Subordinate to physiological needs is the need for personal safety of the individual and, by extension, the group that the individual is a part of. Obviously we can envision situations in which safety and physiological perquisites are somewhat interrelated. It is certainly one of the major characteristics of group associations that a successful group can influence the individual’s assessment of safety needs. For a group that truly commands the allegiance of its individuals, the safety of the group can be made paramount, subordinating personal safety as a result. The mechanisms used to elicit such desired behavior from group adherents have evolved over time, much as individual capabilities have evolved. They in fact form the basis of social orders.

The deficiency needs of Maslow’s hierarchy are the most directly relevant to the individual as an isolated being. While subsequent association with a group may impact these needs, perhaps making them easier or harder to attain, they represent the greatest testimony of humankind’s membership in the general animal kingdom. It is upon these levels that the group can exert its greatest influence in order to force the individual toward some forms of altruistic behavior that are detrimental to self while beneficial to the group.

The remaining six levels constitute the growth needs of Maslow’s Hierarchy. It seems interesting to us that the higher level needs seem to a priori consider stimuli for the individual within a larger group context. A personal sense of belonging implies the presence of a group to which the individual can belong. Self-esteem is obviously an important driver of the individual, but the esteem held for an individual by a group of peers is of significant importance as well. In this light, we note that Michael Tomasello in The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition raised the point that the compatibility of the needs hierarchy among individuals can be a strong factor for driving a set of individuals to seek out and become part of grouping mechanisms in order to cooperatively satisfy their collective needs. The six higher levels of Maslow’s hierarchy, Belonging, Esteem, Cognitive, Aesthetic, Self-actualization and Transcendence bring the individual person into a social environment. These levels may not dictate a person’s membership in a group, but they are more likely to involve interactions with other people in order to satisfy.

Mechanics of Interactions

Assuming sufficient impetus to foster an interaction, be it between people or between computers or with things that go bump in the night, we are left to consider the mechanics which facilitate the interaction itself. The problem of establishing an environment for interaction is already difficult when two or more parties agree in advance as to the efficacy of interactions and further agree upon mechanisms through which interactions will occur. The problem faced by the parties when no such agreed upon set of protocols exists becomes daunting indeed. Of course, in the extreme, the parties simply revert to the mechanisms of the physical ecosystem; essentially, the law of the jungle. It is interesting to note how much of literature, particularly of the genre known as science fiction, deals with just this issue. Consider four rather recent classic works of science fiction that have been presented as movies: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Independence Day, Star Trek: First Contact and Contact. These four movies present perhaps the broadest spectrum of potential protocols for the initial establishment of an interaction environment between two dissimilar yet sentient species.

The 1984 movie entitled Close Encounters of the Third Kind presents one of the more involved and protracted interaction protocols for initial contact between intelligent species of greatly differing technological capabilities. In this presentation, a species external to the earth is offered as the more technologically advanced and the instigator of the interaction. The protocol of first

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