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Searchlites , ISSN 1096-5599, Spoke About Philosophy, Science, and So On

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Searchlites , ISSN 1096-5599, Spoke About Philosophy, Science, and So On Search Lites Vol. 14 No. 4, Autumn 2008 The Quarterly Newsletter of The SETI League, Inc. Offices: 433 Liberty Street UNESCO and SETI PO Box 555 by Kathryn Denning and Elisabeth Piotelat Little Ferry NJ 07643 USA In planning for an upcoming SETI conference in Paris, members of the International Academy of Astronautics have recently sought sponsorship and sanction from UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation. The logical question raised is, how does SETI fit Phone: (201) 641-1770 within UNESCO's charter and worldview? Facsimile: (201) 641-1771 Given that UNESCO's ultimate purpose is "to build peace in the minds of men" via education, Email: science, culture, and communication, and that it is concerned with global thinking, and "the univer- [email protected] sal heritage of humanity": Web: www.setileague.org • SETI fits well because it is inherently international/global in scope, encourages big-picture thinking about our planet, encourages international cooperation, requires pro- President/Registered Agent: foundly cross-cultural thinking, and provides an arena for debates about the Earth's future, Richard Factor and discussions about multivocality ('who speaks for Earth?') Secretary/Treasurer: A. Heather Wood • Key debates in SETI today (about Active SETI in particular) are precisely on the subject of "universal agreements on emerging ethical issues", which is a UNESCO man- Executive Director Emeritus: date. H. Paul Shuch, Ph.D. UNESCO's constitution supports "the unrestricted pursuit of objective truth" and "the free ex- Trustee: Martin Schreiber, CPA change of ideas and knowledge." Any proposed SETI conference would certainly pursue similar goals. Advisory Board: A few years ago, the SETI@home distributed computing experiment proved itself a good tool Anthony Agnello "to build peace in the minds of men." The early adopters who installed SETI@home on their per- Greg Bear sonal computers in May, 1999 were mostly young boys who downloaded it as a game. Their main Paul Davies, Ph.D. objective was to get a higher peak, or to appear in the listings. They saw strange words such as "fast Robert S. Dixon, Ph.D. Fourier transform" and "Gaussian," but few of them wondered about their meanings. On SETI Frank D. Drake, Ph.D. Malcolm I. Raff, Ph.D. League email lists, the typical questions posted were "how can I increase the speed of my com- Clifford Stoll, Ph.D. puter?" and "I have found such a peak; is it the signal?" After a few months, those discussions began to take on a different tone. SETI@home users SearchLites , ISSN 1096-5599, spoke about philosophy, science, and so on. Users began inquiring who Gauss and Fourier were. is the Quarterly Newsletter of We were treated to some "café des sciences" about life in the universe, and some SETI@home us- The SETI League, Inc ., a ers began to attend scientific lectures. membership-supported, non- profit [501(c)(3)], educational and scientific corporation, dedi- Today, SETI@home software has been replaced by an expanded version, BOINC, the Berke- cated to the electromagnetic ley Open Infrastructure for Networked Computing. BOINC users can choose the project to which Search for Extra-Terrestrial they care to donate computer cycles. SETI@home remains a favourite among French speaking Intelligence. SETI League, Dr. people, but many of them have also downloaded the MalariaControl software, primarily because SETI, and the above logo are all they saw it as a "French speaking" project, having been developed by people in Switzerland, Cam- registered service marks of The eroon, Mali, etc. Thus, international cooperation, SETI-inspired! SETI League, Inc. Entire con- tents copyright © 2008 by The Even if SETI@home finds no signal, it's great to see that, indirectly, it is helping humanity to SETI League, Inc. Permission fight malaria. is hereby granted for re- production in whole or in part, UNESCO, like the United Nations itself, was born in the wake of the Second World War, to provided credit is given. All facilitate understanding between nations through the best of human culture (including science). opinions expressed are those of the individual contributors. SETI is a logical extension of that mission. Page 1 Search Lites Volume 14, Number 4 -- Autumn 2008 Guest Editorial Our modern SETI programme began life in 1960, using an increasingly sophisticated array of technology to scan the Stonehenge and SETI heavens for signs of intelligent life elsewhere, whereas the by Dennis Price people who built Stonehenge used the naked eye to seek out supernatural entities such as gods and stellified ancestors, as Surely one of the most frequently asked questions about well as omens like inverted rainbows, portents, harbingers and Stonehenge is: what was it used