In celebration of this channel reaching, and then significantly blasting past ten thousand
subscribers here is a long-form video made in thanks to the viewers of this channel.
None of this would have been possible without your support, thanks very much to all of you
for that, and a special shout out to my patreon folks and, of course, my readers.
I continue to have a blast doing all of this, and get up every day excited to make new videos.
I will continue to do so for years to come, and now without further ado, here are ten
SETI Messages that we may not want to receive.
The idea that alien civilizations could contact us using electromagnetic waves is not a new
one, Nikola Tesla for example was convinced that he was receiving alien transmissions
from Mars in the early days of radio.
Another was the initial misidenfication of Pulsars as alien signal beacons.
But only after we realized the true extent of how useful radio communication is, did
we undertake a serious attempt at searching for signals of alien origin.
In 1959 Guiseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison proposed a method for searching the skies
for those signals.
Their seminal article on the subject, an excerpt linked below, underlies the general approach
SETI takes, even to this day in some respects.
But in all this time, after decades of searching, no unambiguous alien signal has ever been
identified.
While there have been tantalizing signals, none of them repeated, or at least in such
a way that equipment glitches and other problems could be ruled out.
Repeating signals remain SETI's chief rule, after all you can study something that repeats,
one off's not so much, and the scientific evidence bar for alien civilizations remains
high, reasonably so, you don't want to announce that you've found an alien civilization only
to find out later that it wasn't one.
But there may be other reasons why we have not detected an alien signal yet.
These include that we just aren't very good at looking for them and we're missing something.
Or there is a fundamental flaw in our reasoning, that alien signals aren't likely to repeat,
or even that intelligence in the universe is simply so rare that there is no one close
enough to pick up.
It could even be that aliens may only use strong radio signals for a short time in their
history before employing different techniques for communications.
But regardless, there may come a time where an unambiguous signal of some type is picked
up, and its characteristics are such that it can have no other origin than an alien
civilization.
This signal could take many hypothetical forms, but for this video we'll assume that it will
be radio.
We culturally tend to expect that what we would find in radio astronomy is what Carl
Sagan once advanced in his novel Contact and the subsequent movie of the same name.
That is, that we will find some huge powerful radio beacon counting off prime numbers in
the galactic equivalent of shouting hello.
But there is no guarantee of this, in fact, detecting alien radio could just as easily
be almost boring.
This is because some of the easiest signals to detect due to their power aren't all that
interesting.
It might be simple radar as aliens map the asteroids in their solar system, which would
contain no content and incidentally remains one of the more realistic ways a close by
alien civilization might discover us.
While this would all prove the existence of intelligent life in the universe, it would
probably not last long in the news cycle simply because there wouldn't be much available information
about the aliens and only after years of study using a variety of instruments might bits
and pieces be gleaned.
But there is another side to this coin.
It could also be an intentional message, such as Hello!
Or it might say something else.
Now, in this analysis, I omit one glaring problem with decoding alien signals.
Deciphering the content of an alien transmission would be beyond difficult.
Even if they used language as we know it, of which there is no guarantee, that language
would have no commonality whatsoever with any of our own languages.
This is a serious problem, alien is alien and incomprehensible is perhaps too weak of
a word to describe the communications that could come.
It could be easier to communicate with a dolphin than an alien, with the dolphin you're at
least from the same planet.
It can at least hear you, since it has ears.
It also has a brain that can comprehend what you're saying, at least somewhat.
But what of an alien that has no sense of hearing, and no corresponding language center
in the brain?
What if they communicate chemically?
Daunting indeed, but all is not lost.
The general assumption here has always been that at least initially, communication would
be based on one thing we should have in common with an alien civilization.
Of course, we have never seen an alien civilization, so this is an assumption, but it's also a
good bet.
That is the language of math and science.
After all, if an alien civilization has built a radio beacon blasting out multiterrawatt
signals, then they would have to have had an understanding of how to engineer that.
That means they have math and science, leading to a general feeling that such a signal might
at least start with mathematical pulses, and be broadcast at 1420 megahertz, the frequency
at which neutral hydrogen emits radiation which would be known to alien scientists,
though both of these are really just starting points.
Regardless, mathematical signals do not easily allow for actual conversation.
So if the signal did have content other than math, you can bet we'd put our best to work
on it to figure out what the message says.
And it's not impossible that they might figure it out.
But for the sake of this video, say, after much work in deciphering, we cracked an alien
transmission.
If it didn't say hello, what else might it say?
Number 10 The "Get off our lawn" Signal
I start this list with the least likely.
I also like it best because it is also the most humorous, especially in light of the
other possibilities.
