Astroengineering, Dysonian SETI, and naturalism: A new Catch-22

• Published in: Acta astronautica 2018-11, Vol.152, p.289-298
• Main Author: Ćirković, Milan M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Archaeology; Astroengineering; Cosmic archaeology; Datasets; Dysonian SETI; Epistemology; Extraterrestrial intelligence; Fermi's paradox; History and philosophy of astronomy; Kardashev's classification; Outliers (statistics); SETA
• ISSN: 0094-5765; 1879-2030
• DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2018.07.051

A methodological problem is inherent in any discussion of extraterrestrial engineering and its detectability: how to distinguish detection signatures of such astroengineering from “natural”, non-intentional, albeit exotic, processes? In practice, searches for traces and manifestations of advanced technological civilizations have been reduced so far to searching for outliers in the allegedly well-known regularities expected from natural astrophysical sources. This procedure, however, is an epistemological minefield, for at least two reasons: (i) prior datasets on which the regularities are based might be contaminated by artefacts, and (ii) the procedure of computation of unobservable quantities usually contains the implicit assumption of the non-intentional nature of sources. In other words, we are facing a Catch-22-type problem: in order to prove the artificial nature of a source, we seemingly need to first assume that it is not artificial. In contrast to most problems in science, this one could possibly be aggravated, rather than reduced, with the progress of our scientific understanding. Some possible recourses, as well as directions for further work toward building a comprehensive methodology of the Dysonian SETI, are discussed. •We consider epistemological and methodological aspect of the search for extraterrestrial artefacts (SETA).•SETA projects are impacted by important methodological problems and biases which have not been studied in the literature so far.•Our analysis offers some guidelines for the selection of objects of interest from a sample of astrophysical sources.•The importance of establishing the proper context for SETA and of utilizing the experience of terrestrial archaeology.