Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. But what could be
out there? The likelihood of extraterrestrial intelligence
has been the subject of an equation and the current lack
of any communication with aliens the subject
of a paradox. But here's a different question. If we were to hear
from intelligent life beyond earth, what would really
happen next? Well, no government
has ever officially adopted a post-detection policy.
And when asked how they would deal with a confirmed message from
extraterrestrial intelligence,
the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs
simply said that their job does not include any issues regarding
the question you pose.
So are we unprepared? Would chaos ensue?
These things are unlikely but the way
we prepare for, and anticipate our species encountering one from beyond
earth, is important and illuminating even though
improbable. Historically, we have
acted as though alien life exists. Back
contamination is a concern that a man-made object returning from space
could carry with it undiscovered alien life forms, especially
viruses and bacteria that could wipeout
life on earth. This was a serious concern
dealt by serious people when we first sent
humans to the Moon. When Neil Armstrong,
Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin returned from the lunar surface,
they didn't immediately hugged their families and join a public parade.
Instead, they were sealed up in biological isolation garments and flown
to a quarantine facility to be locked away for three weeks,
in Houston, Texas.
By Apollo 15 the practice was discontinued but forward contamination
has also
been a real concern. When NASA sent the Galileo spacecraft to serve a Jupiter
and its moons, it got amazing data
but there was a problem. It had never been
sterilized. Because life, even liquid water, could exist
on these moons, NASA made the decision to avoid contaminating an
alien biosphere and the mission was over, steered Galileo
into Jupiter, where it burned up and was destroyed,
along with any Earth life possibly.
on board. So protocols and decisions have been officially made in
the past
under the assumption that aliens might exist.
When it comes to actually hearing from aliens,
receiving a message from technologically advanced life forms,
capable of sending us
say, a radio signal, groups like SETI,
the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, are other ones actively
listening.
They have an ear to the sky. And they
are prepared. The SETI committee of the International Academy of Astronautics
created a declaration of principles concerning activities following
the detection of extraterrestrial intelligence.
No government has officially adopted any of its recommendations,
but if something were to happen, it would likely be the first place
authorities went. It's one of the only handbooks
they'd have. Seth Shostack explained the philosophy in atmosphere at SETI,
predicting that because verifying a signal is slow,
and the media are fast, you will be media blasted about a possible detection
days before the people who find it are certain it's for real.
In the midst of rampant media speculation,
elation and panic on the part of the public,
the most likely string of official events,
after the discovery of a message from extraterrestrial life,
would follow SETI recommendations. First of all,
the individual or team who discovered the message
would continue to assess the credibility of the message
and alert all parties to SETI's declaration. Next,
once they were certain the message was real, the Central
Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams would be alerted,
so as to inform observers all over the world.
They would also inform the secretary-general
of the United Nations, because article 11
of the treaty on principles governing the activities of states in the exploration
and use of outer space, including the Moon and other bodies
says they should. The first official news
we got, the public, would likely be in terms
of the Rio Scale. First presented to the International
Astronautical Congress, the Rio Scale measures
the significance of consequences of evidence of extraterrestrial life,
making it a likely tool to be used, because it neatly manages public
reaction. There's a great online calculator you can play with to see how
the Rio scale
works. It takes into account the credibility of the message
on a scale from believed extraterrestrial origin to
hoax, how repeatable the observation is,
what type of message it is, for instance, is it uninterpretable
or clearly for us and how far away it is.
Is it extra galactic or near enough that we could respond and hear back
within the length of a human lifetime. Seth Shostak and Ivan Almar
applied the Rio scale to fictional and historical
events. It's a great way to get a feel for how the Rio scale will affect
vocabulary
authorities use when reporting on an extraterrestrial
message. They considered the Moon monolith,
discovered in 2001: A Space Odyssey, a
6 on the Rio scale - noteworthy.
In the movie Independence Day, the initial unidentified signal would be
about
4 to 8, moderate too far-reaching.
Once the message is confirmed to be no further than the Moon and moving,
it would be an automatic 10, extraordinary.
In real life, the Martian Face, discovered in 1976,
was a 2 - low. Until high resolution images from 2001 revealed it was
nothing, just a thing that looked funny under the right conditions
and was immediately downgraded to zero, no
significance. So if we were to receive a message from
extraterrestrial intelligence, those things in those words
would likely be used. But who would be in charge?
Although she denies ever being selected or prepared for such a role,
Mazlan Othman, the director at the United Nations Office for Outer Space
Affairs
is a pretty good candidate. As is Paul
Davies, the chairman of SETI's post detection task force.
Were it to be necessary, both of those people are in positions to become
ambassadors for earth-alien
relations. So what do we say back?
Well, if we want to show that we are intelligent, perhaps we should send back
a string of information representing Pi
or the Fibonacci sequence. Or
maybe we shouldn't say anything at all.
Stephen Hawking warned, quote,
"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much
as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well
for the Native Americans." And professor Simon Conway Morris,
a Cambridge University palaeontologist has said that
if the cosmic phone rings,
we shouldn't pick it up.
Observations like that
are at the core of the importance of this video's question. We can learn a lot
by looking, not just at how we prepare for a space message,
but how we imagine actual contact with aliens
going. Anthropologist Katherine Denny
frequently points out that the ways we imagine a contact with aliens
happening often says more about ourselves
than it does any hypothetical aliens. We do this
all the time. When we project our own modern-day ambitions and fears onto
prehistoric people,
Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá call that
"flintstoning." So let's piggyback off of that phrase
and label any projection of modern human behaviors, desires, anxieties
onto futuristic, technologically advanced beings capable of visiting us
"jetsonsing." Some examples of jetsonsing involve
thinking that any aliens out there trying to contact us
might want to hurt us. Maybe that's simply because whenever we have met new
people,
we often enslave them or
pity them or take advantage of them. It's also possible to think that aliens
will be friendly.
They'll want to help us. The ways we imagine them helping us
say a lot about the kind of help we think we need.
There's a poetic idea that from space Earth
looks peaceful. All of the boundaries we have put
up don't exist, you can't see them. But that's not
entirely true. The old boundary between East and West Germany
is still visible from space, each side using different
lightbulbs. And this is the boundary between Pakistan
and India. You can see from space India
flooding the border with lights to deter smugglers from bringing across
weapons
and ammunition. We don't all get along together here
on earth, we are afraid of each other, we don't trust each other
and the wrinkles and scars that causes
are visible from space. Imagining how
aliens would interpret that, communicate with us and how we would
or should respond teaches us
a lot about ourselves. It makes our struggles
strange again. Less ignorable. And that is the entire point
of fantasy. G. K. Chesterton said that the function of the imagination is not
to make strange things settle, so much as to make
settled things strange.
And as always,
thanks for watching.