December 11, 2014 9:53AM # A Far-Out Cato Unbound By [Jason Kuznicki](https://www.cato.org/people/jason-kuznicki) --- SHARE [This month at *Cato Unbound*, we’re talking about the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, or SETI](http://www.cato-unbound.org/issues/december-2014/politics-social-theory-seti). Why’s that, you ask? Several reasons, really. First, although it’s not exactly a hot public policy topic, it will certainly become one if we ever actually find anything. But that’s hardly where the importance of the topic ends. Much more interesting to me at least is that SETI can serve as a springboard for discussing all kinds of important concepts in public policy. Our contributors this month — David Brin, Robin Hanson, Jerome H. Barkow, and Douglas Vakoch — have talked about [the open society](http://www.cato-unbound.org/2014/12/01/david-brin/seti-meti-paradox-extraterrestrial-life-there-libertarian-perspective), [cost-benefit analysis](http://www.cato-unbound.org/2014/12/03/robin-hanson/should-earth-shut-hell), [evolutionary psychology](http://www.cato-unbound.org/2014/12/05/jerome-h-barkow/extraterrestrial-evolutionary-psychology), the [hubris of experts](http://www.cato-unbound.org/2014/12/10/david-brin/trust-me-i-know-exactly-whats-out-there), the [narcissim of small differences](http://www.cato-unbound.org/2014/12/10/jerome-h-barkow/nothing-much-say), and even [Pascal’s Wager (and what’s wrong with it)](http://www.cato-unbound.org/2014/12/10/robin-hanson/pascals-alien-wager). So… lots of interesting stuff, particularly for libertarians who are interested in public policy. [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).