be the reduction of dissonance and the more comfortable you will become.1640 In the same study in which Dr. Aronson participated’ a prominent Yale University psychologist (who wished to remain anonymous) concluded that many respected scientists’ statesmen’ journalists and educators who had not been asked to be present to witness the encounter or subsequent investigations might regard the entire incident purely as a hoax: The initial skepticism and outright disbelief publicly expressed by many eminent scientific authorities as well as by other prestigious leaders of the national community who were not insiders will have a marked effect on the reactions of the U.S. public. ... The announcement will also get a very bad press from leading scientists and politicians in the Soviet Union and in other countries where the U.S. government’ and especially. the U.S. military establishment’ is not trusted. In the absence of any clear-cut demonstration that would be utterly convincing to the majority of scientists’ outside the little circle of the Air Force Base’ the authenticity of [the encounter] will continue to influence the public’s views and actions’ even if supposedly convincing evidence is continuously being presented on later TV shows and in documentary movies by the Air Force and its scientists (and by other scientists invited to join the prestigious university lab to which the [alien] visitors have been transferred to counteract charges of an Air Force plot). Many of the scientists who initially attacked the credibility of the original TV show will have publicly committed themselves. And public commitment is a great source of resistance to persuasive communications that might otherwise change a person’s mind. It leads the person to reduce dissonance or conflict by bolstering his original position with new arguments. [See Deutsch’ Krauss’ and Rosenau’3572 Festinger3573 Gerad’ Belvans’ and Malcolm’3574 Kiesler’3663 and McGuire.3634] So the public will continue to be treated to a wide variety of impressive negativistic comments during the months following the TV show’ which will make for considerable ambiguity.1640 But in a Surprise Contact’ scenario in which the actual landing receives widespread publicity’ news is likely to be in short supply. People will turn first to institutional channels; but there’ reporters and the public alike may find only frustration. Rumor’ a form of news’ arises in situations of tension when ordinary communication channels are operating inadequately. As Shibutani has pointed out: "Rumor construction is likely to occur if the demand for news in a public exceeds the supply made available through institutional channels."1875 Typical rumors might include stories of strange diseases going around or reports that mysterious signals had been detected from a supposed "invasion fleet" hovering just out of radar detection range. Unusual but natural disasters may be blamed on the aliens' arrival. How should rumors be dealt with? Censorship has often been attempted in the past’ but this only serves to aggravate the problem the public becomes aware of it. It is widely agreed that known or suspected censorship increases the incidence of rumors. Denials of widely-believed reports or the overt punishment of free speech makes official channels suspect. A feeling may develop that officials are trying to hide something’ even when they aren't’ and often what is suspected of being hidden is far more sinister than the facts. There is also a kind of poisoning effect: once censorship is suspected’ other items from official sources are also distrusted. Rumors develop even when all known facts have been disclosed. Once official channels are regarded as unreliable’ people are no longer reassured by denials and many rumors may develop.1875 Reflecting on the explosion of UFO reports during the last two decades and the widespread and persistent rumor that the government is withholding the "true facts’" the late Dr. Edward U. Condon’ noted physicist’ director of a major study of UFOs completed in 1969’ and arch UFO-skeptic’ once lamented: "Developments of this kind leave no doubt in my mind that a serious mistake was made in early 1953 in not declassifying the entire subject and making a full presentation of what was known."741 In similar vein’ the late Dr. Carl Gustavus Jung’ the eminent Swiss psychoanalyst’ offered the following advice: If it is true that the American Air Force or the government withholds telling facts’ then one can only say that this is the most unpsychological and stupid policy one could invent. Nothing helps rumors and panics more than ignorance. It is. self-evident that the public ought to be told the truth.1623 A fine example of free and orderly dissemination of potentially explosive information was provided in 1957 by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory after the surprise launching of Sputnik by the Soviets. Smithsonian scientists quickly decided to tell the public all that was known. They set up an information center where regular news conferences were held and all data were available’ an openhanded approach that helped to dispel much of the fear the surprise launching invariably aroused.3608 Virtually all psychologists who have investigated rumor seriously have recommended providing adequate information through traditional institutional channels. Another useful procedure which might be operated in parallel is the concept of the "rumor clinic." Although most such means have heretofore only been applied in wartime situations’ the same technique might prove useful during a Direct or Surprise Contact encounter. During World War II’ for instance’ the Massachusetts Committee on Public Safety dedicated itself to the prevention and control of rumors through publicity. Reported rumors were collected at various listening posts’ refuted by authorities or experts’ and then published in a large newspaper chain. Reprints of these articles were then sent to interested parties elsewhere in the country.741 A more contemporary example was the Rumor Control Center established by Governor Thornburgh during the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant disaster in Harrisburg’ Pennsylvania in 1979. The Center provided a phone number that anyone could call to get updated reliable facts.3717 Of course’ there is always the danger that such organizations may come to be perceived as the mere tool of special interests -- big business’ the military’ a political party’ the government -- unless it is scrupulously honest and objective in its dealings with the public. News thought to be of interest to or screened by those in control is often dismissed as propaganda; when institutional channels are discredited’ the supply of reliable news is cut off and unreliable rumors begin to fly. Yet another technique is based on the "two-step" model of public communication.3554 In this model’ "opinion leaders" act as mediators between the mass media and the "rank and file." That is’ information flows from television’ radio’ and the printed page to opinion leaders and from them to the rest of the community. This same principle may be applied in the context of news dissemination during a Contact event. The best way to affect public attitudes towards the ETs might be a mass mailing of calming and informative data to community opinion leaders’ both in politics (e.g.’ mayors’ city managers’ etc.) and various professional people (e.g.’ doctors’ representatives’ bankers’ authors). As an additional measure’ representatives from all major special interest groups should be invited to Washington for a full and complete briefing.

26.2.2 Panic and Mass Hysteria A televised news conference with the ETs following a Direct Contact encounter would be the media event of the century. Xenologists believe that a large majority of Americans will display "news hunger’" many remaining glued to the TV set for word of the latest developments. The credibility controversy will deepen this hunger and even those who suspect a hoax will be following events closely in an attempt to determine who is trying to fool whom. As tension heightens and ambiguity remains high’ rumors will begin to fly concerning the nature of the aliens' visit’ their intentions’ their possible economic’ philosophical and religious beliefs’ and even their sexual practices. According to the Yale social psychologist who participated in the 1973 study mentioned earlier: The main behavioral consequence of all information-seeking and misinformation spreading will be absenteeism. While few workers and clerks will stay home during the day to watch TV’ many of them will engage in mental absenteeism in the factory or office. Large numbers of people will be too busy talking to each other about the news’ listening to transistor radios’ and reading newspapers to do more than a small fraction of their normal daily work. How long this will last will depend partly on how long the story is kept alive by the mass media and partly on how long the major ambiguities persist. If the whole thing is promptly exposed as a hoax and the perpetrators are identified and their intent made clear’ public interest will die. Or if the supply of fresh news quickly becomes exhausted’ public interest will soon subside -- as in the case of the moon shots in the late 1960s. But otherwise for quite some time after the upcoming TV show’ interest in [the ETs] will upstage the impeachment proceedings in the House and the trial in the Senate. Even Nixon’s resignation speech on the eve of the Senate vote will receive less attention.1640 It has often been suggested that the arrival of visitors from other worlds’ or even the admission that they had already arrived’ would give rise to widespread unreasoning panic. But studies of public reactions to wars’ disasters’ epidemics’ and other similarly frightening events indicate that such will not normally be the case. Mass panic rarely occurs except under certain very usual circumstances.3642’3575 A number of key factors have been identified which’ when present in a single event’ may give rise to the most virulent forms of mass panic: 1. People are suddenly made aware of clear and present danger of overwhelming magnitude -- personal’ physical danger -- that is rapidly approaching; 2. People perceive that all possible escape routes soon will be closed’ leaving them trapped with the danger within a very short time (as in a crowded theater or nightclub on fire); 3. There is a lack of opportunity to engage in vigorous self-protective action under extreme conditions of potential entrapment; 4. People experience a loss or lack of contact with members of the family or with other primary socially supportive groups; 5. Ambiguity exists as to the extent and precise character of the danger; and 6. There is a lack of reassuring communications from esteemed persons or responsible authorities. According to the Yale psychologist: It should be noted that panic is not a likely response to verbal warnings that are ambiguous with regard to authenticity or that create uncertainty as to whether there might be severe’ mild’ or no danger at all in the offing. The disaster literature indicates that ambiguous warning messages are likely to be discounted and ignored by all except a small percentage of people’ mainly hyperanxious neurotic persons.1640 Another misconception that is current in the popular press is that people are likely to wander about aimlessly like zombies on the heels of a major disaster. While it is true that stunned’ dazed’ near-psychotic withdrawal has been observed at the scene of catastrophes’ studies show that this is the exception rather than the rule. Indeed’ most victims of large-scale disasters expect their neighbors to panic or to become zombie-like’ and are genuinely surprised when they do not.3603 Usually it is only those who have been severely traumatized (e.g.’ serious personal injury’ injury or death to close family member) that suffer the most extreme forms of psychological disorientation. None of the primary or contributory factors to mass panic or stunned psychotic behavior should be present in any reasonable Direct Contact scenario. The hallmarks of such an encounter’ and its subsequent disclosure to the general public’ will be safety’ certainty’ and control. (Indeed’ the less exciting it is’ the higher is the ethical content of the encounter’ according to the rules of thermoethics.) Even. in a typical Surprise Contact any minor panics which did erupt would be confined to the locality in which the clear and present danger to physical survival existed.1876 Of course’ widespread panic is possible if the extraterrestrials come not as friends or neutrals but as enemies of humankind. The immediate threat to personal safety might be deeply etched into the minds of every person on Earth if the ETs performed some spectacularly destructive act -- such as blowing up the Moon -- to demonstrate conclusively the invincibility of their weaponry. This’ followed by a general announcement that specific metropolitan areas around the world would suffer similar treatment if certain demands were not met’ could give rise to hysteria’ mass panic and deep psychoses in the designated areas. Within the doomed areas’ notes one commentator’ wild panic might become widespread "unless extraordinarily skillful leaders took command of the situation’ giving impressive reassurances’ organizing the evacuation’ and mobilizing other protective actions."* Indeed’ such a scenario has already been rehearsed once in some detail -Orson Welles' Mercury Theater invasion-from-Mars broadcast’ which took place on Halloween night’ 30 October 1938. The incident is of great xenological and historical interest’ and is worth discussing in some detail. Drawing from the 1898 novel by H.G. Wells of the same name’1951 Mr. Welles opened his "War of the Worlds" with a harmless weather report. The announcer stated that the program would continue from a hotel’ with dance music. For a few moments a dance program was heard’ but soon there was a break-in with a "news flash" about a professor at an observatory who had seen explosions on the surface of Mars. Then the music came back for about half a minute’ interrupted again by another news the landing of a "meteor" near Princeton’ New Jersey. On-the-spot reporters at the scene of the fall noted that the object was a strange metallic cylinder. All of a sudden’ the lid unscrewed and out popped Martians with death rays’ killing 1500 persons including military personnel’ members of the press’ and innocent bystanders. As the story slowly unraveled’ more martian warships began to land all over the United States; people were dropping like flies before an alien assault force armed with deadly gas; Martians were reported entering New York; and so forth. Long before the fictional broadcast had ended’ people across the nation were "praying’ crying’ fleeing frantically to escape death from the Martians." Some ran to rescue loved ones; others telephoned farewells or warnings’ hurriedly informed neighbors’ sought information from newspapers and the radio’ and summoned ambulances and the police. In Indianapolis a woman ran into a church screaming: "New York destroyed; it’s the end of the world. You might as well go home to die. I heard it on the radio." Services were dismissed immediately. In North Carolina’ five Brevard College students fainted and others fought for telephones to call their parents to come and get them. One telephone caller in Kansas City said he had loaded all his children into his car’ filled it with gas’ and was going somewhere. "Where it is safe?" he wanted to know. A farmer near Grover’s Mill’ New Jersey’ took pot shots at a neighbor’s water tower’ thinking it was an invading Martian war machine. A Pittsburgh man returned home in the midst of the broadcast to find his wife with a bottle of poison in her hand’ screaming: "I'd rather die this way than like that."1756 According to Princeton social psychologist Hadley Cantril’ who studied the Martian invasion broadcast in some detail’ at least 6 million people heard the show’ 1.7 million thought the broadcast was a valid news bulletin’ and about 1.2 million were "excited" by it.738 According to Cantril’ the unusual realism of the performance may be attributed to the fact that the early parts of the broadcast "fell within the existing standards of judgement of the listeners." Radio had become an accepted vehicle for important announcements’ and polls indicated that three times more people thought radio was freer from prejudicial reportage than newspapers. During the weeks before the broadcast’ everyone had been glued to their sets awaiting news of the outbreak of war in Europe’ and the "news flash" technique had become the accepted practice to inform the public of fast-breaking news. The authorities who supposedly participated in the event were highly respected -- military and local Civil Defense commanders’ astronomy professors from Princeton and other major universities’ the Vice-President of the Red Cross’ the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’ and so forth. Another factor of importance was that specific places were mentioned’ lending immediacy to the invasion’ and informal colloquialisms and skillful background sounds added in to impart realism. Finally’ the fact that all observers seemed baffled by events increased the credibility of the reports in the minds of many listeners. Cantril found that critical rational ability could be overpowered either by emotions generated by an unusual listening situation or by an individual's own susceptible personality. The trait of susceptibility was more frequent among economically insecure people’ persons with phobias’ people with less education’ and among those having a lack of self-confidence’ fatalism’ and a high degree of religiosity and church attendance. People who thought at first that the broadcast was a regular news report (28.3% of all listeners) could be classified into four major categories’ based on their response: 1. Those who analysed the internal evidence of the program and knew it could not be true. (6.5% of all listeners) 2. Those who checked up successfully with external sources to learn it was a play. (5.1% of all listeners) 3. Those who checked up unsuccessfully and continued to believe it was a news broadcast. (7.6% of all listeners) 4. Those who made no attempt to check the authenticity of the broadcast. (9.1% of all listeners) Cantril also found "that the greater the possibility of checking against a variety of reliable standards of judgement’ the less suggestible will a person be." This is an excellent argument for reasonably full disclosure by the appropriate authorities during a genuine event. Clearly the news media must shoulder an enormous burden of public responsibility. A tone of hysteria’ sensationalism or "media hype" in reports from the scene of a Direct or Surprise Contact could easily contribute to widespread mass hysteria’1759’1805’1747’740 although instances of classic panic will rarely occur except in certain very unusual situations’ Dr. Cantril was confident that the press had learned its lesson: The Orson Welles performance and its aftermath have instilled on the part of all major networks in the United States a deep sense of responsibility in seeing to it that such a situation does not occur again.738 A few writers have taken an even more extreme position than this’ denying that a repeat of the Mercury Theater "panic" is even possible nowadays. According to Arthur C. Clarke: The world has become much more sophisticated since the far-off days of Orson Welles’ famous radio broadcast. It is unlikely that a friendly or neutral contact -- except in primitive communities’ or by creatures of outrageous appearance -- would produce an outburst of hysteria like that which afflicted New Jersey in 1938. Thousands of people would probably rush to their cars’ but they would be in a hurry to get to the scene of such an historic event’ not to escape from it.81 Unfortunately there is some evidence to dispute this claim. The Martian invasion broadcast was not the first nor the last reported incident of fictional public danger to give rise to local hysterias. The most similar predecessor to the Mercury Theater incident occurred on 16 January 1926’ during a period of particularly strong labor unrest. As Cantril describes it: On that day the traditionally complacent English listener was startled by a description given by Father Ronald Knox (in the customary news broadcast) of an unruly unemployed mob. The mob was said to have attempted demolition of the Houses of Parliament’ its trench mortars had brought Big Ben to the ground’ it had hanged the Minister of Traffic to a tramway post. The London broadcast ended with the "destruction" of the BBC's station. After the broadcast’ the newspapers’ police and radio stations were besieged with calls from frantic citizens. However’ Father Knox's broadcast did not cause either as widespread or as intense a fear as the Orson Welles program.738 In 1939 the script of the Mercury Theater broadcast was translated into Spanish and the settings changed to locales in South America. Broadcast in Ecuador that year’ the program again generated widespread hysteria among the radio public. When listeners discovered the production had not been factual news but was instead a hoax’ the hysteria turned into rage. Apparently a huge mob converged on the offending radio station’ burned it to the ground’ and then murdered six of the show’s cast.2598 During the 1950's a smaller scale scare erupted in London when a fake news bulletin again described a very specific and immediate threat’ in this case a flying saucer holding an atomic bomb over the city.1001 There are still more recent examples on record. For instance’ in November 1973 a Swedish radio broadcast described a fictional nuclear power plant catastrophe in a nearby community. Widespread hysteria and isolated local panics were the immediate result. The telephone network broke down’ jammed with calls from fearful and excited people. Within a span of ten minutes after the conclusion of the broadcast an enormous traffic jam tied up main thoroughfares’ and frantic citizens were reluctant to accept official assurances that no accident had taken place.1674 (In the real Harrisburg’ Pennsylvania nuclear plant breakdown in early 1979’ there was no panic but about 100’000 of the 650’000 local inhabitants hastily departed the immediate area.) Another case occurred on 26 November 1977 in southern England. As the evening news drew to a close on a local TV network’ the signal was abruptly interrupted by an ominous-sounding "message from space." "This is the voice of Asteron’" the speaker began. "You have only a short time to learn to live together in peace. All your weapons of evil must be destroyed." The six-minute transmission from the "Intergalactic Association" caused a deluge of hundreds of phone calls to local constabularies and to the Southern Television studio.3556 One child who was severely affected began screaming’ and her mother remarked: "I'm not easily frightened’ but at the end I was shaking like a leaf."3555 In another instance a police car had to be sent to calm an hysterical woman. Recalled one patrolman: "Most people had taken it quite seriously. They were frightened and generally scared." According to Cantril's study of the Mercury Theater broadcast’ 20% of all listeners were "excited" by the program. There is no reason to expect this percentage’ which derives from the psychological susceptibility of the general population and not from characteristics of the specific incident’ to be much different today. It has also been estimated that approximately 1.5 billion people witnessed the first Moon walk -- an event of comparable importance to the first human contact with intelligent extraterrestrial beings from another world. If an equivalent fraction of the viewing public became "excited" in the context of a Surprise Contact event due to inept reportage’ more than 300’000’000 persons might be involved globally. Of course if there appears be no immediate threat to safety there can be no actual mass panic’ but the implications even of moderate-scale hysteria in our world are staggering to contemplate.

