BONUS: What if we find aliens?

Hey, welcome to sign Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. I'm hoor cham And in this bonus short episode, we are following up on our recent episode about the search for alien life. In that episode, we talked about what scientists are doing to look for life out there in space, and so now the question is what if we find it? Are we prepared? Would people freak out or would they shrug and go about their regular lives. We're gonna talk

Thank you for having me. It's really nice meeting you, the famous cartoonist, the creator.

Of the Thank you so when.

I miss Clara. I studied socio culturalthropology. I specialized in science and technology studies, and my question was search for life beyond Earth. So I was writing about what it really means to people to think about what the other life is, how people used to search for that life or how they would work with the idea.

Doctor Kapova has worked with NASA and the European Space Agency on several projects, but one of them was to get a sense of what people see in their heads when they imagine an alien So, for example, take a moment and close your eyes unless you're driving, and picture in your head when an alien being would look like. Did you imagine little green men or women, or maybe something insect like? Or may you imagine a reptilian creature like the ones in Star Wars or Star Trek. Well you're not alone.

When I was doing my research and talking to people, not only scientists but also citizens of Europe, I would just ask for their idea about the otherness or other life was. You know, there are hundreds and hundreds of imagined life form that are being brought to us by different books and movies and series and the variety of

It's always something you remember from your childhood.

I would say. So that's the feedback I was getting from people.

So people's expectations of meeting aliens are shaped by the movies and books in media we consume. And what's interesting is what those depictions, which are made by writers and artists say about us.

What I find really interesting think about imagined extraterrestrials. They always somehow mirror what we are or we are not. Either it's negation or it's based on what we see in the nature I see.

What we imagine aliens might be is a reflection of ourselves and how we see ourselves. We want to see ourselves, how we don't want to see ourselves. Can you explain that a little more.

This is based on the first contact scenario, So when people imagine first contact with the extraterristrial, and it's something that I'm often asked about, like what if we meet, what it would be like? What do you think will happen? And of course there's been already a research john about this, and it's mostly based on the encounters of humans with other humans, and this is reflected in the movies or the stories as well.

Okay, what Tarkakapopa is saying is that it's very hard to imagine something you've never seen before, so our brains automatically go to things we have seen before, or that we've seen in bo or movies. I asked her if she thought that was a good idea to prepare ourselves for potentially meeting aliens. Do you think it's a good idea to use that as a reference?

What else do we have?

I don't know.

That's the thing, you know. We use this because the human experience we have with encounters with something alien or unknown.

In other words, we are probably completely unprepared to meet alien life because we only know what we know and we don't know what we don't know. Okay. In the main episode about aliens, we talked about how people are searching for two kinds of life out there. Some scientists are doing astrobiology, meaning they're looking for basic life like microbes that used to live on Mars or maybe self

Most people I interviewed acknowledge that there will be a different reaction dependent on the life form or the type of the life form that will be.

Discovered, Meaning you probably react differently if I told you we found microbes at Mars than if I told you there's an alien flying saucer outside your window right now. And doctor Kapova also found that your reaction depends on how old you are.

Young people today they've seen so many science fiction movies that they almost like, yeah, of course there's like somewhere, but it's so far away and will never see it, while older generation be, oh my god, this is like the word changing question, you know. So it almost feels like pop culture has been bombarded us with new ideas that were almost like gotten used to it.

Do you think the younger generation will not be very surprised or won't be very changed by this information.

That's a good question from what I heard from people. A lot of people think that it wouldn't mistake that much, but it's tect my everyday life. Unlikely.

You don't think there'll be a fundamental shift in how people think about their lives or civilization or humans.

You know, our planet consists of six billion people. It's really really hard to say how out the society react. So who are we talking about? You know, there has been a study done that the people in Asia actually think that aliens are mostly walking amongst us, but we just can't see them. So we also know that each culture you have some sort of like a template or yeah, a template through which this discovery will be perceived. And if we're talking about the change of the world, this

It would be different for each and every single one of us.

Yeah, that's what I say.

In other words, we may not know how the world will react if we find alien life until it actually happens. Okay, The last question I asked doctor Kapova was what would it mean to her to discover aliens? What would it mean to you if we found life in other planets or somewhere else in the universe. Let's say it's the astrobiology kind. What would you think?

So I would think that I have now an answer to one of the questions I've been asking myself for a very long time. But when I was a child, I was really curious, like is there something else? Are you really alone? Where do we came from? Who are we? So I would have that answer and I would be delighted. That's it.

Would you change anything about your life right now?

No?

Would you still go sailing to Antarctica next month?

Oh?

I didn't tell you before. Doctor Kapova recently took a leave from academic research to work on a sailboat, and she's scheduled to sail to Antarctica next month. So would she still sail to Antarctica if we found my chrobial life in another planet?

Absolutely? Yes?

Okay, what if it was the alien civilization kind that we discovered?

That is a different story, because if we could communicate with them, that I would be curious to know more about them.

Interesting, So then you might not go on that sailing ship to Antarctica. Let's say NASA has your contact information. European Space Agency has your contact They say, Clara Nay simplication, which is established contact. Can you come in and help us ask them questions?

Okay, I would go because that will be two grays about I think.

You would go you would definitely change your life.

Of course, I would want to know. It's one of the most fundamental questions, and I would be really curious. So if you asked me, I would probably go, yes.

I think that perfectly illustrates the range of reactions we might have depending on what we find out there.

Yes, as I said, it really depends on the person. I'm sure we would find commonalities, but it would be an amazing anthropological study on that on the humans or the aliens, I guess in the interactions.

Oh fantastic. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Like krek Kapova, it was my pleasure.

Thank you for having me tonight.

All right. I hope you enjoyed that short bonus episode and that it maybe got you to think about what would mean to you to find out we're not alone in the universe. Thanks for joining us. See you next time you've been listening to Science Stuff. A production of iHeartRadio, written and produced by me Or hey Hm, edited by Rose Seguda, Executive producer Jerry Rowland, an audio engineer and mixer Chandler Mace and you can follow me on social media. Just search for PhD Comics and the name of your