Treading on the Edge: Practicing Safe Science with SETI DONALD E. TARTER or those of us in the diverse entourage of individuals who have worked to promote Fthe search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), October 12, 1992, the five hundredth anniversary of the first voyage of Columbus to America, represented a step into a new age. On that day, two of Earth's great hearing aids, the giant radio telescopes at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, and Goldstone Tracking Station, California, turned on to begin the most powerful search When you search yet mounted to find out if we are alone in the universe. This NASA-sponsored search joins for aliens with other searches, such as those by the Planetary public money, Society and the University of California, good mental Berkeley, to give a massive boost in search space and sensitivity. hygiene is The megachannel extraterrestrial assays essential. (META) searches sponsored by the Planetary Society, which began in 1985, were extremely powerful for their time. Now, however, these searches are dwarfed by the capacity and sensitivity of the NASA search. The opening ceremonies at Goldstone were given an added air of excitement by Carl Sagan's revelations that the META searches have revealed a small number of tantalizing signals that meet all the criteria of an ETI signal except the absolutely essential necessity of repeatability. The coor- dinates of these events have been given to the NASA team to investigate with their far more sensitive instruments. The path to this point for the NASA search has been long and frustrating. SETI stands at the edge of established physical and biological 288 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 17 Radio telescope at Goldstone Tracking Station, California NASA sciences. SETI's recent history has discovered would be "H-R-M-S Posi- been one of fighting for scientific tive." In a slight act of rebellion against respect and then fighting for funding. NASA authority, in my writing I shall Right up until the most recent budget continue to refer to the program by was passed, budget-cutting congres- its better-known acronym SETI. sional members hunted for a federal SETI's credibility within the scien- program they thought could be elim- tific community has steadily increased inated. SETI has been so frequently over the past few decades, but it still ridiculed and singled out as such a has many outspoken detractors. Even program that officially SETI no longer the detractors, however, seeem to exists. Shortly before NASA's current have a basic fondness for the program. search began, the space agency Zen Faulks, a University of Victoria announced that the program's name biologist, in a dismal assessment of the had been changed to the High Reso- prospects of a SETI discovery recently lution Microwave Search (HRMS)— stated in the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER: a mumbling sort of acronym that can't be pronounced. NASA has often been . The incredible improbability of described as the agency that made the alien intelligence should be taken greatest human adventure in his- into account when deciding how tory—going to the moon—boring. It much of our effort SETI should seems they may be trying for that occupy, but I would be disheartened to see the search stopped. The distinction again. At the dedication fallout for all the sciences, especially ceremonies, Sagan quipped that he the biological sciences, would be so hoped some of the signals META gargantuan if we did contact an Spring 1993 289 alien intelligence . that it seems Abstinence foolish to abandon the entire affair. SETI remains an intellectual game Just as with abstaining from sex, worth playing, even if only on a abstaining from interest in aliens does small scale. (Faulks 1991) not seem to be very popular. The quest to answer the question "Is there other Among the general public, little is intelligent life in the cosmos?" is a known about this exotic electronic primal intellectual interest. In earlier endeavor; and of those who express decades, abstinence from the search interest, many are from fringe groups. for alien life-forms was easier for Among the knowledgeable general astronomers. Outside of the limited public there exists a strong tinge of visual abilities of their optical tele- skepticism that such an enterprise is scopes, there was simply no way to serious, and there always is a common deal with the issue scientifically. questioning as to whether the endea- In the early 1930s, Karl Jansky, of vor is worth funding with public Bell Laboratories, began to develop money. radio telescope technology. With this We in the SETI community often technology a new means of assessing feel our marginal status, even in our the cosmos came into being. It was closest personal relationships. My not until 1959 that serious sugges- own mother, for instance, steadfastly tions were made to use this technol- refuses to discuss my professional ogy to search for extraterrestrial life. interest with her