Can we overcome our preconceptions about extraterrestrial life? Kathleen Toerpe thinks the answer is yes, for we’re moving from the era of ill-informed jokes about ‘little green men’ to a widening appreciation of our place in the cosmos. Dr. Toerpe is the Deputy CEO for Programs and Special Projects at the Astrosociology Research Institute and editor of The Journal of Astrosociology. She also serves as a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, one whose educational efforts on behalf of space exploration have revealed that the younger generation is familiar with and inspired by the subject, a fact that gives this essay its welcome patina of optimism. The recent hearings on SETI in the U.S. House of Representatives show that, for some at least, old attitudes die hard, but ongoing research into astrobiology and SETI is likely to make the ‘giggle factor’ seem positively prehistoric within our lifetimes.
by Kathleen D. Toerpe, PhD
Flip through any newsfeed these days, and it seems that humanity is experiencing an extraterrestrial renaissance. No, I’m not talking about the reboot of the Star Wars franchise, though that reawakening has been long overdue. Rather, I’m referring to the deservedly serious discourse in both the popular and scientific press over the search for extraterrestrial life (henceforth, shortened to “ET” – with both apologies and credit to Mr. Spielberg).
Two prominent examples here make my point.
On May 22, 2014, NASA released a free downloadable eBook edited by SETI social scientist, Douglas A. Vakoch, titled Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication. This fascinating book (which consumed much of my attention the recent Memorial Day weekend) examines the multilayered and interdisciplinary approaches that social scientists employ to anticipate how we might communicate with intelligent beings from another planet. Hearkening to analogs in Mayan hieroglyphs, music theory, Neanderthal research, and decoding extinct Earth languages (among several other fascinating analogs), this compilation of conference presentations teases out the seemingly intractable challenges of decoding and interpreting a message sent from ET and the possibilities of composing our own message in response.
A day earlier, on May 21, 2014, Seth Shostak and Dan Werthimer, two of SETI’s most eminent radio astronomers, testified before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology about “Astrobiology and the Search for Life in the Universe.” The hearings focused on the progress made by radio and optical astronomy in detecting extraterrestrial life in the universe, and followed a similar hearing in December of 2013 that focused on the search for alien microbial life. Both Shostak’s and Werthimer’s prepared remarks thoroughly updated the House Committee on the rationales for the search, the search modalities, and the successes, challenges, and future direction of SETI investigations: atmospheric investigations into exoplanetary biochemical signatures, optical SETI recording intermittent pulses of light, panchromatic searches canvassing even broader swaths of the electromagnetic spectrum, even eavesdropping on our exoplanet neighbors for inadvertent signal leaks.
Serious science all around. But a final question, posed by the hearing’s Charter, asked the scientists to speak to the “public interest in the topic.” While Werthimer’s written testimony offered examples of SETI-inspired poetry and citizen science projects (the latter not surprising since the solidly popular and successful SETI@home project is headed out of Werthimer’s UC-Berkeley office), Shostak revealed the five-hundred-pound gorilla lurking in the background. This particular gorilla is commonly known as the “Giggle Factor.”
It is the immediate response many people have when the subject of ET and aliens arise. That under-the-breath chortle, that second look as if to say, “You’re really serious about this?” Psychologist and astrosociologist Albert Harrison analyzed it in his 2005 paper, “Overcoming the Image of Little Green Men: Astrosociology and SETI” and warned especially early-career SETI researchers to “be prepared . . . to risk ridicule . . . and public censure.” It was this same attitude that unfortunately earned SETI research that infamous 1979 “Golden Fleece Award” from former Wisconsin Senator William Proxmire. (Proxmire later recanted, but the damage to SETI’s reputation was done.) I suspect that every serious SETI researcher from the earliest pioneers to today’s practitioners has faced their peers’ and even their audience’s giggles. But I’m going to echo Shostak’s optimistic prediction to the House committee on the imminent discovery of ET life, and likewise guess that the Giggle Factor “is going to change within everyone’s lifetime in this room.”
What gives me the confidence to predict the demise of the Giggle Factor?
One simple word. Children.
One of the many “hats” I wear is as a volunteer NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador. That is an auspicious-sounding way of saying that I present programs on space research and exploration to anyone in my community who wants to listen to me. Schools, scout troops and packs, senior centers, college classes, library programs, astronomy groups, radio interviews, church luncheons are all some of the places where I and my fellow Ambassadors carry the message of outer space to the public. And I’ve heard my share of giggles when I discuss Kepler exoplanetary discoveries, the Mars Curiosity Rover, and astrobiology research. But here’s the thing: the little kids aren’t laughing. Not a giggle. They wiggle and squirm, they want to play with the beach ball-like planets I bring with me, and they always want to know how much longer until snack time—but they don’t giggle. Not a chortle. Not a guffaw. Instead, there are a lot of wide eyes and dropping jaws when I describe the enormity of space and the possibilities of extraterrestrial life.
In a program I created called “Hello Out There!” we cover the science on Kepler and Curiosity and the Voyager probes, then the kids do their favorite part: composing their own messages on a cardboard “Golden Record” that they take home to share with their families. If Doug Vakoch would like to know what the scientists of tomorrow are most interested in telling ET about, it is . . . drum roll . . . their pets! In my informal review of the times I’ve presented this program (and I’m doing it with another 200 or so children this summer!) children want to tell ET about their pets, their siblings, their parents, and their favorite foods. Perhaps not quite the esoteric mathematical or chemical equations many active-SETI or messaging groups discuss sending, but it hearkens back to the more intimate and simply human messaging of the real-life Voyager recordings.
In his analysis on applying the techniques of archaeology to SETI, archaeologist and NASA e-book contributor Paul Watson concluded that we might be trapping ourselves in an “intellectual context” – our inability to overcome our preconceptions about alien life. Perhaps this is where an analysis of the Giggle Factor best finds its final resting place—as a cultural preconception. Even some of the House committee members couldn’t resist the urge to cast SETI in what Shostak earlier in the hearing had referred to as a “punchline.” House members’ questions about Ancient Aliens, Project Blue Book and UFO visitations, and whether or not ET likes the Beatles songs we’ve been sending out in space all seemed sadly discordant with the official formalities of a Congressional committee hearing. The Giggle Factor dies hard for us adults.
