The Promise and Perils of Contacting Extraterrestrials

The Good Fight

Yascha Mounk and Douglas Vakoch discuss whether it is morally justified to alert aliens to humanity's existence.

Douglas Vakoch is an American astrobiologist, extraterrestrial intelligence researcher, and the president of METI International, an organization devoted to transmitting messages to outer space. His books include The Drake Equation: Estimating the Prevalence of Extraterrestrial Life through the Ages and Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Douglas Vakoch discuss the case for and against trying to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence; why we are yet to discover evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations; and whether the history of human imperialism and our exploitation of the animal kingdom are reason to worry about how technologically superior species of aliens might treat humans.

This transcript has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

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Podcast production by Jack Shields, and Brendan Ruberry

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