If we discovered alien life, would we even recognize it? It might be so different that we wouldn’t even realize it was life.
Scott Gaudi of Nasa’s Advisory Council has said: “One thing I am quite sure of, now having spent more than 20 years in this field of exoplanets … expect the unexpected.” But is that really possible?
Cognitive psychologist Daniel Simons has shown that people can miss a gorilla beating its chest right in front of them (if their attention is sufficiently diverted), or a playing card with a black four of hearts (because of strong prior expectations).
What we notice – as well as what we see as significant – depends on our theories, concepts, background beliefs, and prior expectations.
In the last 10 years scientists have identified more than 3,650 planets – more than one a day. It’s easy to imagine a scenario where a planet might be flagged as “lacking significance,” but which, upon further observation or a non-standard approach, might actually turn out to be exactly what we’ve been searching for.
Scientists must be thoroughly open-minded in their search for extraterrestrial life – and that means encouraging non-mainstream ideas and techniques. Examples from our not-so-distant past show that such ideas can be strongly discouraged. NASA and other space-exploring organizations must learn from such cases if they are to “expect the unexpected.”
