The program to search for extraterrestrial civilizations soon turns 50 years old
This is NOT an antiscientific article! Read a little further than the first three paragraphs.
We have not heard of aliens. Is it time to approach the search for an extraterrestrial mind differently?
')
Are we alone in the universe? It is precisely this question that the program to search for extraterrestrial civilizations is trying to answer, and by now it seems that the answer to this question is in the affirmative. For half a century since the first use of the radio telescope by Frank Drake to search for extraterrestrial radio signals, we have not received messages from aliens and have not detected any artificial radio signals.
Researchers at SETI claim that the project was not a failure, emphasizing what they were looking for only in a tiny part of the cosmos, and also that the project was just beginning. Of course, the computer revolution significantly increased our ability to 1) simultaneously search at a large number of different frequencies, and 2) filter out signals of Earth-origin, which theoretically increases the chances of successful detection (of an extra-terrestrial signal).
But in the forthcoming book “Dark silence” (The Eerie Silence, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), British physicist / cosmologist / anthropologist Paul Davis (Paul Davis) - director of the Center for the Study of Fundamental Concepts in Science (Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science) and the second The director (co-Director) of the Cosmology Initiative (Cosmology Initiative), located in Arizona, and the chairman of the SETI Working Group on Post-Detection Action (Post-Detection Taskgroup) states that SETI scientists should expand their search. According to him, one should look outside the "Classic SETI" (i.e. radio signals), and include in the search "any signs of intelligence, no matter where they are in the universe." For this we need the tools (instruments) of all the sciences, not just radio astronomy, ”he writes.
I went to the Beyond Center in Tempo, Arizona to discuss the topics he talks about in Gloomy Silence. In the first part (of two) of the interview with the magazine Failure, we addressed the following questions: What did SETI achieve in 50 years? And how does Davis offer to expand the search?
Meanwhile, researchers at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, are holding champagne on hold waiting for the day the aliens are discovered.
Let's start with the definition of SETI ?
50 years ago, in the famous pilot experiment (at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory of the USA, Green Bank, West Virginia), Frank Drake first used the radio telescope to search for extraterrestrial radio signals. A radio telescope is not the only way to search for intelligent life in the universe, but the most obvious one, due to the possibility of radio communication at interstellar distances. So usually, SETI is defined as searching using radio telescopes.
What has been achieved in 50 years ?
Everything is said in the title of my book “Dark silence”. There were no messages from extraterrestrial civilizations and no artificial radio signals. There were several mysterious short-term events that are difficult to assess after the fact: Wow-signal, a 72-second pulse recorded on August 15, 1977, as well as a half-millisecond surge, known as Lorimer's pulse. But nothing can be said: if you send a radio telescope to a specific area of ​​the sky, you can hear something that looks like an artificial signal.
However, the Drake experiment was done on the technologies of the Stone Age. Since then, the computer revolution has incredibly increased the possibility of simultaneous search at different frequencies and filtering signals of terrestrial origin. Now the operator does not need to sit at the console, turn the plate and listen to the speaker. Everything is done by computers, and astronomers can sit with their legs on the table.
How do researchers at SETI manage not to lose heart?
They are uncontrollable, isn't it? I think most of them do good astronomical research anyway. They use the latest equipment and develop signal search algorithms that will come in handy anyway. And they always have hope that improvements (in technology) and increased funding will eventually allow something to be found.
Who funds the SETI study?
Research is almost entirely paid from private donations. And the cost is very small in comparison with any other modern scientific research. Compared to other research funds, this is a drop in the ocean.
In your book you write that the classic SETI cannot get out of its rut ​​(and try something new).
Everyone still admires the idea of ​​Karl Sagan that there is a civilization somewhere, who guessed that we are here, which transmits a message to us using a narrowband signal, and we can only determine the frequency, receive the signal and enjoy what happens next . I do not think it is likely. We need to look for signs of rationality wherever we can. And when it comes to the radio, I think we should look for beacons, not narrowband signals. The SETI community gradually begins to agree with this, but most of it is still looking for a narrowband signal.
What is the area in which you were looking for a signal?
They searched in a small area in our neighborhood, and therefore the title of my book so annoys them. They say, “What did you expect? We are only looking for 50 years. ”
However, if you look optimistically and apply Moore's law to these studies, it is likely that within a few decades they will be able to explore the entire galaxy and their contribution to science will increase. It's too early to call classic SETI a waste of time. I think it is great, but after 50 years, people may think, “Is it possible to try something else?” And I think you need to try. We must think much more widely about the signs of intelligent life. Forget the messages, all we need to know is this: Is there anyone there? Their presence can be determined in many ways.
