Those who are unable to learn from the mistakes of extinct alien civilizations risk repeating their fate. Humanity has embarked on a very dangerous path. We have learned to develop weapons capable of destroying us all over and over again. We disregard the environment, turning a blind eye to climate change, which they themselves have created for decades, not really thinking about the future consequences. A similar recklessness in such important matters could put an end to the advanced alien races that may have once populated our galaxy, according to Avi Loeb, dean of the Faculty of Astronomy at Harvard University and director of the Institute for Theory and Computing of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
This, says Loeb, in turn could explain why we have not yet made contact with any of the likely alien civilizations, despite the due diversity of life in the Milky Way (at least so the thesis of the famous Fermi Paradox claims).
Therefore, according to Loeb, we must expand our search for aliens, not limited to just planets that, from an environmental point of view, may appear habitable. We must also look for planets with artifacts of man-made disasters. Artificially scorched surfaces of planets or signs of nuclear wars that could have survived in the atmosphere of dead worlds, as an option, would be excellent evidence in this matter. Most likely, such discoveries will not only become the greatest in scientific history, but also, perhaps, will open our eyes, as a species, to how we should not dispose of our future.
According to a scientist at Harvard University, there are other reasons for trying to find intelligent and technologically advanced extraterrestrial life. For example, Loeb explains, establishing contact with an alien civilization can lead us to significant technological breakthroughs, if, of course, aliens want to share their technology with us.
According to the scientist, such prospects are worth continuing to work on the development of interstellar travel technologies. Loeb, we recall, heads the advisory board of the very ambitious project Breakthrough Starshot with a budget of $ 100 million, whose goal is to develop tiny space probes based on laser technology, which are supposed to be sent to another star system at a speed of 20% of the speed of light.
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Breakthrough Starshot scientists expect to develop fully interstellar travel-ready technology over the next 30 years. If the project is successful, intelligent aliens, says Loeb, "can see humanity in a new light." We will be able to find among them a certain level of respect that puts us, if not on a par with them, then at least a bar above our current position.
According to him, we could already have witnessed this. Loeb is the co-author of a recently published paper suggesting that Oumuamua - the first interstellar object found in the solar system - may in fact be a probe of some alien civilization. Disputes over the nature of this object still do not subside, but at the moment most scientists tend to believe that "Oumuamua" is an unusual comet that does not have a tail. But again, according to Loeb, it is very important not to dismiss the theory of the artificial origin of this mysterious small celestial body simply because you do not like it.
Do you agree with the opinion of the scientist or do you have your own point of view on this issue?
Nikolay Khizhnyak