DOCID: 3052333 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Lambros D. Callimahos Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence We are not alone in the universe. A few years ago, this nearest would probably be at least 100 light years away; notion seemed farfetched; today, the existence of therefore it would take 200 years for a reply to be extraterrestrial intelligence is taken for granted by most forthcoming, a small matter of seven generations. This scientists. Even the staid National Academy of Sciences should, however, make little difference to us, in view of has gone on record that contact with other civilizations the enormous potential gain from our contact with a "is no longer something beyond our dreams but a natural superior civilization. Unless we are terribly conceited (a event in the history of mankind that will perhaps occur in very unscientific demeanor), we must assume that the the lifetime of many of us." Sir Bernard Lovell, one of "others" are far more advanced than we are. Even a 50- the world's leading radio astronomers, has calculated year gap would be tremendous; a 500-year gap staggers that, even allowing for a margin of error of 5000%, there the imagination, and as for a 5000-year gap ... (By the must be in our galaxy about l 00 million stars which have way, if they are as much as 50 years behind us, forget it!) planets of the right chemistry, dimensions, and It is quite possible that "others" have satellite probes in temperature to support organic evolution. If we consider space, retransmitting to "them" anything that sounds that our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is but one of at least nonrandom to the probe. But they have probably called a billion other galaxies similar to ours in the observable us several thousand years ago, and are waiting for an universe, the number of stars that could support some form answer; or worse yet, they have given up; or, more of life is, to reach for a word, astronomical. As to probably, they have reached such impressive advanced forms of life-advanced by our own miserable technological advances that they have destroyed earth standards-Dr. Frank D. Drake of the National themselves. In this connection, Professor Iosif Shklovsky, Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, West Russia's greatest radio astronomer, has cited the profound Virginia, has stated that, putting all our knowledge crises which lie in wait for a developing civilization, any together, the number of civilizations which could have one of which may well prove fatal: arisen by now is about one billion. The next question is, (1) Self-destruction as a result of a thermonuclear "Where is everybody?" catastrophe or some other discovery which may have The nearest neighbor to our solar system is Alpha unpredictable and uncontrollable consequences; Centauri, only 4.3 light years away; but, according to Dr. (2) Genetic danger; Su-Shu Huang of the National Aeronautics and Space (3) Overproduction of information; Administration, its planetary system is probably too (4) Restricted capacity of the individual's brain, young for the emergence of life. Two other heavenly which can lead to excessive specialization, with friends, Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti, about 11 light consequent dangers of degeneration; and years away, are stronger contenders for harboring life. (5) A crisis precipitated by the creation of Nevertheless, if superior civilizations are abu~dant, the artificial intelligent beings. This article was given as a lecture at the Cosmos Club in Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti were the targets on Washington earlier this year. which Dr. Drake focussed his· attention in the spring of 4 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY DOCID: 3052333 POR: OPPICIM: U~! ONLY 1960 in Project Ozma, an attempt to detect possible detect); if so, "they" may have to wait a century or two intelligent signals from outer space. The frequency before we learn how to build a neutrino receiver. selected for listening was 1420.4057 52 megacycles per The growing presumption that life exists in other second, or a wave length of 21 cm. This particular worlds led, in 1971, to a six-nation multidisciplinary frequency, postulated independently by two professors on conference held in Soviet Armenia on Communication the faculty of Cornell University, Giuseppe Cocconi and with Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The U.S. delegation of Philip Morrison, happens to be the radiation frequency of about two dozen scientists was headed by Dr. Carl Sagan atomic or free hydrogen which permeates space in great of the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research at clouds; moreover, this frequency is within the range of Cornell University. The report of this conference, radio frequencies able to pass through the earth's published in 197 3 by MIT, deals with such subjects as atmosphere. Presumably, the significance of this the evolution of intelligence, the lifetimes of technical frequency would be known to other intelligent beings in civilizations, and the number of advanced galactic the universe who understand radio theory. We are still civilizations. Last November a group of scientists at talking about radio waves as the communication medium; Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico sent a three-minute other possible media might be masers, lasers, or the as yet message beamed at Messier 13, and this represented undiscovered and unnamed "rasers." A technology man's first attempt to take the initiative in superior to ours might even have learned how to communicating with another civilization. The project was modulate a beam of neutrinos (weightless, uncharged conducted by the National Astronomy and Ionosphere particles that physicists on earth find it difficult even to Center, which operates the Arec;,ibo Observatory for 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 Q 0 0 0 0 0 0 o.o 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ~ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 l l 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l l l l l 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 1 l 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 l 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 Figure I FOR OFEICJ,.Y, USE ONL'"l 5 DOCID: 3052333 FOR OfflCIAL USE ONLY Cornell University and the National Science Foundation.