Extraterrestrial Altruism examines a basic assumption of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI): that extraterrestrials will be transmitting messages to us for our benefit. This question of whether extraterrestrials will be altruistic has become increasingly important in recent years as SETI scientists have begun contemplating transmissions from Earth to make contact.

Cosmic Evolution, Reciprocity, and Interstellar Tit for Tat.- Extraterrestrial Intelligence: Friends, Foes, or Just Curious?.- Eliciting Altruism While Avoiding Xenophobia: A Thought Experiment.- Predator - Prey Models and Contact Considerations.- Harmful ETI Hypothesis Denied: Visiting ETIs Likely Altruists.- Altruism Toward Non-Humans: Lessons for Interstellar Communication.- Caring Capacity and Cosmocultural Evolution: Potential Mechanisms for Advanced Altruism.- The Precautionary Principle: Egoism, Altruism, and the Active SETI Debate.- The Accidental Altruist: Inferring Altruism from an Extraterrestrial Signal.- Interstellar Intersubjectivity: The Significance of Shared Cognition for Communication, Empathy, and Altruism in Space.- Other Minds, Empathy, and Interstellar Communication.- Interspecies Altruism: Learning from Species on Earth.- Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Altruism.- Kenotic Ethics and SETI: A Present-day View.- Altruism, Metalaw, and Celegistics: An Extraterrestrial Perspective on Universal Law-Making.- A Logic-Based Approach to Characterizing Altruism in Interstellar Messages.- Equity and Democracy: Seeking the Common Good as a Common Ground for Interstellar Communication.- Patterns of Extraterrestrial Culture.- Evolutionary Perspectives on Interstellar Communication: Images of Altruism.