Is the vast universe, is it the sea of stars or the dark forest?

What are the dangers of actively looking for extraterrestrial civilization? If we successfully contact them, will this bring destruction to humans?

Note: If there are aliens really exist, hiding our wisdom and curiosity will only harm us, and it will not stop them from discovering us. We have fear and hope for human beings to find out -of -the -earth civilization, but are the two basis? (Source: muzz32 / pixabay)

If we finally contacted them one day, will this become the end of human beings?

This is a wonderful question about our position in the universe. 13.8 billion years ago, the universe began to have a prototype. The original earth was born 4.5 billion years ago, and life appeared on the earth about 4 billion years ago. The first time of support -living with an intelligent, conscious and advanced civilization. We can receive signals from the depths of the universe to prove its origin and nature, and even start exploring the space space outside our homeland.

Although we have been looking for signs of other wisdom life in the universe for more than half a century, that is, external civilization, but there is no relevant evidence of relevant powerful evidence. However, at the same time, many people advocate broadcasting our position in the universe, informing the existence of our outside civilization, attracting their attention, and then contact with the same advanced civilization with other parts of the galaxy; while others think that this is a one The terrible and may cause its own destruction. What should we think about this? How to do it? This is what Gary Davis wants to know. He asked:

"I have always thought about outside civilization. Everyone here is a layman, but I am disappointed Seeing you think about this problem. "

Regarding the limit of science and technology, it is still unknown risk and return, which is a question worth pondering. The entire society and the future of human beings may be in danger.

Note: If there are wise aliens in the galaxy or the universe, they may be detected by various signals, such as the transformation of the planet or the electromagnetic signal emitted when flying in the universe. But to this day, we have not found any evidence that there may be aliens. We may be lonely in the universe, but because our understanding of related probability is still not deep enough, we cannot make a conclusion. (Picture source: Ryan Somma / Flickr)

What will happen to the first contact with outreach civilization? What would they look like? This problem is full of hope and fear. Although the answer to this question we couldn't know before finding them, there are five possibilities about how the meeting will happen one day:

We found the life of simple microorganisms in our backyard. We will find that the fossils, dormant, and even surviving lives of the earth will not be found in the solar system or surrounding. Space exploration, or a meteorite containing life substances, will lead scientists to get this discovery.

We will discover indirect signs of life on an external planet or outer satellite. By direct imaging or Lingri spectrometry, we will get the characteristics of a planet with life, and to explain that there may be aliens on the planet.

We received and decoded a technical signal of an advanced external civilization. Whether it is a radio waves, electromagnetic waves, or a signal that we can't decoding -maybe it is a high -energy neutrobine -like Seti (Search for ExtraterrestRial Intelligence) scientist research.

We are directly monitored by aliens. Just as those who study unknown flying objects and unknown air phenomena, "Somewhere, where we can not be distinguished by our naked eye, an alien spacecraft is waiting for being discovered by humans.

Maybe some aliens are also collecting signals from the universe, but they have not actively broadcast their information. They are waiting for the news from outdoor civilization. If we send a signal, they will receive it.

For a long time, scientists have been committed to studying the first three possibilities and will continue to study. The fourth possibility is still composed of pseudo -science and conspiracy theories, although some of the latest studies may have changed slightly. But the existence of the fifth possibility brings us great hope and fear.

Note: For the study of outreach civilization, the ideal exterior planet will be a planet. It has a similar volume and quality to the earth, and has a star similar to the sun and the sun and the earth that is similar to us. We have not found such planets, but we are trying to estimate the number of planets that may exist in the Milky Way. In research, we must pay attention to distinguish the biosenus generated by life -such as the existence of oxygen -and the biological signal generated by the inorganic process. (Source: NASA /JPL)

Of course, people hope that there is at least another system that can only be civilized in the Milky Way — a certain moment in history. Like us, they have advanced technology and began to explore the outside world near their mother stars, full of curiosity and hope for the outside world

Maybe they have learned about some answers that we are still studying, such as: How to achieve controllable nuclear fusion, how to solve our current energy problems?

How can they overcome the accumulation and waste of resources, the threat of the global war, and can survive for a long time on their planet?

How rich life is in our universe: on the planets, satellites, smaller celestial bodies in their scholars, or even outside their scholars?

But maybe they have exhausted all their efforts to find signals from civilizations, but they could not be detected for a long time, which led them to give up this effort. Perhaps the reason why the only organization contacted us was that they did not know that we were here, and they did not broadcast their own existence, so we could not know them. If this is the case, then maybe all we have to do is shout: "We are here!"

Once the signals we send reach their position -this may be more than a few light years or even tens of thousands of light years, they can send back a signal, or even a manned task to answer our long -term doubts: Yes There are indeed existence of extraterrestrial creatures, they are here.

