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Subscribe to RSSWhat would happen if we found out that we are not alone in the universe? Or, on the flip side, what would happen if we decided that we really were alone? Experts provided updated answers to those age-old questions, from a scientific as well as a religious angle, during a Sunday session at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting. But one of the most intriguing questions had more of a personal spin: What would you ask E.T. if you had the chance?
First, here's some background:
Questions surrounding the possibility of life beyond Earth might get more serious sometime in the next quarter-century or so. Wesley Traub, chief scientist for NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program, predicted that by 2030, five Earth-scale planets would be identified among the 100 closest star systems as worthy of being studied for signs of life. He based that prediction on the most recent lineup of candidates from NASA's planet-hunting Kepler probe.
"About a third of all planets are planets that could have life on them," he said — that is, Earth-size worlds or super-Earths.
Looking for alien life
What would scientists look for when it comes to life detection? Traub speculated that future spacecraft could analyze the atmospheres of alien worlds for signs of high oxygen levels and water vapor. Spectral analysis of the light reflected by those planets might even turn up the chemical signature of chlorophyll or other chemicals indicative of life. But it'd be almost impossible to tell whether the alien organisms are one-celled creatures, six-legged dinosaurs or intelligent species. If they're smart enough to communicate with us, the only way we'd know is through well-known means such as radio signals or laser bursts (or maybe orchestrated blasts from a stellar beacon).
Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, has said that evidence of alien life — either through such direct contact or through long-distance chemical analysis — could become available in a time frame ranging from 2025 to 2035. And he bet his listeners at Sunday's talk that he'd buy them a cup of coffee if E.T. wasn't found in their lifetime. (Will that bet ever pay off? Think about it: You can't take your Starbucks with you.)
So what would society do if life is detected? At Sunday's talk, science historian Owen Gingerich said the first scientific claims for E.T.'s existence would likely be hotly contested, just as the Mars meteorite microfossils have been for the past 15 years. Even if the findings are confirmed, it would take years for the implications to sink in.
Most of the leaders of the world's religions say extraterrestrial life wouldn't shake their faith. But 16th-century theologian Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake after saying so, and even today some believers say E.T.'s existence would make a "mockery" of Christianity. Like it or not, religious institutions and other pillars of society would have to accept (or deny) a paradigm shift at least as big as the shifts sparked by astronomy and biology.
Misanthropic principle
What if life is not detected? It's pretty hard to prove a negative, but suppose future probes analyze the atmospheres of scores of Earth-size planets ... and find nothing worthy of note. Suppose the search for extraterrestrial intelligence continues for a century ... and no messages are received. Howard Smith, a senior astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said the evidence already suggests that intelligent life is extremely rare in the universe, and we're the only sentient beings within a 1,250-light-year radius. (Smith chose that figure because it's about as far as humans could possibly travel during a 100-generation round trip at the speed of light.)
"We are probably alone and will have to solve our own problems," he said at Sunday's talk.
Smith calls this the "misanthropic principle." That term plays off the widely cited anthropic principle — the idea that Earth appears to be so suited for life as we know it not necessarily because God made it that way, but simply because we wouldn't be around to see it if it wasn't.
The way Smith sees it, the misanthropic principle is a good thing. The view that we alone are responsible for our zone of the cosmos should make us feel "blessed," and more careful about not spoiling the good thing we've got here.
"The misanthropic principle is joyous," Smith said. "We should rejoice in our good fortune."
Is it depressing or liberating to think that we're truly the best the universe has to offer, at least in this celestial neck of the woods? Feel free to add your comments below.
Oh, and about the question we started out with: What would you ask E.T. if you had the chance? This came up during the question-and-answer session, and one of the suggestions was along the lines of "Dear E.T.: Do you have a religion?" (That led science writer David Despain to quip in a Twitter comment: "Hello, I'm a Jatravartid. Let me share with you the message of the Great Green Arkleseizure's white handkerchief.")
Personally speaking, I'd rather ask: "How did you do it? How did you survive long enough to get to this point of contact?" If E.T. responds by raising its ray gun, I'd probably have the answer I wasn't hoping to get.
But what would you ask?
More about the search for aliens:
- How would alien life change your life?
- What to do if we find alien life
- Calculate the odds of finding E.T.
- Hawking: Aliens may pose risks to Earth
- Still more about the search from msnbc.com
Join the Cosmic Log community by clicking the "like" button on our Facebook page or by following msnbc.com science editor Alan Boyle as b0yle on Twitter. To learn more about Alan Boyle's book on Pluto and the search for planets, check out the website for "The Case for Pluto."
