I recently had a volunteer orientation for a local homeless shelter. As I was given a tour of the facility and met the other volunteers and the residents, I reflected on how important it is to take an interest in every person, regardless of how unfamiliar they may be to you, because they bear the image of God.
Simultaneously, in my research as a planetary science graduate student, I have been increasingly interested in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). By extraterrestrial intelligence, I am not talking about flying saucers or alien abductions. I am talking about listening for radio signals from an extraterrestrial civilization or perhaps detecting evidence of industrial pollutants in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star (which the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope might actually able to detect). Both of these would be evidence of a form of intelligence that could be utterly unfamiliar to us. Although the levels of unfamiliarity are different, I would argue that compassion and SETI are connected in that they both require interest in beings that are not necessarily like us.
Not everyone sees this connection. Indeed, some have criticized funding SETI research for focusing on extraterrestrials rather than our fellow terrestrials. They ask, “why are we spending all this time and money looking for the other in distant star systems when we are neglecting the other that is on this planet?”
The philosopher Frank White talks about the Overview Effect. The Overview Effect is an experience described by astronauts when they see Earth from orbit. Many astronauts report feeling a heightened sense of wellbeing. This wellbeing comes from seeing Earth in a cosmic context. Earth is one part of a much larger universe. Also, when they see the clouds, continents, oceans, and atmosphere, they see how it is all interconnected. It seems fragile and precious. Many astronauts report feeling deeply connected to the beings which inhabit Earth and feel responsible for their mutual wellbeing.
For me, exploring the universe is an antidote to parochialism. It reminds us that we are not all that different in the cosmic scheme of things and that we are interdependent on each other and on living systems, which are themselves connected to larger planetary and stellar processes. The eco-theologian Leonardo Boff, in his book Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor, makes the point that living things are made of the same matter and share a common creator. He argues that we therefore have an ethical obligation to treat each other and the non-human living world well since everything is ultimately related. This fact is illuminated by our exploration of the universe. The universe is compositionally uniform and governed by uniform scientific laws. Even life found in the most distant galaxy will be made of the same matter and be governed by the same scientific laws. They will still be our kin, our siblings, in a sense. This is true even if they are wildly different from us in other ways. They are still part of God’s creation and we are called to love what God has created.
How does this relate to showing compassion to children in poverty? If we have an ethical obligation to care for even those that are wildly different from us and from a different part of the universe, how much more should we love those with whom we share the planet? The search for extraterrestrial intelligence requires you to be curious about other forms of intelligence. If we are not even interested in the other forms of intelligence that occupy this planet, we must not really be that curious about intelligence after all. Taking an interest in other forms of intelligence, including other forms of human intelligence, is the foundation of compassion. Compassion requires us to take an interest in the other, to see the other as inherently valuable and worth treating with care and respect. SETI is a desire to understand the ultimate other, but how can we say we are interested in the ultimate other if we are not interested in the immediate other, the ones with whom we share the planet? In this way, compassion and SETI are connected. They both require curiosity about intelligence. They may even reinforce each other.
Ancient Futurism 