What We Know About Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Michael Ashkenazi has been a practicing anthropologist since graduating from Yale University (PhD 1983) with a wide and eclectic range of interests. He is currently a senior researcher and project leader at the Bonn International Center for Conversion, a German independent think-tank dealing in security, peace, and development.  Before joining BICC he spent twenty years as a university lecturer, teaching under- and post-graduates in Japan, Israel, Canada, and the UK. He has written and co-edited several books. He has conducted and directed fieldwork in China, East Timor, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Israel, Japan, Liberia, Mali, and South Sudan. Dr Ashkenazi has written extensively about subjects as diverse as Japanese food culture, religion and ritual, peace operations, small arms control, and SETI. He has been a member of the NASA Cultural Aspects of SETI multi-year workshop, and visiting researcher at NASA Ames SETI project. He has also conducted field research and published on human reactions to SETI.

Introduction and objectives.- Space in the background.- The physical parameters of ilfs.- The evolutionary parameters on ilfs.- Defining alternative modes of intelligence.- Language and symbols.- The cultural parameters of ilfs.- Et civilizations.- The classification and analysis of et civilizations and cultures.- Issues in contacting eti: when the phoenicians come trading.- Interaction and intellectual exchange.- The consequences of contact.- Conclusions: conversations with eti and the issue of culture