Meeting the Alien

Dr. Andreas Anton is a researcher at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health (IGPP) in Freiburg, Germany, and teaches at the Institute for Sociology at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg.Dr. Michael Schetsche teaches as an extraordinary professor at the Institute of Sociology at the University of Freiburg.

• The aliens at the gates of sociology.- Thinking about aliens.- The earth in space.- SETI – History, methods and presuppositions of the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligences.- SETA – The search for extraterrestrial artifacts.- Calls in the dark forest – risky communication attempts.- Methodological considerations for the scenario analysis of first contact.- Consequences of first contact – A scenario analysis.- The cultural preparation for the first contact.- Proto-Sociology of extraterrestrial civilizations.- Hot potato in scientific alien research.- Outlook.

“The book makes good use of the historical and social science literature. … In this volume Anton and Schetsche have produced an original, readable, and judicious contribution to the growing literature on the subject, a contribution that future historians of astronomy may analyze, especially if intelligent life is discovered beyond the Earth.” (Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, Vol. 26 (3), 2023)