Global Search for Messages to Send to Alien Life
So, apart from saying “you look a lot different than in the movies”, what would you say to an alien?
If you’ve got an idea of how you would introduce humanity to an alien civilization you could win yourself some big money prizes.
A new $100 million, 10-year search for intelligent life was launched yesterday by physicist Stephen Hawking and it consists of two initiatives. The first is the actual search (Breakthrough Listen), the most powerful quest for alien life ever undertaken. And the second, called the Breakthrough Message is a global competition to determine the content of messages sent from humanity to alien kind.
What Would You Say to ET?
The pool of prizes will be up to $1 million, but you can’t get scribbling just yet. The fine details of the contest have yet to be announced.
Breakthrough Message is not actually a commitment to send the winning messages out into the furthest reaches of space. More, it is a catalyst for discussions about the ethical and philosophical issues surrounding communicating with intelligent life beyond our planet, as well as promoting conversations about who we really are as humans.
At the launch of this new search for ET, Professor Hawking said: “Mankind has a deep need to explore, to learn, to know. We also happen to be sociable creatures. It is important for us to know if we are alone in the dark.”
Both the Breakthrough Listen and Breakthrough Message initiatives are funded by Silicon Valley technology investor Yuri Milner.
To see a video of the launch of the inititives, click here
Reader Comments
The Breakthrough Listen should have taken its initiatives from the "First Land of Human Civilization" itself. It is the "center" of the universe.
Akhil Kumar Sahoo
Posted by Akhil Kumar Sahoo on August 10, 2015
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