Interstellar Intersubjectvity: The Significance of Shared Cognition
for Communication, Empathy and Altruism in Space

David Dunér (Centre for Cognitive Semiotics, Lund University)

This talk concerns intersubjectivity, the significance of shared cognition for communication, empathy and altruism in space. When we monitor the skies, analyzing electromagnetic waves from outer space in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, we are searching for something that we can understand, can communicate with, that has intentions and is self-conscious, has advanced civilization and technology. We in return have to show that we are something alive, something intelligent and self-conscious. What is needed is
intersubjectivity. Elsewhere I have discussed the significance of cognitive science in order to understand the cognitive challenges the human mind faces in space, and the cognitive foundations of interstellar communication. In this talk I will explore how and in what way intersubjectivity can lead us to establish
an interaction, and in what extent intersubjectivity has to do with technological skills, sustainable planetary environments and a stable long-lasting societies. Based on current studies in cognitive science, I will in the following introduce the concept of intersubjectivity as a key to future search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and then explain, leaning on philogenetic, ontogenetic, and cultural-historical studies of cognition, why intersubjectivity is a basic requisite for the emergence of intelligence, sociability, communication, and technology. Finally, I will propose an interstellar intersubjective interaction.