Douglas A. Vakoch (/ˈvɑːˌkoʊtʃ/ VAH-kohtch;[1] born June 16, 1961) is an American astrobiologist, search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) researcher, psychologist, and president of METI International, a nonprofit research and educational organization devoted to transmitting intentional signals to extraterrestrial civilizations.
Vakoch led METI's participation in Sónar Calling GJ 273b, which transmitted a series of interstellar messages to Luyten's Star, located 12.4 light years from Earth.
Vakoch advocates ongoing transmission projects, arguing that this does not increase risks of an alien invasion as suggested by British cosmologist Stephen Hawking.
He has edited over two dozen books in SETI, astrobiology, the psychology of space exploration, ecocriticism, COVID, and transgender studies.
Vakoch helped design the message included on NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft.
He is an emeritus professor of clinical psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).
[3][4] "The issue that really hit me early on, and that has stayed with me, is just the challenge of creating a message that would be understandable," he told The New York Times Magazine.
[5] Vakoch earned a bachelor's degree in comparative religion from Carleton College, a master's degree in history and philosophy of science from the University of Notre Dame, and a PhD in psychology from Stony Brook University.
[2] He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University before he accepted a position at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.
[2] Vakoch argues that in order to make contact, humankind may need to take the initiative in transmitting, a project called active SETI.
"[8] In Discover's ranking of scientists either in favor of or opposed to transmitting, Vakoch was cited as "super pro," at the extreme of those advocating messaging.
[3] In 2010, Vakoch was one of the leaders of Project Dorothy, a multinational effort launched by Japanese astronomer Shin-ya Narusawa to observe several stars for signals from other civilizations to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Project Ozma, the first modern-day search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).
[12] Telling The Washington Post about the Project Dorothy observations, Vakoch said "[w]hat this weekend really does is begin the process of making it possible to track a possible SETI signal around the globe," and he added "[i]f a signal is detected, it has to be confirmed and followed, and now we're setting up a network to do that.
[13] "By studying the variety of intelligence found on Earth," Vakoch said, "we can gain new insights into sending messages to life on other planets.
"[14] Vakoch told the International Business Times that "[i]n this new approach, we're putting the intelligence back into SETI.
"[15] He argues that the fact that extraterrestrial intelligence may rely on different senses than humans adds to the complexity of interspecies communication.
"[19] He advocates creating interstellar messages that begin with concepts shared by humans and extraterrestrials, such as basic mathematics and science and building on these shared concepts to express content that may be distinctly human.
[21] He notes that on Earth both Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries provide internally consistent frameworks for understanding the world, but they vary in their foundational assumptions.
[18][22] In contrast to the images included on the Voyager Golden Record that emphasized the positive aspects of life on Earth, Vakoch proposes that we should be honest about human frailties.
[27] "If we wish to convey what it is about us that is distinctive, it may be our weakness, our fears, our unknowing – and yet a willingness to forge ahead to attempt contact in spite of this," Vakoch told The Psychologist.
[28] Speaking to Reuters on the day of the meeting, he said "Today the focus has been on whether we can explain something about our aesthetic sensibilities.
"[28] Vakoch also led meetings attended by anthropologists and sociologists,[29] and he advocates interstellar messages that capture the diversity of human cultures.
"[33] Isis wrote that "[t]his diverse and thought-provoking collection represents an important departure for the NASA History Series, a turn from works focused on machines, missions, and management structures to a concern with the smaller group of space sciences interested in human subjects, like space medicine and human factors engineering" and noted that the book "represents an important step in bringing the human-focused space sciences to the attention of a wider audience.
"[34] The Journal of Mind and Behavior noted that Vakoch's follow-up book On Orbit and Beyond: Psychological Perspectives on Human Spaceflight includes several chapters that address the implications of the increased autonomy that astronauts would have on missions to Mars and Saturn, as compared to orbiting Earth or travelling to the Moon.
[35][36] In an interview Vakoch explained the implications of this increased autonomy: "On missions to Mars, where greater autonomy will be expected of astronauts because of the greater distances, ground personnel should expect that their own roles will change over the course of the mission.
Commenting on plans to send miniature spacecraft to a nearby star, he told the International Business Times that "[b]y sending hundreds or thousands of space probes the size of postage stamps, Breakthrough Starshot gets around the hazards of spaceflight that could easily end a mission relying on a single spacecraft.
Only one nanocraft needs to make its way to Alpha Centauri and send back a signal for the mission to be successful.
"[40] Focusing within the Solar System, he commented on NASA's plans to send a lander to Jupiter's moon Europa, telling Gizmodo that "[t]he top priority of this lander mission will be to search for evidence of life on Europa," adding that "even if that main goal isn’t met, we will learn a great deal about the potential habitability of this icy moon.
"[41] Along with colleagues from METI International, he collected 103 words for water in languages from around the world that were engraved on a metal plate attached to the Europa Clipper spacecraft, and he designed the graphic depiction of hydrogen and hydroxyl lines for the same plate that symbolize key radio frequencies that guided early SETI searches.
"[49] Vakoch and the late psychotherapy researcher Hans Herrman Strupp suggested that the expert understanding of experienced psychotherapists is not adequately captured by manualized psychotherapy,[50] and they argued that manualized training can impede "the development of clinical judgment and complex reasoning.