The Interspecies Communication Imperative – A Hypothetical Debate
“Without feedback from other intelligent species, the human race is isolated and terribly alone,” speculated the advocate. “Any psychologist will tell you that a healthy, balanced individual needs a variety of peer and parenting relationships. Intellectual relationships promote intellectual growth. Emotional relationships promote emotional intelligence. Parental relationships provide guidance during development and provide us with the moral compass and ethical laws to live by. This same psychological analysis also applies to our species consciousness. Our species needs an external support structure amongst the family of peer species. In the absence of external stimuli, our species delusionally compensates. To some, God is the ultimate parent and the creator of the universe and religion is the ultimate law-giver. To others, ET’s are the much yearned for intellectual peers we seek. And yet to others, paranormal spirits provide the emotional comfort that we lack or are the daemons of the id that we fear.”
“I challenge the advocate’s wild assertions,” interrupted the challenger. “Religion is universally embraced around the planet by all races and cultures. This is not just an aberration of group psychology. All of these systems share the same value— that mankind is a related to the creator—cast in his image. I don’t see any evidence to the contrary on our planet.”
“No evidence has been found because we’ve not asked the right questions,” said the advocate. “Maybe it’s because it strokes our egos to be the earth’s top-dog. We don’t bother to ask these tough questions and search for other intellects.”
“Where is the evidence of other high level intellects?” asked the challenger. “We’ve lived on the earth for thousands of years and there isn’t any evidence of civilization out there other than our own. As far as most of us on this planet are concerned, we are the guardians of the planet with dominion over all the creatures.”
“Yes,” interjected a third-party Green advocate, “we are the guardians, but that doesn’t justify planetary and species exploitation.”
“We aren’t ever going to know if there are other intellectual civilizations unless we break the codes of their language,” countered the advocate. “It’s our species responsibility to at least make the attempt. Anything less is an abrogation of our responsibilities as the dominant species on earth. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain if we discover other intelligent companions.”
“Scientific orthodoxy would object to the validity of your conclusions on the grounds that evidence of a high order intellect is inextricably linked to development of a society or civilization. However we’ve only ever observed creatures frolicking on the land and in the sea who simply feed, breed, and migrate. Those with more traditional religious beliefs hold that God has given humans dominion over all the creatures on the planet, that we are the only beings with a soul and a mind. To many, your proposal could be construed as a wrecking ball to our society’s core belief systems.”