Aliens Are Finally Ready To Make An Appearance And The Governments Plan is, Well... Pretty Lame

Aliens Are (Maybe) Finally Knocking. The Pentagon's Plan Is Underwhelming.

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Paul Gilster, who blogs about deep space exploration and other interstellar issues, broke the news on his blog that in May 2015, a team of Russian scientists had detected an interesting signal coming from a star system about 95 light-years from Earth. Gilster was very measured in his report, noting that "no one is claiming that this is the work of an extraterrestrial civilization, but it is certainly worth further study." The researchers involved believe the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, a nonprofit organization that's looking for life in the universe and has the equipment to scan the skies for signals from deep space, might follow up on the lead.

But that didn't stop others from going wild, most notably the New York Observer, which published an attention-grabbing story Monday titled "Not a Drill: SETI Is Investigating a Possible Extraterrestrial Signal From Deep Space."

SETI is, in fact, scanning for the signal, according to Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the organization, who discussed the matter in a blog post available on the group's website. "Could it be another society sending a signal our way?" he wrote. "Of course, that's possible. However, there are many other plausible explanations for this claimed transmission—including terrestrial interference. Without a confirmation of this signal, we can only say that it's 'interesting.'"

UFOs, extraterrestrials, and life in outer space has gained new currency over the last year or so. Last fall, a team from Yale University announced they had found a star that gave off such unique light patterns that some speculated it was being orbited by an alien megastructure. Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman, John Podesta, have both repeatedly discussed the need for the release of information about US government research into extraterrestrials. (You can read more about Clinton's history with the UFO issue that goes back more than 20 years here.) A week ago, scientists announced they had found a potentially life-supporting, Earthlike planet just 4.5 light-years away, within Earth's closest celestial star system neighbor.

This whole thing got us thinking: What would happen if extraterrestrials not only reached out to communicate but showed up on our doorstep? Is there a plan?

Mother Jones put this question to the Department of Defense last fall when they profiled Stephen Bassett, the only registered lobbyist in Washington whose major focus is to force the US government to reveal what it knows about extraterrestrials contact with the human race. To people like Bassett, the question of what to do when they show up is moot because it has already happened; the people who need to deal with it already are.

The Department of Defense does not agree. Here's the answer I got from them: "The [Department of Defense] does not maintain plans for hypothetical dangers for which we have absolutely no information—either to the likelihood of the danger, or to what form the danger would take." For what it's worth, the DoD spokesman also said the department doesn't have an office or organization that handles "issues related to UFOs and/or extraterrestrials," and the DoD has never interacted with or recovered any kind of material related to extraterrestrials.

"Whatever it is would be so far beyond us it would look and appear magical or spiritual, totally beyond our ability to cope with or resist if hostile. If such an event occurred we'd simply have to muddle through as best we could." 

Do we really not have any plans in place should we be contacted by an alien race? I checked the DoD's answer with Christopher Mellon. A former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence and staff director of the Senate Intelligence Committee, among other roles, he said, "I think you got an honest answer from DoD. How would you plan for the arrival of an advanced civilization without any understanding whatsoever of their capabilities, technology or intentions?" He added that his sense was that the government had "little if any idea" of what we'd be up against and "whatever it is would be so far beyond us it would look and appear magical or spiritual, totally beyond our ability to cope with or resist if hostile. If such an event occurred we'd simply have to muddle through as best we could." 

"Meanwhile," he says, "DoD has an overflowing plate already and I suspect the Joint Staff has little patience for such seemingly unlikely, open-ended and ill-defined scenarios."

Nick Pope, a former official with the British Ministry of Defense whose job it was to investigate UFO sightings, doesn't think powerful governments should get off that easy. He told me Tuesday he's long advocated some sort of contingency plan but never saw any evidence that the British or US governments had one. When he asked colleagues in the intelligence and military world about plans, "there was no real enthusiasm for it. It was a combination of skepticism and almost this feeling that this was the ultimate taboo, that something like this could just not be put down on paper."

Pope said news about a potential signal from another civilization should trigger a whole series of thorny questions: Is this just a signal letting us know they're there, or is there information encoded within it? If there is information in it, can we decode it? Should we? If we could, should that information be disclosed? Who should control the information in the signal, if there's anything there?

That's a far cry from a scenario that finds us dealing with an extraterrestrial craft in orbit around Earth or actually landing. "The No. 1 priority would obviously be avoiding getting in a fight with these people," he said. But what do we do then? Who's in charge? Who speaks for planet Earth? What is the message?

Pope admits that the possibility of this scenario playing out is minuscule, describing it as "the ultimate low probability, high impact scenario." But, he said, "We don't need to go into Star Trek territory to say it's possible we could be visited. That being the case, it just seems prudent to have a plan."

