The Drake Equation was developed by astronomer Frank Drake in the middle of the last century in an attempt to count the number of civilizations in our galaxy. The first factor in the equation is the approximate number of stars in our galaxy - 200 billion. The second is the number of planets orbiting each star.
A couple of other coefficients determine on how many of these planets life arose, another couple - what part of this is intelligent life, capable of communicating with us. And, finally, how long a civilization will last until it disappears or self-destructs.
If the final figure is only 5%, this means that there can be thousands, even millions of civilizations in the Universe. For the past half century, almost all of the components of the equation were unknown. But today's data, in particular, about the planets (their number and composition), orbiting other stars, again forced scientists to puzzle in countless attempts to find out the whole truth about aliens.
WHALES ARE SMARTER THAN US?
But first about the work of others. One of the most famous projects for the search for aliens is, perhaps, the American project of the same name "Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence" by the SETI Institute. For forty years now, this group of scientists from San Francisco has been listening intently to the sky, trying to catch messages from aliens.
And at the same time he is looking for ways to communicate with the "green men" in the event that they want to visit us. A scientist from this group, Lawrence Doyle, believes that in order to communicate with them, one must first understand their intellectual level. To do this, he needs to find out how, in principle, all living beings communicate.
“No one has ever searched for extraterrestrial intelligence, everyone was looking for extraterrestrial technology,” National Geographic quotes the scientist. “We plan to seek intelligence by understanding the laws of communication. Then, by receiving signals, we will be able to distinguish communication from ordinary astrophysical processes, to separate the sounds of communication from ordinary noise.
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To do this, Doyle uses the so-called information theory. It was designed to measure the amount of information transmitted over telephone lines. The scientist uses it to analyze the complexity of a language. The higher the complexity, the more perfect the mind. Any extraterrestrial communication, in his opinion, should obey the rules of this theory. Without this, the transfer of information is impossible. And if we can measure the complexity of their communication, we can determine how highly organized their society is.
However, even if Doyle detects the signal and then determines its complexity, he will not be able to understand its meaning. The same problem occurs when we try to communicate with other animals. After all, if you smile at the wolf, he, in theory, should regard it not as your sympathy for him, but as a sign warning of a fight. But the chimpanzee will "understand" your smile as an indicator that you are afraid of it. And what happens if you smile at an alien?
Despite all this, Doyle did his job well. He found that the saimiri monkey has the third level of the communication system, and the dolphins - the fourth (English in this system of increasing complexity belongs to the ninth level). As a result, the scientist is now in doubt: who - a dolphin or a man - is the best candidate for communication with extraterrestrial civilizations.
Moreover, he discovered creatures on Earth whose level of communication is much higher. These are humpback whales, they have the most complex communication system, perhaps even on the entire planet. Doyle's research is in its early stages, he only studies the social signals of whales so far. “But it may happen that if the aliens want to communicate, they will turn not to us, but to humpback whales,” the scientist concludes.
RADIATION LIKE A HOME
Those who have studied biology know that there are living beings on Earth called extremophiles. It was these creatures, mostly small, more often bacteria and microorganisms, that at one time set scientists a problem worse than the giant tyrannosaurus Rex. It was they who prompted the researchers to think that life is most likely a ubiquitous phenomenon.
After all, some types of extremophiles are able to endure extremely hot temperatures (above the boiling point!), Some - to reproduce in the conditions of the Antarctic ice, others - breathe exclusively carbon dioxide, the fourth - do almost without water, etc. As a result, scientists suggested that life can even exist on a planet exposed to the radiation of its dying star (after all, black mold feels great at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and fungal spores - in open space on the ISS skin - author's note).
What would highly evolved beings from such a planet look like? Here's what SETI astronomer Seth Shostak thinks about it:
- Will the alien be like us? Hardly. Most of the inhabitants of the Earth - insects - have six legs, and they manage them perfectly.
