The Alien in the Machine: Post-Detection in the Era of AI
Kathryn Denning, Anamaria Berea, Rebecca Charbonneau, Steven J Dick, Chelsea Haramia, Brian S McConnell, & George Profitiliotis
Program available at this link
The Search for Technosignatures: a review
Clément Vidal
The search for communicative technosignatures has received an impressive boost with the Breakthrough Listen program.
However, the search for non-communicative technosignatures remains a scattered effort in comparison.
In this breakout session, we aim to make a broad review of possible technosignature search strategies and targets from the literature, with a focus on non-communicative technosignatures.
We propose to organize them through the scales of the universe, which is a different, complementary organization from the SETI in 20XX paper series by Wright and Huston.
The first day will be focused on reviewing a variety of technosignatures, while the second day will focus on organizing and writing up the results collaboratively.
The aim of this project is not to judge or evaluate the merits of the various strategies and targets – it could be done in a later stage.
We include a discussion of the commonalities, divergences, and synergies between the search for biosignatures and technosignatures.
The planning summary is:
Day 1:
Hour 0-1 – Collaborative review of technosignature search strategies and targets
Hour 1-2 – Collaborative write up
Day 2:
Hour 2-3 – Bio- and techno- signatures discussion
Hour 3-4 – Collaborative write up
We hope that better organizing the wide array of possible technosignature target and strategies with key actors of the community will clear the way for strengthening and growing the field and the community.
The Moral Relevance of “Intelligence” in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
Matthew Lamb, Michele Mekel
This participatory, two-session breakout series will bring to bear the lenses of bioethics, the social sciences, and the humanities. The purpose is to explore the positioning of “intelligence” (and “intelligences”) in framing hierarchical attitudes regarding the assignment of moral value. The breakout series will also interrogate homogeneity in human thinking about “intelligence.” To that end, presenters and participants will probe disrupting common presumptions regarding the moral status owed to purportedly “intelligent” beings.
Given the inherent integration of ‘intelligence’ within the SETI acronym and the search’s current and historical approaches, workshop participants will engage in discursive inquiry to:
· parse what is meant by the term within the SETI context; and
· inform and refine the role and status given to “intelligence” within this milieu.
Guiding Questions:
· What role does–and should– “intelligence” (or “intelligences”) play in the search for extraterrestrial life?
· Are conceptions of “intelligence” intertwined with the ways humans understand interaction?
· How does—and how should—models of moral status be incorporated into the search for extraterrestrial life?
· How can–and should– the anthropomorphic understanding of “intelligence” (and, therefore, the ability to “meaningfully” interact) be upended for more robust moral and scientific inclusivity?
* Terms in quotation marks, supra, indicate the need for clarification and discussion.
Format: Based on an informed, moderated deliberative approach, this two-session breakout series will include mini presentations by subject-matter experts regarding “intelligence(s)” and moral status, as well as engaged dialogue inspired by the reading of a short science-fiction story by Theresa Fisher. The story, “Spider Plant,” forthcoming in Life Beyond Us, examines the current and historical approaches to SETI, and cautions against anthropomorphic, speciesist, and/or ableist conceptualizations of “intelligence,” “communication,” and “life.”
This breakout session is important to SETI scientists from all educational backgrounds. It is also important for other scholars in the humanities, ethics, etc. The reason being, interrogating what counts as intelligence as well as how the formation of the concept has influenced our understandings of life necessitates a multi-disciplinary collaboration. Hence, our workshop invites symposium participants to engage in discursive inquiry to: 1. parse what is meant by the term within the SETI context; and 2. inform and refine the role and status given to “intelligence” within this milieu.
Preliminary Results from NASA’s Technosignature Gap Study
Nick Siegler, Virisha Timmaraju, Rich Terrile
This study, commenced in 2021, builds on the work of the 2018 NASA Workshop on Technosignatures. Its intention is to fact find the numerous ways in which scientists are searching for technosignatures to help NASA learn the needs of the community. They may include needs of new technologies, or access to existing or future ground and space observatories, funding, new search tools, etc.
The results of the study are intended to offer a broad snap shot of the technosignatures community – its investigations, its needs, and potentially help investigators identify where there are synergistic opportunities (such as with NASA facilities) as well as identify areas where philanthropic donors may be interested. The database may also offer a one-stop shop for future investigators wanting to view the landscape of the field before deciding where they want to begin their scientific journey. We expect the Study to be about 90% complete by the time of the Symposium.
At the two proposed splinter sessions, we would like to share some of the early results with the attendees and get their feedback, open it up to discussions – Is it what they would have expected? Are they surprised? Did we miss anything? Or get something wrong? Are there possible next steps? I can already envision an engaging discussion on the role of advanced AI.
Here are some of the questions we’ll discuss together during the breakout sessions:
1. What are motivations ETI could have that can inform technosignature investigations? (and can we really guess alien motivations?)
2. What are the top technology needs of the various Technosignature Search Approaches?
– We will include a discussion on artificial intelligence and NASA’s next life-finding mission the Habitable Worlds Observatory.
3. Here are some Technosignature Search Approaches you may have never heard of… (get your sci-fi hats on)
4. Which Technosignature Search Approaches could be addressed by current and future observatories and space missions? (you may be surprised)
5. Do you have a favorite Technosignature Search Approach that is missing from the NASA study? If so, please share.
6. What else does the TS community need to advance the field (besides $)? NASA is listening.
We announced the commencement of this Study at the 2022 PSU Technosignatures Symposium where Virisha Timmaraju (JPL) gave a contributed talk. Many of the Symposium attendees have already provided information into the study; Virisha (database lead/JPL) and Eric Mamajek (co-creator/JPL) are expected to be in attendance. We plan to publish a paper summarizing this work to Icarus and posting the database to the NASA Exoplanet Explorations Program website for public access. Important attendee contributions to the splinter session may be given the opportunity to be co-authors on the final paper.