"First Contact" Documentary Trailer

First Contact Trailer

We are happy to announce the premiere of our Bashar documentary, "First Contact"! Zia Films and Bashar Communications are now working to bring this unique, groundbreaking film to a theater near you! First Contact, narrated by legendary actor James Woods, tells the true story of Darryl Anka’s UFO encounter that led him to channel an extraterrestrial entity called Bashar who delivers powerful messages to humanity. The film explores channeling and the potential positive impact of ET contact on our society.



For screening locations and general information

Man Makes Novel Approach To Contact Extraterrestrials

California Man Attempts to Contact Aliens With Massive Art in His Backyard

A 77-year-old man in Romoland, California, said he and his family have created a massive alien face in his backyard "in hopes of inviting aliens" to his home.

Work on the 60-foot-by-90-foot "rock garden" started this past Monday and was finished by Thursday afternoon, according to Larry Decker, who said he's been fascinated by the idea of extraterrestrials nearly his whole life.

"Aliens watch everything we do," Decker told ABC News today. "My idea was to build this thing big enough to be seen from up there, and hopefully, they'll decide to come down and check it out."

"Wouldn't it be nice to go to the porch swing and have a nice chat?" Decker said. "So hopefully this face will trick them to come, so we can shake hands and talk."

If Aliens Call Earth We Now Stand A Better Chance Of Answering The Phone

What if extraterrestrial observers called, but nobody heard?

As scientists step up their search for other life in the universe, two astrophysicists are proposing a way to make sure we don’t miss the signal if extraterrestrial observers try to contact us first.

René Heller and Ralph Pudritz say the best chance for us finding a signal from beyond is to presume that extraterrestrial observers are using the same methods to search for us that we are using to search for life beyond Earth.

Here on Earth, space researchers are focusing most of their search efforts on planets and moons that are too far away to see directly. Instead, they study them by tracking their shadows as they pass in front of their own host stars.

Measuring the dimming of starlight as a planet crosses the face of its star during orbit, scientists can collect a wealth of information, even without ever seeing those worlds directly.

Using methods that allow them to estimate the average stellar illumination and temperatures on their surfaces, scientists have already identified dozens of locations where life could potentially exist.

In a paper to published in the journal Astrobiology, and available now online, Heller and Pudritz turn the telescope around to ask, what if extraterrestrial observers discover the Earth as it transits the sun?

If such observers are using the same search methods that scientists are using on Earth, the researchers propose that humanity should turn its collective ear to Earth’s “transit zone”, the thin slice of space from which our planet’s passage in front of the sun can be detected.

“It’s impossible to predict whether extraterrestrials use the same observational techniques as we do,” says Heller. “But they will have to deal with the same physical principles as we do, and Earth’s solar transits are an obvious method to detect us.”

The transit zone is rich in host stars for planetary systems, offering approximately 100,000 potential targets, each potentially orbited by habitable planets and moons, the scientists say – and that’s just the number we can see with today’s radio telescope technologies.

“If any of these planets host intelligent observers, they could have identified Earth as a habitable, even as a living world long ago and we could be receiving their broadcasts today,” write Heller and Pudritz.

Heller is a post-doctoral fellow who, while at McMaster, worked with Pudritz, a professor of Physics and Astronomy. Heller is now at the Institute for Astrophysics in Göttingen, Germany.

The question of contact with others beyond Earth is hardly hypothetical, as several projects are under way, both to send signals from Earth and to search for signals that have been sent directly or have “leaked” around obstacles, possibly travelling for thousands of years.

Heller and Pudritz propose that the Breakthrough Listen Initiative, part of the most comprehensive search for extraterrestrial life ever conducted, can maximize its chances of success by concentrating its search on Earth’s transit zone.

China Might Be The First Nation To Find Intelligent Alien Life

China May Find UFO Faster Than NASA and Russia

Russian claims to have made contact with aliens, if the Chinese have, they are keeping it quiet.

There is a new space race these days, and it doesn’t involve the moon. It seems the three superpowers of the world are racing to find proof that UFO’s exist. Known for their space achievements, NASA and Russia are usually at the forefront of these headlines. However, this time around China is leading the way, and they may just beat everyone.

CHINA DESTROYS VILLAGE FOR GIANT TELESCOPE

The communist government of China was never known for their warm hearts and caring attitude. This was further proven the other day as China kicked out 9,100 villagers to make way for a giant telescope. The purpose of this telescope is to hunt for UFO’s. One can imagine those villagers weren’t thrilled to find out about that. Although, considering the strict censorship, they probably have no idea. Continuing on the theme of Chinese secrecy, this UFO hunting telescope has an ulterior motive.

CHINESE UFO TELESCOPE HOPES TO BEAT NASA

The U.S and NASA have been a large part of the Chinese “brain drain” over the years. Flocks of intelligent men and women have left China for the U.S. With the construction of the UFO telescope, China hopes to inspire young minds to stick around. In addition, they believe the telescope will attract some of the finest minds in the world. Not just to find UFO evidence, but to study the basic facts of astronomy and cosmology. In addition to the intellectual payoff, they have a chance to beat Russia and NASA. NASA’s recent discovery of gravitational waves caused an uproar in Chinese media. The fact that NASA could be close to a major discovery like this prompted the Chinese to make a quick action.

