It is not just about Science
To think multi-planetary we need to combine every strand of human knowledge
The plot of Amy Adams starrer Arrival that was released last year was a breath of fresh air. That’s because it was not your average alien invasion movie with a special effects overload. Rather than the villainous caricatures out to conquer earth, the aliens in this movie were intelligent beings reaching out to us. The central theme was about ‘language’ and ‘communication’ rather than the ‘we will defeat them and we will survive’ brand of nationalism-fuelled-human-chest-thumping.
The movie asked a simple but pertinent question — if humans ever were to come into contact with life from outside our environs, how will we communicate? It is a fantastic plot device, and made the movie an engrossing one for many of us at TeamIndus. Admittedly a movie that has a Linguistics professor as its central character might not break records at the box office, but it can certainly be a trigger for larger conversations about life outside the earth.
Some of the issues around extra terrestrial life, that until yesterday was part of academic circles, need to start popping up in popular discourse. This movie which ponders the real issue of how to communicate to an alien race — a question that occupies the minds of scientists looking for signs of extraterrestrial life — can be the starting point for a larger, more intelligent conversation around humanity’s quest for life outside our immediate world as well as our quest to live outside of our pale blue dot.
It is far more probable in the medium term that humans would be the colonising force than the victims of alien invasion. There are already concrete conversations happening around taking humans to Mars. Elon Musk, the man who is always at the centre of these conversations, is aiming for a million inhabitants on the red planet resulting in a self sustaining civilisation in a 40 year to 100 year time period. The raison d’être of his company SpaceX, is to “revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets.”
The United Arab Emirates, a relatively new name in space exploration, announced recently that it would seek to build a city on the red planet in 100 years time. This is even before we take into account the plans of the more traditional names in space exploration — the space agencies of the Unites States, Russia, India, China, Europe and Japan. Then there is Asgardia, the science fiction-esque nation state, which wants to establish itself in orbital space.
Our earth, a pale blue dot, as Carl Sagan called it, is the only home to life as we know it. While the aliens may or may not come looking for us, it is an important time to evaluate our options in sustaining life beyond the earth, not merely for the sake of exploration but also to create what Musk calls a “backup drive.”
As we step into realistically conceptualising extra terrestrial life for humans, it is important to build consensus at many levels — scientific, jurisdictional, medical, behavioural, cultural even philosophical. There is a need for us to come together as nations and as individuals to really think this through. The ideal that underpins our quest should be to create a world which celebrates the best of humanity rather than to take the differences that divide us into a new world.
It may sound idealistic and somewhat utopian, but the opportunity is there to make an effort to learn from our mistakes on earth. That is why the discussion on extra planetary life shouldn’t be confined to scientific circles. It needs to go beyond and involve professionals and experts from all possible fields. It requires creation of platforms and forums where the ethics and morality of the entire exercise is discussed with as much vigour as the scientific one.
The earlier we start having this conversation on the widest possible canvas, is when we can say with conviction that we as a species, are truly ready to go multi-planetary. We at TeamIndus would be glad to ignite conversation and be a part of it in the days ahead.
Previously published in Times of India
