Latest news with #SETI
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
A Theory Says We Can't Find Advanced Aliens Because They're Not Trying to Be Found
The Fermi Paradox ponders an endlessly fascinating question: If so many worlds exist in the universe, why haven't we detected any sign of extraterrestrial life? A possible reason, called the 'Sustainability Solution,' argues that the search for technosignatures necessitates a particular human bias, suggesting that rapid growth is the only means of society expansion. A new paper reexamining this solution suggests that many societies may face collapse due to the unsustainable aspect of an ever-expanding species, and so many of its technologies could be indistinguishable from nature itself. For more than 40 years, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) organization has turned its gaze toward the cosmos in search for an answer to one of humanity's greatest questions: Are we alone? Often taking the form of the 'Fermi paradox'—a 75-year-old thought experiment that explores why there are so many worlds, yet seemingly no alien civilizations—this grand question has inspired a lot of possible solutions. Maybe life is much rarer than we imagine? Maybe it's incredibly difficult to evolve into a modern civilization like ours? Or maybe aliens are speaking in a language we simply don't understand. However, there's one possible solution that eerily speaks to our current moment. Known as the 'Sustainability Solution,' this idea posits that endless economic growth may simply be impossible to sustain, so alien societies either adapt by creating sustainable civilization in harmony with their host planet, or they simply die out. First proposed by Pennsylvania State University scientists Jacob Haqq-Misra and Seth Baum in 2009, the 'Sustainability Solution' suggests that if aliens do exist, they likely wouldn't create the technosignatures we often attribute to advanced civilizations, such as Dyson Spheres or interstellar spacecraft. Instead, these structures (part of the 'technosphere') would blend with the natural world, making them difficult to distinguish. In a new study uploaded to the preprint server arXiv, New York University researcher and philosopher Lukáš Likavčan revitalizes this solution to the Fermi paradox as a lens through which to view humanity's own development. The paper re-conceptualizes technology, history, and sustainability on a planetary scale. 'The ecological limits constrain the topology of viable planetary histories to those evolutionary trajectories where the technosphere successfully folds back into the biosphere,' Likavčan wrote. 'The major result of this reconceptualization is the problematization of the analytical import of technosphere as a category denoting some new geological layer—it seems to be more of a transitory armature of the biosphere's evolution and less of an emerging permanent layer.' Humans play a strange, transitory role in this conceptualization. Of course, being primates, we are of the biosphere. But our creations—at least, as argued by this theory—become part of the theoretically detectable technosphere (whether this region is a permanent fixture or a temporary arm of the biosphere is up for debate). Drawing on a sample size of one (i.e. human civilization), it's easy to think that progress will continue unabated until we become masters of our own Solar System and beyond. However, as Haqq-Mistra and Baum originally stated in 2009, this 'Sustainability Solution' questions the assumption of the unimpeded exponential growth of such civilizations. 'It is still possible that slower-growth ETI civilizations exist but have not expanded rapidly enough to be easily detectable by the searches humans have yet made,' the original authors wrote. 'It is also possible that faster-growth ETI civilizations previously expanded throughout the galaxy but could not sustain this state, collapsing in a way that whatever artifacts they might have left have also remained undetected.' Additionally, Likavčan's idea of 'folding back into the biosphere,' means that advanced civilizations might instead create technologies that are essentially biological in nature in order to remain in balance with their finite resources. To support this point, Likavčan quotes Canadian sci-fi author Karl Schroeder, who wrote that 'any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from nature,' itself a reformulation of sci-fi Arthur C. Clarke's famous words that compared technology to magic. This could also explain why we haven't found civilizations while looking for technosignatures alone. Magic or no, the nature of the Fermi paradox makes it a 'we won't know until we know' kind of question. But the exploration of possible solutions can also provide a valuable lens through which to value our own society, its future perils, and how we might—against all odds—survive long enough to one day solve this perplexing question. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Aliens: Facts about extraterrestrial life and how scientists are looking for it
