The debate on whether humankind is the sole creature in the universe has always been suspended between science fiction and a matter of concern. In recent times, it has come nearer to the mainstream, with the former US president, Barack Obama, on record saying he thinks there is alien life out there, however strongly rejecting the claims of alien bodies buried in the secretive Area 51 military facility.
To Bill Diamond, who is the president and the chief executive of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute in California, such opinions are not controversial and speculative. They are foundational.
“Oh, yes, I think there are real aliens. Indeed.” Diamond said in an interview. “It is one of the questions which we pose in case you are interested in being employed in SETI. In case you do not believe in aliens, there is likely no use working with us.”
SETI is the leading body in the world that focuses on the scientific search of life outside the earth. At the age of 69, Diamond manages a group of people to examine vast amounts of data obtained by radio telescopes and scan the universe to detect signals that cannot be attributed to natural phenomena alone.
But Diamond is cautious to avoid confusing scientific investigation and a common myth. He is not discussing flying saucers, kidnappings or humanoids of Hollywood. Rather, he refers to probability, time and evolution.
“The universe is likely to have life,” he said. Intelligence and finally technology, which occurs when you leave simple life to complex will be much rarer, but will still occur in plenty elsewhere statistically.
When inquired about what extraterrestrial life can look like, Diamond dispels stock cliches. He claims that science fiction is inferior to Earth itself.
“It is quite difficult,” he said, “to conceive what aliens could be, looking at creatures like jelly fish, octopuses and whales, animals who already feel almost alien though they are on the same planet as us. If in this case evolution could work out such varieties, it has nothing hard to think of it in other places, even more bizarre.”
The universe is ruled by the same physical laws and therefore alien life would exist through the influence of gravity, chemistry and energy, although not in a human form, he observed. Inhabitants of a bigger planet may be harder to support heavier gravitational acceleration, whereas living beings on smaller planets may be more fragile.
Earlier this month, when Obama was interviewed in a podcast, he reiterated the opinion that there is life off planet, but quickly added that there is no proof that the government is in possession of alien technology, or alien remains.
As far as contact is concerned, Diamond is disillusioned about dramatic encounters. Crop circles, said he, are quite improbable. The planet, its atmosphere and its technology would already be known to any civilisation which was able to reach Earth.
“Radio transmission would be one of the most effective methods of contact with us, I suppose, if they wished to do so, and first contact is probably to come in the form of a discoverable technological signal, not of a physical visit.”
The work of SETI is centered on three methods: direct exploration of the solar system, such as NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars; remote observation (with instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope) to study the atmosphere of exoplanets; and the search of the so-called extraterrestrial technology the technological evidence of an intelligent civilization.
“The time when such a discovery may happen is unknown. It might happen tomorrow or it might take a thousand years,” said Diamond. “But the chance of not having to look to see whether there is life or not is nonexistent.”
The most significant challenge is distance. In the case of Alpha Centauri one signal would take four years to reach the earth, whereas one sent 1 000 light years away would take a millennium, and any reply would take just as long, he explained.
In spite of that, Diamond is optimistic. It has only been slightly more than a hundred years since humanity was radio-capable, and already a hundred and more light-years into space. According to him, our reach will increase with time.
An established discovery would transform human knowledge, he said – which would have a side effect on religion, politics, and world collaboration.
“Surely we would be excited, but not threatened, I hope,” Diamond said. “Perhaps this would take us to remember that we are all on a small planet together, and that we should work together, rather than fighting to divide the pie.”
‘Aliens Real But Not in Form We Imagine’: Reiterates Alien Hunter Bill Diamond of SETI added by Sridhar P on
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