Kelsey Johnson introduces a startling cosmological idea—that it may be more statistically likely for consciousness to arise spontaneously from random particle arrangements (so-called “Boltzmann brains”) than through the slow, complex process of life evolving on planets. This raises a profound question: If our own consciousness might be one of many emergent phenomena in a chaotic universe, how could a confirmed discovery of extraterrestrial life reshape our confidence in science’s assumptions about reality and progress? Avi Loeb’s advocacy for studying interstellar objects like ’Oumuamua' fits here, as he urges science to stay open to ideas that challenge conventional thinking. But as both Johnson and Loeb acknowledge, scientific institutions often resist theories that stretch beyond accepted paradigms, making this question hard to answer because it pits scientific imagination against systemic caution.
Jill Tarter’s perspective brings another dimension: How would confirmation of alien intelligence affect humanity’s religious and existential frameworks, especially if life out there defies our definitions of biology or consciousness? Tarter speaks of the importance of protocol to be followed if there were ever to be a legitimate contact with extraterrestrial life due to its propensity to be seen as deeply destabilizing. Johnson’s discussion of “non-physical brains” compounds this by reminding us that our very categories of life and intelligence may be too narrow. If the right recipe arose in the cosmos to assemble matter that could somehow process thoughts or store memories and was not humanoid or even carbon-based, both science and religion may struggle to interpret it. The difficulty, then, is that the discovery wouldn’t just add to human knowledge—it could undermine the foundations of how we organize meaning and morality altogether.