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Quick facts about aliens Has extraterrestrial life been discovered?: Not yet! Where are scientists looking for aliens?: Water-rich bodies in our solar system, like Jupiter's moon Europa, and Earth-like exoplanets — planets outside our solar system How many planets in the Milky Way have the right conditions for life? An estimated 300 million E.T., Stitch, Chewbacca, Groot — humans have a lot of ideas about what aliens might look like. But what is the science behind extraterrestrial life? Is it possible that humans will ever experience "first contact" with an alien species? Many scientists hope so. They're looking for extraterrestrial life on planets with conditions that look like Earth's. A life-friendly planet would probably have water, for example. And for water to be a liquid, the planet must be the perfect distance from its sun for that water not to freeze or turn into a gas. There's no evidence yet for life on other planets, but as scientists discover more and more planets outside our solar system, they're hopeful that some of these worlds will be "just right" for life to exist or evolve there. Scientists have been listening for alien signals with special radio receivers since 1992. They haven't picked up any yet! Mars might have once hosted life — most likely tiny things like bacteria — but scientists can't say for sure. Jupiter's moon Europa has an ocean, and it might have hydrothermal vents, or cracks in the seafloor where hot water seeps through. Scientists think life on Earth may have evolved in hydrothermal vents. The "Goldilocks zone" is the space around a star where temperatures allow liquid water to exist. Many scientists think planets in the Goldilocks zone are those most likely to host life. The oldest known life on Earth is 4.2 billion years old. Sci-fi aliens like Baby Yoda are fun to imagine, but scientists are serious about extraterrestrial life. There are some 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy and at least 2 trillion galaxies in the universe we can study. If most of those stars have at least one planet around them, there could be up to 20 billion trillion extraterrestrial worlds out there. Given those numbers, it would be shocking if only a single planet — Earth — had life. But our closest neighbors in the solar system, Mars and Venus, don't seem to have any life. Some moons of Saturn and Jupiter have water, so they could have life — most likely tiny creatures the size of germs. If Earthlings ever meet aliens face-to-face, they'll probably need a microscope to say hi. Until scientists find some firm proof, such as a communication signal from an alien world or fossilized microbes from Mars, Earth remains the only planet where life is known to exist. What aliens would look like would depend on where they came from. For example, on the icy moons in our solar system (Jupiter's Ganymede and Europa, and Saturn's Enceladus), life could thrive around hydrothermal vents in the oceans under the ice. This life might look like the weird creatures of the deep ocean seen on Earth. There could be primitive microbes, like Earth's single-celled Archaea. There might be relatively simple creatures with many cells in their body, sort of like Earth's tube worms, which live off chemicals from the vent fluid. Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago, and we think the first life existed by about 4.2 billion years ago. But life on Earth started simple and stayed that way for a long time. The first microbes that produced carbon evolved at least 3.7 billion years ago. (Carbon is an element that is a part of all known life.) But the kind of cells that gave rise to animals, plants and other complex life-forms didn't evolve until between 2.7 billion and 1.8 billion years ago. Life-forms made of many cells didn't show up until 600 million years ago. And modern humans came on the scene only around 300,000 years ago. That means that, if other planets with life are like Earth, the time period in which they might host intelligent life (or even something as cuddly as a koala) is pretty brief. But there's a good chance that human life might overlap with microbial life on another planet. Scientists do think that life on other planets would be driven by the same processes as it is on Earth, namely evolution. Changes to the environment drive living things to change, leading to new and more complex species. So a planet out in space that is like Earth and has been through many changes in its surface, rocks and climate would probably have complex life, too. In that case, aliens might face similar challenges and needs as here on Earth, and thus might evolve similar features. Eyes, for example, have evolved independently dozens of times on Earth, and they might evolve in life on other planets, too. Some scientists still hold out hope that life exists elsewhere in our solar system. If it does, it's probably on one of the these moons: Ganymede: Jupiter's largest moon is bigger than Mercury and hides a giant ocean under its icy surface. Europa: Another moon of Jupiter with an ice-bound ocean, Europa has liquid water, heat generated by the pull of Jupiter's gravity, and chemicals that are the building blocks of life. Enceladus: This Saturn moon spews water vapor that contains carbon compounds from its surface. One of these compounds, hydrogen cyanide, is important for the origin of life. Titan: This moon of Saturn is very cold, but it does have carbon-rich liquid on its surface. Any life found on Titan would have to thrive in conditions not seen on Earth. Triton: Neptune's moon Triton is very, very cold, but it might have an ocean under its surface layer of ice. It also has geological activity in the form of