Explore and understand our Universe. This is the mission at the heart of Eureka Manifesto, the short book written by technology investor and science philanthropist Yuri Milner. In this book, he describes the “Universal Story”, the universe’s gradual transformation from matter and energy into structure, living systems, and eventually into sentient beings able to ponder the meaning of life.
This story, he suggests, culminates in a message from the universe to the human race; to go forth and explore. Eureka Manifesto is a fascinating read in which Yuri Milner emphasises the importance of the search for extraterrestrial life and the steps humanity must overcome to reach the stars.
We Need a Mission
Eureka Manifesto highlights some of Yuri Milner’s ideas about the significance of humanity in the cosmos and argues that, without a shared mission, we have a reduced likelihood of humanity either surviving or thriving for long. Yuri Milner states that despite so many apparent differences between human nations and cultures, we can all unite as inhabitants of Earth to seek answers about the universe.
Depending on whether humanity embraces this mission, there could be a lot to lose or gain. The book reminds us that human progress and enlightenment are not guaranteed. Humanity is not only at risk of itself through global war, bioterrorism, and climate change, but also from other dangers that lurk beyond our planet.
By taking up the mission, Yuri Milner suggests it is far more likely that we will avoid extinction events and thrive far into the future as a flourishing civilisation. Eureka Manifesto hints at the technological leaps awaiting us and the possibility of taking our place among other advanced galactic civilisations.
But all this is only possible if we take steps towards enlightenment in which everyone can contribute to a shared culture of knowledge and curiosity. Part of the “Plan of Action” outlined in the Eureka Manifesto is already underway: In 2015, Yuri Milner founded the Breakthrough Initiatives, a set of space programmes that injected $100 million into the Search for Extraterrestrial Life (SETI).
Two of the Breakthrough projects are Listen, an extensive series of extraterrestrial communications surveys, and Starshot, which hopes to one day send a flyby mission to Alpha Centauri. Having received funding from the foundation established by Yuri Milner and his wife Julia, the projects boast impressive collaborators like Mark Zuckerberg and the late Stephen Hawking.
Are We Alone?
Astrobiologists today agree that cellular life, even at a primitive level, is likely to be everywhere in the cosmos, as yet undiscovered. If we are not alone, we may one day contact our cosmic neighbours. If these neighbours are intelligent and friendly, humanity would benefit greatly from meeting them.
There is another potential outcome; in Eureka Manifesto, Yuri Milner describes the concept of the Great Filter, which asserts that the long-term evolution and survival of advanced civilisations is so unlikely that none arise in the first place, or, if they do, they don’t last long, falling victim to existential risks from space or their self-destruction.
If we are alone, then we are the only conscious beings capable of telling and continuing the Universal Story. If we fail, it may take billions of years for another civilisation capable of our level of awareness to arise. The Universal Story has more chapters to come. Yuri Milner believes it’s time for us to decide how humanity is going to appear in those chapters, and whether we choose to write them.
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