People assume that extraterrestrial life, if it exists, is similar to that of Earth. But biologists have recently discovered microbes that can live in extreme conditions. Why do we assume that extraterrestrial life cannot live in extreme conditions?
Here we are dealing with assumptions. The first assumption: perhaps extraterrestrial life exists, and it is similar to ours. We will be careful and assume that any life develops like Earth. Based on carbon, liquid water is needed, evolution takes billions of years, etc. Then any life will have similar traits. We can easily make assumptions about fundamentally different forms of life. Whether a fundamentally different form of life can become rational is another question.
And if we meet alien technology, we may not notice it. Some go very far and assume that the whole universe was created with the help of extraterrestrial technology, and it looks so amazing and works because that is how it was designed. However, leaving such wild assumptions aside, it is difficult to guess how truly advanced technology will manifest itself. How to notice it, not to say "This is a miracle!" It is necessary to somehow hold the legs on Earth, looking into the sky.
In the book, you talk about how advances in technology have changed our thoughts — or will change our thoughts — in relation to SETI. Can you develop this topic?
Firstly, the most significant is the laser. I think that people [now] believe that aliens will use laser instead of radio. Recently, people have suggested and more unusual ways of communication, one of them - the neutrino. I still think radio is the best way. But we can find evidence of the existence of aliens, which will not be a message, but after their vital activity.
There is another option that has nothing to do with the transmission of information using electromagnetic waves or neutrinos. In it, aliens use biological organisms as a means of transmitting information. Genomes are full of information. If you somehow manage to send a message to the cell, it will multiply and multiply. If this is done in a way that does not affect the operation of the carrier, then the information can be stored for millions of years. So instead of sending radio messages, I would prefer, for example, the spread of viruses - retroviruses - that would insert their DNA into any organisms with DNA. Researching the genome is worthless, since people already research it. Why don't we explore as many genomes as we can, not necessarily human ones — just to be sure. This is a crazy idea, but the whole SETI is a little crazy. I believe that we should do what we can do easily and cheaply, even if the chances of success are illusory.
What about the idea that aliens have passed the biological stage of evolution?
I believe that biological consciousness is a transitional stage of evolution. If we, for example, successfully overcome the next few decades - solve the problems associated with energy and the environment - we will see an increasing and greater transition to human-machine systems, as well as to fully artificial intelligent systems. The most intelligent entities on the planet will not be of flesh and blood. And I am sure that this consideration is true for any civilization.
We need to get rid of the image of [alien life] created by Hollywood. I have seen Avatar with great effects and a pitiful story that contains all the possible misconceptions.
Explain the effect of the limited speed of light on SETI, which seems to be often forgotten.
Yes, they shrug it off, and many science fiction lovers forget it. But if you believe in the theory of relativity - and almost all scientists believe in it - this is the greatest speed in the universe. Any type of physical interaction is limited by the speed of light. And although this speed is high from a normal point of view, from an astronomical point of view it is slow. It takes the light eight and a half minutes to fly to us from the sun, over 4 years to fly to us from the nearest star and hundreds of thousands of years to fly to us from the other side of the galaxy. Consequently, our existence is in principle impossible to detect beyond a certain distance. For example, at a distance of a hundred light years, the observer will see the earth as it was a hundred years ago. So what about the existence of a technologically advanced civilization on Earth - at least a civilization using radio - even in principle, impossible to detect at a distance of more than a few dozen light years from Earth. If there is an advanced technological civilization at this distance, there is a possibility that they took our signal and responded to it. But even SETI optimists do not think that civilization at such close distance exists. I think a distance of a thousand light years would be a good guess.
If you say this to people who work at SETI, they will get a little confused, and then they will say that we can deal with an altruistic civilization so much that it prepared us messages based on the simple assumption that there is intelligent life on Earth in a time period of several nearest hundreds or thousands of years. But it would be much more reasonable to wait for our first signals. They can also wait for our messages and only then begin to transmit. I think the best we can hope for is a beacon that broadcasts to everyone in a row, or stumble upon other people's messages, like eavesdropping on a telephone line. Of course, you need to be very lucky.
Is SETI a science or pseudoscience?
