>From The Sunday Times
December 16, 2007
Don’t call the aliens,they might not be friendly
Tony Allen-Mills in New York
FOR decades it has been a staple of science fiction � somewhere out in the
galaxy, a highly developed alien race picks up a radio signal from Earth, and
decides to eat us for lunch.
In a world plagued by war, hunger and disease, a possible attack by little
green men may not rank high among most nations’ concerns. Yet for a small group
of scientists who are harnessing increasingly powerful technologies in a
trans-galactic search for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence, the prospect
of catastrophe has stirred an angry debate.
Two senior scientists have resigned from an elite international study group in
protest over a lack of public discussion about the possible consequences of
attracting the attention of aliens by sending signals deep into space.
“We’re talking about initiating communication with other civilisations, but we
know nothing of their goals, capabilities or intent,” warned John Billingham, a
former Nasa scientist who has quit an extraterrestrial study group set up by
the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).
The scientists involved are all acutely aware of the dangers of ridicule in
their discussions of ET and his more sinister cousins. Yet recent advances in
radio telescope technologies, and a substantial flow of private funding into
ET-related projects, has transformed the “search for extraterrestrial
intelligence” (Seti).
In California last October, astronomers switched on the first elements of a
giant new array of radio telescopes that will vastly extend the sweep of
signals into outer space. Known as the Allen Telescope Array, it was built with
the help of a $25m (£12.3m) donation from Paul Allen, the billionaire
co-founder of Microsoft, and is a joint project of the Radio Astronomy
Laboratory of the University of California at Berkeley, and the Seti Institute,
America’s foremost centre of ET research.
“I like to call Seti the longest of long shots,” Allen said when the telescopes
were commissioned. “But if this array picks up a signal, that would be an
amazing thing � a civilisation-changing event.”
Yet critics argue that listening for signals and actively seeking out alien
life are very different pursuits. At the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow,
Alexander Zaitsev, chief scientist at the Institute of Radio Engineering and
Electronics, has been using a 70-metre-wide radio telescope in the Crimea to
beam signals to nearby star systems � a practice known as “active Seti”.
It is the steady shift from listening to transmitting that has divided the Seti
community and raised awkward questions that no one has yet been able to answer.
Who will speak for Earth if an alien civilisation replies? And are we really in
danger of inviting Armageddon? Sir Bernard Lovell, the British founder of
Jodrell Bank, once remarked that it was a “dangerous assumption” that any alien
life would turn out to be friendly.
If an alien fleet mobilises against us, Allen should be one of the first to
know. “If they do find something, they’re going to call me up and say we have a
signal,” he said. “So far the phone hasn’t rung.”
Yet the question of whether we should go actively looking for ETs still needs
to be debated, insists Michael Michaud, a former US State Department official
who has also resigned from the IAA study group. Michaud is alarmed by his
colleagues’ reluctance to halt transmissions pending consideration of the
possible consequences.
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I agree ...other races will be more evolved and hopefully they will help us to
wake up.
Heather, Panama City, Florida
Assuming that truly alien races would behave like humans do is an extremely
anthropocentric view. Any intelligent races we may encounter would likely have
motivations and desires so unfathomable that we'd likely never even begin to
understand them, and vice versa. Or, we may encounter intelligent races with no
such thing as what we call an 'agenda' at all.
My tongue-in-cheek bet is that once humans learn how to control permutations in
gravity, we'll start hearing all kinds of chatter. The races we talk to with
our gravitic cell phones will raise an eyebrow at our bizarre use of radio
signals for interstellar communications. "Don't you people know how slowly
those move?" Quantum entanglement is a much better bet for those long-distance
phone calls.
Chuck, Portland, Oregon
As I have already experienced seeing three UFO's and had confirmation from
local air traffic control I believe "they" have already been here. Would you
you cross the road to calm down uncivilised warring gangs armed with lethal
weapons and lethal intent? No.
I suspect that would be the attitude of an advanced intelligence too about
visiting this very dangerous planet.
If we have the capability to transmit signals then it is reasonable to believe
that an alien civilisation with more advanced technology have been listening to
us for years.
It could be that the aliens are waiting to see if we destroy ourselves or grow
up before they risk a visit.
George Hillier, Sandbanks, England
What is the point of wasting energy by beaming radio signals into space in the
vain hope that some alien race will be able to detect it? Apart from the waste,
given mankind's own propensities, it would seem to be wise just to keep quiet
and listen. It's just engineering (not scientific) vanity - my signal's bigger
than yours, nyah, nyah ne nyahnyah.
Bill Q, Derby,
Whenever a superior civilisation discovers and conquers a lesser one, it wipes
it out either intentionally or by disease. Just look at history and what
happened in the new world of America, and in Australia with the local
inhabitants. If Aliens can get to us first, they will be more superior than us,
therefore we should not be first in alerting them to our presence.
George, London,
Fermi's paradox states that given we are a young star and that any civilisation
attaining intersteller travel shoul be capable of colonising the entire Galaxy
in about 10,000 years - "So where are they?" Every year 1,000's of UFO reports
are ignored - yet many are very credible - multiple witness observations of
structured craft with ground and airbourne radar confirmation are on file. The
USA's project sign in 1947 caim to the conclusion that UFO's were Alien
spacecraft, so did Canada's project magnet and the French GEPAN study. Wake up
- they are here already here and there is plenty of solid evidence availabel
from old government papers now released. Our governements choose to deny the
evidence because they cannot stop the UFO's flying around in our airspace and
don't want to admit they are powerless. As for SETI - why are advanced
intersteller civilisations going to communicate by radio waves!!! It's like
Indian's trying attract another continents attention with smoke signal
andrew moore, Koh Samui, Thailand
I'm with Carl Sagan on this one. Sagan wrote about the evolution of possible
advanced civilizations, including our own. He believed that all intelligent
life reaches a turning point in their evolution in which they gain the
technological capability to self destruct. We now have that capability in the
form of the hydrogen bomb. His belief was that civilizations had to pass this
critical test in order to go on to being advanced civilizations. Any
civilization that has the capabilities to travel at the speed of light and come
down to earth, has passed the critical self-destruction test. It also follows
that civilizations that have passed the self-destruction test have learned to
be peaceful and have reached a higher plane of spiritual development.
Charly, Tucson , AZ
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3056423.ece
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