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| 'E.T. Contact Would Transform Society' |
| [Interview] Professor Paul Davies from the Australian Center for Astrobiology, Sydney |
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Roberto Spiezio (seong)  |
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Published 2006-01-16 11:53 (KST) |
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For centuries scientists, novelists and ordinary people have imagined what would happen if the human race had contact with an extra-terrestrial civilization.
In an article written for Wired Magazine in December 2004, SETI's (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) Dr. Frank Drake estimated, using his famous equation, that there are more than 10,000 civilizations able to communicate just in our galaxy alone - the Milky Way.
But are we prepared for such an encounter? What kind of response would we give the aliens? A group of scientists and science communicators has been brainstorming these issues.
OhmyNews interviewed the English scientist Paul Davies, who chairs the SETI Post-Detection Science and Technology task group, by email last week.
Professor Davies, please introduce yourself to OMNI readers. What are you working on at the moment?
 |  | |  Prof. Paul Davies | | | ©2006 Effy Alexakis | I am a theoretical physicist and cosmologist by profession, but these days I also work in astrobiology, and I hold the position of Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Australian Center for Astrobiology at Macquarie University in Sydney. My research interests range from the origin of the universe to the origin of life. I have just finished writing my 26th book. It is about the "multiverse."
What is astrobiology?
Astrobiology is the attempt to understand life in an astronomical setting. It concerns the origin of life, its early evolution on Earth, and the search for life beyond Earth. At the moment astrobiologists are excited about the possibility of microbial life on Mars.
How is it connected to radio astronomy?
Radio astronomers are crucial to astrobiology, because they can detect organic molecules - the building blocks of life - in space.
But a small group of radio astronomers has also played a role in SETI by scanning the skies with radio telescopes in the hope of detecting a radio message from an alien civilization.
That is much more of a "long shot" but potentially far more significant than finding a microbe on Mars.
Philosophers and former politicians have joined a group of scientists whose job it is to work out how to respond to signals coming from an extra-terrestrial intelligence, the "SETI Post-Detection Science and Technology Task group." How are you involved with this team?
I recently assumed the chair of the SETI Post-Detection Committee. It is an international group of scientists and science communicators whose job is to think about what we would do next if a signal was received from an alien source. The committee reports to the International Academy of Astronautics.
Who funds the task group? Is it intended as a permanent group or has it been formed only for this particular purpose?
The committee has no permanent funding base at this time. Members communicate electronically, and meet at various astrobiology conferences that are funded from conventional sources (e.g. NASA, ESA, research councils).
What are the types of responses that are being considered by the group?
Our main lines of inquiry are the following:
1. Verification. In event of a claim from a radio astronomer that a signal has been detected, what is the fastest and most secure way to verify the claim? False alarms and hoaxes are very common.
2. To distinguish various categories of signals. How do we determine that a signal is artificial? What are the signatures that would give us confidence that we were not dealing with a natural phenomenon? Is the signal a beamed message intended for humanity, or did we simply stumble on something by accident?
3. Signal discrimination. If the signal is established as genuine, how should it be interpreted? Is it in code? What principles should be employed to decode it?
4. Announcement and response. What is the best way to make the discovery known to the public? Should humanity reply? If so, what sort of reply might it be, and who would decide on the content?
5. Dangers and opportunities. To assess the impact on humanity of various sorts of signals, and examine the possible dangers and opportunities that knowing we are not alone in the universe might bring.
6. Guidelines. The committee will establish general guidelines for radio astronomers and others to keep in mind in case they detect something unusual.
Professor Davies, what do you think the first contact would be like? When might it come about? What would it alter in our worldviews, our values and lifestyles in your opinion?
Most people expect contact to be in the form of a radio signal, although it could be optical. But the committee is aware of the possibility of exotic forms of contact, for example, ancient "set-and-forget" messages in DNA.
If we are merely made aware that we not alone, but cannot decipher an actual message, the impact on human society would be similar to that of Copernicus or Darwin.