Committee Chairman Lamar Smith’s (Texas) comment that “finding other sentient life in the universe would be the most significant discovery in human history” is no melodramatic hyperbole. The sheer discovery of even microbial life will be far-reaching, especially if it provides confirmatory evidence of an independent DNA structure. It is even more difficult to exaggerate the human impact of the discovery of intelligent extraterrestrial life, though as astrosociologists, I and my colleagues try hard to imagine and anticipate it. It would, in Shostak’s words, “calibrate our place in the intellectual universe.” Even finding nothing will be worth the search, since it would reaffirm, according to Werthimer, that “life on this planet . . . is very precious.” Indeed it is, whether or not we ever hear from ET!
Image: Meeting of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology about “Astrobiology and the Search for Life in the Universe.” Credit: Library of Congress.
There is serious work to be done to prepare for the likely detection of extraterrestrial life—by both scientists and social scientists alike. Computing power needs to be enhanced to deal with the massive volume of data being acquired; more sensitive land and sky-based instruments are needed to listen and peek in on the cosmos; media protocols to govern public disclosure of a putative signal detection need to be reviewed, revised and updated; public policy regarding ownership of and access to extraterrestrial microbial samples needs to be negotiated; and — my personal research field — more analysis is needed into the readiness of Earth societies and institutions to assimilate the likely knowledge that we are not alone. And this just scratches the surface of our SETI to-do list!
Once exiled to the fringes of legitimate scientific inquiry by the Giggle Factor, the search for extraterrestrial life has gained new momentum, focus, and funding as the search broadens to encompass the search for microbial, in addition to intelligent, life. In the end, it may be the children who lead the way into a new future for SETI. In his opening statement, Committee Chair Smith reminded the high school students in attendance at the hearing that day that one of the hearing’s purposes is “to inspire students today to be the scientists of tomorrow.” And the noticeable lack of giggling in the room was magic to my ears.
———–
Kathleen Toerpe can be reached at ktoerpe@astrosociology.org and can be found at @ktoerpe on Twitter.
The video of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology’s hearing on “Astrobiology and the Search for Life in the Universe,” and the participants’ written statements are available at http://science.house.gov/hearing/full-committee-hearing-astrobiology-and-search-life-universe
Albert Harrison’s 2005 paper, “Overcoming the Image of Little Green Men: Astrosociology and SETI” is available at http://astrosociology.com/Library/PDF/submissions/Overcoming%20LGM_Harrison.pdf
Information on the NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador program is available at http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador/
It’s interesting that in the US at least, searching ETI’s has a “giggle factor”, whereas searching for God is mainstream and serious. Is searching for proof of ETIs by receiving messages really all that different from proving God exists by trying to show praying works, or seeing “miracles”?
As a hypothetical, what if a religious organization decided to build “churches” and “detectors”, not to worship, but to “search for God”. Would this really that different from SETI, and if so, why?
I am in favor of SETI because the costs are so low, yet the implications of success so important, even though I really doubt anything definitive will be found.
@Putting the ‘Giggle Factor’ to Rest
by Paul Gilster on June 9, 2014
You hit the jackpot with this post…
Wiki Cosmic Call and understand the genius of Marvin Minsky’s proposal to send algorithmic messages to the stars…This lady hit the tip of the iceberg…
This subject will turn your hair white er than white…If of course you believe ET is out there and somewhere near ourselves on the galactic Lifewave…
The announcement that there are probably 100 million planets capable
of supporting life, gives a bit of wind to the SETI sails, in theory.
If on 1/10 of those life arose, and 1/10 intelligent life, Excluding red dwarfs and too short lived stars remove 1/5, then overall for period of time that stars amenable to life on average is 5 billion years (excluding Red Dwarfs) Is still
a large number at 200,000. As a quick calculation w/o qualifications,
this means an intelligent species arose/will arise within 223 LY in +/- 2.5 BYa. Well in theory at those ranges they do have chance to find something,
but because of the need contemporaneity the probability of detection is
small. As better detectors come on line, this probability will increase
dramatically. If we can detect radio/electromagnetic patterns out to 1,000Ly, then I would posit the odds are better than even we might find a
signal. The question is would SETI sustain funding in the time it takes
to make a breakthrough. (maybe that should be part of the detection equation)
P.S. I will not yield on my view as Red Dwarfs being the equivalent of
a deep desert. Any life there will be limited by the environment and at best will evolve not much further than trilobites on earth (no disrespect intended)
Isn’t that cool?? I mean the way we regard pets as beings so VERY different from ourselves, yet relatable in so many ways, and how they in turn relate to us, in spite of the differences…. to the degree that we share living space with them, bringing them into our beds, cars and other places where they would seem to be quite uncomfortable. We even LOVE them and they us, so deeply and truly that we have trouble separating. They console us when we are sad or sick. We care for them with the latest medical science when they are injured or not well. I have several huskies who are even able to imitate the words, “hello” and “I love you” in such a way as to be completely recognizable to anyone who hears them ‘speak’. And there is no question that they are able to interpret our language into meaningful signals that allow them to successfully interact with us. Likewise, we can see them wag a tail, growl, purr or hiss and understand them when they are feeling contentment, joy or aggression. We are alien to one another, but it doesn’t keep us from sharing experiences and emotion. Perhaps this is a sign of hope that we can open our minds to the same type of sharing with beings from other worlds sometime in the distant future. Children may be on to something, for by saying we love and connect to these beings who are so very different from ourselves, we might not be a total threat to those who may one day reach across the cosmos to connect to us. And food… it’s universal. Even though we eat different things prepared in different ways, depending on our global location and cultural background here on Earth, we can quickly adapt to those differences and many of us truly enjoy the experience of eating things completely foreign to our senses. Diet is also one of the first things we examine when discovering an animal: What does it eat? Surely, if intelligent extraterrestrial life forms were capable of examining our lives here on Earth, they would be curious about our habits, including our diets, especially if they extract energy from their environments in similar ways.
Super fun, Paul. Love this!!
