Scientists Tense Ongoing Debate Over Contacting ALIENS
One of humanity’s biggest questions has to be “Are we alone?”
But is that still the right question? To a lot of us Believers who have seen things with our own eyes we already know the |TRUTH, but is the rest of the world now starting to waken…
We have all read in the media over the last couple of years that leading Astronomers have confirmed over 1,800 exoplanets in just our very own galaxy that we live in and estimate that there are around at least 100 billion in total. About 50 of these seem to be habitable. So, chances are EXTREMELY good that we are not alone!
I guess a better/more relevant question for the new age is ~ If ET exists, what exactly should we do about it?
That’s what scientists at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute discussed last month at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting.
SETI is famous for its series of telescopes that search the skies for messages that look like they could be sent by intelligent extraterrestrial beings. But so far the cosmos have been quiet. SETI often get slated for appearing to be non committal about what they know reference Aliens, and lost a lot of prestige when the US government ‘apparently’ cut funding for them….but you do have to admire what they do and what they are about!
After 50 years of listening, some of the folks at SETI are starting to say it’s high time for a change to the way we search.
“If we’re ever going to make contact, then the burden is on us to do more than listen: We should be initiating the conversation,” the director of SETI’s interstellar message composition, Douglas A. Vakoch, told Business Insider.
Vakoch calls this initiation project Active SETI.
“It may be that signalling of our intention to make contact is what’s really required to trigger a response,” Vakoch said. And so, “the most critical reason to add Active SETI to our search strategy is that this may be the strategy that lets us make contact.”
Artist’s concept of a rocky Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone of its host star, possibly compatible with Kepler-186f’s known data.
Human Kinds Bold Move
Vakock and a few of his colleagues at SETI want to use some of the institute’s powerful telescopes, including the Aerecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, not just to listen with, but to also send powerful transmissions deep into space that clearly state: We are here and we want to communicate.
This is an extremely bold move for humankind, and not everyone is on board. Those who are hesitant or downright against the idea include some key figures throughout the world: Stephen Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Elon Musk, and Sean Carroll, to name a few!
Why are these influential men, who became famous for their ‘innovation and intelligence’, so extremely close-minded? After all, if Active SETI does succeed, making contact with an alien race would be the most important discovery in human history, not only from a technological standpoint but from an intellectual one, as well!?
DeGrasse Tyson was very firm on his stance during a recent interview with the Business Insider publication.
“We don’t give our address to members of our own species whom we don’t know. So, the urge to give our home address to aliens? That’s audacious,” he said.
I guess a problem that we all have to accept is that even though making contact would be the most important discovery in human history, it might also be one of our last discoveries! And no I am not talking about the ET’s visiting us now, because as of yet they have done us no harm (hopefully!).
In a statement issued earlier this year a group of scientists write:
“We know nothing of ETI’s [Extraterrestrial Intelligence] intentions and capabilities, and it is impossible to predict whether ETI will be benign or hostile.” Of the several dozens of people who signed this statement in a cautionary measure against Active SETI was Elon Musk.
Fear of the unknown didn’t stop Ferdinand Magellan, Lewis and Clark, or Neil Armstrong, human history’s most important explorers. But the key difference is that if something goes wrong when we make contact with aliens, we’re not just risking the lives of the few who brave the unknown. The existence of our entire species and the thousands of other species on Earth is at stake….And yes this is the VERY negative view of Alien Contact, however it is a view of many important scientists throughout the world. In U.I.P’s opinion you get good and bad in all walks of life and contact IS IMPORTANT!
Vakoch and his colleagues argue that any alien civilization advanced enough to wipe out life on Earth would already know we’re here. We’ve been transmitting into space since the ‘70s. Anyone advanced enough to obliterate our species would be advanced enough to listen, and would be here by now or are already on their way…..So I guess we are pretty much screwed in that regard.
Speaking On Behalf Of Planet Earth
According to Vakoch Committing global suicide is not the point of Active SETI, emphasizes
“What Active SETI does is announces ourselves to civilizations that don’t have those capacities far in advance of humans,” he said.
Moreover, extinction is just half of the issue here.
“One of the key questions that we raise when contemplating Active SETI is: Who speaks for Earth?” Vakoch told Business Insider. “And the answer is, well, everyone should.”
That’s why Vakoch and his colleagues at SETI launched the study “Earth Speaks”, which solicits online comments from, quite literally, everyone on Earth, or at least everyone with access to the Internet. And the overall theme shining through the thousands of submissions is encouraging.
Many people articulate the fact that they’re ready to make contact, so “I suspect that the idea has been discussed so often that people will accommodate to this discovery pretty readily,” Vakoch said.
And despite the unknowns, deGrasse Tyson did acknowledge how incredible a discovery it would be:
“But here’s the thing: Holding aside those uncertainties, it would be awesome to make contact with an advanced civilization.”
U.I.P Summary
Either way the Aliens know where we are, the question is do we try and reach out to the “unknown” aliens?!
There is good and bad in every walk of life and I guess the other question is “are there beings out there seeking to take over other planets?” If so then I guess we need to properly review what kind of message we send out there!
Yes some very important Scientists and Astronomers out there believe that we shouldn’t call out to the Universe about we are, but I believe we have already done this back in the 70’s or 80’s with actual coordinates as to where Planet Earth is in the Universe….who knows perhaps some of the ET’s visiting us today are here because of the information we sent out into space?!
I feel that it’s important we do reach out to other life out there in the Universe in order for the Human race to progress through life….but we must be careful with how we communicate, because at the very least we could end shouting out to Beings that have the same kind of temperament as us Human Beings…..With that and advanced technology could equal “Trouble”
The Human Race needs to learn far more about “unity” before promoting where we are in the Universe….
U.I.P
