First Contact Scenarios – Confusion

Imagine that an intelligent alien species has discovered us, and that they have the ability to journey to Earth to make first contact.

It may sound like a fantastical scenario better suited to fiction than to science, and for more than two centuries this has largely been the case, but over the last few years a number of scientists have begun to debate first contact scenarios, both in scholarly domains and in the mass media.

What do you think first contact would be like?

I’ve had a few ideas of my own, inspired heavily by sci-fi I admit, and in previous posts I’ve looked at scenarios in which the aliens may not even be interested in us, or that they may make first contact with us, but covertly. In this post I’ll look at the idea that they do try to make an overt first contact, but that we may have a mutual problem in understanding each other.

First Contact Scenarios – Espionage

Imagine that intelligent alien life exists, that its discovered humanity, and that it has the technology to reach us. What would first contact between humanity and aliens be like?

In the first post in this series I looked at the idea that advanced alien civilisations might be totally indifferent to our existence and would simply choose to ignore us.

In the other scenarios in this series I’ll assume that they are interested in us, and in this post, that they arrive on Earth, but in a rather covert fashion.

Life in our Solar System – Jupiter

In a previous post I talked about the possibility of life existing on, or in, some of the moons of Jupiter, with Europa being the best candidate.

But how about life existing within Jupiter itself?

Life in our Solar System – Europa, Ganymede & Callisto

Astrobiology is all about finding alien life, and many astrobiologists believe life could be found in our Solar System, on Mars, on moons like Titan, Europa or Enceladus, and potentially on other bodies, like Kuiper Belt Objects.

In this post I’ll look at why some scientists think life may exist on Europa, and maybe even Ganymede and Callisto too, three of Jupiter’s largest moons.

So what’s so special about theses ice worlds?

Nick Bostrom on the Fermi Paradox

The Fermi Paradox is an idea that complements the Drake Equation. Enrico Fermi asked the question, if there are so many stars in our Galaxy, and therefore probably many Earth-like planets, then there should be lots of alien civilizations in the Milky Way, but why haven’t we found evidence of them? Why not?

Nick Bostrom talks about the Fermi paradox, and some possible solutions, in the video below. It’s not as smooth as the Carl Sagan clip I just posted, but he has some interesting ideas. Nick Bostrom is a philosopher from Oxford University, and has some interesting ideas on human enhancement, the survivability of advanced civilizations and the nature of reality by the way, his website is full of interesting stuff.

What do you think is the answer? Are we alone? Is there alien life in our Galaxy, but just simple life? Or are advanced alien civilizations doomed to wipe themselves out as they become more technologically advanced?

If you like to read more about the Fermi Paradox, I’ve written a short post here, and a couple of posts on possible solutions here and here.

Carl Sagan on the Drake Equation

Carl Sagan was awesome, he was an American scientist, his interests were pretty broad, he was an astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist and astrobiologist, and he was also passionate about teaching science to the general public; he wrote a number of science books and had an award winning TV series called Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. Sadly he died in 1996 aged only 62.

In this video he’s talking about the Drake Equation, the equation used to estimate the number of advanced civilizations in our Galaxy. It’s an awesome concept, and Carl explains it beautifully.

We don’t know the values of most of the variables in the equation yet, particularly the ones towards the end, as Carl demonstrates by calculating an answer between 10 and millions of advanced civilizations, but the Drake Equation is a great way to help us organise our thinking about astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial life (SETI).

It’s also fun to work out your own answer to the equation based on what you belief the value for each variable should be.

If you want to read more about the Drake Equation I’ve written a short post here.

Panspermia: did life on Earth come from space? – Part 2, intentional panspermia & cosmic amino acids

Panspermia is the idea that life could have emerged on an alien planet, and then could have travelled through space to Earth, where it flourished and evolved into all the life we see today. So you, your family and your cat could all be aliens.

In the first post I looked at the idea that this alien life could have been simple bacteria, and could have travelled to Earth early in its history either in spores or in asteroids or comets. This is very much the ‘traditional view’ of panspermia.

In this post I’ll look at some alternative forms of panspermia, such as the idea that intelligent aliens may have deliberately seeded Earth with life.

Panspermia: did life on Earth come from space? – Part 1

Panspermia huh? Sounds a bit unsavoury doesn’t it? Suspiciously like something you’d find on the internet; not on a science blog.

It’s actually the idea that life on Earth could have come from elsewhere in our galaxy, that life may have travelled through space originating from a different planet, and when it reached ours it flourished and evolved into all the different forms we see today. So we may actually all be aliens. Great idea huh? Pretty awful name though.

Sperm actually means ‘seed’ and pan means ‘all’ so panspermia means all-seed, OK that doesn’t really help, I’m not sure who first coined the term but they certainly didn’t have a flair for marketing. Anyway, how likely actually is it?

In this first post I’ll examine the ‘traditional view’ of panspermia, including some evidence, and in the next post I’ll look at some more extreme versions of panspermia, such as the idea that intelligent aliens deliberately seeded the galaxy with life.

The inspiration for these posts came from commenter hartm242 who gave me the idea of writing about panspermia in the requests section of this blog. You should definitely check out his excellent blog too, it’s about exploring alternative forms of life on planets unlike our own, and he’s created a hypothetical alien planet with its own biosphere.

Advanced alien civilizations, have we already found some?

Lots of scientists think our Galaxy should be full of advanced alien civilizations (see the Drake Equation and Fermi Paradox posts). But when they’ve looked the Galaxy appears to be quiet and lonely. Where are all the alien civilizations they ask?

Many insane people would of course argue with this, pointing out that aliens have visited us; that they created the pyramids, Atlantis and humankind itself. That they regularly abduct and probe drunk Americans, that the government knows and is covering it up, and that the government itself may even by aliens, alien communists, sent here to steal freedom from God-loving Americans. But then they’re insane. None of this is true.

In a previous post I argued that alien life might be common, but that simple life rarely evolves into intelligent life, and that even if it does, intelligent life may not exist for very long. However I may be wrong, I’m wrong about things all the time, especially as some astronomers may have discovered evidence for vast alien structures in space, I shit you not.

Why the Universe may be full of life, but not intelligent life

In three previous posts (part 1, part 2 & part 3) I summarized the key highlights of the history of life on Earth, beginning with the Earth’s creation (hint, not by God), and ending with humans’ inventing the radio. I described the most important events, but I didn’t spend any time looking at their implications, particularly what this means for the search for alien life.

What can the history of life on Earth can tell us life on other planets?