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Implications of the Search and Discovery of Life in the Universe

Explore the possibilities of life elsewhere in the universe, including the prospects for finding life, the implications of contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, and the significance of the search. Topics include the conditions needed for life, likely candidates in our solar system and galaxy, and how different groups might react to contact.

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Implications of the Search and Discovery of Life in the Universe

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  1. Implications of the Search and Discovery of Life in the Universe HNRS 353 Bennett & Shostak SPRING 2019 Dr. H.Geller

  2. Issues to be Discussed • Is There Life Elsewhere • Is life likely • Prospects for finding life • In our Solar System • Elsewhere in the universe • ET and Humans • What impact contact would have? • Examples from our own past • Is the search significant? • If life found or not?

  3. Remember what is astrobiology? • Life in the Universe • Origins • Development • Distribution • Search

  4. Life Seems Likely • What is needed for life? • Right chemical elements • Right environmental conditions • Especially for liquid water • Right amount of time • Without heavy meteor bombardment • With right elements and conditions • Where are these conditions found? • Around individual stars throughout galaxy

  5. Where to look in Solar System? • Remember likely candidates • Mars • Perhaps life in past • Europa • Perhaps life in subsurface ocean • Titan • Perhaps life in “oceans” beneath cloudy atmosphere

  6. Where to look in galaxy? • Disk region of galaxy • Population I stars that have access to heavy elements during formation • Star like our Sun worked at least once • Individual stars • F, G, K most likely for habitable zone over a long enough period

  7. How will we view contact? • General public • Many already believe that ETIs are among us or contacted us in the past or today • “I told you so” attitude may arise • Government • Nations to make treaties with ETIs • Scientists • Let’s study it

  8. Types of Contact • Communications • Radio waves • Other portions of EM spectrum • Artifacts • Remains of space craft • Actual spacecraft • Face to face • What language would they speak?

  9. Response to Contact • Nine principles • Seek to verify evidence • Alert other research organizations • Messages to IAU and UN under Article XI of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space • Disseminate detection “promptly, openly, and widely” including the media

  10. Response to Contact (cont’d) • Remaining (of the nine principles) • Release data for confirmation by others • Confirm and monitor more data recordings • Stop all noise at appropriate frequencies • Do not send a response signal • Advise and consult with other international organizations as to the procedure for further actions

  11. Consider Your Reaction – iClicker Questions • NEWSFLASH: Scientists Confirm They Have Received Message From Another Intelligent Civilization In The Galaxy • Would you change your religion? • A Yes • B No • C Not Sure

  12. Consider Your Reaction – iClicker Questions • NEWSFLASH: Scientists Confirm They Have Received Message From Another Intelligent Civilization In The Galaxy • Would you change your nationality? • A Yes • B No • C Not Sure

  13. Consider Your Reaction – iClicker Questions • NEWSFLASH: Scientists Confirm They Have Received Message From Another Intelligent Civilization In The Galaxy • Would you change your lifestyle? • A Yes • B No • C Not Sure

  14. Consider Your Reaction – iClicker Questions • NEWSFLASH: Scientists Confirm They Have Received Message From Another Intelligent Civilization In The Galaxy • Would you quit school? • A Yes • B No • C Not Sure

  15. Consider Your Reaction – iClicker Questions • NEWSFLASH: Scientists Confirm They Have Received Message From Another Intelligent Civilization In The Galaxy • Would you commit suicide? • A Yes • B No • C Not Sure

  16. Explorations of the Universe:Another View Encyclopedia Galactica

  17. “Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence”- Carl Sagan

  18. Close Encounters • First Kind: Sighting • Second Kind: Physical Evidence • Third Kind: Human-ETI Meeting

  19. UFO - California, November 1896

  20. UFO- England, March 1909

  21. Lessons From Early UFO’s • Both are exactly what people around 1900 would have expected aircraft to look like • Consider: • If ETIs are trying to conceal their presence by using terrestrial-style ships, why are they using searchlights? • Consider: • If we have effective night-vision devices today, why would an advanced ETI need searchlights? • Consider: • people saw a light (Venus, an airplane, a balloon, etc.?) • and subconsciously added details

  22. Near Miss, August 10, 1972

  23. 1972 Near Miss • Object was about the size of a bus • Entered Atmosphere over Utah, travelling north, exited over Canada • Velocity 15 km/sec • Missed by 58 km

  24. Returning to Space

  25. Lessons From a Near Miss • Completely unexpected • Crossed sparsely-inhabited region • Visible a total of 101 seconds • Visible no more than 30 seconds at any one spot • We have dozens of clear photographs of this event.

  26. The Drake Equation • “A wonderful way to organize our ignorance” • - Jill Tarter

  27. The Drake Equation: Another View • Number of Intelligent Civilizations = • Number of Stars in the Galaxy (400 billion) • x Fraction of Stars with Planets (1/4?) • x Number of suitable planets per star (2?) • x Fraction of planets where life appears (1/2??) • x Fraction of planets with intelligence (???) • x Fraction of planets with technology (???) • x Fraction of planet’s life with technology (???)