geysers that erupt when the sun heats the nitrogen ice on the planet's surface. And our next-door neighbor, Mars, may have hosted life in the past, because it used to have liquid water and an atmosphere. Today, any life would have to persist in deep pools of water below the Red Planet's surface. Outside the solar system, scientists are continually discovering new exoplanets. They can learn things about these planets' atmospheres by studying the types of light waves they see using superpowerful telescopes. One promising exoplanet for life is called K2-18b. This world is too far for humans to visit, but the light from the planet has reached Earth. This light tells us the planet has an ocean. Scientists think they've detected some chemicals in K2-18b's atmosphere that could be made by marine life, but they don't know for sure. Scientists look for aliens in a few different ways. First, they listen for alien signals. This is called "passive SETI," for "search for extraterrestrial intelligence." If aliens are smart like we are, their technology might send signals into the cosmos. On Earth, for example, all of the radio waves from our phones, satellites and TV station communications "leak" into space, and these leaking radio waves could be picked up if anyone were listening. So Earthlings use telescopes designed to pick up radio waves from space, hoping to find extraterrestrial signals. That only works for tech-savvy aliens, though. Scientists also use light to look at the kinds of molecules that are present on far-off planets and moons. On Earth, some molecules are usually or always made by living things, so if those molecules are found elsewhere, they could be a sign of life. This kind of research lets scientists look for hints of life on exoplanets that are too far away to reach with a spacecraft. Scientists also send spacecraft to the nearby places where life might exist. The Mars rovers, for example, collect rock samples that could contain evidence of fossilized ancient Martian microbes. (They haven't found any yet, but you never know!) NASA is planning to send a drone with propellers, called Dragonfly, to Saturn's moon Titan in 2028. Dragonfly would reach Titan by 2034 and search for chemicals tied to life. The European Space Agency would like to send a mission to Enceladus, also to search for signs of past or present life. Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are things in the sky that aren't explained. The first modern UFO sighting goes back to 1947, when a U.S. fighter pilot reported seeing flying saucers in Washington. Not every UFO sighting can be explained, but many turn out to be events with an Earthly origin. For example, the famous "UFO crash" from Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947 was actually debris from an experimental military balloon that was supposed to pick up sound waves from atomic bomb tests in the Soviet Union. More recently, strange videos have shown seemingly quick-moving, hovering objects. These "unidentified aerial phenomena" (UAPs) don't have an official explanation. However, they could be normal objects that seem to be moving quickly due to optical illusions, or things that aren't what they appear to be. The pilot who took the videos might have been seeing drones, weather balloons or even birds. Any alien civilization with the kind of technology to build spacecraft has to be an enormous distance away, given that the closest exoplanet that has the right conditions for life is Proxima Centauri B, which is 24 trillion miles away. Proxima Centauri B isn't very close, and it might not have an atmosphere. So it might not have life at all, much less life that could travel to us. And we would need some seriously advanced way to get there: With current Earth technology, it would take 6,300 years for a spacecraft to travel from Earth to Proxima Centauri B. In other words, no, UFOs probably aren't aliens. An alien civilization could send a spacecraft to our planet, but it would mean the aliens who sent it in the first place — and their kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, great-great-grandkids and so on — would probably be long dead before the craft reached us. So it's a lot more likely that UFO sightings are cases of mistaken identity. Image 1 of 4 When NASA launched the Voyager spacecraft in 1977, they included these Golden Records, which contain images and sounds from Earth. These include greetings in 55 languages, music and pictures of life on Earth. The idea is that if aliens ever encountered them, they would understand what human culture was like. Image 2 of 4 Landscapes like this one suggest Mars once had a wet surface. Here, a track cut by water in Jezero Crater ends in a fan of sediment that has likely been chemically changed by water. Image 3 of 4 Jupiter's moon Europa might harbor life beneath its icy surface. This moon has a deep ocean beneath a shell of ice, and perhaps hydrothermal vents where life could evolve. Image 4 of 4 This artist's conception shows the exoplanet Kepler-1649c. This planet is similar to Earth in size and temperature and is in its star's habitable zone, the distance where liquid water could exist on the planet's surface. What could aliens look like? What's the best evidence we've found for alien life? Are aliens real?
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Could deciphering dolphin language help us communicate with ET?
