Oxford scientists have warned that NASA’s plan to send Earth’s location into space could prompt an alien invasion.
The US space agency’s researchers have supported a broadcast message dubbed “Beacon in the Galaxy”. Its goal is to welcome extraterrestrial intelligence. It’s an upgraded version of the Arecibo message, which was transmitted for the same reason in 1974.
More information can now transmit thanks to advancements in digital technology. The new message consists of basic mathematical and physical concepts to establish a universal means of communication followed by information on the biochemical composition of life on Earth.
It also includes digitized depictions of the solar system, Earth’s surface, and male and female humans, as well as the solar system’s position relative to prominent star clusters. The message finishes with an invitation to answer from the intelligence.
But, according to Anders Sandberg, a senior research researcher at Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute (FHI), sharing such data with intelligent life poses a danger of alien invasion that everyone must consider.
Overall risk and benefit factor remains minor
Although the chances of the message reaching an alien culture are slim, Dr. Sandberg told The Telegraph that “it has such a high impact that you actually need to take it rather seriously.”
He said that the “giggle factor” surrounding the search for extraterrestrial intelligence meant that “many people just refuse to take anything related to it seriously. Which is a shame because this is important stuff”.
Overall, both the risk and the potential benefit, according to Dr. Sandberg, were minor. Given the difficulty of crossing huge swaths of interstellar space, a communication received by even the most evolved civilization might be little more than “a postcard saying, ‘Wish you were here,'” as Dr. Sandberg described it.
Humans have already transmitted multiple broadcasts into space, including several ads, notably the Arecibo message. “The poor aliens might already be getting various messages sent for all sorts of reasons,” said Dr. Sandberg.
Dr. Sandberg said that humans collaborating as a species would be a better method than individual organizations shooting off ad hoc missives. “We’re not great at coordinating, but I think it is a nice exercise,” he said.
Toby Ord, Dr. Sandberg’s FHI colleague, made similar arguments in The Precipice, a book published in 2020 that examined humanity’s existential threats.
Dr. Ord proposed that “public discussion” should take place before sending alien signals. Thereby, noting that “even passive SETI (listening for their messages) could hold dangers, as the message could be designed to entrap us.
“These dangers are small, but poorly understood and not yet well managed.”
The downside could be much bigger than the upside
Overall, wrote Dr. Ord, “the main relevant question is the ratio of peaceful to hostile civilizations. We have very little evidence about whether this is high or low, and there is no scientific consensus. Given the downside could be much bigger than the upside, this doesn’t sound to me like a good situation in which to take active steps toward contact.”
The message would be sent from FAST (China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope) and the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array in northern California, according to Nasa scientists. The broadcast does not have a date yet.
In the past, scientists like Stephen Hawking have warned that these signals could be dangerous. Professor Hawking stated in a video aired in 2010 that on Earth. Encounters between civilizations at differing levels of technological advancement may not always work out well for the less-advanced society.
Professor Hawking cited the advent of Europeans in the Americas as an example of how sentient life could grow into something we wouldn’t want to encounter.