June 17, 2023 • 11 mins
We May Not Be Alone In The Universe. Should We Reach Out?
A conversation with an advanced alien species is likely to be simple and to take 1,000 years. It might also be dangerous.
Key Takeaways
A conversation with an advanced alien species is likely to be simple and to take 1,000 years. It might also be dangerous.
Key Takeaways
- We have sent messages into space before, hoping to reach out to any interstellar intelligences. Such a message is challenging to compose.
- Some argue that maybe it’s better not to send an intentional message at all.
- In any case, any message we send is likely to be a simple, “We’re here."
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The following in foecast is a presentationof the Xoon Broadcast Network, x Soon
TV Channel and Roma McConnell Media Company, broadcasting from Canada to the world and
beyond. We may not be alonein the universe, should we reach out?
(00:21):
Setti has been looking for life amongthe stars since nineteen eighty five.
For even longer than that, wehave wondered whether we are alone in this
massive universe, and so far,while the stars are brilliant and beautiful,
they are quiet. It seems weare alone. Rather than just passively searching,
(00:42):
some take a more proactive approach.They believe we can announce our presence.
In other words, help e tspind us. It's the personal ad
method. Young civilization looking for apartner to contemplate space and hold slow conversations
over incredibly huge distances. What wouldyou include in such a message? Could
(01:04):
such an approach even work? Someadamantly argue that this is a bad idea.
After all, while we are hopingfor a soulmate civilization, we may
end up being catfished by the creepycivilization bent on genocide and planet exploitation.
Sending messages is not a new idea. We have sent messages to the stars
(01:26):
before, hoping that someone out therewill find them and if not answer them,
at least no we are or werehere on Earth. Some of these
are physical messages placed on artificial objectswe sent into space with a velocity so
large that they escape the poll ofour solar system. These objects will travel
(01:47):
forever through the void of space,that is, unless they crash into a
star, fall into a black hole, or someone or something finds them.
The first two were Pioneer ten,which explored j and eleven, which visited
Jupiter and Saturn and also studied theoverall environment of our solar system and asteroid
(02:07):
belt. Both of these have asmall plaque with an image of a male
and female human form, along withinformation conveying that these probes came from Earth.
Later, the Voyager one and twoprobes carried a golden record with images
and sounds of nature, various tractsof music, greetings, and a written
(02:28):
message from President Carter and u NSecretary General Kurt Waldheim. Other messages have
been been to the stars by giantradio telescopes crafted in such a way to
appear from an intelligence rather than froma natural source, and to be comprehensible,
we hope to another civilization. Thenthere's Metti, the proactive sister of
(02:51):
SETI. Messaging. Extraterrestrial intelligence seeksto craft and transmit messages that one day
may be found by another civilisation thedark forest. Yet one of the most
terrifying possibilities is that maybe it's betternot to put a personal ad out there
at all. The Drake equation isa way to calculate the number of alien
(03:13):
civilizations with which we can communicate.It is the product of several probabilities,
some of which we have a prettygood understanding of the star formation rate,
the fraction of stars with planets toones. We have no clue about the
fraction of planets where life develops,the fraction of times that life develops intelligence,
the lifetime of such a civilization.So far, we've found precisely zero
(03:38):
civilizations out there. Some people arguethat this is because life is very rare.
Others suggest that it is rare forlife to reach a technological level where
it can communicate with the stars,or perhaps once a civilization reaches this level
of technology, it doesn't live forlong before it blows itself up or changes
(04:00):
its planet's climate. So much thatthe civilization ends. But there's another possibility
called the dark forest theory, introducedby science fiction writer Lutzischen. The basic
idea is that there are civilizations outthere, but they are all staying quiet.
They know it's not a good ideato reveal your presence to a hostile
(04:20):
universe. There could be loads ofcivilizations that are ready to destroy each other.
People who adhere to this line ofthought are passionate. We shouldn't talk,
we shouldn't respond, We should justshut up. Well, I've got
bad news for you. This maybe impossible. Doctor Sherry Wells Jensen is
(04:44):
an associate professor in linguistics and tsaul at Bowling Green State University. She's
on the board of directors of MEDIE. That horse, as they say,
has left the barn. She tellsbig think our military radar are blasting into
space already. Our atmosphere displays oxygen. It also displays the evidence of industrialization.