friends, lest they In that year, the seminal article in think something is wrong with me. Nature, by Giuseppe Cocconi and I have colleagues who smile and nod Philip Morrison, titled "Searching for tolerantly but keep their intellectual Interstellar Communications" was to distance when the subject is men- begin modern SETI. As is often the tioned. If you are actively engaged in case in science, without knowledge of the SETI enterprise the burden is on Cocconi and Morrison's suggestion, a you to demonstrate that you are a young radio astronomer named Frank responsible member of the scientific Drake used the 85-foot dish at the community. National Radio Astronomy Observa- Many in the scientific community tory in Greenbank, West Virginia, to regard SETI as similar to AIDS, as a search for signals from two nearby potentially lethal infection. I maintain, stars, Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti. however, that the SETI virus is not In SETI lore this is known as the necessarily fatal to one's scientific famous project "Ozma." standing. SETI scientists, recognizing Two decades later, the develop- the risks of their passions, have taken ment of modern computerized multi- great care to practice "safe science." channel analyzers made possible In many ways they have been more large-scale attempts to monitor radio scientifically cautious than colleagues emissions from space. As the number in other disciplines. The unwritten of channels available for analysis rules that have emerged in the SETI became greater, the search became enterprise bear a striking resemblance more credible in terms of the prob- to the rules for safe sex. Just as with ability of discovery. By the 1980s, the safe sex, these rules may be hard to scientific and technological ground- follow; but when you are hunting for work for sophisticated SETI was aliens, being careful is the only way available. to ensure your scientific survival. The cultural groundwork had also 290 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 17 been established for the project. In the international astronomical Scientists like Carl Sagan, Arthur C. community, interest continued to Clarke, and Philip Morrison stirred grow. In 1982, Commission #51, the interest with their talks and writings. Bioastronomy Commission, was Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. established in the International Astro- Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, nomical Union (IAU). Boston Univer- Stephen Spielberg's ET: The Extrater- sity astronomer Michael D. Pappagian- restrial, and Sagan's science series nis led this effort. From its initial size Cosmos on television are but a few of of about 150 members, it has grown the major media events that helped to nearly 300, making it one of the shape cultural interest in the subject. largest commissions within IAU. Meanwhile, in NASA, diligent Unfortunately, there is a sad sim- work by John Billingham, Barney ilarity between the SETI revolution Oliver, Sam Gulkis, Mike Klein, Jill and the sexual revolution. Just when Tarter (no relation to the author), and we thought we were about to learn other scientists, helped overcome the "joys of sex" in a sexually eman- internal resistance to a SETI program. cipated society, the pandemic of AIDS The same individuals, with the help appeared. In the SETI revolution, just of many others, later led efforts to as SETI scientists were beginning to secure funding from Congress. learn the joys of being a federally - hx*^/ 1 * v i ' ^ f/t Radio telescope at Arecibo. Puertio Rico. r \ASi Spring 1993 291 funded program, one of the greatest animals . the contemporary rein- budget crises in the history of America carnation of phoenixes and unicorns" appeared. Tax-supported scientific (Swift 1990:323). programs are coming under increas- The radio astronomer Charles ingly harsh scrutiny. The slightest Seeger, longtime SETI advocate, has indiscretion may produce ominous stated a more moderate position with results. Sex and SETI are no longer respect to UFOs: "I don't . call it just fun and games—they are poten- nonsense, because I think it is a tially lethal if not practiced with great fascinating aspect of humanity. But care. Safe science with SETI is not just there is no reasonably respectable desirable, it is essential. evidence that we are being visited by extraterrestrials. ." (Swift 1990: Be Careful with High-Risk Groups 302). Jill Tarter, chief project scientist at SETI and the Air Force have a common NASA Ames, perhaps best summed problem—UFO enthusiasts. Before up the tough-minded approach to the the days of sophisticated SETI UFO subject taken by most SETI searches the Air Force was the prime scientists when she said: "I have an target for UFOlogists. The continuing open mind on whether anyone has insistence that the Air Force "knows seen anything that has a reality to it; something," or is "hiding something," a closed mind on the idea that what with respect to alien life-forms has a has been seen is a manifestation of life of its own.