Post-Detection Toolkit: Difference between revisions

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The Toolkit grows out of the collective research efforts of the Scenarios Working Group at the SETI Post-Detection Hub at the University of St Andrews, led by Dr. George Profitiliotis. The work has involved extensive collaborative development: horizon scanning, identifying trends and uncertainties, constructing four contrasting pre-detection scenarios, and generating a set of randomly combined detection situations for use in workshops or simulations.
The Toolkit grows out of the collective research efforts of the Scenarios Working Group at the SETI Post-Detection Hub at the University of St Andrews, led by Dr. George Profitiliotis. The work has involved extensive collaborative development: horizon scanning, identifying trends and uncertainties, constructing four contrasting pre-detection scenarios, and generating a set of randomly combined detection situations for use in workshops or simulations.


The toolkit provides practical resources, including scenarios, templates, and interactive methods, as well as guidance on how to adapt and use them. The structured resource combines '''pre-detection scenarios''' and a growing archive of '''post-detection scenarios''' developed through a 15-month participatory futures process (2023–2025) that imagined alternatives for the SETI ecosystem in 2050 and explored discovery and its aftermath.
The toolkit provides practical resources, including scenarios, templates, and interactive methods, as well as guidance on how to adapt and use them. The structured resource combines '''pre-detection scenarios''' and a growing archive of '''post-detection situations''' developed through a 15-month participatory futures process (2023–2025) that imagined alternatives for the SETI ecosystem in 2050 and explored discovery and its aftermath.


It is designed like a recipe book that makes futures thinking accessible through storytelling, roleplay, and collaborative exercises. The resource lists ingredients, and to come to life it relies on facilitators and participants. By adapting and combining the Toolkit elements in context, communities can explore varied futures after a SETI detection, and consider how they might feel, act, and respond in unfamiliar or unprecedented situations.
It is designed like a recipe book that makes futures thinking accessible through storytelling, roleplay, and collaborative exercises. The resource lists ingredients, and to come to life it relies on facilitators and participants. By adapting and combining the Toolkit elements in context, communities can explore varied futures after a SETI detection, and consider how they might feel, act, and respond in unfamiliar or unprecedented situations.
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== A Commons Resource ==
== A Commons Resource ==


As a living commons, the toolkit welcomes contributions from multiple contexts. Not all pages are editable, but anyone can contribute to the open sections, critique, or adapt the materials. This is in the support of ongoing dialogue and ensures the resource remains robust and relevant across different communities.
As a commons resource, the Toolkit is an evolving effort that grows with participant engagement and input from diverse perspectives. Collective input makes it possible to grow an archive that welcomes plural narratives, fictions, and histories reaching well beyond UK, USA, and European contexts.


The post-detection scenarios archive is a living, open-ended resource. The strength of the archive lies in plurality and contributors are invited to add new scenarios, drawing on science fiction, history, or imagination.  
The strength of the archive lies in plurality. The post-detection situations archive is a living, open-ended resource, and contributors are invited to add to it, drawing on science fiction, notable SETI false alarms, or imagination.
 
Not all pages are editable, but anyone can contribute to the open sections, critique, or adapt the materials. This is to support ongoing dialogue and that the resource remains robust and relevant across different communities.


Please see the [[Contributing Guidelines]] before adding your work.   
Please see the [[Contributing Guidelines]] before adding your work.   
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For the wider public, the Toolkit serves as an accessible and creative way to understand possible futures in the context of scenarios of discovery in 2050.
For the wider public, the Toolkit serves as an accessible and creative way to understand possible futures in the context of scenarios of discovery in 2050.


* '''A Tool for Dialogue and Participation:''' Participants consider the ethical, social, and emotional dimensions of possible futures together, and discuss what values and actions might matter most in those contexts. The goal is to include communities in policy questions and issues so that futures are shaped by diverse perspectives, not just experts.
* '''A Tool for Dialogue and Participation:''' Participants consider the ethical, social, and emotional dimensions of possible futures together, and discuss what values and actions might matter most in those contexts. The goal is to include communities in policy questions and issues, for futures shaped by diverse perspectives, not just experts.


* '''Designed to Engage:''' The Toolkit is approachable and used in workshops, public events, and community activities to invite broad participation in futures thinking about post-detection. It can be creatively adapted to different contexts, and the resource grows through participant engagement and input from transcultural contexts. So far, workshops have been held in Scotland, the USA, New Zealand, and Georgia, and are planned in Australia.
* '''Transform to Engage:''' The work is offered to the research community for adaptation. Members of the Hub are working on translating the Toolkit into different formats, including an AI tool in a "choose your own adventure" type of narrative game, and a more analogue collective role-play workshop. The Toolkit has been used in workshops, public events, and community activities in Scotland, the USA, New Zealand, and Georgia, with upcoming sessions in Australia.


== How to Use The Post-Detection Toolkit ==
== How to Use The Post-Detection Toolkit ==