*Psychologists are well aware that under such conditions of extreme threat’ the need for affiliation and reliance on powerful leaders becomes very strong; see Gerard and Rabbie’ 3577 Hamblin’ 3578 Janis’3640’3641 Latane’ 3579 Rabbie’ 3580 and Schachter.3581

26.3 Legal Issues of First Contact Law is a product of societal problems. When there are few problems’ there is little law. Not surprisingly’ there has been virtually no discussion in the literature of the status and legal rights of ETs’ their messages’ and their artifacts under our various terrestrial legal systems. There exist’ so to speak’ no legal precedents. From the legal point of view’ there are basically two classes of contact that are significant: Those in which no physical contact between man and alien is possible (Remote Contact)’ and those in which physical contact is expected to occur (Direct and Surprise Contact). In the Remote Contact scenario’ direct and immediate extraterrestrial influence on our society is comparatively slight. Consequently’ legal issues are few. Since information and ideas are the only mechanism for cultural exchange’ there may be a few freedom of speech questions (e.g.’ prior restraint)’ but these will probably resolved in favor of the government. The requirements of national security may force limitations on dissemination and use of knowledge contained in the alien transmissions. (For instance’ the 1954 Atomic Energy Act prohibits disclosure of any nuclear secrets that could be used to make bombs’ even if they originate with the author.) There may be a few attempts to use the Freedom of Information Act of 1974 to pry loose confidential or suppressed material’ but these take an enormous amount of time to process and most likely will be to no avail. There are a number of subsidiary legal questions in the context of Remote Contact. For instance’ who will own the patent rights to various inventions and devices described in the messages from the stars: The government’ who paid for the radiotelescope; the university scientists’ who first translated the messages and drew the first blueprints; the engineers who produced the first working model; etc.? Under 35 U.S.C. §101’ the invention or discovery of any new and useful process’ machine’ method of manufacture’ or composition of matter is patentable. Data from the Galactic Library surely constitutes a discovery. Two possible restrictions’ however’ may moot the issue of patentability. First’ inventions described in a printed publication in a foreign publication before the application for patent are not patentable. This may perhaps be inferred from the presence of the data in the beacon’ but is another planet "a foreign country" for the purposes of this law? And what if the ETs don't print or "publish" anything (perhaps using a planetwide computerized solid state database)? Second’ and most important’ consider the wording of 35 U.S.C. §101 under which secrecy orders could be applied to alien technologies: Whenever publication or disclosure by the grant of a patent on an invention in which the Government has a property interest might’ in the opinion of the head of the interested Government agency’ be detrimental to the national security’ the Commissioner [of Patents] upon being so notified shall order that the invention be kept secret and shall withhold the grant of a patent. Another legal question might involve issues of governmental tort liability. If information from the stars is released by a U.S. operated observatory’ and that information is misused or causes harm in any way’ is the government liable to the injured parties? (For example’ suppose that a new alien formula for high explosives is released to industry’ and the commercial testing station using it detonates unexpectedly’ flattening an entire city.) In general the answer is no -- there would little if any governmental liability. Under the Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946’ only "operational negligence" and not "policy negligence" is actionable. In the landmark case Dalehite v. United States (1953) 346 U.S. 15’ in which Texas City was largely destroyed by a harbor explosion of two shiploads of ammonium nitrate placed there as a matter of government policy’ the Supreme Court found that the negligent government decisions were at the planning or policy level’ hence within the Tort Claims Act exception as to "discretionary function or duty" (so the government was not liable for the mishap).

26.3.1 Alien Animals In a Direct Contact or Surprise Contact scenario’ alien beings would actually come into physical (and hence juridical) contact with human society. The question then arises as to what place such creatures would have in our legal systems’ and whether or not they would have any rights or responsibilities under our law. Of course’ one might question how any extraterrestrial visitor to our planet could have any rights at all. The ET is not a member of our society’ our species’ or even our world. And’ loosely speaking’ these three qualifications are the most fundamental bases for justice under modern human law. The history of the scope of protection and legal rights in general is most illuminating. In The Descent of Man (1871)’ Charles Darwin pointed out that among primitive tribal states it was widely accepted behavior to commit what we would regard today as rather serious crimes (robbery’ murder) against strangers or innocent travelers. As an example’ he cited the "North-American Indian...[who] is well-pleased with himself and honored by others’ when he scalps a man of another tribe. ... In a rude state of civilization the robbery of strangers is generally considered as honorable."3612 The tales of Homer tell us that Odysseus’ returning home after the Trojan Wars’ summarily executed at least a dozen of his slave girls for suspected "misbehavior" during his absence. At that time’ slave girls were regarded as mere property with no rights whatsoever. As one legal commentator put it’ "the disposal of property was...a matter of expediency’ not of right and wrong."3613 In early Roman times’ prior to the introduction of Justinian law’ a father retained jus vitae necisque -- the right of life and death -- over his children. Male parents could banish or execute their children’ or sell them into slavery.3614 Children (nonadult humans) thus were not legal persons’ in our modern understanding of the term. More recently’ certain other classes of humans have had less than complete rights under American law. For instance’ in the well-known Dred Scott v. Sanford 60 U.S. (19 How.) 396 (1856) decision’ Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney spoke for the’ majority when he wrote that blacks were "a subordinate and inferior class of beings’ who had been subjugated by the dominant race." In Baily v. Poindexter's Ex'r 56 Va. (14 Gratt.) 132 (1858) a Virginia court articulated this position with even greater clarity: "So far as civil rights and relations are concerned’ the slave is not a person but a thing." Hence’ little more than a century ago in this country’ human beings of a particular race were deemed nonpersons (and therefore mere property) in the eyes of the law. Over the years the status of personhood has gradually been extended to include blacks’ women’ children’ Indians’ aliens (foreigners)’ and prisoners’ and in most recent times has come to signify any "human being." But it should be remembered that in each instance it was a long’ hard uphill battle to extend rights to any new class of entities.715 It will be no different in the case of the extraterrestrial. Furthermore’ our Constitution and most of our laws’ codes’ treaties and statutes afford fundamental rights only to "persons." Nonpersons’ such as animals’ trees’ rocks and machines’3617’1750’3622 have no rights and are treated as property. Property may not bring legal actions on its own behalf’ although the human owner of property may do so to recover his own losses.3616 (Private groups and governmental authorities can also initiate lawsuits against an owner for misuse of his property’ such as in nuisance or animal cruelty cases’ but the reparation rarely flows to the benefit of the property itself.) All persons physically present within the borders of the United States are protected by the Bill of Rights; animals’ however’ are not.3620 The distinction between animals and persons is thus of critical importance.* The strict legal definition of "animal" is: "Any living being’ not a human’ endowed with the power of voluntary motion." The ET is clearly not a member of the species Homo sapiens’ and is therefore nonhuman by definition. He does’ however’ appear capable of voluntary motion. Hence’ a rebuttable presumption of animalhood will arise; the ET will be considered a legal animal by default. There are several kinds of legal animals. Under Roman law all animals were considered ferae naturae (wild animals) -- they were regarded as common property having no owner. As the law developed’ and animals began to play more important roles in society’ the courts created a second class’ domitae naturae (domesticated animals). These were further subdivided into "generous" (of commercial value to man -- cows’ sheep’ and other herbivores) and those of "base nature" (animals not useful for work -- household dogs’ cats’ etc.).711 Domestic animals can be the subject of ownership’ and therefore can be estrays (a kind of wandering property). Estrays may be impounded as public nuisances and destroyed after 3 days if no owner makes a claim. Owning a domestic ET may entail a variety of legal risks if there is injury to third parties or property’ depending upon whether the animal had any "known dangerous propensities" or not. If not’ and if the owner had no knowledge of the potentially harmful character of the alien being’ then in most U.S. jurisdictions he can only be held liable as negligent if he failed to use due care in restraining the creature’s activities. To paraphrase an old legal adage: "Every extraterrestrial is entitled to one free bite." On the other hand’ if the ET has some "known dangerous propensity" then the owner would be held strictly liable for all harm to persons or property caused by the alien. The animal need not be vicious for this rule to apply -- if the ET is known to have a propensity for some normally harmless act which’ in a certain instance’ does cause harm for some reason’ the owner will be held strictly liable for all damages suffered by injured parties. If the alien visitor is to be regarded as an animal’ he will undoubtedly be classified as ferae naturae’ no proof of tameness or ownership being evident. A wild animal running loose on private property may be hunted’ captured or killed’ and thus reduced to personal possession (unless classified as an "endangered species"). Such an animal on federal lands is subject to the Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Commission; on state lands’ it is subject to the state’s Department of Fish and Game. Either authority may declare a "special season on said game’" (e.g.’ RCM §26-135 in Montana) or the departments themselves may destroy the animal causing damage to property. Individuals in possession of a wild animal are generally strictly liable for any damage they cause’ but there is one major and important exception. Where wild animals are kept under a public duty’ negligence on the part of the keeper must be shown. This exception applies to zoos’ common carriers’ and presumably to incarcerated ETs (if they escape). Even if the extraterrestrial is somehow regarded as being tame’ his position is not much improved. The fact that’ animal cruelty laws exist in virtually all states710 does not alter the creature’s basic rightlessness.3601 For instance’ a surgical operation’ even though it produces the most intense pain and suffering’ may be justifiable and noncriminal if the operation is necessary to make the animal useful to man. So the castration of a young horse or bull is not considered to fall within the rules prohibiting cruelty to animals. And most cruelty statutes traditionally exclude invertebrate animals (e.g.’ Cruelty to Animals Act of 1876’ Great Britian). If the ET resembles a cross between a sea scorpion and a grasshopper’ he will have no legal protection whatsoever.

