Modeling Extrasolar Societies

There are no known civilizations in our solar system aside from humans. However there may be such societies beyond our solar system, such as upon extrasolar planets.

Present areas of research include:

• Models for detectability of extrasolar civilizations
• How fast entropy could constrain such civilizations

Asking Big Questions

Knowing what questions to ask is often as important as the answers themselves. In new areas, this effort requires imagination and boldness. Possible questions include:

• Are there detectable physical characteristics that all intelligent, technology-oriented societies exhibit?
• Can extra terrestrial intelligence be one giant, centrally intelligent organism?  Or effectively so? (The children's science-fiction story Wrinkle in Time imagined this possibility).
• If so, to what extent could a single organism be considered a society, and would a different set of principles apply to modeling it?
• If we are what we eat, how much does that make other ETI who live off of sunlight similar to humans?