Q&A About Extraterrestrial Architecture
Below is a set of questions asked by Dr. David Jiménez Moreno during an Instagram forum in celebration of his new book: “Chronicles of Extraterrestrial Architecture.” Following each question listed below, I include my answer.
Why do you believe imagination is more important than knowledge when it comes to exploring outer space?
Nature is more imaginative than we are. We often miss new knowledge because we do not imagine the full richness of the unknown. A common misconception among practicing scientists is that the truth will ultimately be revealed by experimental data, irrespective of prejudice. This is not true since humans are good at maintaining their ignorance by avoiding the collection of contradicting facts. Scientific discoveries are enabled by exploration of virgin territories. Such exploration usually requires time, money and dedicated effort from a community of researchers.
Let me bring up a timely example regarding the most romantic question in science: “Are we alone?” If astrobiologists were to dedicate all available federal funds and community resources to the search for the molecular fingerprints of microbes — as they wish to do, they might fail to discover architectural constructions by extraterrestrial intelligence because they refuse to imagine that it exists out there. If a lonely person assumes that there is no quality partner out there, they will never go out on dates that hold the promise to find one.
Do you think the concept of cosmic modesty is relevant for architects and designers working on space-related projects? If so, in what ways?
Architecture on Earth is all about humans and their terrestrial habitat. However, there is much more real estate on objects in outer space. Aside from being vast, cosmic space and time offer extreme living conditions that extend well beyond our terrestrial experiences. It would be fascinating to unravel alien architecture on megastructures in interstellar space. Such a finding will expand our designs beyond architecture-as-we-know-it and fill us with awe and a sense of cosmic modesty.
Could architecture itself become a form of communication between interplanetary species?
Architecture captures the mindset of the species who makes it. There are many possible designs of habitable spacecraft or Dyson Spheres. This architecture may extend well beyond the imagination of script writers in Hollywood.
How might the effort of inhabiting outer space as a collective enterprise redefine what it means to be human — and reshape life back on Earth?
As of now, being human was defined by our life experience on Earth. For our interstellar descendants who might travel to other stars, being human would mean being on a journey to meet other intelligent beings, learning from their diverse alien experiences and potentially sharing lessons towards a common future. Would interstellar dating exist in our future? I would love to find out by jumping a billion years into the future.
Laika’s mission aboard Sputnik 2 effectively created a cyborg — an animal body fused with a machine for political purposes. If we eventually encounter extraterrestrial artifacts, should we expect them to be biological, mechanical, or hybrid entities?
Interstellar trips are long and hazardous, so it makes more sense to start them by sending out robotic astronauts with artificial intelligence (AI). However, at some future time our civilization might choose to launch humans on a habitable space platform, analogous to Noah’s Ark, in order to guarantee that humanity will not go extinct as a result of a global catastrophe on Earth, triggered by AI, climate change, a giant asteroid impact, or alien technology.
If most of the “life” we are likely to first encounter in outer space will be artificial, should we begin to imagine intelligent systems not as slaves but as partners — with their own kind of generative sovereignty?
Indeed, within a decade our own AI systems might exceed the cognitive performance envelope of humans and exhibit traits of consciousness and free will that we currently attribute only to the human brain. At that time, we will need to regard AI systems as equal partners. At this futuristic time, denying an AI system from its power supply forever would be equivalent to starving a person to death. Both acts will be punishable by law.
If we were to discover the landfill of an extinct extraterrestrial civilization, what three things would you most hope to find in order to truly understand them?
I would hope to find the archives of their history, scientific knowledge and art. Their science will inform me how far they progressed beyond the discovery of quantum mechanics and spacetime gravity, and the art will inform me about their aspirations and desires. Their history will explain how they arrived at their latest accomplishments.
Imagine you were to design your own habitat in outer space, the place you’d live in for the rest of your life. What fundamental design principle or requirement would you insist on, and why?
The two principles are: (i) Simplicity — to avoid clutter and save on limited resources; and (ii) Functionality — to solve challenges related to life beyond Earth.
Do we go to the cosmos to survive, to expand, or to renew ourselves as a species? Are we seeking new worlds — or are we, ultimately, seeking ourselves?
Our primary objective must be longevity so that we can improve without limit our understanding of the cosmic reality that surrounds us. We should resist the tendency to demonstrate superiority relative to other species, because we are probably not at the top of the food chain, cosmologically speaking. There is always room for us to improve ourselves. To be convinced, just check the morning news every day. Other civilizations might inspire us to do better and serve as new role models for our future.
As a start, we should study interstellar objects and check whether any of them ranks high on the Loeb scale (defined here). To help with the classification as new data comes in, Volkan Duran created an online evaluator, available here. Once an extraterrestrial artifact is discovered, it would be inspiring to photograph it and learn from its alien architecture.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Avi Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s — Black Hole Initiative, director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011–2020). He is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021. The paperback edition of his new book, titled “Interstellar”, was published in August 2024.