* The "guardianship model" recently proposed by Joyce S. Tischler would grant each nonhuman "rights consistent with its interests". Members of other species would not have equal rights with humans (they could be more or less) but would be "entitled to equal consideration based on their individual characteristics’ their interest in life and their corollary interests in food’ care’ and maintenance." 2708

26.3.2 Legal Standards of Personhood The whole idea of treating the extraterrestrial visitor to our world as an animal may seem outrageous to many at first’ but this is the letter’ if not the spirit’ of the law.2130 We’ve seen that human beings have often been denied the elementary status of personhood. (It should come as no surprise that in the 13th century’ a law was passed in England proclaiming humans of the Jewish faith to be "men ferae naturae’ protected by a quasi-forest law. Like the roe and the deer’ they form an order apart."3615) Can we seriously expect better for aliens? What is man? More broadly’ what characteristics set persons apart from all other entities?819’3623 Ultimately’ and in a legal sense’ who we choose to give standing in our system of law is a basic policy decision. That is’ to whom do we’ as a society’ want to give legal rights to? Assuming we have decided that it is a good policy to grant ETs personhood (as it was a good policy for blacks’ women’ children’ and Jews)’ what is the best way to implement this policy? The question is not an easy one (it has been debated for centuries3618)’ primarily because the law has never had the occasion to devise a precise definition of "person." When pressed’ modern jurists must admit they don’t know what a person really is. For example’ the usual definition of person is "human being." But in light of modern technology this is wholly inadequate. Is a human with a pacemaker a "human being"? How about someone with two artificial legs and an artificial kidney? And what shall we say of the decapitated head maintained by artificial blood and electronic artificial neural circuitry’ perched atop a powerful humanoid robotic body? Or full human clones or androids?3619 How much human biology must be present to qualify as a person? The human genome is no better a measure of personhood. Each human has perhaps 30’000 distinct gene loci’ and a great deal of variation can occur at each site. Geneticists estimate that each of us carries about a dozen lethal recessive defective genes which’ if paired with themselves (as in a clone)’ would cause instant death. And studies have shown that about 1% of all newborns have more or less than the normal 46 human chromosomes. Since none of us has a "perfect" genome’ how far from the "average" genome should we draw the line of personhood? Should we include people with cystic fibrosis’ PKU’ or sickle cell anemia? How about Down's Syndrome mongoloids? Or E trisomic elves (malformed skull’ webbed toes’ crumpled ears’ club foot’ elfin head shape’ simian creases in the palms of the hands)? Under current law even the most grossly deformed infant is considered a person’ so where do we draw the line in the case of ETs? If biological form is a poor measure of personhood’ what about feeling? Jeremy Bentham once suggested that the ability to feel pain should be the touchstone of legal rights.3561 John W. Campbell’ Jr. asserted that it was emotionality that made men human.1362 Both of these definitions fail because they sweep too wide. It is generally accepted that most mammals feel pain’ and most are emotional to varying degrees due to the presence of the limbic structure in the brain’ the hallmark of their evolution. Surely the titmouse and the bunny rabbit are not legal persons? Rationality’ by itself’ is likewise insufficient’ to qualify an entity for personhood. Dolphins and whales’ elephants’ dogs’ pigs and many other animals are able to demonstrate surprisingly high intelligence in certain situations. The early belief that animals cannot reason is now widely rejected -- yet the law still doesn’t consider them legal persons. Yet infants and viable fetuses’ drugged people’ and the insane or the retarded are all considered persons’ even though their mental faculties may be negligible or nonexistent. About all we can say is that some degree of intelligence is perhaps a necessary’ but not sufficient’ condition for personhood. Possession and utilization of technology is not good enough either. Chimpanzees have long been known to use sticks’ leaves ant other objects as tools for feeding’ cleaning’ and bedmaking’ and to make tools’ such as when one chimp piled several boxes atop one another to construct a staircase to reach a banana fastened to the roof of its cage. Even high technology (e.g.’ starships) cannot conclusively establish either intelligence or personhood. A race of ant-like group-mind creatures could conceivably develop a complex technology without any single member possessing independent intelligence. The concept of individuality lies closer to the heart of personality. One characteristic which may be very important to all legal persons is the ability to communicate.613 Science fiction writers have often seized upon this characteristic in determining the legal rights of ETs. For instance’ from a story by Philip Jose Farmer we have: Terrestrial law maintained that the illegal killing of any member of a species capable of verbal symbolism was murder.3563 Or’ from one of Robert Heinlein’s novels’ the "Cygnus Decision": Beings possessed of speech and manipulation must be presumed to be sentient and therefore to have innate human rights’ unless conclusively proved otherwise.3007 Despite the fact that chimpanzees have demonstrated the ability to manipulate linguistic symbols’3004’3624 few animals other than man have can do this. All animals can communicate in one way or another’ but only a handful can manipulate abstract symbols that represent intangibles. Of course’ in all such definitions we must avoid such terms as "speech" in favor of "communication." That is’ we must avoid sensory chauvinism -- it is easy to imagine a race of highly sentient but mute electrosensitive or osmic aliens who use nonsonic "speech" to talk among themselves. Three other bases for personality are frequently asserted in the literature’ all of which have a certain measure of validity in the context of extraterrestrial rights. The first of these’ suggested by physicist G.J. Whitrow’ is timebinding: It seems that all animals except man live in a continual present. Unlike animals’ man has a sense not only of the past but also of the future. We now have abundant evidence that our sense of these temporal distinctions is one of the most important mental faculties distinguishing men from all other living creatures.1847 Whitrow then goes on to point out that the burial practices of Neanderthal and earlier humanlike creatures in our ancestry show that these beings were timebinding too and’ therefore’ presumably entitled to be considered as persons. The evidence on chimpanzees and other animals is unclear on this point’ but it does not seem likely that human society would wish to bestow the rights and responsibilities of personhood upon any sentient being that had no conception of past or future. The second oft-cited basis for personhood is self-reference’ self-awareness or "self-consciousness." For instance’ philosopher Joseph Margolis of Temple University writes that: Persons may be roughly distinguished as sentient beings capable of the use of language and of self-reference; they are normally embodied in specimens of Homo sapiens but may’ in principle’ be embodied in electronic gear or’ as Martians or dolphins or chimpanzees’ the evidence permitting’ in other biological forms.3562 According to Michael Tooley’ research scholar at the Australian National University’ an organism is a person’ possessing a serious right to life’ when it is able to conceptualize about its own "self as a continuing subject of experiences and other mental states."3560 Elsewhere’ Tooley applies his reasoning directly to the question of ETs: What properties would an extraterrestrial being have to possess in order to be a person? The answer I have offered here is that it would have to be a conscious being possessing both the capacity for self-consciousness and the capacity for having desires about its continued existence. ... Intelligence is not essential to the concept of a person. ... An extraterrestrial being need not be alive [in the biological sense] in order to count as a person. There might be conditions under which we would attribute consciousness’ self-consciousness and a desire for continued existence to robots that had been manufactured by some extraterrestrial intelligence’ even though the robots in question had no capacity to repair or reproduce themselves.1940 A similar test was proposed in 1953 by the French writer Jean Bruller. In his own words: In nature’ a small difference in quantity can produce a total change in quality. For instance’ when heating water’ you can add more and more calories without the water changing its state. And then’ at a given moment’ one single degree is enough for it to pass from the liquid state to the gaseous one. Is not that what has occurred with our forebears' intelligence? The difference between the Neanderthal man’s intelligence and a great ape’s can't have been much in the way of quantity. But it made a vast difference to their relationship to nature: the animal continued to submit to it; man suddenly started to question it. Now’ in order to question there must be two of you -- the one who questions’ and the one who is questioned. Intimately bound up with nature’ the animal cannot question it. The animal is one with nature’ while man and nature make two. To pass from passive consciousness to questioning consciousness’ there had to be that schism’ that divorce’ there had to be that wrenching away from nature. Is not that precisely the borderline? Animal before the wrench’ man after it? De-natured animals’ that’s what we are.1553 The Bruller Test’ then’ would require that the ET demonstrate some form of self awareness before it could receive the protection of our laws. (See also Green2163 and Silverberg.2176) The third major basis for personhood that has appeared in the literature is grounded in the capacity for ethical behavior. Dr. Roland Puccetti’ Professor of Philosophy at the University of Singapore’ has proposed that we should equate "legal-persons" with "moral persons." Says he: "Persons are always moral agents and vice versa."71 The Puccetti Test thus asks the following of the extraterrestrial: Can he take a moral attitude? Alternatively’ is he capable of making moral judgements? If so’ if he possesses some system of ethics’ Puccetti would classify him as a moral and legal person and extend the rights and responsibilities of our laws to him. A similar suggestion has been made by John Rawls in his book A Theory of Justice: Moral persons are entitled to equal justice. Moral persons are distinguished by two features: first they are capable of having a conception of their good; and second they are capable of having a sense of justice’ a normally effective desire to apply and to act upon the principles of justice.2584 In conclusion’ then’ there are four major qualities which xenologists believe may adequately characterize a "person": 1. Symbolic communication; 2. Time binding; 3. Self-awareness; and 4. Ethical behavior. The author would like to toss his hat into the ring with his own definition of legal personality. It is a three-part test which incorporates most of the important aspects of the above. To be considered a legal person’ an extraterrestrial being must demonstrate the following intellectual characteristics: 1. Temporal Relativity -- "there are other times’ than now"; 2. Spatial Relativity -- "there are other places than here"; and 3. Sociocultural Relativity -- "there are other societies than mine." The first requirement ensures that the alien will view itself as temporally distinct from the environment’50 and so will have some notion of causation and consequences of acts. The second requirement ensures that the ET sees itself as physically distinct from the environment’ with an awareness of self’ individuality’ and therefore of the selves of others. Such a being should have that degree of empathy necessary or an understanding of legal systems. The third requirement guarantees that the creature will have some concept of cultures generally’ rather than merely of his own. This should lead to the social and ethical relativism needed for alien beings to live together in peace and harmony. Individuals who can conceive of no other mode of social ordering than their own are "barbarians’" wholly unable to understand the diversity of human society’ and therefore should not be entitled to the rights and responsibilities of human law. Since all three requirements by their very nature embrace conceptions of the abstract and the external’ and since all sentient beings will be able to communicate in some fashion’ possession of all three characteristics should ensure that all beings classified as legal persons are also capable of symbolic communication.