Leave a Comment:
If E.T. was here to destroy the world I might ask him if he has a sister. Yes, I would date E.T.s ugly lonely sister if it meant I would be spared.
I might ask if I could meet any of their hot alien women.
I might also ask if they had any problems crossing the border.
It is almost a certainty that a far more advanced alien race would be looking to slaughter us and perhaps, colonize the planet if it has the resources they need. It's not like we have a realistic shot in stopping them anyways. They simply don't have a lot of incentives to keep us around other than maybe for amusement purposes, much like how we humans raise pets. The whole benevolent alien thinking is just wishful thinking. As such, I would ask the E.T.s... "Please don't annihilate us" and hope for mercy.
I would ask them what they were thinking contacting us given our track record with anything we touch.
Gordon H
Why would you think they would slaughter us? I'm sure for beings that have the universe at their disposal we wouldn't have anything they would want. You have the same xenophobic attitude as other afraid people have. I feel sorry for you.
Ed, how many people shoot defenseless animals for sport? The animals have nothing to offer to the shooter, other than a past-time, and valve for venting sexual frustrations. Maybe that's why aliens have already invaded us, and have anal-probed people. Just for the sport, or venting their frustrations after a long flight.
Ed, this has nothing to do with xenophobia. This has everything to do with reality. Fact is, we have little reason to expect that our encounter with a superior alien species will be a rosy one. Look at our own past. When a superior race with greater technology at its disposal meets a more primitive one, the encounter generally ends with the latter being colonized, enslaved, or wiped out. The imperialism/colonialism era of our history is rife with such examples. If we can't treat eachother with TLC, what makes you think an alien species will treat us any differently? Do we really expect them to hold our hands and share technology/knowledge? Will they really allow us to become as powerful as they are so that one day we may pose a threat? I would imagine one look at our rather colorful history of warefare and containment would dictate otherwise. Hope for the best while preparing for the worst should be the path we take, not cheerful (and blind) optimism.
Traitor.
All this talk about what they will do or won't is stupid. They've been visiting us for thousands of years, since it's likely they built the pyramids. They have shown no animosity towards us so far. Also likely that they saved us humans from the great flood that took place 7000 years ago. Mentions of the great flood can be found in all ancient civilizations of that time and it's in the bible and only aliens or God could have saved people and animals all over the planet at the same time. The bible says God only did it in the middle east, but people and animals survived the flood all over the planet, so aliens must have done it. This flood is about to happen again in 2012, it happens every 7000 years, the Mayans new this and yes they built pyramids too. Maybe the Mayans were a peaceful colony? Well will all find out in 2012 together. I believe that anybody capable of advanced technology and traveling to the stars would not be violent, but would be a peaceful people in a quest to study the universe and increase their knowledge. Violence would only lead to the downfall of their civilization, look at Rome, Nazi Germany and the USSR to name a few just on are own planet. A violent race will never claim the stars and as long as we remain a violent species the aliens will never let us go to the stars let alone Mars. They are still watching us to see if we are worthy.
Darren,
It's puff, puff, pass, you bogart.
There is little if any reason to think that an encounter with aliens from another galaxy far, far away would be of much consequence if any, other than the fact that they would readily strip the planet of any resources they might have need of and might take a sampling of the various species inhabiting the planet for the purpose of scientific research.
The notion that an alien life force would feel a need to 'conquer' Earthlings is juvenile, such beings would be so incredibly advanced that our technologies and weapons would be little more than quaint curiosities at best. The human race in and of itself would likely seem to be little more than yet another 'interesting' life form they had encountered among a wide variety of flora, fauna and fungi.
At the end of the day, if we're not alone in this universe, if there are beings far more advanced than we are, then we are little more than cosmic dust. That's what really scares humans the most, the notion that if there are inter-galactic space travelers out there somewhere, then we become far less significant in the grand scheme of things.
Ron, your opinion holds a lot of contradictions.
1. If aliens were to strip this planet of any resources that they need, how do you think they would go about it? Enslave the native population to aid them in their task? Wiping out resistance that may be a hindrance to their goal? You only need to look into our own history for an answer to this.
2. If we are little more than cosmic dust or quaint curiosity to them, why would they even bother to safeguard our existence? It would be like us knocking over an ant hill without as much as a second thought. Sure, they may not intentionally try to annihilate us but the end result is still the same. Humans lose.