We have come a long way since the seventies and eighties, when even some SETI pioneers resisted social science involvement in SETI and contact issues. As recently as seven years ago, a certain retired astronaut described speculations by non-scientists about the implications of contact as not responsible. Hollywood’s excessively binary approach to depicting extraterrestrials has not helped.
The entry of a younger generation of social scientists into this arena reinforces the positive trend associated with the discovery of many extrasolar planets. All success to Toerpe and her colleagues!
In the process of creating fictional worlds, I’ve found the articles on this blog to be extremely enlightening in regard to planetary construction, solar system configuration and stability, and what makes the universe ‘tick’.
What I haven’t found until lately is any discussion about alien life, other than the ‘superior being’ idea, as in ‘Starman’ where we get an invited visitor, or the creepy factor, as in ‘Alien’ and ‘Aliens’, where they try to make sandwichs out of us.
I do scour the science blogs for information that most people would ignore, and will come across things like the evolution of neural systems, such as those in some species of jellyfish which have neural systems that evolved differently from the rest of the crowd. It’s extremely important that we learn to recognize these differences quickly and that we understand what sentience truly means in another species. I’ve looked to Temple Grandin’s books for enlightenment on how other species such as dogs and birds think, how they perceive their environment, and how they actually find their way around.
Based on what I’ve found so far, I think that when we actually get out into deep space, we will either find LOTS of other creatures like us, just as busy and just as smart as we are, or none at all. I think there is plenty of life in the universe, but how will we react to an alien creature like Robert Heinlein’s Mother Thing, with lemur-like eyes and a silky coat? If we run into a Vulcan-like species, what will we do?
Those are the questions we should be asking now, not who owns the rights to a newly-discovered microbe on Mars.
I believe that ET life exists,and that it will be discovered within the next few decades. If there are also colonies of intelligent life in existence in Space at about the same stage of development as ourselves , then it seems likely that they will be using E/M communication systems and within a range of around 50 t0 100 light years from Earth we ought soon to detect them ,or they us, . But even within this range the light speed limitation will make information exchanges exceedingly difficult. If intelligent life at a much more advanced state of development than ourselves also exists , they may well be using hyper light speed communication systems ,of who’s existence we are completely unaware ,,and are therefore unable to detect them.
What leads me to make this assumption when there are no grounds to support it? Simply this.In a Universe whose limits are boundless [so far as we know]why should long distance communication be limited to the use of e/m radiation whose propagation velocity has a realitively low limit when considered in terms of the bridging distances between stars ,let alone galaxies . If there are indeed other intelligences similar to our own then the ability to communicate will be an essential requirement, and is probably currently the worst handicap to be overcome. And what gives me confidence that it will? Simply the old adage ‘ Neccessity is the mother of invention’.to which perhaps I may add ‘or discovery’.
It could also be that even higher intelligences have evolved , whose existence takes no material form .
If the choice be between a relatively close star system as an interstellar destination, or a more distant one that we know harbours an intelligent civilisation, I think most would pick the latter. The payoff exceeds the added complexity. This is why continuing SETI observation and development is so important.
We could do with a bunch of gravscopes (a la Maccone) to massively boost the signal to noise ratio.
My main caveat with all this is that we shouldn’t confuse ETs with ETI. Life of various sorts may be common in the universe, and hopefully exists elsewhere in our own solar system. If so we may well discover it in the next few decades. On the other hand, extraterrestrial intelligence with technology that we can detect (and recognize) is almost certainly far less common, if it exists at all. Contact with it may be centuries away, or millenia, or never. Our investigation of space will certainly turn up things we never dreamed of. We shouldn’t base it solely on trying to find something that may be only a dream.
Although I believe life is common out there I also believe intellegent life is very rare, 1 or 2 space faring species at most per gallaxy. There are so many variables that can thwart the rise of a technologically capable species. I would also prefer our species to listen passively for alien transmissions as opposed active transmissions, just in case.
@Andrew Palfreyman June 9, 2014 at 19:17
‘We could do with a bunch of gravscopes (a la Maccone) to massively boost the signal to noise ratio.’
These devices would be immensely powerful and will form the basis of our Galactic communication system.
Who giggles when you discuss exoplanets and Mars rovers? They must be some incredible dimwits.
Understanding the historical origins of the giggle factor may be important to moving beyond it. Two factors appear relevant, but I’m conscious this is likely to be a partial perspective.
In the late 1940s people in the United States began reporting odd lights in the sky with increased frequency. After an initially serious investigation the national security response quickly settled on two factors. At their peak such reports swamped air defence communication channels, causing a clear issue of detecting hardware from phantom in the Cold War context. A second issue identified in documents from the period was the potential use of such reports for psychological warfare purposes ( building on the implications of the reaction to the WR of the Worlds broadcast little more than decade previously).
The response was a desire that people would simply stop reporting such things and a consequent dismissive or sarcastic tone was widely used. The Robertson panel in 1953 recommended a more formal public education process.
Whilst the giggle factor may therefore partially be a manufactured attitude addressing national security concerns of the early Cold War, which has become a self sustaining meme, there may be a deeper issue.
Western society, derived largely from the Nudeo-Christian tradition is deeply anthropocentric. Two anthropologists, Wendt and Duvall wrote an interesting paper a while ago on the implications for sovereignty arising from contact. Their argument was that was human institutions could be destabilised by contact and that the dissonance produced by the concept want such ideas could not be seriously considered by the society as a whole. Interestingly this effect may vary considerably between cultures.
Are there any factors underpinning the ‘giggle factor’ that go back earlier in time, or other perspectives on this?
Two remarks:
1) SETI started way before we even thought about Astrobiology as a field. But its a merger. SETI is, in a way, Astrobiology, too. Why is this important? Well, its always stressed how Astrobiology relies on interdisciplinary cooperation. The same is true for SETI. Recently a lot changed and the trend is away from pure radio astronomy. Its a first step.
