Perhaps the most thoughtful work on humanity's first encounter with aliens is Carl Sagan's Contact, which originally appeared as a book and then was made into a major motion picture starring Jodie Foster, Michael McC, and James Woods. One of the most common themes of science fiction is the first meeting between humans and aliens, but none have done it better than Contact. Two of Spielberg's early, reputation-making movies, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and ET, are also classics in the genre. Books like Arthur Clarke's Rama series or Childhood's End or Robert Forward's Dragon's Egg are also in Contact's league and deal better with the longer terms effects of first contact on humanity, but none of these have been made into movies seen by millions. Because it focuses intently and somewhat realistically on the actual moment of first communication with aliens, Contact has the most insight into the form first contact is likely to take and the immediate effect the revelation of alien intelligence is likely to have on human society.
Carl Sagan was the intellectual godfather of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project. He was also the author of many widely known works popularizing scientific knowledge such as the widely viewed Cosmos series on PBS. In Contact, Sagan was able to bring together his knowledge of the real-life SETI process, his ability to dramatize scientific concepts so they were accessible to ordinary people, and his personal longing for contact with intelligent aliens to produce an enlightening and inspiring vision of the first human glimpse of an intelligence far beyond our own.
Contact is special for several reasons. Perhaps most importantly, in contrast to the violent space wars with malignant aliens which dominate Hollywood, Contact presents a benign vision of aliens which uplifts the human spirit rather than degrades it by teaching visceral hatred of the other. The exact nature of the aliens remains an unsolved mystery throughout Contact. Radio astronomer Ellie Archer (sensitively portrayed by Jodie Foster) is the only human to travel to the alien world, and her communication with the aliens is more like a religious mystic's conversation with God than a diplomatic summit or a chat with a neighbor. Though the true form of the aliens or their civilization are never fully revealed, they are obviously friendly and compassionate, although, quite tellingly, many paranoid human beings are unable to recognize this.
Running through Contact is a brilliant juxtaposition of religion and science. The interaction between the two main characters, Ellie the scientist and Palmer Joss (played by Matthew McConaughey), a religious writer, crackles with both intellectual tension and attraction to the "other." Ellie embodies the critical, skeptical scientific mind that rejects unfounded dogma and believes only what can be verifiably demonstrated. Palmer, however, is no irrational clinger to superstition, but a thoughtful articulator of the spiritual emptiness of so much of modern life and the longing for some greater purpose than the mindless accumulation of technological toys. Ellie's interactions with Palmer slowly reveals that in her search for aliens Ellie is looking for something very much like what the ancients sought for in their gods. Ellie's eventual brief meeting with the aliens is much like a classical mystical experience. She encounters an awesome, mysterious, compassionate power, which she cannot comprehend, but which is much more real to her than ordinary experience. As is the mystics’ fate, when she returns she is unable to communicate the power of her awesome encounter, or even convince the skeptics that it was real. Now the tables are turned. Ellie is on the other end trying valiantly to prove what she knows is real to those who do not find her evidence credible.
If I have one disappointment with Contact, it is that the true nature of the aliens and their civilization is never revealed. We do learn that the galaxy is populated with many intelligent species, at least some of whom have had sustained contact with each other. We see that the aliens who have communicated with earth are much more advanced, not only technologically, but also spiritually, as their warm empathy for humans shows. We learn that one species is technologically advanced enough to engage in engineering on a galactic scale, building tunnels of space-time that allow much faster than light travel. But we learn precious little about the nature of these civilizations.
I first ran across Contact by accident. I was working in Japan, teaching English to young Japanese business men and women. It was Friday night and I had just finished another in a series of gruelling weeks working Japanese rather than American type hours. I only wanted to go home and sleep through the entire weekend. However, before I left my company, I stopped into the teacher's lounge to check the reading table to pick up something to pass the few hours I expected to stir from sleep that weekend. People left paperback novels they had finished with there for others to enjoy, since there were only a few places in Tokyo one could get English language novels and the selection was not great. My interest was piqued by Sagan's name and when I scanned the back cover, I figured I would have a couple of weekends of good reading, since the book numbered about 500 pages. When I got home I went right to bed, exhausted. But I did open the book, thinking I would read a chapter or two to get a taste of what I was in for. By the time I put it down, the sun was high in the morning sky, I had finished the entire novel, and I was vowing I would have to begin rereading after I got some much needed sleep. This time though, I would savor every morsel rather than wolfing it down in large chunks, racing to each new chapter to see what would happen next. The Monday after the next weekend I left Contact back on the reading table, hoping some one would treasure it as much as I had.
If
this website accomplishes nothing else, I hope it encourages a few people
to watch or read Contact. If you do one, you will surely
to want to do the other.
Other Pages
My Essays on Contact with Aliens
Aliens, Gods, and Humanity: A Brief Inquiry
Why has there been no contact with Aliens?
Would Aliens be Friendly
or Hostile?
Great Novels (and sometimes videos) on Contact with Aliens
The Genius of Arthur C. Clarke