In celebration of this channel reaching, and
then significantly blasting past ten thousand subscribers here is a long-form video made
in thanks to the viewers of this channel. None of this would have been possible without
your support, thanks very much to all of you for that, and a special shout out to my patreon
folks and, of course, my readers. I continue to have a blast doing all of this,
and get up every day excited to make new videos. I will continue to do so for years to come,
and now without further ado, here are ten SETI Messages that we may not want to receive. The idea that alien civilizations could contact
us using electromagnetic waves is not a new one, Nikola Tesla for example was convinced
that he was receiving alien transmissions from Mars in the early days of radio. Another was the initial misidenfication of
Pulsars as alien signal beacons. But only after we realized the true extent
of how useful radio communication is, did we undertake a serious attempt at searching
for signals of alien origin. In 1959 Guiseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison
proposed a method for searching the skies for those signals. Their seminal article on the subject, an excerpt
linked below, underlies the general approach SETI takes, even to this day in some respects. But in all this time, after decades of searching,
no unambiguous alien signal has ever been identified. While there have been tantalizing signals,
none of them repeated, or at least in such a way that equipment glitches and other problems
could be ruled out. Repeating signals remain SETI's chief rule,
after all you can study something that repeats, one off's not so much, and the scientific
evidence bar for alien civilizations remains high, reasonably so, you don't want to announce
that you've found an alien civilization only to find out later that it wasn't one. But there may be other reasons why we have
not detected an alien signal yet. These include that we just aren't very good
at looking for them and we're missing something. Or there is a fundamental flaw in our reasoning,
that alien signals aren't likely to repeat, or even that intelligence in the universe
is simply so rare that there is no one close enough to pick up. It could even be that aliens may only use
strong radio signals for a short time in their history before employing different techniques
for communications. But regardless, there may come a time where
an unambiguous signal of some type is picked up, and its characteristics are such that
it can have no other origin than an alien civilization. This signal could take many hypothetical forms,
but for this video we'll assume that it will be radio. We culturally tend to expect that what we
would find in radio astronomy is what Carl Sagan once advanced in his novel Contact and
the subsequent movie of the same name. That is, that we will find some huge powerful
radio beacon counting off prime numbers in the galactic equivalent of shouting hello. But there is no guarantee of this, in fact,
detecting alien radio could just as easily be almost boring. This is because some of the easiest signals
to detect due to their power aren't all that interesting. It might be simple radar as aliens map the
asteroids in their solar system, which would contain no content and incidentally remains
one of the more realistic ways a close by alien civilization might discover us. While this would all prove the existence of
intelligent life in the universe, it would probably not last long in the news cycle simply
because there wouldn't be much available information about the aliens and only after years of study
using a variety of instruments might bits and pieces be gleaned. But there is another side to this coin. It could also be an intentional message, such
as Hello! Or it might say something else. Now, in this analysis, I omit one glaring
problem with decoding alien signals. Deciphering the content of an alien transmission
would be beyond difficult. Even if they used language as we know it,
of which there is no guarantee, that language would have no commonality whatsoever with
any of our own languages. This is a serious problem, alien is alien
and incomprehensible is perhaps too weak of a word to describe the communications that
could come. It could be easier to communicate with a dolphin
than an alien, with the dolphin you're at least from the same planet. It can at least hear you, since it has ears. It also has a brain that can comprehend what
you're saying, at least somewhat. But what of an alien that has no sense of
hearing, and no corresponding language center in the brain? What if they communicate chemically? Daunting indeed, but all is not lost. The general assumption here has always been
that at least initially, communication would be based on one thing we should have in common
with an alien civilization. Of course, we have never seen an alien civilization,
so this is an assumption, but it's also a good bet. That is the language of math and science. After all, if an alien civilization has built
a radio beacon blasting out multiterrawatt signals, then they would have to have had
an understanding of how to engineer that. That means they have math and science, leading
to a general feeling that such a signal might at least start with mathematical pulses, and
be broadcast at 1420 megahertz, the frequency at which neutral hydrogen emits radiation
which would be known to alien scientists, though both of these are really just starting
points. Regardless, mathematical signals do not easily
allow for actual conversation. So if the signal did have content other than
math, you can bet we'd put our best to work on it to figure out what the message says. And it's not impossible that they might figure
it out. But for the sake of this video, say, after
much work in deciphering, we cracked an alien transmission. If it didn't say hello, what else might it
say? Number 10 The "Get off our lawn" Signal I start this list with the least likely. I also like it best because it is also the
most humorous, especially in light of the other possibilities. There is always the possibility that alien
civilizations may simply not want to talk to us unless they absolutely had to. After all, who are we to them? If we're significantly more primitive than
they are, we may be of zero interest in a universe full of other, more interesting advanced
civilizations. Maybe interstellar communications between
alien civilizations is a been there, done that situation and it was a fun thing to do
2 billion years ago, but not so much anymore. As a result, it's possible that as we enter
an age where we may proactively try to contact alien civilizations such as with METI, for
better or worse beaming out messages, after years of waiting the reply we get back might
end up being "Please be quiet, we're trying to do radio astronomy". Number 9 We're Already Dead This in a way is a sort of spooky scenario,
as well as a sad one, because it implies that there is no one left to talk to. Enormous omnidirectional radio beacons emitting
what would be obvious to SETI as alien signals have the sticking point that they would be
very, very energy intensive to operate, especially over a long period of time. Energy is, of course, best used by the civilization
generating that energy to keep their civilization going. But say for a moment a civilization realizes
that they are on borrowed time, and that they have only a short period left before inevitable
extinction, despite possessing great technology. It may then become a concern for them to simply
be remembered by building a sort of cosmic gravestone for themselves by way of redirecting
their energy to a beacon, and then let it blast out the memory of their civilization
for as long as the beacon lasts. While this might sound sad, it's entirely
possible that as we explore the universe in the far future we will find evidence of dead
alien civilizations, whether through remnant beacons, or physical evidence. I hope here that it's not the only thing we
find, because it might imply that all civilizations, at one point or another destroy themselves. Number 8 Nihilistic Aliens There are two ways to look at the universe. You can look at it optimistically as a place
wide open for exploration full of opportunities to learn how it works. This is generally how we view it as humans,
though of course we have our own nihilists. But over all, I think we are industrious dreamers
that will always strive to explore and will do so far into the future. But, aliens might not be so interested in
it, and might take the opposite view. Say they are a billion years more advanced. Say they know how the universe works, they've
solved all the mysteries, collectively experienced most of what can be experienced, and they
are just simply bored. To them, the universe is place full of monotonous
things. Red dwarf after red dwarf, nebula after nebula,
uninteresting species after species -- even up and comers like the humans, or worse they've
determined that the universe is just a computer simulation and the message is just telling
everyone "don't bother, it's just a simulation". I know that sounds bad, but I will add to
this one thing. There is recent evidence, yes, evidence, that
the universe is NOT a simulation and it's surprisingly strong. That's for another video, but if we did get
a message like this, maybe we can respond "no, it's not a simulation". Imagine the slow motion interstellar argument
that might result, but at least it would give the nihilistic aliens something to do. Number 7 We Are Frighteningly Different Arthur Clarke once said that any sufficiently
advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic. I suspect there is much truth to this, and
there is no guarantee that if we saw an alien civilization or received a signal from one
that we would recognize it for what it is. But once we did figure it out, say it was
some sort of radio signal that we had previously thought was completely natural but turned
out to not be, that would be spooky enough. But say we do recognize the aliens as such,
but they are so different from ourselves that we might choose not to contact them, even
if their message seemed innocuous. I can think of one specific case where this
might be and that a friendly hello might not be something we want to answer. This would be a machine civilization. Even if their message seemed nice enough,
if there was no evidence that biology still existed in their society, then one must ask,
where did it go? Surely it is most likely that they originated
with a biological civilization. Does that mean that the originator civilization
uploaded itself? What if their message says nothing about that? Or perhaps could it be that some artificial
intelligence somehow escaped the civilization that created it. Perhaps it viewed that civilization as obsolete
and disposed of it. Perhaps it disposes of all biology viewing
it as an existential threat. It would seem prudent for us biologicals to
not respond to such a message, unless we ourselves someday become a machine civilization. Number 6 Help us! Another thing that might motivate a civilization
to transmit using huge radio beacons would be if they were in distress. Say they are a victim of war, and the last
thing they can think to do is to ask nearby civilizations for help. Or worse, they are stuck on a super earth
with a gravity well too great to allow them to escape the surface. So they endlessly transmit in hopes of finding
