The background of the show is the following: In July 2023, a group of lawmakers in the United States hold a meeting to consider evidence of extraterrestrial life. The evidence included the famous tic-tac videos of mysterious flying objects. Involved pilots described encounters with unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs). In addition, the Congress learned of a secret U.S. government program that is collecting and reconstructing materials allegedly not human-made, including crashed and intact spacecraft - and potentially the remains of the beings who piloted them.
The BBC Radio podcast takes the present circumstances as a motive to ask anew about our exceptional position in the universe. In the center of the contribution however the quite critical question stands whether such reports can serve really as scientifically serious basis.
Chelsea Haramia explains the broad ethical context in which questions about possible contact with extraterrestrial intelligence and its technologies arise.
In the course of this, she now argues for a scientific and sociopolitical examination of this possibility and its potential consequences. She sees a significant instance in a successful (international) science communication as well as in the public work of philosophers.
What does a responsible approach look like in the case of contact? Who decides in such situations? And what does a successful science communication look like that manages to make the state of the relevant research accessible outside the respective discipline, both for citizens and for research centers in other countries.
