The Promise and Perils of Contacting Extraterrestrials

Aug 17, 2024

Yascha Mounk, a political theory expert, and Douglas Vakoch, an astrobiologist and president of METI International, dive into the ethics of reaching out to extraterrestrial intelligence. They explore the implications of contact and the historical parallels of exploration and exploitation. The duo debates the risks of communicating with advanced civilizations, drawing caution from human history. They also discuss the scientific quests like the Drake Equation and Fermi Paradox, emphasizing the moral complexities of whether we should signal our existence to the cosmos.