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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNew Plan to Attract Intelligent, Extraterrestrial Life to Earth
by Mike Wehner
11/6/18
Science fiction has taught us for decades that when aliens arrive on Earth, its going to be a bad day for mankind. Those fictional horror stories havent deterred some scientists from thinking up ways that we might attract alien civilizations to Earth and a new feasibility study suggests that we could send a laser beam into the cosmos to act as a beacon for alien life to find.
The work, which was published in The Astrophysical Journal, suggests that existing technology could be used to produce an infrared beam bright enough to be spotted by intelligent alien civilizations. Once discovered, it would be like a breadcrumb trail pointing right back to Earth and extraterrestrials could come calling.
This would be a challenging project but not an impossible one, James Clark, author of the study, said in a statement. The kinds of lasers and telescopes that are being built today can produce a detectable signal so that an astronomer could take one look at our star and immediately see something unusual about its spectrum. I dont know if intelligent creatures around the sun would be their first guess, but it would certainly attract further attention.
https://nypost.com/2018/11/06/astronomers-want-to-shoot-lasers-into-space-to-attract-aliens/ https://nypost.com/2018/11/06/astronomers-want-to-shoot-lasers-into-space-to-attract-aliens/
After asked by an interviewer on the National Geographic Channel, if we should continue attempting to contact intelligent extraterrestrial life, Stephen Hawking, perhaps the most brilliant mind of our time, answered: ❝I think it would be a disaster. The extraterrestrials would probably be far in advance of us. The history of advanced races meeting more primitive people on this planet is not very happy, and they were the same species. I think we should keep our heads low❞
Pholus
(4,062 posts)Claritie Pixie
(2,199 posts)rampartc
(5,435 posts)Loki Liesmith
(4,602 posts)I dont want advanced alien species to ever know we are here.
Jeffersons Ghost
(15,235 posts)If extraterrestrials noticed human life on Earth, they would covertly observe us. Our decisions and activities would prove we are a danger to our species and others. The next decision intelligent, extraterrestrials would probably make might be good for other species on Earth, we a driving to extinction, but not for humans.
Loki Liesmith
(4,602 posts)Decided I like neural networks better.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)Plus, I make better chilli.
Loki Liesmith
(4,602 posts)Im basically an engineer these days too, I know plenty that are smarter than the astrophysicists I used to hang with.
But either way...my concern is, well we consider life forms like bacteria, fish, pigs to be raw materials. Why wouldnt an intelligence beyond ours regard us the same way? What morals we have arise out of the fact that we are descended from social apes. An alien species...who knows what theyd consider moral?
demosincebirth
(12,543 posts)shoot from - he also had a hard time, when marching, keeping in step. Poor guy, he went through hell.
bluestarone
(17,030 posts)Blue_true
(31,261 posts)That idiot would send our fighter jets up to face something 1 million time more advanced and really piss them off.
Jeffersons Ghost
(15,235 posts)Maybe, after seeing his influence, they will abduct him as a hostage. Then, we could bargain with them and make the extraterrestrials pay us to allow him back onto Earth.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)We should pay them to keep him, leave and drop him off at some desolate planet somewhere.
FarPoint
(12,438 posts)When we can travel at Warp speed ....this will signal others in space ..Then we can have First Contact.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)Is the majesty that I see in nature and space. Even the closest planets to us would take technology many year past us for us to reach. That is truly amazing, it is as if we were made to feel that we are the only ones, but also given the power of reason to wonder what is out there and try to reach it.
MarvinGardens
(779 posts)You're the 2nd I've encountered on DU. I was an athiest when younger. Not only the vast universe outside Earth, but also the microscopic world of quantum mechanics and biochemistry, has given me a reverence for reality that I describe as deism.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)Deists appreciate that part of our existence. We will never know how we came about, but we have the capacity to keep learning more instead of clapping our minds shut.
MarvinGardens
(779 posts)Learning is what we are supposed to do, what we were made to do.
Jeffersons Ghost
(15,235 posts)Last edited Thu Nov 22, 2018, 11:48 AM - Edit history (1)
What or who created the first astronomical phenomenon?
Atticus
(15,124 posts)Jeffersons Ghost
(15,235 posts)Blue_true
(31,261 posts)We have an alien from the frog people masquerading as a man.
Jeffersons Ghost
(15,235 posts)Are you trying to provoke an invasion - from outer space - of frog people?
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)My apologies.
mainer
(12,029 posts)Think of every other previously uncontacted culture on earth that's been "discovered" by the larger world. Inevitably discovery is followed by disease, destruction, decimation.
This never ends well.
Let's stay our own little hidden part of the galaxy.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)We just have gotten luck that they simply observed and left.
Plus, how sure are you that supremely intelligent aliens are all malevolent. If they have religion maybe, religion has been used as the justification for most hatred, destruction and violence that has happened throughout history.
Jeffersons Ghost
(15,235 posts)It would probably alienate them. They might decide on a preemptive attack or just decide there is no intelligent life on Earth and leave.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)Hope that they drop in on a Trump rally.
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)Really bad idea
roamer65
(36,747 posts)We need to shut up and lay low, IMO.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)Attracting the sleaze from all corners of the universe.
Jeffersons Ghost
(15,235 posts)ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)Though what they might be able to use him for is anyone's guess. Assimilating him would lead to their downfall.
Jeffersons Ghost
(15,235 posts)They are only willing to assimilate life-forms with some degree of intelligence. Teflon Don doesn't meet Borg criteria.
Marrah_Goodman
(1,586 posts)If any group that technologically advanced comes here we are doomed as a species.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)The probabilities are not good. My guess is we have been visited and got lucky. But luck runs out eventually.
roamer65
(36,747 posts)That would explain why we have gone so long without appreciable visitation.
MicaelS
(8,747 posts)In other words, the "Zoo Hypothesis".
Buns_of_Fire
(17,195 posts)Then the intelligent life would know that we're at least TRYING to improve the herd, before they finally make contact and eat us all. With their choice of either Honey Mustard, Ranch, or Barbecue dipping sauces.
Kaleva
(36,343 posts)Liberal In Texas
(13,576 posts)Like the Hawking quote in the OP. The lesson of what happened to Native Americans should be clear enough.
Jeffersons Ghost
(15,235 posts)I'm going to do some research to get tribal names and dates of atrocities correct...
jcgoldie
(11,646 posts)At the rate we're going we will have made this planet unlivable for humans before anyone ever gets here anyway. Attract the aliens, don't attract the aliens... we are going to wipe ourselves out regardless.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)Any alien that is intelligent enough to reach us can fuck us up really bad if it choses to. I am a little too set in my ways to go through another Independence Day, the real one this time.
TheBlackAdder
(28,211 posts)Blue_true
(31,261 posts)Maybe if it was shot toward the closest starts, maybe. But the closes in something like 1.4 parsecs away, not a trivial distance.
Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)when he spoke I usually deferred to him. Why look? It (ET), knows we're here already. To say otherwise is to deny evidence well documented on youtube alone, (not even starting on books and films) that the clues found on earth are all whimsey.
Fix The Stupid
(948 posts)Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)Happy Thanksgiving...from OUT THERE.
klook
(12,166 posts)Jeffersons Ghost
(15,235 posts)MarvinGardens
(779 posts)Bad idea to give away our presence here.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)society. Or, maybe, theyll just exterminate us. Worst of all, they might experiment with us.
I think we lay low.
nycbos
(6,038 posts)SweetieD
(1,660 posts)Detect the wave from it. Just seems ridiculous and it worth the effort.
hunter
(38,327 posts)Bayard
(22,149 posts)Don Henley