3. Based on the scientific knowledge we have garnered so far, habitable plant and natural resource is a limited commodity in the universe. It's essentially the same scenario as what we've experienced in our tiny corner of the universe (earth) thus far. When you're in competition to acquire such commodities, conflicts generally ensue.
Juvenile optimism indeed.
Have you ever been to Uranus?
What if there some something unique about either the human form or conciousness...and THAT was the resource they were after?
Our sentience and curiosity as an evolving, thinking, tool-refining species may be probably the only thing that E.T. may have some basic respect for.
As for them wanting our planet's resources? Why bother? They can just as well mine for these same resources from uninhabited places that exist all over the galaxy.
Folks, we're not worth the trouble.
And if the aliens have been visiting our world for more than several millennia, then to get any more extended interactions with them, we'll have to go to where they live. With our current level of technology, I don't anticipate that's going to happen in my lifetime or in the next X number of human generations, so I'm not going to worry about it.
How about a game of chess?
Take us to your leader.
And end up talking to their version of Bush or Obama? I don't think so...
Take me to your scientists.
What's the most difficult challenge your species has overcome? And since it takes forever to send and receive these messages, forgive me the obvious follow-up... how did you overcome it?
The author of the article said this...
Borderline plagerism...
The whole concept of the article, and the authors "personally speaking" response, are almost directly lifted out of a scene from the movie CONTACT.
First question: "Are we the first intelligences you are aware of, or are there yet others out there?"
(Knowing at that point that we're not alone, I want to know how common intelligent life is. Is it just them and us, as far as they know? Or are we just one more in a long history of contacts to them?)
What makes you think they'll find intelligence here?
I had a feeling that someone would say something like that, in spite of our being obviously intelligent enough to consider possibility of alien contact.
Many people say we're too primitive, too violent, too this, too that, for ETs to possibly be interested in...with nothing to back that up. That we'd by like ants to them.
Yet we study ants, do we not? A species incapable of 'talking back' in any meaningful sense...and one which carries out behavior that looks very much like 'war' against its own kind. Yet some human researchers spend their lives studying their biology and behavior. Not all exploration and research is done with the goal of finding someone like ourselves. Will aliens be any different in that respect? The assertion that there's too much 'wrong' with us for ETs to waste time on, is more a commentary by humans on the human condition, than real knowledge of what extraterrestrials would want.
Also, the idea that we are we evil scum that ought to be avoided, quarantined, or wiped out before we spread our contagion elsewhere, if anything, is one more example of human hubris and self-centeredness. We seem to want to think that not only are we bad, but that we're the *worst* at being bad. (And don't tell me that violent intelligences destroy themselves before getting to the stars. Obviously *we* are still here, and even if we obliterate ourseleves, we can't know if we're unusual or typical in that respect. Besides, just being able to colonize one's own solar system makes it much harder for a one-planet catastrophe to destroy an entire civilization. Even the 'violent' will tend to get all their eggs out of one basket.)
News flash: It's a big universe, that could easily contain many entities that are far more malevolent than humanity has been on its worst days (just as it can easily have those that are far more benign that we've been at our best). We may be quite mediocre even at what we see as our worst traits, and should hope (or pray, if you're so inclined) that that's not what we meet first. David Brin once put it this way:
"...it remains rather tiresome for the reflex to always be to assume that aliens will automatically be more elevated than us. (Yet, willing to judge and crush us, rather than help us get better.)
In fact, out of sheer ornery contrariness and a habitual wish to avoid limits on thinking, I’m tempted to wonder if humanity may be among the MOST pleasant sapient races in the galaxy!
Just imagine a high tech species descended from solitary stalking carnivores, like tigers, or loner infanticides, like bears, or pack carnivores, or paranoid herd herbivores, or mammoth harem-keepers like elephant seals. We come from tribes of long-lived, relatively patient and contemplative, reciprocal-grooming, gregarious apes, whose male-female differences are relatively small…
...all traits that mitigate toward some degree of otherness-empathy, which may not happen very often, across the stars. And STILL we are violent MoFo’s!"
Full article here:
George Dvorsky however, thinks that's irrelevant, that technology will take you in pretty much the same direction, regardless of your evolutionary roots:
"There’s another argument out there that suggests we can’t know the behavior or motivational tendencies of ETI’s, therefore we need to tread very carefully. Fair enough. But where this argument goes too far is in the suggestion that advanced civs act in accordance to their biological ancestry.
For examples, humans may actually be nice relative to other civs who, instead of evolving from benign apes, evolved from nasty insects or predatory lizards.