There is always the possibility that alien civilizations may simply not want to talk
to us unless they absolutely had to.
After all, who are we to them?
If we're significantly more primitive than they are, we may be of zero interest in a
universe full of other, more interesting advanced civilizations.
Maybe interstellar communications between alien civilizations is a been there, done
that situation and it was a fun thing to do 2 billion years ago, but not so much anymore.
As a result, it's possible that as we enter an age where we may proactively try to contact
alien civilizations such as with METI, for better or worse beaming out messages, after
years of waiting the reply we get back might end up being "Please be quiet, we're trying
to do radio astronomy".
Number 9 We're Already Dead
This in a way is a sort of spooky scenario, as well as a sad one, because it implies that
there is no one left to talk to.
Enormous omnidirectional radio beacons emitting what would be obvious to SETI as alien signals
have the sticking point that they would be very, very energy intensive to operate, especially
over a long period of time.
Energy is, of course, best used by the civilization generating that energy to keep their civilization
going.
But say for a moment a civilization realizes that they are on borrowed time, and that they
have only a short period left before inevitable extinction, despite possessing great technology.
It may then become a concern for them to simply be remembered by building a sort of cosmic
gravestone for themselves by way of redirecting their energy to a beacon, and then let it
blast out the memory of their civilization for as long as the beacon lasts.
While this might sound sad, it's entirely possible that as we explore the universe in
the far future we will find evidence of dead alien civilizations, whether through remnant
beacons, or physical evidence.
I hope here that it's not the only thing we find, because it might imply that all civilizations,
at one point or another destroy themselves.
Number 8 Nihilistic Aliens
There are two ways to look at the universe.
You can look at it optimistically as a place wide open for exploration full of opportunities
to learn how it works.
This is generally how we view it as humans, though of course we have our own nihilists.
But over all, I think we are industrious dreamers that will always strive to explore and will
do so far into the future.
But, aliens might not be so interested in it, and might take the opposite view.
Say they are a billion years more advanced.
Say they know how the universe works, they've solved all the mysteries, collectively experienced
most of what can be experienced, and they are just simply bored.
To them, the universe is place full of monotonous things.
Red dwarf after red dwarf, nebula after nebula, uninteresting species after species -- even
up and comers like the humans, or worse they've determined that the universe is just a computer
simulation and the message is just telling everyone "don't bother, it's just a simulation".
I know that sounds bad, but I will add to this one thing.
There is recent evidence, yes, evidence, that the universe is NOT a simulation and it's
surprisingly strong.
That's for another video, but if we did get a message like this, maybe we can respond
"no, it's not a simulation".
Imagine the slow motion interstellar argument that might result, but at least it would give
the nihilistic aliens something to do.
Number 7 We Are Frighteningly Different
Arthur Clarke once said that any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable
from magic.
I suspect there is much truth to this, and there is no guarantee that if we saw an alien
civilization or received a signal from one that we would recognize it for what it is.
But once we did figure it out, say it was some sort of radio signal that we had previously
thought was completely natural but turned out to not be, that would be spooky enough.
But say we do recognize the aliens as such, but they are so different from ourselves that
we might choose not to contact them, even if their message seemed innocuous.
I can think of one specific case where this might be and that a friendly hello might not
be something we want to answer.
This would be a machine civilization.
Even if their message seemed nice enough, if there was no evidence that biology still
existed in their society, then one must ask, where did it go?
Surely it is most likely that they originated with a biological civilization.
Does that mean that the originator civilization uploaded itself?
What if their message says nothing about that?
Or perhaps could it be that some artificial intelligence somehow escaped the civilization
that created it.
Perhaps it viewed that civilization as obsolete and disposed of it.
Perhaps it disposes of all biology viewing it as an existential threat.
It would seem prudent for us biologicals to not respond to such a message, unless we ourselves
someday become a machine civilization.
Number 6 Help us!
Another thing that might motivate a civilization to transmit using huge radio beacons would
be if they were in distress.
Say they are a victim of war, and the last thing they can think to do is to ask nearby
civilizations for help.
Or worse, they are stuck on a super earth with a gravity well too great to allow them
to escape the surface.
So they endlessly transmit in hopes of finding someone that can help.
This would be the ultimate in sad messages for us.
There is very likely nothing we could do about a distress call for centuries or longer.
And even then, after we've traveled tens or hundreds of light years to respond, would
they still be alive?
Number 5 Stay Away
One of the most common signs humans put up is "keep out!".
This is very useful if you wish to avoid damage to your property, or to ensure others do not
get injured on your property, especially if there is something dangerous about it.
Aliens might do the same, and in that same line of thought, we might do just that if
we thought aliens were nearby.
