Posted on 01/24/2010 4:40:53 PM PST by Mount Athos
Mr Marek Kukula, public astronomer at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich warned: "We might like to assume that if there is intelligent life out there it is wise and benevolent, but of course we have no evidence for this.
"Given the consequences of contact may not be what we initially hoped for, then we need governments and the UN to get involved in any discussions," he told The Sunday Times.
This week a two-day conference is being held at the Royal Society in London, titled, 'The detection of extraterrestrial life and the consequences for science and society.'
There is also an astrobiology conference in Texas in April at which new methods of detecting aliens will be discussed.
Douglas Vakoch, director of interstellar message composition at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute in California, told the paper: "My personal view is that being more active is a worthy strategy. There is more serious talk of it, though not at the institute level."
Professor Simon Conway Morris, a Cambridge University evolutionary biologist, will be talking at the Royal Society on 'Predicting what extraterrestrial life will be like – and preparing for the worst."
He thought that, given that the principles of Darwinian evolution should be universal, it was "inevitable" that intelligent life would have developed elsewhere in the universe given the right environmental conditions.
"If that is correct – and it applied to manipulative skill – then that suggests there should be alien technologies," he said.
Some scientists are puzzled as to why no messages have been sent back even though humans have been transmitting radio and television signals for the last century.
Prof Conway Morris reasoned that if he were in their shoes "I'm not sure I'd answer the telephone."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Friendly all depends on whether our local welcome wagon would “hit it”.
The REAL question is if they have enough carbon credits to operate their warp drive.
On the other hand intergalactic communications are probably conducted through control of "entanglement". Lot less noise that way, and it's FASTER!
Excellent caption in reverse!
No.
If they’ve been sitting out there watching the Jerry Springer Show we’re in trouble!
Are you saying they might be (gasp) Liberals?
Just as long as they don’t hop into the back of my pick up at home depot i could care less
Leftists & Liberals want to add:
"We need new, massive global taxes (especially on Americans) to fund government efforts, departments and grants to study and deal with the problem of why the space aliens don't like us."
The radio wave fade rumor was an erroneous comment by some clown who really had nothing to base it on if I recall correctly. I forget what scientist said it but it isn’t even in his field of expertise.
We get clear radio signals from all over the universe, just none that we recognize as obviously intelligently made.
Personally I have my doubts that they would be using radio. Its a regular cacophony out there.
Yeah, but your grass will be cut and your leaves raked. :-P
Probably so. Other than inadvertent transmissions of TV and radio signals from similarly advanced alien worlds, it's likely a truly advanced alien civilization has discovered an equally advanced form of communication.
After all, to any humans living in, say, the 1500's, our technology would appear to be magic. If someone from the 1500's had even contemplated other worlds and how to contact them, they might have suggested signal fires, shooting lighted arrows into the sky, or perhaps setting out stones in large patterns on the ground. We may be bombarded with alien transmissions, but they are as invisible to us as radio waves would be invisible to a person living in the Dark Ages.
Perhaps there is another reason why Obama doesn’t have a birth certificate, at least on this planet.
Aliens? This is so not news. We already have aliens. They’re called 0bama, Reid, and Pelosi. Alien to the American way of life.
“...Director of interstellar message composition...”
A day in the life:
- Hey, kids, would you take out the garbage on your way out and ... Hello?
- If you are calling from my phone company, then why are you recording this conversation and why do I need to switch?
- Microsoft Mumbai? Hello? Hey, my PC... uh, well OK. Does that come with chapatis or nan?
Yes, but what can they do light years away?
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