I’m astounded by this argument. Developmental trends in human history have not been driven by atavistic psychological tendencies, but rather by such things as technological advancements, resource scarcity, economics, politics and many other factors. Yes, human psychology has undeniably played a role in our transition from jungle-dweller to civilizational species (traits like inquisitiveness and empathy), but those are low-level factors that ultimately take a back seat to the emergent realities of technological, demographic, economic and politico-societal development."
Full article here:
Either way, what we may think of ourselves, may have little or nothing to do with what will interest someone else. If someone comes knocking, it's likely because we're intelligent enough for them...
Oh, and Brian? I'm also trying to get what I think is the most bang for the buck from my one question. Isn't that intelligent behavior?
Did you not hear the joke about the two aliens orbiting earth.
First Alien: This species has learned to harness nuclear energy and make weapons with it.
Second Alien: Are they an emerging intelligence?
First Alien: I don't think so. They have them pointed at themselves.
Vegetarian or carnivore?
Bring anything we can use?
Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong.
Enough said.
I think you mean, "Eep opp ork ah-ah."
A pure antropocentric, egoistic and stupid childish question.
Better wonder: What would the E.T. ask you?
Hope they have a good sense of humour when they ask it...
Hmm-
First and foremost-
What do you eat?
Past that, everything is negotiable.
I would have to ask ET if humanity is capable of solving the big riddle of crossing vast distances
in space. Answering the big questions in physics. If not, then their answer would be meaningless to
the best and brightest on earth. Could we even begin to comprehend secrets of a civilization that got a head start while Lucy was learning to walk in Africa? It would be like trying to explain how a cell phone works to a baby!
That's an understated point, Mike. We don't know where humans will be 100, 200 years from now given the absolute pace at which technology has progressed over the last 20 years.
To begin to even fathom what level they would be on, with a couple of million year head start on us is almost impossible.
1. Do you die?
2. How did you get here?
3. Is there a god?
1. Yes, we die, but we don't wear clothes often away from home, so we cannot show you the colors. However, we like grey a lot.
2. Duh, by spacecraft.
3. In what sense are you referring?
Alan, you ask the question of us, twice: "What would you ask E.T. if you had the chance?" Your question leaves the positional out of it completely. Which means that you -- most likely intentionally -- left the presupposition of "first contact" out of the question in order to leave us to ponder our answer without respect to whether we're talking about asking the question "in person", or via interstellar communications of some kind. If we relate your request to the latter, fuhgeddabouddit! Two-way communication across those kinds of distances just isn't feasible. So, while we may pick up an intelligent signal from space, that signal will be years old (maybe even thousands of years old), and our feeble attempt at a response might just fall on deaf (or non-existent) ears. Way too slow. The question really can't be asked. If we, instead, set the hypothetical stage for asking the question, face-to-face, to an extra-terrestrial who has actually traversed the distance between stars and entered our system, then I think the absolute first question should be, "How can we communicate, so that we can ask you another 10,000 questions?"
Tiz:
What a well thought out and articluated waste of space you've created. It was a simple hypothetical question that doesn't really involve much postulation.
Tiz, you just need to ask them for some of their alien weed, then chill out.
WTF?! I really don't understand where you guys get off slamming me for my response. What the hell is wrong with giving the question proffered in the article a little objective thought, and then wording a response that contains a bit more substance and relevancy than "I might ask if I could meet any of their hot alien women."??? You know, Alan Boyle is an award-winning journalist and science writer who asks some fairly poignant and insightful SCIENTIFICALLY-BASED questions on Cosmic Log. You'd think the guy would appreciate more the kinds of comments that thoughtful and inquisitive readers post, instead of trolls who are just hanging around here to jag off to the sound of their own voice. I'd love to see Alan step in here and back me up. I don't see how my response deserved the chiding. It was well-formed, and to the point.
Tiz:
And it was completely overkill. We don't need you to explain who Alan is or climb up on some academic soap box. The point is that Alan's question was NOT the esoteric and cerebral question you took it for. It was a simple, hypothectical question designed to spark some simple responses.
You can spout off about who's a troll and scientific questions and insight and substance all you want, but the guy just asked "What would you say to E.T.?"
Here....take a hit off this....
1. What does an alien fart smell like?
2. Would you like a gift from us? You can have everyone in the tea party.
3. Are there any cute alien chicks I could tap?
4. Teach us alien martial arts. That should be cool. All energy power chi stuff and the like.
charleyfarley...you are a deeply disturbed man...funny!!but deeply disturbed....(and get back to me after tapping the alien chick) I'm thinking that piece will be outta this world
Don't forget to take the Democrats too.
