Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication - NASA

330 Pages·2014·1.58 MB·English

by  Douglas A. Vakoch

Edited by Douglas A. Vakoch
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Office of Communications
Public Outreach Division
History Program Office
Washington, DC
2014
The NASA History Series
NASA SP-2013-4413
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Archaeology, anthropology, and interstellar communication / edited by
Douglas A. Vakoch.
p. cm. -- (The NASA history series)
“SP-2013-4413.”
1. Life on other planets. 2. Extraterrestrial anthropology. 3.
Interstellar communication. 4. Exobiology. 5. Archaeoastronomy. I.
Vakoch, Douglas A.
QB54.A74 2012
999--dc23
2011053528
s
ok
www.nasa.gov/ebo
This publication is available as a free download at
http://www.nasa.gov/ebooks.
ISBN 978-1-62683-013-4
90000
9 781626 830134
To Chris Neller,
for her ongoing support of the
Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
List of Figures xi
I. Introduction
Reconstructing Distant Civilizations
and Encountering Alien Cultures
Douglas A. Vakoch xiii
II. Historical Perspectives on SETI
Chapter 1: SETI: The NASA Years
John Billingham 1
Chapter 2: A Political History of NASA’s SETI Program
Stephen J. Garber 23
Chapter 3: The Role of Anthropology in SETI
A Historical View
Steven J. Dick 49
III. Archaeological Analogues
Chapter 4: A Tale of Two Analogues
Learning at a Distance from the Ancient Greeks and Maya and the
Problem of Deciphering Extraterrestrial Radio Transmissions
Ben Finney and Jerry Bentley 65
Chapter 5: Beyond Linear B
The Metasemiotic Challenge of Communication
with Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Richard Saint-Gelais 79
Chapter 6: Learning To Read
Interstellar Message Decipherment from Archaeological and
Anthropological Perspectives
Kathryn E. Denning 95
v
Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication
Chapter 7: Inferring Intelligence
Prehistoric and Extraterrestrial
Paul K. Wason 113
IV. Anthropology, Culture, and Communication
Chapter 8: Anthropology at a Distance
SETI and the Production of Knowledge
in the Encounter with an Extraterrestrial Other
John W. Traphagan 131
Chapter 9: Contact Considerations
A Cross-Cultural Perspective
Douglas Raybeck 143
Chapter 10: Culture and Communication
with Extraterrestrial Intelligence
John W. Traphagan 161
Chapter 11: Speaking for Earth
Projecting Cultural Values Across Deep Space and Time
Albert A. Harrison 175
V. The Evolution and Embodiment of Extraterrestrials
Chapter 12: The Evolution of Extraterrestrials
The Evolutionary Synthesis and Estimates
of the Prevalence of Intelligence Beyond Earth
Douglas A. Vakoch 191
Chapter 13: Biocultural Prerequisites for the Development of
Interstellar Communication
Garry Chick 205
Chapter 14: Ethology, Ethnology, and Communication with
Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Dominique Lestel 229
vi
Reconstructing Distant Civilizations and Encountering Alien Cultures
Chapter 15: Constraints on Message Construction for Communication
with Extraterrestrial Intelligence
William H. Edmondson 237
VI. Epilogue
Mirrors of Our Assumptions
Lessons from an Arthritic Neanderthal
Douglas A. Vakoch 251
About the Authors 255
NASA History Series 261
Index 279
vii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To the authors of Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication, I
especially appreciate the innovation and depth of the research they share here.
They deserve special thanks for thoughtfully engaging one another’s ideas,
as reflected in the numerous cross-references between chapters throughout
the volume. Paul Duffield captures the essential themes of this conversation
in his compelling cover art, and I am grateful for his creativity in translating
these ideas into images, giving readers an overview of the contents before
they even open the book.
Over the past 15 years, many colleagues from the SETI Institute have
shared with me their insights into the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence,
as well as the ways we can best communicate this work to the broader
public. I especially thank Molly Bentley, Anu Bhagat, James Brewster, Steve
Brockbank, Edna DeVore, Frank Drake, Sophie Essen, Andrew Fraknoi, John
Gertz, Gerry Harp, Jane Jordan, Ly Ly, Michelle Murray, Chris Munson,
Chris Neller, Tom Pierson, Karen Randall, Jon Richards, Pierre Schwob, Seth
Shostak, and Jill Tarter. I am grateful to John Billingham for his many years of
friendship, generosity, and commitment to exploring the societal dimensions
of astrobiology. We miss him, but his memory lives on.
I warmly acknowledge the administration, faculty, staff, and students of
the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), especially for support from
Joseph Subbiondo, Judie Wexler, and Tanya Wilkinson. Much of the work
of editing this volume was made possible through a generous sabbatical leave
from my other academic responsibilities at CIIS. In addition, I thank Harry
and Joyce Letaw as well as Jamie Baswell for their intellectual and financial
contributions to promoting the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
Among the organizations that have fostered discussions on the topics in
this volume, I especially want to recognize the International Academy of
Astronautics (IAA), the American Anthropological Association (AAA), and
the Society for Cross-Cultural Research (SCCR). Several of the chapters in this
volume are elaborations of papers first presented at AAA annual conferences.
For their openness to considering a new topic for the NASA History Series, I
thank Steve Dick and Bill Barry. I am also grateful to them and to Steve Garber
for leading such a thorough and helpful review process. I appreciate Yvette
Smith for moving this volume into production so steadfastly and efficiently,
and I thank Nadine Andreassen for her diligence in publicizing the book.
On the production side, Kimberly Ball Smith and Mary Tonkinson care-
fully copyedited the manuscript, and Heidi Blough created the index. In
the Communications Support Services Center at NASA Headquarters, I
ix
Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication
thank the entire team that brought this book to print. Mary Tonkinson and
George Gonzalez proofread the layout, and Tun Hla handled the printing.
Supervisors Christopher Yates, Barbara Bullock, Cindy Miller, and Michael
Crnkovic oversaw the entire process.
To my wife, Julie Bayless, I am grateful in more ways that I can or will
share here. Thank you, forever.
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