Scientists in US are urged to seek contact with aliens

[wolfschanzze]

Scientists at a US conference have said it is time to try actively to contact intelligent life on other worlds.

Researchers involved in the search for extra-terrestrial life are considering what the message from Earth should be.

The call was made by the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence institute at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Jose.

But others argued that making our presence known might be dangerous.

Researchers at the Seti institute have been listening for signals from outer space for more than 30 years using radio telescope facilities in the US. So far there has been no sign of ET.

The organisation's director, Dr Seth Shostak, told attendees to the AAAS meeting that it was now time to step up the search.

"Some of us at the institute are interested in 'active Seti', not just listening but broadcasting something to some nearby stars because maybe there is some chance that if you wake somebody up you'll get a response," he told BBC News.

The concerns are obvious, but sitting in his office at the institute in Mountain View, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley, he expresses them with characteristic, impish glee.

Any society that could come here and ruin our whole day by incinerating the planet already knows we are here”

Dr Seth Shostak Seti Institute

"A lot of people are against active Seti because it is dangerous. It is like shouting in the jungle. You don't know what is out there; you better not do it. If you incite the aliens to obliterate the planet, you wouldn't want that on your tombstone, right?"

I couldn't argue with that. But initially, I could scarcely believe I was having this conversation at a serious research institute rather than at a science fiction convention. The sci-fi feel of our talk was underlined by the toy figures of bug-eyed aliens that cheerfully decorate the office.

But Dr Shostak is a credible and popular figure and has been invited to present his arguments.

Leading astronomers, anthropologists and social scientists will gather at his institute after the AAAS meeting for a symposium to flesh out plans for a proposal for active Seti to put to the public and politicians.



Seth Shostak on search for extra-terrestrial life. Extra footage courtesy of Ron Barnett

High on the agenda is whether such a move would, as he put it so starkly, lead to the "obliteration" of the planet.

"I don't see why the aliens would have any incentive to do that," Dr Shostak tells me.

"Beyond that, we have been telling them willy-nilly that we are here for 70 years now. They are not very interesting messages but the early TV broadcasts, the early radio, the radar from the Second World War - all that has leaked off the Earth.

"Any society that could come here and ruin our whole day by incinerating the planet already knows we are here."

Clash of cultures
His argument isn't entirely reassuring. But neither is the one made by David Brin, a science fiction writer invited to speak at the AAAS meeting, who opposes the plan.

"Historians will tell you that first contact between industrial civilisations and indigenous people does not go well," he told me.

Mr Brin believes that those in favour of active Seti have been "railroading the public into sending a message without a wide and detailed discussion of what the cultural impact might be".

He does not fear a Hollywood-style alien invasion and thinks the likelihood of making contact is extremely low. But the risks, he argues, are extremely high and so merit careful consideration before anyone sends out a signal to potentially habitable worlds.

"The arrogance of shouting into the cosmos without any proper risk assessment defies belief. It is a course that would put our grandchildren at risk," he said.

Also on the agenda at the active Seti symposium is that if we are to send a message to ET - what should it be?

Some involved in the discussions believe we should send a sanitised account of ourselves, leaving out parts of our history we aren't proud of and putting a positive spin on our achievements - as if our species were attending a job interview or first date. Dr Shostak disagrees. He thinks the only way to win over the aliens is to be ourselves.

"My personal preference is to send the internet - send it all because if you send a lot of information then there's some chance that they'll work it out".

BBC News - Scientists in US are urged to seek contact with aliens

@SvenSvensonov @levina @jbgt90 @anant_s @faisal6309 @Norwegian @janon @ArsalanKhan21 @wolfschanzze @KAL-EL @XenoEnsi-14 @AUSTERLITZ

I Believe we made contact long time ago.It is only us who are Scouring Radio waves,when an Advanced Civilization uses Telepathy as mode of Communication.
Hive Mind, Learn to listen to your brain, it's the biggest Transmitter in Universe.
You become what you think-BUDDHA.(your brain can be a Weapon,Saviour etc.It all depends how you use it.You can change your reality, that power is with you always )
Know which is a reality and which is not!

 

[ArsalanKhan21]

We should not try to contact ET since most will occupy Earth and take our resources. We should instead try to stop beaming signals in outer space and listen to ET signals We have to ascertain their intentions before we contact them.

