I’ve mentioned many times how I look at the night sky literally every time I have a chance. Even during the 10 minutes when I’m outside with my dog for her final bedtime potty break. I wonder at the stars, before me … is there anyone out there? And why haven’t we seen them?
Some believe that it is relatively common for mixtures of basic chemistry and the conditions of the environment to somehow enable the creation of living micro-organisms. And what about other planets that have a similar evolutionary path as we did? Billions of years of planetary change, eventually resulting in conditions capable of supporting life. Even if the likelihood of this occurring is incredibly small, there are still trillions of planets out there, just in our Milky Way galaxy alone. With billions of possible attempts, surely some intelligent civilization must have evolved out there. Suppose there is just one other planet in our galaxy, besides Earth, which had life which evolved into beings capable of creating radio waves. And now their signals, travelling at the speed of light, have finally reached us today, in 2025.
We later realize that these transmissions are coming from an exoplanet orbiting a star which is 10,000 light years away from us. An intelligent being created radio signals powerful enough to survive the distance of space, similar to what mankind had achieved in 1887. And these earliest transmissions have finally arrived here at Earth, 10,000 years later.
What does this mean now? They discovered radio 10,000 years ago, how advanced would their species be today, ten thousand years later? If they ever developed faster than light travel, or even time travel, it is possible that their spacecraft have already arrived on Earth, years before their radio transmissions were able to travel that same
distance at the speed of light. Perhaps they’ve even sent their spacecraft, scattered throughout our history on this planet. Perhaps during the Aztec and Egyptian eras. Oh wait, it seems they did arrive on this planet back then. But the people of that day did not know how to describe such magical beings, with powers and technology that they had developed thousands of years earlier. Such as a levitation technology capable of transporting large granite blocks and build their pyramids.
Or maybe there are other intelligent species out there, but their first radio signals haven’t reached us … yet. Another possibility is that their civilization died out millions of years ago, a mere blink of time in the history of the universe. A civilization which evolved from early life forms, invented radio signals and other technology, perhaps thriving for thousands of years after that, and then disappeared as a species. There was some catastrophic event, and now nothing remains of that star system. Those radio signals arrived on Earth, continuously for millennia, and then went dark, long before mankind ever existed, perhaps during the Jurassic Era. Nobody out there is transmitting any longer. but they thrived until the great filter removed them. Alas, we are alone … at least for now.
Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.
— Sir Arthur C. Clarke
Actually, let us bring the example closer to home. Let us suppose there was intelligent life on an exoplanet orbiting Proxima B, just 4 light years away. And that species evolved very similar to life here on earth – micro-organisms evolving into higher level lifeforms, and eventually to a species capable of deploying spacecraft missions within their own solar system; similar to our Voyager and subsequent craft, similar to where we are today here on Earth. Not yet able to colonize other planets, but working their way through their own set of technological advancements. But just 200 years ago, in 1825, there was some mass extinction level event which wiped out nearly all life on that planet, including this intelligent species. All their technology has since exhausted its energy supply and stopped transmitting. The radio signals from that planet would cease to be detected here on Earth 4 years after the final transmission. But, we didn’t have the technology, 196 years ago, to receive and understand those radio signals. They were there, but we never detected them; and now they’re gone. The species was close enough for extraterrestrial contact, in space, but not in time. Their civilization disappeared before we discovered radio. If only they had survived another 200 years or more, then we would be seeing them now. Maybe we will eventually see their remnants – mechanical or structural evidence, perhaps visible with JWST or some future super telescope or probe.
Anyway, that’s an interesting thought experiment; my answer to the paradox is that we just missed each other in time. That is, whenever some intelligent civilization is created, they inevitably die out, due to the “great filter”. The signals from that civilization would have a starting point, when radio technology was first invented, going dark when that civilization disappears. The signals continue, forever across space, but they reached our star system when there wasn’t anyone alive at that moment in time to receive and understand it. Our own radio signals, starting in 1887, have been travelling through space, having been received by any star systems within 138 light years from Earth, but still not yet received by star systems which are 139 light years away.
I started thinking about this topic one evening while sitting in my hot tub, outside, staring at the night sky. For hours. I do this often. Watching the entire night sky, looking for any kind of movement. Anything that moves catches my attention, including planes, satellites, and even just “blinks” in the sky. Was it a satellite, or a brief meteorite? I watched a recent meteor shower, and saw 21 shooting stars in 90 minutes. Like I said, I look up all the time.
I’ve seen several different “unexplained” phenomena. Sightings which I think are “suspicious”. Something appeared and moved across the sky in a manner that I cannot explain. But was it alien, or some kind of advanced government technology? I believe it was something unusual, and not any of the familiar things I see in the sky.
Recently the “New Jersey Drones” were on the news. And we were finding that some people had never really looked up; unfortunately classifying obvious planes and helicopters, even stars, as “drone” sightings. My opinion about this is that something unusual was definitely happening with these drones, all across the world, but I still wonder what is/was going on.
Some say that maybe these lights are controlled by aliens from another planet. But then why would they have blinking red and green navigation lights? Why are these drones even blinking at all? It seems they sometimes are able to “go dark” when someone approaches … my question is why don’t they always fly dark, and nobody would have seen them in the first place? Whether aliens, or foreign governments, or even US citizens or military, if they did not want to be seen, they would run without any lights. And there wouldn’t have been any news.
I’m also interested in theories about aliens visiting Earth, in the ancient past and today. I asked myself why do I look up all the time? I guess my answer is I’m watching for something. Something super exciting. Anything that proves, yes, they are out here. What would that event mean? Will it be more like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, or more like Independence Day? Will it happen in my lifetime, or will I miss it?
This passion inspired me while creating PlanetVRium – The Virtual Reality Planetarium. Exploring my personal curiosity about the universe and sharing some of my thoughts with others. It was fun to work on. I enjoy creating the Visual Experiences which visualize facts about space and the universe. Figuring out the choreography of visual elements, in 3D/VR, aligned with audio narrations. It’s like making a movie. Including all the steps such as artwork, creative direction, narration, writing the code to make it happen, etc. I loved it. I hope you do as well.