Extending Astrobiology: Consciousness and Culture

Abstract The Stanley Miller experiment suggests that amino acid-based life is ubiquitous in our universe, although its varieties are not likely to have followed the particular, highly contingent and path-dependent, evolutionary trajectory found on Earth. Are many alien organisms likely to be conscious in ways that we would recognize? Almost certainly. Will some develop high order technology? Less likely, but still fairly probable. If so, will we be able to communicate with them? Only on a basic level, and only with profound difficulty. The argument is fairly direct.