Astrobiology and Society: Building an Interdisciplinary Research Community

Abstract

This paper reports recent efforts to gather experts from the humanities and social sciences along with astrobiologists to consider the cultural, societal, and psychological implications of astrobiology research and exploration. We began by convening a workshop to draft a research roadmap on astrobiology's societal implications and later formed a Focus Group on Astrobiology and Society under the auspices of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI). Just as the Astrobiology Science Roadmap and various astrobiology science focus groups have helped researchers orient and understand their work across disciplinary contexts, our intent was to apply the same approach to examine areas beyond the physical and life sciences and expand interdisciplinary interaction and scholarly understanding. These efforts continue as an experiment in progress, with an open invitation to interested researchers-astrobiologists as well as scholars in the humanities and social sciences-to become involved in research, analysis, and proactive discussions concerning the potential impacts of astrobiology on society as well as the possible impacts of society on progress in astrobiology.

Widening Perspectives: The Intellectual and Social Benefits of Astrobiology, Big History, and the Exploration of Space

“…The main academic and intellectual benefits of both astrobiology and big history (and related disciplines) arise from their inherent interdisciplinarity. In the case of astrobiology these benefits have already been noted by several authors (e.g., Connell et al, 2000;Race et al, 2012), and mostly result from interactions between scientific disciplines. For example, astrobiology forces astronomers to work with biologists and geologists in the pursuit of finding life elsewhere in the universe.…”

“…is therefore helping to re-unify the sciences after a long period of intense specialization. Moreover, by considering questions related to the philosophical and cultural implications of the discovery (or nondiscovery) of extraterrestrial life, astrobiology is also stimulating intellectual activity outside the normal scope of the physical sciences, including theoretical work in anthropology, ethics, linguistics, philosophy, and theology (e.g., Bertka, 2009;Dick & Lupisella, 2009;Race et al, 2012;Dunér et al, 2013;Impey et al, 2013;Vakoch, 2013Vakoch, , 2014Dick, 2018). To this extent, astrobiology is well-placed, if only partially, to help heal the rift between science and the humanities identified sixty years ago by C.P.…”

Disciplinary nature of astrobiology and astrobioethic’s epistemic foundations

“…What has just been mentioned can serve as a connection with a proposal made by Race et al (2012) when developing a Societal Roadmap for astrobiology: Herein lies a challenge for astrobiologists: How can we develop a systematic research agenda that focuses on both the implications of astrobiology on society and the potential effects of society on astrobiology? (p. 958).…”

Widening perspectives: the intellectual and social benefits of astrobiology (regardless of whether extraterrestrial life is discovered or not)

“…In addition to the (partial) re-unification of the sciences, the study of astrobiology is also stimulating much intellectual and philosophical activity outside the scope of the natural sciences, for example the numerous studies of the ethical, cultural and social implications of the discovery, or non-discovery, of life elsewhere (see, e.g., Race et al, 2012, and multiple papers in the volumes edited by Bertka (2009), Dick & Lupisella (2009), and Impey et al (2013). Indeed, because of this, astrobiology is well-placed to (again, at least partially) help heal the rift between science and the humanities identified by C.P.…”