Post by Andrei Tchentchik on Jan 31, 2020 10:44:42 GMT 2
(.#379).- Want to contact ET's civilizations is it risky?
Want to contact ET's civilizations is it risky?
October 5, 2016.
Le HuffPost avec AFP
SCIENCE - Should we live discreetly on our planet or try by all means to signal our presence in the vastness of space? The issue is controversial within the scientific community.
American astrophysicists, however, are determined to carry out their plan to send signals to the stars in the hope of establishing contact with an extraterrestrial civilization and rejected Thursday, February 12 fears of other researchers like Stephen Hawking that this initiative could threaten the Earth.
"For fifty years, radio telescopes have been pointed at stars in search of signals from other civilizations, but without success," said Douglas Vakoch, a scientist at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute in California. a presentation at the annual conference of the American Society for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
"With this Active SETI program, we are reversing the process to take an active role in transmitting powerful information-rich signals to other worlds in the hope of having an answer," he added.
Disseminate all the content of the internet to tell the human and its culture
These messages would be sent to relatively close star systems with potentially habitable planets. According to these astrophysicists, such an approach is more promising than previous attempts to establish contact with extraterrestrials, such as the disk onboard the two Voyager space probes, launched in 1977, containing sounds and images selected to make a portrait of the diversity of earthly life and culture.
Radio signals have also been transmitted for this purpose in the cosmos. In 1999, Russian scientists sent their own messages with the Yevpatoria telescope in Crimea, and in 2008, NASA, the US space agency, transmitted the Beatles song "Across the Universe" to the polar star, distant from 430 light-years.
Using the most powerful radio telescopes today, Seth Shostak, director of the SETI Institute, said in a presentation on Thursday that all content on the internet should be broadcast to these stars, which would allow another civilization that would capture these signals to decipher the whole human history and its culture.
These researchers admit that their project is controversial, citing the reservations made notably by Stephen Hawking, for whom such transmissions would be "irresponsible". The British astrophysicist pointed out that human history provides many examples of tragic encounters for less advanced civilizations, such as the Incas with the Spaniards.
A consensus "before humanity takes an irreversible step"
But the promoters of the Active SETI project strongly reject these arguments, which they believe are "paranoia". Seth Shostak argued that "it is anyway too late to worry about reporting our presence" to possible belligerent ETs.
"Any extraterrestrial civilization that is advanced enough to attack and vaporize the Earth can easily capture our radio broadcasts, which we have been broadcasting since the Second World War," he said.
For him, if we wanted to prohibit broadcasting signals in space, we should also prevent the use of military radar systems and airports, and why not lighting cities. "Such paranoid measures would undermine all the activities and progress of future human generations," he said.
Rejecting the accusations of paranoia, David Brin, astrophysicist and author of science fiction, argued for a moratorium before sending these messages. "We propose a call for consensus through an international and public consultation before humanity takes an irreversible step, namely signal loudly our presence in the cosmos," the writer told the AAAS.
F I N .
Want to contact ET's civilizations is it risky?
October 5, 2016.
Le HuffPost avec AFP
SCIENCE - Should we live discreetly on our planet or try by all means to signal our presence in the vastness of space? The issue is controversial within the scientific community.
American astrophysicists, however, are determined to carry out their plan to send signals to the stars in the hope of establishing contact with an extraterrestrial civilization and rejected Thursday, February 12 fears of other researchers like Stephen Hawking that this initiative could threaten the Earth.
"For fifty years, radio telescopes have been pointed at stars in search of signals from other civilizations, but without success," said Douglas Vakoch, a scientist at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute in California. a presentation at the annual conference of the American Society for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
"With this Active SETI program, we are reversing the process to take an active role in transmitting powerful information-rich signals to other worlds in the hope of having an answer," he added.
Disseminate all the content of the internet to tell the human and its culture
These messages would be sent to relatively close star systems with potentially habitable planets. According to these astrophysicists, such an approach is more promising than previous attempts to establish contact with extraterrestrials, such as the disk onboard the two Voyager space probes, launched in 1977, containing sounds and images selected to make a portrait of the diversity of earthly life and culture.
Radio signals have also been transmitted for this purpose in the cosmos. In 1999, Russian scientists sent their own messages with the Yevpatoria telescope in Crimea, and in 2008, NASA, the US space agency, transmitted the Beatles song "Across the Universe" to the polar star, distant from 430 light-years.
Using the most powerful radio telescopes today, Seth Shostak, director of the SETI Institute, said in a presentation on Thursday that all content on the internet should be broadcast to these stars, which would allow another civilization that would capture these signals to decipher the whole human history and its culture.
These researchers admit that their project is controversial, citing the reservations made notably by Stephen Hawking, for whom such transmissions would be "irresponsible". The British astrophysicist pointed out that human history provides many examples of tragic encounters for less advanced civilizations, such as the Incas with the Spaniards.
A consensus "before humanity takes an irreversible step"
But the promoters of the Active SETI project strongly reject these arguments, which they believe are "paranoia". Seth Shostak argued that "it is anyway too late to worry about reporting our presence" to possible belligerent ETs.
"Any extraterrestrial civilization that is advanced enough to attack and vaporize the Earth can easily capture our radio broadcasts, which we have been broadcasting since the Second World War," he said.
For him, if we wanted to prohibit broadcasting signals in space, we should also prevent the use of military radar systems and airports, and why not lighting cities. "Such paranoid measures would undermine all the activities and progress of future human generations," he said.
Rejecting the accusations of paranoia, David Brin, astrophysicist and author of science fiction, argued for a moratorium before sending these messages. "We propose a call for consensus through an international and public consultation before humanity takes an irreversible step, namely signal loudly our presence in the cosmos," the writer told the AAAS.
F I N .
