Extraterrestrial Intelligence?

America has a fascination for extraterrestrials (ET). ET, the 1982 movie, was the most financially successful film of all time released to that point. Thirty-two years ago -- can you believe it was that long -- Steven Speilberg wrote and directed Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Monsters vs. Aliens, Knowing and The Race to Witch Mountain were #1 at the box office the past three weeks. These flicks have entertainment value, but what is the reality of extraterrestrial intelligence (ET) and flying saucers?

First how do Americans feel? Remember, 90% of us believe there is a God and the majority does not think it is responsible for global warming. There is a plethora of polls, but, in general, 60% feel there is ET life somewhere in the universe.

Are there UFOs? Absolutely, for any flying object that cannot be identified is by definition a UFO. However, what about flying saucers piloted by some extraterrestrial? Anywhere from one third to one half of Americans think they are real. In comparison, one half to three fourths believe in angels, yes, the kind with feathered wings. Religion is dominant in the USA.

Most scientists don't want to even be associated with UFOs because the odds are far too low to warrant their attention, not to mention the potential of sullying their credibility. Consider this: light, which in one second can travel around our globe 7.5 times, takes 100,000 years just to get from one end of our little ole Milky Way galaxy to the other. Us, Homo sapiens, only appeared 100,000 years ago. Then, if you want to get to Andromeda, our closest galaxy (the latest guess is there are 500 billion galaxies up there), a spaceship traveling at the speed of light would take 2.2 million years. Plus, what form of energy will enable a craft to travel such distances? Sure, you read about wormholes and stuff like that, but, for now, it is best to be rational and consider becoming a nonbeliever of flying saucers.

In Chapter 4 of Simple Solutions for Humanity, I relate my experiences in this field, starting with Project Cyclops, and also Orion, a short stint I had at NASA's Ames Research Center. The question then was, are we the only planet in the universe? I interacted then with Barney Oliver, Jack Billingham and Carl Sagan, and actually proposed a project to detect earth-sized planets. The concept rested on the principle that for life to occur, there needs to be an atmosphere, and starlight (sunlight) causes population inversion (a condition which induces lasing), meaning that spikes of monochromatic light can be detected, both proving that a planet exists and providing the gas composition. I took cues from Charles Townes, who had just moved from MIT to Cal-Berkeley and wrote on this subject in Science. NASA tossed my proposal aside and remarked that the Hubble Telescope would soon fly and will then accomplish this task. Well, earth-sized extrasolar planets are beyond the capability of Hubble.

So, a little more than two years ago, the European Union launched CoRoT to find extrasolar planets similar in size to ours. The principle had to do with these planets transiting (moving across the star) and measuring any diminution of light. On March 6, NASA placed into space Kepler, at a cost of nearly $600 million, to do almost exactly the same thing.

The key question I ask is, why do we need both? Secondly, as the atmospheric composition will not be determined through this copycat photometric technique, so the potential of life as we know it cannot be determined, for so much money, couldn't we have somehow adjusted the mission to provide more useful answers?

Okay, anyway, now we know that there are more than 300 planets out there somewhere. Currently, most "seen" (we have not actually seen them, we have mostly measured wobbles in stars, surmising that the movement must have been caused by a planet or more) have been Jupiter-sized or larger, but just the fact that there are other solar systems answers the original question: yes, there are a lot of planets around other stars.

Now that we have proven that there are probably billions of planets out there, with odds that some of them could, perhaps, have intelligent life billions of years more advanced than ours (the Universe is slightly less than 14 billion years old and our solar system has been around for less than 4.5 billion years), let us get on to detect possible signals, as Jodie Foster did in Contact. Yes, I know that was a movie, but this is an life posting, not a scientific publication.

Oh,by the way, did you know that historically, NASA was prohibited from doing SETI research? Yes, there is a privately funded SETI Institute (the Paul Allen Telescope Array is one of their projects), but Congress did not allow the federal government to directly spend money on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. That is, until 2003, when congressional attitudes somewhat shifted, and NASA actually began to provide a few bucks to this activity, but only a very few.

