Many scientists are “listening” with giant radio telescopes, hoping to catch signals coming from distant civilizations beyond Earth

Many scientists are “listening” with giant radio telescopes, hoping to catch signals coming from distant civilizations beyond Earth. But others believe that communication with aliens could only bring disaster.

After more than 60 years of searching for extraterrestrial intelligence, humanity finally received a message from space on May 24. Three of the world’s leading radio astronomy observatories have detected a signal coming from somewhere near Mars, according to Vox. Its contents have not yet been decoded.

Wait, this message isn’t actually from aliens! It is we humans who have organized the transmission, to simulate the situation of “SOS has a message from space”.

This is like a fire drill – a chance to see how we would all react if a message actually came from extraterrestrials.

Are the great powers willing to cooperate with each other? Can scientists and the public join hands to decode the message? Who will decide how we respond to aliens, or choose to “keep silent”? Will humanity make decisions democratically, or will it all be consumed by authoritarianism, cynicism and conspiracy theories?

This global “forum stage” is part of the “A Sign in Space” project of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) research organization. Artist Daniela de Paulis along with a team of scientists came up with the content of the encrypted message.

With imagination, humans have created countless alien creatures, but most of them are voracious. Acid-blooded xenomorphs just want to eat us and lay eggs in our chest cavities. The Kanamit of the Twilight Zone, with their saintly appearance, just want to fatten us up and then eat us. The list is longer.

But the biggest obsession with a fierce extraterrestrial civilization is not strange and sticky bodies, but a computer program like in the science fiction movie A for Andromeda (1961).

In the movie, no one is eaten, there is only a plot to invade the Earth and conquer humanity, but that is enough to send chills down the spine because many scientists have called the threat by the correct name. fear – a threat that will exploit our curiosity for the stars.

If super-advanced civilizations in outer space want to come here, the most effective way to “clear the way” is probably not fleets of spacecraft tearing through the Earth’s atmosphere, but mysterious pieces of information that can be obtained. sent quickly. In other words: malware from space.

In 2010, physicist Stephen Hawking spoke about the dangers of “advertising” our existence to aliens: “If aliens visit us, the result will be the same as when Columbus arrived in the Americas, an event that did not end well for the Native Americans”.

Scientists in Hawking’s “side” often argue that: aliens do not necessarily intend to use violence to harm us, they may just see us as… roadside ants. They will step on us on their way to another place, and not mind it in the slightest.