If we had genuine two-way contact with an alien civilization, nothing would be the same again. Our society would be transformed in almost every way.
What do you think the aliens would be like?
Speaking for myself and not for the committee, I doubt that evolved biological intelligence is more than a transitory phase.
Therefore, I expect that we would be dealing with artificially intelligent systems (organic, inorganic or hybrid).
Simple statistics shows that "they" would be far advanced technologically: the probability that two planets in one galaxy would evolve intelligence at the same time after billions of years of evolution is extremely small.
I would not expect them to be hostile, or they would already have taken over Earth.
Why has a decision to form such a group been made only recently, whereas radio astronomy and the search for E.T. Intelligence date back to the late 1950's ?
This committee has been in existence for some years, but so far it has not been very active. I intend to change that.
So there were no rules in place in advance of a possible contact?
I am not aware of any general guidelines or rules on this subject.
Has this group perhaps been created because the human race is perceived as being close to the discovery of other intelligences in the universe?
It is true that the technology of detection has improved enormously, but we still have no idea whether there is ANY life beyond Earth, let alone intelligent life.
So SETI remains a highly speculative exercise. But it is worth doing because the consequences of success would be so momentous.
To alien radio astronomers Earth would appear brighter than the Sun, due to the large quantity of electromagnetic waves generated by our civilization. Why haven't they already sent us a signal? Or why haven't we been able to receive it?
They could be signaling us right now, and we would know about it only if we happen to point a radio telescope exactly in their direction.
In the movie "Contact" with Jodie Foster, the problem of how to respond to an E.T. contact was faced by also including the representatives of various religions, due to obvious moral implications. Do you think that this is a matter in which "reason and faith" could be finally work together? Is the response to an alien intelligence a "scientific business" only?
In the initial stages, "the signal" would be a purely scientific matter. If it was established to be a genuine message then we would need to broaden the discussion.
I expect to include elder statesmen, philosophers and religious thinkers (not leaders) in a broader discussion.
Professor Davies, some Hollywood movies predict a springing up of religious movements, apocalyptic scenarios and a permanent global hysteria as a result of the discovery of another civilization -- or a response to our signals. They also use this worst-case scenario to justify keeping a contact secret from the general public. Do you think the general public could handle such news?
It depends on the nature of the contact. If we can merely say that we have evidence that another civilization exists, but we do not have an actual message or signal intended for us, I think we could announce it openly in the same way as any other major astronomical discovery.
If there is a signal with a decipherable content, we would need to be much more cautious until we understood the content. At this stage the committee does not have an agreed position about secrecy apart from the need to encourage proper scientific evaluation before making any formal announcement.
SETI's astronomer Seth Shostak once said that since we've been sending TV signals into space for decades now, a sort of response to alien intelligence listening to us has already been sent. What is the usefulness of a specific task group about managing a post-detection response then?
Even SETI optimists do not believe there is an alien civilization within 100 light years, which is more than the distance that our first TV signals have penetrated. I think it is inconceivable that aliens would send radio messages our way until they had detected our first signals. So they would detect us before we detect them. Hence, our early signals would not be interpreted as a response to their message.
The task group is responsible not merely for the reply, but for assessing the impact on society. So it still has a useful function even if it cannot be sure of managing the response.
Do you have any concluding comments?
The chances of SETI succeeding I personally regard as tiny. But the usefulness of the exercise is that it forces us to address deep questions such as, What is Life? What is Intelligence? What is the destiny of mankind? Are the laws of the universe intrinsically bio-friendly? Are we alone, and if so, how will that change our attitude to humanity and the Earth?
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http://aca.mq.edu.au/PaulDavies/pdavies.html - Prof. Paul Davies's Website
http://www.nasa.gov - NASA
http://www.esa.int - ESA
http://wired.com/wired/archive/12.12/life.html - Frank Drake's Article on Wired Magazine
http://www.setileague.org/general/drake.htm - What is the Drake's Equation? |
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©2006 OhmyNews
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