'We cannot afford to be ill prepared' for alien contact, scientists warn

You may belong to the school of thought that believes talks of extraterrestrial life is cuckoo talk. But, would you rather humanity was prepared for an encounter with aliens, than not? Well, some scientists believe alien encounter is not only possible, but we might be ‘ill-prepared’ for such an encounter if it ever happens.

Talking to aliens 101

Scientists at the University of St Andrews have established an international research hub to help prepare humans for the day when we find out we are not alone in the cosmos after all.

The new SETI Post-Detection Hub, hosted by the Centre for Exoplanet Science and the Centre for Global Law and Governance at the university, will act as a coordinating centre for an international effort bringing together diverse expertise across both the sciences and the humanities to facilitate a responsible response, a statement released by the university states.

Dr John Elliott, Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Computer Science of the University of St Andrews and coordinator of the Hub, said:

We need to coordinate our expert knowledge not only for assessing the evidence but also for considering the human social response, as our understanding progresses and what we know and what we don’t know is communicated. And the time to do this is now.

Better safe than sorry

Since 2010 when the Royal Society held a meeting on ‘the detection of extraterrestrial life and the consequences for science and society’, not much attention has been paid to the topic. The SETI (Search for extraterrestrial intelligence) Post-Detection hub is hoping to fill this policy gap.

It also wants to coordinate responsible science communication especially in the era of social media by serving as a permanent headquarters for coordination efforts aimed at developing a fully comprehensive alien response framework. According to Dr Elliot:

Will we ever get a message from ET? We don’t know. We also don’t know when this is going to happen. But we do know that we cannot afford to be ill prepared – scientifically, socially, and politically rudderless – for an event that could turn into reality as early as tomorrow and which we cannot afford to mismanage.

Sources used:

The Telegraph: Prepare for alien encounter now before it's too late, warn scientists

University of St Andrews News: Do you speak extra-terrestrial? Research hub considers response to life beyond Earth

Study Finds: How do we talk to aliens? New research hub will finally update humanity’s response to extraterrestrials