26.3.3 Extraterrestrial Persons In ancient and medieval times’ as well as in primitive tribal states’ the general tendency was always to view the foreigner as an outlaw’ a criminal’ or an enemy. The jus gentium (the equitable law of nations) originated by the Romans’ and the unity of all humans promoted by Christianity ("You shall have but one law for alien and native alike." Leviticus xxiv. 22)’ helped to encourage an attitude of greater universality. But it was not until modern times that the legal alien acquired significant rights under law. As far as basic rights for the extraterrestrial visitor are concerned’ once he has been declared a legal person he has crossed the most fundamental juridic threshold.404’4634 Our Constitution speaks of the rights of "people" and "persons’" and the 14th Amendment extends this mantle of protection into state jurisdictions as well. Hence’ any person physically present within the borders of our country will be protected by the basic Bill of Rights -- whether citizen’ alien’ or extraterrestrial.* This’ however’ does not tell the whole story’ for there are many different kinds of legal persons under American law. As far as the specifics of classification are concerned’ there are a variety of ways judicially to view the ET. For example’ he might possibly be considered a refugee. A refugee is a technically stateless person -- he is neither citizen (or national) nor subject of any foreign government on Earth.3564 One definition of the refugee goes as follows: "Any person uprooted from his home’ who has crossed a frontier -- natural or artificial -- and looks for protection and sustenance to a government other than his former one."709’3611 In a crash-landing Surprise Contact situation’ this would seem to fit the extraterrestrial rather well. In many foreign countries’ where the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons is operative’ refugees are guaranteed minimal legal rights commensurate with those held by foreign nationals. In the United States’ however’ even stateless persons are protected by the Bill of Rights. Another way the ET may be viewed is as an alien’ defined as "any person owing allegiance to a foreign government." The home planet of the extraterrestrial is certainly "foreign’" in a very broad sense’ so this classification probably makes more sense in the typical Direct or Surprise Contact scenario. There are several kinds of aliens. An illegal alien is one who has entered the country illegally’ without passing through the normal channels of admission (i.e.’ the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service’ under the Department of Justice). The extraterrestrial has certainly made an illegal entry’ so theoretically should be immediately subject to deportation proceedings.** According to the detailed provisions set forth in 8 U.S.C. §1182’ numerous general classes of persons may be excluded from entering the country. These include aliens who are mentally retarded or insane’ of poor "moral character"’ or afflicted with "psychopathic personality’" or who are drug addicts. Other excludable classes are aliens afflicted with any dangerous contagious diseases’ aliens who practice or advocate polygamy’ aliens who are likely at any time to become public charges’ aliens who are stowaways’ aliens who are anarchists’ aliens "over 16 years of age’ physically capable of reading’ who cannot read and understand some language or dialect’" and aliens who at any time have encouraged or assisted any other alien to enter or try to enter the United States illegally. Clearly there are many problems with each of these restrictions from the extraterrestrial perspective’ and a decision to "deport" the ET would create more problems than it would solve. Another kind of alien is the alien enemy (a citizen of some hostile foreign power). If the President proclaims that the landing of the ET is a prelude to (or represents a serious threat of) invasion and war’ he is authorized under 50 U.S.C. §21 to order a federal marshal to "apprehend’ restrain’ secure and remove" all alien enemies. This course of action seems unlikely in the extreme’ since the creature should already be in government’ custody and’ in a practical sense’ cannot be "removed." If war must be declared’ there is another little-known class of aliens in international law known as friendly enemies. Says one jurist: "A belligerent State is free to exempt enemy nationals or certain classes of them from the treatment applied’ to persons vested with enemy character."2105 A way around the immigration problem is to classify the ET as an essential alien. 50 U.S.C. §403(h) provides that’ with the Director of the CIA’ the Attorney General’ and the Commissioner of Immigration’ any alien deemed "essential to the furtherance of the national intelligence mission" or vital to the interests of national security may be admitted for permanent residence (and ultimately naturalization and citizenship) without regard to admission procedures. This would seem quite possible in the case of the extraterrestrial’ since a major foreign policy consideration will be the creature’s advanced technology. Any nation on Earth in possession of the visitor and his hardware would theoretically gain a significant psychological and military advantage. The creature might also be classified simply as an alien amy -- a friendly alien. Although this normally requires proper immigration’ there are several ways to get around this rule. Alien crewmen of foreign vessels’ and aliens in transit’ are exempt because their stay in this country is very temporary. Or’ if the ET visitor is viewed as having entered the country for "business or pleasure’" or as a "bona fide student’ scholar’ specialist’ or leader in a field of specialized knowledge or skill’" he is again exempt from the normal immigration proceedings by 8 U.S.C. §1101 as a visiting alien. Another alternative to the "alien" approach is the possibility of granting ambassadorial status to the extraterrestrial. As a full diplomat’ the ET would serve as the representative of his own government while on Earth. Diplomats have full immunity from prosecution in American courts. Or the ET may be seen only as a consul’ a mere commercial agent for his government’ entitling him to fewer immunities. Normally’ however’ there must be diplomatic reciprocity before a foreign envoy of any kind is afforded ambassadorial rank. Since we would know little or nothing of the extraterrestrial’s government’ such unilateral diplomatic relations seem problematical. Still’ it is a fact that the President of the United States (and his designatees) are our sole representatives in dealing with foreign nations. The Constitutional power of the Chief. Executive to receive ambassadors and to recognize foreign governments is considered by many scholars to be virtually unlimited and exclusive. Presumably there would be no legal bar if the President chose to recognize the ET and his government’ sight unseen; neither Congress nor the Judiciary could complain. Executive discretion is absolute in this matter’ and this author would suggest that this technique is probably one of the better legal alternatives open to us. Yet another option is available. The. Naturalization Clause of the U.S. Constitution expressly authorizes Congress to prescribe rules by which aliens may secure full citizenship. It is settled that Congressional authority is not limited to general rules governing the manner in which individuals are naturalized. There is nothing to prevent the grant of American citizenship to named persons by special act. For instance’ in 1963 Congress passed 77 Stat. 5’ which declared Sir Winston Churchill an "honorary citizen" of the United States. This procedure does not necessitate the swearing of the oath of citizenship normally required of all naturalized aliens’ nor does it require the renunciation of "all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince’ potentate’ state’ or sovereignty’ of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen."713 Thus the ET granted honorary United States citizen status could retain his extraterrestrial nationality’ a rather unique kind of "dual citizenship." Additionally’ the naturalization power extends to provisions for collective naturalization of whole populations of legal persons. Thus did Congress provide for the collective citizenship of the citizens of Hawaii when that territory was annexed. The power can also be exercised with respect to particular classes’ races’ or’ presumably’ any sentient species or other worlds over which jurisdiction can be secured. For example’ the American Indians were not considered U.S. citizens until Congress provided by statute that native-born Indians should be citizens at birth. In similar fashion an entire species or society of extraterrestrials could be granted full’ partial’ or honorary citizenship in the United States. As a last resort’ Congress certainly has the legal authority to create a special juridical class to be called "extraterrestrial persons." It would then have to be decided exactly which rights and responsibilities the ETs should possess.

* In cases of "pressing public necessity"’ even citizens can be summarized incarcerated in camps". See Korematsu v. U.S. 323 U.S. 214 (1944). ** If the ET gives birth in the United States and is itself deemed a "person"’ its offspring could be deemed full U.S. citizens.

26.3.4 Aliens and American Law What we want to look at here is exactly how the ET would be treated under American law. That is’ assuming the aliens’ after contacting us’ come here in droves to visit our planet and perhaps even to reside here for various lengths of time. Obviously some laws would have to be passed for the specific purpose of making a disposition of their legal rights in our society. The classification of "extraterrestrial person" may not include all the rights’ duties’ or implications of the legal "person’" "alien’" or "citizen" in our system. The ET person will have a unique legal character all its own. If beings from other worlds come to live among us’ then how will they be affected by our criminal laws? Let's consider a specific example. For humans the most serious crime is homicide. Most statutes define the corpus delicti of this offense as having two elements: (1) The killing of a human being’ and (2) death ensues as a proximate result of the criminal acts of another human being. In the case of the extraterrestrial creature’ it does not appear that the corpus delicti for criminal homicide can be met. Criminal laws are always strictly construed under American law’ especially in felony cases’ and in favor of the accused.403 Even if an ET is deemed a legal person’ it is not a "human being" any more than are "corporate persons’" "municipal persons’" counties’ estates of dead people’ or similar artificial persons. Therefore’ if a man kills the alien visitor he is not guilty of murder since no human being has died’ as Assistant Attorney General Norbert A. Schlei stated to a radio audience in 1963: Since criminal laws are usually construed strictly’ it is doubtful that laws against homicide would apply to the killing of intelligent’ manlike creatures alien to this planet’ unless such creatures were members of the human species. Whether killing these creatures would violate other criminal laws -- for instance’ the laws against cruelty to animals or disorderly conduct -- would ordinarily depend on the laws of the particular state in which the killing occurred.1623 Conversely’ if an alien visitor kills a man there is again no murder since death did not occur as a consequence of the acts of another human being. If two ETs kill each other there is again no basis for imposing American homicide laws’ unless Congress defines an "extraterrestrial person" to be a "human being" for the purposes of the criminal law. Similar problems arise in connection with the crime of rape. The common law definition of the offense goes as follows: "The unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman by a man forcibly and against her will." But "woman" is defined as a female member of the human species’ "man" as a male of the human species. Hence’ since the criminal law is strictly construed’ no extraterrestrial nonhuman being can be the perpetrator or the victim of rape. Again’ this is true in spite of the classification of the ET as a legal person’ since all legal persons are not exactly equivalent to human beings. But even if the female in question does give her consent and no force is used’ the human member of the couple is guilty of bestiality or "buggery" (copulation with a nonhuman of the opposite sex) and may be prosecuted under state sodomy statutes -- which usually carry rather extreme penalties.* The ET is this case gets off scot free’ since nonhumans cannot presently be guilty of any crime. A number of new crimes may have to be defined to cover the special case of the extraterrestrial person. First’ and perhaps most obvious’ would be the crime of xenocide -- the killing of a sentient nonhuman being by any legal person (natural’ corporate’ or extraterrestrial). Xenocide of the first degree would involve malice aforethought on the part of the perpetrator of the deed; xenocide of the second degree would not.** (The crime of homicide would also have to be upgraded to include killing of human beings by an extraterrestrial person.) If the alien beings have no personalized sentience but each entity is part of a group mind which is deemed’ collectively’ an extraterrestrial person’ then the killing of any individual member of the group mind might be termed semicide. Like mayhem or battery’ the criminal activity is directed only to a part of the person's "body." Lawmakers may wish to invoke legal sanctions against those who engage in interspecies sexual relations. Humans are already covered by sodomy statutes; for the sentient nonhuman the equivalent offense might be called homosexus -- sexual activity of any kind by an ET with a human being. More specific versions of the crime are likely to be legislated -- adulterous homosexus’ copulatory homosexus’ oral homosexus’ and so forth. (Further variations in human/nonhuman sexual relations’ complicated by the endless possibilities of exotic alien physiology’ are left to the imagination of the reader.) Laws may also be passed to prohibit xenogamy’ the unlawful marriage between a human being and a nonhuman sentient creature.*** These rules may be modeled after the old miscegenation statutes which are now obsolete in this country. Depending on the characteristics and abilities of the ET visitors’ a whole set of peculiar crimes might have to be established which have little or no analog in human law. For instance’ imagine a race of sentient extraterrestrial amphibians capable of regenerating in a short time various body parts and appendages -- fingers’ hands’ legs’ and so forth. In their society’ it might be the custom to nibble part of the bodies of one’s acquaintances to demonstrate affinity’ especially when one is hungry. The bigger the bite’ the deeper the friendship. Human beings’ unable to regenerate lost parts’ undoubtedly would want to define this behavior as a crime when practiced on people. Hence we might have a crime called petit cannibalism’ the partial consumption of a human being by another sentient being. Or consider the unusual creatures devised by science fiction writer Robert Sheckley in his short story "The Monsters."3566 Among these oviparous intelligent beings’ married females lay at least one egg each day’ which hatches in a ratio of eight females to one male. Since destroying eggs is a poor genetic strategy’ and female infanticide would rob society of its primary workforce (unmarried females)’ the only way to hold down population is uxoricide. In the story’ all wives must be killed after 25 days of marriage. Were such beings to come to Earth and live among us’ we too would have an interest in the control of their numbers. This being the case’ and respecting their needs as different from our own’ we might be willing to pass a law defining vivuxory -- allowing one's wife to live -- applicable to these ETs only. Countless other unique crimes may readily be imagined. Forcible morphogenesis would involve physically altering another sentient being against its wishes’ perhaps using genetically tailored viruses or special "trigger" pheromones. Involuntary vility would be the crime of exposing one’s true alien appearance to the general public’ if that appearance is so shockingly and horribly ugly as to cause fainting spells’ heart seizures’ riots or hysteria among the human onlookers. A crime for telepathic aliens would be telerape’ consisting of unlawful empathic mindreading of the mind of one partner of a married human couple’ without their consent’ while they are having sex. All charges of criminal conduct are subject to defenses which may be asserted to relieve the accused of liability for his acts. As perhaps might be expected’ a variety of unusual defenses may exist in the cases where extraterrestrial beings are involved’ such as the ex post facto defense illustrated by Bruller.1553 However’ it should be pointed out at this point that the one defense popularly expected to apply to ETs -- ignorance (or mistake) of the law -- generally is no defense to criminal acts. This is a long-established rule of jurisprudence: Criminal intent requires only a showing that the accused intended to perform the prohibited activity’ not that he knew it was illegal. A traditional defense to crime is lack of capacity. The plea of insanity is the most common variant. Under the majority M’Naghten Rule’ criminal acts committed by an alien being could be excused if the ET was "unable to understand the nature of his act" or’ if he knew what he was doing’ that he "lacked the capacity to distinguish whether his act was right or wrong." Lack of capacity may also be proved by a showing of feeblemindedness’ as where the intelligence level of the extraterrestrial actor is significantly below the human norm’ for whatever reason’ at the time the crime was committed. Perhaps the most fascinating question in this area is whether or not sociobiology565 can be raised as a valid defense in a criminal prosecution. That is’ should alien beings be held accountable for biologically predetermined or preconditioned behavioral patterns? For instance’ it would seem that trisexual creatures (having three distinct genders necessary for reproduction) should be excused of the crime of bigamy. Another example: Intelligent beings having a physiology similar to that of the common mole (Antichinus stuarti) might have a brief but concentrated rutting season. Shortly after copulation a sudden surge of hormones kills the male’ leaving more resources for the gravid female of the species. Although having sex is tantamount to suicide for the male’ his reproductive biology forces him to do it. Should this not be a complete defense to the crime of suicide? And what of a sentient alien race patterned after the Adelie penguins of Antarctica’1028 who are sociobiologically predisposed to steal? Will this excuse them of the crime of larceny? It is not entire clear whether courts would accept sociobiology as a full defense to criminal acts. Claims of compulsion and coercion generally are not allowed as defenses if the compulsion derives from some natural (i.e.’ biological) characteristic. Or’ drawing another analogy from the defense of intoxication’ chronic alcoholics or narcotics addicts are still responsible for crimes they commit while under the influence’ even though addiction is now widely regarded as a medical condition to which some people may be more susceptible than others. On the other hand’ the defense of insanity or feeblemindedness may successfully be raised-when the perpetrator is suffering from an hereditary (genetic) disability. This is’ in a sense’ a sociobiological defense. Courts have so far rejected insanity pleas-based on the XYY chromosome defect (the extra Y chromosome supposedly causing antisocial behavior). However’ there is evidence that the judiciary might be willing to allow this defense if there existed scientific evidence tying the genetic defect into the accepted tests for insanity.

