Extraterrestrial

Will first contact be with alien machines ?

By T.K. Randall
June 7, 2015

Image: OVRO 40 Meter Radio Telescope
Credit: Salvor Hardin / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) During the Cheltenham Science Festival this week the 72-year-old suggested that it is far more likely that we will come across intelligent machines than extraterrestrial biological entities.

"I think it is quite likely that within a few centuries the overriding intelligence will be machines because they will have an easier time spreading beyond the Earth because they are not organic and most exploration will be by machines and not humans," he said.

"If you were to detect a SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) signal it would be far more likely that it would be from a machine and not an organic creature. "It certainly makes sense that an advanced alien race would use intelligent space probes to explore the galaxy as oppose to visiting every solar system themselves - a scenario that is echoed by our own use of spacecraft and rovers to explore other planets.

Prof Rees also suggested that the human race will develop the means with which to venture out in to space and to colonize other worlds within the next few decades.

"By the end of the century there will be some people living away from the Earth," he said. "We will wish them good look in adapting their progeny who will need genetic adaptations."

"That will be the start of the post-human era because they will evolve to be a new species."

Source: Telegraph

Tags: Alien, First Contact