2) “Giggle Factor” is a severe understatement. And to be frank the problem rests not so much in public perception. The real problem is professional perception. An outright hostile reaction is not uncommon. Recently, in a discussion about a paper estimated the frequency of Von Neumann probes, i wondered if these rumors that shaking up the community with regarding to extraterrestrial biogenic activity in asteroids ever since the sadly last year deceased David Mc Kay paper on ALH84001 (and frankly even before that, but largely unnoticed) work could be our “probe” (or rather a colonizer in that respect) the participants were rather quick to ascribe me to… creationism. Can you imagine that? And whilst exchanging letters with colleagues who are conducting active research in the field it came to my attention that they faced the very same problem. Its sorta an taboo. There are people who stand up to it once in a while, but the public attitude combined with professional sided ridicule is devastating to the field. For example Mr. Hoovers papers were ridiculed by comparing the presumed fossils to toothpaste. By colleagues in the field. No matter if the findings were correct or not, this is not the way to do these things. With this kind of “professionalism” we have a rocky road ahead of us indeed.
My sons’ generation (ages 13 and 10) is overwhelmingly – with a few exceptions perhaps influenced by skeptical/sarcastic parents – convinced of the reality of extraterrestrial life. They’ve grown up free of the little green men polluting their perceptions. Shows like “Through the Wormhole” are watched with fascination and comprehension by children their age. They ask questions such as why don’t we send people to the Moon and when will we be able to live on Mars. Questions that haven’t been widely asked by the general populace since the early 1970s.
Dr. Toerpe is correct. The new generation will likely revive interest in the colonization of space, greatly increase spending and effort to do so, and greatly intensify the search for microbial ET and for ETI. They don’t think it’s a joke. They have no doubt it’s their future.
A very interesting article and comments. One common criticism of SETI, if I understand correctly, is that it relies on the assumption that ETI is deliberately broadcasting powerful signals in an attempt to make contact with anyone nearby. Isn’t it the case that a civilization that is simply ‘leaking’ e-m signals (like humanity) isn’t really detectable at any great distance by our current technology, and that we would be similarly difficult to detect (METI efforts aside)?
@Gerry – Ome claim is that Earth still leaks very powerfully – radar for example. I can imagine radar tracking of NEOs for asteroid defense would leak a lot of detectable energy, let alone our radar scanning for missiles. If we ever use beamed energy for sails or other propulsion, the microwave/visible radiation should be very detectable. If we don’t want to signal our presence to the stars, we will have to huddle on our planet and be very circumspect with our technology uses. I really don’t want to cripple out development of space technology based on fears of celestial bogeymen. YMMV.
Or to take another perspective, Game of Thrones has had great success at bringing epic fantasy out of the “genre ghetto” to more mainstream audiences. I think a large part of this is that it is mainly concerned with the human storylines: the fantasy elements being present but not dominanting everything.
So, what might the science fiction equivalent be that could mainstream these ideas that currently languish in the “SF ghetto”? Something that does not fall into the all-too-common SF trap of relying on the crutch of sensawunda in place of actual storytelling, that could work as a high production value TV show?
Sara wrote, “I do scour the science blogs for information that most people would ignore, and will come across things like the evolution of neural systems, such as those in some species of jellyfish which have neural systems that evolved differently from the rest of the crowd.”
Not that I know of, but there is now strong evidence that comb jellies (a group that has been known to be unrelated to jelly fish for about half a century now), do. Despite many superficial similarities of comb jellies to bilateria (eg, humans), it now seems they are not related to this group either, but a completely separately evolved branch. As such it is important to note how different they have turned out to us. The question here wrt ETI is, are these differences mainly due to them being forced into a narrow niche by our more successful bilateria (ie would they have evolved into many forms that resembled us had we never existed.)
Perhaps children don’t giggle at SETI through their lack of understanding of the Fermi paradox. Despite the spin that many in SETI enthusiasts now try to impart to this conundrum, its significance is clear, so let me key you in.
If our galaxy is has so many ETI within it broadcasting a message strong enough for us to pick up that we have any chance of doing so, why hasn’t one of them realised that for a fraction of the energy cost, they can begin the colonisation of the galaxy… a process that would run to completion in less than a hundred million years (<1% of our galaxies age). So… the paradox is why would anyone waste money listening for a signal coming from a distant star when they know that its existence would all but prove they are already here. WHERE ARE THEY!!!
comb jellies…Despite many superficial similarities of comb jellies to bilateria (eg, humans), it now seems they are not related to this group either, … are these differences mainly due to them being forced into a narrow niche by our more successful bilateria (ie would they have evolved into many forms that resembled us had we never existed.)
Interesting question. Their ancestors did evolve into bilateria, but I am not clear how ctenophores would have subsequently convergently evolved to look like bilateria. It is a pretty fundamental change in body plan.
We were all children once. Apart from a few of us who for some reason don’t seem too troubled by other people giggling most people who grow up to get involved in science will become suitably conditioned I suspect. It is acceptable to consider the possibility of life far far away but as the curious reaction to, for example Richard Hoover’s work, or that of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe, suggesting actual hard evidence for anything close to home is very dangerous ground indeed.
Rob Henry highlights the Fermi paradox as a factor in the socialisation process for young scientists, which is quite right. The problem with a paradox of course is that is shows there is something fundamentally wrong with one or more of our assumptions, but that’s getting into territory beyond the scope of the main article and best left for another time. For now I would simply suggest that the giggle factor would have the effect that we would generally reject any evidence short of direct blatant open contact even if they were here.
“Isn’t it the case that a civilization that is simply ‘leaking’ e-m signals isn’t really detectable at any great distance by our current technology, and that we would be similarly difficult to detect ?”
Inverse square law. If there would be a copy of Earth one light year away with the same Kind of Equipment, we would not be able to detect each other. Oh, sure, the Signal has reach, but the antenna required…
“WHERE ARE THEY!!!”
An interesting question. There is no conclusive evidence for the… Genesis …of life on Earth, is it? You are right, especially according to Tipler the galaxy shoulld be crawling with Von Neumanns now…
Tell me… what exactly defines a Von Neumann. And what defines a microorganism?
andy said on June 10, 2014 at 18:24:
“So, what might the science fiction equivalent be that could mainstream these ideas that currently languish in the “SF ghetto”? Something that does not fall into the all-too-common SF trap of relying on the crutch of sensawunda in place of actual storytelling, that could work as a high production value TV show?”
They already did this with the revamped Battlestar Galactica. All I have to say is, if science fiction and fantasy are just being turned into mainstream stories about regular humans with space and fantasy elements as mere window dressing and backdrops, then why bother with science fiction and fantasy at all?