Figure 26.1 A Jury of One's Peers?3621

"Your Honor, the defense contends its client could never get a fair trial in this court."

The legal difficulties created by extraterrestrials living on Earth in close proximity to human beings will be pervasive and diverse including major questions in such areas of the law as torts’ conflicts of law’ evidence’ family law’ wills’ and property law (Figure 26.1). Toni M. Mattis’ a California paralegal’ suggested a few of the problems that might emerge in the law of contracts. If an alien visitor were approached by a literary agent’ asked Mattis’ could he enter into a legally binding contract to write his autobiography? The legal issues include: Capacity -- A contract with a minor or mental defective is not usually binding. A person with knowledge or intelligence inferior to that of a "reasonable man" can’t sign a valid contract. If the alien were significantly less intelligent than the agent’ he might not have the capacity to contract. If the agent were less intelligent’ he (and all humans) would be incapable of contracting with an alien. Mistake -- A contract is invalid if the parties are mistaken about its terms. The sale of a stud bull was once declared invalid because it was sterile’ a "bull in name only." An alien is almost guaranteed to be mistaken about the terms of a human contract. He might lack some human senses (e.g.’ recall the story of the blind men and the elephant)’ or he might possess superior senses which would give him irrelevant data. In any case’ cultural differences would impede communications. Consideration -- An alien is unlikely to be collecting greenbacks. He may want his royalties paid in something valueless to humans (e.g.’ dog droppings or ragweed)’ excessively valuable (Brazil)’ illegal to obtain (the firstborn children of Akron)’ or nonexistent (filet of unicorn).3567

* As recently as 1953’ eight states still provided a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. 2486 ** The crime of homicide would have to be upgraded to include killing of human beings by any legal persons. *** What would be the legal status of the issue of an ET/human mating’ if this were biologically possible’ if the family were to remain on Earth?1528

26.4 Human Sociocultural Response What will be the effects on human society when first contact with extraterrestrials takes place? Most writers’ drawing upon the record of the European expeditions of conquest and colonization of African’ Central American’ Indian and aboriginal populations’ automatically expect the worst. Carl Jung once wrote: In a direct confrontation with superior creatures from another world’ the reins would be torn from our hands and we would’ as a tearful old medicine man once said to me’ find ourselves "without dreams’" that is’ we would find our intellectual and spiritual aspirations so outmoded as to leave us completely paralysed.1920 For example’ Mircea Eliade has described the wanderings of a group of Australian aborigines who always carried with them a pole which was planted in the middle of each new settlement to constitute "the center of the world." When missionaries arrived’ they confiscated the pole to help cure the natives of their heathen superstitions. The tribe soon withered away and died’ its collective belief structure shattered.3584 Perhaps the discovery of the existence of ETs similarly may collapse our basic human cultural paradigms by jolting mankind’s common anthropocentric delusion that we are the center of the universe. According to the Brookings Institute Report on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs in 1961: Anthropological files contain many examples of societies’ sure of their place in the universe’ which have disintegrated when they had to associate with previously unfamiliar societies espousing different ideas and different life ways; others that survived such an experience usually did so by paying the price of changes in values and attitudes and behavior.1336 There is some dissent from this position’ however. The English historian Arnold Toynbee believed that the rise of civilization was not a matter of racial’ historical’ or environmental differences’ but rather was due to a people's response to a challenge in a situation of special difficulty and hardship that rouses them to make an unprecedented effort. Under this theory’ difficult rather than easy conditions would prompt men to cultural achievement; an encounter with beings from space thus might be expected to trigger a cultural rebirth’ a new renaissance’ a great flowering of human civilization -- not its collapse. Even more interesting are the ideas of the Canadian-born American historian William H. McNeill. According to McNeill’ a people rise to civilization as a response to the threat of force from alien societies. The mobilization in the face of this threat is often accompanied or followed by an absorption of the aliens’ technology’ institutions’ and ideas. In McNeill's own words: The history of civilized mankind can be considered largely as a product of the progressive breakdown of this isolation. When habit and custom’ formalized into institutions’ written into law’ and supported by religious beliefs’ are not exposed to the challenge offered by alien ideas’ techniques’ and manners’ no very important changes in the sacred ancestral ways are likely to occur. But’ when contact with aliens becomes extensive’ something has to be done. Sometimes it is possible to reject the new as unholy; ... sometimes alien ways recommend themselves and are willingly adopted because they seem to offer practical or aesthetic advantages. Most often in history’ however’ what makes most powerfully for social change is the application of force. Alien ways can always be brought urgently to the attention of a people when the bearers of those ways are militarily powerful and threaten raids or conquest.3585 The historian admits that culture contact may prove harmful more often than not’ but still maintains that these risks are necessary if sociocultural evolution is to occur:. The argument does not imply that every collision between peoples with alien ways of life leads to a superior blending and recombination of elements. Such is of course not the case. Failures and abortions are probably far more usual than successful recombinations’ though’ almost by definition’ the failures bulk far less large in our historical records. But I do suggest that contact with alien ideas and manners provided the mainspring for historical development through most of the recorded past. Without such contact’ whether peaceable or violent’ men would not have been stimulated to change their ancestral patterns of life; the rate of social evolution would certainly have been vastly slower.3585

26.4.1 The Acculturation of Humanity Anthropologists have made a careful study of the problems and processes involved when two alien cultures enter into contact with each other. In a Remote Contact’ when communication is limited to’ say’ data transmitted on radio waves with a lengthy time delay (decades’ centuries’ even millennia)’ most of cultural change takes place by way of diffusion. Diffusion is simply "the spreading of culture elements and complexes from one society to another."888 Diffusion is inevitable when peoples of diverse cultures are in contact’ whether that contact is friendly or hostile’ direct or through the medium of intermediate societies. Diffusion is generally considered a rather slow process -- new elements are fitted into the existing framework’ a kind of cultural jigsaw puzzle’ often with considerable modification in the process.3598 Since the 1930's many anthropologists have become interested in culture contact situations that involve’ not the mere adapting of new elements to the existing cultural framework’ but rather the significant and rapid restructuring of one or both of the cultures in contact. Xenologists have found such studies give much needed insight into the possible effects on human society of a Direct Contact with sentient extraterrestrial beings. Since travel’ commerce’ and even tourism between the stars should be a simple matter for Type II stellar and Type III galactic civilizations (the societies most likely to send visitors to Earth)’ xenologists believe it is important to study the kind of rapid change that can result from continuous physical encounters between alien races and humanity. This process has been called acculturation by anthropologists and social scientists.1765 A number of important variables are determinative of the process’ extent’ and rate of acculturation. According to specialists in the field’ there are a number of primary factors: 1. Power. Culture contact may be marked by equal or unequal social dominance of the communities involved. In a situation of unequal dominance one of the parties controls by force or some other kind of power a disproportionate number of the responses made by the subordinate community. In equal dominance the relationship is between peers. 2. Mutual Respect. Culture contact may be marked by varying degrees of mutual appreciation. At one extreme is a situation in which each party respects the way of life of the other. If one is larger in scale and possesses greater social power and more knowledge’ these resources are used not autocratically but to help the other party develop in whatever direction the latter chooses. Such a relationship exists as the ideal in colonial policy. At the opposite extreme one community is interested primarily in exploiting the other. The situation is marked by fear’ rivalry’ or ethnocentrism. Neither values the other's language. Change is regarded either as something to be avoided at all costs or as necessary in order to eradicate an unwholesome way of life. 3. Hostility. Acculturation that is hostile features not only violence but also discrimination and rejection. In the western United States during the Second World War American-born Japanese experienced considerable prejudice from local Americans. After they migrated to Chicago they entered a situation of 1ow discrimination that seemingly fostered a high rate of cultural borrowing. 4. Regulation. Controlled acculturation means that the culture contact situation is regulated deliberately. The purpose of such regulation is to govern the rate of change and maintain a fairly high degrees of general persistence or stability. The rules may be formulated by the subordinate community [in a Direct Contact’ that's us] by any other party involved. The joint agreement between the United States and Canada to build radar stations and airstrips in far northern Canada contains a provision that "all contact with Eskimo’ other than those whose employment on any aspect of the project is approved’ is to be avoided except in cases of emergency."890 5. Cultural Difference. The extent to which cultures in contact differ in technology’ ideology and values’ social structure’ and so on will play an important role in acculturation. 6. Intensity. Contacts may involve a few selected representatives of one or both cultures’ or may involve colonization and massive contact. Are the persons in contact missionaries’ traders’ government officials’ of high or low social status? To what extent is the flow of innovations one way or reciprocal? These variables may change through time when contacts are prolonged’ and the nature of acculturation will vary accordingly.888 In general’ we would expect. the most ethical Contacts to be marked by (at least apparently) equal power’ mutual respect’ lack of hostility’ close regulation’ minimal cultural differences’ and the lowest feasible intensity of contact. But of course we have no guarantees that all contacts with humanity will be properly managed to maintain the highest possible ethical content. According to Ralph L. Beals and Harry Hoijer of UCLA’ depending upon the variables mentioned above’ several kinds of processes may occur during culture contact between humanity and an alien race. Several may be operative at the same time: Substitution -- a new trait or complex of traits that substitutes for pre-existing traits and performs the same functions may be adopted. Structural change is minimal. Addition -- new traits’ complexes’ or institutions may not replace existing elements but may be added to them. Significant structural change may or may not be involved. Syricretism -- new and old traits may be blended to form a new system or subsystem. Structural change is apt to be considerable. Deculturation -- contacts may cause loss of part of the culture without replacement. For example’ on the economic level’ substitution of pre-made goods may cause loss of technology; imposition of exterior governmental authority may cause loss of institutions or functions. Origination -- new structures that do not have obvious roots in either culture are invented to meet changing needs. Rejection -- the changes demanded may be so great or so rapid that a large number of individuals cannot accept them. Efforts are made to resist change. In extreme form’ rejection may be accompanied by high rates of abortion and infanticide’ attempts to return to the past’ rebellions’ and religious movements involving supernatural support or sanctions. The irrational content of large-scale rejective movements often is high.888 Anthropologists have identified end-states of cultural contact when dissimilar communities interact. In the case of a Direct Contact’ humanity may find itself in one of the following four "terminal processes": 1. Social Extermination -- Extermination comes to socially subordinate communities’ especially those which seek to resist a more powerful invader by force. Others may be destroyed by the ravages of disease or by internal wars fought with newly acquired military hardware. One culture loses membership until it can no longer function. 2. Stabilized Pluralism -- One culture loses full independence but persists as a subculture’ forming a caste’ class’ or plural society. Cultural borrowing is regulated’ and the origination of change is stabilized. The subordinate society isolates itself as much as possible from interaction with the socially dominant community’ allowing it to preserve a large portion of its own cultural heritage. 3. Symbiosis -- Two or more communities may be brought into a state of complex interdependence as a result of culture contact. Each society becomes specialized in a different direction but finds itself dependent on the roles or services provided by the other. A new internal and external structural equilibrium is achieved. Selective change may continue’ but at a slower pace. Specialized elements may be compartmentalized’ new structures added without abandonment of the old. 4. Assimilation -- Also known as merger or fusion. The two cultures become indistinguishable and in time form a single culture. Assimilation is favored by five specific conditions. First’ the interacting parties should have considerable similarity and compatibility between linguistic and other cultural elements. Second’ at least one party should be ready to learn from the other. Third’ contacts’ both direct and mediated’ must be frequent between parties. Fourth’ assimilation is rewarded (by employment’ promotion’ higher income’ security’ or prestige). Fifth’ symbols and rituals should express unity in place of emphasizing social distinctions.890 Applying the above to the situation of a Direct Contact between humans and aliens’ the worst thing that could happen to us is social extermination. Since most or all of the weaker culture’s heritage is lost’ this alternative represents tremendous information waste and hence is maximally unethical according to our universal standards of first contact. Unfortunately’ xenologists cannot guarantee that extinction may not occur. Assimilation is somewhat more ethical’ as some of the cultural data contained in the subordinate society is preserved. But the thermoethical arguments against colonization and imperialism apply here: Imposition of the cultural elements of one group upon another destroy a functioning sociocultural paradigm which decreases the ability of the living universe (taken as a whole) to process survival information. Similarly symbiosis’ in which humanity becomes dependent upon an alien society for its livelihood and well-being’ represents the partial loss of various aspects of the human survival paradigm. Information is lost’ hence is unethical. The best we can hope for is some form of stabilized pluralism’ in which humanity is permitted to retain most of its present structure and institutions’ with careful infusions of small bits and pieces of the alien culture over a long period of time. While we'll lack full independence’ change will be sufficiently regulated to allow us to retain most of our own cultural heritage and to continue evolving in our own unique way.

