The question of whether humans are alone in the universe and whether we may one day make contact with extraterrestrials has tantalized philosophers and scientists for centuries.
Astronomers continue to scour the cosmos for signs of biosignatures in far-distant atmospheres that could reveal the planetary home of simple lifeforms or possibly even technosignatures that would indicate an intelligent extraterrestrial civilization not unlike us. Meanwhile, some also speculate that signs of extraterrestrials—particularly in the form of their technologies—might be discovered far closer to home than most would ever expect and that perhaps the search for alien technosignatures should include studies of nearby asteroids, planets, Earth’s Moon, and even sightings of unusual phenomena that occasionally occur within our own atmosphere.
Now, a new survey being conducted by researchers in the United Kingdom is asking the public for answers about people’s attitudes toward the idea that humans could one day contact intelligent extraterrestrials or even the controversial notion that some form of contact might have already occurred.
The survey, led by Professor Michael Bohlander, Chair in Global Law and SETI Policy at Durham Law School in the United Kingdom, along with Dr. Andreas Anton, also a Research Fellow at Durham Law School, in cooperation with Dr John Elliott, Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews, aims to gauge participants’ attitudes toward the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), as well as reports in recent years involving what the United States military now calls Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), or what have traditionally been known as UFOs.
Bohlander and the team hope to learn how participants would react to such a contact event and what its global societal implications would be for humankind.
The Robertson Panel studied that question way back in the 1950's. Their conclusion was that it could be catastrophically disruptive to human society.
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