(05:09):
We can refuse to say hello,but our presence is knowable. We
can either be knowable and be speaking, or we can be knowable and be
silent. It's a choice between messageand no message, not a choice between
hiding and revealing ourselves. We havebeen sending messages to one another for about
one hundred years now, long enoughto make an expanding bubble of emissions with
(05:33):
a diameter of about two hundred lightyears. We don't have to announce our
presence. Any alien civilization or probeswithin this bubble have access to the history
of our civilization, from Hitler inthe nineteen thirty six Olympics to the TV
show Ally mcbeil. Of course,there are some pretty big caveats to this.
(05:55):
The power of any such signal wouldbe very, very low and difficult
to detect. There's also the factthat while its two hundred light years across
our radio bubble is still quite smalldefining humanity. So let's say we do
want to compose an intentional message.What should be in it? Is it
(06:16):
possible to sum up humanity in abrief message comprehensible by an alien intelligence.
The composers of the Golden Record attempteddiversity. Humans gave their interplanetary greetings in
fifty five languages, from Japanese toFrench to Bengali. A similar attempt to
sum up humanity was seen in themusic Choices, which span from a Pygmy
(06:40):
Girl's initiation song from Zayre to aPeruvian wedding song to Johnny B. Good
By Chuck Berry. Still attempting tosum up the diversity of humanity is challenging,
if not impossible. Wells Jensen hasthought a lot about how to write
or read a message from extraterrestrials.She's also blind. She believes it's simply
(07:02):
not possible to speak for all ofhumanity. Diversity is not averageable, she
tells Big think when I go toevents that claim to be inclusive, for
example, I as a disabled personand regularly excluded. This happens even when
the event is literally about diversity.We cannot represent our diversity to others when
(07:25):
we rarely represent it to ourselves.Then there is the flip side of the
coin. Perhaps we don't want toshow the full range of humanity. Big
Faint talked to Jason Batt, ascience fiction author, mythologist, and futurist.
Do we hide parts of our story? He asks, In a way,
(07:46):
it's kind of the question of afirst date, like how much do
you get into your nasty baggage?Because you want a second date? When
we go out and we represent thehuman race. I can no longer divorce
Hitler from myself. We can't necessarilylie about it either. Remember that expanding
bubble of radio emissions that's out theretoo, along with any intentional message we
(08:09):
may send. We can't hide Hitlerinfomercials or the Kardashians. It's already there.
Simplicity is best. Let's remember thatcommunicating with any extraterrestrial intelligence will be
remarkably difficult. We want have ashared biology, culture, or planet.
(08:31):
We might not even have the samechemistry. We can't talk to dolphins and
elephants on this planet. What makesus think we will have more luck and
space? So? What can wedo? Something simple? We exist.
We are reaching out full stop.Wells Jensen tells big think anything else might
(08:54):
be a bit more ambitious, atleast for now. Perhaps a good example
of this is the Well signal,discovered in nineteen seventy seven by the Big
Year Radio Observatory. It was sostrong that when astronomer Jerry r. Emin
discovered it, he circled it onthe computer print out, writing the word
well. While there might be anatural explanation, scientist Antonio Paris suggested in
(09:20):
two seventeen that perhaps it was froma comet. Its true nature remains controversial.
Because it is narrow band, thesignal is difficult to explain naturally.
It's at one thousand, four hundredand twenty megahertz, the frequency of hydrogen
emission, which may be a naturalchoice for a civilization that wants to communicate
(09:41):
in the language of science. Itsstrength and incredibly brief nature seventy two seconds
make it one of the best candidatesfor extraterrestrial intelligence we've found so far.
Thirty five years later, we senta reply composed of a group of tweets
and a message from Stephen Colbear urgingthe aliens not to eat us. While
(10:03):
there is little chance anyone listening tothe message would be able to understand all
of this, a repeating header wasincluded, hopefully showing that the message was
intentional and not natural. While theWell signal may indeed turn out to have
natural origins rather than of an extraterrestrialintelligence, it may be a good example
(10:24):
of what contact with a neighboring civilizationmight look like. We're here, We're
here too. A conversation that takesone thousand years to listen to. All
the shows on the X Zone BroadcastNetwork. Visit www dot XZBN dot net
(10:48):
To watch the X Zone TV channel. Exclusive to Simultv, visit www dot
simultv dot com channel thirty two.Oh motto is dare to believe There to
be heard the X Zone searching foranswers, demanding the truth. Do you
have any comments, suggestions, showideas Send them to admin at RAHLHEIFENMA dot
(11:13):
com. For Roma McConnell Media Companyin London, England. I am Brook McGuire
The following in foecast is a presentationof the Xoon Broadcast Network, x Soon
TV Channel and Roma McConnell Media Company, broadcasting from Canada to the world and
beyond. We may not be alonein the universe, should we reach out?