Table 26.3 Patterns of Acculturation as a Function of Coercion and Cultural Similarity (after Rothstein3369) Level of Authority and Coercion Low Coercion

Low Cultural Similarity Coexisting Dissimilar Cultures

High Cultural Similarity Assimilation of Subordinate

Coexistence of structures’ Merging of roles and persistence of roles and institutions institutions toward in each group superordinate group High Coercion

Culture Creation by Subordinate Group

Parallel Similar Cultures

Emergence of new patterns of social organization in subordinate group

Segregation or apartheid

Sociologist David Rothstein of Alfred University has studied the sociocultural dynamics of intergroup contact and is prepared to offer some predictions as to the outcome of culture contact given certain initial conditions.3369 Rothstein views two variables as primarily determinative of the adjustments to be expected during acculturation. First there is the level of coercion or force’ the level of power or authority which the superordinate culture imposes on the subordinate culture during their mutual interaction. The second major variable is cultural similarity’ the degree to which the worldviews and social structures of the two cultures are compatible. These two factors may be used to predict in a general way the probable result of interaction between humanity and an extraterrestrial civilization. As Table 26.3 demonstrates’ Rothstein’s methodology indicates that in cases of contact with ETs (low cultural coincidence’ low structural compatibility) the restrained use of force and overt authority will result in humanity retaining its own institutions and heritage. In the event of higher levels of coercion’ historian McNeill's predictions may come to pass: Confronted with hostile aliens’ mankind may be stimulated to produce new patterns of social organization and novel cultural elements.

26.4.2 Social Impact of First Contact How will first contact affect our society? It is again important to distinguish between Remote Contacts (perhaps by radio)’ in which impact would be minimized’ and scenarios involving Direct or Surprise Contacts (e.g.’ Bracewell probes’ UFOs)’ wherein impact would be at a maximum. When the first message from the stars is received’ the impact may be expected to be similar to that of other major discoveries in the past. Most likely’ life will continue on much as before. For instance’ while the heliocentric cosmology advanced by Copernicus in 1543 was an intellectual bombshell for churchmen and university professors’ the average man remained unaffected by the revelation. In the last century the revolutionary ideas of Charles Darwin caused quite a stir in high society at the time’ but there was little social impact until decades later when the Scopes "monkey trial" came to public attention The discoveries of modern science in this century -- the expanding universe’ the DNA molecule’ and so on -- have diffused into society at a fairly slow pace. Nowadays’ remarks one writer wryly’ people are actually bored with the notion of men walking on the Moon. We are accustomed’ he says’ "to receiving graphic new cultural and intellectual inputs via TV and movies -- views of far-off lands’ strange people’ and curious customs -- but are very little affected by them. A long-distance radio message from the stars would seem relatively innocuous."3257 Many philosophers have insisted that’ in the long run’ humanity will undergo a dramatic change in perspective. The smallness and uniqueness of our Earth will suddenly be thrust upon us. Humans may become more aware of their common humanity. Philosophy Professor James L. Christian believes that "at last we will have a mirror by which we can look at ourselves as human beings."1620 Apparently Lenin’ the founder of Soviet bolshevism’ agreed. In a conversation with H.G. Wells in 1920’ the Russian leader is reported to have remarked: All human conceptions are on the scale of our planet. They are based on the pretension that the technical potential’ although it will develop’ will never exceed the terrestrial limit. If we succeed in establishing interplanetary communications’ all our philosophical’ moral and social views will have to be revised. In this case’ the technical potential’ become limitless’ would impose the end of the role of violence as a means and method of progress.3586 But what of the average person? How would he react? It is possible that a few people’ upon learning of the Contact’ might plot to destroy all major radiotelescope facilities so that no messages could be sent out (the "Earth Security League"). Or the destruction of all observatories may be motivated by religious fervor to "avoid evil temptation" or to "turn one’s ear from the Devil."3630 Others might plot to send messages (where these had been prohibited by the government)’ in order to establish contact with the "angels from space’" the "ministers of our salvation’" or the much-needed "facilitators of higher consciousness" (the Sentience Liberation Front?) Still’ the majority of people would probably remain unaffected. Says Arthur C. Clarke: Although the philosophical -- and sensational -- impact of such a discovery would be enormous’ after the initial excitement had ebbed’ the world would probably continue on its way much as before. Once he had read a few Sunday supplements and watched a few TV specials’ the proverbial man in the street would say: "This is all very interesting’ but it happened a long time ago and hasn’t anything to do with me." And he would be quite right.373 Even in the context of a Direct Contact with extraterrestrial life’ many writers believe that so much cultural preconditioning has taken place that the event would come as an anticlimax rather than a shock. Ian Ridpath speaks from personal experience: I recall joining an audience of several hundred people at Caxton Hall’ London’ in 1973 to hear Duncan Lunan describe what he believed might be a radio message from an alien space probe. The scene reminded me of nothing so much as Professor Challenger’s public address on his return from the Lost World’ in Conan Doyle’s book of the same name. The press had heard of Lunan's ideas’ and the meeting had been widely publicized. But there was no panic; no hordes tried to force their way in’ and the audience remained calm throughout. A similar religious orderliness prevails at UFO group meetings. From this I can only conclude that people are either thoroughly prepared to meet extraterrestrials’ or that they don’t believe what they are being told.3257 Still’ the social impact of meeting ETs "in the flesh" may be enormous. Public interest certainly will be at a peak.2166 In one of his recent science fiction novels’ James P. Hogan describes the scene near a well-publicized first contact site: A peppering of colors’ becoming denser as the hours went by’ appeared on the green inland slopes that overlooked Ganyville’ as the first spectators arrived and set up camp with tents’ sleeping bags’ blankets and picnic stoves’ determined to secure and hold a grandstand view. A continuous cordon of jovial but overworked policemen’ including some from Italy’ France and Germany since the numbers of tiny Swiss force were simply not up to the task’ maintained a clear zone two hundred meters wide between the rapidly growing crowd and the perimeter fence’ while on the lakeward side a flotilla of police launches scurried to and fro to keep at bay an armada of boats’ yachts and craft of every description. Along the roadsides an instant market came into being as the more entrepreneurial members of the shopkeeping fraternity from the nearby towns loaded their stocks into trucks and brought the business to where the customers were. A lot of small fortunes were made that day’ from selling everything from instant meals and woolly sweaters to hiking boots and high-power telescopes.3518 For weeks or months following the encounter’ business worldwide will operate in slow motion due to absenteeism’ daydreaming’ extended coffee breaks’ and higher incidents of industrial accidents. The stock market will fall precipitously for a brief time. Uncertainty’ change’ and threatened disasters always depress the Dow Jones’1173 but stocks will slowly recover as it is discovered that the aliens represent no serious immediate threat. Selected industries may suffer permanent depression if it appears their product may be rendered obsolete because of an influx of advanced extraterrestrial technology. Media industries will boom; motion pictures’ TV documentaries and interviews’ fact books and novelizations’ opinion polls’ magazine articles’ Broadway plays’ "Sounds of Space" records’ special exhibitions and other events pertaining to the ETs will capture and hold the public attention. Tourism will increase to the locale of the original alien landing site. "Alien jokes" will make the rounds in governmental and business circles; a wealth of "star-slang" should appear; new drinks will be named after the space creatures and their physical attributes; aggressive merchandising will exploit the ready market for ET-oriented toys’ games’ tee-shirts with catchy slogans’ masks’ alien dolls’ helmets’ buttons’ bubble gum’ bumper stickers’ wall posters’ models’ pendants and rings’ articles of clothing’ automobile designs’ haircuts and toothpaste and "authentic replica" alien artworks’ instruments and musical scores. Fads of imitation may spring up on college campuses and elsewhere in the community especially among younger people who are still searching for an identity. Much like the behavior of the devotees of Star Trek’ and the imitative "toga parties" that sprang up across the U.S. following the release of the popular movie "Animal House’" fans of the ETs and their culture may try to adopt alien ways’ manners of dress’ and customs. Some of these may prove particularly offensive to the general American public -- the aliens may have "disgusting" habits’ such as that of Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai who is accustomed to drinking his own urine (one 8 oz. glassful each morning) for its supposedly rejuvenative properties.3627 Others may promote détente. According to one "Trekkie" anecdote: Fanzine publisher Fran Hitchcock was walking past the Soviet embassy in New York City recently when a ball flew over the fence and landed at her feet. As she threw it back’ she noticed the waiting boy was wearing a blue Mr. Spock shirt. She made Spock's Vulcan sign for "live long and prosper" (palm facing out’ hand split between the middle and fourth finger). Not a word was said but the Russian boy returned the Vulcan greeting.3587 There is a tremendous potential for the enrichment of art’ music’ dance’ literature’ architectural design’ and other aspects of human culture. A wonderful new richness of experience could be ours. To witness the visual art forms of an alien species that "sees" with sound (such as intelligent extraterrestrial dolphins)’ the music of sentient creatures that "hear" with scent’ or a ballet performance by graceful unjointed multiped alien dancers whose native habitat is three-dimensional (sea or space) could vastly expand the cultural horizons of mankind. On the other hand’ what happens to those artists who desperately want to adopt or mimic alien ways’ but are physically incapable of doing so?2929 Weird skeletal structures’ metabolisms’ and muscle distributions within the body will permit some ETs to see’ hear and do many things beyond human abilities. One can imagine severely culture-shocked dancers or painters willingly undergoing delicate’ painful and expensive surgery on limbs or eyes in an attempt to emulate the extraterrestrial mode of expression. The orgiastic frenzied nature of some religious dances such as the Greek Dionysiac rituals have emerged repeatedly throughout history’ the most extreme examples being the quasi-religious dance hysterias that broke out during the Middle Ages. Periodically there are outbursts of "primitive" dancing’ often touched off’ many believe’ by contact with some new dance influence. An example in recent times is the strong influence on Europe of North/South American and West Indian dance forms during and after each of the two World Wars. Exhibitions of peculiar alien dances in terrestrial theaters may cause similar effects. Another response to Direct Contact may be a change in our eating habits. Besides the possibilities of strictly imitative behavior’ consumption of meat may fall to an all-time low.2117’712 Human beings’ note philosopher Robert Nozick’ justify the eating of meat on the grounds that the animals we kill are too far beneath us in sensitivity and intelligence to bear comparison.3202 An encounter with another sentient species will focus attention on interspecies relations and the way we treat other "intelligent" species on this planet -- dolphins’ primates’ dogs’ pigs’ goats (we eat them).3380 If representatives of a truly superior extraterrestrial race were to visit Earth and apply the same criterion’ they could proceed to eat us in good conscience. That is’ if we allow ourselves to dine on the semisentient nonhumans who share our planet with us’ what ethical barrier can stand in the way of highly advanced’ hungry aliens seeking to augment their otherwise drab starship menu with a side order of hairless-primate meat?2136 There may be a strong resurgence of vegetarianism. American society may be analytically divided into numerous subcultures’ each of which will have its own peculiar reaction to the first contact event. While the exact response will depend heavily upon the nature of the alien’ the method of encounter’ and the character of the media coverage’ a few tentative generalizations may perhaps be offered. For instance’ if the extraterrestrial sociobiology includes within the species a sentient male and a nonsentient female sub-race (like Larry Niven's fictional Kzinti)’ it is hard to imagine that the National Organization for Women (NOW) and other women’s rights groups would be very happy about it. Violent confrontations with representatives of the alien culture are not inconceivable. On the other hand’ aliens with perfect equality among the genders (there may be more than two) or monosexual ETs might be more readily accepted’ and could even serve as the basis of a new publicity campaign in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment or other similar political issues of the day. Hermaphroditic’ parthenogenetic’ and variable-sex aliens would be perplexing and difficult to deal with conceptually by all parties concerned. Age could be another distinguishing element. Older people grown used to the prospect of imminent death and the expectation of Social Security benefits might resent the appearance of beings who hold out the promise of rejuvenation or medical cures for senescence and aging of which they could not personally partake (because of irreversible prior deterioration). Younger persons would welcome the opportunity to remain youthful forever’ creating a new kind of "generation gap". Diehard football and baseball fans would become incensed when the Super Bowl or the World Series was pre-empted to cover some event involving the aliens. Political activists would resent the government’s preoccupation with the extraterrestrials’ believing that the encounter had diverted official attenton from the immediacy of their cause. (Some might turn to terrorism or other extreme tactics to regain the public spotlight.) Devout fundamentalists will curse the "atheists from space" (if the aliens are atheists)’ or denounce the aliens' own religion as heretical (if the aliens are theists). Industrialists will want to learn how to drill’ mine’ and mass produce goods more efficiently; environmentalists will want advanced lessons in planetary conservation. Antitechnologists will beg the ETs to keep their mouths shut’ but their very arrival will bear testimony to the practicality and utility of high technology for any developing civilization. The space program will be vindicated and funding increases will be authorized without delay by Congress’ provided the alien visitors do not preach a message of technological evil. The ETs may become international celebrities’ traveling around the country and the world meeting the public. The author is reminded of film clips of people cheering and chasing after a train’ from whose caboose a strange large-eared creature waved a tiny hand and smiled at the crowd. The occasion was "Mickey Mouse’s Fiftieth Birthday’" in November 1978. Asked Jack Perkins’ an NBC newsman’ with unexpected aptness: "Do you know many humans who would draw those kinds of crowds?" Would new cults and other organizations spring up in response to the presence of the extraterrestrial visitors?262’3628 People who remain skeptical or uncertain as to the reality of the Contact are unlikely to develop a grassroots antigovernment campaign unless there is a clear-cut threat or deprivation to mobilize collective action.3636’3637 At the other end of the "believer" spectrum’ however’ many existing groups may be preadapted for extreme behavior and may mobilize into action (proselytizing’ organizing demonstrations’ etc.). The Directory of the Religious Bodies in the United States (Garland’1977) lists twenty-three distinct denominations which originated from purported contacts with beings in flying saucers. According to the unidentified Yale psychologist who participated in the 1973 study chaired by Leon Festinger: There are the religious doomsday cults that thrive on flying saucers and little blue humanoids. All the publicity about their "thing’" on which they practically held a monopoly until the upcoming TV show’ will mobilize them to become more active in making statements to the press; some will predict that the alien civilization will destroy the earth next Tuesday. When their prophecies fail’ some of these groups will react the way the doomsday group studied by Festinger’ Riecken and Schachter1757 did -- markedly increasing their proselytizing behavior. Other such groups’ however’ may limit themselves to a "joyous reunion" when their prophecies fail’ as did the members of the "Church of the True World" studied by Hardyk and Braden.3576 The proselytizing activity of some of the doomsday groups will be matched and possibly exceeded by that of religious youth groups’ like the jesus freaks’ who will treat the [Contact] story as a long-awaited sign that superhuman forces are at work in the universe. Many of the people who were impressed by the Chariots of the Gods1326 (the book and the movie) and who are longing for an out-of-this-world hero like the Stranger in a Strange Land2643 will rally to the cause of the blue humanoids and endow them with superhuman loving kindness and messianic qualities. Support for the messianic religious movement -- in the form of joining the group’ participating in religious ceremonies’ etc. -- will be greatly increased insofar as the authenticity of the aliens is attested to by reputable scientists and political leaders. (A messianic movement in Europe several centuries ago was given just such impetus when leading authorities of the time endorsed the authenticity of the messiah’ as described by G. Scholem in Sabbati Sevi.) But the messianic movement may be limited in its appeal’ attracting mainly those already predisposed to religious fringe movements. It will have more widespread appeal if the aliens encourage it’ directly or indirectly’ by claiming that they will help earth people to save themselves from the evils that beset mankind. In this case’ a much more popular messianic religious movement is to be expected’ especially if it is endorsed by prestigious national leaders.1640 Xenophobia -- the distrust of strangers -- is another likely response by many people. Inhumane attitudes towards human "monsters" and congenital "freaks’"3609 the 17th century public persecutions of suspected witches in Salem’ Massachusetts’ and countless other episodes of poor treatment of foreigners1846 lead the author to conclude that some will welcome the aliens' arrival with hoots and jeers of derision’ open hatred and jealousy’ and sadistic plots for exploitation. Will we exhibit the infamous "Cockroach Response"’ where we try to stamp out an alien creature simply because it is different?720 (Asks Ray Bradbury: "Confronted with beings resembling cockroaches will we pause to consider whether their IQ is 50 or 250? Or will we simply build the grandest shoe in history and stamp them out?"147) According to science fiction writer Katherine MacLean: When we read the National Geographic on historical fiction’ and when we read science fiction we are eager to understand and enjoy the stranger and find adventure in the strange’ we change from xenophobes to xenophiles’ lovers of the outlandish’ finding mental refreshment in the strange universe the world becomes when viewed through strange eyes. The function of intelligence is to understand’ predict’ and control the unfamiliar. It enjoys functioning. So we will travel looking for alien races and they will travel looking for us. But when we see each other’ interesting differences suddenly become terrifying abnormalities. Surprise becomes fear; fear becomes war.3097 Perhaps it will turn out that there is nothing in the natural world’ however strange its appearance may be’ that we cannot eventually grow accustomed to.81 But the fear that strangers may pose a threat to native culture is endemic to most societies on Earth.3525 During the 1800's fully one-third of the American population supported "nativist" (xenophobic) movements.1846 When extraterrestrial beings visit Earth’ the perceived threat to human culture may become so intense as to impel many to search for a measure of security in organizations promising to perpetuate those traditions we call our own.3643’3344’3610 The Yale psychologist from the Festinger study continues: If the dissimilaries between the aliens and us are stressed in the mass media’ and if the visitors continue to be kept in isolation’ and if there are no promises of interaction between mankind and other representatives of the extraterrestrial civilization’ then the more hostile type of fringe-group movements will be aided in recruiting more participants. These groups are generally made up of people who have seen better days and who chronically project evil intentions to out-groups. Many of the members seem to be addicted to patriotic fervor’ directed against enemies from within and from without’ because it provides them with compensatory feelings of restoring their lost status.243’3638 (There may even be plots to abduct and kill the aliens.) But as long as the mass media continue to emphasize the main message of the upcoming TV press conference -- that the aliens are benign’ friendly’ and cooperative -- the Blue Menace movement is not likely to become anything more than a slightly expanded fringe movement.1640 There is also the distinct possibility that humankind may suffer from the effects of "culture shock" in varying degrees. Culture shock has been described as a profound disorientation suffered by the traveler who has plunged without adequate preparation into an alien culture. There is in any Direct Contact situation the immediate danger that first encounter might wreak such profound changes in terrestrial society that people would become alienated from their own culture. Anthropologist A.L. Kroeber of the University of California at Berkeley has described the related phenomenon of "cultural fatigue" among the Polynesians of Hawaii. Captain Cook had discovered the islands in the late 16th century’ and during this contact the natives had observed the Europeans repeatedly broaching a number of local religious taboos (women could not eat bananas or coconuts’ men and women could not take meals together’ etc.) without suffering any punishment at the hands of the gods. In 1819’ five months before the first missionary landed on the islands’ the Hawaiians in a single stroke abolished their religion. Says Kroeber: "The main factor seems to have been a kind of social staleness; the Hawaiians had become disillusioned’ and tired of their religion. In addition’ the whites enjoyed prestige with their guns’ steel tools’ and big ships; and’ by extension’ their only vaguely known religion was probably accounted superior."889 (Margaret Mead has described a similar effect among the Manus in New Guinea.3625) The less advanced culture involved in the Contact may be subject to peculiar cultural pathologies. The New Guinea Cargo Cults are a familiar example of this.1218’895’3599 After extensive contact with Western culture and artifacts’ native islanders developed a powerful conviction that spiritual entities would deliver large cargoes of technological goods into the hands of true believers. Other examples of such retrogressive behavioral systems include the Slave Society of Jamaica’3597 the Peyote Cults and Ghost Dance of certain American Indians’3635’812 the Kingdom of Father Divine’3645 and of destructive potlatch among the Kwakiutl’ the aboriginal inhabitants of Vancouver Island in Canada.2581 Is this a likely prospect for Western civilization? Anthropological evidence seems to suggest that such extreme pathologies generally result either from extensive physical contact between disparate cultures’ or from territorial expansion by the stronger society’ or both. If we are overwhelmed by an aggressive extraterrestrial race’ we may see the emergence of cults on Earth which zealously glorify or denigrate our interstellar captors. Furthermore’ research shows that millenarian movements’ uprisings and cargo cults generally accompany the first stages of culture contact’ while political movements and the emergence of churches and separatist sects appear only in more advanced periods of contact.3590 Of course’ physical contact and the exchange of artifacts are not essential for cultural response. Although it is probably true that no society has ever been dominated by another solely by radio contact’ much of Western civilization is based on ancient Hellenic tradition. Like a kind of Remote Contact’ our society today reflects many of the values and principles of an "alien" culture thousands of years’ rather than thousands of light-years’ distant from us.

