Why have we not received any messages from other civilizations?

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 376.

The physicist Stephen Hawking has advised against sending out this kind of messages, saying that they might attract unwanted attention- or even provoke an alien invasion.

What would be your ideal method of communication?

Dr. Atri, in your most recent study, you recommended that we rethink our attempts at interplanetary contact. Why?

Our all previous messages into space must have been too anthropocentric. Unless you are familiar with our way of encrypting information, and have some human context, these messages make no sense. It's a bit like the film The Gods Must Be Crazy, where a bottle of cola falls out of a plane and lands among an isolated tribe in Africa, who spend the rest of the film trying to figure out what it means.

The priority ought to be to have a message that is easily deciphered. The best thing would be to have a digital message, based on mathematical fundamentals, something like the universal rules of addition. Since there's no guarantee that aliens can see or hear, transmitting pictures or music might make no sense.

I don't share this fear. Invasion is only necessary when you need more resources for yourself. If a civilization can travel many thousand light years to reach us, it will be technically so advanced that it will have no shortage of resources.

Our wireless technology is still relatively primitive. We receive signals using antennae, which are set only at specific frequencies. Given this, it's hardly surprising that we have not been able to intercept any messages, despite the fact that there are plenty of planets out there in the universe that have the necessary conditions to support life forms.

Speaking (1)

Act out the conversation in pairs/small groups. Add more questions and answer them.

Writing (1)

Write a one-page assay to express your opinion on the following topic. ‘Should we search for extraterrestrial civilizations?' use concrete examples and details to support your answer.