Seriously, assuming they are friendly, I'd ask them for a crash course in their technology so we could venture out into space like them and discover other worlds.
I'm surprised you didn't phrase that as, "Are there any cute alien chicks that like anal probes?"
I know this sounds odd, but I want to see that on you tube
I would ask, "Is the answer to life, the universe, and everything really 42?"
Next time can you warm up the "anal probe"?
If they were a lot smarter than us I would ask them for a proof or solution to the Riemann Hypothesis.
And they would probably answer, "Who is Riemann?"
And if you explained, they would probably answer, "Oh, we know that as Zapxia's Law. He solved that 6500 years ago."
Oh how I long to find out that answer. Good one Tony. One day....one day.
Actually, I would ask "Where were you on or about the evening of July 8th, 1947?"
Touché
Oh no Mr. President. Didn't see this one coming POTUS but are you worried about something?
I'd ask where this article and our covert band of bloggers is coming from?
If it would make our government of the last 50 years look like a @!$%#in sad sadistic JOKE?
How we are going to control the "agents of influence" in Hollywood against being opposed to radical positions everywhere in world -that a few can greatly profit from- when there is no longer a communist party we can threaten to lump them into. Enter the Yemen disk jockey in our digital world because forced and baseless control ahead of reckless consequencewas the name of the game back then and our society paid a very heavy price-because 95% of this @!$%#in country would be safely in the middle class if it was not for our lunatic fringe.
And what the President will ask the Taliban?
Why he is making US citizens destroy themselves?
Why he is coaching basketball when he has a room called the Map Room to study Afghanistan in his spare time?
Why our lives are generally deteriorating?
Why we went on a fun war that cost the lives of over one hundred thousand people and how we are getting used to the watered down excuses instead of being sickened by them.
Then I would probably ask if they really inspired the greatest inventor of all time, Tesla, like Tesla claimed they did.
And where our civilization would be without AC current and the seeds of normal satellite technology.
Who would benefit the most from keeping their existence concealed, and what consequence do the privileged few cast on the society as a whole?
Even before the covert take over of the history channel in this JOKE of a country now, I can not for the life of me find anything related to history any more. I would love to know if they have an accurate recording of everything from the pyramids, to the events that inspired Christianity, to how the birth of Islam was originally aligned with those principals, to where we are today and what they would think about the Visitors compared to the Twilight Saga and which one inspired more kids to read?
Where I can improve most as a human cause I think a gift from a advanced society is something everyone should benefit from, and marvel in, equally.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psuRGfAaju4
Team Edward!
Team Jacob! ;)
You expect aliens to have an answer for all that? (assuming that the questions themselves are valid) Be prepared for a big, fat: "We don't freaking know."
As for whatever problems you have with the History Channel...there are these things called libraries and bookstores...
And your notion of what a gift from an advanced society should be...may not jibe wit theirs.
I'll ask ET..to get me the hell off this planet please.
Its already exploding up all over being done by the inhabitants.
Exactly. "Please take me with you, and fumigate the planet as we leave. Its badly infested with self-indulgent monkeys."
Hey leave Obama out of this!
ditto, " How much for a one way ticket? "
I can't help but notice the irony of your comment. You want them to save you, and no one else, from a terrible fate because they are the self-indulgant ones? Just sayin'...
#20.2
“Hey, how the heck did you aliens get a hold of my birth certificate?”
1- what is you civilization/society like?
2-do you have different races, ex: chinese, black, white, ect
3- what have you learned about the universe?
4- are their other alien life forms you have meet?
5-may i have a classic fantasy book of yours? (something like lord of the rings :] )
i have soooooo many questions, that they would get annoyed and leave :(
I wouldn't have a question, I'd have a warning.
"We're selfish, greedy, short-sighted, superstitious, petty, suspicious, and extremely violent. Your safest bet is to check back on us in 500 years and see if we've wiped ourselves out yet. If we haven't, we may have matured by then. Don't worry about us coming there, we're far too short-sighted for that."
What - Is this eighth grade ? Seriously!
I would have to ask our visitors "how long has our leaders (congress and the president) known of your existence" and "what took you so long to land" and "if you wanted us to know you exist, why won't you hold steady for a clear photograph?" I hope they don't get anal because of all my questioning.
If they do get anal, don't forget post #16, above.
"Hey, can you fix that hemorrhoid while you're down there?"
Why exactly are you guys stalling on the global scale intervention that you obviously need to pull on all of these stupid talking monkeys?