For
nearly fifty years, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has
used radio telescopes to scan the heavens for signs of alien technology. But
scientists still do not agree about whether we should reply to an
extraterrestrial signal, and if we do, what we should say. To help answer these
questions, the SETI Institute has launched Earth Speaks, a research
project to collect messages online from people around the world.
"Earth Speaks invites people to
ponder the question, 'What would you say to an extraterrestrial
civilization?'" said Thomas Pierson, Chief Executive Officer of the
SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. "By submitting text messages,
pictures, and sounds from across the globe, people from all walks of life will
contribute to a dialogue about what humanity might say to intelligent
beings on other worlds," he explained.
The
occasion for the launch was the visit to the SETI Institute by Kamau Hamilton,
a sixth-grade student from the Central Harlem Montessori School, whose winning
idea for the Kid's Science
Challenge inspired the SETI Institute to expand Earth Speaks to
include "Sounds of Earth." Kamau was a special guest at the
Institute's annual open house, Celebrating Science,
on May 16th, 2009.
Now
all people can submit their messages to Earth Speaks, a website where they
also enter labels or "tags" to help researchers categorize the
messages. By studying the tags used by many different people, scientists will
identify the major themes that run through thousands of individual messages.
That sets the stage for creating interstellar messages that begin to portray
the breadth and depth of the human
experience.
When
visitors arrive at the website's homepage, they see a "tag cloud"
that shows the most frequently used tags in the largest fonts. For example, the
tags "greetings," "friendship," and "hope" are
each linked to two or more messages, and thus appear larger than tags used by
only a single person. By clicking on each tag, viewers can see or hear the full
message.
"Earth
Speaks uses technology of the twenty-first century to understand human
aspirations around the globe in ways not possible before," said Jill
Tarter, Director of SETI Research at the SETI Institute. "This is
potentially a huge resource that can be explored to look for cultural
universals."
By
tracking which country each message comes from, researchers can look for themes
that are common across cultures, as well as themes that vary from nation to
nation. As additional messages are submitted and the tag cloud becomes
increasingly dense, a map of the world will be displayed, with "push
pins" showing where each message originated.
Voice
of the Earth
Chicken
sizzles on a grill, metal bracelets jangle against each other, a crow caws as
an airplane flies overhead, and to the ears of Kamau Hamilton, the Earth has
found its voice. These are a few of the sounds Hamilton recorded before and
during his visit to the SETI Institute. As a winner of the Kids' Science Challenge, an
educational program funded by the National Science Foundation, Hamilton has
been pondering and blogging
about how to say something intelligible to a civilization separated by the vast
distances of interstellar
space.
Each
year, the Kids' Science Challenge
invites third to sixth graders to pose questions to teams of scientists, who
help the students answer their questions. Hamilton's question to the SETI
Institute team was, "How can we communicate with extraterrestrials if we
don't know if they have a language similar to ours and if we don't know their
communication system? Is it possible to send communication symbols that might
be found on both Earth and other planets?"
As
a starting point, Hamilton suggests identifying sounds that may be as familiar
to extraterrestrials as they are to humans. "A common variable to the
Earth and other planets would be physical environmental sounds," he
argues. "Should we send sounds of our conditions, such as rain, storms,
lightening, and the ocean?"
As
his project has progressed, Hamilton has emphasized the sounds of his
neighborhood, such as the rhythmic chopping sounds of a street vendor preparing grilled chicken,
the metallic rattling of his
teacher’s bracelets, and the footsteps of classmates
walking down a staircase.
During
his visit to the SETI Institute, Hamilton also began creating a soundscape of
Silicon Valley. These recordings
capture elements of nature as well as technology, sometimes simultaneously,
as in a sequence of a crow calling out, followed by an airplane on its way to
Moffet Field, a local civil-military airbase.
Though
a few of the sounds recorded by Hamilton are being identified publicly with special
consent from him and his mother, the identity of other participants in Earth
Speaks will remain confidential, following a standard protocol to safeguard
privacy.
An
open debate
Questions
about message content take on increased importance as
the SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array (ATA) begins a new phase of research
with its galactic plane survey for radio signals from other civilizations. As
search technology becomes more powerful, the chances of detecting distant
civilizations beyond Earth increase.
The
SETI Institute currently has no plans to transmit messages into space.
"The question of whether we should send intentional messages to other
civilizations is too important to be answered hastily," said Pierson.
"Through Earth Speaks, the SETI Institute also hopes to foster an
open and thoughtful debate about the pros and cons of sending messages to other
worlds."
Earth
Speaks is
founded on the belief that first impressions matter, especially when there is
no quick way to correct them — which could well be the case when your
partner in conversation lives trillions of miles away. Indeed, the initial
messages we send to an extraterrestrial civilization could set the tone for a
conversation lasting hundreds or thousands of years. It is only fitting, then,
that as we ponder how we would represent humankind to another civilization, the
decision should be made by people around the world.
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