  28. So Where Are They? • Populations expand exponentially • It would take an exponentially-growing civilization only a few million years to fill the Galaxy, even at sub-light speeds • 2 to the 40th power is over a trillion • If it takes 10,000 years for a colony to achieve interstellar travel, 40 doubling times is only 400,000 years. • So why aren’t they all around us? • Recall the Fermi Paradox

  29. Is There A Problem? • What is ETI psychology? • How well do we understand humans? • Will ETIs be belligerent or altruistic • Why did it take us so long to develop technology? • Why did many civilizations never develop technology? • Maybe we’re first? • Someone has to be the first civilization in the galaxy. • Maybe we’re unique? • But does uniqueness imply solitary?

  30. What is Astrosociology? • Simply put, a combination of astrobiology and sociology • Multidisciplinary science & humanities course • “Extraterrestrial Altruism: Evolution and Ethics in the Cosmos” edited by Doug Vakoch of the SETI Institute • Chapter 5 by Dr. Harold Geller • Harmful ETI Hypothesis Denied: Visiting ETIs Likely Altruists

  31. Other Stuff For the Drake Equation • Jupiter Stabilizes Solar System • Evidence for this with most recent Kepler data • Jupiter lessens impact bombardment • Evidence for this with models using Kepler data • Moon stabilizes Earth’s axial tilt • Physics tells us this • Earth’s magnetic field deflects cosmic rays • This is a fact, and mutations are affected • Liquid Water Zone is narrow and changes with time as stars brighten • Demonstrated from basic physics • Center of the Galaxy Deadly? • Amount of x-rays leads us to believe this is true.

  32. Communicating With Earth’s ETIs • Rosetta Stone, 1799 • Champollion, 1828 • Three Parallel texts, one in Greek • Can we decipher languages with no parallel texts?

  33. CuneiformGeorg Friedrich Grotefend (1775-1853) • Wedge-shaped markings in clay • Simple, hence not pictographs • Found literally by the millions • Seem to be mundane records, official documents, etc. • Probably Semitic language

  34. Cuneiform • Official documents probably had a standard format: “King ---, son of ----”, etc. • Guess words for “king” and “son” • Create genealogy • Compare with genealogies in other documents and match format • Assign sound values to letters • Guess many other words from known Semitic languages

  35. Cuneiform “Empires may rise and empires may fall, but bureaucrats are the same forever.”

  36. Mayan Heiroglyphs • Diego de Landa, 1566 • Responsible for destruction of much of Mayan literature • Left detailed account of Mayans at time of conquest • Described 64 hieroglyphs, equated 30 with letters • Later researchers identified 400-800 • Once regarded as a type example of a language lost beyond recovery • Heinrich Berlin, 1958: -Locality signs • Tatiana Proskouriakoff, 1960- Ascension and Reign signs

  37. Mayan Heiroglyphs • Yuri Knozorov, 1960 • De Landa was too good an observer to be totally mistaken • His “letters” were really syllables • Positional statistics to analyze syntax • Maya hieroglyphs are now over 85% decipherable • Maya were not as one-dimensional as once thought

  38. What if we succeed?Some Features of Culture Shock • Loss of Faith in Beliefs and Institutions • Xenophobia • Over-Dependence, Copying • Nihilism

  39. Arthur C. Clarke’s View • The only way to test the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible • A Agree B Disagree • When an elderly but distinguished scientist says something is possible, he is probably right. When he says something is impossible, he is very likely wrong • A Agree B Disagree • Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic • A Agree B Disagree

  40. Shall We Hide?A Yes B No • Stephen Hawking believed so • http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/space/article7107207.ece • Others have other opinions • http://journalofcosmology.com/Aliens100.html • At radio frequencies • Earth is brighter than the Sun • Signals now 100 light years out • ETIs could determine • Length of our day and year • Size of Earth, Distance from Sun • Draw a crude map of Developed World

  41. Our Views of ETIs • Post World-War II • “Savior Model” • “Hostile ETIs” - Eat or Enslave • Science Source of Fascination and Fear • Winning World War II • Nuclear War • Similarity with Westerns • We’re the Good Guys • Fighting off Hostile Threats

  42. Our Views of ETIs Evolve • 1960’s: Hostile ETI films and Westerns both decline • We’re Not Always the Good Guys • Historical Revision of Frontier • “Spaghetti Westerns”-Dark and satirical • Civil Rights Movement • Vietnam • Star Trek, 1967 • Enlightened, Optimistic Future

  43. Variations • Humans as Helpers: E.T. • Encounter as Wonder: Close Encounters of the Third Kind • Encounter as Dreary: Contact • Swashbuckling: Star Wars • Satire: Men In Black • Return to Hostile ETIs • Star Trek Spinoffs(The Borg, the Dominion) • Independence Day

  44. SETI@Home http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

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