For the first time in over three decades, humanity is finally taking the prospect of establishing a communication protocol with extraterrestrial life seriously.
If extraterrestrial life were to send us a message, how would humanity respond? According to researchers, this remains a mystery, and that is the crux of the issue.
For the first time in 35 years, a group of policy experts and scientists have come together to establish a communication protocol with extraterrestrial beings to address unexpected encounters with them.
According to John Elliot, a computer scientist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, the research team will “go beyond thinking about the impact on humanity” of a potential encounter with extraterrestrials in the near future and start focusing on how we should respond.
Currently, humanity’s only established protocol for communicating with extraterrestrial life was introduced in 1989 by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) community. However, this protocol is rather vague, especially regarding bilateral communication.
Scientists argue that the old protocol primarily focused on the importance of sharing discoveries with the public and the scientific community regarding findings of extraterrestrial civilizations, and this is insufficient.
Humanity has also made efforts to send messages for over a century in hopes of contacting potential life forms. However, this has proven to be inadequate.
A communication protocol with extraterrestrial life will be reviewed by experts in case humanity encounters them unexpectedly (Photo: Forbes).
With new studies, scientists have indicated they will scan signals for potential messages sent from extraterrestrial life forms. They will then develop a protocol to interpret and respond to these signals.
“Will we ever receive a message from extraterrestrial beings?” Elliot posed the question. “Regardless of what the answer may be, it is clear that we are not adequately prepared—scientifically, socially, or politically—for an event that could become a reality as soon as tomorrow.”
In June 2021, the Pentagon released documents regarding sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) or unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). According to the report, 144 phenomena were recorded, but there is no conclusive evidence that they indicate the presence of extraterrestrial life.
In May 2022, the U.S. Congress held its first public hearing on UFOs in over 60 years. However, many UFO researchers and scientists noted that the videos only captured ordinary objects such as weather balloons and civilian drones.
- Despite the explanations, conspiracy theories continue to proliferate, partly due to the many supernatural phenomena that remain unexplained. Some even suggest that the U.S. government is hiding the truth or is incapable of recognizing signs of extraterrestrial life.
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