Extraterrestrial
What if SETI found evidence of alien life ?
By
T.K. RandallMay 22, 2012 ·
22 comments
Image Credit: Hajor, Wikimedia
How would the world react if SETI found evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe ?
Founded in 1984 and based on a premise first realised in a 1960 experiment by Frank Drake called "Project Ozma", SETI is widely recognised as the official face of the hunt for intelligent alien life. The search might have come up empty so far, but if evidence of extraterrestrials was to be discovered, how would people react to it ? Would there be a breakdown of society as we know it and would the government even reveal the information to begin with ?
Some conspiracy theorists argue that if conclusive evidence was ever found then it would be kept quiet at all costs, SETI Institute senior astronomer Seth Shostak however is unconvinced that this would be the case. "There are a lot of people who think that finding life would be enormously disruptive," he says. "In this country people say, well if you guys find a signal, the government would shut it down, you'd keep it quiet, and the reason given for that is that it would disrupt society. Well there's no evidence for that at all."[!gad]Founded in 1984 and based on a premise first realised in a 1960 experiment by Frank Drake called "Project Ozma", SETI is widely recognised as the official face of the hunt for intelligent alien life. The search might have come up empty so far, but if evidence of extraterrestrials was to be discovered, how would people react to it ? Would there be a breakdown of society as we know it and would the government even reveal the information to begin with ?
Some conspiracy theorists argue that if conclusive evidence was ever found then it would be kept quiet at all costs, SETI Institute senior astronomer Seth Shostak however is unconvinced that this would be the case. "There are a lot of people who think that finding life would be enormously disruptive," he says. "In this country people say, well if you guys find a signal, the government would shut it down, you'd keep it quiet, and the reason given for that is that it would disrupt society. Well there's no evidence for that at all."
Drake's Project Ozma focused on just two nearby stars, Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani. Nowadays, SETI uses the Allen Telescope Array, funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, to monitor thousands of stars. However, even before Project Ozma, Seth reminds me, Edison, Tesla and Marconi had all considered the possibility that radio waves might be receivable from Mars or elsewhere.
Source:
Guardian Unlimited |
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