We will discover ETs by 2025, expert says

By Dick Pelletier

      

    At a recent San Francisco conference, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) astronomer Seth Shostak claimed that new technologies will enable mankind to detect unmistakable signs of intelligent life in the cosmos by 2025.

    Proof that intelligent life exists in another part of the universe won't come from someone abducted by aliens, Shostak said; it will come from an astronomer searching the sky.

    One method for discovering ETs is to look for radio signals. If intelligent civilizations evolved on other worlds, it's likely we will notice their communications. SETI has pursued this effort for several decades, and with new equipment, they will soon probe 500 light-years in space where thousands of civilizations could be leaking information into the ether.

    Another approach involves powerful telescopes that astronomers believe will identify thousands of Earth-like planets within 1,000 light-years of Earth by analyzing atmospheres. If oxygen, ozone, carbon dioxide, methane, or nitrous oxide is found; this could indicate the presence of intelligent life.

    Regardless of which method succeeds though, we remind ourselves that these discoveries are made using light-speed technologies, which means that the activities we observed actually took place 500 or 1,000 years ago. This begs the question, "What activities are happening on the alien planet today?"

    Resolving this issue requires sophisticated simulations, impossible with current technologies, but with 2020s quantum computers, we could create a simulation that accurately depicts what these extra-terrestrials look like, and even postulate whether they express human-like emotions.

    How might people react to this news? We would obviously realize that we're not alone. Finding other beings could imply that human existence is based on science and we evolved because of ideal conditions on a life-friendly planet.

    But will we fear these neighbors? Today, programs like ABC's "V" and James Cameron's Avatar present ETs as dangerous; but 2025 humans, where nearly every adult and child possesses a 'smart phone' have raised their intelligence levels. Future citizens may recognize that information shared between two civilizations will fast-forward advances for both worlds.

    Comments in this future time might range from "Mommy, when can we visit ET?" to "Don't expect me to invite those spindly creatures into my home."

    Afterwards we will want to communicate with ET, but the universe is huge. Stars harboring Earth-like planets could be 1,000 light years or more away. Communicating at light-speed is not practical.

    The solution, experts say, is to develop faster-than-light (FTL) systems, such as warp-drives and wormholes. In 1994, Miguel Alcubierre designed a spaceship that travels in a wave which causes space ahead of the ship to contract and space behind it to expand. Enclosed in this "warp bubble" and powered by hypothetical exotic matter, warp-drive ships achieve FTL speeds.

    Wormholes provide portals which creates shortcuts between two places in the universe. Theoretically, this could allow messages to reach vast distances instantly. Einstein theorized that wormholes may exist, and experts at the Large Hadron Collider hope to verify this theory.

    Will this future happen? Historians remind us that it's only been 100 years since the Wright Brothers developed airplanes; we've already landed men on the moon, and we'll soon discover ETs. Our exponentially-advancing future could turn these events into reality.

This article appeared in various print publications and on-line blogs. Comments always welcome.