To me this says we are becoming less imaginative and more self-centered. A shame after all those centuries trying to struggle physically and culturally out of such muck. Next up, the Sun starts circling Earth again and everyone but the few surviving intellectuals are happy and go back to their business.
swage said on June 11, 2014 at 5:57:
“An interesting question. There is no conclusive evidence for the… Genesis …of life on Earth, is it? You are right, especially according to Tipler the galaxy shoulld be crawling with Von Neumanns now…”
Ever read anything by Frank Tipler, like his books The Physics of Immortality or The Physics of Christianity? I take his ideas with a dump truck full of salt.
http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/Cosmo/tipler.txt
And where is everybody? You mean why aren’t they parking their spaceships on the White House lawn or blasting us with signals from deep space? I am not entirely sure, but I bet the fact that this galaxy alone contains over 400 billion stars – most of which apparently have their own planetary systems – scattered across 100,000 lights of space, then add in the fact that at least 100 billion galaxies of suns exist beyond the Milky Way, and I would say that most ETI probably have other things to focus on and accomplish before taking the time to prove to the chattering primates with car keys on Sol 3 that they are not alone.
Michael Michaud said on June 9, 2014 at 13:18:
“We have come a long way since the seventies and eighties, when even some SETI pioneers resisted social science involvement in SETI and contact issues. As recently as seven years ago, a certain retired astronaut described speculations by non-scientists about the implications of contact as not responsible. Hollywood’s excessively binary approach to depicting extraterrestrials has not helped.”
Please, everyone – please read this book, or at least my review:
https://centauri-dreams.org/?p=27889
After fifty years we are finally starting to get past mere radio for SETI and involving more than just astronomers in the process, but so long as SETI projects remain largely token efforts and underfunded, it won’t matter much.
As Whitney Houston once said:
“I believe the children are our are future.
Teach them well and let them lead the way.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvPYXHM94DQ
To ljk, one function of science fiction and fantasy has been to tell stories that are too politically or socially controversial to place in an “ordinary” setting. They don’t always have to be about the impact of technology.
I wonder too if we don’t overrate the impact of technology on our lived experience, at least in the short term. I’d miss the internet and (well, maybe) cellphones if I was deprived of them now, but I grew up before they were available and don’t recall having any sense of deprivation at the time. I’ve seen letters from the 19th century that mention the deaths of children, and although they express grief or consolation there’s no cursing of heaven or even a sense that the writers dreamed of a day when children would no longer die. Human life and expectations adjust to the technology.
If there is no life out there could our purpose be to propagate it?
If we propagate life would we not also propagate life’s purpose?
If there is life out there could our purpose be to find it?
If we find life out there would we not also find life’s purpose?
And in doing both would we not serve life’s greater purpose?
Allex Tolley, I agree that extreme change in body plan are needed to transform comb jellies to bilateria, but I can add that the differences between acoela and Nemertodermatida are also extreme, yet most biologists now want to place them in the same phylum! If this controversial grouping proves justified, it would imply such changes (where no one has ever been able to point functional hypothetical body plan that could be intermediary) are possible for animals of that level of complexity.
JUNE 11, 2014
THE MAN WHO SPEAKS FOR EARTH
POSTED BY JOSHUA ROTHMAN
Recently, at a mass in Vatican City, Pope Francis said that, if given the chance, he would baptize aliens. (“Who are we to close doors?” he asked.)
Unfortunately, judging by “Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication,” a new book, about the complexities of communicating with extraterrestrials, released last month by NASA, it won’t be that simple. For a long time, the people most interested in searching for extraterrestrial intelligence came from “hard science” disciplines like astronomy or physics; to them, the main obstacles seemed technical (building radio telescopes, processing signal data). But, in recent years, the field has broadened to include people who already study other civilizations here on Earth.
In these essays, they report that their jobs are hard enough as it is. Archaeologists struggled to decipher ancient Greek; deciphering a transmission from another world will be even more difficult. Even if we do manage to detect a signal, they write, fully understanding what it means may be impossible.
The challenges described by the contributors are daunting (and, at least to me, surprising). On Earth, they write, we were able to use the Rosetta Stone to figure out Egyptian hieroglyphics. (It contained the same text written in glyphs, Demotic script, and ancient Greek.) But there will be no Rosetta Stone for our communication with extraterrestrials, and the distances involved make conversation unlikely—which may mean that our comprehension of their message will be confined to math and numbers, never able to make the jump to broader concepts or less abstract words. (How do you describe a lake, or a tree, with math?)
The speed of the message presents another problem: here on Earth, human language happens at a speed somewhere between birdsong and whalesong, so how fast should our message be, and on what scale should we be listening?
And then there are all the difficulties created by the nature of our interlocutors. What if they’re so different from us that our messages are mutually incomprehensible? What if the message is sent by some sort of automated system—a voicemail from a long-dead civilization?
Douglas Vakoch, the editor of “Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication,” is the director of interstellar message composition at the SETI Institute, in Mountain View, California. (The Institute’s name refers to the “search for extraterrestrial intelligence,” an umbrella term for a number of projects that began in the sixties, some funded by NASA.)
Vakoch has degrees in comparative religion, the history and philosophy of science, and clinical psychology (“I expected to become an astronomer, but discovered that I was more interested in people than in stars,” he told me). At SETI, Vakoch is responsible for designing the messages that we might send to extraterrestrials; he is also a member of the International Institute of Space Law, where he works on the policy issues surrounding the messages’ composition. (There are currently no laws about sending signals into space; in theory, anyone with a powerful enough antenna could be talking to the cosmos right now.)
“We used to think we would get an Encyclopedia Galactica,” Vakoch said. One of his primary goals, in editing the book, was to give air time to the less optimistic views of social scientists, and to start thinking about what an incomplete or indecipherable message from space might mean to humankind.
Vakoch spoke to me by phone, from his home in California. This interview has been edited and condensed.
Full article interview here:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/joshuarothman/2014/06/the-man-who-speaks-for-earth.html
Vakoch:
Which runs up against the anti-METI people.
The signals we are most likely to get initially are stray emissions that are not meant to be signals. Aliens would need to be signaling us directly for any hope of even 1-way communication. Unless aliens are close by, 2-way communication is not going to be very effective.
