Today I came across a very interesting video asking why we have not yet succeeded in discovering extraterrestrial life. One possible answer it proposed was that we may be making a mistaken assumption: that extraterrestrial civilization would resemble our own human world.
Watching the video leads to a broader question. To what extent are our ideas about extraterrestrial life—ideas that over roughly the past century have been strongly influenced by symbols of the technological development of Western civilization, with all its positive and negative aspects—likely to resemble reality?
The Western world, despite its major achievements in science and technology, has developed a concept of civilization that in many respects differs from civilizations that emerged elsewhere on Earth. The article defines civilization as the way of life of a group of people living in a particular geographical region during a historical period, sharing certain aims and producing particular achievements. In this definition, “way of life” and “achievements” are two central elements.
From that perspective, the Western world's conception of civilization—and consequently some of its expectations about extraterrestrial civilizations—can be viewed as products of the historical path followed by Western societies. The author questions whether defining advanced civilization primarily through modern science and technology might itself be an incomplete or even rudimentary conception.
Over more than a century, this technological way of life has been presented in many contexts as a principal symbol of civilization. Yet the author asks whether adopting a Western-style mode of life is necessarily sufficient or beneficial for achieving genuine modernity.
Could another way of living—whether found in ancient societies or developed today—allow humanity to master its environment without harming humans, animals, plants, or other living things?
The article ends with the author's environmental critique: the contemporary lifestyle and achievements associated with “Western civilization,” now spreading around the world, are consuming Earth's resources and damaging many of the planet's natural mechanisms.
This is a translation of the original author's reflective argument; its evaluations are preserved as the author's views.