The speaker, a well-known scientist, was claiming that for us to send messages into space was most unwise.<\/p>\n
Above all, he said, on no account should we dispatch probes such as the Pioneers and the Voyagers, which would tell any alien races where we are. His message was: \u201cKeep quiet \u2013 like Brer Rabbit, lie low and say nuffin!\u201d<\/p>\n
But is this logical? Like most other people (not all) I am convinced that life is widespread in the Universe<\/a> and that there must be many civilisations far more advanced than we are.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n So far there has been no contact but eventually this must surely happen, provided that we do not indulge in any more futile wars and blow ourselves to pieces.<\/p>\n When the day comes, I do not for a moment believe that there would be any cause for alarm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We now know that there are many stars attended by planets and there are 100 billion stars in our Galaxy alone.<\/p>\n Up to now we have detected only \u2018hot Jupiters<\/a>\u2019 but we are already planning to detect planets the size of Earth and there must be a vast number of these.<\/p>\n Take a planet similar to Earth orbiting a star similar to the Sun, and it is reasonable to expect Earth-type life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I can see only one qualification here: if life could appear on a planet, will it?<\/p>\n Mars could give the answer. If we find any trace of life there, we can be reasonably sure that life will spring up wherever conditions are suitable.<\/p>\n Before long, we ought to know the answer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Assume, then, that there are many inhabited planets and that technological civilisations develop.<\/p>\n It has taken us only 12,000 years to progress from hunter-gatherers to astronauts.<\/span><\/p>\n Other civilisations<\/span> may have been quicker, quite apart from the possibility that they may be a great deal older.<\/p>\n Physically they may be unlike us, but unless all our modern science is wrong (this I am reluctant to believe) they<\/span> will be carbon-based, so despite outward appearances they will not be truly \u2018alien\u2019.<\/p>\n But will they ever be likely to threaten us?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To attempt to answer this we must first look at the possibilities of actual contact.<\/p>\n At the most we have no chance of achieving travel to other star systems.<\/p>\n Our rockets can take us to the planets in our Solar System and, so far, only Pluto has not been bypassed.<\/p>\n But even the nearest stars are over four lightyears away and using rockets for such distances is out of the question where living passengers are concerned: it would take an impossibly long time.<\/p>\n If we are to achieve interstellar travel<\/a>, we must wait for a breakthrough that is totally beyond us at the moment.<\/p>\n![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-853775060-6ef3c88-e1677754141501.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C369"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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