When SETI began, I think a lot of people considered it pseudoscience. With the same success, frankly, one could say about his faith in fairies. But years later, SETI deserved more respect, and now the SETI Institute has many joint projects with NASA. Many of these projects are astrobiology [as opposed to SETI]. So I think SETI deserves the title of science, but ultimately we need the usual standards of scientific verification and they are obviously very speculative. Speculative, even by the standards of modern physics, in which there are many strange and unusual things.
So I would like to distinguish between the research of SETI and its conceptual basis. SETI research is completely scientific. The astronomers who work in it are professional scientists who do highly professional work day after day. There is no doubt that they are doing their job in a scientific way. But the very idea of ​​SETI is marginal. It is located on the very border of what can be considered scientific.
Why to search for aliens - scientifically, and ghosts - no?
The difference is very subtle, to understand it you need to understand the system of concepts. The best example is physics. When physicists are looking for the Higgs boson - as it is now, at the Large Hadron Collider - they have a lot of theoretical research, with accurate predictions, although the boson itself may not turn out to be. The same is true for neutrinos, the famous ghost particle that was announced in the 1930s, but was discovered only in the mid-1950s. Why do people spend time on this ghost particle? Because she has a well-defined place in the physical theory.
So when it comes to finding extraterrestrial civilizations, we need to convince ourselves that it makes sense. Some people may think that this is a crazy and useless exercise, but at least in the case of extraterrestrial life, we can understand it and explain how it will develop. When it comes to ghosts, we have no sane theory. We cannot make any predictions about where to look, or how to look. We cannot find a cast in the structure of modern scientific knowledge. This does not mean that no ghosts exist. When it comes to searching in the dark, the search for something that fits into well-formulated, believable theories and experiments is very different from taking something that is not related to science, and the statements "we will look for this too."
Obviously, you think SETI - including the classic SETI - is still meaningful, even if there is little chance of success.
Although the chances of success are very small, the consequences would be enormous. If scientists at SETI succeed, this will probably be the most important scientific event in history. So to spend a small part of the world's resources on the study of such an important issue is certainly justified. And even if SETI fails, it is very useful to pay attention to the following questions: What is nature? What is humanity? What do we mean by life? What do we understand by rationality? What is our place in the universe? These are good topics for reflection, even if we never receive a signal.
Paul Davies' Web page
The beyond center
The SETI Institute
We have not heard of aliens. Is it time to approach the search for an extraterrestrial mind differently?
')
Are we alone in the universe? It is precisely this question that the program to search for extraterrestrial civilizations is trying to answer, and by now it seems that the answer to this question is in the affirmative. For half a century since the first use of the radio telescope by Frank Drake to search for extraterrestrial radio signals, we have not received messages from aliens and have not detected any artificial radio signals.
Researchers at SETI claim that the project was not a failure, emphasizing what they were looking for only in a tiny part of the cosmos, and also that the project was just beginning. Of course, the computer revolution significantly increased our ability to 1) simultaneously search at a large number of different frequencies, and 2) filter out signals of Earth-origin, which theoretically increases the chances of successful detection (of an extra-terrestrial signal).
But in the forthcoming book “Dark silence” (The Eerie Silence, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), British physicist / cosmologist / anthropologist Paul Davis (Paul Davis) - director of the Center for the Study of Fundamental Concepts in Science (Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science) and the second The director (co-Director) of the Cosmology Initiative (Cosmology Initiative), located in Arizona, and the chairman of the SETI Working Group on Post-Detection Action (Post-Detection Taskgroup) states that SETI scientists should expand their search. According to him, one should look outside the "Classic SETI" (i.e. radio signals), and include in the search "any signs of intelligence, no matter where they are in the universe." For this we need the tools (instruments) of all the sciences, not just radio astronomy, ”he writes.
I went to the Beyond Center in Tempo, Arizona to discuss the topics he talks about in Gloomy Silence. In the first part (of two) of the interview with the magazine Failure, we addressed the following questions: What did SETI achieve in 50 years? And how does Davis offer to expand the search?
Meanwhile, researchers at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, are holding champagne on hold waiting for the day the aliens are discovered.
Let's start with the definition of SETI ?
50 years ago, in the famous pilot experiment (at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory of the USA, Green Bank, West Virginia), Frank Drake first used the radio telescope to search for extraterrestrial radio signals. A radio telescope is not the only way to search for intelligent life in the universe, but the most obvious one, due to the possibility of radio communication at interstellar distances. So usually, SETI is defined as searching using radio telescopes.