26.4.3 The Religious Response How would the major world religions’ particularly Christianity’ react to first contact? Here there is the opportunity for the gravest misunderstandings between races. This problem is well illustrated by the remarks of Robert Hamerton-Kelly’ Dean of the Chapel of Stanford University’ at a recent SETI Symposium: Does an extraterrestrial intelligence have a conception of God? I'd guess that they do’ and that it'd be like ours. If they don’t have a notion of God’ frankly the first-thing I'd like to do is send missionaries.2160 According to Father Clifford Stevens’ a Roman Catholic priest and former Air Force chaplain’ the central issue is whether Christians should "attempt to convert and baptize intelligent creatures from other planets’ creatures who are not children of Adam and who may not have received or needed the redemption brought by Christ."1333 As best the author can discern’ modern Christian theology holds that beings from other worlds may be created in any of four distinct states’ depending upon the qualities which the Creator has chosen to bestow upon the race. (See Donceel’719 Zubek’119 Raible’116 Lewis’107 Grasso’326’113 Perego’115 and Stevens.1014) There are two kinds of gifts -- preternatural (gifts of the body’ such as knowledge’ long life’ freedom from disease and accident) and supernatural (gifts of the soul’ such as sanctifying grace and other "privileges which partake of the nature of the divine") -- hence four possible combinations: 1. State of Pure Nature -- no gifts of the body or of the soul. Such beings would enjoy only ‘those qualities which are proper to a rational animal" and nothing more. 2. State of Integral Nature -- gifts of the body but not of the soul. These creatures would enjoy various preternatural advantages over mere rational beasts but would retain a "natural destiny." 3. State of Supernature -- gifts of the soul but not of the body. This would be a race of rational beings with a supernatural destiny and possessed of sanctifying grace which would make them capable of "quasi-divine acts’" despite their lack of preternatural gifts. 4. State of Innocence -- gifts of the body and of the soul. Such beings would enjoy "a relatively carefree life’" with "no disease’ concupiscence’ ignorance or death" and everlasting happiness. This enviable condition was the status of Adam and Eve before the commission of original sin. Furthermore’ any race endowed with supernatural gifts holds them in trust for God’ and therefore conceivably may betray that trust. Hence’ beings in a state of pure nature or integral nature cannot "fall" or sin against the Creator; races in a state of supernature or innocence may "fall" from Divine pleasure. These latter species may be considered "temptable" in the sense that they are susceptible to the temptation of original sin. Once again’ there are four possible conditions in which these "temptable" extraterrestrial races may be found’ according to traditional theology: 1. Untempted by sin as yet. 2. Once tempted by sin’ but successful in overcoming it. 3. Once tempted by sin’ fallen’ but redeemed by the Creator. (Mankind) 4. Once tempted by sin’ fallen’ and unredeemed by the Creator. (Seen as unlikely by most theologians’ in view of "the infinite mercy of God.") Redemption could occur in many ways. For example’ He could simply forgive the transgression and re-elevate the race to its previous dignity. He might demand merely a partial satisfaction for the offense’ perhaps accomplished by one or more representatives (Redeemers) of the fallen species. He could demand personal disposition from each individual’ in the form of repentance’ for the forgiveness of sins. Finally’ God might choose a combination of the above’ combining the mediation of a Redeemer with the cooperation of repentant sinners. Another aspect of redemption that would depend entirely upon the will of God is the number and kind of gifts which He would return to the redeemed race. According to Father Daniel G. Raible of Brunnendale Seminary of the Society of the Precious Blood: In the case of our mankind’ He willed to return only the supernatural gift of sanctifying grace’ without the preternatural gifts of infused knowledge’ freedom from concupiscence (perfect control of the will over man’s lower faculties) and immortality. Another fallen race He might treat differently’ by returning both the preternatural and the supernatural gifts.116 Taking this broad theological viewpoint’ the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence presents no insurmountable difficulties to current conceptions. It is clear that the concepts of God’ preternatural and supernatural gifts’ and the basics of redemption are not called into question or challenged in any way by the existence of ETs. Theologists will merely classify the space creatures according to traditional categories. Religion and xenology are quite compatible. Many writers have argued that the particularistic character of most of human revealed religion must inevitably doom it when sentient life is found in space.71 For example’ Arthur C. Clarke suggested nearly two decades ago that: The proof’ which is now only a matter of time’ that this young species of ours is low on the scale of cosmic intelligence will be a shattering blow to our pride. Few of our current religions can be expected to survive it’ contrary to the optimistic forecasts from certain quarters. The assertion that "God created man in his own image" is ticking like a time bomb in the foundations of Christianity. As the hierarchy of the universe is slowly disclosed to us’ we will have to face this chilling fact: If there are any gods whose concern is man’ they cannot be very important gods.55 This and similar appraisals that appear frequently in the literature appear to be rather serious overstatements of the expected consequences of discovering alien lifeforms.3370’1231’206’3607 In light of the adaptation and survival of Roman Catholicism in spite of Copernicus’ Galileo’ and Darwin’ it seems ludicrous to suggest that the Church would be destroyed by any Contact less severe than acculturation resulting in extinction or total assimilation of human society (in which case religion would be the least of our worries).3589’1776 As science writer Kendrick Frazier admits: Institutions’ especially those with a good record for endurance’ have a certain amount of stretch built into them; thus it may be an underestimation of their resiliency to expect them automatically to crumble at the first hello from elsewhere in the galaxy.1938 There seems to be at least two viable viewpoints from which Christians (and members of other particularistic faiths) can view the problem of exterrestrial sentience without precipitating theological catastrophe or dogmatic crises of inconsistency. First’ the terrestrial messiah may be regarded as unique in all the universe.103’978’104’562 In this conception’ only Earth has been redeemed. For instance’ since Christ took human form’ only human beings have been rescued from spiritual oblivion by God. Alien races comprised of nonhumans’ who are deemed "fallen" by the Church’ cannot have been saved by Jesus’ who was human. The ETs thus are either the fallen sinful’ unworthy of the Creator’s salvation and hence to be quarantined and forever shunned by humanity (lest we become tainted with "diabolical" evil)’ or they are the redeemable unredeemed’ in which case missionaries should be dispatched immediately to bring them the "good news" of Christ on Earth.3596 Any local messiah whom the extraterrestrials may claim as their own redeemer is a false prophet or "antichrist’" an apparition of the Devil to be exorcised by special ritual cleansings’ crusades or holy wars of extermination’ or Divine intervention. Besides violating the Principle Thermoethic’ the above (self-consistent) conceptual framework also violates one of the cardinal assumptions of xenology -- the Hypothesis of Mediocrity. Roland Puccetti at the University of Singapore has calculated that if there are 100 million sites of extraterrestrial intelligence in our Milky Way galaxy’ and at least 10 billion galaxies in the universe’ then if each such community had but one distinct religion of its own there would exist some 1018 independent sacred traditions throughout the cosmos.71 By what horrendous effrontery to common sense’ he asks’ can Christians claim that Christ chose to redeem only Earth instead of one of the 1’000’000’000’000’000’000 other sentient races in the universe? A few theologians are willing to do without the Hypothesis of Mediocrity. According to Dr. Andrew J. Burgess’ visiting associate professor of religious studies at Cleveland State University’ the setting of the bible is not in mighty Rome or Greece but in remote Palestine. The actors are a small band of slaves who migrate to an out-of-the-way territory and never even manage to control that for more than brief periods of time’ rather than a powerful people shaping history. The Messiah was born of obscure parents’ spent his early years in backwards Galilee’ assembled an otherwise undistinguished crew of followers’ and finally was executed as a common criminal. (God has shown "an exasperating tendency toward what’ in other contexts’ one would have to call slumming.") Thus it should not seem at all strange to speak of Christianity as beginning on "an insignificant planet of a secondary star of an unimpressive galaxy somewhere out in space."2606 More intellectually preferable is the second viable Christian viewpoint alluded to earlier: That the terrestrial messiah is not absolutely unique in all the universe’ that other races may be redeemed by Him’ and that Jesus may have assumed different physical forms on different worlds.1558’100’356’108’109’3632’3558 Notes Father Raible: Suppose that God intended to demand adequate satisfaction from a fallen {extraterrestrial} race. That would necessitate that God become a member of the fallen race in order to redeem it. Could it be the same Second Person of the Blessed Trinity who became incarnate for our salvation? Yes’ it would be possible for the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity to become a member of more than one human race. There is nothing at all repugnant in the idea of the same Divine Person taking on the nature of many human races. Conceivably’ we may learn in heaven that there has been not one incarnation of God's son but many.116 Paul Tillich’ one of the foremost Protestant theologians’ is in basic agreement: Incarnation is unique for the special group in which it happens’ but it is not unique in the sense that other singular incarnations for other unique worlds are excluded. ... Man cannot claim to occupy the only possible place for Incarnation. ... The manifestation of saving power in one place implies that saving power is operating in all places.3591’3592 In this view the Church will not be interested in converting other planets to Christianity105’1014 C.S. Lewis stood firm against "all theological imperialism." Said he: "To different diseases’ or different patients sick with the same disease’ the great Physician may have applied different remedies."106 The Lord's mission was to Earth only’ to the human race -- other intelligent species did not share in the Fall and thus do not require redemption. Or’ if they are not in a state of grace then God will have made His own provision for them.3593 Jesuit Paul Curtin of Boston College insists that there exists no theological authority for man’s spiritual proselytizing beyond the Earth: The only theology I know or can know is that of a revealed God in relationship to the children of Adam. If there are beings on another planet’ then they must be the object of another Providence. They are not the children of Adam’ and so they are not a part of our salvation history’ which is that of a fallen and redeemed race.259 Professor Eduard Stakemeir’ Roman Catholic theologian at the Philosophical-Theological Academy at Paderborn’ Germany’ is in full agreement: The inhabitants of other worlds could be like us’ but they could also be much superior to us in sense and will. And perhaps they also surpass us in gratitude to the Creator and in goodness and love to all that demands love and kindness. [But] in principle we must say that the Christian order of redemption was realized by God for this world. Only we’ who are descended from Adam’ are born in original sin’ and God became man to redeem us. His church and His sacraments are not valid for other planets.118 Only one minor technical problem remains if the above position is adopted. Recall the calculation that there may be as many as 1018 religious traditions extant in the universe. Assuming most of these required a redemption’ and if Jesus' lifetime on Earth is considered typical (about 30 years)’ then 3 x 1018 years would have to transpire for the Son of God to pass from birth to resurrection on each inhabited planet of the cosmos. This is about 100’000’000 times the estimated age of the universe’ so either the cosmos are very much older than scientists suspect’ or the relative fraction of redeemed civilizations is exceedingly small (i.e.’ most races never fall’ or go unredeemed)’ or at any given time approximately 100’000’000 Incarnations must be occurring simultaneously throughout the cosmos. While a few philosophers have argued that one God cannot be in more than one place at a time’71 the better theological view seems to be that the Supreme Being’ who is both omnipotent and omniscient’ may also be omnipresent and infinitely partitionable without dilution.2865 There is theological precedent for this viewpoint in the traditional Christian doctrine of the Trinity. All this is not to suggest that human religious institutions will be unaffected by the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence. Far from it. Major modifications and adjustments will have to be made in order to adapt to changed circumstances and to respond in a meaningful way to alien revelation (or the lack thereof). Hardest hit will be those people whose attitude is characterized by "I have a private conviction that They'll turn out to be Catholics after all."102 The more excessive the chauvinism’ the greater the shock. But most world religions are probably sufficiently resilient to absorb such events without ill effects.

