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By
Maggie Shiels ´óÏó´«Ã½ News Online, California
Space
has often been described as the last frontier but scientists the
world over have long agreed that receiving a signal from another
civilisation would be one of the greatest events in the history
of humanity.
Until
now however little thought has been given to what we would actually
say if we encountered ET. Should it be more than a simple intergalactic
"Hi there. What's your name?"
The
man charged with the task of thinking about an intergalactic conversation
is Dr Douglas Vakoch who has the grand title of "Interstellar Message
Group Leader". He says "How we answer makes a tremendous impact
because it determines the nature of the dialogue for hundreds of
thousands of years."
Dr
Vakoch works for the SETI Institute based in California's Silicon
Valley. It's a non-profit group conducting the world's most comprehensive
search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The "messaging" question
is one step ahead of the game but nonetheless closely allied to
this quest.
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| Seth
Shostak is looking for some polite conversation |
Seth
Shostak, senior scientist in charge of mapping 30,000 sun-like stars,
says "We're looking for intelligent life. Sophisticated beings that
can hold up their side of the conversation. And what we're trying
to do is eavesdrop on signals such as radio or light signals that
they might be broadcasting our way."
A protocol
devised by the International Academy of Astronautics states "no
response to a signal or other evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence
should be sent until appropriate international consultations have
taken place".
But
SETI feels not having something in the can in case ET does suddenly
call would be foolish. So with the maxim that first impressions
count, SETI's interstellar message group leader has been mulling
over the pros and cons of what to say in any possible cosmic chat.
"We
need to consider the long term impact of an exchange. One approach
would be to send as much and as varied information in the belief
they will share in turn. But maybe we wouldn't want to give everything
away. Perhaps we would want to hold something back for subsequent
exchanges."
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| Douglas
Vakoch standing next to the periodic table - something which
aliens might well understand |
The
language is also important and Dr Vakoch says: "The key is to think
in many different languages and many different formats, like pictures
or a language based on the universal language of maths or logic."
While
Dr Vakoch weighs up the right thing to say and how to say it, over
the years others have already dived in in the hope ET is listening.
Some
of the many fruitless efforts include beaming a message to a star
cluster 25,000 light years away showing the figure of a man, a telescope,
numbers, DNA and the solar system. Another was a record of sights
and sounds of Earth including music from Bach to Chuck Berry that
were put on the Voyager spacecraft.
All
these communiqués were created with the best of intentions but Dr
Vakoch says they will probably never be read.
"The
biggest reason that we [SETI] are not searching for ET by transmitting
and waiting for a response is that it would take at least 8 years
to get one and that's if the closest star has intelligent life on
it and is listening and waiting to reply. The reality is its more
likely to take hundreds of thousands of years to get a reply. Now
by listening for ET and not focusing on transmitting we have the
possibility of succeeding tomorrow."
SETI
also believes that any initial response to an "alien" is one that
should be written with the help of people from all walks of life.
To that end SETI is holding workshops to solicit suggestions from
artists to philosophers and from doctors to teachers.
Dr
Vakoch says: "We have to start thinking about how we want to be
represented. I personally think we should consider including some
of our foibles, some of our weaknesses and some of the things we
wish we could do better."
At
an exhibition at the Chabot Space and Science Centre in Oakland,
California Dr Vakoch has already devised some basic messages that
ET would easily understand.
They
include things like the periodic table written in a universal language
using binary numbers and also a picture of two human beings, one
holding the other to represent "support and caring".
Less
prosaic suggestions for chatting with ET were given by school children
on a field trip at the centre. One teenager suggested "Come to Earth
and let's party" while another warned "Make sure you get plenty
of rest before you come because there's a lot to see and if you're
sleeping you might miss something".
A member of a local UFO group will be answering your queries
at least once a month in our questions
and answers section.
To ask a question, just fill in the form below.
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