SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF NASA HIGH-RESOLUTION MICROWAVE SURVEY

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) entered a new, sig nificantly expanded historical phase in October 1992, with initiation of NASA's High Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS). Although the search has been underway in varying modes and at modest levels of intensity since about 1960, this new, expanded search by NASA constitutes major changes in scope, capacity, speed and computer use and sophistication. In 1991, NASA decided to undertake an assessment of the social implic ation arising out of potential success of the search effort. This pape r describes a workshop, held in three separate sessions, to evaluate t he potential effect upon human society of detection of a technological society outside of the solar system. A detection, would raise many is sues of technological, political, social, economic and other dimension s which historically have been dealt with more often by implication in fiction novels than in direct study by qualified social and physical scientists. This paper synoptically presents the main elements of the workshop's results which have not. been published earlier. (C) 1998 Pu blished by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.