Paris SETI Conference at UNESCO

As you can see from the picture above, I am in Paris, and among other things I’m attending the “Searching For Life Signatures” symposium on SETI coordinated by the International Academy of Astronautics and held at the UNESCO headquarters here.

According to one of the conference organizers, this is the first SETI conference to be held at a United Nations facility – a significant development given the potential for cultural shock that may occur when and if SETI is successful in detecting a signal from an advanced extrasolar civilization.

The conference has gathered luminaries in the fields of SETI, Astrobiology, and the search for extrasolar planets. Well, those folks -- and me. Talk about a fish out of water. But they had to know that if they were going to discuss potential scientific threats to the survival of the human race, sooner or later the lawyers would show up!

(Now, having made that quip, I want to make one thing clear:  so far, no one presenting at the conference believes SETI -- in either its traditional Passive mode or its new Active iteration -- presents any danger to the human race -- and neither do I, for reasons I will address in future posts.)

The conference rationale is to gather experts in all of these fields to discuss strategies for both “Passive” (traditional) SETI and “Active” SETI (or METI -- Messages to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), which proposes broadcasting radio messages into space in hopes they will be received and answered by advanced extraterrestrial civilizations.

The conference opened yesterday with talks by Frank Drake, originator of the Drake Equation used by SETI scientists to estimate the frequency of extraterrestrial intelligence in our galaxy; Jill Tarter, scientific director of the SETI Institute; Didier Queloz, co-discoverer (with Michel Mayor) of the first extrasolar planet ever discovered; and Alexander Zaitsev, the Russian astronomer who is the leading advocate for the practice of METI. 

The main event comes later this week when the conference attendees discuss and debate the wisdom of METI and the possible need for any voluntary protocols to guide and restrain such activity.

But there have also been a few surprising statements already regarding UFOs and SETI, which I will address in future posts soon to come.

The UNESCO headquarters where we are meeting is a typical mid-20th century concrete monstrosity. When I walked in yesterday I had imagined we would be meeting in one of the grand salles, one of which is pictured below, which have the appearance of a modern cathedral.

To my chagrin, however, I was ushered to a windowless room no larger than a typical college classroom, crammed with tables and chairs, a power point projector and a screen. It is here that I find myself sardined for the next several days with several dozen academics and a reporter or two:

A few quick tidbits from the opening day:

Frank Drake, who more than anyone alive today can be considered the sire of modern SETI, spoke by telephone on changes in the SETI paradigm from the pioneering days of 50 years ago. For one thing, our concept of a solar system’s habitable zone has broadened from what we originally thought it was. Today, scientists have reason to believe that primitive microbial life could exist from a distance of just past the orbit of Venus to the outer solar system, at least to the orbit of Neptune. That is a vast expansion of habitable space from a zone once thought to be broad enough to encompass only the orbit of Earth and perhaps that of Mars. This expanded habitability zone is attributed to a greater understanding of the capabilities of extreme microbial life on Earth and a greater understanding of the insulating capabilities of planetary atmospheres, icy crusts and even oceans.

The end result: we know now life can exist many places we never thought possible. The real estate available for life to take hold and develop is far more vast than we imagined.

Drake also conceded that at the dawn of SETI 50 years ago, scientists’ original conception of alien technology was unjustifiably arrogant, assuming humans were essentially the technological equivalent of aliens that may be out there. Today, it is well accepted that if aliens exist, they are statistically likely to be vastly older and more advanced technologically than we currently are – a probability with many intriguing implications I will discuss in future posts.

Finally, Drake discussed one of the challenges that may be undermining modern SETI – the fact that as they become more advanced, technological civilizations may tend to go “quiet” in the electromagnetic spectrum – as humans are with the advent of fiber optic and satellite communications. The implication may be that we will be left searching for the light emitted by extraterrestrial cities on extrasolar planets. (Nobody pointed out that even humans are trying to change that, through “dark sky” movements to fight light pollution and conserve energy.)

Didier Queloz, co-discoverer of the first extrasolar planet ever found, predicted that we are on the verge of discovering the first truly Earth-like planets, and that the first such planet will be discovered using the radial velocity method he and his colleagues have pioneered.

Finally, Alexander Zaitsev, the Russian METI pioneer and its leading advocate today, blasted those who have expressed reservations about the wisdom of trying to broadcast messages to extraterrestrials, labeling such concerns “superstition.” Zaitsev, a presence both imposing and engaging at the same time, has recently built an increasingly visible public image upon his advocacy for beaming messages to the stars – or rather, to any inhabitants of planets orbiting those stars.

Zaitsev outlined his proposal for what he originally called the European Radio Message but is now calling the Earth Radio Message. (Zaitsev expressed his irritation at recent European efforts to beam messages to the stars, which included a commercial for Doritos.)

Zaitsev dismisses concerns about broadcasting to aliens based on the reasoning that any advanced aliens in our galactic neighborhood already know Earth is here and that it is habitable and inhabited. First, although we have only been a spacefaring species for 50 years, we have the ability to detect the presence of Earth-like planets in our own neighborhood. Second, Earth has had levels of oxygen in its atmosphere detectable through spectroscopy for at least 200 million years – and only life can produce consistent quantities of oxygen. Finally, we have been broadcasting ourselves for 100 years – long enough to announce our presence to a sphere now with a diameter of 200 light-years.

Zaitsev contends METI is a fundamentally new type of human activity -- one that combines the scientific with the artistic and the diplomatic.

More to come tomorrow . . . including some intriguing insights on the attitude of European scientists toward UFO phenomena and their potential relevance to SETI.