Caption: This image of this 2011 (10 years ago) shows the spread of human radio signals in space. One light years is a long distance, but the average stars in our galaxy are tens of thousands of light years. During the time of our broadcast signal, it is estimated that these signals have reached about 10,000 scholars. (Source: ABSTRUSE Goose)

Of course, there is a corresponding concern about each hope, but the concerns mentioned here are not the following situations:

No one can receive the signal

The aliens heard our voice, but they ignored us and chose not to respond

All of our attempts are futile. In a far place, the signal we send is lower than the background noise of the universe, but this still cannot touch the threshold of outreach civilization.

On the contrary, people are worried that aliens who receive this signal may hurt us who send this signal. Imagine that when we declare our existence to the universe, a fighting, plunder alien civilization — its technology may be much higher than us -we will start to invade us.

Because extraterrestrial civilizations may have developed hundreds of years, thousands of years, or even millions of years earlier than us, this technical gap must exist. Therefore, this aggression will be a short and cruel war, which will eventually lead to human beings. Extinction or slavery. Just like the plot of the aliens depicted in many movies invading the earth, but if there is no actual luck such as "Superman Salvation", our human beings will eventually end.

Picture Note: No. 43 Deep Space Station 70m wide radio antenna (picture source: CSIRO)

Of course, since the first broadcast and TV signal began to transmit on our heads, humans have intentionally or unintentionally announced our existence to enough advanced external civilization. For more than 80 years, these signals have enough strength and frequent frequencies. They have passed through the atmosphere of the earth, ionizing layer and Van Alan to enter the universe. If we use the earth as a sphere with a radius of about 80 light years, there are about 10,000 star systems, most of which have not been discovered by humans so far, but they may have received human signals existing on the earth.

However, these broadcasts we are intentionally or unintentional are different from the initiative to explore foreign civilization, which is different.这种行为逻辑基于METI——地外文明通信（Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence），因为这不仅仅是被动收听电波，而是主动发出信息，甚至包括对特定恒星系进行定向广播。 It is this active attempt that has attracted a lot of attention and criticism.

Illustration: The way to find alien intelligence is to send information to them, that is, meti. In the process of trying to communicate with alien civilization, we may receive a response to external civilization we are not interested in (Source: Meti International)

At present, we have gone much far more far from most of us decades ago. In early 1990, we can only use evidence obtained by speculation to prove that there are planets outside the solar system. At that time, we did not know how common planets with the same size on the earth around the solar star; we do n’t know what kind of planets in the universe are common and what kind of appearance is rare; we do n’t know that our solar system is in the universe in the universe Is it different or unpretentious. As of 2021, many things have changed.

There are about 400 billion stars in our galaxy, and we are just one -trillionth of the galaxy in the universe. And in the stars of our galaxy:

80 ~ 100%of the planet and planet system around

About 20%is a solar star, which belongs to the K, G, F subtype

10 ~ 20%of the planets have similar size and quality of the earth

Among the 20 ~ 25%of the scholars, there are planets around the "livable belt" we think, which means that if it has a atmosphere similar to the earth's composition, the temperature on the surface can just make the water in the liquid state.

Integrating the above information, we found that there may be billions of sisters in our galaxy's life -they have the physical conditions that have bred life in the material composition. There are many possibilities outside the planet we survive, but there are still many things we don't know, which leads to our ultimate problem: how many smart, technological existing external civilizations? Illustration: Drake formula, a method of estimating the number of advanced civilizations in the galaxy or the universe. But so far, we can't estimate the value of many of the parameters. (Source: University of Rochester)

According to the New York Times: Everyone, including Ka Daoshis and Douglas Vokkch, believes that the idea of ​​ourselves as "the only seedlings in the village" is very naive. After all, we still I do not know the answer to the three important questions:

How many of the planets we think are livable or have life?

In the planet that produces life, how many lifes have evolved into complex, multi -cell, and highly differentiated creatures in the scale of the time of the universe (such as billions)?

In the world of survival, reproduction, and evolution, how many worlds of life become intelligent and advanced technology?

There are billions of planets that may have life in our galaxy, which is inferred by our known observation information. But we must face our ignorance frankly. If the answers to the above three questions are around 1%, thousands of smart life may have appeared in the galaxy. If the answer to these questions is 0.01%or lower, then we may really be the "independent seedlings" in the galaxy.

The real problem is that if there is no better information about the universe, we cannot know the answers to these questions. But if these steps are really difficult to be unlikely in a sense, then we may really be the lonely soul wandering deep in the galaxy.

