We need to prepare. We need new instruments of observation and interception. We need far greater transparency, and with it coordination of effort, among scientists and governments. Arising out of that transparency, humanity needs new expectations about how encounters with interstellar objects, and eventually with non-terrestrial life and non-terrestrial civilizations, are likely to unfold. How we prepare, how we as a civilization and a scientific community now behave, will determine the psychological costs and benefits of this new era of sentient terrestrial existence.
