Invitation To Seti

File: UFO309

The message below is an invitation to join a simulation of a successful Contact with ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence.

*******************************************************

* CONTACT X -- INVITATION for PARTICIPATION in *

* *

* simSETI *

* *

*******************************************************

CONTACT is a national academic conference which brings together some of the nation's foremost scientists, science fiction writers and artists to exchange ideas, explore possibilities and stimulate new perspectives about humanity's future. Since anthropologists study "alien" cultures and science fiction writers & artists create them, each group may learn something about "The Other" from such interaction. Our goal: To encourage serious and creative inter-disciplinary speculation guided by the principles of science.

Each year we meet at CONTACT to promote the integration of human factors into space age research and policy, emphasize the interaction of the Arts and Sciences and their technologies, and develop ethical approaches in cross-cultural contact, whenever and wherever it occurs.

ABOUT simSETI: How would Earth respond to a successful SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence)? There are three approaches to finding out: conduct a real SETI and see what happens (very accurate, but no room for mistakes); armchair speculation (accuracy depends on the speculator, with only persuasiveness to validate the ideas prior to "testing"); or to try to simulate the event (questionable accuracy, but probably the most "realistic" we can hope for).

SimSETI is a simulated ETI detection event, begun at CONTACT IX in March, 1992 and continued via Internet since then. In it, an "ET team" has created an alien and the planet, ecology, and culture to go with it; these ETs have sent a signal which has been received by an "Earth team" which is trying to decode, interpret, and respond to the signal. So far, the Earth team has largely decoded the first set of signals and concluded that they do indeed represent a message (apparently containing information about a planetary system and some elementary math notation, etc). Additional messages received within the last month are still being deciphered, and more are expected in the weeks preceding CONTACT X (copies of these signals are available by email from the address below).

CONTACT X will be held in Santa Clara, CA, from 26-28 Feb. 1993. During the conference we will attempt to interpret the ET signals, what they tell us and what they tell us about the senders themselves. We will then try to formulate a "global policy," respond, and see what happens. Some people will be onsite, and the rest will continue to participate via email.

What each of us will really learn from this exercise will depend on our interests. For some, simSETI represents a cryptography puzzle; for others, the challenge lies in re-constructing the ETs based on fragmentary clues plus general physical, biological, and cultural principles. It is impossible to predict whether or not we will learn anything about ourselves that is directly useful for NASA planners. That is in the nature of a simulation--if we knew what insights it would provide, there would be no point in doing it (other than to have fun!).

We especially hope for participation from continents other than North America. Because CONTACT is based here and most onsite participants are American, this simulation of a global event risks missing out a global perspective.

************************************************************************

* CONTACT is the brainchild of Jim Funaro (Anthropology Dept., *

* Cabrillo College, Aptos CA 95003), with input from many others *

* over the 9 years it has been going. You can read about CONTACT *

* in the October 1992 issue of _Omni_ ("How to build an alien", by *

* Keith Ferrell); write to Jim Funaro for more background on CONTACT *

* or for registration information to attend CONTACT X in person (no *

* registration required for email participants). A newsletter is *

* published four times a year and is available for $15 annually from *

* 20003-3032. *

* *

* CONTACT consists of: *

* SYMPOSIA: Interdisciplinary forums in which professional *

* scientists, writers and artists present scholarly papers for *

* publication and for discussion with the audience. *

* *

* THE BATESON PROJECT: A seminar of invited experts each year *

* addresses a selected topic of academic and public interest *

* relating to our future on Earth or in space. *

* *

* CULTURES OF THE IMAGINATION: An educational scenario involving *

* world building (physical sciences), creating an appropriate *

* alien ecology and biology (life sciences), culture design *

* (social sciences), and/or cross-cultural contact (sciences, *

* arts, and humanities). *

* *

* WORKSHOPS: Educational mini-courses directed by professionals *

* provide theoretical background and "hands-on" experience in *

* world construction, bioform design, culture building, inter- *

* cultural contact, etc. *

* *

************************************************************************