26.4.4 Impact on Science and Technology Anthropologist Leslie White has suggested that all civilization ultimately rests upon a foundation of science and technological achievement. A culture's social order and philosophical assumptions are determined to some extent by scientific knowledge and its application. Xenologists are therefore very interested in the effects on human science if extraterrestrial intelligence were discovered elsewhere in the cosmos. Arthur C. Clarke offers a highly optimistic vision: The things we could learn might change our own society beyond recognition. It would be as if the America of Lincoln's time could tune into the TV programs of today; though there would be much that could not be understood’ there would also be clues that could leapfrog whole technologies into the future. (Ironically enough’ our commercials would contain some of the most valuable information!) Nineteenth Century viewers would see that heavierthan-air machines were possible and simple observation would reveal the principles of design. The still-unguessed uses of electricity would be deomstrated (the telephone’ the electric light) and this would be enough to set scientists on the right track. For knowing that a thing can be done is more than half the battle.373 In a Remote Contact scenario’ the impact of the message is likely to be fairly small.15’3241 At first only very little about it will be known’ save that it exists’ and perhaps some general information about the source. This in itself may be very significant’ for it will tell us that it is possible for technological civilizations to survive long enough to gain control over tremendous energies and devices. Such information may prove extremely valuable for all of humankind: The Von Hoerner Feedback Effect named after its originator’ hypothesizes that the mere knowledge that cultural longevity has been achieved by one culture may enable others to do the same.1054 Using this idea the most harmless message with the greatest potential for good (hence most ethical) would’ according to Princeton physicist Gerard K. O'Neill’ be "the flash of a lighthouse’ a simple message endlessly repeated carrying just enough information so that we know it was formed by intelligence."2710 For the first time in many peoples lives’ they would take a look at where they stood in the galaxy and the universe. Assuming another civilization more generously beams us all the information they have’ how would this affect human science? Says Philip Morrison: And you will have pouring into the radiotelescope's recorders’ week after week’ month after month’ decade after decade’ an enormous body of obviously interesting and meaningful postals. You will be able to read them’ slowly and fitfully’ because they will not be coded but anticoded; the beings who designed them will have thought very carefully how to make the meaning clear. And it will be a large volume of material’ not something that the New York Times will publish in its entirety. It will be too voluminous’ too technical’ too uncertain’ too much in need of study. So I do not think we are talking about just a normal enterprise; we are talking about an enterprise more like the development of agriculture than even the discovery of America.24 Scientific shock will thus be mitigated by the long time necessary to receive’ decode’ and digest the information from the stars. It will require the full equipment of human scholarship over a period of many decades -- in the words of one xenologist’ it will more resemble "a discipline rather than a headline or an oracle."22 Even taking the optimistic assumptions about human radio equipment and the maximum bit rates we can receive across interstellar distances’ it is doubtful that such messages could ever come to totally dominate human experience. A simple calculation reveals the truth of this. Since about 1011 humans have ever lived; each with an average lifespan of about 109 seconds’ and each processing conscious data at a rate of about 10 bits/second’ the net human informational heritage is roughly 1021 bits total. According to Philip Morrison’ the best analogy to a message from the stars would be the impact on modern thought of the Greek world. As a body of material it can be summed up in about 10’000 books’ written from Hesiod to Hero down to the Alexandrians. If we add in the number of volumes of photographs and other materials necessary to describe the architecture’ climate’ pottery’ fish’ botany and whatever else is required to give us the context of Hellenic times’ then the best estimate is that the total information transmitted to us from the Greeks is about 1012 bits.22 Across a distance of 100-1000 light-years the Arecibo radiotelescope would require decades to receive all of this. What might the messages tell us? According to B.M. Oliver: The galactic heritage could include a large body of science that we have yet to discover. It would include such things as pictures of the Galaxy taken several billion years ago; it would include the natural histories of all the myriads of life forms that must exist in the planets of their member races’ We could see the unimaginable diverse kinds of life that evolution has produced in other worlds and learn their biochemistries’ their varieties of sense organs’ and their psychologies. Culturally’ we might learn new art forms and aesthetic endeavors. But more significant will be the societal benefits. We will be in touch with races that have achieved longevity. The galactic community would already have distilled out of its member cultures the political systems’ the social forms’ and the morality most conducive to survival’ not for just a few generations’ but for billions of years. We might learn how other races solved their pollution problems’ their ecological problems’ and how they have shouldered the responsibility for genetic evolution in a compassionate society.3606 There are two major concerns about extraterrestrial messages which crop up rather frequently in the literature. The first of these might be called the Inferiority Syndrome -- the notion that a meeting with a race that is too superior might produce a kind of racial inferiority complex’ a sense of worthlessness and utter futility in being human.1766’2170’875’81’24 Or’ as G.C. Homans has observed: Anyone who accepts from another a service he cannot repay in kind incurs inferiority as a cost of receiving the service. The esteem he gives the other he forgoes himself.3571 This phenomenon has also been refered to in the literature as "ego blow".3663 While this reaction is certainly possible’ in general students do not become disturbed when their teachers appear smarter than they. And if the teachers are so vastly smarter than the pupil (as’ for instance’ when Einstein teaches his dog a trick)’ it is likely that the student will remain more or less unaware of the vast intellectual gulf that separates them. The further apart two beings are in sentience’ the less they have to talk about and the fewer are the opportunities to display crushing mental superiority.62 The second and more serious objection to the receipt of alien messages might be called the Library Effect. As Joshua Lederberg recently asked’3241 might not the realization that it's "all in the library" somewhere have a demoralizing effect on research scientists?2210’24’2879 Comments O'Neill: "Why continue to study and search for scientific truth on our own? Gone then the possibility of new discovery’ or surprise’ and above all of pride and accomplishment; it seems to me horribly likely that as scientists we would simply become television addicts’ contributing nothing of our own pain and work and effort to new discovery."2710 Philip Morrison counters with the argument that all scientists today must face the possibility that someone has already solved the problem they are working on’ or will do so before they can.3241 This does not deter research. Few have rejected schools because teachers and textbooks exhibit learning of which they were thus far ignorant.2865 Whatever the extraterrestrials may know’ there will always be new possibilities (recall Gödel’s theorem)’ and whatever we think we are learning from the ETs will have to be checked out experimentally before scientists should rely on it. Furthermore’ says Morrison: I think the most important thing the message will bring us’ if we can finally understand it’ will be a description’ if one exists at all’ of how these beings were able to fashion a world in which they could live’ persevere’ and maintain something of worth and beauty for a long period of time. Again’ we will not be able to translate it directly and make our institutions like theirs; the circumstances will be too different. But something of it will come through in this way. This will be the most important message we could receive. But it will be more of a subtle’ long-lasting’ complex’ debatable effect than a sudden revelation of truth’ like letters written in fire in the sky.24 One major difficulty that scientists will have to face whenever they come into possession of alien information concerns trust. Can we trust them not to harm us intentionally? For instance’ assume we receive a message which’ directly or indirectly’ suggests the following advice: "For maximum political stability worldwide’ slow your material-technological growth rate to permit your social technology to catch up." While this would doubtless be accepted by many’ skeptics might point out that ETs bent on invasion and conquest would find it most convenient to have us keep our material technology in a primitive state. There is also the possibility that malevolent alien sociologists have learned that all developing technical civilizations must pass through certain critical points’ during which time "triggers" inherent in our society or sociobiology could be tripped off to cause rapid destabilization3593 or self-destruction.3594 The ETs might’ for example’ beam us instructions on how to build compact antimatter doomsday bombs using current (primitive) human technology; similarly with bioneering technology’ advanced ecology engineering techniques’ and so forth. They may be handing us "poisoned candy’" too sweet for us to resist yet too deadly for us to digest. Certainly it is hard to imagine a motive on their part’ but since mere information is the energetically cheapest weapon (provided it is effective) xenologists cannot absolutely rule out the possibility. In any event’ we should always be extremely wary of accepting any "free" advice.3286 As Michael Michaud’ U.S. Foreign Service Officer’ reminds us: Our basic interest will be to protect ourselves from any possible threat to Earth's security. Our second concern would be to assist in developing or to participate in a stable system of interstellar politics that provides an acceptable level of security for all. Our third concern would be to learn from the aliens in order to advance our knowledge of the universe and to add to the tools of civilization. The last interest’ so often placed first by writers on this subject’ would be meaningless or impossible if the first two concerns had not been satisfied.272’1760 Back to Contents