Scientists believe that creatures from a planet with an increased level of radiation may have especially durable shells, such as many insects have. And continuous streams of gamma radiation can give rise to an unprecedented number of mutations and a variety of species.
- We believe that these creatures will have intelligence, analogous to our nervous system, etc. These intelligent creatures may be able to produce a successor, for example, in the form of a thinking machine. We are a carbonaceous form of life, so all the molecules we need to live contain carbon. Aliens can look for a new home or gas station. They may not be interested in the resource of the planet Earth - oxygen and heat, but they are interested in other resources.
All the guesses of scientists are based on the assumptions that aliens are like us, endowed with the same weaknesses as we are. But Frank Drake himself, the creator of the equation by which you can count the number of extraterrestrial civilizations, is sure of something else:
“They had to get rid of the hostility, because military technology could destroy civilization. And, perhaps, the concept of war is, in principle, unfamiliar to them, not because they have outgrown wars, but because they did without them at all.
THEY WOULD HAVE TO BE INvented
“An alien is an ideal image of the“other”that people create for themselves for reflection and self-awareness,” the famous Petersburg psychotherapist-psychoanalyst Dmitry Olshansky is sure. - This is such a white field for projections, a tabula rasa for fantasies that can say a lot about ourselves. After all, the way you imagine your “other” characterizes yourself and your inner world.
What do you expect from aliens? Attacks? Enlightenment? Experience? Friendship? Mentoring? All this speaks about how you position yourself, who you are and who you strive to be. In the book "Mass Psychology and Self-Analysis" Sigmund Freud says that "in the life of every person there is another person who can fulfill the function of a model, rival or helper."
Fantasies about aliens give us the best evidence of this thesis: people seek to create either a friend (a brother in mind, able to share their knowledge and experience) or a rival (like Ridley Scott's "Alien", a rival who competes with human nature and intelligence) or a model to follow.
Futurology comes to the rescue of this myth, which describes the image of aliens as a goal towards which our own evolution strives: “they are a more perfect form of Homo sapiens … in millions of years a person will look exactly the same: a well-developed brain, big eyes, small mouth, atrophied teeth, outstretched fingers … Civilization will make of people exactly the same humanoids as we imagine aliens today."
Everyone finds in aliens a reflection of the other side of himself, projects onto them that “other” who already lives in his inner world. So, the paranoid will be afraid of abduction or will consider aliens a project of the American State Department. For neurotics, mythology provides a vast field for sublimation, fantasy and self-knowledge. Aliens, like the “otherworldly” in general, are necessary for him to maintain his illusion of reality, a fantasy about the external and internal world. In a word, if the aliens had not been invented, they should have existed.
FOREIGNERS - WE ARE
This is exactly what another St. Petersburg specialist, a sociopsychologist, author of the book "Everything Itself - an integral perception of reality" Yevgeny Yakushev, speaks about.
- Now science has come to the point that our entire Universe is subject to the general laws of nature, which are closely related and intertwined with each other. The method of integral perception of reality, which I am engaged in, describes the whole of reality as a single living organism, in which all phenomena that exist in nature perform certain functions. It is the function that is the backbone element.
Simply put, everything that is, any object or phenomenon does not exist by itself, but performs a particular task. For example, if we look at a cloud, examine it, we will notice that it consists mostly of water that periodically falls to the ground. Thus, it is possible to discover the function of the cloud as restoring the water balance of the planet, up to supporting the vital activity of the entire ecosystem. In the same way, we can look at any thing or phenomenon in the world and in the Universe.
Everything is part of it. This is observed at all levels of nature: at the inanimate level, plant, animal and human. Where each subsequent level of nature includes the previous one. Straight like nesting dolls. Even society is built according to the natural principle of a single organism, where each individual person, group of people, culture, technology and humanity as a whole also perform certain functions.
