SETI Creepy technosignatures we might detect
Welcome, everybody!
Are you a fan of sci-fi films and novels?
Have you ever had creepy thoughts?
If your answers are YES, well, this video is for you!
We will talk about SETI, that stands for “Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence” program,
and the 10 technosignatures of alien civilizations that we hope we'll never detect!
First, let's resume briefly what's the main purpose of the SETI program, for those among
you that don't know what SETI is.
An interstellar journey to visit another civilization in a distant world, at least for now, is beyond
the technological possibilities of human civilization.
However, we are able to use very sensitive receivers to search the sky for any radio
signals of artificial origin, generated by non-human civilizations
SETI is a very complex project: it is a program dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial
intelligent life, evolved enough to be able to send radio signals into the cosmos.
The program also takes care od sending signals of our presence to any other civilizations
able to pick them up.
Proposed in 1960 by Frank Drake (still one of its directors), in 1974 the SETI institute
was finally born.
The starting point for the SETI program was the discovery that exoplanets are common.
This has radically changed our view of the universe.
The likelihood that there are habitable worlds elsewhere in the universe seems more plausible
than ever before.
Astronomers are developing new instruments to help search for life on other planets.
By analyzing data from exoplanets and identifying biosignatures (or technosignatures), we will
be able to search for habitable planets and the presence of life.
But what are biosignatures and technosignatures?
A technosignature is any measurable property or effect that provides scientific evidence
of past or present technology.
Technosignatures are analogous to the biosignatures that signal the presence of life, whether
or not intelligent.
Today we will focus on some of the creepiest and saddest technosignatures we might detect
in the future – with the help of better technologies.
1)Necrosignatures One type of SETI technosignatures that we
aren't very likely to ever see - but remains possible - is the concept of a necrosignature,
the idea of seeing an alien civilization at or near the moment of its extinction.
If you think about it, it is probably one of the creepiest types of evidence for an
alien civilization that we could ever find.
This type of events tend of course to be very brief and you simply have to be looking in
the right place at the right time to see them.
Imagine an astronomer minding his own business in his observatory and then, all of a sudden,
he detects brief characteristic flashes of gamma rays on nearby exoplanets that might
signal a nuclear exchange, or a signature of some pathogen killing huge amounts of life
on that world.
: such an ill-fated astronomer!
This would look like a dramatic-short term rise in methane and ethane in the exoplanet's
atmosphere that could be traced to the death and rotting of an entire biosphere after some
catastrophe, yet another might be the presence of artificial chemicals of a dangerous nature
such as the presence of CFCs in an exoplanet atmosphere that might signal that the civilization
is terraforming a planet or ruining their own.
The scenario would invariably open up questions our own demise.
If we saw enough of them we might conclude that all civilizations simply destroy themselves
and someday we likely will too -which would be really sad.
Imagine an alien civilization that knew of Earth said they detected our oxygen levels
and concluded Earth had a biosphere.
They might also pick up our own techno signatures such as radar and possibly even radio communications,
then all of a sudden they see a bunch of gamma-ray flashes followed by a rapid rise in methane
and afterwards the planet is never quite the same, and the radio signals go silent.
Let's hope they or we never detect necrosignatures!
2) Galactic tombstones Imagine you were an advanced alien from an
advanced civilization that it's about to turn the lights off because of a fatal error it
made, and wanted to give some warning signs to other civilizations out there: one of the
sadder possibilities within speculation about alien civilizations is that we may not find
a thriving galaxy-spanning Empire out there, but rather a kind of tombstone.
This could come in many forms, such as a SETI signal that when decoded explains that the
civilization broadcasting it has gone extinct and gives a laundry list of things that other
civilizations should NEVER do.
This might cover things like the development of advanced artificial intelligence or antimatter
weaponry, or even exotic forms of matter.
Another possibility is an artefact within or passing through the solar system that gives
clear evidence of warfare such as a destroyed ship, while a long shot it is possible that
the first evidence we see of an alien civilization comes from a long-dead one, and it's always
possible that we may never detect any evidence of a living alien civilization.
The rule of civilization in the universe is that it always comes to an end, one way or
another!
3) Incomprehensible signals Imagine if you were a human from 5000 years
ago and someone handed you a computer: you not only wouldn't know what it was or what
it did: you would be missing much of the basic knowledge at the device to even figure it
out.
It might ring, but you'd only know what that was if you were familiar with telephones.
In general, if you accidentally answered the call (which would be truly accidental), was
you would hear a disembodied voice (very weird voice) speaking to you.
Now let's say you could figure out the language of that voice - you still wouldn't know what
a speaker was and you wouldn't know how to talk into the device.
