CNN: Should We Fear Space Aliens?

Stephen Hawking's new documentary premiered Sunday night on the Discovery Channel. In it, he claimed that intelligent alien life almost certainly exists and that the search for it is valuable. He also suggested that the potential threats posed by contact with alien intelligence should discourage us from actively sending out messages to the cosmos.

As anyone who has seen the Discovery Channel broadcast knows, it did an excellent job of explaining astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. It illustrated how vast the search is (and will become) and its potential impact on Earth's inhabitants.

We earthlings are fairly new at technology (100 years of transmitting electronic signals) in a very old galaxy (10+ billion years). The SETI Institute's optical and radio searches can only detect life capable of technology more advanced than ours. If such life is less advanced, their technology will not be detectable across the huge distances of interstellar space (smoke signals don't get very far!).

The ultimate success of SETI also depends upon the average longevity of technologies (assuming there are others out there besides ourselves). Longevity or "L" is the last term in the Drake Equation, a formula designed to estimate the number of communicative civilizations in our galaxy. In fact, the length of time a technologically advanced species might continue to transmit is completely unknown and unknowable until, or unless, contact is made.

I think that Prof. Hawking made the point that a short-lived technological society (a small value for "L") means little chance of contact. But it L is large, it is likely that SETI searches will succeed and that the civilization that's transmitting is using a technology that is older and more advanced than our own. Of course he's right, but there's a lot of room for different opinions about what contact with an advanced technology would mean.

In describing the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, Prof. Philip Morrison (co-author in 1959 of the first scientific SETI paper) was fond of saying that "SETI is the archaeology of the future." It's archaeology because any signals we detect will tell us about their past (even signals traveling at the speed of light can take up to 100,000 years to cross the Milky Way Galaxy), but the successful detection would tell us that we could have a long future.

In that case, we are talking about contact through electromagnetic communication. What about physical contact? Well, one thing is for sure: If they can get here, then their technology is superior to ours, and not just by a little! Arthur C. Clarke's third law is, "Any sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic."

Can we be certain that their magic would do us harm? I would hope that Hawking would agree that a large value for L (a requirement for that magical, star-spanning technology) could also mean that their distant civilization had found a way to stabilize itself in order to survive and grow old. That might require outgrowing any aggressive and belligerent tendencies that may have characterized their youth.

Such an advanced technology might well send explorers whose size and shape we cannot yet imagine to study and examine the diversity of life that evolved elsewhere -- and rather than exploiting us, they might value and support the natural biodiversity of the galaxy.

Indeed, most of Hawking's Discovery Channel program was devoted to explaining that life as we know it is hugely diverse, and life as we don't yet know it is worth searching for because of all the ways a discovery would inform and surprise us.

At SETI, our current mission isn't to broadcast, but rather to listen to the universe and see what else might be out there. If signals are detected, everyone on the planet should have a voice in deciding how to respond. [link to www.cnn.com]

 

sure seems to be a lot of build up to possible disclosure.....

or is this the disclosure itself? tiny little tidbits in small doses to soften people up?!

 

i was wondering why this was a front page cnn poll.

seems a bit alarmist but anything that publicly challenges the major religions of the world is alright by me.

 

they seem to be layin it on a little thick this week, every outlet is covering this in one way or another....

kind of seems like they can no longer hide it and have to say 'something' to cover their asses. either way im very interested in seeing how it all plays outrettyplease:

 

Stephen Hawkings is officially insane.

 

that's what the proletariat always say about the intellectuals.

 

How could we possibly find and contact a planet similar to Earth at this stage let alone find intelligent life on it? The chance must be like a trillion trillions to 1

We haven't even fully explored our own oceans yet. Even there, life has been found on hydrothermal vents hot enough to melt lead. Theres probably life here right now that we can't see due to our sensoral and current technological limitations.

 

they will find us!!!!


no but seriously, deep sea marine biology is fascinating.

 

I personally want to know more about life in our own oceans. It's fascinating.

I doubt we should fear aliens. This real life, not Star Trek. Even if other planets in other galaxies had more advanced life forms, we are too far away to reach.

 

If the aliens turned out to be potential threats, we can call the 'Beast'.

 

Don't Hawkings is trying to scare anyone, but just give his educated point-of-view on the matter. Hell he's the smarted human alive I'm glad he is giving us advice on what not to do.

 

LOL! I think you'll find hes had waaay to much time to ponder this in his little chair.

"Lets all not send messages into space or we might piss off ETs" OKKKKKKKK

 

Would you so casually dismiss the testimony of millions of abductees who claim were contacted by ET :toetap05:


Hotwater

 

lets deal with illegal alien immigrants first

 

Yes, very casually.

They are all nutty fruitcakes.

 

on the next E.T. Prada harvests Aliens skin for the next line of purses and shoes...

 

We should try and mate with them.

 

http://image.24ur.com/media/images/600xX/Nov2008/60221143.jpg

 

I am very sure that some already have. Have you looked around?

 

heh. "space aliens..." as opposed to.. the ones here on earth