This is due to both innate properties (type of intelligence, mental characteristics, talents, desires) and acquired (mentality, culture, etc.). Our Universe is literally a single system that includes everything, according to the fractal principle. Then the question arises: "And where is this whole triad, because we are talking about extraterrestrial intelligence?"
The fact is that everything we know about aliens is just someone's guess, fantasies, in which someone believes and someone does not. Of course, this does not exclude the existence of other life forms in the universe. At the same time, at the moment we do not observe these forms of life among us. In other words, so far these are just our projections and fantasies.
Therefore, it is much more necessary to realize ourselves, the mind that is right here and now. That is, to realize the one who cognizes everything. What is our “I”? That it really is, without illusions and ideas, without concepts and theories. It is the answer to this question that can reveal the secrets of not only humanity, but also of all nature. After all, everything that we see, hear, feel is inside our perception.
Therefore, many sages of all times and peoples say: “All that is is you. The whole world is inside you. This can also include aliens. Simply, if you look globally at the world as a single living system, then no threat should be expected from anything. On the contrary, any threat can only come from our ideas. And what scientists suggest is just thoughts, guesses. I cannot say anything more about this.
AGGRESSORS OR MISSIONERS
- Aliens are a good image in order to unconsciously "hang" on it our own projections, that which is repressed. For example, aggression, fears, love, etc. Nevertheless, extraterrestrial civilizations, of course, can exist and even reach us, regardless of what we think about it, whether we want it or not, says the psychologist-psychotherapist Anna Aglodina. - If we assume that aliens exist and can get to planet Earth, respectively, their level of development should be much higher than ours.
If we start from this, then we can assume that in order to reach such heights in the development of technical progress, they would have to sacrifice something. For example, by their drives (libido, instincts), because during the development of culture and civilization, some of these drives are always suppressed. Otherwise, neither cultural nor technical achievements would be possible. People, like animals, would care exclusively about survival and procreation.
This is a requirement of technical progress, the consequences of the development of the brain and thinking. In order for technical progress to take place, energy costs are needed, so it can be assumed that such a serious level of civilization development can destroy some spiritual part of those creatures who came to this.
That is why these creatures can show interest in relation to us. Perhaps to some extent aggressive. There is a possibility that we will be of interest to aliens as a kind of recharge. By the way, many fantastic works have been written on this topic. We may be of interest to them as an example of creatures that have not strayed so far from their natural roots.
The replenishment of our resources can occur more or less aggressively, both in relation to us and in relation to our nature. Probably, there is no longer living nature (if there was one) on their planet, since this was required by technical progress. If it comes to natural resources, then, of course, war and total seizure are possible. Especially if it is not they who arrive on our planet, but the cars sent by them.
But another option is also possible - aliens could develop more harmoniously, like how we develop or even more successfully, that is, despite technological progress, they could not have strayed too far from their nature. If so, then there is a chance that they will be indifferent to us.
In this case, they may be interested in us, just as African savages are interesting to missionaries. By the way, this is also talked about a lot when it comes to pyramids, statues on Easter Island and other mysterious things. After all, many think that once upon a time alien missionaries flew to us, who not only introduced the people of that era to technical achievements, but also showed ways of harmonious development, when scientific progress is combined with closeness to nature.
Of course, all these arguments can only be a figment of our imagination. Again, absolutely all guesses can only be our projections, since the behavior of those whom no one has ever seen is impossible to predict for certain. Here one can speculate only on the topic along which path could
go humanity. After all, we could be reasonable, but not develop enough to create culture, science and technology. We just wouldn't need it. We would simply exist in complete harmony with nature.
Or, on the contrary, we would completely move away from it, perhaps replacing ourselves with machines. From here one can draw some conclusions about aliens. After all, thinking about them, we are unlikely to be able to come up with something that is not on Earth, because we simply have never seen it. All our fantasies about extraterrestrial civilizations in any case will be taken from our personal and collective unconscious. Although aliens may in fact be so different that we simply do not understand this until we see them.
"Naked Science" July 2013