The Appropriate Search For Extraterrestrials
The searches for extraterrestrial seem to be popping up everywhere. What is the problem with this? There is no problem as I have said before with the idea of a search, but there are several problems with the way we are going about it. An announcement was made stating the SETI institute, that is the Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is joining forces with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and now that agency is going to use their moveable array of radio telescopes to also search for other civilizations with SETI. SETI must be happy about this because the National Radio Astronomy Observatory has one of the most powerful arrays in the world. So, what is the problem?
I have always said it seems like radio signals would not be used by an advanced civilization and other civilizations that might use them could be gone far before we ever received a signal from them since they only travel at the speed of light. If we want to use radio signal detection, I think it should be limited to very nearby systems and is impractical beyond those distances.
As we are finding out quantum entanglement could be used someday for instant communication anywhere in the universe. While we don’t know exactly how yet, we should be working on detecting quantum signals. I admit I don’t know even if that is possible, but that is why we have experiments. It could turn out when we finally conquer this type of communication, world’s of information will open up to us. There could be quantum entanglement broadcasts all over the universe. It might be the extraterrestrial equivalent to how our planet is now covered with all types of radio wave signals.
It could turn out we will learn something from the Large Hadron Collider one day about some unknown element which will allow much faster communication than anything we have now. It is like our ancestors trying to find drum signals from other continents. The search for extraterrestrial life has to get more sophisticated. We have been trying to find signs of extraterrestrial life using a radio telescope since 1960. Since then, for the last 60 plus years we have not found one extraterrestrial civilization. One time there was a tantalizing hit known as the WOW signal, but it was never found again and could have been caused by something we had in orbit.
According to what people are thinking today, the answer to detecting some extraterrestrial races may be the discovery of other dimensions. We think they exist and have the equations to prove it, but we are yet to actually see one, let alone knowingly receive a communication from one.
The problem is the method of communication, but having said this again, the idea of using mathematics seems to be a good idea since any advanced race would need that knowledge. I can imagine an advanced race being contacted this way which is far ahead of us and after being contacted and examining our mathematical principles, deciding not to respond because we seem to be too primitive. Using a picture system as we have in the past, might prove to be more advantageous. Done correctly, it might be a way to exchange information on a basic level.
Trying to figure out the most efficient way to get one’s ideas across to an alien race is not easy since we would have no idea even if they would be capable of communicating on the same level as us. Their biology might prevent this. For example, they may not even see the same way we do, making it impossible for them to interpret any pictures we send to them as a communication device. Their brains might assemble the lines differently in those drawings. I never hear much about this.
My point being just because we see things one way, doesn’t mean an extraterrestrial race would see them the same way we do. If we draw a square and look at it, we see a square, but what if an alien sees a square as a triangle or some other shape. This is just a simple illustration of what I am talking about. Maybe there is a big difference in the way different brains see things.
Some people believe the answer is music as in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Hey, that was only a movie and maybe aliens have never heard music or perceive it differently and find it very annoying. The one way which some researchers claim to reach close by extraterrestrials in their UAPs is by using telepathy and some claim to have accomplished this. It is impractical for long distances, but the researchers claim with training humans are capable of doing it.
We keep hearing all about wormholes. We also hear about blackholes. I read something interesting the other day and it had to do with using a blackhole for communication. I don’t understand how and I know the author didn’t either, but since a blackhole is incredibly powerful, he mused it might be able to send out a super strong signal of some kind which could reach anywhere in the universe. The problem I had with this idea is it seems it would still be limited by the speed of light, but if an advanced civilization could solve this part of the problem, maybe he would be proven correct.
There might also be a way to use a wormhole to communicate, even with a radio signal if another race was on a par with us. Wormholes are thought to be shortcuts in space. Lately there has been talk by some scientists of maybe being able to create a wormhole. All I have to say about wormhole creation is seeing is believing, but be that as it may, if we could create a wormhole near a planet which had a race at a similar stage of development and they also used radio waves, maybe we could contact them by sending out a signal through a wormhole we created and then using the same wormhole they might be able to reply.
Communications with extraterrestrials is only the beginning of the problem. The ideal way might be with a translator, something like the one called the universal translator used in Star Trek. This might be one place where artificial intelligence would be very helpful to us. There are those who believe AI can’t be trusted because it will destroy us and maybe mess with a translator to get us into a war. I think that is a little much to believe right now.
I think we have a way to go before we discover the best method to use to explore the heavens for an alien signal and again reinstate, if it comes from a planet far away, I bet that signal won’t be a radio signal.