RUSSIA CLAIMS THEY ALREADY FOUND ALIEN

Well the rest of the world clamors for alien hunting technology, Russia thinks they may have found some proof. Days ago, footage from the International Space Station showed some curious footage. The film, taken from Russia, shows a unique spacecraft floating near the ISS. Potentially a piece of debris, or some other matter, nothing is certain. Russia has already had their fair share of alien conspiracy in the past years. Now it’s just a race to prove, or disprove it.

What Do The Experts Say About When We Will Have Contact With Intelligent Aliens

When Will We Make Contact with Intelligent Aliens?

The universe is big — and possibly home to countless civilizations. Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Teplitz and M. Rafelski (IPAC/Caltech), A. Koekemoer (STScI), R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and Z. Levay (STScI) View full size image

"Are we alone?" is a pretty big question. But if the answer is "no," humanity may have to grapple with an even bigger issue — how to cope with crowds of extraterrestrial civilizations.
Over the last 20 years, astronomers have detected about 2,000 alien planets, and these discoveries suggest that potentially habitable worlds are common throughout the Milky Way galaxy (and likely throughout the universe as a whole).
There are thus many possible abodes for life throughout the cosmos and, given the age of the universe — about 13.8 billion years — there has been plenty of time for life forms to evolve complexity and intelligence, many experts say. [13 Ways to Hunt Intelligent Alien Life]

Are intelligent aliens out there? If so, when will humanity make contact with them?Space.com sent its own signal out to several top experts in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) field, to ask whether 2016 could be the year of contact with ET — and if not, when?

The ongoing search for extraterrestrial intelligence makes use of such instruments as the Allen Telescope Array in Hat Creek, California.
Credit: Seth Shostak, SETI Institute

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The search ramps up
"I'm not holding my breath that we'll find conclusive evidence of alien technologies before the end of 2016. But the chances are getting better with every passing year," said Douglas Vakoch, Director of Interstellar Message Composition at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.
"Over the next decade, we should be able to search for radio signals from a million stars or more," he told Space.com. "That's a big enough number to make it reasonable to think that we'll find intelligent life … if it's actually out there and trying to make contact."
So don't place your bets for winning the SETI lottery in 2016.
"But within the next decade, we may well discover we're not alone in the universe," Vakoch said.
That discovery may come in the form of a radio signal directed at Earth from another star, or through indirect evidence gleaned by studying the atmospheres of distant exoplanets.
"Either way, the discovery of life beyond Earth would be one of the most profound events of the century," Vakoch said. [10 Exoplanets That Could Host Alien Life]

Patience needed

Are we the only intelligent life in the universe? See how we intend to find out in this full infographic.
Credit: By Karl Tate, Infographics Artist

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A different take is offered by astrobiologist David Grinspoon, author of the forthcoming book, "Earth in Human Hands" (Grand Central Publishing; due out in October 2016). The book delves into long-term implications of human influence on our own planet, and how this should affect how we think about SETI.
"My initial thought is that there is nothing very different about 2016 from 2015, 2014 or 2017," Grinspoon told Space.com.
In Grinspoon's view, exoplanet detections are encouraging, but they have not really changed the landscape very much from what early SETI pioneers in the 1960s assumed.
As for why contact has not been made already, Grinspoon suggested that the question itself indicates "a time scale of attention and impatience that is an impedance mismatch to the time scale of the question."
We may indeed make contact this year, Grinspoon said "and wouldn't that be fantastic? Or it may take another thousand years … which is nothing, really" on broader cosmological time scales.

Searching exoplanet atmospheres

It is clearly true that humanity has some promising new places to search, if certain assumptions about alien civilizations are correct, Grinspoon said.
"Radio searches should be targeted at nearby planets that seem potentially habitable," he said. "But let's not delude ourselves into thinking that this hugely raises the expectation that this will be the 'year of contact.'"
But Grinspoon is encouraged by the prospect that researchers should soon be able to search forsigns of intelligent life in the atmospheres of some of these faraway worlds.
"Soon" is a relative term, of course. In Grinspoon's view, the term refers to the next few decades "as we develop the space telescopes that can start to discern the spectral signatures of planets that have been modified by intelligent activities."
And in these same decades, Grinspoon said, we need to see if we can start to transform our own planet into one that has been modified by intelligent activities — because the modifications to date have not been very smart.

