Publisher's note: Yes, this is off topic, even if
there are a lot of Mac users running SETI@home on their computers.
However, the 50th anniversary of SETI makes this a timely topic, and we
suspect that many Mac users are also science fiction fans.
dk
Some 70% of respondents to a recent online (unscientific)
CTV News Web poll last weekend affirmed belief in extraterrestrial
life.
Looking for ET
The poll question's topical hook was the as yet spectacularly
unsuccessful Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project's
50th anniversary, marked by release of a new book by Arizona State
University theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and astrobiologist
Dr. Paul Davies,
entitled The Eerie Silence: Why Do Aliens Ignore Us?
I find Star Trek and similar science fiction as entertaining
as the next person, but my abiding perception is that there's vastly
more fiction than science in the SF genre. I mean, warp engines?
Universal translators? "Beam me up"?
All great fun and convenient devices to prop up the conceptual
premise, but hardly plausible, although I hasten to acknowledge that
convincing anyone, say 150 years ago, that transmitting sound and
pictures through the air or creating tools like computers would've been
a very tough sell, so who knows?
But for now....
My short answer to Dr. Davies' book's titular query is that it's
probably because there aren't any aliens out there to pay us attention.
The thought that more than two-thirds of poll respondents imagine there
are is disconcerting, as is the notion that if, for argument's sake,
there were other intelligent life forms out there, they would be
capable of communicating with us (using a universal translator
perhaps?), and possessing compatible technology to do it with, not to
mention the vast distances involved making any communication from deep
space highly unlikely.
Optimism about the development of life that even approximates our
form and essence somewhere out in the cosmos simply flies in the face
of reason and logic, amounting to anthropomorphic narcissism. When you
consider the intricately complex, narrowly constrained, fragile, and
highly interdependent set of conditions and circumstances that are
required for life on this planet and are critical to its sustenance, it
would take nearly identical conditions existing elsewhere for a similar
process of development to have occurred.
It's a vast universe. One can't categorically dismiss the
possibility that such might indeed exist in other solar systems, but
they certainly don't in ours. Forms of organic life? Perhaps, although
there's no evidence, not for lack of looking. Intelligent life? I'm
highly skeptical.
In his CTV interview, Dr. Davies acknowledges that SETI was
perceived as a quixotic enterprise at best when conceived back in the
1960s. He now worries that the pendulum has swung too far in the other
direction, not just among the general public, but also perceiving
"rather too much credulity in the scientific community for the possible
existence of intelligent life. I think we have no evidence one way or
the other. We should remain open-minded but skeptical," further
observing: "There's not many people who would design an experiment, get
null results for 50 years and still keep cheerful about it. It's
astonishing."
To say the least.
Not that Dr. Davies is an extraterrestrial life pessimist. He's an
avowed firm disbeliever in UFOs and alien abductions, but he advocates
shifting SETI's focus from scanning the depths of space for radio
signals to looking for any signatures of intelligence, ways in which
alien technology might have left subtle footprints in the universe.
Well, good luck with that. I won't be around, but I'm pretty confident
predicting that if the SETI project does survive another half-century
in whatever form and focus, it will still have turned up zip by
2060.
If intelligent extraterrestrial life exists, will it be our friend or
our foe?
Beware Extraterrestrials
Even if I'm mistaken about that, attracting aliens' attention might
not be the wisest plan, according to no less than renowned physicist
Stephen Hawking. According to a
report in last weekend's London Sunday Times, Hawking, in a
new Discovery Channel documentary, contends that the incomprehensible
vastness of the universe makes it unlikely that Earth is the only locus
for life to have formed and evolved, but rather than seeking them out,
humanity should be doing everything it can to avoid any contact with
intelligent extraterrestrials.
Hawking thinks that alien life forms would most likely be the
equivalent of microbes or simple animals rather than highly intelligent
forms, but that contact with the latter, should they indeed exist,
could pose a devastating threat to humanity, commenting: "If aliens
ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher
Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for
the Native Americans." Lots of food for thought there.
Hard to Swallow
Dr. Davies told CTV that while it's arguable that life is a freak
accident confined to Earth, he finds that hard to swallow. Me too, at
least the freak accident part, but I suspect for very different reasons
than Dr. Davies.
As a convinced Christian, I affirm the mind of a divine Creator
being behind the design and development of the mind-bogglingly complex,
elaborate, and intertwined tapestry of life and its enabling ecosystems
on this planet, to say nothing of the spiritual elements of
consciousness and experience that Christians believe make humanity
unique within that creation.
But even if one takes a completely naturalistic point of view
without any metaphysical dimension acknowledged, it still beggars
plausibility that just the right set of conditions could have enabled
the formation and evolution of life forms similar enough to us to make
communication possible - or commonly desired. Seems terribly unlikely,
IMHO.
These ruminations bring to mind G.K. Chesterton's observation that
hard-shelled atheistic materialists remain balanced on the very edge of
belief - not belief in God, but an almost touching and childlike
openness to belief in almost any other explanation. Or as Dr. Davies
concedes: "As a human being I would just love to think that there are
lots of aliens out there . . . but in terms of what are the
chances it's very hard to put a number on it." A responsible and
reasonable observation.
Extraterrestrials and Faith
That said, last November the Catholic Church hosted a "study week"
conference at the Casina Pio IV on the Vatican grounds to mark the
International Year of Astronomy, inviting more than 30 astronomers,
biologists, geologists, and religious leaders, including Dr. Davies and
Jill C. Tarter, Director of the Center for SETI Research, to discuss
the question of the existence of extraterrestrials. A
PDF abstract of the proceedings and excerpts from the participants'
presentations is available.
The Church's chief astronomer Father Gabriel Funes had previously
commented in an interview with the Vatican paper, Osservatore
Romano, in 2008:
"Just like there is an abundance of creatures on
earth, there could also be other beings, even intelligent ones, that
were created by God. That doesn't contradict our faith, because we
cannot put boundaries to God's creative freedom. As saint Francis would
say, when we consider the earthly creatures to be our 'brothers and
sisters', why couldn't we also talk about a 'extraterrestrial brother'?
He would still be part of creation."
One of the conference's organizers, Vatican Observatory astronomer
and Jesuit Father Jose Funes, is quoted declaring: "As a multiplicity
of creatures exists on Earth, so there could be other beings, also
intelligent, created by God . . . This does not conflict with
our faith, because we cannot put limits on the creative freedom of
God."
I agree with that latter point, but I remain highly skeptical from a
theological as well as a rational perspective. Dr. Paul Davies observed
to The Washington Post that discovery of extraterrestrial
intelligence would put Christians in a "horrible bind", since "They
believe that God became incarnate in the form of Jesus Christ in order
to save humankind, not dolphins or chimpanzees or little green men on
other planets."
If you're a professing Christian, there is much to mull over in that
more clearheaded and incisive theological exegesis by a (presumed)
secular rationalist than one hears on the topic from many Christian
clerics.
Scientific Progress, but No Contact
SETI's Ms. Tarter commented at the Vatican event that from a single
narrowband channel receiver exploring two stars, the search capacity
has increased by more than 14 orders of magnitude in 50 years and
contended that SETI is well positioned to continue taking advantage of
exponential improvements in multiple technologies.
Still the silence is deafening.
Believers that ET is out there, rock on, but I suggest that after 50
years of fruitless SETI searching, it's time to take Dr. Davies' advice
and at least shift focus.