This kind of message could take other forms than radio.
While a radio message warning everyone to stay away would be difficult to decipher,
say one runs across a star with clearly artificial concentrations of transuranic elements in
its composition, it may not be clear just what that means.
That may simply say hello as Sagan and Shklovsi proposed years ago, paper below, in relation
to finding large quantities of plutonium in a star but overall that also says that the
aliens possess advanced nuclear physics and can make vast quantities of bombs.
But, at the same time, this may not be such a great possibility.
In light of new ways to create heavy elements being detected, such as the recent kilonova,
who knows what nature can produce.
Number 4 We're Already On Our Way
This scenario would be most applicable to a nearby civilization that may have detected
us before we found them.
SETI does tend to favor searching nearby star systems, and if they find a civilization nearby,
they may already know about us.
So say we found one, say 10 light years away.
Say the signal simply informs us that they have seen us, and have dispatched probes and
perhaps even ships our way for direct contact.
They might even tell us when they will arrive.
I can only imagine how the human race would react to that, friendly or not.
Number 3 Hello, We're Already Here
This stems from a possibility first advanced by the eminent mathematician and member of
the Manhattan Project, John von Neumann.
Von Neumann originally proposed the idea of a self-replicating machine that could colonize
the galaxy in a comparatively short time, perhaps a few hundred thousand to a million
years or so, which is a blink of an eye considering the age of the solar system, which is 4.5
billion years.
The idea was further developed by physicist and mathematician Ronald Bracewell in the
1960's, where he proposed that such a probe could be used for communication.
This would have an advantage.
If your goal was to contact another civilization, you could hunt out suitable planets early
on with your telescopes, and for those that may eventually have civilizations develop
on them, you could send out probes at sublight speeds to reach those solar systems before
intelligent life evolves.
Then you merely wait.
This is something we are looking to do in an infant form already.
We want to search the galaxy for exoplanets that exhibit biomarkers, such as odd oxygen
and methane levels, that might reveal the existence of biospheres on those worlds.
As our equipment improves, we may well find such things.
What might we do then?
Well, life tends to be a long term thing and earth has been visible in this way to other
civilizations long enough for the entire galaxy to know that this planet is habitable.
Might we, or they, send out probes to candidate worlds, perhaps self-replicating to make it
easier as time goes on, when we get sufficiently technologically advanced?
It would take a long time to get to one of those worlds, but we also have no shortage
of time, we've got billions of years on our hands.
Our probe may simply wake up from time to time and send back a report on that exoplanet's
progress.
Once a civilization develops and reaches a certain stage of advancement, our probe could
awaken and make direct contact.
It could take thousands of years for us to receive the information, but for a fully natural
candidate world that isn't that much time, nor is it to a technologically advanced civilization
as we will someday be, especially if our technology allows us to alter our perception of time.
To a civilization that perceives a thousand years as a blink of an eye, time and distance,
and long distance communication, take on a different meaning.
This sort of technology is in our future, but perhaps not that far in our future.
It's something conceivable in hundreds of years, rather than thousands.
And that's the problem.
The galaxy is far older than our solar system, and it's easily conceivable that a civilization
may have arisen somewhere millions, or even billions of years before we did.
That leaves them plenty of time to have constructed and distributed Bracewell-von Neumann probes
throughout the galaxy and even stationed one in our own solar system.
In fact, multiple civilizations may have done this.
And if these types of probes are present in our solar system, they would beyond difficult
to find until they actually transmit.
It's anyone's guess what they might transmit or do, but it remains within the possible
that there could be sleeping probes, like Arthur Clarke's monolith on the moon, awaiting
us to reach a certain level of development and the first message we receive from an alien
civilization may amount to "Hello, we are very close."
Number 2 Submit
This is perhaps the most sci fi of our possibilities, and does remind one of "You will be assimilated"
and I would think it very unlikely to happen, if for not other reason than the galaxy appears
to have no shortage of free real estate and resources.
There simply doesn't appear to be any reason for conflict or strong arming.
But we don't know, so I merely present this as a scenario.
Say we received a signal, say it were from light years away, and that when decrypted,
as nearly as we can tell, says only one word.
This might make sense.
Simple messages should, perhaps, be the easiest to understand.
And perhaps it is accompanied by mathematical and scientific signals, and maybe that allows
us to reconstruct a picture of some type, pictures have been advanced as the easiest
way for alien civilizations, including us, to talk to other aliens.
But what if the meaning or statement is clear and it simply tells us to "Submit".
It is unlikely that we would take that command well.
After all, they are light-years away and may be too far away to know we were even here,
say the message is preemptive to any civilization that may form up.
