Extraterrestrial

Michio Kaku: 'contacting ET is a terrible idea'

By T.K. Randall
April 4, 2021

Image: Michio Kaku
Credit: Jay Murdock / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) Dr Kaku, who is well known for his views on the future of technology, is currently promoting his latest book - 'The God Equation' - which explores the quest to combine quantum theory with Einstein's general relativity to produce an all-encompassing 'theory of everything'.

He believes that, while we already have all the constituent parts of this theory, we have yet to see it in its final form, however he does believe that we are 'on the verge of a new era.'

During a recent promotional interview with The Guardian, Kaku also touched upon the subject of extraterrestrial life and in particular, the possibilities of making contact.

"Soon we'll have the Webb telescope up in orbit and we'll have thousands of planets to look at, and that's why I think the chances are quite high that we may make contact with an alien civilisation," he said.

On the subject of actually contacting aliens however, he remains less than enthusiastic."There are some colleagues of mine that believe we should reach out to them," he said. "I think that's a terrible idea. We all know what happened to Montezuma when he met Cortes in Mexico so many hundreds of years ago."

"Now, personally, I think that aliens out there would be friendly but we can't gamble on it. "

Back in 2018, Kaku stated that he believes contact with aliens would become a reality before the end of the century and that it would happen by listening in to their radio communications.

"But talking to them will be difficult, since they could be tens of light years away," he said. "So, in the meantime, we must decipher their language to understand their level of technology."

Only time will tell whether or not he is correct.

Source: The Guardian

Tags: Michio Kaku