The idea of our first contact with an alien species developed somewhat over the decades. Sci-fi usually takes the classic troop of a ship from blue one day without any quick signal of communication through math. When they appear on Earth, they are depicted as organic animals (and in large size). But astronomers, physicists, and good people looking for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) are slowly moving away from the idea that it will be something like us when we are confronted with extraterrestrial intelligence.
In an opinion piece in favor of the Guardian, Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the STI Institute, argued that if E.T. As we have to show on the planet, the laws of physics mean we have the potential to face a different kind of intelligence from what we have on Earth. “Any alien that travels to our planet is less likely to have a carbon-based life form, either diamond-suited or hairless,” Dr. Shostak wrote. “Their cognitive skills probably won’t be driven by a single cell that we call the brain. They’ve probably gone beyond biologically smart and invisible biology.” “They won’t survive.”
The reason for this, Shostak says, is that it is not an attractive possibility for organic animals to dedicate their lives and the lives of their offspring to the amount of time it takes to travel inland. Our fast-moving spacecraft will take 75,000 years to reach our nearest star, Proxima Centauri. Although we have strong evidence of life at Proxima Centauri B – the planet discovered in Proxima Centauri’s habitable zone – it would take more than a few thousand people to persuade someone to travel in space on a space ship for a few thousand people. Although alien civilizations may be significantly more advanced than ours and the vast epochs of the universe may work in their technology, they still have to operate within the laws of physics.
If they find a way to speed up the journey, it will come with the price tag of using a huge amount of energy, and even then the distances involved will likely eliminate the possibility of this being possible in the lifetime of the biological organism involved. He argues, however, that you can cover these distances if you will. “Machines,” he wrote, “wouldn’t complain if they’ve been in a spacecraft for thousands of years. They don’t need food, oxygen, sanitation or entertainment. They don’t insist on round trip tickets.”
