[THS] Stephen Hawking takes a hard line on aliens

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Stephen Hawking takes a hard line on aliens

The eminent scientist warns that if there is life out there, we probably don't want it
messing with us

Leo Hickman

guardian.co.uk,

Monday 26 April 2010 17.05 BST

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/26/stephen-hawking-issues-warning-on-aliens


Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in Alien Resurrection (1997). Photograph: Cinetext
Collection/Allstar Picture Library

Has Stephen Hawking been rewatching his box set of the Alien movies?

It would appear so, as his opinion of whether we should make contact with any alien
life forms we discover in the future has suddenly hardened. According to a new
documentary series he has made for the Discovery Channel : "If aliens visit us, the
outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out
well for the Native Americans."

Hawking believes we would be well-advised to keep the volume down on our
intergalactic chatter and do all we can to prevent any "nomadic" aliens moseying our
way to take a look-see. Should they find us here tucked away in the inner reaches of
the solar system, chances are they'd zap us all and pillage any resources they could
get their hands on. Our own history, says Hawking, proves that first encounters very
rarely begin: "Do take a seat. I'll pop the kettle on. Milk? Sugar?"

"Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and
colonise whatever planets they can reach," says the theoretical physicist in Into the
Universe with Stephen Hawking. "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone
make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what
aliens might actually be like."

Any alien who manages to reach Earth is, by definition, going to be far more
advanced than us. Contrary to the claims of our own alien abductees, Hawking thinks
it unlikely aliens will come all this way just to prod and poke us, take some samples,
and pop back home in time for Show and Tell. Logic dictates that we will be the
Stoke to their Chelsea.

It's all well and good Hawking warning us now, but couldn't he have told us to be
more careful a few decades ago? After all, we've been pumping out our musings for
all to see and hear since the very first radio telecommunications were broadcast a
century ago. Any alien with their antennae pointed in our direction would already
have quite a good sense of our intellectual capabilities. All they need do is take their
pick from any of our cultural offerings being broadcast into the ether. (Let's just hope
they didn't tune in when Battlefield Earth was showing, as that paints us in a poor
light on so many levels.)

It's good to see that, since the last time I discussed this subject here on Cif, no more
"Cosmic Calls" have been transmitted into space by people such as Professor
Alexander Zaitsev, the chief scientist at the Russian Academy of Science's Institute of
Radio Engineering and Electronics, who is a keen promoter of METI (Messaging to
Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence).

And there's also not been any update or addition to "Principle 8" of the International
Astronomical Union's Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, which states:

No response to a signal or other evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence should be
sent until appropriate internal consultations have taken place. The procedures for
such consultations will be the subject of a separate agreement, declaration or
arrangement.

However, Nasa did beam the Beatles' Across the Universe towards the vicinity of
Polaris in 2008, in the hope that an alien would take a sympathetic view of John
Lennon's rather hopeful lyric that "Nothing's gonna change my world." (Personally, if
I was an alien in possession of a pimped-up laser, I would set it to "destroy" upon
hearing a song with the opening line: "Words are flying out like endless rain into a
paper cup.")

Really, though, what should our strategy be for contacting aliens? Should we shut
the hell up? Or should we keep transmitting? (Maybe they will catch some episodes of
Lost and be able to tell us what on earth was going on? Or maybe Lost is a big shout
out sent from a distant planet and we just don't realise yet?)

And what if a keen astronomer gives us notice that an advance party of aliens has
entered the solar system and is headed our way at full speed? Should we all fall to
the ground – à la Flash Forward – and play dead? Or should we lay an extra place-
setting at the table and drape a massive peace flag in low orbit?

Thankfully, there are some people on this planet who have given this subject some
serious thought. Earlier this year, Paul Davies, the chair of the Seti (Search For
Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Post-Detection Task Group, told Jon Ronson what his
strategy would be, upon making contact:

We're talking about two civilisations communicating their finest achievements and
their deepest beliefs and attitudes. I feel we should send something about our level
of scientific attainment and understanding of how the world works. Some
fundamental physics. Maybe some biology. But primarily physics and astronomy


Our appreciation of art and music is very much tied to our cognitive architecture.
There's no particular reason why some other intelligent species will share these
aesthetic values. The general theory of relativity is impressive and will surely be
understood by them. But if we send a Picasso or a Mona Lisa? They wouldn't care. I
mean the phonograph disc that went off on Voyager had speeches by Kurt Waldheim
and Jimmy Carter. That's a world away from what we should be doing


One of the first things we might want to say is that there's no unitary government on
this planet, no unitary political philosophy or ideology. We're a great place for
freedom, if not anarchy, and so we're putting together the best possible coherent
package for your consideration, but expect it to be followed up with all sorts of
bizarre and incoherent babble that you must treat with some discretion. Although
how we'll express all this when we only have mathematics in common will be
something of a challenge.

I think Paul Davies is a tad optimistic about how gentlemanly an alien encounter
would be. I'm with Stephen Hawking on this one. Even if we were show to them we
can calculate pi to a billion decimal places, aliens are bound to be trigger-happy
when they meet us for the first time.

And given our past form, who would blame them?