first contact
First Contact Could Turn Out Well for Humanity
Most science fiction portrays the first contact between humanity and alien civilizations as a disaster. That's probably because our history…
Is Anyone Planning for Diplomacy with an Extraterrestrial Civilization?
Imagine we detect an interstellar object entering our Solar System. At first, astronomers think it's just another natural interloper like…
Game of Probes: The First Probe Sent to Another Civilization Won’t Be the First to Arrive
If we ever detect an Extraterrestrial Civilization (ETC) and start communicating with them, the messages could take years, decades, or…
How Should the World’s Governments Respond if We Detect an Alien Civilization?
Science fiction is the realm where people traditionally wrestle with the idea of contact with an ETI (Extraterrestrial Intelligence.) But…
The First Civilization We Contact Will Have Been Around Much Longer Than Humanity
Recently at UT, author Matt Williams has been writing a series called “Beyond Fermi’s Paradox”, which takes a look at…
What If We Do Find Aliens?
We've been so busy wondering how we'll find aliens that we never stopped to consider what we'll do if we…