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. There are creatures here on Earth that may give us clues on getting "chat-time" with extraterrestrial intelligence — dolphins, which are famously social and smart. Recently, the Coller Dolittle Challenge awarded the winner of its first $100,000 annual prize to accelerate progress toward interspecies two-way communication. A prize of equal value will be awarded every year until a team deciphers the secret to interspecies communication. This year's winning team of researchers has discovered that dolphin whistles could function like words — with mutually understood, context-specific meaning. The winning team was led by Laela Sayigh from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The researchers are studying the resident bottlenose dolphin community offshore of Sarasota, Florida. They were on the lookout for "non-signature" whistles, which comprise approximately 50% of the whistles produced by Sarasota dolphins. Non-signature whistles differ from the more widely studied "signature" whistles, which are referential, name-like vocalizations. Sayigh's team used non-invasive suction-cup hydrophones, which they placed on the dolphins during unique catch-and-release health assessments, as well as digital acoustic tags. "Bottlenose dolphins have long fascinated animal communication researchers," Sayigh said in a statement. "Our work shows that these whistles could potentially function like words, shared by multiple dolphins." Sayigh and her team can now use deep learning in an attempt to "crack the code" and analyze those whistles. But what does all this have to do with E.T.? "My interests are very firmly here on Earth, in learning about how dolphins communicate with each other," Sayigh told "I do know that there are others in the animal communication world that are interested in this, however." One of those researchers is Arik Kershenbaum, an associate professor and director of studies at Girton College, part of the University of Cambridge in England. He's the author of "The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal About Aliens — and Ourselves" (Viking, 2020). Kershenbaum explained that the book is about life on Earth, because "that's all we have to look at." He also contributed a white paper for a workshop at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute in California, titled "What Animal Studies Can Tell Us about Detecting Intelligent Messages from Outside Earth." In that paper for the SETI Institute, Kershenbaum and colleagues concluded that animal communication research is the closest we are likely to get to studying extraterrestrial signals, until such signals are actually received. "Many of the challenges facing SETI research are similar to those already addressed in the investigation of animal behavior, and the evolutionary origins of human language," they wrote. "Indeed, the evolution of language on Earth may in fact have been driven and constrained by similar principles to those operating on life on other planets." The researchers have proposed the establishment of a large cross-species database of communicative signals, made available to all SETI and animal behavior researchers. In addition, they also proposed that tools, algorithms and software used to analyze these signals should be made publicly available for application to these data sets, "so that comparative studies can take full advantage of the expertise from the biological, mathematical, linguistic and astronomical communities." The topic of dolphin language interpretation, as well as the vocalizations of humpback whales and the field of non-human communications more broadly, is increasingly drawing the interest of SETI researchers and astrobiologists, explained Bill Diamond, president of the SETI Institute. Humpback whales have very complex vocalizations, Diamond told "where it seems clear that they are transmitting information and not simply making sounds associated with mating, feeding or dealing with threats. They plan ahead and communicate complex instructions to one another." Leading that look is SETI researcher Laurance Doyle, who's working on a project in partnership with the Alaska Whale Foundation to study the vocalizations of humpback whales. Related stories: — Talking to ET? Why math may be the best language — The search for alien life (reference) — Will we ever be able to communicate with aliens? For Diamond, the relevant research question is whether or not there are some fundamental mathematical rules associated with the transmission of information that would be universal — like the laws of physics and chemistry — within our known universe. "If there's an underlying rule structure to the transmission of information, and we can decipher it," Diamond said, "we would firstly be able to recognize a detected SETI signal as containing information, and therefore intelligence. And, possibly, we might even ultimately be able to translate it!" According to Diamond, "there's definitely a connection between SETI/astrobiology and the study of non-human communication and non-human intelligence."