Earth is undergoing "unintelligent modification" of its atmosphere. What would a habitable world look like under the care of an intelligent technological species? (Image of Earth taken by the Deep Space Climate Observatory, or DSCOVR, satellite.)
Credit: NASA/NOAA

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Unintelligent modification of Earth

"First and foremost in this effort is to stop the unintelligent modification of our atmosphere that is currently going on," Grinspoon said. "We need not look for similar pollution in other atmospheres. That will be a brief phase, and therefore, with the mathematical logic of SETI, basically unobservable elsewhere. What we should really be thinking about is what it would look like for a truly intelligent technological species to be interacting with their planet's atmosphere."
Such signs,Grinspoon said, would be visible but would look very different from Earth today.
Thinking about this, he said, can help us Earthlings in the related tasks of searching for alien intelligence, as well as trying to preserve technological intelligence on our own planet.
SETI is not something that makes sense to carry out on a one-year or one-decade time scale, Grinspoon said.
"In order to have a decent chance to be a communicating species, you would have to learn to think, and plan, and act over time scales of a century or a millennium," he said. "But this year is one in which we can continue to make progress in ensuring our own longevity and searching for the hopeful signs of others who have successfully navigated the existential challenges we are facing today." [Earth in the Balance: 7 Crucial Tipping Points]

Living with uncertainty

Uncertainty will always be a part of the SETI search, agreed author Michael Michaud, a former diplomat for the U.S. State Department.
"There is no way to predict when contact will take place," said Michaud, who is also a member of the International Academy of Astronautics. He coordinated the drafting of the First SETI Protocol, an effort to set some guidelines about the steps humanity should take following a SETI detection.
"The only generalization I can offer is that expanding ways of searching while continuing to send out our own signals — both intentional and unintentional — may make contact more likely. Until we have solid evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence, we must live with uncertainty," he said.
Michaud said that science fiction has imprinted two extreme visions of contact on our minds: receiving a message, or facing an invasion of the Earth.
"There are many other possible scenarios, including a detection that does not lead to communication. They have different implications," Michaud said. "Our response, and theirs, might depend on the way contact takes place."
First of all, we cannot be sure that we are looking for the right evidence or using the right means, Michaud said. SETI became possible, given the new tools of radio astronomy, which in turn grew out of wartime radio and radar developments. New astronomical observatories coming online in the next decade may be more able to detect evidence of life or intelligence in exoplanet atmospheres, he said.

Testing human intelligence

"Our ideas about aliens and their behavior usually rest on analogies with humankind. Yet we cannot assume that we are representative of the galaxy's intelligent life," Michaud said. "Astronomers used to think that our solar system was typical; now we know that it is not."
Finding evidence of ET may be more difficult than most searchers had hoped, Michaud said.
"It may require rigorous and repetitive search and data analysis that last beyond individual lifetimes. It may require a broader strategy and a willingness to look in new places. It may require technical means not yet available to us."
Still, this is not a reason to give up, Michaud concluded. It is a reason to be more clever and more determined. "The search for extraterrestrials is a test of human intelligence," he said.
Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is former director of research for the National Commission on Space and is co-author of Buzz Aldrin's 2013 book "Mission to Mars – My Vision for Space Exploration" published by National Geographic with a new updated paperback version released in May 2015. Follow us

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What Happens When Contact Is Finally Made?

      5 Things That Would Happen If We Ever Found Intelligent Alien Life

The search for extraterrestrial life has been in the public consciousness for decades, but what would happen if we actually succeeded? Later this month, a NASA-funded initiative called the 100-Year Starship Project (100YSS), which is dedicated to achieving interstellar travel within the next century, will hold its annual symposium, which will specifically discuss the aim of finding "Earth 2.0," including what would happen to society if we ever actually found an Earth-like planet with an alien civilization.

"What would happen if we could identify it [as Earth 2.0]? How does that change us?" asked Mae Jemison, a former NASA astronaut and the principal for 100YSS, in a piece for The Atlantic.

Strict protocols would come into play

In 1997, SETI infamously had a false alarm that they found intelligent alien life, which was immediately picked up by the New York Times and blown completely out of proportion. After that incident, SETI created specific protocols for astronomers who believe that they have discovered alien life, in order to ensure that the information is properly verified and disseminated to the public through controlled channels.

First, the astronomers are supposed to verify to the best of their ability that the signals are not coming from any natural phenomenon, and then have it verified independently by someone outside of SETI. They should then inform astronomers in other nations, as well as the Secretary General of the UN, so the information can be dispersed through scientific and accredited public media outlets.

Someone would ruin the surprise on Twitter

But this is the 21st century, so the astronomers admit that none of these protocols would ultimately be followed. They would try, of course, but in the age of information, it would inevitably leak before it had been verified and released in a controlled manner. Blogs, Twitter, Reddit, and every other unofficial news authority would pick up on the story way earlier than intended. SETI director Seth Shostak said of the premature 1997 NYT leak, "There is no secrecy in SETI," and there is even less privacy now.

"The protocols are as much fiction, in some sense, as the movie portrayals. The story will break in a very messy way," said Shostak. "I don't think there's any way to control the media."

