Yuri Milner’s lead man for searching aliens warns humans.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: One scientist responsible for searching the cosmos for signs of alien life has warned that humanity should probably think twice before making first contact with aliens, saying any creature from outer space capable of sending out a signal would more than likely be more intelligent than us — and possibly dangerous.
Matthew Bailes, of Swinburne University of Melbourne, told Digital Journal how enthused he is about helming the Breakthrough Prize Foundation’s search for alien life, which is financed by Yuri Milner, a billionaire from Russia, and backed by scientific luminary Stephen Hawking.
However, the professor is apprehensive regarding the outlook of friendly intergalactic relations.
“I think we should think very carefully before we reply to a signal received from outer space,” he told German press agency, dpa [sic]. “The history of weak civilizations contacting more advanced civilizations is not a happy one.”
In an interview with Business Insider, Milner said his $100 million project will scan 10 times more of the sky than any previous effort, while covering a wider range of radio frequencies. He said it will also process data 100 times faster than before.
According to The New York Times, two-thirds of Milner’s money will be used to build equipment and hire astronomers, with the remainder used to rent out two of the world’s largest radio telescopes in West Virginia and Australia and a third telescope in California that will look for messages sent via laser from elsewhere in the Milky Way.
“The difficulty is to know what sort of signal we are looking for,” Bailes said. “There is no manual on how to find aliens. We’ll have to imagine the sort of transmissions an alien race might send.”
2 Comments
Not to mention what WE might do to them in our ignorance
I doubt it. If a race has the ability to cross light years either conventionally or ftl, they have the riches back home not to need to subdue a distant planet. What about us? Would we plan a distant and dangerous passage to go kill? Same answer, it doesn’t make any sense. If we have the tech to move many thousands of people and machines, and weapons and an energy source, then we have tech to colonize a couple of local bodies and create ring satellites. I don’t think people realize what level of world wealth is needed to create one starship. It will take another 1000 years for one starship to be as a percent of GDP as an aircraft carrier is to us today. The energy needs of even a single sizable slower than light ship is probably equivalent to a small country. The tech needed to generate, route and use that power aboard a space vessel is so great that conquering a planet at distances too large to communicate back home in a timely fashion, is totally senseless. With that much god-like power you are better off leveraging things at much closer distances.