Confessions of an Alien Hunter
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Confessions of an Alien Hunter, by Dr. Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute, is a look at SETI from the inside. In addition, Dr. Shostak talks about who, and what, our first alien contacts may be (aside from microbes or pond scum). You know me; I would be excited out of my tiny little mind with a microbe.
The hope, the belief, that we are not alone in the universe has been with us since we could envision ourselves as “self”. We have always looked to the sky and wondered. Science now tells us that there must be other life; the universe is simply too big for there not to be. Life is ubiquitous on Earth, it’s found from the bottom of the Mariannas Trench to the summit of Mount Everest.
The SETI Institute was officially funded and created by NASA in 1971, although the first SETI experiment took place eleven years earlier at Green Bank, West Virginia. Now privately funded, SETI uses scientific methods for the systematic search for evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life. They aren’t looking for pond scum.
Confessions of an Alien Hunter is published by the National Geographic Society, one of the world’s largest non-profit organizations. National Geographic is involved in natural science, education, geology, archaeology, exploration, and conservation… just to name a few.
Dr. Shostak gives televised lectures and interviews, in addition to writing books. Here is a link to just one of them. I’d recommend you take time to watch as Dr. Shostak is an incredibly interesting speaker.
This is the link to SETI@home, if you’re interested in linking your computer to assist SETI during the times you aren’t busy. It functions much like a screen saver. I’ve had my computer linked to SETI for over a year, and haven’t had any trouble, although some people say it makes their computer over-heat.
Dr. Shostak has already promised us an interview in the future, so if you have any questions for him, let me know and I’ll ask him.
As a coincidence, years ago, three years ago to be accurate, I was running SETI@home and my laptop did start over heating and eventually went to laptop heaven. I can’t blame SETI though, I had the laptop at the scope and had it soaked with dew many times. I also froze it out a couple times – temps at 28 it went blank and emitted a pitiful tone.
The one question I’ve never seen answered by the SETI types is: Why would we assume any entity capable of receiving our signals will be benign?
Hi Jim — You are going to love Dr Shostak, then, because he DOES answer that question, both in his books and in at least two of the interviews I’ve watched featuring him.
The answer is: We don’t assume they will be benign. But whatever alien civilization we find isn’t going to know we’ve found them, no more than a radio station knows when you’ve tuned them in. After all, we’ve been leaking radio waves into space since the early 1900s – do we know if another civilization is picking them up? No – there’s no way we could know.
Dr Shostak also says that once we identify a civilization, then we can decide whether or not we want to try for contact.
Would you be happy with a rephrasing of your question, Jim? Maybe… ARE there assumptions as to the nature/intent of any civilization we find, and what would be the science to support any such assumptions? After all, Stephen Hawking comes right out and says he doesn’t think we should attempt contact with any civilization we find since we don’t know their nature/intent.
I think Jim is under the misconception that SETI’s primary activity is transmission
I just watched the History Channel program, LIFE AFTER PEOPLE, about what would happen if the human race suddenly disappeared from the planet. In discussing what human artifacts would last longest, a point was made that I’ve heard elsewhere lately. It used to be thought that TV signals would continue indefinitely out into the void, and the aliens 55 light-years out are now enjoying I LOVE LUCY. It’s even been speculated that a TV broadcast of Adolf Hitler at the 1936 Olympic Games would be the aliens’ first introduction to us. (Didn’t Carl Sagan’s SF novel CONTACT use that idea?) But now, according to the LIFE AFTER PEOPLE program… the thinking is that TV signals degrade into indecipherable noise in a light-year or two most. I LOVE LUCY never even got as far as Alpha Centauri. On the other hand, Earth is probably a pretty obvious source of non-natural emissions, so the aliens would know some advanced civilzation is here. (So that cat’s out of the bag no matter what we do.) What the aliens make of it is another matter, but they evidently aren’t watching Lucy…
Dwight – that would be a very interesting area in which to ask Dr Shostak to comment. I know I’ve been uncomfortable with the idea that TV sitcoms (or worse yet, “reality shows”) might be representing human beings to an alien culture.