It would break the Internet

And once the news broke, it would spread like wildfire. We would probably all have trouble getting on social media that day, but no one would experience more technical issues than the SETI Institute. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing, as once the information is verified, SETI very much wants it to be widely known:

"You want that information to be as widespread as possible," said former SETI director Jill Tarter. "If we were to make a discovery at the SETI institute, I don't think there's any way we could keep our website up or our phones working from the onslaught of people trying to get information."

The public reaction would closely mimic the movie Contact

Would the public be open to the discovery of alien life, or would they be fearful of an alien invasion? Paul Ziolo, a professor of psychology at the University of Liverpool and a regular presenter at the 100YSS symposiums, specifically cited the film Contact, which was partially inspired by Tartar's life and career, as a realistic portrayal of the disparate public reactions to such a discovery.

"It's a massive range from paranoia to jubilation to despair," Ziolo said. "For some people, anything from outside is going to threaten power structures. For others, it's the gods they've been waiting for."

We would have a reason to believe in the longevity of human civilization

While the public reactions would vary, scientists would likely be optimistic about confirmed signals from an advanced civilizations, as it would give them more hope for the future of humanity:

"If we succeed at detecting another technological civilization, that success helps tell us that on average, technological civilizations can survive for a long time," said Tartar. "The very act of success [in hearing from another planet] tells us that we can have a long future. I think that's the most amazing impact that contact would have, even if we never figure out how to interpret whatever information we receive."

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Stephen Hawking Has A Rethink About Contact With Extraterrestrials

Is Stephen Hawking having trouble settling on whether we should try to make contact with extraterrestrial life?

The celebrated physicist -- whose life was the subject of the 2014 Oscar-winning movie, "The Theory of Everything" -- has long warned of the dangers of letting aliens know we're here.

In a recent interview with the Spanish news site El Pais, Hawking once again addressed the topic of why we shouldn't try to contact aliens.

"If aliens visit us, the outcome could be much like when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," he said. "Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach."

But if Hawking, arguably the world's most famous scientist, doesn't sound like someone who wants to reach out and touch ET, he's not against the idea of trying to prove extraterrestrials are out there.

In July, Hawking joined forces with Russian tech billionaire Yuri Milner to launch a 10-year, $100-million hunt to find intelligent life outside of Earth. It's called Breakthrough Initiatives, and has two main components.

Breakthrough Listen will use two of the world's largest and most powerful telescopes to gather huge amounts of data from the nearest million stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Breakthrough Message will involve a funded international competition to collect potential messages that in the future may be beamed into the cosmos in an attempt to communicate with aliens. There isn't yet a full commitment to transmit messages to a potential alien civilization.

This raises an interesting question: Since Hawking has voiced concerns about letting ET know who and where we are, why has he aligned himself with this attempt to prove the existence of alien life -- an attempt that might result in revealing our presence to the galactic neighborhood?

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An Extraterrestrial Contact Case Which Was Secret For Decades - The Friendship Case

It caused a great media sensation. Mass UFO sightings. Humans working together with extraterrestrials in secret. Hundreds of people were involved. The public wanted to know what was happening but no one could penetrate the mystery. Now after 50 years of silence, insider witnesses have decided to speak. 

A UFO contact case that has been kept secret for decades is now revealed. Countless pieces of evidence remain. Only now can the truth be known. This is the unbelievable true story about The Friendship Case.

The video also raises the question of Kennedy’s intention for disclosure before his assassination, but look at history in order to trace back the involvements of these wonderful beings throughout human civilizations. There is a wonderful letter from Voltaire to the Comte of Saint Germain as well, which is revealing.

What's Likely To Happen If We Send Aliens A Computer Virus

Experts Worry How Aliens Would React If We Send Them A Computer Virus

What are we to aliens? Do they look out for extraterrestrial creatures like we do? How would they react if we suddenly made a way to appear in the skies from where they live? Would their reaction be worse if we sent them a computer virus, to make ourselves known to them?

British scientists are bothered that a computer virus might be sent as an accidental attack against outer space creatures possibly years and years - centuries or even millennia - more advanced than Earth.

Yuri Milner, Russian internet billionaire, has put up a one million dollar prize as part of a new investment in the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) which is known to be generally involved in looking out for signs of alien life, through the use of high-power radio telescopes, along with high-end computer software capable of scanning thousands of frequencies.

Astronomers, philosophers and academics are currently bidding for the million dollar prize for coming up with the best way to make ourselves known to aliens.

At the Oxford University, scientists highlight the importance of making sure we do not send offensive signals to extraterrestrials, by ensuring that digital messages are "streamed clean."

"There are complications about using a complicated language or syntax for sending a message," Dr. Anders Sandberg from Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute, and a UK SETI member emphasized, speaking at the University of Bradford at the British Science Festival.

According to Sandberg, sending out a language that is too complex can "hide an awful lot of weird stuff." It could become a huge problem if that happened, especially for the security of Earth's own computers. He added that sending a message out into space, which may contain hidden malware, might not really please the aliens.