Stephen Hawking: "We've Been Overlooked by Advanced ET Civilizations" (Today's Most Popular)


In his famous lecture, Life in the Universe, Stephen Hawking asks: "What are the chances that we will encounter some alien form of life, as we explore the galaxy?"

If the argument about the time scale for the appearance of life on Earth is correct, Hawking says "there ought to be many other stars, whose planets have life on them. Some of these stellar systems could have formed 5 billion years before the Earth. So why is the galaxy not crawling with self-designing mechanical or biological life forms?"
Why hasn't the Earth been visited, and even colonized? Hawking asks. "I discount suggestions that UFO's contain beings from outer space. I think any visits by aliens, would be much more obvious, and probably also, much more unpleasant."

Hawking continues: "What is the explanation of why we have not been visited? One possibility is that the argument, about the appearance of life on Earth, is wrong. Maybe the probability of life spontaneously appearing is so low, that Earth is the only planet in the galaxy, or in the observable universe, in which it happened. Another possibility is that there was a reasonable probability of forming self reproducing systems, like cells, but that most of these forms of life did not evolve intelligence."

We are used to thinking of intelligent life, as an inevitable consequence of evolution, Hawking emphasized, but it is more likely that evolution is a random process, with intelligence as only one of a large number of possible outcomes.

Intelligence, Hawking believes contrary to our human-centric existence, may not have any long-term survival value. In comparison the microbial world, will live on, even if all other life on Earth is wiped out by our actions. Hawking's main insight is that intelligence was an unlikely development for life on Earth, from the chronology of evolution: "It took a very long time, two and a half billion years, to go from single cells to multi-cell beings, which are a necessary precursor to intelligence. This is a good fraction of the total time available, before the Sun blows up. So it would be consistent with the hypothesis, that the probability for life to develop intelligence, is low. In this case, we might expect to find many other life forms in the galaxy, but we are unlikely to find intelligent life."

Another possibility is that there is a reasonable probability for life to form, and to evolve to intelligent beings, but at some point in their technological development "the system becomes unstable, and the intelligent life destroys itself. This would be a very pessimistic conclusion. I very much hope it isn't true."

Hawkling prefers another possibility: that there are other forms of intelligent life out there, but that we have been overlooked. If we should pick up signals from alien civilizations, Hawking warns,"we should have be wary of answering back, until we have evolved" a bit further. Meeting a more advanced civilization, at our present stage,' Hawking says "might be a bit like the original inhabitants of America meeting Columbus. I don't think they were better off for it."

 

[ArsalanKhan21]

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/var...s-scientists-warn-against-space-messages.html

Worried about hostile aliens, scientists warn against space messages

A number of scientists have expressed concern about proposals to transmit messages into space, saying that any hostile alien life forms could take advantage of these to the detriment of Earth, the Daily Express newspaper reported.

A number of figures in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) have recently put forward proposals to transmit powerful radio messages into space where life may exist, the daily said.

Researchers hope the method – an active form of search known as Messages to Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Meti) that will be deployed to Earth-like planets – will increase the chances of alien contact with Earth.

However, some critics have suggested the proposals are premature and could pose a danger to humans.

David Brin, a space scientist and author, said: “A small cadre of Seti radio astronomers has resisted the notion of international consultation before humanity takes the brash and irreversible step into Meti, shouting our presence into the cosmos.

“That’s all very well if the only one you’re putting at risk is yourself. But when that risk is imposed upon our children and all of humanity on the planet, is it too much to ask that we discuss it first?” he asked.

In 2010, Britain’s Professor Stephen Hawking warned that aliens could exploit our resources.

“If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when [Christopher] Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans,” he said.

Dr. Shostak of Seti has brushed aside scientists’ concerns, saying it is “too late to worry” about provoking extraterrestrials.

“Any alien society that is advanced enough to launch an attack and vaporize Swindon can easily pick up the broadcasts we’ve been sending into space since World War II.”

Dr. Douglas Vokoch, also from Seti, also argued for sending the messages.

“With recent detection of Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of other stars, we have natural targets for such transmission projects,” he said.

“Some would argue that we should avoid powerful transmissions at all costs for fear of an alien invasion.

“If this mindset became entrenched, it would signal a guarded vision for humankind as isolationist, avoiding exploration, trying to minimize risk at any cost.”


Last Update: Saturday, 14 February 2015 KSA 13:39 - GMT 10:39