In this case, you might try to find a way to answer, or you might instead destroy the
phone, fearing demons (and yes, history tells us that humans did these type of things a
lot in the past!) or bless it and put it in a temple or think the whole thing's silly
and use it the level of the table, but once you knew it wasn't magic and got used to the
whole idea of cell phones you would see its utility and perhaps even starting producing
and selling one, and you will surely find someone who's interested in buying one!
So there might be a highly advanced alien civilization and, for all we know, communication
between advanced alien civilizations is all around us.
We just don't know how to detect it, yet at some point – as our technology advances
– we may detect it, but there is no guarantee we'd understand it or even understand how
it worked.
It might be totally mystifying invoking science we don't understand, but one thing would be
clear: that we were surrounded by alien civilizations far far more advanced than our own.
Such a situation tends not too well for the less advanced civilizations!
Doesn't it give you the creeps?
4) Messages from dead universes and beyond.
Have you ever heard of the theory stating that this we're living in is just one of the
infinite series of repeating universe?
Have you ever heard of the simulation theory?
Well, if one of the two is correct, we might expect to receive messages from dead universes
and beyond.
How?
Let's dive into it.
Within cosmology is the idea that our current universe may not be the first one but rather
another in a long series of repeating universes.
Physicists Roger Penrose has suggested that it may be possible (and there is some evidence
of this) that remnants from the previous universe might be discernible in the cosmic background
radiation, that is electromagnetic radiation from the Big Bang.
The origin of this radiation depends on the region of the spectrum that is observed.
One component is the cosmic microwave background.
This component is redshifted photons that have freely streamed from an epoch when the
Universe became transparent for the first time to radiation.
Its discovery and detailed observations of its properties are considered one of the major
confirmations of the Big Bang.
Another controversial idea opens up the possibility of someone in that previous universe possibly
encoding a message in the afterglow of the big bang, while there is no evidence of a
message.
If such a thing were ever found, it would be amazing, and it would represent a message
from before the big bang in another universe that was reaching its end!
This would likely be a sad-creepy message indeed from some civilization preparing to
turn the lights out and simply cease existing.
In principle, they might tell us who they were and what the end of our own universe
is going to be like.
Perhaps they received messages from even earlier universes and then passed those messages along
to us.
What if this was the only chance for us to send messages to another universe?
If this is indeed possible, it would represent something unique and study this would presumably
be a message that could be read by almost any species in the universe and might form
a commonality between all civilizations.
If the messages from civilization to civilization, from the universe to the universe, can be
deciphered, they will form the basis of a universal common language!
5) Vanishing stars Nowadays, we are collecting samples from the
moon and from comets, such as the Rosetta mission and the Hayabusa Japanese Mission!
These missions collected samples in order to have a better knowledge of the materials
on the moon and comets, but let's say in the future we needed raw materials.
Could our technology be helpful to extract raw materials from stars, natural satellites
and asteroids?
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The answer is yes.
In fact, say we decided to mine an asteroid for its raw materials.
Depending on the composition, they contain many materials that are already of value such
as platinum, but also materials in the future that may be of value simply because they are
already located in space and do not need to be launched in space (such as iron and nickel).
Because of this, it can be envisioned that someday an entire asteroid might simply disappear
due to the mining activities of human.
No doubt much of this mining will someday be automated.
Sending robots with advanced AI to do the dirty dangerous work instead of humans (did
you see the Boston Dynamics videos?) would be a good option and it could be made without
any effort from us.
At this point, many asteroids would disappear and perhaps even the disassembly of entire
planets in the solar system might start.
We may even begin to mine the Sun – so to speak – through stellar lifting.
It's at that point that our mining activities might become visible to others.
Now imagine an advanced civilization, say a civilization many times more advanced that
can visibly change stars or even make them disappear entirely: looking for stars that
change their appearance in unnatural ways is a current hot topic within SETI since we
have a number of periodic sky surveys already finished in which to search for such a thing.
Now, detection like this wouldn't be particularly frightening, though, what would happen if
some advanced civilization started to “eat the sun?”
Better not to think about it!
As you can see, sometimes reality seems to be more creative than sci-fi authors!
There are many chances for us to get in contact with “aliens”, either in direct or indirect
ways.
SETI is giving its contribution to the search of alien civilizations, and it might be possible
to have proof of life on another planet in the following years.
Let's just hope we won't detect creepy technosignatures as the ones mentioned in this video!
"This video ends here!
Thanks for watching everyone!
Do you think we are alone in the universe?
Did you hear of some other types of technosignatures that SETI could detect?
Let us know in the comments below!
See you on the channel, and remember to stay curious!