(00:21):
Setti has been looking for life amongthe stars since nineteen eighty five.
For even longer than that, wehave wondered whether we are alone in this
massive universe, and so far,while the stars are brilliant and beautiful,
they are quiet. It seems weare alone. Rather than just passively searching,
(00:42):
some take a more proactive approach.They believe we can announce our presence.
In other words, help e tspind us. It's the personal ad
method. Young civilization looking for apartner to contemplate space and hold slow conversations
over incredibly huge distances. What wouldyou include in such a message? Could
(01:04):
such an approach even work? Someadamantly argue that this is a bad idea.
After all, while we are hopingfor a soulmate civilization, we may
end up being catfished by the creepycivilization bent on genocide and planet exploitation.
Sending messages is not a new idea. We have sent messages to the stars
(01:26):
before, hoping that someone out therewill find them and if not answer them,
at least no we are or werehere on Earth. Some of these
are physical messages placed on artificial objectswe sent into space with a velocity so
large that they escape the poll ofour solar system. These objects will travel
(01:47):
forever through the void of space,that is, unless they crash into a
star, fall into a black hole, or someone or something finds them.
The first two were Pioneer ten,which explored j and eleven, which visited
Jupiter and Saturn and also studied theoverall environment of our solar system and asteroid
(02:07):
belt. Both of these have asmall plaque with an image of a male
and female human form, along withinformation conveying that these probes came from Earth.
Later, the Voyager one and twoprobes carried a golden record with images
and sounds of nature, various tractsof music, greetings, and a written
(02:28):
message from President Carter and u NSecretary General Kurt Waldheim. Other messages have
been been to the stars by giantradio telescopes crafted in such a way to
appear from an intelligence rather than froma natural source, and to be comprehensible,
we hope to another civilization. Thenthere's Metti, the proactive sister of
(02:51):
SETI. Messaging. Extraterrestrial intelligence seeksto craft and transmit messages that one day
may be found by another civilisation thedark forest. Yet one of the most
terrifying possibilities is that maybe it's betternot to put a personal ad out there
at all. The Drake equation isa way to calculate the number of alien
(03:13):
civilizations with which we can communicate.It is the product of several probabilities,
some of which we have a prettygood understanding of the star formation rate,
the fraction of stars with planets toones. We have no clue about the
fraction of planets where life develops,the fraction of times that life develops intelligence,
the lifetime of such a civilization.So far, we've found precisely zero
(03:38):
civilizations out there. Some people arguethat this is because life is very rare.
Others suggest that it is rare forlife to reach a technological level where
it can communicate with the stars,or perhaps once a civilization reaches this level
of technology, it doesn't live forlong before it blows itself up or changes
(04:00):
its planet's climate. So much thatthe civilization ends. But there's another possibility
called the dark forest theory, introducedby science fiction writer Lutzischen. The basic
idea is that there are civilizations outthere, but they are all staying quiet.
They know it's not a good ideato reveal your presence to a hostile
(04:20):
universe. There could be loads ofcivilizations that are ready to destroy each other.
People who adhere to this line ofthought are passionate. We shouldn't talk,
we shouldn't respond, We should justshut up. Well, I've got
bad news for you. This maybe impossible. Doctor Sherry Wells Jensen is
(04:44):
an associate professor in linguistics and tsaul at Bowling Green State University. She's
on the board of directors of MEDIE. That horse, as they say,
has left the barn. She tellsbig think our military radar are blasting into
space already. Our atmosphere displays oxygen. It also displays the evidence of industrialization.
(05:09):
We can refuse to say hello,but our presence is knowable. We
can either be knowable and be speaking, or we can be knowable and be
silent. It's a choice between messageand no message, not a choice between
hiding and revealing ourselves. We havebeen sending messages to one another for about
one hundred years now, long enoughto make an expanding bubble of emissions with
(05:33):
a diameter of about two hundred lightyears. We don't have to announce our
presence. Any alien civilization or probeswithin this bubble have access to the history
of our civilization, from Hitler inthe nineteen thirty six Olympics to the TV
show Ally mcbeil. Of course,there are some pretty big caveats to this.