What has been achieved in 50 years ?
Everything is said in the title of my book “Dark silence”. There were no messages from extraterrestrial civilizations and no artificial radio signals. There were several mysterious short-term events that are difficult to assess after the fact: Wow-signal, a 72-second pulse recorded on August 15, 1977, as well as a half-millisecond surge, known as Lorimer's pulse. But nothing can be said: if you send a radio telescope to a specific area of ​​the sky, you can hear something that looks like an artificial signal.
However, the Drake experiment was done on the technologies of the Stone Age. Since then, the computer revolution has incredibly increased the possibility of simultaneous search at different frequencies and filtering signals of terrestrial origin. Now the operator does not need to sit at the console, turn the plate and listen to the speaker. Everything is done by computers, and astronomers can sit with their legs on the table.
How do researchers at SETI manage not to lose heart?
They are uncontrollable, isn't it? I think most of them do good astronomical research anyway. They use the latest equipment and develop signal search algorithms that will come in handy anyway. And they always have hope that improvements (in technology) and increased funding will eventually allow something to be found.
Who funds the SETI study?
Research is almost entirely paid from private donations. And the cost is very small in comparison with any other modern scientific research. Compared to other research funds, this is a drop in the ocean.
In your book you write that the classic SETI cannot get out of its rut ​​(and try something new).
Everyone still admires the idea of ​​Karl Sagan that there is a civilization somewhere, who guessed that we are here, which transmits a message to us using a narrowband signal, and we can only determine the frequency, receive the signal and enjoy what happens next . I do not think it is likely. We need to look for signs of rationality wherever we can. And when it comes to the radio, I think we should look for beacons, not narrowband signals. The SETI community gradually begins to agree with this, but most of it is still looking for a narrowband signal.
What is the area in which you were looking for a signal?
They searched in a small area in our neighborhood, and therefore the title of my book so annoys them. They say, “What did you expect? We are only looking for 50 years. ”
However, if you look optimistically and apply Moore's law to these studies, it is likely that within a few decades they will be able to explore the entire galaxy and their contribution to science will increase. It's too early to call classic SETI a waste of time. I think it is great, but after 50 years, people may think, “Is it possible to try something else?” And I think you need to try. We must think much more widely about the signs of intelligent life. Forget the messages, all we need to know is this: Is there anyone there? Their presence can be determined in many ways.
People assume that extraterrestrial life, if it exists, is similar to that of Earth. But biologists have recently discovered microbes that can live in extreme conditions. Why do we assume that extraterrestrial life cannot live in extreme conditions?
Here we are dealing with assumptions. The first assumption: perhaps extraterrestrial life exists, and it is similar to ours. We will be careful and assume that any life develops like Earth. Based on carbon, liquid water is needed, evolution takes billions of years, etc. Then any life will have similar traits. We can easily make assumptions about fundamentally different forms of life. Whether a fundamentally different form of life can become rational is another question.
And if we meet alien technology, we may not notice it. Some go very far and assume that the whole universe was created with the help of extraterrestrial technology, and it looks so amazing and works because that is how it was designed. However, leaving such wild assumptions aside, it is difficult to guess how truly advanced technology will manifest itself. How to notice it, not to say "This is a miracle!" It is necessary to somehow hold the legs on Earth, looking into the sky.
In the book, you talk about how advances in technology have changed our thoughts — or will change our thoughts — in relation to SETI. Can you develop this topic?
Firstly, the most significant is the laser. I think that people [now] believe that aliens will use laser instead of radio. Recently, people have suggested and more unusual ways of communication, one of them - the neutrino. I still think radio is the best way. But we can find evidence of the existence of aliens, which will not be a message, but after their vital activity.
There is another option that has nothing to do with the transmission of information using electromagnetic waves or neutrinos. In it, aliens use biological organisms as a means of transmitting information. Genomes are full of information. If you somehow manage to send a message to the cell, it will multiply and multiply. If this is done in a way that does not affect the operation of the carrier, then the information can be stored for millions of years. So instead of sending radio messages, I would prefer, for example, the spread of viruses - retroviruses - that would insert their DNA into any organisms with DNA. Researching the genome is worthless, since people already research it. Why don't we explore as many genomes as we can, not necessarily human ones — just to be sure. This is a crazy idea, but the whole SETI is a little crazy. I believe that we should do what we can do easily and cheaply, even if the chances of success are illusory.
What about the idea that aliens have passed the biological stage of evolution?