for when it was first built? Is a meaningful design behind the celestial bodies and phenom- there one way in which we can describe an original function of ena they observed. To my mind, given the gap of 5,000 years these mesmerising ruins with confidence? Furthermore, would or so between the two sets of "watchers of the skies", the two this be a description that the visionary and engineering gen- activities are virtually indistinguishable. iuses who built Stonehenge would agree with, if we were able The late Carl Sagan frequently emphasised the need for a to have a conversation with them? In my opinion, the answer scrupulous examination of the facts, and rightly so. The de- is yes. scription of Stonehenge as a manmade structure where our One of my favourite observations on Stonehenge was ancestors searched the skies for signs of extra-terrestrial intel- made by Sir Arthur C. Clarke, who once wrote, "Only one ligence or non-human entities had long seemed a blindingly thing can be stated with certainty about such structures as obvious one to me, but rather than run the risk of persisting in Stonehenge: the people who built them were much more intel- a delusion, I decided to get a second opinion. ligent than many who have written books about them." I en- The Vatican has an observatory in Arizona that regularly tirely concur with this observation about the intelligence of the organises international conferences on astronomy. While the builders of Stonehenge, but I believe that it's possible to state staff at the Vatican Observatory are self-evidently men of pro- at least one other uncomfortable truth about Stonehenge. found religious beliefs, they also possess extensive qualifica- In a discussion with the archaeologist Professor Vance tions in their chosen field, so I thought that this combination Tiede, the late astronomer Gerald Hawkins spoke of Stone- of learning, experience, science, religion and highly disci- henge in the following terms: "There seems to be no practical plined thinking would be the sternest possible test of my abil- value in what was going on at Stonehenge. One does not need ity to make a convincing case for Stonehenge to be defined or Stonehenge to know when to plant seeds or when to breed classified as an early SETI structure. cattle. Perhaps part of the purpose might have been for the I wrote to Christopher J Corbally, the Vice President of handmaiden of astronomy - astrology. the Vatican Observatory and a man with an impressive list of Astronomy has grown out of astrology, though we may qualifications that includes a Bachelor of Science degree in hate to face that fact. Uncanny powers were placed on celestial Physics with Honours, a Master of Science in Astronomy, a objects, and predictions were made which directly related, Doctorate in Astronomy and a Bachelor's Degree in Theology whether they came true or not, to human lives and events. with Honours, in addition to the various posts he's held, such There may have been some prognostication at Stonehenge. as Dean of the Vatican Observatory Summer School. I could quote examples at great length, but there's no I pointed Chris toward my website, as well as inviting doubt whatsoever about the fascination that the night sky held him to make whatever enquiries about me he chose to, on the for our ancestors who built Stonehenge. All the evidence I've internet and elsewhere, and he was good enough to find the seen, and all the eminent sources I've researched, speak of our time to reply. As the time period under discussion is prehis- ancestors gazing at the heavens and fervently calling out to the tory, a period without written records, he naturally qualified black void in an attempt to make contact with sentient beings what he had to say by pointing out that "this is speculation, in the form of gods, spirits and ancestors. At the same time, based on a sense that humans have been asking the same kind they were trying to make sense of the Earth and Sky around, of questions over the ages, even though our scientific tools beneath and above them, all the while wondering at the true have changed". nature of striking phenomena such as comets, shooting stars I wouldn't expect anyone applying themselves to a serious and other visitors from the depths of space. consideration of this matter to ignore the aspect of a lack of In other words, if Stonehenge was anything, it was a place written records, but Chris also wrote "I think that you are cor- where our ancestors undertook a prolonged search for extra- rect in thinking those people who built Stonehenge would terrestrial intelligence, whether you define intelligence as in- have pondered about life, and intelligent life, elsewhere." formation that we glean from repeated observation, or whether When I presented my case to Chris, he observed, "From you regard it as any form of sentient existence in the gulf of the Greek Atomists on (and no doubt before them), it seems space beyond this world.
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