I find it somewhat surprising that so many people are so sceptical here. True, whilst the chances of an alien race visiting us may be remote, it's not impossible. We have been a technological civilisation for only a few generations and before people like Newton came along, we knew surprisingly little about how things work in space. Since then, our understanding has grown considerably but we are basically babies at this stuff. Heck, I may live long enough to see an image of another stellar disk.... My kids will probably see the planets around some stars... if we can avoid wiping ourselves out..
Who knows what another 1000 years, let alone millions of years, of development may bring. Based on the little I know, the planetary catalogue Kepler has popped in the think bag, and what we know about the resilience of life here, it seems to me that there are possibly millions of "advanced" civilisations in our galaxy alone. I can't even imagine what some of them may have achieved. Indeed, a trip across thousands of light years may be no big deal to "them". Of course, our understanding of science sets limits like the speed of light but there have been so many limits broken in the past that I see no reason why "trans-warp drives" don't exist somewhere. Perhaps there is a branch of Science yet to be discovered that allows such things. Its happened before, (Think, radio, infra-red, X-Ray and now Gravitational wave astronomy). What, I wonder, will quantum computing enable us to achieve?
The question I have often thought about is, "So why haven't they contacted us? Well, a couple of possibilities include:
1/ "They" have a principle like the "prime directive". Logical, considering the history of more advanced human societies contact with other groups. (ie) the Spanish in South America. Undoubtedly, "they" would have learned the hard way as well.
2/ "They" may be using transport and communication methods so different from ours that its akin to us trying to understand machine code using a charcoal stick and clay tablet. They may be screaming at us, "Are you deaf?", in a wavelength we haven't even tried yet...
3/ "We are being studied like the "proverbial microbes in a drop of water"
The history of Science is resplendent with examples of people who have been scoffed at and ridiculed for ideas that have subsequently become mainstream, (Darwin, for example). That's a lesson we should always put front and centre when confronted with "fringe" ideas!
This bloke may indeed be pissing his money away, (he wouldn't be the first
), but I've decided to take the "Never say never" stance and I'd advise the bloke according to what I previously said, based on how these things
may move, and what kind of data I'd want to collect to record and support my observations.
He may achieve nothing more than a catalogue of observations that can be used to "eliminate" further misleading "sightings" (useful), or discover something like "sprites" which have a history worth reading about... OR he may get a "WOW" moment that rattles the planet.
The key here is to apply critical scientific analysis to any claims of success rather than blanket cynicism.
Tolerance is a virtue and may save some of us having to wipe egg off our faces in the future
I'd add one more word for those about to scoff. SETI!
sign .