If the aliens were past 100 light years or so, there would be little indication that
an industrial civilization were living on this world.
We might make a last ditch effort to hide, or appear as though we destroyed ourselves
early on.
There are ways we could hide our presence, see my video on that in the end screen.
So we would likely do one of two things, we would either ignore the signal or respond
in the negative in some way.
But what if there were a bracewell probe from the same civilization hiding in the solar
system that had been waiting to see how we respond, say it wakes up at the detection
of the first hydrogen bomb test on earth.
Or, say it had a head start, having watched from afar all of human history and had already
deciphered our languages and knew we had found the distant signal beacon.
The moment we respond in the negative, or choose to do nothing, it repeats, perhaps
in an earth language, that simple one word message again.
Submit.
And then it enters orbit and points the weapons.
Say hello to our new artificially intelligent overlord.
It gets even scarier if you wonder what might happen if the civilization that sent it had
gone extinct and the solution to the Fermi paradox is that all civilizations are kept
hostage by the self-replicating machines of long dead civilizations.
Number 1 A Warning
The galaxy is still a largely unknown place and within the realm of hard science fiction
one could imagine any number of scenarios where the galaxy is already colonized.
In fact, it could be, and we're just somehow missing it.
But colonized by what?
And that's where it gets interesting because we have absolutely no idea.
But there is one aspect of the galaxy that opens up a scenario.
Vast though it is, the milky way, and andromeda which we will merge with in the future, ultimately
have only finite resources.
Say the first civilization to colonize protects the resources of the galaxy for use in keeping
themselves alive long into the far future when the universe goes dark.
This may mean that any competition that may arise must be eliminated or subjugated.
Say another civilization exists that knows of this galactic hoarder threat and they somehow
survived encountering it, perhaps they were equally as advanced as the hoarders.
In such a case the second civilization may choose to send out messages warning anyone
that might receive them to arm themselves and fortify their planet.
And above all, be ready for trouble before venturing out into the universe.
Granted, I think this scenario is unlikely, mainly because earth would have probably been
wiped clean or subjugated by now.
But if we ever did receive such a signal, it's probably the one message we should pay
closest attention to and do our best to determine what the threat is before we encounter it.
But say it encountered us first.
As a bonus related to all the von neumann-bracewell scenarios, comes the possibility that the
first signal we get from an alien civilization is an EMP.
It's hard to call this one a message because it would contain no content, but if one interpreted
it broadly as a message it would say "Welcome back to the stone age".
This would be a probe that wakes up at the first sign of advancing technology, such as
how our planet appears right now, and shoots off EMP weapons, such as air bursting nuclear
warheads, and in turn keeps us on the sidelines of the galaxy for as long as the enemy civilization
sees fit.
Not a nice thought, but in reality, all of these scenarios are probably pretty unlikely.
Once again, due to the sheer amount of free real estate in this galaxy, I suspect that
the first signal we will receive will be a friendly hello and then a slow cultural exchange
that could endure for billions of years.
Perhaps aliens will see intelligent life as precious and do everything they can to help
out budding cultures.
And this list was by no means comprehensive, there are many other scenarios, such as a
group of philosopher aliens that simply ask what's our take on the "why are we here" question.
Or it might be odd in a Douglas Adams sort of way and the aliens simply tell us that
they love us, and then we wish we hadn't contacted them because they are sort of clingy and an
overall drag to talk to.
So if anyone can think of any other potential messages we might receive from an alien civilization,
post them in the comments below.
Thanks for listening!
I am futurist and science fiction author John Michael Godier currently addressing the critics
of my profile photo saying that I look like I'm about to come at you with an axe.
I have a sleepy personality and that's actually my Happy coffee awake face!
Without the coffee .... not so good so I take this chance to officially unveil my new channel
logo!
Look for it in future video notifications and be sure to check out my books at your
favorite online book retailer and subscribe to my channel for regular, in-depth explorations
into the interesting, weird and unknown aspects of this amazing universe in which we live.
For more infomation >> Dragon Ball FighterZ | Livestream Talk - Duration: 49:11. 
For more infomation >> cháo gà cúng ông địa | culinary chicken soup in Vietnam | SONGNHU / Cô Gái Miền Tây - Duration: 18:07. 
For more infomation >> 【ゴルフ】ショットが安定する絶対やりたい技【ゴルフライブ】 - Duration: 6:14. 
For more infomation >> You - Axol x Alex Skrindo ( NCS Release ) [ Nightcore ] [ Re-up ] - Duration: 2:48. 
For more infomation >> 4 Tips To Hire The Best Employees For Your Small Business | BizTips - Duration: 2:31. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét