First contact (science fiction)
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First contact is a common science-fictional theme about the first meeting between humans and aliens, or, more broadly, of any sentient race's first encounter with another one. The theme allows authors to explore such topics such as xenophobia, transcendentalism, and basic linguistics by adapting the anthropological topic of first contact to extraterrestrial cultures.
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[edit] Overview
Murray Leinster's 1945 novelette First Contact established the term "first contact" in science fiction, although the theme had previously appeared in e.g. H. G. Wells' The Time Machine (1895), The War of the Worlds (1898) and The First Men in the Moon (1901).
There have been entire series devoted to this theme. One classic series is the "interstellar trader" series by Andre Norton. A more modern treatment, using radio rather than spaceships, are The Hercules Text by Jack McDevitt, "Signal from Space" by Will Eisner, or Contact by Carl Sagan. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's The Mote in God's Eye was written to be, in Niven's words, "the epitome of first contact novels". Here it is humanity which plays the role of the visiting aliens, as the religious, technological, political, psychological, military, cultural and biological implications of first contact are explored.
The Star Trek television series explores the theme in depth, and introduced the concept of the Prime Directive - a law which explicitly forbids first contact (or any form of interference for that matter) between humanity and its allies, and any and all races not sufficiently advanced (i.e. capable of interstellar travel) for such an encounter. There is also the movie, Star Trek: First Contact.
By contrast, in the novels of Iain M. Banks, the Contact division of the galactic civilization calling itself The Culture (which features in the majority of Banks' science fiction) are frequent manipulators of less advanced civilizations, steering them towards peaceful progress, especially those which may become aggressive or dangerous, under the pretense of maintaining the balance of galactic power. A notable exception being when the Culture encounters the Earth in the short story The State of the Art and deems humanity not to be worth contacting. Novels such as The Player of Games and Look to Windward delve into the psychology of first inter-species contact in considerable depth and it is in the novel Excession where Banks coins the phrase Outside Context Problem in relation to first contact.
The novel The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov eerily explores simultaneously the potential unity of all races, and the possibility of conflict that is inherent in all first contact situations: even as members of different races understand each other, their disparate ways may endanger both their worlds, even the fabric of their respective universes. This gap between individuals and their respective societies is characteristic of the First Contact plot of ET. Other explorations of the theme in popular culture include encounters with predatory or semi-sentient races as in Alien and Independence Day.
The absence of First Contact is evident in other works of science fiction, such as Asimov's Foundation series, where the Galactic Empire of Humanity is the undisputed ruler of the known cosmos, since no aliens exist. Examples of the mutual inscrutability and the potentially unbridgeable gaps between races which - by their very natures - are just too different to bond or even to accept each other, include Stephen Baxter's Xeelee Sequence concept of the dark matter photino birds, the god-like Firstborn from Arthur C. Clarke's Odyssey series, and Stanisław Lem's planet Solaris and the events of the novel Fiasco. In other cases, such as Greg Bear's The Forge of God and Anvil of Stars, or Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix, aliens are presented as falling into a highly diverse spectrum, some easily relating with humans, others too alien for meaningful communication.
Peter Watts' Hugo nominated Blindsight (2006) is one of the latest works to explore the theme of first contact.
[edit] Anthropology and other fiction
Many stories about the old American West featured a first contact between English colonists and Native Americans. In Papua New Guinea, first contacts with hitherto unknown tribes were made as late as the 1930s.
[edit] Further reading
- "Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters" by Ronald Story (2001) ISBN 0-451-20424-7 (It was the result of a collaborative Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia Project (ETEP); excerpts online)
