Should we try to talk to aliens? | 91TV
Transcript
- STAR 1: Hello? STAR 2: Can you hear us?
- STAR 1: I can hear you. Can you hear me?
- STAR 2: Hello?
- ECHOING: Is there anybody out there?
- NARRATOR: Well, that's the question, isn't it?
- Has been for as long as anyone can remember.
- Are we alone?
- It might sound like science fiction,
- but the Universe is so vast,
- many scientists think it's unrealistic to imagine
- we're the only form of life in it.
- Alien life may also be what we would consider intelligent.
- But as the physicist Enrico Fermi asked in 1950,
- if we're not alone, where is everybody?
- MIKE GARRETT: The Universe is full of natural radio waves
- generated by stars and planets and galaxies.
- But that emission is really very smooth.
- NARRATOR: That's Mike Garrett, an astrophysicist
- and active member of SETI -
- the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence.
- MIKE: Artificial radio waves are very spiky
- because they convey information.
- So we're looking for anomalies - the signature
- of potentially other intelligent civilisations out there,
- broadcasting to the Universe.
- DOUGLAS VAKOCH: What SETI assumes
- is that the aliens are very motivated,
- that they're going out of their way to send us intentional signals
- for our benefit.
- NARRATOR: And that's Douglas Vakoch, the founder of Meti,
- which stands for Messaging Extra Terrestrial Intelligence.
- They think listening is not enough.
- DOUGLAS: Maybe we should do the heavy lifting by reaching out first.
- I mean, someone has to take the first move.
- NARRATOR: Making the first move in any relationship has its risks -
- opening oneself up to rejection, or worse.
- Stories of alien fleets visiting Earth with the sole intention
- of wiping us out are common ground for science fiction.
- But there is a theory that, if we're not careful,
- this could become science fact.
- MIKE: I think one of the things that Stephen Hawking,
- famous cosmologist,
- said about this idea of transmitting signals
- is that it might not turn out very well for us here on this planet -
- just like it didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans
- when Columbus first settled there.
- NARRATOR: But Meti is amongst those who see this argument
- as a red herring.
- DOUGLAS: It's too late to hide. We're already known in the Universe.
- NARRATOR: Douglas and his colleagues believe that, through TV
- and radio broadcasts - not to mention mobile phone towers -
- Earth has been leaking radiation into space for decades.
- This "leakage" is exactly what Seti look for
- as signs of life elsewhere,
- so it stands to reason that,
- if aliens are listening, they could probably already hear us.
- One theory, known as The Zoo Hypothesis,
- is that aliens already know we exist.
- But rather than making contact, they're studying us from afar -
- as if we were animals in a zoo.
- Douglas thinks that by sending out regular messages,
- we can demonstrate both our intelligence
- and desire to communicate.
- DOUGLAS: If you imagine we go to the zoo
- and we're walking around and we see a bunch of giraffes,
- what happens if one of them turns around, looks us in the eye
- and starts pounding out a series of prime numbers with its hoof?
- We're trying to be the galactic giraffes here.
- NARRATOR: But for Seti, and Mike, this remains problematic.
- Though not against communicating per se,
- Mike argues that we need to think much more carefully
- about what we want to say and how we want to say it.
- MIKE: Who speaks for Earth? And who has the right?
- When I see a lot of these signals being sent,
- they don't represent all of this planet.
- You know, just arbitrarily sending signals out into space
- is not very democratic.
- NARRATOR: If humans were to enter a dialogue with an alien species,
- how would we get them to understand us?
- This is more than a language barrier.
- It's a fundamental difference barrier.
- Because of the enormous distances involved,
- we're also dealing in difficult timescales.
- If we send a message to a life form 1,000 light years away,
- it will take 1,000 years to reach them.
- And assuming their technology is similar to ours,
- we'd wait another 1,000 years for the reply.
- DOUGLAS: It's almost like you get an email from someone ten years ago
- and they say, "Yes, sounds great."
- But you don't even remember what it was about.
- This only works if it's something embraced by generations to come.
- NARRATOR: The first message sent into space
- for the benefit of aliens was in 1974 -
- more than 50 years ago.
- It became known as the Arecibo Message.
- And so far, we have received nothing in return -
- which returns us to Enrico Fermi's question -
- "Where is everybody?"
- Meti will continue reaching out to those planets that orbit
- within what's known as the "Goldilocks Zone" -
- not too hot, not too cold -
- just right for potential life.
- Meanwhile, Mike and Seti will keep an ear to the sky,
- advancing techniques to pick up signals from other worlds.
- And maybe one day, just maybe...
- MIKE: If we detect a signal
- and we know that we're not alone in the Universe,
- I think that should make people happy.
- If we discover another civilisation
- and they're very different from us,
- we'll realise actually how similar we are to our neighbours.
Is there human-like alien intelligence out there. Do they already know about us, and what are the risks of trying to make contact? professor Mike Garrett of SETI (The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) and Douglas Vakoch of METI (Messaging Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) answer these questions and more.
made in partnership with @bbcideas
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