someone that can help. This would be the ultimate in sad messages
for us. There is very likely nothing we could do about
a distress call for centuries or longer. And even then, after we've traveled tens or
hundreds of light years to respond, would they still be alive? Number 5 Stay Away One of the most common signs humans put up
is "keep out!". This is very useful if you wish to avoid damage
to your property, or to ensure others do not get injured on your property, especially if
there is something dangerous about it. Aliens might do the same, and in that same
line of thought, we might do just that if we thought aliens were nearby. This kind of message could take other forms
than radio. While a radio message warning everyone to
stay away would be difficult to decipher, say one runs across a star with clearly artificial
concentrations of transuranic elements in its composition, it may not be clear just
what that means. That may simply say hello as Sagan and Shklovsi
proposed years ago, paper below, in relation to finding large quantities of plutonium in
a star but overall that also says that the aliens possess advanced nuclear physics and
can make vast quantities of bombs. But, at the same time, this may not be such
a great possibility. In light of new ways to create heavy elements
being detected, such as the recent kilonova, who knows what nature can produce. Number 4 We're Already On Our Way This scenario would be most applicable to
a nearby civilization that may have detected us before we found them. SETI does tend to favor searching nearby star
systems, and if they find a civilization nearby, they may already know about us. So say we found one, say 10 light years away. Say the signal simply informs us that they
have seen us, and have dispatched probes and perhaps even ships our way for direct contact. They might even tell us when they will arrive. I can only imagine how the human race would
react to that, friendly or not. Number 3 Hello, We're Already Here This stems from a possibility first advanced
by the eminent mathematician and member of the Manhattan Project, John von Neumann. Von Neumann originally proposed the idea of
a self-replicating machine that could colonize the galaxy in a comparatively short time,
perhaps a few hundred thousand to a million years or so, which is a blink of an eye considering
the age of the solar system, which is 4.5 billion years. The idea was further developed by physicist
and mathematician Ronald Bracewell in the 1960's, where he proposed that such a probe
could be used for communication. This would have an advantage. If your goal was to contact another civilization,
you could hunt out suitable planets early on with your telescopes, and for those that
may eventually have civilizations develop on them, you could send out probes at sublight
speeds to reach those solar systems before intelligent life evolves. Then you merely wait. This is something we are looking to do in
an infant form already. We want to search the galaxy for exoplanets
that exhibit biomarkers, such as odd oxygen and methane levels, that might reveal the
existence of biospheres on those worlds. As our equipment improves, we may well find
such things. What might we do then? Well, life tends to be a long term thing and
earth has been visible in this way to other civilizations long enough for the entire galaxy
to know that this planet is habitable. Might we, or they, send out probes to candidate
worlds, perhaps self-replicating to make it easier as time goes on, when we get sufficiently
technologically advanced? It would take a long time to get to one of
those worlds, but we also have no shortage of time, we've got billions of years on our
hands. Our probe may simply wake up from time to
time and send back a report on that exoplanet's progress. Once a civilization develops and reaches a
certain stage of advancement, our probe could awaken and make direct contact. It could take thousands of years for us to
receive the information, but for a fully natural candidate world that isn't that much time,
nor is it to a technologically advanced civilization as we will someday be, especially if our technology
allows us to alter our perception of time. To a civilization that perceives a thousand
years as a blink of an eye, time and distance, and long distance communication, take on a
different meaning. This sort of technology is in our future,
but perhaps not that far in our future. It's something conceivable in hundreds of
years, rather than thousands. And that's the problem. The galaxy is far older than our solar system,
and it's easily conceivable that a civilization may have arisen somewhere millions, or even
billions of years before we did. That leaves them plenty of time to have constructed
and distributed Bracewell-von Neumann probes throughout the galaxy and even stationed one
in our own solar system. In fact, multiple civilizations may have done
this. And if these types of probes are present in
our solar system, they would beyond difficult to find until they actually transmit. It's anyone's guess what they might transmit
or do, but it remains within the possible that there could be sleeping probes, like
Arthur Clarke's monolith on the moon, awaiting us to reach a certain level of development
and the first message we receive from an alien civilization may amount to "Hello, we are
very close." Number 2 Submit This is perhaps the most sci fi of our possibilities,
and does remind one of "You will be assimilated" and I would think it very unlikely to happen,
if for not other reason than the galaxy appears to have no shortage of free real estate and
resources. There simply doesn't appear to be any reason
for conflict or strong arming. But we don't know, so I merely present this
as a scenario. Say we received a signal, say it were from
light years away, and that when decrypted, as nearly as we can tell, says only one word. This might make sense. Simple messages should, perhaps, be the easiest
to understand. And perhaps it is accompanied by mathematical
and scientific signals, and maybe that allows us to reconstruct a picture of some type,
pictures have been advanced as the easiest way for alien civilizations, including us,
to talk to other aliens. But what if the meaning or statement is clear
and it simply tells us to "Submit". It is unlikely that we would take that command
well. After all, they are light-years away and may
be too far away to know we were even here, say the message is preemptive to any civilization
that may form up. If the aliens were past 100 light years or
so, there would be little indication that an industrial civilization were living on
this world. We might make a last ditch effort to hide,
or appear as though we destroyed ourselves early on. There are ways we could hide our presence,
see my video on that in the end screen. So we would likely do one of two things, we
would either ignore the signal or respond in the negative in some way. But what if there were a bracewell probe from
the same civilization hiding in the solar system that had been waiting to see how we
respond, say it wakes up at the detection of the first hydrogen bomb test on earth. Or, say it had a head start, having watched
from afar all of human history and had already deciphered our languages and knew we had found
the distant signal beacon. The moment we respond in the negative, or
choose to do nothing, it repeats, perhaps in an earth language, that simple one word
message again. Submit. And then it enters orbit and points the weapons. Say hello to our new artificially intelligent
overlord. It gets even scarier if you wonder what might
happen if the civilization that sent it had gone extinct and the solution to the Fermi
paradox is that all civilizations are kept hostage by the self-replicating machines of
long dead civilizations. Number 1 A Warning The galaxy is still a largely unknown place
and within the realm of hard science fiction one could imagine any number of scenarios
where the galaxy is already colonized. In fact, it could be, and we're just somehow
missing it. But colonized by what? And that's where it gets interesting because
we have absolutely no idea. But there is one aspect of the galaxy that
opens up a scenario. Vast though it is, the milky way, and andromeda
which we will merge with in the future, ultimately have only finite resources. Say the first civilization to colonize protects
the resources of the galaxy for use in keeping themselves alive long into the far future
when the universe goes dark. This may mean that any competition that may
arise must be eliminated or subjugated. Say another civilization exists that knows
of this galactic hoarder threat and they somehow survived encountering it, perhaps they were
equally as advanced as the hoarders. In such a case the second civilization may
choose to send out messages warning anyone that might receive them to arm themselves
and fortify their planet. And above all, be ready for trouble before
venturing out into the universe. Granted, I think this scenario is unlikely,
mainly because earth would have probably been wiped clean or subjugated by now. But if we ever did receive such a signal,
it's probably the one message we should pay closest attention to and do our best to determine
what the threat is before we encounter it. But say it encountered us first. As a bonus related to all the von neumann-bracewell
scenarios, comes the possibility that the first signal we get from an alien civilization
is an EMP. It's hard to call this one a message because
it would contain no content, but if one interpreted it broadly as a message it would say "Welcome
back to the stone age". This would be a probe that wakes up at the
first sign of advancing technology, such as how our planet appears right now, and shoots
off EMP weapons, such as air bursting nuclear warheads, and in turn keeps us on the sidelines
of the galaxy for as long as the enemy civilization sees fit. Not a nice thought, but in reality, all of
these scenarios are probably pretty unlikely. Once again, due to the sheer amount of free
real estate in this galaxy, I suspect that the first signal we will receive will be a
friendly hello and then a slow cultural exchange that could endure for billions of years. Perhaps aliens will see intelligent life as
precious and do everything they can to help out budding cultures. And this list was by no means comprehensive,
there are many other scenarios, such as a group of philosopher aliens that simply ask
what's our take on the "why are we here" question. Or it might be odd in a Douglas Adams sort
of way and the aliens simply tell us that they love us, and then we wish we hadn't contacted
them because they are sort of clingy and an overall drag to talk to. So if anyone can think of any other potential
messages we might receive from an alien civilization, post them in the comments below. Thanks for listening! I am futurist and science fiction author John
Michael Godier currently addressing the critics of my profile photo saying that I look like
I'm about to come at you with an axe. I have a sleepy personality and that's actually
my Happy coffee awake face! Without the coffee .... not so good so I take
this chance to officially unveil my new channel logo! Look for it in future video notifications
and be sure to check out my books at your favorite online book retailer and subscribe
to my channel for regular, in-depth explorations into the interesting, weird and unknown aspects
of this amazing universe in which we live.
