Where are the Extraterrestrial Civilizations?
POSTED BY: second
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 16:24
VIEWED: 27776
PAGE 5 of 17
If aliens are calling, let it go to voicemail
Receiving signals from extraterrestrial civilizations could pose an existential risk. Really.
In the 1961 sci-fi drama A for Andromeda, written by the British cosmologist Fred Hoyle, a group of scientists running a radio telescope receive a signal originating from the Andromeda Nebula. They realize the message contains blueprints for the development of a highly advanced computer that generates a living organism called Andromeda.
Andromeda is quickly co-opted by the military for its technological skills, but the scientists discover that its true purpose — and that of the computer and the original signal from space — is to subjugate humanity and prepare the way for alien colonization.
No one gets eaten in A for Andromeda, but it’s chilling precisely because it outlines a scenario that some scientists believe could represent a real existential threat from outer space, one that takes advantage of the very curiosity that leads us to look to the stars. If highly advanced aliens really wanted to conquer Earth, the most effective way likely wouldn’t be through fleets of warships crossing the stellar vastness. It would be through information that could be sent far faster. Call it “cosmic malware.”
Intelligent extraterrestrials who want to hack our planet scenario became a bit easier to envision this week. On Wednesday, a story published in China’s state-backed Science and Technology Daily reported that the country’s giant Sky Eye radio telescope had picked up unusual signals from space. According to the piece, which cited the head of an extraterrestrial civilization search team that was launched in China in 2020, narrowband electromagnetic signals detected by the telescope differed from previous signals, and were in the process of being investigated.
The news is a reminder that there is little in the way of clear agreement about how the world should handle an authenticated message from an apparent alien civilization, or whether it can even be done safely.
The idea that there could be alien civilizations capable of crossing interstellar distances and showing up on our planetary doorstep beggars belief. But transmitting gigabytes of data across interstellar distances would be comparatively easy. After all, human beings have been doing a variation of that for decades through what is known as active messaging.
More at https://www.vox.com/2022/6/18/23172689/aliens-china-sky-eye-telescope-
existential-risk-seti
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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NASA Set To Unveil The Deepest Image Of The Universe
https://www.industryleadersmagazine.com/nasa-set-to-unveil-the-deepest
-image-of-the-universe/
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NASA says its plan to bring Mars samples back to Earth is safe, but some people are worried
https://phys.org/news/2022-07-nasa-mars-samples-earth-safe.html
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‘Great scientific step forward’: Construction of world’s largest radio observatory is finally under way
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04254-7
NASA’s Plan to Make JWST Data Immediately Available Will Hurt Astronomy
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasas-plan-to-make-jwst-dat
a-immediately-available-will-hurt-astronomy/
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
...why, after 60+ years of looking, and despite the periodic excitement around Tabby’s star and ‘Oumuamua and the like, have we not seen a single undisputed sign of an extraterrestrial civilization?
Because we don't really have the ability to pick up signs of civilizations. We assume they're using radio, but we don't know that, and we've only been looking for radio signals for a few decades. Also, the signals we put out are so weak that an alien civilization might not even be able to pick them up, even if they knew where to look or how to receive them. Plus, our radio signals have only reached a distance of 100 light years, so only star systems 50 light years out (that's 971 stars) will have had a chance to respond.
In short, we don't really know what to look for, and we have no way of knowing if other civilizations are even interested in us finding them.
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All of the bases in DNA and RNA have now been found in meteorites
https://24leak.com/all-of-the-bases-in-dna-and-rna-have-now-been-found
-in-meteorites-2/
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NASA Explains Why We May Not See Aliens (Yet)
https://gizmodo.com/nasa-explains-why-we-may-not-see-aliens-yet-200048
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Quote:Forbes Magazine Explains Why We May Not See Aliens (Yet)
Originally posted by JAYNEZTOWN:
NASA Explains Why We May Not See Aliens (Yet)
https://gizmodo.com/nasa-explains-why-we-may-not-see-aliens-yet-200048
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Space Aliens Are Likely Very Few And Far Between, Says New Paper
By Bruce Dorminey, Senior Contributor to Forbes
I cover aerospace, astronomy & hosted The Cosmic Controversy Podcast.
Jul 18, 2024, 05:13am EDT
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2024/07/18/space-aliens-are
-likely-very-few-and-far-between-says-new-paper/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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JWST spots the first known ‘steam world’
The exoplanet GJ 9827d seems to be a “steam world” with an atmosphere full of water vapor, and is an unlikely place to find life
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/jwst-spots-the-first-known-steam-w
orld
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target with JWST
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