Archive Project - College Essays #2

Archive Project - College Essays #2

This is the second of a series of essays I found on old floppy discs ... This is from an English 201 class I took while working on my second BA from 95-96 ...


The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence:
Seeking Credibility and Little Green Men


Residents of a planet circling Alpha Centauri should be celebrating the Chicago Bulls 1991 NBA Championship any day now. It has only been a few months since CNN broadcasts about the end of Operation: Desert Storm could have traveled the four and a half light years to our nearest stellar neighbor to be picked up by possible residents. If those people are out there we could pick up their broadcasts as well. Listening for possible extraterrestrial life is a worthwhile venture that promises to probe the very real question so many people ask, “Are we alone?” Astronomers refer to the listening to interstellar radio frequencies The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence or SETI. In essence, we are listening to static from space while trying to tune in a station we only hope is actually out there.
Radio astronomy is a sub-discipline of astronomy that looks at the cosmos via radio waves and other carrier wave frequencies. Telescopes for radio astronomers search the non-visible spectrum for radiation signatures of stellar bodies and other radio transmission sources. Originally radio astronomy developed as a means for searching for hidden treasures in space like black holes, quasars, Big Bang background radiation, and pulsars. Today many radio astronomers are convinced that radio astronomy could be the tool that helps humanity determine if there is intelligent life beyond earth. Utilizing several massive radio telescopes and sophisticated computers an active search for extraterrestrial intelligence is underway. The program originally begun by NASA has been shifted to the private sector (Shostak 28).
Current technology allows radio astronomers to monitor over eight million possible frequencies. Computers then sift through the accumulated data for any possible repetitions or patterns that could indicate a non-natural source. The greatest scientific hurdle for radio astronomers is sorting through the static to rule out reflected radio transmissions from earth and natural interstellar emission sources like pulsars. A big fear for radio astronomers in active SETI search is that they could “discover” alien life only to have it turn out to be an Australian Top 40 station. Considering the vast amount of terrestrial radio wave activity, sorting through the static is a sizable chore (Shostak 29). Despite these daunting tasks radio astronomers continue the painstaking search through the millions of frequencies in hopes of finding out humanity is actually not alone in the universe.
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence faces other problems as well. NASA funded a large scale program that began scanning the heavens on October 12, 1992, the 500th anniversary of Columbus arrival in the Americas. Hopes were high in the astronomical community that a proper search could finally be done that could put to rest the extraterrestrial question one way or another. The plug was pulled within a few months by Congress in a bill sponsored by Nevada Democrat Richard Bryan, who was openly critical of the very nature of the project (Helmers 17).
Public funding for NASA projects is under the microscope due in part to NASA’s much publicized series of problems and tragedies like the Challenger explosion. The current political climate toward the federal budget and cutting spending by the government has NASA pondering the future of the organization itself, let alone a project such as SETI. After the federal plug was pulled private sources were able to get the program to continue running (Helmers 18). Using the sizable clout of Carl Sagan, the Planetary Society and the SETI Institute were able to raise the several million dollars necessary to run the program for at least a few years (Sagan, The Search 98). With or without NASA support the search for extraterrestrial intelligence continues.
The possibility of extraterrestrial life remains. Stories of UFO abductions and government conspiracies have turned a reasonable scientific venture into a scientific venture in search of credibility. Where UFO conspiracy theories focus on humanity as a victim of an evil alien presence they fail to take into account the known laws of physics in relation to time, speed, and space travel. As far as is currently understood true interstellar travel could only be accomplished over generations. Thus, the likely best chance of finding out if humanity is alone or not is by listening for their presence, not looking for hidden FBI files about evidence of alien infiltration in the United States government (Sagan, Dot 351). SETI researchers must stick with known physics and cannot afford themselves the luxury of ignoring physical laws if they ever wish to be taken seriously by the general public.
Humanity has reached a stage of technological development in the 20th Century that allows us to use carrier wave frequencies for communication and entertainment. A civilization in another part of the universe that has reached a similar stage of technological development could conceivably need to use carrier waves in the same way humanity does. An assumption regarding the laws of physics being universal and a society discovering the carrier wave must be taken into account. There are unimaginably many star systems out there where life could have arisen. It does not seem unreasonable to think that another species has developed radio (Sagan, Dot 66). The vast distances involved in interstellar communication mean that even if intelligent life exists and has reached our level on Alpha Centauri we would only be hearing their Top 40 from four and a half years ago today. If the nearest extraterrestrial life is not in the local group of stars but is instead tens of thousands of light years away and arose at roughly the same time as humanity to this technological level then it could be ten thousand years of listening to eight million channels of static before we hear the first songs from the alien equivalent of Elvis. Of course, if the supermarket tabloids are right we could hear any new songs Elvis has been working on any day now.
Even if we don’t hear them interstellar neighbors within fifty light years are beginning to hear us. Transmissions from earth have been strong enough since the 1930s to leave the earth and travel the vast distances to the stars (Sagan, The Search 96). Humanity’s wars, politics and entertainment programs go out into space every day for consumption by anybody out there interested in listening.
It is easy to view the SETI Project as a silly quest for little green men. Science fiction aside most people think of aliens being out there as a vague possibility at best. It is difficult to get people to admit that they think aliens exist. The very notion of such a thing is still viewed as childish fantasy.
Implications on humanity’s very nature of existence are brought up to the surface by the SETI Program. Humanity is currently the highest form of intelligent life known to exist in the universe. Religions discuss life after earth but not life other than on earth. The implications on theology should extraterrestrials actually exist are potentially quite staggering. It is safe to say that there are people who don’t want little green men to be out there.
Searching for extraterrestrial intelligence is a worthwhile venture for a variety of reasons beyond simply finding out if humanity is alone in the universe. The technological advances involved in breaking down and shifting through radio frequencies to over eight million discernible frequencies will have long term influence on telecommunications worldwide. The ability to shift through the static and narrow frequencies is going to allow greater worldwide communications networks to emerge (Helmers 16). As with most scientific endeavors a sort of fringe benefit exists with breakthroughs impacting other areas of technology and society.
We may not detect evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence during the current search or within our lifetimes. In fact, detection may never happen. Not detecting anything is not conclusive evidence that extraterrestrials don’t exist, it only means that we can’t hear them if they do. If they are out there and we do eventually detect them we will be faced with many new problems. What would we say in response to an interstellar message? How will we explain the Village People?


Works Cited

Helmers, Carl. “SETI as a Way to Encourage Public Awareness of Science.” SETIQuest Sept. 1994: 16-18.

Sagan, Carl. Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. New York: Random House Inc., 1994.

Sagan, Carl. “The Search For Extraterrestrial Life.” Scientific American Oct. 1994: 92-99.

Shostak, Seth. “Listening For Life.” Astronomy Oct. 1992: 26-33.