While UK SETI has not yet decided how to compose its message to extraterrestrials, the mere thought of sending a message to alien life forms is a topic of debate. At a recent meeting, experts voted on whether or not to actually send out a message to aliens, and the group was split in halves. Those who voted against it contest that when a message is sent to unknown ET, it might actually be sent to an unintended recipient.

With the group split into two, there has not been a consensus yet as to whether or not a message needs to be sent to ET, in what way and with what content. While scientists await an actual decision, UK SETI has set up group of four men to work on alien messages.

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How Will First Contact With Extraterrestrials Go Down?

17 Ways Humanity's First Contact With Aliens Could Go Down

 

Some are fairly certain that we haven't yet made contact with extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) but when it happens -  yes it's definitely going to happen and be big news.  What is somewhat less definite is the form that news is going to take, will it turn out to be hostile, with ET harvesting our resources. On the other hand will ET offer to solve some of our long standing lingering problems such as poverty, hunger, clean renewable energy and goodwill towards mankind.  Educating Humanity takes a look at seventeen possible outcome. There is no doubt that some of them are silly but who knows, we should throw everything into the mix and consider it all! 

1. ETs ignore us Just like in Star Trek, it’s possible that ETI has some kind of Prime Directive or other non-interference policy with other species for whatever reason, so that even if we did know for sure that they were out there, they might not respond to us. They also might not communicate simply because as a species, humans don’t interest them, whether it’s because of our primitive nature or violent tendencies or terrible taste in music or otherwise. Or, they could show up in the form of a giant alien probe, have a pleasant conversation with the whales, and then leave, without sparing us so much as a glance.

2. ETs maybe contact us, but maybe not When ETI does contact Earth, it may be as unambiguous as a UFO landing in Times Square. Or, it may be a signal that we only receive once and can’t understand or decode. In fact, it’s possible that this has already happened, as with the still unexplained “Wow signal” in the above pic.

3. ETs change our philosophy No matter when or how we detect ETI, if it happens it’s going to cause massive changes to everything from science to religion, even if we find out nothing else besides the fact that ETI do exist. All of a sudden, we’re not alone in the universe, and Earth and everyone on it goes from being a super special place to just another planet covered with self-replicating and tolerably aware biological lifeforms. While most people would probably argue that this is a good thing to know, we’d have to seriously re-evaluate our existence, which has been unavoidably human-centric.

4. ETs help us solve our problems It’s likely that ETI will be much, much more advanced than we are. And it’s also likely that ETI will be generally cooperative, since it would be hard for a fundamentally uncooperative society to expand into space. This combination (which is the fantasy of everyone interested in alien life) might provide insights that could enable us to learn how to avoid a technological catastrophe like global nuclear war or climate change.

5. ETs threaten us, we kick their ass As unlikely as it seems, it’s within the realm of possibility that humans could successfully repel an invasion of earth by more advanced ETI, whether it’s because we have some technology that the ETI doesn’t, or because some environmental factor defeats the ETI for us. In addition to forcing Earth to unite as a planet, after it’s all over, we’d be able to steal a bunch of cool new tech from all the crashed flying saucers. It’s also conceivable that a second ETI could come to our rescue, which would be pretty sweet.

6. ETs are boring and/or annoying While we generally think of ETI as something profound, there’s no certainty of that. Perhaps we’d start receiving unintentional signals from an ETI similar to our own civilization 50 years ago, with no hope for two-way communication, just cryptic military signals and reruns of bad TV shows. Or, a bunch aliens might show up to our planet as needy refugees, requiring a significant amount of resources without offering much in return.

7. ETs eat us Everything has to eat something else, and aliens are no exception. Unfortunately, being high up on the food chain and intelligent enough to take care of ourselves means that we might be an ideal source of nutrition for carnivorous ETIs. Plus, there are lots of us to choose from and we seem to reproduce very rapidly, so the only question is, do we taste good? If the Kanamits from that Twilight Zone episode are to be believed, we sure do.

8. ETs enslave us Advanced ETI may already have solved problems related to food production and manual labor, but on the other hand, animals slaves are cheap, reliable, and versatile. Enslavement can also take many other forms, such as forcing us to adopt their belief system, using us for entertainment purposes (like trained seals), or simply keeping us as pets.

9. ETs steal our resources It would be hard to develop a galactic civilization without maintaining a society that operates on generally sustainable principles, but that doesn’t mean that Earth might hold some physical value for ETI. Maybe they sprinkle rare-earth metals on their cupcakes or something. It may also be that a rapidly expanding ETI needs to consume the resources of other planets just to sustain their greed for shiny things (think Avatar, but reversed), and while this level of expansion may not be feasible in the long term, that’s not gonna do Earth much good if an expansionist ETI finds us before they burn themselves out.

10. ETs destroy Earth because it’s in the way Even if ETIVogon hyperspatial bypass construction project that would lower the commute times of a countless aliens, could our paltry six or seven billion people really object to annihilation in the name of progress?

