The Allure of Complete Discovery as Passage: Broadening the Range of SETI Research Ideas via Futures Literacy and Triple-Loop Learning

Abstract

This paper argues that, although it principally refers to extraterrestrial rather than human affairs, SETI's imaginary is a social imaginary proper, as it is implicitly linked in an intrinsic, non-trivial, co-constitutive way to a social imaginary of humanity's future. Specifically, SETI's imaginary is an imaginary of a society of sapient extraterrestrials that makes possible the achievement of a desirable future of humanity through the former's discovery by the latter. Moreover, it argues that the range of SETI research ideas, which get bundled in non-fictional conviction narratives promising SETI's imaginary, is currently limited because actualizing this desirable future state of humanity after such a discovery relies on a "complete discovery". Finally, an intervention is offered in the form of a hands-on workshop for SETI scientists, which could help them reveal, reframe, and rethink the role that this imaginary for a desirable "post-discovery" future of humanity plays in their present research ideas.