Rethinking SETI: Anthropology, Colonial Legacies, and the Human Imagination in Space Exploration

To the point

Kathryn Denning argues that we must understand our own stories and biases before imagining alien life, because space exploration is shaped by colonial imagery, commercial interests, legal and ethical questions, and the ongoing mismatch between physical signals and cultural understanding.

Q&A: The Anthropology of Searching for Aliens
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Q&A: The Anthropology of Searching for Aliens

Before we can understand an alien civilization, it might be useful to understand our own. To help in this task, anthropologist Kathryn Denning of York University in Toronto, Canada studies the very human way that scientists, engineers and members of the public think about space exploration and the search for alien life.