Our best hope is awakening a probe within a few light hours of Earth that has the power to communicate.
In the interview, I loved the conceit that anthropologists and archaeologists would be good at deciphering alien messages.
About Doug Vakoch commenting positively in regards to METI, I wonder if he is expressing only his views on the subject or is The SETI Institute undergoing a change on this topic?
If people and institutions are going to keep beaming messages, often of a less than scientific nature as has continued despite protests from various quarters, then perhaps the Institute or a similar organization should counter the junk with more scientific and thoughtful transmissions.
Here is one very recent example of a METI conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA) no less:
http://phys.org/news/2014-05-schoolchildren-selfies-space-esa-tracking.html
Not junk, perhaps, but likely confusing to any non-humans who detect it. I believe the ESA asked no one in advance for permission to do this METI and it seems to have received little notice. I have also been unable to find just how strong the signal was or where exactly it is headed.
From the ESA Rosetta blog page:
http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/05/16/sending-a-signal-into-the-future-2/
and here:
http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/05/08/a-light-speed-voyage-to-the-distant-future/
@Rob Henry – looking at my copy (2004) of “On the Origin of Phyla” by J Valentine, I see that there is enough similarity between Acoela and Nemertodermatida to put them in the same clade. The evidence seems a bit sketchy, and classification isn’t my thing, but the suggestion seems reasonable based on developmental and genetic similarities given. Perhaps that just shows how plastic morphology can be with relatively minor genome changes.
http://www.seti.org/seti-institute/news/congressional-hearing-seti-research-news
Congressional hearing on SETI research in the news
June 11, 2014
Originally published on Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union
by Randy Showstack
“It is not hyperbolic to suggest that scientists could very well discover extraterrestrial intelligence within 2 decades’ time or less, given resources to conduct the search,” Seth Shostak, senior astronomer with the SETI Institute, in Mountain View, Calif., testified at a 21 May congressional hearing held by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
He pointed to the progress in extrasolar planet discovery made possible by NASA’s Kepler space telescope, the enormous number of potential planets in the Milky Way and other galaxies, the increasing power of digital electronics to find and sort out radio and other signals, and other work related to exoplanets and astrobiology. It was the committee’s third hearing on astrobiology and the search for life in the universe in roughly 1 year.
Visit the site to download the entire PDF:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014EO220003/abstract
Hunt Intensifies for Aliens on Kepler’s Planets
MAY 28, 2014 12:10 PM ET // BY IRENE KLOTZ
Could ET be chatting with colleagues or robots on sister planets in its solar system? Maybe so, say scientists who last year launched a new type of Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, project to eavesdrop on aliens.
Astronomers are fascinated by exoplanets and the possibility of life on these worlds. Should they also focus on exomoons? Ian O’Neill from Discovery News explores the possibility of alien life and oceans on the moons of other planets.
Using data collected by NASA’s Kepler space telescope, a team of scientists spent 36 hours listening in when planets in targeted solar systems lined up, relative to Earth’s perspective, in hopes of detecting alien interplanetary radio signals.
“We think the right strategy in SETI is a variety of strategies. It’s really hard to predict what other civilizations might be doing,” Dan Werthimer, director of SETI research at the University of California Berkeley, told Discovery News.
Full article here:
http://news.discovery.com/space/alien-life-exoplanets/hunt-intensifies-for-aliens-on-keplers-planets-140528.htm
“Ever read anything by Frank Tipler, like his books The Physics of Immortality or The Physics of Christianity? I take his ideas with a dump truck full of salt.”
I am familiar with his argument regarding the Fermi Paradox, though “read” would be said too much. Bits and pieces. Citations mostly in other work.
“And where is everybody? You mean why aren’t they parking their spaceships on the White House lawn or blasting us with signals from deep space?”
It may be they already do. In a way… look, probably that would be very advanced technology. And as mass needs more energy for moving through space, probably some sort of nano technology, efficiency wise. See, i think the idea of a replicating probe is flawed. That kind of technology isn’t really suited for “getting back home” (in the broadest sense, including transmission). Its best for SPREADING through space. That’s what replicators do: they spread. And thus a colonizer would be a more rational application for such technology. Now we know that all life evolved from unicellular organisms, but have found no single piece of evidence for evolution to said organisms. That’s because they were around really early. The geological record can’t keep up, okay? Now think about how much information has to converge in the right fashion, by random processes, to become an organism. Its very strange that this coincidence happened so early in the planets history. Or wasn’t it coincidence at all? Where can you draw the line, when dealing with molecular machinery, between life and machine? Perhaps we are so familiar with these things that we simply can not comprehend they DO actually litter the White House lawn. Because maybe they were always there, long before the lawn was there.
“Recently, at a mass in Vatican City, Pope Francis said that, if given the chance, he would baptize aliens.”
If if the above assumption turns out to be correct he may already have done so :)
Aliens may be here in one form or another, but without solid physical scientific evidence, it remains just an idea.
A master’s thesis on SETI and the media from 2003…
SETI AND THE MEDIA: IMPROVING SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
by Carol Ann Oliver
http://www.carololiver.org/downloads/masters.pdf
Enlivening Introductory Physics With SETI
By Art Hobson
From The Physics Teacher, Volume 39, October, 2001
http://physics.uark.edu/hobson/pubs/01.10.TPT.pdf
X – teched creatures billions of years old
June 19, 2014
AUTHOR: HUGO DE GARIS
In earlier essays I conceived the idea of X-Techs, i.e. technologies at the “X scale”, where X could be femto, atto, zepto, etc. Scaling down a technology by a factor of a thousand would increase the total performance of that technology by a factor of 1000 to the fourth power, i.e. a trillion, since the density would increase by 1000 to the third power, and the inter-component signaling speed would increase by a factor of a 1000, since the inter-component distances are a 1000 times smaller. Hence “smaller is faster.”
This line of thinking led me to the notion of SIPI (Search for Infra Particle Intelligence) rather than the usual SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) based on receiving radio signals from creatures similar to ourselves at a similar development level, which strikes me as being rather provincial minded.