(05:55):
The power of any such signal wouldbe very, very low and difficult
to detect. There's also the factthat while its two hundred light years across
our radio bubble is still quite smalldefining humanity. So let's say we do
want to compose an intentional message.What should be in it? Is it
(06:16):
possible to sum up humanity in abrief message comprehensible by an alien intelligence.
The composers of the Golden Record attempteddiversity. Humans gave their interplanetary greetings in
fifty five languages, from Japanese toFrench to Bengali. A similar attempt to
sum up humanity was seen in themusic Choices, which span from a Pygmy
(06:40):
Girl's initiation song from Zayre to aPeruvian wedding song to Johnny B. Good
By Chuck Berry. Still attempting tosum up the diversity of humanity is challenging,
if not impossible. Wells Jensen hasthought a lot about how to write
or read a message from extraterrestrials.She's also blind. She believes it's simply
(07:02):
not possible to speak for all ofhumanity. Diversity is not averageable, she
tells Big think when I go toevents that claim to be inclusive, for
example, I as a disabled personand regularly excluded. This happens even when
the event is literally about diversity.We cannot represent our diversity to others when
(07:25):
we rarely represent it to ourselves.Then there is the flip side of the
coin. Perhaps we don't want toshow the full range of humanity. Big
Faint talked to Jason Batt, ascience fiction author, mythologist, and futurist.
Do we hide parts of our story? He asks, In a way,
(07:46):
it's kind of the question of afirst date, like how much do
you get into your nasty baggage?Because you want a second date? When
we go out and we represent thehuman race. I can no longer divorce
Hitler from myself. We can't necessarilylie about it either. Remember that expanding
bubble of radio emissions that's out theretoo, along with any intentional message we
(08:09):
may send. We can't hide Hitlerinfomercials or the Kardashians. It's already there.
Simplicity is best. Let's remember thatcommunicating with any extraterrestrial intelligence will be
remarkably difficult. We want have ashared biology, culture, or planet.
(08:31):
We might not even have the samechemistry. We can't talk to dolphins and
elephants on this planet. What makesus think we will have more luck and
space? So? What can wedo? Something simple? We exist.
We are reaching out full stop.Wells Jensen tells big think anything else might
(08:54):
be a bit more ambitious, atleast for now. Perhaps a good example
of this is the Well signal,discovered in nineteen seventy seven by the Big
Year Radio Observatory. It was sostrong that when astronomer Jerry r. Emin
discovered it, he circled it onthe computer print out, writing the word
well. While there might be anatural explanation, scientist Antonio Paris suggested in
(09:20):
two seventeen that perhaps it was froma comet. Its true nature remains controversial.
Because it is narrow band, thesignal is difficult to explain naturally.
It's at one thousand, four hundredand twenty megahertz, the frequency of hydrogen
emission, which may be a naturalchoice for a civilization that wants to communicate
(09:41):
in the language of science. Itsstrength and incredibly brief nature seventy two seconds
make it one of the best candidatesfor extraterrestrial intelligence we've found so far.
Thirty five years later, we senta reply composed of a group of tweets
and a message from Stephen Colbear urgingthe aliens not to eat us. While
(10:03):
there is little chance anyone listening tothe message would be able to understand all
of this, a repeating header wasincluded, hopefully showing that the message was
intentional and not natural. While theWell signal may indeed turn out to have
natural origins rather than of an extraterrestrialintelligence, it may be a good example
(10:24):
of what contact with a neighboring civilizationmight look like. We're here, We're
here too. A conversation that takesone thousand years to listen to. All
the shows on the X Zone BroadcastNetwork. Visit www dot XZBN dot net
(10:48):
To watch the X Zone TV channel. Exclusive to Simultv, visit www dot
simultv dot com channel thirty two.Oh motto is dare to believe There to
be heard the X Zone searching foranswers, demanding the truth. Do you
have any comments, suggestions, showideas Send them to admin at RAHLHEIFENMA dot
(11:13):
com. For Roma McConnell Media Companyin London, England. I am Brook McGuire
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