Searches for Life and Intelligence Beyond Earth
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Technologies of Perception: Searches for Life and Intelligence Beyond Earth by Claire Isabel Webb Bachelor of Arts, cum laude Vassar College, 2010 Submitted to the Program in Science, Technology and Society in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology September 2020 © 2020 Claire Isabel Webb. All Rights Reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. Signature of Author: _____________________________________________________________ History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society August 24, 2020 Certified by: ___________________________________________________________________ David Kaiser Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science (STS) Professor of Physics Thesis Supervisor Certified by: ___________________________________________________________________ Stefan Helmreich Elting E. Morison Professor of Anthropology Thesis Committee Member Certified by: ___________________________________________________________________ Sally Haslanger Ford Professor of Philosophy and Women’s and Gender Studies Thesis Committee Member Accepted by: ___________________________________________________________________ Graham Jones Associate Professor of Anthropology Director of Graduate Studies, History, Anthropology, and STS Accepted by: ___________________________________________________________________ Jennifer S. Light Professor of Science, Technology, and Society Professor of Urban Studies and Planning Department Head, Program in Science, Technology, & Society Technologies of Perception: Searches for Life and Intelligence Beyond Earth by Claire Isabel Webb Submitted to the Program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society on September 4, 2020 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society Scientists in the late 1950s in the United States gained technological capabilities to test for signs of extraterrestrial life. While exobiologists developed visual techniques to detect whether sites beyond Earth might harbor microbes, “biosignatures,” radio astronomers searched for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) in the form of “technosignatures.” This dissertation explores how scientists since the Space Age have constructed experimental assemblages to imagine, relate to, and investigate the alien and exotic microbes—unknown, indeed, as-yet-imperceptible, objects—through familiar sensory metaphors of seeing (exobiologists) and listening (SETI scientists). From historical material gathered at various D.C. archives, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Library of Medicine, I show how exobiologists’ technologies of vision rendered anew images of the Moon, Mars, Venus, and the Earth from afar and at surface, affording scientists the ability to conceptually anticipate relationships between their world and others. Through a epistemic pratice I call “gaze-scaling,” they yoked the concept of “island” to “planet,” casting extraterrestrial sites as fragile laboratories of life that beckoned exploration. I next draw from immersive participant observation since 2016 to engage ethnographic sonar on the SETI group Breakthrough Listen based at U.C. Berkeley, California. I analyze how they construct criteria of intelligence through “experiments of anticipation” that are parametrized to hear from a commensurable subject. I theorize “figures of listening” in both observational protocols and as a preemptive attunement to Other intention, acts that configure an alien who would be not just perceptible, but relatable. If exobiologists envisioned universal standards of biochemistry that would map life’s common origins, SETI astronomers have traded on imagined superhuman characteristics of the alien—more benevolent, wiser, and technologically superior—to suggest human futures. I outline how the alien has been imagined through three potent analogical figures: as artifacts, animals, and angels. Furnished by feminist epistemologies and queer theories of care around multispecies becomings—traditions that have persistently challenged ontological stability across species, gender, race, and spacetime—I theorize those analogies as acts of “reflexive alienation”: a mode of world- making in which scientists imagine Others imagining them. Future-oriented extraterrestrial objects held in abeyance cultivate Earthly concepts of being. Thesis Supervisor: David Kaiser Title: Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science (STS) and Professor of Physics Contents Acknowledgements 5 Introduction: Technologies of Perception 14 Chapter 2: Islands in Space 42 Chapter 3: Sounds of SETI 77 Chapter 4: Analogical Aliens 142 Conclusion: Reflexive Alienation 204 Bibliography 217 Acknowledgements This dissertation project was sparked by an astronomy internship at the SETI Institute I gained while at Vassar College over the summer of 2008. Debra Elmegreen and Fred Chromey, my undergraduate astronomy professors, taught me about galaxies, quasars, observational astronomy, and possible forms of life beyond Earth. Jennifer Church, my philosopher advisor there, introduced me to methods of inquiry I would stitch together with science studies in HASTS. As a result of their mentorship, I found an incredible community of scientists who quest for extraterrestrial life, especially Jill Tarter and Frank Drake. As founders of the SETI Institute, those two scientists generously nudged along my interpretation of their work. While I was living in Berkeley, California, Jill, who lives high in the hills there, was always open for coffee or an interview. I remain inspired by her tenacity and enduring passion to make contact. If aliens were to descend to Earth and require, as part of their anthropological (or exo- logical?) research, a model of a perfect dissertation committee, I would recommend to them Profs. David Kaiser, Stefan Helmreich, and Sally Haslanger. I feel lucky to have been able both to tap their discipline-spanning knowledge (history of science, anthropology, and feminist studies) and also rely on their unflagging good nature, good humor, and grace. I met my advisor, Dave (see: OED, s.v., “mensch”) as a prospective student in 2012, and left his office with the sure feeling I wanted to learn alongside him. Since then, he has lit the way for this project with warmth, encouragement, and sparkling wit. Dave has read endless drafts and fielded countless emails with buoying, calming, encouragement. Our intersecting interests in (astro)physics in the Cold War era have inspired this project, but it was a pure pleasure to read together back to the pre-Socratic philosophers during my exams. That experience made me feel like I was part of an honored intellectual club that extends back millennia, and there was no better guide. Stefan Helmreich’s scalpel-like inquiry into all things 5 anthropological has pulled this project in wonderful, exciting new directions. With him, I know there is always another level to think on, a new theoretical connection to be gained; learning social theory with him was mind-bending. Sally Haslanger graciously joined my committee outside of the HASTS program. Wading into the philosophical tradition with her counsel, I have learned to carefully piece together language to make broader claims. She molded my STS-y approach around feminist topics with generous philosophical illumination, an approach I am excited to cultivate further. As I have immersed myself in the worlds of exobiologists of the Space Age and current SETI practitioners, I have often found myself asking: How would Dave characterize, relate, and theorize the circulation of knowledge practices here? What bon mot would Stefan proffer to unspool my ethnographic claims a little bit farther? How might approaching a gnarly topic with Sally’s philosophical sharpness make more clear claims about gender, race, and being? This amazing trio thinks, reads, and writes with care and compassion, and I feel honored to have been mentored by them. My profoundest gratitude to these three. Thank you also to intellectual mentors in and around HASTS. Heather Paxson sculpted my writing, demanding clarity and excellence with true warmth, and I credit her with helping me gain several grants that made this project possible. Jen Light, Chris Walley, and Anne McCants made me a better writer. Thank you to Will Deringer, who assisted my General Exams study, and Robin Scheffler who was instrumental in my analysis of exobiology. Amy Moran-Thomas supervised my language exam—thank you. I am grateful to count Lisa Messeri as a mentor on outer space studies. Leah Aronowsky is an acute editor and friend. MIT staff make the gears turn, and so, thank you to Carolyn Carlson, Paree Pinkney, and the librarians. Thank you especially to Karen Gardner, an astute administrator who knows everything HASTS-related and was also a confidante. Thank you also to my dear HASTS compatriots. I have turned often to Alison Laurance, Beth Semel, and Clare Kim for advice and was always met with cheer. Richard Fadok was my 6 writing buddy as we muddled through postdoc applications and dissertation writing this past spring. I remain grateful for their unswerving ride-or-die approach to support me, night or day, and this project. Thank you to