The next logical step, it seems to me, is to speculate on what hyper intelligent synthetic creatures (artilects), which are x-tech based, might have done with themselves over billions of years, given that our sun, our star, is billions of years younger than most stars in the observable universe. This is a fascinating question, which this essay attempts to address.
How does one begin on such a speculation, given that these hyper intelligences would have performance levels trillions of trillions… of times above the human level, and have had billions of years in which to evolve and complexify, before our sun was even born?
Full article here:
http://hplusmagazine.com/2014/06/19/x-teched-creatures-billions-of-years-old/
Wait But Why – Become a fan
http://www.waitbutwhy.com
The Fermi Paradox
Posted: 06/17/2014 12:57 pm EDT
Updated: 06/17/2014 1:59 pm EDT
A very good overview of Where Are The Aliens?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/the-fermi-paradox_b_5489415.html
@ljk
“Aliens may be here in one form or another, but without solid physical scientific evidence, it remains just an idea.”
When it comes to microorganisms i’d say there is. Usually it gets waved away by the “contamination” hammer, but when you look at nitrogen depletion ratios… no, it can’t be contamination, because… for the ratios to deplete so much the contamination must have started before the meteor reached Earth. Of course it could be re-seeding of a meteor from Earth, but it gets a little complicated if the rock in question originated from Mars. So that is… hmm… debatable?
Swage, what exactly are you referring to? Meteorites from Mars on Earth?
Is it this:
http://news.discovery.com/space/alien-life-exoplanets/mars-meteorite-structures-cautious-optimism-for-alien-life-140228.htm
Note they say the following at the end of the above article, and I quote:
So, until we can detect and analyze DNA of extraterrestrial origin or have the ability to return pristine samples from Mars, work like this will be filed under “fascinating but not conclusive” in the profound hunt for life beyond Earth.
Or are you also referring to the magnetite found in Mars meteorite ALH 84001? Note that too is compelling but not conclusive evidence. This is what I mean by we need solid physical evidence that scientists can see, touch, analyze, and debate until there is no doubt. The question of extraterrestrial life whatever its form is too important to be left to human desires and wishes.
“So, until we can detect and analyze DNA of extraterrestrial origin or have the ability to return pristine samples from Mars, work like this will be filed under “fascinating but not conclusive” in the profound hunt for life beyond Earth.”
To be frank i disagree. A meteor in itself is a sample return, so to speak and DNA is not the only conceivable hard evidence possible. Actually it would be very hard to acquire, considering timescales involved. After all its pretty hard to analyze DNA from a million year old mineralized fossil.
I agree that David McKay’s work on ALH84001 is not fully conclusive, albeit there are more reasons to gravitate to a biogenic explanation – today even more so than back then, as our knowledge of Mars grew. It was a first clue we might be overlooking the metaphorical elephant in the room. The at that time acting US president Bill Clinton felt compelled to deliver a speech on it and it basically singlehandedly launched the field of astrobiology as a result. That is history.
No… there are a few wild cards here. Now, i know that they are not very popular and got much flak in the press and from the scientific community. Comes with the topic. As i said the ‘giggle factor’ is not so much the problem. Its testable evidence being not taken seriously. Just listen to what the man has to say: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7aqCaekDA
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2014/06/why-isnt-the-milky-way-crawling-with-mechanical-or-biological-life-stephen-hawkings-answer-todays-mo.html
June 24, 2014
“Why Isn’t the Milky Way Crawling With Mechanical or Biological Life?” –Stephen Hawking’s Answer (Today’s Most Popular)
In his famous lecture on Life in the Universe, Stephen Hawking asks: “What are the chances that we will encounter some alien form of life, as we explore the galaxy?” If the argument about the time scale for the appearance of life on Earth is correct, Hawking says “there ought to be many other stars, whose planets have life on them. Some of these stellar systems could have formed 5 billion years before the Earth. So why is the galaxy not crawling with self-designing mechanical or biological life forms?”
Why hasn’t the Earth been visited, and even colonized? Hawking asks. “I discount suggestions that UFOs contain beings from outer space. I think any visits by aliens, would be much more obvious, and probably also, much more unpleasant.”
Hawking continues: “What is the explanation of why we have not been visited? One possibility is that the argument, about the appearance of life on Earth, is wrong. Maybe the probability of life spontaneously appearing is so low, that Earth is the only planet in the galaxy, or in the observable universe, in which it happened. Another possibility is that there was a reasonable probability of forming self reproducing systems, like cells, but that most of these forms of life did not evolve intelligence.”
We are used to thinking of intelligent life, as an inevitable consequence of evolution, Hawking emphasized, but it is more likely that evolution is a random process, with intelligence as only one of a large number of possible outcomes.
Intelligence, Hawking believes contrary to our human-centric existece, may not have any long-term survival value. In comparison the microbial world, will live on, even if all other life on Earth is wiped out by our actions.
Hawking’s main insight is that intelligence was an unlikely development for life on Earth, from the chronology of evolution: “It took a very long time, two and a half billion years, to go from single cells to multi-cell beings, which are a necessary precursor to intelligence. This is a good fraction of the total time available, before the Sun blows up. So it would be consistent with the hypothesis, that the probability for life to develop intelligence, is low. In this case, we might expect to find many other life forms in the galaxy, but we are unlikely to find intelligent life.”
Another possibility is that there is a reasonable probability for life to form, and to evolve to intelligent beings, but at some point in their technological development “the system becomes unstable, and the intelligent life destroys itself. This would be a very pessimistic conclusion. I very much hope it isn’t true.”
Hawkling prefers another possibility: that there are other forms of intelligent life out there, but that we have been overlooked. If we should pick up signals from alien civilizations, Hawking warns,”we should have be wary of answering back, until we have evolved” a bit further. Meeting a more advanced civilization, at our present stage,’ Hawking says “might be a bit like the original inhabitants of America meeting Columbus. I don’t think they were better off for it.”
The image at the top of the page is a multi-row panoramic of Utah’s Mesa Arch and the Milky Way by photographer +Stephen Oachs. Shot with a Canon 50mm f/1.4 and a Canon 1DX.
