Too Early for Celestial Facebook Account?
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Too early for celestial Facebook account? Humans not ready to socialize with extraterrestrials, study shows “Are we alone in the universe?” The cliché start of the first astrobiology articles of rookie science writers is no longer in vogue these days. With almost daily announcement of the discovery of new exoplanets and calculations of astronomers which put the number of potentially habitable planets in the Milky Way alone at tens of billions, the question now rather is “where are they”. That the curiosity has ceased to be the obsession of a few astronomers is evident from millions of home computers volunteered for the analysis of terabytes of data compiled by SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project which is listening to the elusive voice of ET with a wide open ear: The 300-meter Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. There’s no harm in listening for signals announcing the presence of advanced extraterrestrials around. After all, we’ve been doing that for some 50 years. Besides browsing through radio wavelengths, or looking for high-energy laser pulses, alternative proposals are in no short supply in the realm of “passive” searches. Some of these, evidently products of stretched imaginations, appear based on the supercivilization classification of Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev. To name but a few, looking for conspicuous gaps in galactic niches for “Dyson spheres” encasing stars – and thereby making it invisible –an advanced civilization might have built to exploit all of its energy, or distinctive gamma rays emanating from atomic size “black hole engines” manufactured to provide propulsion for space faring races. Some say look for oddly -shaped (e.g. pyramidal ) planets transiting the face of their stars. Still other alien markers are identified as mined-out asteroids around stars or debris such as machinery or engineered items thrown overboard by less civilized envoys of supercivilisations traversing our Solar system. But when it comes to changing tactics in a bid to “attract” the attention of intelligent aliens, the prevailing sentiment is ranging from cool reception , to vocal opposition. A poll, conducted by a Spanish university psychologist showed that humans were not ready to try contacting an extraterrestrial civilization, while a renowned physicist thumbs down the project as outright suicidal. Nevertheless, “contact” diehards keep transmitting our whereabouts, sometimes with innovative methods. Kardashev Scale If SETI intercepts a signal which defies a natural explanation, you can expect the Apparently thinking that recent eyebrows to be raised. It has to be coming from an advanced extraterrestrial findings which imply the existence of civilisation. But how advanced? Russian (at the time, Soviet) astrophysicist Nikolai tens of billions of potentially Kardashev gave us a yardstick. The 82-year-old scientist published a seminal paper in 1964, in which he divided advanced civilisations into three categories based on the habitable planets in the Milky Way level of energy they are able to utilise which acquired fame as the “Kardashev Scale.” and the discovery of earth-alikes in rapid succession make a visit by the On the first rung stands the Type I civilization, which is able to utilise all the energy spacefaring alien inevitable, neuro- of its planet. This calls for the extensive application of fusion power through conversion of hydrogen to helium, making use of about 130 quadrillion tons of psychologist Gabriel G. de la Torre of hydrogen contained in Earth’s oceans which can get its civilisation going for billions Spain’s Cádiz University wondered of years, to be supplemented with renewable energies, including the harnessing of what the reaction would be. the Sun’s energy through solar cells or concentrators, as well as wind and hydroelectrical power. Choosing to go after informed To be promoted to the Type II civilization requires, as starters, to scale up these opinion, he had 116 Spanish, Italian feats to large numbers of planets in large numbers of solar systems. But a and American university students to supercivilization worth its salt should be able to construct megastructures called fill an extensive questionnaire to “Dyson spheres” (envisioned by physicist Freeman Dyson) surrounding a star to measure the pick of humanity’s absorb all of its energy, or at least “Dyson swarms” of power satellites or space degree of readiness to meet the alien habitats around a star. with the wanderlust. The participants were rated on their knowledge of Artist’s conception of a astronomy, the place of things in the Dyson swarm around a cosmos, the level of their perception star. The alternative Dyson sphere was of the environment, their views envisaged to be a solid about the likelihood of contact with bubble sucking up the the extraterrestrials and the depth of star’s total energy utilised their religious convictions. by a Type II civilization on the bubble’s surface. The findings, sadly, are not likely to fill “look, we’re here” activists with renewed zest: "... the knowledge of More advanced civilisations of this type could hypothetically tap into the power of the general public of a certain black holes by feeding stars to them, or strip a star of its material for alternative uses, exploit antimatter which would be available as an industrial byproduct, could education level about the cosmos harness the energy spewed out by the hypothetical “white holes” – at the other ends and our place within it is still poor. of black holes – or capture the energy of gamma ray bursts, the most violent events Therefore, a cosmic awareness must in the universe. be further promoted – where our Sitting on top of Kardashev’s scale is the Type III civilization which proves its mind is increasingly conscious of the superiority by harnessing the total power output of a whole galaxy or several global reality that surrounds us – galaxies, by individually employing the methods of Type II civilisations for all the using the best tool available to us: stars, and maybe also by tapping into the power of supermassive black holes education," De la Torre concludes. believed to be a the centers of most galaxies. University students – and by The Kardashev scale was extended by others in later years to even higher categories, inference, the rest of the society – with Type IV civilizations credited with the ability to harness the energy of the were found wanting in many aspects entire universe, and Type V , using the energy of a collection of universes. of astronomy despite great progress Although Kardashev has been considerate enough to overlook the technological level we have attained, others saw no scruples in unceremoniously delegating us into a “Type 0” category , since our fossil fuel-based technology is still far away from making use of everything our planet has to offer. in science and technology. They appeared viewing the cosmic events through the window of religious beliefs and relying on politicians to solve crises of global import. "Regarding our relation with a possible intelligent extraterrestrial life, we should not rely on moral reference points of thought, since they are heavily influenced by religion. Why should some more intelligent beings be 'good'?," muses the researcher. On the other hand, he objects to the business of search for extraterrestrial being monopolized by a handful of scientists. Contacting the extraterrestrial - with unfathomable motives – is a matter in which all humanity should have a say, “after a proper education on these matters”, a cautious De la Torre concludes. Another advocate of prudence is no other than famed physicist Stephen Hawking ,who has warned before that even the well –meaning aliens may come with unwanted gifts in the form of infections against which we have no defense. More recently, however, the scientist known for his witty style besides his theories on black holes and universe in general, has remarked that intelligent extraterrestrials could not be counted on for good intent – taking his cue from a familiar species: "We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet," he said in the 2010 debut of the TV documentary “Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking.” "I imagine they might exist in massive ships ... having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.” In a more ominous note, he contemplated that a visit to Earth might well be like the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the New World, “which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.” The Hollywood sci-fi “Battle:Los Angeles” highlights humans’ subconscious fears about aliens aliens Yet, the calls for caution seem to have come way too late, and apparently are not going to dissuade dedicated alien-baiters anytime soon. For one thing, we have been announcing our presence and whereabouts anyway for the past 100 years or so, ever since the first radio broadcasts. Since the radio waves propagate with the speedof light, any extraterrestrial within a sphere with a radius of 100 light years could have worked out the Earth’s coordinates, provided they are smart enough. Earliest Earthly television broadcasts have now passed 10.000 stars by that account, speculates Dan Werthimer, a leading ET hunter with SETI, who was addressing a Congressional committee in a bid to secure more funds for the decades-long endeavour. “The nearby stars have seen ‘The Simpsons.’ If we’re broadcasting, maybe other civilizations are sending signals in our direction – either leaking signals the way we unintentionally send off signals, or maybe a deliberate signal.” As for our own deliberates, the earliest message to the exraterrestrials, drawn up by the late astronomer Carl Sagan and Frank Drake, the author of the famous equation about the probability of intelligent life in the universe, were sent out in 1972 and 1973, respectively, with Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft.