Fear of a Capitalist Planet..... besides ours ... the search for ET

[Ichingcarpenter]

Astronomers look to the stars, and only see themselves.




Snip....... I thought it was a good discussion on science's search for intelligent life and its own bias , this is a small snip


If we look to the way that neoliberalism has shaped our thought and culture, fears about ET map perfectly. Aliens could be potential competitors for resources, they claim — presumably, having left their home planet to exploit, extract, and enslave, following a pattern not dissimilar to what unfolded over four hundred years of global capitalism.

Aliens could be imperialists, leaving their home planet to colonize and mold humanity to their own social and political logic — like the American colonial projects in Iraq, Afghanistan, and any of dozens of other countries over the past century.

Tellingly, aliens are projected to possess the same technological triumphalism as Silicon Valley, equating “technological advancement” with “progress,” even when the two have little to do with each other. In their theoretical hostility, the aliens could have a certain machismo we lack: the consummate corporate competitors, with more so-called technology, more violence, and more willingness to use force.

This is not science. This is hegemony at its most powerful and invisible, posing as logic. In these fears, we see a soup of recent historically specific troubles, blended and projected. Anti–Active SETI co-signers see imperialism as universal, quite literally — that is, extending across the universe.


https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/04/aliens-extraterrestrials-active-seti/