Is it possible to believe the theory of the existence of aliens? Who are aliens for humanity - friends or enemies? Are there any planets in our solar system suitable for life? Pravda. Ru correspondent spoke about the mysteries of the Universe with the coordinator of the scientific and public association "Cosmopoisk", cryptophysicist, ufologist and writer Vadim Chernobrov.
In most feature films and books, aliens come to Earth in order to get new territories for life. HG Wells raised the same topic many years ago in his book War of the Worlds. Does a similar threat from space really exist?
- First, in fairness, I must say that not all films have this threat. In Soviet filmography, the newcomers were exclusively communist elder brothers. In the worst case, they were capitalist renegades from other planets, to whom we brought the light of good.
For the very persistent stereotype that you voiced, we should be grateful to Hollywood. If my memory serves me, Spielberg's Alien is the first movie in Hollywood history to feature aliens as non-aggressors. Until and to this day, most Hollywood films are really some kind of reflection of our children's horror stories.
How we behave, opening the door of someone else with our boots in order to bring democracy to foreign countries, something like our fears imagine that aliens will behave with us. While we behave in this way in relation to weaker countries, we are afraid that there will be someone even stronger who will open our door with an even heavier boot.
Here, in my opinion, there is a direct cause-and-effect relationship. This winding up began literally in 1947. After the Second World War, apparently, some kind of enemy image was needed. At that moment, the image of the Soviet Union, yesterday's ally, was not suitable, and the image of a certain Martian very successfully fell on human fears. Then no one doubted that there is life on Mars.
By the way, HG Wells really started from the point of view that there is alien aggressive life on other planets. But in his life he reviewed a lot, and maybe for some it will be a big surprise, he had a long discussion with Vladimir Ilyich Lenin on the topic of whether the Martians are aggressive or not. And I must say, they found a common language. After talking with Lenin, he was no longer so sure of aggressiveness.
On the contrary, he looked with curiosity at the worldview of the Soviet Union, which perceived the Martians as older proletarian brothers. And at a semi-official level. Let me remind you that for over 70 years we lived under a coat of arms, on which Mars was not just a cornerstone, but it soared above everything. Remember the coat of arms of the Soviet Union, which was on the coins and on everything. And, if you remember about the Red Star, which hung over the USSR from above, this is the very red star or red planet, this is the very Mars that we should have looked up to. That is, at the beginning of the twentieth century, in the twenties, there was an idea that Mars is not just favorable, not just a friendly life, but a life that will definitely help us. It was a key issue on which not only scholars disagreed or argued, it was a key political issue. That is, Eastern Europe, the socialist camp believed that the Martians were friendly. Accordingly, the opposite was considered on the other side of the political barrier.
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If we talk about today's knowledge, then what kind of life in the Universe can we talk about? Are there only single-celled organisms, or are there really highly evolved beings that communicate using telepathy?
- If we are guided not by theories, but by practice, we know one development of civilization - this is you and me. I have not used the word "intelligent" space civilization. I think that we already partly became space-based 59 years ago, but we have not yet become an intelligent civilization. Objectively, we do not yet know other civilizations. We can only speculate and draw conclusions based on scientific research methods.
And the probability of the existence of life in the Universe is drawn or calculated based on the famous Drake formula. So, all those components that are in Drake's formula, and there are about a dozen of them, in recent years have been refined only in the direction of plus. That is, the probability of the existence of intelligent life as our knowledge of the Universe grows, as the number of planets known to us grows, tends to one hundred percent. In other words, it would be pseudoscientific to assert that there are no other civilizations.
Naturally, such a statement is followed by objections: “Why don't they contact us?” This is a question for our teenage civilization, because we are not an adult civilization, we behave, to put it mildly, like a teenager from a courtyard gopot, living by the appropriate courtyard laws and wondering why the professor from the fifth floor does not seek to make friends with him. Of course, they will come into contact with us only if they find it beneficial for themselves, or at least not dangerous. And we are dangerous.
If we talk about the planets of our solar system, then at least one of them has conditions suitable for life?
- It depends on which one. Conditions are different for each of the life forms. You and I are life based on oxygen, carbon, and water. Naturally, proceeding from this, we need certain living conditions. For example, those in which the water does not freeze, but does not boil yet. It is within this narrow framework that our planet exists at the very least, and, alas, there are no planets that satisfied our needs on the territory of our solar system. We must come to terms with this.
Although, for the future, there are excellent projects on terraforming, that is, on changing the planet's climate, and in this regard, Venus and Mars are quite suitable and promising. However, with the proviso that before you reconstruct any house for yourself, you need to make sure that this house is no longer inhabited. I am not at all convinced of this. I have strong suspicions that life exists on most cosmic bodies. True, in its infancy. Therefore, when we hear that the next attempts to discover life on Mars have not yet been crowned with success, know that we are looking for samples of life similar to ours. Therefore, the fact that we do not find a life similar to ours with you on planets where conditions for our life are unfavorable is not surprising. If our relatives are there, then in some rudimentary, microbial images, in the form of microorganisms.
There are people who question Darwin's theory and declare the alien origin of man. To what extent, in your opinion, is it possible that once, many years ago, people were brought to the empty Earth, and thus humanity appeared?
- I am absolutely convinced that you and I have some kind of cosmic roots. I can't even doubt it. Simply because the Earth is not a closed system. That is, we are not covered with a glass cover so that any spores of life do not get inside or outside. Therefore, on Earth, all those space disputes that seethe there and travel on comets, of course, have arrived, and new ones are constantly arriving. That is, you and I cannot but be relatives of life on other planets.
Another question is whether this happens by chance, according to the method where God will send. For example, if a comet fell into a favorable place, good. If she died there in the abyss of waters, that's okay, we have more. Or it was done on purpose. The first method is called cosmic parmspermia, and the second method is already an artificial excretion, maybe genetic. Maybe we are a GMO civilization. Maybe they carried out some experiments on us. It is very difficult to say now. But as soon as we find the first civilization similar to ours, I think the answer comes up by itself.
Interviewed by Marina Arkhipova