Faces from Earth

SETI, or the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, has been conducted by a variety of professional and amateur scientists since 1960 (or 1924 if you want to count a campaign that year which listened for any radio messages from the presumed natives of Mars). SETI primarily involves the passive listening or looking for transmissions from alien civilizations. More recent SETI projects have also attempted to detect the massive technological activities of really advanced societies in our galaxy and beyond or any probes that might be lurking in our Solar System quietly monitoring humanity.

Our present level of space technology does not allow us to directly explore even the nearest star systems. As for the numerous if often sporadic SETI programs that have been operating around and even beyond our globe for the last fifty years, they rely heavily on either an alien society deliberately signaling us or we get lucky enough to pick up a stray transmission from one of them. Throwing in the fact that our Milky Way galaxy holds hundreds of billions of star systems has some scientists advocating a less passive approach to learning if Earth is the only planet with intelligent life or not in the Cosmos.

Dubbed METI, for Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligences, this concept involves transmitting our own messages and beacons into the galaxy to alert alien societies to humanity’s presence to make it easier for them to find us and respond in kind. As might be imagined, there has been plenty of debate over whether METI is the right way for humanity to find alien intelligences or if it will only make a malevolent species aware of Earth as a target of conquest and destruction.

In order to make some determination whether METI is humanity’s path to becoming a productive and progressive part of the galactic community or the route to our doom, let us look at the pros and cons of what also goes by the name of Active SETI.

For those who may still wonder and question just how much weight the words of the famous cosmologist Stephen Hawking hold for the concept of alien intelligences and their potential reactions to encountering humanity, consider this: A new science fiction film coming out this November titled Skyline has recently premiered its theatrical trailer, which you can view here:

The trailer begins with the line: “On August 28th, 2009, NASA sent a message into space farther than we ever thought possible... in an effort to reach extraterrestrial life.”

Several months ago, the famous British physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking shared his views on extraterrestrial intelligences (ETI) with the intelligent beings of the planet Earth. This was done in no small part as a way to gain publicity for his new television science series, Stephen Hawking’s Universe, video clips of which may be seen here: http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/stephen-hawking/

A Faces from Earth campaign to introduce the concept of possible extraterrestrial life, interstellar messages and the importance of the Voyager missions to school students.

"Faces from Earth is paying tribute to the Voyager missions and the grand concepts embodied by them and all those who made it possible.  For in a very real sense the space probes became reality by a collective effort of our civilization, both directly and indirectly.  The Voyagers gave us our first real taste, both through their journeys past immense and amazing alien worlds as never witnessed before and the messages and information they carry in those small golden discs on their sides, of what the Cosmos is really like and how we in turn appear in relation to all that vastness of space and time.

Faces from Earth is keeping alive those representation and messages for the current and future generations of humanity, for we are even now becoming Citizens of the Galaxy, no longer confined to the savannahs or villages or even this single planet.  While we are still very much the biological creatures of our distant ancestors, we now have an awareness and abilities they never dreamed of.  We must mature into the species we are moving towards, one which embodies and embraces new worlds and new ways of life scarcely imaged in the past or even now.  Faces from Earth will work together with all those who share the dream of being part of a humanity achieving its full potential among the stars."

- from: The Enduring Legacy of the Voyagers – by Larry Klaes, our Lead Journalist

The campaign shall introduce the following questions to students: 

• what if there is extraterrestrial life out there?
• what would we say to a hypothetical E.T.?
• what would you have included in the Voyager Golden Record?
  

This is the second campaign of the series and it will run as a tribute to Voyager missions on their 33rd launch anniversary – Voyager 1 - 5 September 1977 and Voyager 2 - 20 August 1977. The campaign will focus on our past space probe messages – the Pioneer Plaque and the Voyager Golden Record -, radio transmissions (Arecibo Message, Cosmic Calls, Teen Age Message, ...).  The same time we introduce our project Faces from Earth.