Not War of the Worlds but Peace among Worlds, Futurist Says
If our current libel laws were to extend beyond Earths boundaries, Steven Spielbergs War of the Worlds might be found to be defamatory towards a race of extraterrestrial beings that may be living below the surface of Mars. In his newly released eBook "Exopolitics: Politics, Government, and Law in the Universe" (FilamentBooks.com), futurist Alfred Lambremont Webre presents a practical and philosophical model of how such an outreach program to other planetary civilizations might be shaped.
Vancouver, BC (PRWEB) July 26, 2005 -- If our current libel laws were to extend beyond Earths boundaries, Steven Spielbergs War of the Worlds might be found to be defamatory towards a race of extraterrestrial beings that may be living below the surface of Mars.
That is the claim of a veteran lawyer and space peace activist who says that by portraying Martians as aggressive attackers, Spielbergs new film also misrepresents the broader challenge that humanity must confront interacting with other civilizations in space.
A graduate of Yale Law School, Alfred Lambremont Webre is known as the founding father of exopolitics. His work as a futurist at the prestigious Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in 1977 directing a proposed Extraterrestrial Communication Project for the Carter White House led to the emergence of exopolitics as a social science discipline.
Like many other futurists, Webre has concluded that humanity is destined to become a space-faring civilization. But he has been at the forefront of advocating that such a future will require a program of public interest diplomacy with "off-planet cultures."
In his newly released book Exopolitics: Politics, Government, and Law in the Universe (Filament Books; $9.99), Webre presents a practical and philosophical model of how such an outreach program to other planetary civilizations might be shaped.
Webre thinks that intergalactic diplomacy will involve peaceful co-existence and cooperation with other civilizations founded on principles of Universal law.
"Exopolitics is premised on the notion that if humanity is not only to survive but thrive in the Universe, it will have to develop a political science to effectively interact with the beings that it will encounter in space," Webre says.
It might seem like science fiction fantasy to some, but Webres book deals with a subject that is taken very seriously by some of the most accomplished members of Earth society. Among many other prominent citizens of this world, a former American astronaut and one of Canadas former defense ministers have endorsed Exopolitics.
"The scientific paradigm of the 20th Century was that intelligent life ended at Earths geo-stationary orbit," Webre explains. "The exopolitics model informs us that, in reality, Earth appears to be an isolated planet in the midst of a populated Universe composed of intelligent civilizations subject to Universal law, operating under Universal forms of governance, and mediated by Universe politics."
Webre delights in the cosmic irony that his e-book publisher, Filament Books, originally decided to publish Exopolitics on its website along with War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells classic account of an alien invasion from Mars that inspired Spielbergs new blockbuster.
In his science fiction novel, Wells portrays Mars – and by implication, other planets – as harbingers of alien monsters that wish to attack and destroy our planetary civilization. "[Across the gulf of space… intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded this Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us," Wells wrote.
Webre has a far more optimistic view of Mars and other possibly populated planets. He thinks that human contact with aliens represents not a "final threat" but a "future hope."
His optimism is fueled by recent scientific discoveries made by NASAs Mars Rover. These findings confirm the high probability that the red planet could host life today.
Webre is also intrigued by data derived from the scientific process of "remote viewing" which suggest that below Mars surface dwells a peaceful race of intelligent humanoid beings that survived an environmental cataclysm on Mars that occurred eons ago.
"Remote viewing" is the mental process of perceiving and describing places, persons, and events at distant locations. It was sponsored and developed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in the early 1970s with the help of scientists from Stanford Research Institute.
According to Webre, both remote viewers within the American intelligence community and civilian remote viewers trained by the US government have discovered astounding data about life on Mars, including the fact that the surviving Martian culture has technology that appears to be 150 years in advance of our present day civilization.
The remote viewing data indicate that because their physical appearance is so similar to humans on Earth, some Martians have already migrated to villages in South America. "Humans from Mars seem to be genetically related to humans on Earth," Webre says. "This raises many important questions – for science as well as for religion."
If such data prove accurate, Webre thinks that mutually beneficial agreements with our extended "human" family from Mars could help human civilization on Earth cope with the looming environmental challenges that threaten our own planetary survival.
His brilliant treatise Exopolitics describes the steps that must be taken to move in that direction. It sets forth an agenda for a hopeful future in which humanity addresses the challenge of contact with other civilizations in the Universe not in a "war of the worlds" scenario but through a "peace among worlds" initiative. It is "a roadmap to the stars."
About the Author
Alfred Lambremont Webre is a futurist and lawyer educated at Yale Law School. He was a Fulbright scholar. A member of the bar of the District of Columbia, he once served as general counsel to New York Citys Environmental Protection Agency. He was a Clinton-Gore delegate to the 1996 Texas Democratic convention. He lives in Vancouver, BC, where he is the International Director of the Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS).
About the Book
Exopolitics: Politics, Government, and Law in the Universe
By Alfred Lambremont Webre
Edited and with an Appendix by Andrew D. Basiago
Forewords by Dr. Courtney Brown and Paul Davids
Comments by Astronaut Dr. Brian OLeary and Others
Filament Books
Price: US $9.99
ISBN: 0-9737663-0-1
Available at http://www.filamentbooks.com
Contact
Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd
3339 West 41 Avenue
Vancouver, B.C.
V6N 3E5
Canada
Toll-free: 1-877-266-7337
Telephone: 604-733-8134
Fax: 604-733-8135
Website: http://www.exopolitics.com
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