A big alarm bell for humanity.
Scientists have proposed an innovative way to explore the possibility of life on other planets: sending an AI into space to see if little green people react.
The sci-fi proposal, reminiscent of the hit Netflix show “The Three Body Problem,” was proposed recently in an essay. Issuer Scientific American.
“After 40 years of serious searching, no such ET intelligence has been found and our messages have yet to be answered,” wrote Frank Marquis, citizen science director for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, and Ignacio G. Lopez-Francois, NASA’s principal research engineer.
“Given the vastness of the galaxy and how early our exploration efforts are, we cannot conclude that we are alone in it; it may be time to fundamentally rethink our approach,” they said.
Now that clear signs of life have been observed and confirmed on an exoplanet very similar to Earth, we may have the perfect opportunity to dive into the cosmic DM.
The two experts suggested that previous attempts to share Earth’s culture with the vast unknown have been far too subtle. The most famous is Bach’s work It was included on the Voyager spacecraft’s “Golden Record” in 1977.
Rather, modern alien exploration is calling for “something more meaningful.”
Their answer: to develop a Language Learning Model (LLM) like ChatGPT, in a form to be determined, so that extraterrestrials can easily engage, ask questions, and learn about our world.
“This would enable extraterrestrial civilizations to indirectly communicate with and learn about us, unhindered by the vast distances of space and the associated communication delays that span a human lifetime,” the futuristic duo wrote.
“Aliens could learn one of human languages, ask the LLM questions about humanity, and receive responses that are representative of humanity,” they said.
The reason they recommend space-based lasers over radio waves is simple: radio waves are “directional and fast,” whereas space-based lasers are “wide and slow.”
“It will generate not only text but also images and sounds,” the authors write. “Its content, personality, and tone should be determined by researchers, philosophers, historians, and other experts as representative of humanity at large.”
It will take about 100 years just to reach Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to Earth, but the pair have a plan for how to get there.
Limiting the number of LLMs in space to just the bare essentials would reduce travel times to under 20 years, making it a “feasible project for humanity.”
Still, scientists aren’t ignoring the potentially much bigger downside: that humans could facilitate their own demise at the hands of savvy, advanced aliens who suddenly know how to exploit our many weaknesses.
“This is a radical and potentially dangerous idea because unfriendly aliens could misuse this information,” they wrote, evoking countless fictional stories depicting similar scenarios.
“But in light of recent discoveries, it’s worth starting the discussion.”