In this time of economic turmoil, can funds be justified for SETI? If we can spend $600 million for Kepler when Europe already was doing that, will expend $8 billion for our next nuclear aircraft carrier (which is by any current war standards already obsolete), and provided $150 billion of bailout money to AIG, sure, a justifiable amount would be worth the investment, for, perhaps, streaming in from space could be the answer to world peace, cure for cancer, solution for global warming and resolution to our global financial crisis.

Our civilization will survive recession, Peak Oil and Global Warming, as we did the Cold War. Can our next few billion years, though, be more progressive and successful than our past 100,000 years? Through SETI, I suggest that it would be well justified to seek the wisdom of far more advanced societies from our common universe. The worst case result would be no signal, but a lot of useful science, at a cost far less than the AIG bailout.

Comments

[Stoneboat]

Why wait for a direct communication via SETI? NASA could explain efforts to hide known UFO data, of UFO's pictures removed before given to the public. Two former NASA employees, speaking at Dr Stephen Greer's Disclosure Project, 2001 Washington Press Club, stated they saw NASA Apollo-era photos with UFO's "air-brushed out". We hope for some magic communication across the vast reaches of space when apparently they are already here, as Gen Hillenkotter said in his '52 memo, (paraphrased), "the phenomenon is real", and the the craft are here.

We might ask NASA how they expect to justify spending millions on the search for ET life via SETI, when they destroy their own UFO/alien photographic evidence? Two former employees are ready to testify to Congress on what they know of this being done. Witnesses include Ms. Horn, and Robert Shuessler.

If you really want to know the frightening capabilities of alien 'intelligence', read Budd Hopkins book, 'Witnessed', The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge UFO Abductions. There is nothing funny or amusing here: they appear able to abduct persons at will, affect abductee memories and consciousness, construct alternative realities, and change our ability to comprehend space and time. They are intensely interested in our behavior and reproduction, over lifetimes and generations. They may be "assimilating" the human race, replacing ours with theirs. I suspect they want to feel what its like to be human, and they like it here. Read the book, if all that seems preposterous.

[Patrick Takahashi - Huffpost Blogger]

Let me provide my two cents about NASA and flying saucers. First, no one with any hope for a career within NASA will want to comment on this subject. This has nothing to do with the government "hiding" information. It has everything to do with the giggle factor. The notion of aliens abducting earthlings and such are so beyond the pale that I suspect that this discussion is already insulting their intelligence. On the other hand, the last time I worked for NASA was more than a third of a century ago, so, anyone from that agency: we would welcome your input.

[Schaden]

BTW, the movie ET came out in 1982 not 1985.

[Patrick Takahashi - Huffpost Blogger]

You're absolutely right. Change made. Thank you.

[Schaden]

Flying saucers are real. It's the most classified subject in existence. It doesn't take belief like religion.
There is hard core documented evidence in the form of declassified government files from the CIA/DoD/DIA etc.. Something really is flying around out there. There are solid objects that give radar returns, that behave as if under intelligent control, and their performance far exceeds what is known to be aerodynamically possible. These aggressive encounters between UFOs and military forces have occurred since World War II. Many astronauts, and highly respected scientists involved with the defense industry have acknowledged the reality of alien vistiation. Google: Edgar Mitchell, Gordon Cooper, Dr. Eric Walker, Dr. Hermann Oberth, Dr. Robert Sarbacher. Read Richard Dolan's history of UFOs. Or the book "The Missing Times", which exposes the media's complicity in keeping this above top secret.

[Patrick Takahashi - Huffpost Blogger]

Well, you certainly are entitled to your opinion, but my personal belief is that flying saucers are not real. Yes, sometime over the past couple of billion years some alien form might have visited us, and perhaps even seeded life, but the most scientists don't give any credence to all that you mention above. Especially those who work on the concept of Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. On the other hand, I don't believe in an afterlife, but 90% of Americans do.

[Schaden]

I see you've made up your mind without even looking at the evidence.

Once again, it's not about belief.

Check out Stanton Friedman's book "Flying Saucers and Science."