11. ETs kill us all for being a bad species In greater scheme of things, humans kinda suck. We have a penchant for ruining our environment, we’re currently wiping out other species left and right, and we’re making more of ourselves at a rate that is clearly unsustainable. All of this makes it hard to argue that we’d make for responsible and respectful citizens of the galaxy, and ETI may just decide that everyone (including residents of our own planet) would be far better off if homo sapiens just weren’t around.

12. ETs kill us all by accident ETI may be different enough from humans that we don’t have to worry about catching a disease from them. In fact, this is very likely. But it also may be the case that an ETI is just barely not different enough that we catch something that loves humans but that our immune systems are totally unprepared for and it wipes us out. ETI could also destroy us by accident if they unwittingly introduce a tenacious invasive species to Earth that eats all of our quadrotriticale, or if they otherwise negatively modify our ecosystem without intending to.

13. ETs kill us all because they can Consider what happens when we humans encounter an intelligent species, like dolphins or chimpanzees: we hunt them for meat, we hunt them for sport, we lock them up and use them for research, we give them diseases, we dissect them, and we put them in zoos and teach them to do tricks, all because they’re not quite as smart as we are. It’s entirely possible, even likely, that a more advanced ETI might treat humans the exact same way. And if we have a problem with that, well, maybe we should consider how we treat other species.

14. ETs get us to kill ourselves If all ETI wants to do is destroy Earth, the cheapest and easiest way to get us to do it is to simply send a message that provides detailed instructions on how we can go about killing ourselves. This could be in the form of a technology that we are unready for, more deliberate directions telling us how to (say) construct a particle accelerator that will actually create a black hole that will destroy our entire planet, or even simply an alien presence that makes us all go nuts and kill each other.

15. ETs are intentionally hiding from us Instead of ignoring us because of some type of Prime Directive noninterference doctrine, it’s possible that ETI are taking it to the next level and actively trying to keep us unaware of their presence. They might be hiding out in the asteroid belt spying on Earth, they might have cloaking devices that allow them to get closer still, or they could be lizard people living among us in disguise. One other intriguing possibility is that ETI have surrounded our entire solar system with a giant “virtual planetarium” that shows the universe as empty, when really it’s full of life.

16. ETs are unintentionally hiding from us It’s big galaxy out there, and an even bigger universe. We’re listening in for ETI signals all the time, but only in a few isolated parts of the spectrum that we think might be useful for communication, so it’s entirely possible that ETI is blaring away on a different spectral band that we’re not paying any attention to. Or maybe ETI is just too far away to detect us or be detected themselves. Or, our assumption that ETI is anything like us is inherently flawed, and it exists as some manifestation of vast hyperintelligent pan-dimensionality (like the little white mice fromHitchhiker’s Guide) and we can’t interact with it.

17. ETs are not there The final scenario to consider is that ETI is simply not out there, and that humanity is completely alone in the ‘verse. At this point, the only thing we have do disprove this is some math that says that the Universe is a frikkin’ huge place and no matter how infinitesimally small a probability life has to exist somewhere besides Earth, the sheer volume of space ensures that it probably does. But that’s just a supposition, and until we actually make contact for the first time, all we can do is watch the skies, and hope.

7 Incredible Ways That Science Is Desperately Attempting To Contact Intelligent Alien Life

7 Amazing Methods We’re Using To Contact Aliens

The internet is filled with conspiracy theorists and crackpots desperately trying to tell us that aliens have visited earth, abducted cows, or taken over the US government. This kind of tabloid fodder distracts us from the fact that scientists are working their asses off in trying to answer one of our most pressing questions: are we alone in the universe?

There is a whole branch of astronomy dedicated to communication with extraterrestrial intelligence (known as CETI), and Stephen Hawking is pretty big on aliens himself, famously saying back in 2010 that we should be wary of advanced alien civilisations because they’d look “to conquer and colonize whatever planets they could reach”.

Despite that ominous statement, Hawking recently announced Breakthrough Listen, the most far-reaching project yet in listening out for alien communications. While he maintained that an advanced alien civilization might regard us as nothing more than bacteria (thanks, Steve), he concluded about alien life that “we are alive. We are intelligent. We must know”.

If making contact with alien forces spells the end of mankind, so be it. We’re doomed on Earth anyway, and at least an alien invasion will give humanity something other than itself to blame for its inevitable demise.

7. Infrared Technology

While Infrared is slowly being pushed aside by Bluetooth in everyday technologies like TV remotes, it’s always had a higher calling. IR technology has played a crucial role in mapping out space, and now it’s being taken on to help in the search for extra-terrestrial life. Who’s laughing now, Bluetooth?

Astronomers at the Lick Observatory in the US have begun using infrared light detectors to try and intercept interstellar signals. Powerful infrared signals can be momentarily brighter even than stars, which means they’re visible across thousands of light years of space.

