Shhh, don’t wake the aliens, warns Hawking

Stephen Hawking has warned against plans to beam radio messages to possible alien civilisations on distant planets. A number of scientists have supported Messages to Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

These would be sent via signals aimed at areas of our galaxy where Earth-like planets and life potentially exist. However, critics have urged caution

Stephen Hawking has said humans should not engage in such communications, as alien civilisations could have the capability to travel to earth and exploit our resources.

“If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans,” he said.

Space scientist and author David Brin echoed Prof Hawking. “A small cadre of Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence radio astronomers has resisted the notion of international consultation before humanity takes the brash and irreversible step into Messages to Extraterrestrial Intelligence — shouting our presence into the cosmos,” said Dr Brin.

“That’s all very well if the only one you’re putting at risk is yourself. But when that risk is imposed upon our children and all of humanity on the planet, is it too much to ask that we discuss it first?”

Meanwhile, scientists have learned what people would say on making first contact with aliens and it is not “take me to your leader”.

Instead, they are much more likely to ask the extraterrestrials for help. Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence scientist Doug Vakoch said: “One of the striking commonalities — men and women, young and old — was a message ‘please help’.

“A sense that we are in a very precarious time in our development as a civilisation,” said Dr Vakoch. “Our technologies are greater than our social stability. So if we make contact with another civilisation that may be more advanced they may have got through the tech bottleneck and may have some advice,” he said.

The Earth Speaks project involved surveying 2,000 people from 70 countries around the world. It was carried out by scientists who have been listening out for radio signals from extraterrestrials since 1960, so far without success.

A discussion on the next step, transmitting a “hello” message to the stars, is taking place this week at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Jose, California.

Dr Vakoch, from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute in Mountain View, California, said: “We started the Earth Speaks project in 2009 because we wanted to expand the discussion beyond a handful of scientists that have been grappling with these issues.

“When the Voyager spacecraft was sent out by Nasa in the 1970s it was half a dozen specialists.

“If we really want to represent humankind we need a broader representation. We have got input from over 70 countries around the world. Some of the message are like the ones we have heard before. Like the Voyager message ‘greetings from Earth’ — a welcome, wanting to make contact.

“To me, one of the strongest themes that came out is a sense of understanding our commonality — messages like: ‘We are the humans of planet Earth.’

“One speculation has been that if we actually do make contact it will lessen some of the differences between nations, between religions, between ethnicities... it will bring us closer together.”