Aliens, etc.

The search for intelligent extraterrestrial life is now a legitimate scientific enterprise. Directly relevant knowledge is piling up so quickly that one of the biggest discoveries of all time may soon take us by surprise. I have been closely following the progress of astronomy since 1952, and I sense that something is in the air. At least, I believe that it is prudent to be prepared for what will truly be a major turning point in history.

More than 150 extra solar planets have been detected since the first ones were found a few years ago. New ones are being discovered at the rate of about three a month. In April 2005, The New York Times Featured the first photographs of a planet orbiting another star. Progressively smaller planets are showing up out there, and the race is on to find the first, earthlike planets circling distant suns. An array of planet-finding satellites is scheduled for launch soon. Powerful telescopes aboard these spacecraft will photograph ear-sized planets, even showing major geological features. Spectroscopic analysis will determine the makeup of their atmospheres. Perhaps the chemical signatures of alien life will be seen. Meanwhile, radio telescopes are sweeping the skies, listening for electromagnetic signals that distant civilizations may be emitting. Soon, the planet-finders will be giving radio astronomers better and better clues as to where to aim their telescopes.

Concurrently, biologists have determined that life thrives under a far wider range of conditions that they once believed. It has been found in scalding hot salt springs, in the water that jackets nuclear reactors, in rocks brought up form miles beneath the surface of the earth. The odds that life exists elsewhere in the universe are increasing with each passing month.

It is astonishing that most people seem to be hiding their heads in the sand about what is going on in astronomy. By and large, most people do not seem to know or care about these truly epoch-making events. But society cannot afford to be taken off guard by the discovery that we are not alone in the universe. After all, nothing will ever be the same, from that point on. Philosophy, science, religion, the very way people think about themselves, will be transformed forever.

There needs to be a good, public airing of the possibilities, and a blue-ribbon panel, as it were, of the wisest scholars from every discipline. One problem they may well need to address is why so many seem determined to hide form what is possibly the biggest question of existence. It looks to me like people avoid the issue in four main ways. Firstly, some ridicule the question, “Life in outer space! Har, har, har! You mean little green men? Har, har, har!” Secondly, some open their Bibles and pontificate, “Why, it says right here in the book of whoever, verse whatever, that there is no life beyond the earth!" Thirdly, we are trying collectively to confine extraterrestrials to the realm of fiction. The more science fiction books on this topic the better, I suppose. Perhaps they are preparing us for the big day by picturing a wealth of different possibilities for our consideration. Still, one function of presenting extraterrestrials as fiction, is to comfort us with the thought that they are just fiction. Fourthly, some are avoiding the issue of extraterrestrials by affecting to believe that extraterrestrials are already here! Conspiracy theorists taunt us with the claim that the aliens are pickled in tanks in Nevada and the government is covering it up. UFOlogists would have us believe that the red and white flashing lights Aunt Florence saw from her veranda one night last week were alien spaceships out for a ride. “Believing” in baloney like that is just an entertaining way of not having to face up to the very real, accelerating scientific developments that portend to change humankind forever. I predict that when ET Day comes, conspiracy theorists and UFOlogists will be the first to deny the validity of the new discovery. Information that explosive and far-reaching in its implications will likely collapse all existing presuppositions and ways of thinking about sentient extraterrestrial life. It will be the end of human society and history, as we know them.