Uniquely among SETI projects, this one is searching for optical signals rather than radio signals from extraterrestrials. While detecting an extra-terrestrial IR signal would require it to be pointing in earth’s direction, it marks an experimental new means of seeking out alien life.

6. Sending Gold Vinyl Records Into Space

The Voyager 1 probe, launched in 1977, is the farthest-from-earth object humanity has ever created. At this moment, it’s around three times further from the sun than Pluto, and is now thought to be traversing interstellar space.

Tucked away inside the Voyager 1 is the Voyager Golden Record, a vinyl record filled with sounds, music, and speech (in 55 different languages) that captures the things happening here on earth. Some of the specific sounds include squealing monkeys, Beethoven’s String Quartet, and a personal greeting from Jimmy Carter.

The Golden Record idea works under a lot of assumptions – that the craft makes it to its destination star (the ETA is 40,000 years), that there’s extra-terrestrial life surrounding that star and finally, that aliens will know how to play a vinyl record. Luckily, we left universal instructions on how to play it, just in case.

5. The Breakthrough Initiative

In July 2015, Stephen Hawking inaugurated humanity’s latest attempt to reach out into the cold dark of space in the hope of finding extra-terrestrial life.

The ‘Breakthrough Initiative’ is a 10-year project that will point the Parkes and Green Bank Telescopes in the United States towards the millions of stars and 100 galaxies surrounding Earth, listening out for anomalies and signals that could reveal the presence of extraterrestrial technologies.

The $100 million project has been lauded as the most comprehensive and ambitious attempt yet by humanity to find out if we’re alone in the universe. The digi-tons of data generated by the project will also be made publicly available, allowing anyone – from hobby scientists to conspiracy theory crackpots – to analyse the data and try to answer one of humanity’s biggest questions.

4. Learning To Translate Alien Languages

With all the space-snooping we’re doing from Earth, surely it makes sense that ET life – should it exist – is trying to listen out for us as well, right? SETI astronomer Dr John Elliott seems to think so, which is why he’s developing an algorithm that he believes will be able to translate extraterrestrial messages beaming across space.

Elliott is working on the premise that all communication has some kind of structure. His algorithm would work out whether signals that reach Earth’s observatories are language-like or non-language-like; if they are, the algorithm would look for patterns and key communicative components in the signals to unravel them, and eventually translate them into human.

3. Sending Pictures Of Naked People Into Space

Before the golden vinyl record, humanity packed another cryptic message into the cosmos, aboard the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 in 1972-73. This time it was the Pioneer Plaque, a picture message depicting two naked people and a map pointing the aliens right to Earth.

Looking at this image, it’s little wonder the aliens didn’t get back to us. Just look at it – to send an interstellar invitation with a naked man waving welcomingly is making a massive assumption about the aliens’ sexuality. The other possibility is that these nude pics might give the impression that Earth is some kind of sexually liberated paradise fully of young and beautiful nudists. If the aliens do get the message (in an estimated 25,000 years), then they’ll be pretty pissed to find that most of us are fully-clothed, and not as in-shape as the image suggests.

Since this plaque was sent, SECI researchers have agreed that picture messages may prove too difficult to decipher for ETs. That’s probably just as well, given that we sent out a map without knowing whether the ETs are hostile like most Hollywood films would have you believe, or friendly – like the Coneheads.

2. Large Hadron Collider

A lot of otherworldly and terrifying possibilities have been attributed to CERN’s colossal atom smasher. Some say it can destroy our universe, others say it is an attempt to open a portal to an Ancient Grecian-style underworld. But, more credibly, plenty of scientists are suggesting that the Hadron Collider can potentially open portals to other dimensions.

There are plenty of scientific theories that point to extra dimensions, and one way to find them would be to detect mini black holes in our own dimension. The only thing on Earth capable of harnessing enough energy to detect these mini black holes is the LHC.

The LHC hasn’t yet detected any mini black holes, but scientists believe that this could be a result of the LHC’s energy levels not being high enough, rather than them not existing. If we do manage to prove the existence of alternative dimensions, then that opens up a whole new universe of possibilities for detecting alien life.

1. The Theremin

The theremin is one of the earliest examples of a musical instrument, invented in the 1920s by Leon Theremin. It’s controlled using a couple of antennae, which detect the position of the musician’s hand using electrical signals, and are then amplified through to a speaker.

As it happens, the signals produced by the theremin can easily travel interstellar distances, which in 2001 led Russian scientist Alexander Zaitsev to propose that humanity composes a Theramin-based concert, which we could then broadcast out to neighbouring stars.

Zaitsev’s initial requests were rejected on the grounds that broadcasting humanity’s presence could put it at the mercy of more advanced extra-terrestrial civilisations. Eventually he got his way however, and a trio of musicians composed seven Russian folk songs on the theremin. The songs were sent to the nearest stars via the Yevpatoria RT-70 telescope in 2001, and are expected to reach six neighbouring stars between the years 2047 and 2070.

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