Too early for celestial account?

Humans not ready to socialize with extraterrestrials, study shows

“Are we alone in the universe?” The cliché start of the first articles of rookie science writers is no longer in vogue these days. With almost daily announcement of the discovery of new and calculations of astronomers which put the number of potentially habitable planets in the 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 . 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 .

To name but a few, looking for conspicuous gaps in galactic niches for “Dyson spheres” encasing – 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.

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--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 -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 ’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 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 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 or several global reality that surrounds us – , 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 , 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 and , 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. The message was in the shape of identical metal plaques etched with figures of a man and woman, together with symbols showing our place in the Solar System and over a dozen pulsars to point the way. It also contained representations of the hydrogen atom and the flip of its electron’s spin which results in the emission of radio waves of a specific (21 cm) wavelength – which rings out throughout the universe as hydrogen is the most abundant element – which would supposedly show that our civilisation was at least as civilised as to know the fact. Interestingly, this first message to the extraterrestrials was the only one which an ordinary human would be able understand, although subsequently it came under criticism for looking addressed to human perception instead of the alien. The (above) and the (false color) (right). Since then, the more loosely connected of messaging-the-alien groups under the fold of Active SETI, or METI (Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) as coined by the famed Russian radio astronomer and avid alien-hunter Aleksandr Zaitsev, has made several attempts to contact the putative extraterrestrial civilizations . These include consecutive Cosmic Calls transmitted from the Yevpatoria Planetary Radar in Crimea. Another Zaitsev organised call, The Teenage Message to ETI (Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence,), not surprisingly, included a recording of electronic music, and later a “Beatles” recording beamed by NASA, both arguably a better medium of communication than all those elaborately concocted messages in “computerese”. These show a digitalised human figure – the only recognizable symbol - amid lines and lines of differently configured clusters of squares on a grid whose meanings were made known to baffled Earthlings by experts with extensive explanation in plain text. As for the aliens, they have to divine the meaning themselves. The Morse Message (1962) Arecibo message (1974) 1 (1999) (2001) Cosmic Call 2 (2003) Across the Universe (2008) A Message From Earth (2008) Hello From Earth (2009) RuBisCo Stars (2009) Wow! Reply (2012) Lone Signal (2013)

Messages were also sent in everyday language by the public, in expectations that it would be child’s play for ultra- advanced civilisations to dechipher the letters used by humans, the sounds they correspond to, the words they form and the meaning of these words written in different languages.

In 2012, the Arecibo radio telescope transmitted 10.000 messages in The 70-meter Yevpatoria RT-70 radio telescope or planetary radar at the direction of constellation Sagittarius, Crimea, one of the largest of its kind, has an advantage others lack, in in “reply” to a a strong, but not repeated that it is equipped with powerful transmitters that permit precision radio message dubbed the “Wow signal”. beaming of radio signals at distant stars potentially orbited by life- The signal, with a frequency almost bearing planets. identical to that of the hydrogen line, was intercepted 35 years earlier, during the 72 that Ohio State University’s Big Ear radio telescope panned across the sky. Follow up searches failed to catch the signal again.

Meanwhile Jacob Haqq-Misra, a post-doc at Pennsylvania State University and the now-deceased businessman Pierre Fabre organised an initiative in 2013, The Lone Signal, calling space enthusiasts to beam Twitter-style, 144-character personal messages to a star they identified as Gliese 526, which, they said was a star “possibly” having a solar system, 17.6 light years away in Constellation Boötes. The team hopes to raise some 100 million dollars through the scheme, to be spent on the establishment of a network of dishes across the world. The signals, beamed via a recommissioned radio telescope called Jamesburg Earth Station in Carmel, California, will reach their target in 2031. Transmissions

Stars to which messages were sent, are the following:

Arrival Name Designation Constellation Date sent Message date November approx. Arecibo

Messier 13 NGC 6205 Hercules

16, 1974 27000 Message Altair August (Morimoto -

Altair Alpha Aql Aquila 1999 15, 1983 Hirabayashi) Provided there is a planet around Message the target star, inhabited by NASDA August

Spica Alpha Vir 2247 Cosmic- linguistics-savvy extraterrestrials 1997 College who decipher the messages and May 24, November Cosmic Call

16 Cyg A HD 186408 1999 2069 1 reply immediately, earliest June 30, February Cosmic Call messagers will have to wait until

15 Sge HD 190406 1999 2057 1 2048 to check their mailboxes. A June 30, October Cosmic Call

HD 178428 Sagitta prominent endorser of the project 1999 2067 1 July 1, April Cosmic Call was futurist Ray Kurzweil, who

Gl 777 HD 190360 Cygnus 1999 2051 1 foresees artificial intelligence August February Teen Age

HD 197076 surpassing that of humans in a few

29, 2001 2070 Message September Teen Age decades, after which the humans,

47 UMa HD 95128 July 2047 3, 2001 Message ceasing to be purely biological and September December Teen Age to be vastly augmented by artificial 37 Gem HD 50692

3, 2001 2057 Message intelligence and products of September January Teen Age

HD 126053 Virgo

3, 2001 2059 Message nanotechnology, would rule the September Teen Age universe. In style, the computer HD 76151 May 2057

4, 2001 Message scientist informed the putative September January Teen Age

HD 193664

4, 2001 2059 Message addressee, that by the time his , April Cosmic Call message arrives, the human race HIP 4872 Cassiopeia 2003 2036 2 will be much smarter thanks to July 6, August Cosmic Call

HD 245409 2003 2040 2 computers. July 6, Cosmic Call

55 Cnc HD 75732 May 2044 2003 2 Then, perhaps, responses of future July 6, September Cosmic Call participants in new polls about HD 10307 Andromeda 2003 2044 2 mingling with extraterrestrials July 6, Cosmic Call

47 UMa HD 95128 Ursa Major May 2049 2003 2 would not be as troubling as what February Across the the Cádiz neuro-scientist.

Polaris HIP 11767 Ursa Minor 2439

4, 2008 Universe October 9, A Message Gliese 581 HIP 74995 Libra 2029

2008 From Earth August Hello From

Gliese 581 HIP 74995 Libra 2030

28, 2009 Earth November RuBisCo

GJ 83.1 GJ 83.1 Aries 2024

7, 2009 Stars Teegarden's SO November RuBisCo Aries 2022 Raşit Gürdilek Star J025300.5+165258 7, 2009 Stars Kappa1 November RuBisCo

GJ 137 Cetus 2039

Ceti 7, 2009 Stars 2014-05-26 August

HIP 34511 Gemini 2163 Wow! Reply 15, 2012 August

37 Gem HD 50692 Gemini 2069 Wow! Reply 15, 2012 August

55 Cnc HD 75732 Cancer 2053 Wow! Reply 15, 2012 July 10,

Gliese 526 HD 119850 Boötes 2031 Lone Signal 2013

REFERENCES:

“Are we ready for contact with extraterrestrial intelligence?”, FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology, 6 May 2016

“Hawking: Aliens may pose risk to Earth”, The Daily Telegraph, 25 April 2010

“Active SETI”,Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_SETI

“Alien Life Discovery Could Happen Within 20 Years”, Discovery News, 22 May 2014, http://news.discovery.com/space/alien-life-exoplanets/alien-life-discovery-could-happen-within-20- years-140521.htm#mkcpgn=emnws1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale#Type.C2.A0I_civilization_methods http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Signal http://thelonesignal.tumblr.com/

TAGS:

Extraterrestrial, alien, ET, Kardashev, Yevpatoria, SETI, Active SETI, METI