02 March, 2009

Looking for Other Intelligent Life?

You guys have probably heard of the SETI programme, seen countless UFO stuff, Hollywood movies, government conspiracy theories, and experienced general paranoia. Instead of readily believing these so-called facts. Let us analyze the science behind the search for aliens in outer space.

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Note: Too better understand this article, please read my previous post on Civilizations.

Why not getting any response?

The mathematics of Drake Equation shows that there should be millions of alien civilizations already in outer space. But why can't we find any evidence of these Type I, II, and III civilizations? Perhaps, they didn't make it to Type I. Maybe they are similar to us; waging war and destroying themselves.

If extraterrestrial civilizations do survive their Transition from Type 0 to Type I, where the heck are they? We have been scanning the skies for decades. Why are they not replying to our message signals?

First argument: Let's assume that Type I, II, and III civilizations have the mastery of hyperspatial travel. This implies that their level of science is millions (or thousands) of years more advance than ours. In human terms, it's not like comparing 21th century to 14th century; it's more like comparing 30th century to ape-men (approx 1.4 million years ago).

Second argument: These advance beings wouldn't even bother with us primitive humans. To them, we are just idiotic beings still fighting over silly things like petroleum and religion. We are too proud to think that an advance civilization would just stop they daily business, drop by and send us a greeting.

Let's put this into perspective: Would you tell an ant? "I brought you gifts of Wi-Fi, laser beams, and computer technology. Now, bring me to your leader". No, you'll instead feel like squishing them. More so, if you build a highway beside an ant-hill, would the ants realize that you are building a highway? Do the ants even know what a highway is?

Third argument: Never underestimate the technology of others. The people at SETI are misguided. Why would an advance civilization contact us with just using infra-red, or microwave signals? And why are SETI people listening on electromagnetic frequencies base on the hydrogen atom? There are supernovas, asteroid belts, and black holes that could distort all these signals.

When you send an email, the message would be encrypted, chopped-up, relayed through a series of servers, and combined back to one piece when it's reaches the recipient. And to make sure your friend gets the message, you could send an SMS, IM, or even snail-mail to him/her.

Now, a smart civilization would also relay messages using similar methods. To make sure their messages reach the destination, they would encrypt it and send it thru an array of frequencies. If you only scan and translate a part of it, you'll get only gibberish.

Personal thoughts

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Whether or not other intelligent life exist? That is still up for debate. I believe that they do exist, regardless of what the critics says. Otherwise, wouldn't it be sad to think that we are all alone in this infinitely vast universe?

But don't put too much hope into meeting ET's anytime soon in your lifetime. If intelligent life do exist in the far reaches of space, it will be in a couple millions years before we get our first contact. That's when humanity finally rids itself of senseless conflicts.

More info: http://www.mkaku.org/

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01 March, 2009

Civilizations of the Stars

The Background

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When scientists search the skies for signs of alien life, they don't look for 'Little Green Men' or UFOs. What they are looking for is evidence of Type I, Type II, and Type III civilizations according to the Kardashev Scale (ie: level of technological advancement).

So basically it's like this:
  1. Type I is a planetary civilization. They fully utilize the energy resources from their home planet (eg: Buck Rogers).
  2. Type II is at stellar level. After depleting their planetary resources, they will get energy directly from their mother star (eg: Star Trek and Federation of Planets).
  3. Type III is galactic. Once they used up the energy of their sun, they will harness their energy from billions of stars within their home galaxy (eg: Empire of Star Wars).

Where do we currently stand?

What are we on this Scale? We are Type 0. We don't even rate on the scale. Humans don't have the technology to harness energy from stars and galaxies. We get our energy from dead animals and plants; fossil fuels. But we can estimate when we will achieve Type I status. Probably in about a hundred years.

I personally feel privilege to be alive in the most important era in the history of the human race. To witness the transition from Type 0 to Type I.

Each time when you read the news, you'll see the evidence of this Transition:
European Union is a beginning of a Type I economy. United Nations is a beginning of a Type I administration system. The Internet is a beginning of a Type I communication system. The Type I language will probably be English, since it's used in every country. There will also be a Type I culture. Hollywood movies, rap music, jeans, etc which you can find anywhere around the world.

We are the Hope

It is said that going from Type 0 to Type I is the most difficult transition of all time. It's not even clear if we will survive the Transition. It's a delicate balance. On one side, we have forces of multiculturalism, globalization and unity. On the other hand, we have WMDs, religious strife, racism, global warming, and terrorism.

It's not even clear if we will survive the Transition. It's a planetary level of sink or swim. The fate of humankind's future rest on our collection decision. This is no joke. This truly a dangerous race against Time.

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Life Elsewhere in the Universe

Exobiology

Also known as astrobiology, is the study of life in space, combining aspects of astronomy, biology and geology. It is focused primarily on the study of the origin, distribution and evolution of life.

Some major astrobiological research topics include:
  • What is life?
  • How did life arise on Earth?
  • What kind of environments can life tolerate?
  • How can we determine if life exists on other planets?
  • How often can we expect to find complex life?
  • What will life consist of on other planets?
  • Will it be DNA/Carbon based or based on something else?
  • What will it look like?

Is there alien life?

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First allow us make a few assumptions:
  • That there is an infinite amount of stars in the universe, only a few billions could be seen through our powerful telescopes.
  • Our universe is currently in the "child" stage, the Stelliferous Era. Even today, new galaxies are still being born.
  • Time is relative, not constant. The flow of time is different for everyone, and for every place.
  • Since the universe is vast, there should be at least some simple form of life; plants and animals.
  • Among these primitive life forms, some should have evolved to be intelligent, in aspects of communication, logic, culture, etc.

Given the statistics, it's very probable that we could find alien life. However, we are searching for intelligent alien life, which is a whole new level. It's possible we may not succeed in our lifetime. Something for future generations.

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