13 September 2007 31 views No Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

Humans have always been driven by our need to explore and discover. Through out history that drive has often landed the human race in hot water with each other and with our environment. I’m sure most of us at one point or another have looked up at the night sky and wondered who or what was out there and for a good number of years now various groups have been actively trying to make contact another sentient life form.

This interesting article takes a look at the history of mans attempt to communicate with the stars and some of the unseen consequences of these actions. The author questions whether or not we should take a far more serious approach to our communication methods and the messages we will be deliberately sending into space.

The Australian astronomer Ronald Bracewell, now of Stanford University, warns that other species would place an emphasis on cunning and weaponry, as we do, and that an alien ship dispatched our way is likely to be armed. Indeed, evolution on earth is, as they say, red in tooth and claw. And it’s likely that any creature we contact will also have had to claw its way up its own evolutionary ladder and may possibly be every bit as nasty as we are - or worse. Imagine an extremely adaptable, extremely aggressive super-predator with superior technology.

Personally I’m not quite sure were I come down on this issue. I don’t believe that we should isolate ourselves from the universe. I know that our radio and television signals are beamed out into space unintentionally, so if some advanced alien intelligence is looking our way, chances are they will find us. The universe is too vast and our species too young to fully comprehend our actions on such a level.

[via The Indpendent]