The Search for Alien Life: Why We Can’t Stop Despite the Risks

More than 40 years ago, NASA launched interstellar messages into deep space to potential alien beings who may come across them. It did this via the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft programs in the 1970s. We sent out messages that included gold discs with various audio greetings, sounds and music to demonstate our human culture. METI, the Messaging Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence organization, is at it again.

This time, they want to beam out a message, referred to as “Beacon to the Galaxy,” with detailed directions inviting aliens to earth. METI’s president Dr. Douglas Vakoch believes that it is worth the risk of harm in order to find out more about alien life. He says that even if we only get one response from an alien civilization, it would be well worth the effort.

What drives man to search for alien life, despite the risks?

Well-worn story drives our imagination

Our culture is replete with stories of aliens visiting earth to bestow amazing technologies upon us. From religion to philosophy to legend, these stories have been with us for millennia. There are those that believe aliens visited early Egyptians, or that earth was originally seeded by extraterristerals. The Roswell incident of 1947, which is deeply embedded in our collective psyches, only adds to the growing legend.

Movies have also explored what has become a staple of science fiction. Intellectual movies like Arrival point to enlightened beings coming to share their knowledge. Then, there’s the popcorn-fare Independence Day, with a plotline that highlights the danger of alien visitors with much more sinister goals.

Friendly explorers or destroyers?

Although these types of stories are a fun diversion, scientists have warned of the real dangers of sending out a roadmap to earth into the far reaches of space. METI’s project has been met with criticism from some of the world’s most famous scientists.

Among them is Stephen Hawkins, who was adamant that sending out invitations from earth was dangerous. “Encounters between civilizations with advanced versus primitive technologies have gone badly for the less advanced,” he said. As for Christopher Columbus meeting Native Americans in our history as an example of this, he noted “That didn’t turn out so well.”

For land, resources, or subjugation, men have conquered others through the ages. We’ve done it, so why couldn’t others do the same to us? Why take the risk?

Knowledge drives human progress

Steady human progress is largely driven by leveraging new ways of thinking and technology to master its surroundings. From the wheel to the supercomputer to spaceflight, we continually strive to advance our knowledge through the possibilities we discover or create.

Consider the Kardeshev scale. It posits that the advancement of a society depends on two things: technology and energy. The more energy you can produce, the more technologically advanced you are. However, we have yet to reach a Type I civilization on the point scale (we’re about a 0.7 now).

Courtesy of: https://kardashev.fandom.com/wiki/Kardashev_Scale_Wiki

Damned if we do, damned if we don’t?

Our paltry rating on the Kardeshev scale makes you think we have a long way to go before we are secure enough to invite random guests to our planet. On the other hand, maybe we’ll never substantially progress before we destroy ourselves through mismanagement of our environment and resources without benevolent extraterrestrial help.

The search for alien life is a quandary that continues to drive our imagination. Are we so arrogant to believe that we are the only ones out here? Or are we just hopeful that someone else is out there and can show us the way?

METI’s project may be controversial, but it embodies the boundless human spirit of exploration and discovery. Whether or not we should be looking for aliens is a question that will continue to be debated. But as long as there are people like Dr. Vakoch, the search will continue.