image by Steve Jurvetson
From time immemorial man has dreams of encounters with the aliens. There have been books written on it, movies made and it is the stuff of romantic scientific fantasy. I am however certain that even if there were other intelligent beings elsewhere in the universe, chances are that we will never get to communicate with aliens.
This, in spite of the fact that there was a news item some days back that the chances of finding alien life were given a boost after NASA revealed it had found evidence of more than 1200 planets in orbit around far distant stars. It is also stated that if the findings are confirmed, it will more than triple the number of the known planets outside our own solar system in one full sweep; amazingly 54 of them could support life.
Why do I think we may never be able to communicate with aliens
The answer lies in the fact that planets that could support life are so far away that a meaningful communication would just not be possible. The NASA discovery is a case in point. According to the scientists, the newly discovered planetary system made up of at least six planets that could support life are orbiting a star 2000 light years away!
2000 light years away?
So even if we were to make a rocket that traveled at the speed of light, it will take us 2000 years to reach them. Any message that they give will take another 2000 years to reach us. Can we have a communication where each dialogue takes 4000 years to complete?
In 4000 years the entire complexion of the human race will have changed. A message sent by us and answer received by someone 50 generations down the line – by that time even the question will have been forgotten.
At the rate at which we are destroying the planet, I wonder if human race will be alive to receive a reply.
Even if we were to be able to send a signal to the aliens living in that planet, it would still take 4000 years to get a reply because the signal too will take 2000 years to travel each way. Remember Einstein placed a cap on the speed – nothing can travel faster than light.
And to compound the matters, how would the aliens understand what we have to say – they may not know any earthly language.
Spending money to find aliens in futile
And that is yet another reason why I feel that this entire attempt to get in touch with the aliens is futile. It is possible that they may have sent us messages in the form of radio signals and because we don’t understand their lingo, we may be treating those signals as plain noise!! After all, you can decode a message only if you know two things – one that signals are being sent and two, the language of the sender.
I'd like to know what are your thoughts on this interesting subject. Do you think that aliens exist. I think aliens do exist. But we can't communicate with aliens for the reasons I mentioned above. What do you think – can we or can we not communicate with aliens?
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It would seem then that the only way to communicate is by teleporting, a la star trek!
Yes, it would seem so. Only thing is that I don’t know if tele-porting is possible at speeds greater than that of light. If not, then the situation will be the same and there can be no meaningful communication.
Makes sense / other reason is to support all companies supplying all equipment & machine for helping in research.
Well that is a different perspective Ricky. I agree – search for aliens will help companies in their R&D effort.
What a pity it will be if we find that there are no aliens!
Hi Richard, I am certain that there would be many other planets in the universe where there must be life. It is hard to believe that of the billions of seeds sown, only one (earth) germinated.
My only regret and submission is that we may never be able to communicate with them because of the vastness of the universe. It took a few thousand years for people to find America when it was right here on earth. Imagine what kind of time we will take to find any other life in the universe. And we will not be able to have any meaningful discussion with them. That is the real pity.