Alien hunters 'should look for artificial intelligence'

BBC ^ | August 22, 2010 | Jason Palmer

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A senior astronomer has said that the hunt for alien life should take into account alien "sentient machines".

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That has led to a hunt for life that is bound to follow at least some rules of biochemistry, live for a finite period of time, procreate, and above all be subject to the processes of evolution.

But Dr Shostak makes the point that while evolution can take a large amount of time to develop beings capable of communicating beyond their own planet, technology would already be advancing fast enough to eclipse the species that wrought it.

"If you look at the timescales for the development of technology, at some point you invent radio and then you go on the air and then we have a chance of finding you," he told BBC News.

"But within a few hundred years of inventing radio - at least if we're any example - you invent thinking machines; we're probably going to do that in this century.

"So you've invented your successors and only for a few hundred years are you... a 'biological' intelligence."

From a probability point of view, if such thinking machines ever evolved, we would be more likely to spot signals from them than from the "biological" life that invented them.

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There is only about one way to communicate across vast distances, at the speed of light, with enough “volume” to be clear of interference.

A much smaller version has long been used by ships at sea. A light with a shade in front of it, that can be opened or closed.

But in this case, a large, paneled screen in space. Normally the panels are of transparent plastic sheet. But when an electric current flows through them, they become opaque. It is positioned in space some distance from the Sun, between it and where the target will be in the future, given their distance away.

That is, if they are a planet some 100 light years away, the panel will have to be set up to selectively block the light where they are going to be in 100 years.

Because it takes so long to send messages, once you start “talking”, you keep talking. And even if they respond by sending messages back, it will still be at least 200 years before you get any response.