Illustration: If the alien spacecraft arrives near the surface of the earth, what may be like our first contact with us. Our greatest fear comes from aliens that may be hostile to humans. They may come to our planet because we have some resources they think are valuable, and we will not consider our life and death at all. (Source: Andrés Nieto Porras)

Let's imagine that if there is really an extra -intelligent civilization, should we try to contact them? Regarding this issue, Gao Daoxiong believes that the result is negative, and thinks that people have fried this problem overnight:

"I think it is a catastrophic idea for broadcasting and propagating our existence. In fact, I think that contact with our opponents that deliberately try to know our unknown will be the biggest mistake in human history. As we know As a result of the demise of civilization ... like A -Gump's fantasies, aliens will be a peaceistist, they will bring advanced technologies that make us benefit, this idea is too naive. "

So, assuming that aliens are like Cortez -have gold jewelry that conquer and pursue wealth, but not the valuable resources we have. The biggest problem of this topic is: If an extraterrestrial civilization has the technical ability of interstellar travel, what kind of resources are scarce in the universe for them and are rich on the earth?

The answer to this question is -no. Nothing on the earth is unique to our planet, and it is easy to synthesize other places, except for intelligent life itself. We have to assume that an advanced external civilization, they are interested in us because of our wide range of themselves, and then they quickly take action to destroy us -this may not be out of any inconceivable reason, just like children will likely Like the mirroring ants, they may only find it interesting that "stepping on these technology babies" is very interesting.

Illustration: The picture shows the pictures of the earth's night lights. The earth will emit electromagnetic signals at night, but if you want to take such a image outside the light years, you need a highly incredible telescope with high resolution. However, an alien civilization that has mastered interstellar travel technology must have the technology of telescope, which can detect a small amount of lights launched by our planet at night: this is a clear feature of scientific and technological civilization (Figure: NASA's Earth Observatory/Noaa/ DOD)

On the other hand, Vokkh made the opposite view. Becoming the "stealth" in the universe is the only reliable way we survive in the island -like world, rather than adding a conversation between civilizations that may actually exist. In his own words:

"Some people will say, well, if they (aliens) know that we exist, what is the significance of our broadcast? We are trying to test the so -called" zoo hypothesis' -imagine we are in the zoo and check the inspection of we are checking and checking the inspection. Animals. We all know that there are animals here. When we walked by a group of zebras, one of them turned to us, looked directly at our eyes, and knocked out a series of prime numbers with hoof ... Maybe you should go to see the corner Horse, I stay and try to communicate with it. "

I don't recognize this very much. If an alien civilization discovers our planet and the life of living, then they will notice this in the past few hundred years. Quick atmospheric changes, increased carbon dioxide content, chemical substances released during industrial production, artificial lighting released at night, and the existence of radio signals can prove that there is a fast -moving species on the earth. Of course, if the zebra really becomes smart, we will be shocked. But this is because we not only study zebras, we also study many other animals such as horses, and there are indicators to evaluate their intelligence. Unless the following two situations exist:

Aliens are also very lonely, they are waiting to communicate with other civilizations

Aliens look forward to achieving some kind of "achievement" -just like Zhu Rongxing civilization in Star Trek, "Warp Signature" began to contact the outside world -then appeared in front of us.

We have no reason to believe that deliberate broadcasting can complete the unintentional signal that we have never sent.

Illustration: The alien spacecraft crashed in the 10th season of the X File, which represents our hope and fear of intelligent alien species. Even if many of us "believe in", there is no evidence to show that aliens will contact us, whether he is a good person or a bad person. (Source: X-FILES / FOX / Rodrigo Carvalho)

Of course, this is completely a kind of thinking storm that speculates. To a large extent, this is driven by our imagination and our understanding of events in the history of the earth. However, no matter whether the intelligent outreach civilization exists, whether they are good or evil or intention, there is a fact that it is still undeniable: for all of our issues -some are created by ourselves, and some are from outside — There is no evidence that there will be aliens to save us from the sky.

No one will solve problems with our energy shortage, uneven resources, environmental pollution, war, famine, insufficient food and water resources; no alien Superman will help us cherish our lives. If we want to solve the many problems facing today, we must from the province and observe the outside — the outside here does not refer to the starry sky above our heads, but the others around us. In this world, the biggest resources we have is our accumulated knowledge and the ability to cooperate.

If we want to change the fate of our species, the solution is undoubtedly the essence of seeking knowledge and finding problems. When it comes to unknown areas, we cannot rely on hope or fear. On the contrary, the greatest resources we can rely on are -the understanding of our common human nature.

OS: The discussion of the suspicion and suspicion of the might exist on human civilization in the article is similar to the "Dark Forest" theory in the "Three Body", but it is obviously more chaotic. In view of the "Three Body" among the relevant content enthusiasts in related content enthusiasts Widely, some descriptions and inferences of the article are easy to make people feel unclear and unknown.

By: Ethan Siegel

Fy: Aphelion

If there is related content infringement, please contact the author to delete after the work is released

Reprinted, please obtain authorization, and pay attention to maintaining integrity and indicating the source

- END -