Submitted by Charles Knighton
In the time I have left on planet Earth, there are a few historic events I am counting on witnessing. World peace isn’t on the list, because I am not that naive; current indications point to a few centuries of additional slaughter. But I am increasingly optimistic that I will be around for the discovery of extraterrestrial life.
Last year, science took a cosmic leap toward that possibility, as astronomers used the Kepler space telescope to identify hundreds of planets around distant suns, including some where temperatures are just right for liquid water and, presumably, life. Astrobiologists will be training radio telescopes on these temperate, Earth-like planets this year.
Our galaxy we now know, is teeming with planets—millions of them. Our solar system is not unique. And how will our species react when confronted with proof that life has arisen elsewhere, whether in the form of bacteria, bugs, or intelligent beings? It will be profoundly disorienting — as disorienting as the discovery of the New World.
Perhaps this humbling new perspective will bring human beings together, as we see the relative unimportance of differences in skin colour, nationality, and religion. Or people might react to their demotion from creation’s centre with a frightened backlash, as they did in the times of Galileo and of Darwin. Perhaps we will be in an uproar for a few months, and then go back to petty bickering, war, reality TV, Facebook and sports. While I can’t speak for anyone else, I’d like to stick around long enough to find out.
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