Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2009.42.5.396 by guest on 02 October 2021 T R A G E N E R A L A RTICLE E C A P Universal Cognitive Maps S and the Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe ABSTRACT Guillermo A. Lemarchand For almost 50 years the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence and Jon Lomberg (SETI) research program was pursued under the hypothesis of the universality of the physi- cal laws in the cosmos. The authors call attention to some epistemological issues that make it necessary to seek other aesthetic, spiritual and ethical he aim of the present essay is to call the at- introduce to a broad interdisciplin- “cognitive universals.” They T propose the participation of a tention of scholars to the need for a systematic exploration ary academic community. of cognitive universals that might be used to develop new strat- SETI researchers believe that the broader community of scholars egies for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) from natural, social, artistic and basic principles of our science and humanistic disciplines to explore research programs and eventually to seek for new ways to de- the science of extraterrestrial beings all the possible “universal cogni- sign schemes for communication among hypothetical galactic should be fundamentally the same, tive maps” that eventually might civilizations. We think that this work should be focused on and we should be able to communi- favor the detection of extrater- four types of cognitive universals: (a) physical-technological, cate with ETIL by referring to those restrial intelligent life. (b) aesthetic, (c) ethical and (d) spiritual. All previous SETI things we share in common: the observational projects have been designed taking into account principles of mathematics, physics, only the assumed universality of the laws of nature, along with chemistry and so on [2--4]. some technological considerations. Our working hypothesis The latter statement assumes that there is only one way to assumes that one way to improve the odds of finding extrater- perceive and understand the laws of nature and that, because restrial intelligent life (ETIL) is by making conjectures about of that, the language of science and mathematics must be uni- the methodology needed to transform human cognitive maps versal. At this point we may call attention to some other episte- into cognitive universals. mological considerations. Kuhn [5] envisioned the possibility We introduce the term cognitive map to define more accu- of situations in which two theoretical conceptions are so differ- rately the conceptualization taken from the epistemology of ent that, because of the irremediable paradigm dependence science known as a paradigm or worldview [1]. Here we con- of observations and other methodological features of science, ceive a cognitive map as the process by which “intelligence” there is no rational method acceptable to defenders of each makes representations of its environment in its own processing conception that could serve to ground the resolution of the system (in our case the human brain). dispute between them. In such situations, the two traditions Features of the physical environment are only one of the sig- are said to be incommensurable. nificant parts of human cognitive maps. We live in an environ- The question here is whether the standards of evidence, ment where other people act and where information linguistic interpretation and understanding dictated by the terrestrial in nature (signs, orders, instructions, descriptions, etc.) oper- “cognitive map” on the one hand and by the ETIL’s “cognitive ates. Therefore, our cognitive maps must represent objects, map” on the other are so different that a “mutual understand- living beings and their behavior, linguistic abstractions and ing” (communication) between them cannot be interpreted as perceptions about the external world. To these we would also having been dictated by any common standards of rationality. add perceptions of aesthetic, ethical and spiritual values. How Since there are no significant theory-independent standards universal and ubiquitous are these human representations? Is of rationality, it follows that the communication in question is it possible to find cognitive maps within the physical, aesthetic, not a matter of rationality. It needs to involve the adoption of ethical and spiritual dimensions that could be considered “uni- a wholly new conception of the world, complete with its own versal”? These are the types of questions that we would like to distinctive standards of rationality. This argument incorporates the claim that the semantics of the two cognitive maps differ to Guillermo A. Lemarchand (principal investigator), SETI Observational Program at such an extent that those terms that they may have in common the Argentine Institute for Radioastronomy (IAR), Academician of the International Academy of Astronautics, C.C. 8---Sucursal 25, 1425-Buenos Aires, Argentina. E-Mail: should not be thought of as having the same referents in the <[email protected]>. two cognitive-map systems. Jon Lomberg (space artist), PO Box 207, Honaunau, Hawaii 96726, U.S.A. E-mail: <[email protected]>. Web: <www.jonlomberg.com/>. At this point, we found two different conceptualizations of the term incommensurability that may be used to define the Article Frontispiece. The Great Chain of Being. (© Jon Lomberg) impossibility of exchanging intelligible information among The Universe is observed at scales ranging from the microcosmic to galactic cultures. the macrocosmic. Atoms in the proteins making up a bacteriophage virus are seen against a unicellular diatom, floating above the grass 1. Methodological incommensurability: a relation claimed in a meadow near the sea. The Sun, stars, Milky Way and distant to hold between different theoretical frameworks such clusters of galaxies recede in the distance. that, because of the deeply cognitive map-dependent ©2009 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 42, No. 5, pp. 396–402, 2009 397 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2009.42.5.396 by guest on 02 October 2021 T R A character of observation and scien- which has hundreds of words to describe very useful for the redesign of SETI ob- E C different colors, we use the same word A tific method, no rational method servational strategies. P S for exchanging intelligible infor- “red” to describe an apple, a brick and a It is a reasonable hypothesis to assume mation can be found. red-haired person. Context determines that any advanced intelligent species 2. Semantic incommensurability: a the meaning, but a literal translation into would have to establish some of these relation claimed to hold between another language might result in confu- principles in order to survive its evolution- instances of the same term as it oc- sion because of different human cogni- ary process, to develop technology and, curs in the confrontations between tive maps. in the long term, to evolve in harmony two different cognitive maps. Vakoch [7] goes further and shows sev- both with its planetary environment and The evolutionary paths of extraterres- eral examples of incommensurability in as a society and with other species. The trial life will be strongly dependent on the interpretation of pictorial interstel- last is a requirement for the develop- the characteristics of their planetary envi- lar messages by hypothetical galactic cul- ment of ethical restrictions. Eventually, some ETIL could have evolved thought processes and communication strategies Any serious attempt to establish contact that match our own to a degree that will enable us to comprehend them. with other galactic civilizations must Because the only way we have to find evidences of ETIL is through the detec- explore alternative epistemologies to tion of artificial signals generated by technological activities, many sorts of infer new contact strategies. cognitive universals can be surmised by considering various topics, including pragmatic requirements—what the ex- ronments. Alien intelligences will be very tures. However, his alternative proposal traterrestrials must know to build send- different organisms, with different needs, to use iconic representations, in which ing and receiving equipment. We can senses and behaviors. They could inhabit the sign bears a physical similarity to that also introduce some assumptions about environments in which neither science which it represents, still requires some aesthetic and ethical principles that will nor technologies are needed for survival. “basic common theoretical framework” define some characteristics of the con- The science of an extraterrestrial civiliza- to avoid misinterpretation. tact strategies. tion would reflect the way theyperceive na- Different planetary environments Within the scientific community there ture, as funneled through the course of around other stars may present a far is a general consensus that mathematics their particular evolutionary adjustment stronger incommensurability problem contains “cognitive universals” that cut to their specific environment. It may be for exchanging information using dif- across cultural and linguistic boundar- impossible for us to distinguish any of ferent cognitive maps. ies among humans, which can be used their possible intelligent manifestations On the other hand, all intelligent prob- to communicate with ETIL. Are there if we are using different cognitive maps. lem-solvers are subject to the same ulti- as well any universal aesthetic