By Morris Jones, METI International Advisory Council
Science fiction has been ahead of reality for decades. In the future, humanity will build smart machines. These machines could eventually become smarter than us. They could eventually decide that they do not need the species that created them. Then the human race will be exterminated.
By John W. Traphagan, Trustee, METI International
Although the speculation that the odd star KIC 8462852 might have something very unnatural orbiting it--a Dyson swarm or some other megastructure--seems to have been unfounded, it's worth contemplating what it might mean for humanity should the speculation prove to be accurate. From the start, SETI scientists assumed the odds were very much against our neighbor 1,400 light years away having anything other than some natural phenomenon that we simply didn't know about before orbiting it. And observations both by the SETI Institute using the Allen Telescope Array and optical SETI observations in Panama by METI International have shown no evidence of ET. But even with a lack of empirical data, there is a chance, slight as it may be, that we've finally hit the jackpot and found evidence that humans have or had neighbors in the universe.
By Steven J. Dick, Trustee, METI International
One of the primary purposes of METI International is Active SETI, “in which powerful, intentional information-rich signals are transmitted to possible extraterrestrial civilizations." This goal is surprisingly controversial, indicating just how seriously many scientists and others take the possibility of advanced alien life. Indeed, earlier this year a group of scientists signed a statement originating at Berkeley urging caution in any Active SETI project. Although I am in agreement with much of the Berkeley statement, the devil is in the details.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SAN FRANCISCO – The anomalous star KIC 8462852 has baffled astronomers with its erratic dimming, causing some to speculate that it’s orbited by a massive structure built by an extraterrestrial civilization. To help evaluate that possibility, scientists searched for brief laser pulses from the distant star, but found none, as reported in a paper submitted to TheAstrophysical Journal Letters, available at http://arxiv.org/abs/1512.02388 .
By Marlin (Ben) Schuetz, Director of Boquete Optical SETI Observatory
Hello and greetings from the Boquete, Panama Optical SETI Observatory. I will be doing frequent blog posts about Optical SETI in general, this observatory, the upgrades, problems, solutions, and observations. This is a special year here considering the recent upgrade from a 14” Cassegrain to a 20” Newtonian telescope. It is also a special year due to the advent of METI International and the growing potential for this type of activity.