Image credit: https://plus.google.com/+SmugMug/posts/d9sLedKcPrM
My replies to an earlier comment by Hawking on ETI visiting Earth here:
https://centauri-dreams.org/?p=14703
and here:
https://centauri-dreams.org/?p=14754
Astrobiology and SETI research has grown significantly from its humble beginnings in 1960, when Frank Drake aimed a radio telescope from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank in West Virginia at Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti, in the hopes of detecting an extraterrestrial signal.
Frank Drake featured in National Geographic magazine
June 19, 2014
This month’s National Geographic magazine documents the growth of astrobiology, its early history, and some of Frank Drake’s significant contributions to the field. The following is an excerpt originally published on NationalGeographic.com
Full piece here:
http://www.seti.org/seti-institute/news/frank-drake-featured-national-geographic-magazine
June 26, 2014
‘The Youngness Paradox’ –“Explains Why SETI has Not Found Any Signals from Extraterrestrial Civilizations”
According to MIT’s Alan Guth , originator of the inflationary universe theory, our Universe is a product of eternal inflation –eternal into the future, but not into the past. An eternally inflating Universe produces an infinite number of pocket universes , which in turn are producing more new universes. The old, mature universes are vastly outnumbered by universes that have just barely begun to evolve. Guth called it the “Youngness Paradox.”
Guth says that “the synchronous gauge probability distribution strongly implies that there is no civilization in the visible Universe more advanced than us. We would conclude, therefore, that it is extraordinarily improbable that there is a civilization in our pocket Universe that is at least one second more advanced than we are. Perhaps this argument explains why SETI has not found any signals from alien civilizations.”
In Guth’s view, “nature gets a lot of tries — the Universe is an experiment that’s repeated over and over again, each time with slightly different physical laws, or even vastly different physical laws,” says MIT physics professor Robert Jaffe.
Some of these universes would collapse instants after forming; in others, the forces between particles would be so weak they could not give rise to atoms or molecules. However, if conditions were suitable, matter would coalesce into galaxies and planets, and if the right elements were present in those worlds, intelligent life could evolve.
Some physicists have theorized that only universes in which the laws of physics are “just so” could support life, and that if things were even a little bit different from our world, intelligent life would be impossible. In that case, our physical laws might be explained “anthropically,” meaning that they are as they are because if they were otherwise, no one would be around to notice them.
MIT’s Jaffe and his collaborators felt that this proposed anthropic explanation should be subjected to more careful scrutiny, and decided to explore whether universes with different physical laws could support life.
Full article here:
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2014/06/the-youngness-paradox-explains-why-seti-has-not-found-any-signals-from-extraterrestrial-civilizations-according-to-ala.html
Eavedropping on ET: Two New Programs Launching to Listen for Aliens
By Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com Contributor | June 30, 2014 12:00 pm ET
SETI is stepping up its search for alien lifeforms on far off worlds.
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program recently announced two new methods to search for signals that could come from life on other planets. In the Panchromatic SETI project, multiple telescopes will scan a variety of wavelengths from 30 stars near the sun; the project will look for powerful signals beamed into space, potentially by intelligent extraterrestrials. SETI is also launching an interplanetary eavesdropping program that is expected to search for messages beamed between planets in a single system.
“If we are polluting space, perhaps other extraterrestrials are leaking signals,” Dan Werthimer, director of the Berkeley SETI Research Center, told an audience during the Smithsonian Magazine’s “The Future is Here” Festival in May. “Maybe they’re sending something our way.”
Full article here:
http://www.space.com/26392-seti-programs-alien-search-for-life.html
And this seems more like an ad for a new Disney film that sounds an awful lot like a film made over thirty years ago about a cute little alien with big eyes who encounters a group of children who help him phone – I mean get – home:
http://www.space.com/26371-earth-to-echo-movie-alien-contact.html
Review: Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication
by Jeff Foust
Monday, June 30, 2014
Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication
by Douglas A. Vakoch (ed.)
NASA, 2014
hardcover, 332 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-62683-013-4
US$47.00
It’s rare for publications by the NASA History Office to make waves in the mainstream media. That has nothing to do with the quality of those publications, but instead their subject matter: deep dives into narrow topics that are of interest primarily to historians, space professionals, and perhaps some space enthusiasts, but not the population at large. Except, it seems, when it comes to extraterrestrials.
Contributors to the book—primarily anthropologists and other social scientists, not astronomers—suggest many SETI researchers have underestimated the difficulty in understanding any signals they might detect.
“NASA is getting ready to communicate with aliens,” declared the headline of a piece in Sploid, a blog run by Gawker Media, on May 21. That assessment was based on its review of a new book published by NASA, Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication. (Besides being for sale in print, the book is also freely available in ebook formats from NASA.)
http://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/archaeology_anthropology_and_interstellar_communication.html
Moreover, the article led off with a sensational claim, referring to a passage in the book where one author discusses ancient stone carvings found in England. “‘For all intents and purposes, they might have been made by aliens.’ When a new NASA book on alien communications has a paragraph like that, you better pay attention.”
Full review here:
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2541/1
To quote:
The attention focused on, and misinterpretation of, that single sentence is unfortunate, since Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication overall offers an interesting, and different, take on SETI. Most discussion of SETI is devoted to the astronomical side: the efforts to sweep the skies at radio (and sometimes other) wavelengths, looking for signals that are not of natural origin. That discussion usually emphasizes radio telescopes, computer algorithms, and other technologies. A secondary issue is the development of protocols to follow once such a signal is detected: who is notified and who responds, and how.
Often neglected, though, is actually decoding the content of any communication from an extraterrestrial intelligence. “If, as is commonly assumed in SETI circles, extraterrestrial civilizations turn out to be vastly older and more advanced than we are, then perhaps they will be kind enough to construct their messages in such a way that we can comprehend them,” writes Kathryn Denning, an anthropologist at York University, in one chapter of the book.
However, Denning and other contributors to the book—primarily anthropologists and other social scientists, not astronomers—suggest many SETI researchers have underestimated the difficulty in understanding any signals they might detect, as well as constructing any signals they might want to transmit. Throughout the book, they point out the difficulties in trying to decipher books and other communications left by ancient civilizations here on Earth (the now-infamous stone carvings mentioned by Edmondson being just one example of many.) The problem of determining what other humans have written is compounded when dealing with a signal from an alien civilization whose language and even concepts of thought and communication are likely to be, well, alien.