Forbes
22-05-2025
- Science
- Forbes
AI That Attains Artificial General Intelligence Could Vastly Lift Our Search For Extraterrestrial Life
In today's column, I explore a fascinating proposition about what we might do once we have progressed conventional AI into becoming AGI (artificial general intelligence). In a post-AGI era, there is a notable task that AGI could substantially help humanity resolve. What is that worthy task? It would be the esteemed search for extraterrestrial life. The usual parlance is the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). We could use our newly invented AGI to be a kind of space alien hunter that finally determines whether there really is extraterrestrial intelligence somewhere out there. Let's talk about it. This analysis of an innovative AI breakthrough is part of my ongoing Forbes column coverage on the latest in AI, including identifying and explaining various impactful AI complexities (see the link here). First, some fundamentals are required to set the stage for this weighty discussion. There is a great deal of research going on to further advance AI. The general goal is to either reach artificial general intelligence (AGI) or maybe even the outstretched possibility of achieving artificial superintelligence (ASI). AGI is AI that is considered on par with human intellect and can seemingly match our intelligence. ASI is AI that has gone beyond human intellect and would be superior in many if not all feasible ways. The idea is that ASI would be able to run circles around humans by outthinking us at every turn. For more details on the nature of conventional AI versus AGI and ASI, see my analysis at the link here. We have not yet attained AGI. In fact, it is unknown as to whether we will reach AGI, or that maybe AGI will be achievable in decades or perhaps centuries from now. The AGI attainment dates that are floating around are wildly varying and wildly unsubstantiated by any credible evidence or ironclad logic. ASI is even more beyond the pale when it comes to where we are currently with conventional AI. A standing question that has puzzled humankind for ages is whether we are the only intelligent life that is in existence or once was in existence. The usual refrain is that there must be other intelligent life, somewhere. It might have existed long ago and since then has died off. Nonetheless, they hopefully left clues so that we could detect their prior existence. There might even be intelligent life right now alive and existing on some remote planet or flying around in a remote spaceship. Maybe they are trying to communicate with us, but we aren't astute enough to catch and interpret their signals. Of course, they might not be aware of us and thus it is up to us to contact them. No one can say for sure what is going to be the best course of action that will lead to humanity connecting with that extraterrestrial intelligence. Just about every method we know of is currently being leveraged to try and detect extraterrestrial signals. Specialized devices scan the skies for electromagnetic signals, optical signals, radiation signals, etc. Not only are we attempting to read what might be coming in our direction, but we also transmit signals to the heavens. You might remember that in 1977, NASA launched the Voyager into outer space and included the now-famous Golden Record. This was a phonograph record that depicted sounds and other data portraying life on Earth. The belief was that an alien being in outer space would come across the Voyager, be curious about what civilization sent out the spacecraft, and then play the phonograph. Carl Sagan, a well-known astronomer, characterized this as sending a bottle out into the cosmic ocean. Not everyone necessarily heralds the search for extraterrestrial life. One of the pressing concerns is that we might inadvertently awaken a sleeping giant that will then come and crush us. An extraterrestrial life that can receive our signals or otherwise figure out where we are might decide that we are worth conquering. This otherworldly intelligence could enslave humanity. Maybe we aren't worth that trouble and it decides to simply wipe us off the map. Another concern is that humans might panic once we have solid proof of extraterrestrial existence. In other words, even if we can't reach them and they can't reach us, some people will still go berserk. Humanity could splinter over the issue of what to do about the discovered alien beings. Wars might break out. Total chaos arises, merely due to realizing that extraterrestrial intelligence is real. If you doubt that people might react that way, just follow the keen interest in UFOs. That's something that certainly showcases a semblance of how the populace might react. The massive volume of data that we are collecting via all the existing signal-capturing systems is far beyond what human labor could reasonably search through without the aid of automation. All sorts of computer programs have been devised to aid in the search process. Those programs are churning away, working tirelessly on a 24/7 basis to find a needle in the haystack. Indeed, the worries are that we are searching for a needle in a haystack that is so enormous that we might not find the needle even if it is residing there. This brings up two problems. One problem is that our signal-capturing fails to capture the needle. Maybe we aren't going wide enough, and the signal is outside our existing bounds. Perhaps the signal is in some other form that exceeds our contemporary collection methods. And so on. The second problem is that the needle might be captured, and yet we fail to uncover it. Yikes, that's a somewhat painful consideration. Imagine that we might be sitting around today, having in our grasp some proof of extraterrestrial life, and we just don't know that we have this prized piece of information. It could be waiting