Want to get to know the dozens of scientists who are pondering the cultural dimensions of astrobiology and space exploration?

Meet with leading psychologists who are grappling with the human side of space flight, as well as the environmental crisis. Join Doug in Boston in mid-August 2008 for the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, where he’ll chair the symposium, “To the Moon and Mars: Psychology of Long-Duration Space Exploration.” In addition, Doug will lead symposia exploring the psychological factors behind many of today’s most pressing ecological issues.

Attend an international SETI conference in Paris in late September 2008, where Doug and his colleagues will debate the pros and cons of active SETI, or sending messages of our own to other worlds, rather than only listening.

Visit the Allen Telescope Array at Hat Creek Radio Observatory in northern California to celebrate the publication of Doug’s book Culture in the Cosmos: Extraterrestrial Life and Society. As a sponsor of this international workshop at Hat Creek, you will join anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, and astronomers at the forefront of SETI research, as they plan the next steps to prepare for contact. In the company of these scientists, as well as on a private tour of the Observatory, you’ll learn first hand about the innovative array that may give us the first empirical proof we’re not alone in the universe.

If we detect extraterrestrial intelligence, how will people around the world respond? Should we reply? If so, what should we say?

The scientist who grapples with these questions at the SETI Institute is Doug Vakoch, Director of Interstellar Message Composition. Doug coordinates an international team of scholars from the arts, sciences, and humanities to ponder how we might create messages that would represent Earth’s diverse cultures.

With a doctorate in psychology and degrees in comparative religion and the history and philosophy of science, Doug contemplates the deeper human significance of SETI and astrobiology.

“By thinking about how we should portray ourselves in messages to other worlds,” Doug explains, “we’re forced to clarify what we value most about ourselves and our own world. By thinking more about extraterrestrials, we learn more about what it means to be human.”

And if we never discover life in space?

“Whatever the result of our search—whether we learn that life is plentiful or rare,” Doug says, “we’re guaranteed to gain a better sense of our place in the universe.”

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