Are We Alone [In The Universe]?

"There is no bigger question. It is time to commit to finding the answer to search for life beyond Earth."
"We are intelligent, we are alive, we must know."
Stephen Hawking, physicist, cosmologist

Yuri Milner, left, and Stephen Hawking at the Royal Society in London, July 20, 2015. Extending his idea of philanthropy beyond the earth and even the human species, Milner, the Russian Internet entrepreneur and founder of science giveaways, announced Monday that he would spend at least $100 million in the next decade to search for signals from alien civilizations. (TOM JAMIESON/NYT)

 

The Breakthrough Initiative is a $100-million search to attempt contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. Which is to say, if it exists, and should it wish to be contacted. The venture will be funded by a Russian billionaire, as a major new effort to listen for signals that would alert scientists to the presence of aliens living elsewhere in the Universe.

Scientists are convinced that life on our small planet -- a speck in the galaxy we are part of, and the galaxy itself a minuscule part of the universe with its countless billions of stars and planets existing in other galaxies in an endless clockwork parade of the ineffable design of nature -- must surely be repeated elsewhere, perhaps in different forms.

Carl Sagan, the noted astronomer/cosmologist believed in extraterrestrial life's existence. And dedicated to his vision, the SETI project was launched many years ago to harness the world's most powerful radio telescopes in hopes of receiving a decipherable signal that might lead the way to discovering the existence of life on other planets in the Universe.


The Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe was established at the SETI Institute in Silicon Valley to sustain a long-term commitment for research in the hopes of finally settling the age-old question of "Are we Alone?" People were encouraged to volunteer their computers to link to the project so that a mobilisation of resources would help to achieve a colossal search system.

This latest announcement is deja vu. Tech entrepreneur Yuri Milner is investing a portion of his fortune  to finance the  power and innovation of Silicon Valley to help in the search of the Milky Way and no fewer than one hundred nearby galaxies. The world's most powerful telescopes will be put to use in the Breakthrough Listen project. A University of California, Berkeley computing platform will be employed.

Their idea, obviously not a new one, is to harness computer power in conjunction with nine million volunteers working together, donating spare computing power to achieve a worldwide network to scan the skies and search for life in the universe beyond our own existence. The entire project will result in the creation of one of the largest supercomputers in the world.

"The scope of our search will be unprecedented -- a million nearby stars, the galactic centre, the entire plane of the Milky Way and 100 nearby galaxies", enthused Mr. Milner, the generous funder who has committed to backing the program for a decade. Which is about the same period of time that SETI [The Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe in Silicone Valley] has been in operation.

The SETI Institute is the only organization that addresses the full range of disciplines related to understanding and explaining the nature of life in the universe.

Contact has been elusive, in fact non-existent. We are intelligent, as Dr. Hawking stated, but perhaps the life that exists elsewhere is far more intelligent, and knowing what a mess we're making of our own world, wishes to have no contact whatever with us. And who can blame them?