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20 - The allure of alien life: Public and media framings of extraterrestrial life

from Part IV - Practical considerations: how should society prepare for discovery – and non-discovery?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2015

By
Linda Billings
Edited by
Steven J. Dick
Linda Billings
Affiliation:
NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC
Steven J. Dick
Affiliation:
Library of Congress, Washington DC
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Summary

In this chapter I will explore the modern history of public conceptions and perceptions of extraterrestrial life and speculate on how people might respond to its discovery. Although most astrobiologists assume that “first contact” with extraterrestrial life will be the discovery of microbial life beyond Earth, in public discourse, and especially in popular culture, “first contact” tends to be characterized as contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. I will consider popular representations of extraterrestrial life – from single-celled to intelligent – in their cultural context. How does the cultural environment affect these representations? How does the political economy of the mass media industry shape these representations? How does the human psyche influence these representations? The theoretical framework for this analysis is, more or less, neo-Marxist, incorporating elements of psychoanalytic and ideological critique. The story of the search for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligent life has taken on a standard form, a litany repeated over and over again in scholarly and popular accounts, with little critical analysis (e.g. Davies 2010; Ekers et al. 2002; Vakoch 2014). In this chapter I will offer some critique and then draw on this critique to offer thoughts about possible responses to the discovery of extraterrestrial life.

Cultural environment and representations of extraterrestrial life

The public discourse about alien life takes place in a complex and ever-changing cultural environment. Communication theorist James Carey (1992, 44, 65) described culture “as a set of practices, a mode of human activity, a process whereby reality is created, maintained and transformed …. What is called the study of culture can also be called the study of communications.” From this perspective, communication is a ritual enacted to maintain culture over time, a symbolic process of creating, maintaining, and transforming social reality. Science, literature, and film are among the many symbol systems constructed communicatively to “express and convey our knowledge of and attitudes toward reality” (Carey 1992, 30). Culture is the context in which power arises and operates, and the mass media are an integral element of culture and a site where power arises and operates.

Type
Chapter
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The Impact of Discovering Life beyond Earth , pp. 308 - 323
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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