I believe that biological consciousness is a transitional stage of evolution. If we, for example, successfully overcome the next few decades - solve the problems associated with energy and the environment - we will see an increasing and greater transition to human-machine systems, as well as to fully artificial intelligent systems. The most intelligent entities on the planet will not be of flesh and blood. And I am sure that this consideration is true for any civilization.
We need to get rid of the image of [alien life] created by Hollywood. I have seen Avatar with great effects and a pitiful story that contains all the possible misconceptions.
Explain the effect of the limited speed of light on SETI, which seems to be often forgotten.
Yes, they shrug it off, and many science fiction lovers forget it. But if you believe in the theory of relativity - and almost all scientists believe in it - this is the greatest speed in the universe. Any type of physical interaction is limited by the speed of light. And although this speed is high from a normal point of view, from an astronomical point of view it is slow. It takes the light eight and a half minutes to fly to us from the sun, over 4 years to fly to us from the nearest star and hundreds of thousands of years to fly to us from the other side of the galaxy. Consequently, our existence is in principle impossible to detect beyond a certain distance. For example, at a distance of a hundred light years, the observer will see the earth as it was a hundred years ago. So what about the existence of a technologically advanced civilization on Earth - at least a civilization using radio - even in principle, impossible to detect at a distance of more than a few dozen light years from Earth. If there is an advanced technological civilization at this distance, there is a possibility that they took our signal and responded to it. But even SETI optimists do not think that civilization at such close distance exists. I think a distance of a thousand light years would be a good guess.
If you say this to people who work at SETI, they will get a little confused, and then they will say that we can deal with an altruistic civilization so much that it prepared us messages based on the simple assumption that there is intelligent life on Earth in a time period of several nearest hundreds or thousands of years. But it would be much more reasonable to wait for our first signals. They can also wait for our messages and only then begin to transmit. I think the best we can hope for is a beacon that broadcasts to everyone in a row, or stumble upon other people's messages, like eavesdropping on a telephone line. Of course, you need to be very lucky.
Is SETI a science or pseudoscience?
When SETI began, I think a lot of people considered it pseudoscience. With the same success, frankly, one could say about his faith in fairies. But years later, SETI deserved more respect, and now the SETI Institute has many joint projects with NASA. Many of these projects are astrobiology [as opposed to SETI]. So I think SETI deserves the title of science, but ultimately we need the usual standards of scientific verification and they are obviously very speculative. Speculative, even by the standards of modern physics, in which there are many strange and unusual things.
So I would like to distinguish between the research of SETI and its conceptual basis. SETI research is completely scientific. The astronomers who work in it are professional scientists who do highly professional work day after day. There is no doubt that they are doing their job in a scientific way. But the very idea of ​​SETI is marginal. It is located on the very border of what can be considered scientific.
Why to search for aliens - scientifically, and ghosts - no?
The difference is very subtle, to understand it you need to understand the system of concepts. The best example is physics. When physicists are looking for the Higgs boson - as it is now, at the Large Hadron Collider - they have a lot of theoretical research, with accurate predictions, although the boson itself may not turn out to be. The same is true for neutrinos, the famous ghost particle that was announced in the 1930s, but was discovered only in the mid-1950s. Why do people spend time on this ghost particle? Because she has a well-defined place in the physical theory.
So when it comes to finding extraterrestrial civilizations, we need to convince ourselves that it makes sense. Some people may think that this is a crazy and useless exercise, but at least in the case of extraterrestrial life, we can understand it and explain how it will develop. When it comes to ghosts, we have no sane theory. We cannot make any predictions about where to look, or how to look. We cannot find a cast in the structure of modern scientific knowledge. This does not mean that no ghosts exist. When it comes to searching in the dark, the search for something that fits into well-formulated, believable theories and experiments is very different from taking something that is not related to science, and the statements "we will look for this too."
Obviously, you think SETI - including the classic SETI - is still meaningful, even if there is little chance of success.
Although the chances of success are very small, the consequences would be enormous. If scientists at SETI succeed, this will probably be the most important scientific event in history. So to spend a small part of the world's resources on the study of such an important issue is certainly justified. And even if SETI fails, it is very useful to pay attention to the following questions: What is nature? What is humanity? What do we mean by life? What do we understand by rationality? What is our place in the universe? These are good topics for reflection, even if we never receive a signal.
Paul Davies' Web page
The beyond center
The SETI Institute
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/87540/
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