Close encounters of the nerd kind

If (or indeed when!) mankind as we know it makes contact with extraterrestrial beings, what whould happen? Would we get along?

Well, in a recent conference in Vienna organised by the European Science Foundation (ESF), European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), humanist scholars and space scientists came together to discuss humankind's presence in space from non-traditional perspectives. "Humans in Outer Space - Interdisciplinary Odysseys" aimed to provide insights regarding the possilbilty of a close encounter with aliens, by drawing upon modern understanding of historical events, such as Columbus "discovering" America in 1492. But that's a whole other issue.

Delegates explored the philosophical and theological consequences of contacting alien intelligences, the marketing of space exploration, and the legal frameworks that will be needed if space-faring nations are to co-operate peacefully.

Gisli Palsson an anthropologist from the University of Iceland in Reykjavik, presented "Lucy in the Sky Out of Africa, Out of Earth," in which he looked at whether our understanding of how human cultures interact can help us imagine what it would be like to contact non-human cultures.

Dr Alfred Crosby presented a paper called "The Space-Roving Human Being and His and Her Inhabitants: Micro-Organisms and Extraterrestrial Travel", which was presumably as complex as it sounds!

The conclusions from the sessions will be documented by the ESF in a position paper entitled "Vienna Vision on Humans in Outer Space".