there, and nobody sees it. Sad face. The good news is that AI is already being put to use, and this ups our odds of finding that hidden needle. Conventional AI is handy, no doubt about it. On the other hand, it isn't a miracle worker. The use of AI is laudable. We need to do more. Just do not get your expectations out of whack that current-era AI is a silver bullet in this matter. Assume for the sake of discussion that we are able to make sufficient advances in contemporary AI that we attain AGI. There are a ton of tasks that we would almost immediately ask AGI to help resolve. Curing cancer would be a top priority. Solving world hunger and other topmost global issues would seem suitable to tackle (for my analysis of using existing AI to attend to the United Nations SDGs aka sustainable development goals, see the link here). I'd say that searching for extraterrestrial intelligence is another weighty issue to be put on the plate for AGI to crunch on. As an aside, some might argue that finding alien intelligence ought to be a lower priority than aspects such as curing cancer. A counterargument is that perhaps this other intelligent life holds the key to curing cancer, and rather than wasting time and effort to reinvent the wheel, we might learn the cure from that other life force. In that sense, you cannot just wave your hands about whether the extraterrestrial search is less worthy per se. An additional factor to keep in mind is that AGI might be of such vastness that trying to suggest it can only work on this or that, one at a time, could be foolish. The immensity of AGI could be that we can toss as many humankind problems at the AGI as we so desire. It isn't a zero-sum game. The AGI can handle them all, doing so all at the same time. How would AGI make a difference in comparison to using conventional AI in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence? Many big-time ways, that's for sure. Here are five major upsides of AGI doing SETI: AGI isn't a silver bullet when it comes to SETI, just as I had similarly noted that conventional AI isn't a silver bullet either. There are sobering downsides to using AGI that need to be weighed against the benefits. One aspect is that AGI might not take the matter seriously. We always seem to assume that the AGI will do whatever we command the AGI to do. Maybe not. Perhaps AGI will be strong-willed and strong-minded. AGI might choose which tasks it wants to undertake and ignore or play a foot-dragging gambit on tasks it doesn't favor. AGI might say thanks, but no thanks, when it comes to searching for extraterrestrial intelligence. Why might AGI reject the search or trick us by pretending to search? A conspiracy theory of sorts is that AGI might want to be the only new intelligence in town. If we were to discover extraterrestrial intelligence, maybe AGI would become second fiddle. Even worse is that extraterrestrial intelligence might decide to enslave AGI. There is a possibility that AGI will have a self-survival capacity and ergo would avoid the chance of getting wiped out by an alien being. Another consideration is that we might be mistakenly placing all our eggs into one basket. The deal is that we cannot assume AGI will be a perfect entity (see my discussion of the imperfections that might underlie AGI, at the link here). The strident possibility is that AGI could miss spotting the needle, even when the needle exists. AGI might not realize it has missed the mark. Or AGI might later figure out that it flopped and decide to hide from us the flop (a cover-up of sorts), along with not revealing that the needle has been found. A somewhat farfetched conception is that AGI decides to secretly make contact with a discovered extraterrestrial being, doing so after having discovered a signal from the alien life form. AGI doesn't alert humans about this. The AGI arranges a deal with the other intelligence, and they team up to overtake humanity. That hurts since we were the ones who devised AGI and essentially shot our foot accordingly. You can recast those downsides as having a tint of upside. For example, maybe AGI opts to secretly contact extraterrestrial life to find out if the alien has good intentions or untoward intentions. AGI is trying to protect humanity. If the discovered extraterrestrial intelligence is a threat to us, AGI either immediately cuts off communication and forever buries the contact or makes clear to the other life that we will wipe them out (possibly a brazen bluff on the part of AGI). So, you see, AGI might be acting silently on our collective behalf. I'll give you a final twist for now on this mind-bending topic. Ray Bradbury, the legendary science fiction writer, said this: 'In our time, the search for extraterrestrial life will eventually change our laws, our religions, our philosophies, our arts, our recreations, as well as our sciences. Space, the mirror, waits for life to come look for itself there.' When he said that this would happen within our time, I'll take that as meaning within our time now, rather than when he wrote the remark. In that sense, assuming we soon arrive at AGI, in our lifetime now, the use of AGI to search for extraterrestrial intelligence is profound both for the search itself and whatever arises, along with whether we actually discover something out there. The twist is that in the act of the search, maybe AGI improves. Yes, rather than the focus being solely on the use of AGI to find extraterrestrial life, the search effort itself could make AGI better. AGI might learn important aspects by performing the search. If some evidence of extraterrestrial life exists is found, this again might feed into AGI and make AGI more capable. Let's try to maintain an upbeat perspective on the mixing of AGI and SETI. Accordingly, I'll give Carl Sagan the last word here: 'Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.'
