FAQ
Do you deal with aliens?
No, basically I deal with mankind or with how it sees itself in the universe. The question whether we could get a visit from “E.T.”, or whether “E.T.” was possibly already once here or is still unrecognized among us, is already discussed in detail elsewhere in the Internet. Although these points play a role in my research, they are treated only marginally.
Interstellar Communication is about communication with the unknown, or as Schetsche et al. put it – with the “strangest stranger” (Schetsche, Michael, Gründer, René, Mayer, Gerhard, Schmied-Knittel, Ina, Der maximal Fremde. Reflections on a Transhuman Theory of Action, in: in Berliner Journal für Soziologie, September 2009, 3: 469-491, DOI: 10.1007/s11609-009-0102-3).
I would like to explore, at present, theoretical issues related to interspecies understanding, as these could potentially have practical relevance in the foreseeable future.
As an Egyptologist, how did you get involved with the topic of interstellar communication?
As an Egyptologist, I am used to digging into the past – literally and metaphorically. Most see this work as isolated historical science done for its own sake. In the classic way, Egyptologists stand in the desert (or in the library) and ask, for example, “What happened here 5000 years ago?”
I would like to go one step further and try to use the tested Egyptological methods, that is, historiographic, archaeological, and cultural anthropological methods, to pursue the question, “What can we derive from this for the future?”
What patterns (anthropological) patterns can we discern? How do we deal with the records and ever-increasing amounts of data today? Can conservative Egyptology keep up with the demands of modern times? Can it take up the challenge and bridge the gap between physical-haptic fieldwork (excavation, which will always require humans and their sense of the archaeological context) and new technologies, such as data analysis with the help of artificial intelligence (which may one day also be able to clean up the gigantic storerooms of Egyptological collections, with the thousands of artifacts that have not seen the daylight for 200 years)?
In short – as an Egyptologist I would like to take the all-round view and look not only in the past, but also into the future. In this context, “Interstellar Communication” is a particularly exciting playground, since it not only involves a complex and controversial topic, but at the same time challenges all disciplines involved to explore it objectively and scientifically, but at the same time challenges one’s own thinking in a creative way.
To be continued…
Have a question? Send me an e-mail: peggy(at)interstellar-communication.com
