Cultural Aspects of Astrobiology: A Preliminary Reconnaissance at the Turn of the Millennium

Among the four operating principles of the NASA Astrobiology Roadmap, Principle 3 recognizes broad societal interest for the implications of astrobiology. Although several meetings have been convened in the past decade to discuss the implications of extraterrestrial intelligence, none have addressed the broader implications of astrobiology as now defined at NASA. Here we survey these societal questions and argue that they deserve further serious study, in accordance with the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. Astrobiology, already an interdisciplinary field in terms of the physical and biological sciences, should now embrace the humanities and the social and behavioral sciences in order to explore its cultural implications. Such study is part of the general need for better dialogue between science and society.