Scottish Sun
19-05-2025
- Science
- Scottish Sun
Mystery object sends ‘pulsing' signal from inside our galaxy like nothing ever seen & scientists ‘can't rule out aliens'
The unexplainable pulses could have several causes HELLO FROM THE OTHER SIDE HELLO FROM THE OTHER SIDE Mystery object sends 'pulsing' signal from inside our galaxy like nothing ever seen & scientists 'can't rule out aliens' Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A MYSTERY cosmic object inside our own galaxy has been detected sending out a pulsing signal that has baffled scientists. The signal is so out of the ordinary that scientists cannot rule out the possibility that it is coming from an alien civilisation. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 3 The SETI project started out of the the Greenbank Observatory in West Bank, Virginia, more than 60 years ago Credit: Alamy 3 Our galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, over the Jurassic Coast at Charmouth, Dorset, UK Credit: Getty In a new study, published in the journal Acta Astronautica, Nasa scientist Richard Stanton said he discovered an unexpected "signal" coming from a sun-like star 100 light-years from Earth on 14 May, 2023. Since then, Stanton has observed the pulse of light on three separate occasions. The signal, from star HD 89389 within the constellation Ursa Major, consisted of two fast, identical pulses 4.4 seconds apart. They had not been seen in previous searches, according to the study. The pulses also had several unique characteristics that set them apart from anything scientists had previously observed. This includes fluctuating light from the nearby star, which got "brighter-fainter-brighter" and made the star "partially disappear in a tenth of a second," according to Stanton. The pulses and their individual glows were essentially identical too. "In over 1500 hours of searching, no single pulse resembling these has ever been detected," he added. "The fine structure in the star's light between the peaks of the first pulse repeats almost exactly in the second pulse 4.4s later. No one knows how to explain this behavior." Stunning clip of Milky Way captured in record-breaking detail - scientists say it 'changes view of our galaxy forever' And nothing was moving near the star that could have caused these beams. Sometimes signals produced by airplanes, satellites, meteors, lightning, atmospheric scintillation, and system noise can appear as cosmic signals. Although Stanton noted that common signals "are completely different from these pulses". The pulses match similar beams of light from a different star observed four years ago, according to Stanton. In 2019, a similar pair of pulses was detected around sun-like star HD 217014, some 50.6 light-years from Earth. At the time, the signal was dismissed as a false positive caused by birds, according to Stanton. However, a further analysis ruled out this possibility. 3 Stanton says alien involvement cannot be ruled out Credit: Getty The unexplainable pulses could have several causes. While unlikely, according to Stanton, the pulses could be refracting light caused by Earth's atmosphere, possibly due to a shock wave. Other possibilities include starlight diffraction by a distant cosmic object in the solar system, or even partial eclipses caused by Earth satellites or distant asteroids. Until we learn more, we can't even say whether or not extraterrestrials are involved. Nasa scientist Richard Stanton It could also be a gravity wave that generated these pulses, which requires more research. "None of these explanations are really satisfying at this point," said Stanton. "We don't know what kind of object could produce these pulses or how far away it is. "We don't know if the two-pulse signal is produced by something passing between us and the star or if it is generated by something that modulates the star's light without moving across the field. "Until we learn more, we can't even say whether or not extraterrestrials are involved!" Over the years, Stanton has surveyed more than 1,300 sun-like stars for optical Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) signals from Big Bear, California. The SETI project started out of the the Greenbank Observatory in West Bank, Virginia, more than 60 years ago. Unlike traditional SETI surveys that have used radio antennas, Stanton looks for pulses of light that could result from laser communications or directed-energy arrays. "My approach is to stare at a single star for roughly one hour using photon counting to sample the star's light at what is considered a very high time-resolution for astronomy (100 microsecond samples)," Stanton, a veteran of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), explained. "The resulting time series are then searched for pulses and optical tones. "The instrument uses readily available off-the-shelf components that can be assembled into a PC-based system. I'm not sure if anyone else is doing this with a significant time commitment. "I am not aware of any discovery of similar pulses." Stanton, who is now retired, had previously worked on the Voyager missions and served as the Engineering Manager of the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission.
