In 1977, Mark A. Stull with the SETI Program Office at Ames Research Center wrote that, “The next stage in the evolution of hominids could be stimulated by our entry into space, including a search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Our past success has been due to our breaking of new ground–to our acceptance of the challenge inherent in exploring new ways of life.” In other words, our growth as a species may not simply depend on our advancement, but on the act of exploration itself.
As explorers, our species will inevitably come to discover new lands, new resources, and new possibilities. Hence, in a rather cosmic sense, our very survival and proliferation is intricately connected with our urge to discover the vast new possibilities that only alien worlds might afford us. And of course, with the search for new lands and these exciting–perhaps even frightening possibilities, there also comes the potential for contact with not just alien worlds… but the inhabitants of those worlds.
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