First Contact

Most people have heard of the story about Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast of “The War of the Worlds.” It was broadcast as series of simulated news bulletins which seemed so realistic to some it caused widespread panic by people who believed it was real, aliens had landed, and the Earth was under attack. Some claimed they could smell poison gas or see flashes of lightning in the distance. Afterwards some listeners even sued the network for "mental anguish" and "personal injury." All of these were dismissed, except for a claim for a pair of black men's shoes, size 9, by a Massachusetts man who spent his shoe money to escape the Martians. Welles insisted apparently that the man be paid. This story makes me wonder what will happen in the case of us finding life outside the Earth. What effect will that have? Will it cause panic? Will people be scared? How will it effect us fundamentally?

Well, there is almost a president. "The Great Moon Hoax”, as its often known, was a series of six articles that were published in the New York Sun newspaper in 1835. These stories were about the supposed discovery of life and even alien civilization on the Moon. These discoveries were falsely attributed to Sir John Herschel, perhaps the best-known astronomer of his time. The stories described amazing animals seen on the Moon, including bison, goats, unicorns, bipedal tail-less beavers and bat-like winged humanoids who built temples. There were also said to be trees and oceans with beaches. These discoveries were supposedly made with "an immense telescope of an entirely new principle". The effect of these stories was to dramatically increase sales of the newspaper, but there was no panic, no mass hysteria, no breakdown of civilisation. People just took it in their stride and got on with there everyday lives. If there was life on the Moon they reasoned, it would have no effect on them.

I tell these stories because we may be getting close to finding live outside the Earth. It could be in our solar system or outside. It could be simple or complex, who knows. the discovery could come from a probe on Mars, an exoplanet observation or a signal found by SETI, any number of places. But a lot of scientists now reason that such a discovery may well be made within the lifetime of many people alive today. Such a profound discovery will have huge ramifications but I think that in general, most people will greet the news with indifference. If it isn't going to affect them on a day to day basis I think most people will just shrug it off. Yes, for science it will change the world forever, for religion, well, they will be a lot of explaining to do, but for most people in general, I suspect that sadly such news will have little impact upon them.