Last fall, New Jersey was ground zero for a spate of unidentified drone sightings. Subsequent investigations determined that what the public saw buzzing across the Jersey skies were mostly authorized drones or misidentified aircraft.
The drone sightings caught the attention of John Gertz, a long-time and influential member of SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), the scientific body that for more than half a century has scanned outer space for evidence of alien life.
Gertz has been with SETI for 25 years, served three terms as chairman of the board of the SETI Institute and he has contributed to the academic foundation of SETI through multiple peer-reviewed theoretical papers.
While Gertz accepts the official investigation’s conclusions about the drone sightings, he has a unique perspective on the possibilities of life in the universe and its implications.
In his newly published book “Reinventing SETI: New Directions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life,” published by Oxford University Press, Gertz offers reams of new thinking about this subject, and he does so from a unique perspective – that of a businessman and entrepreneur.
He heads up Zorro Productions, which owns and manages all of the trademarks for the famous swashbuckling character.
MM: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, commonly known as SETI, started when?
John Gertz (JG): SETI began in 1959. What happened was, SETI founder Frank Drake pointed a radio telescope at a particular star trying to detect any radio signals that might be sent by ET from the area of that star.
MM: At some point, did SETI become more than just an exercise in listening for ET’s signals?
JG: Some years later, along came METI – Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence. This was extremely controversial in the SETI community. I and others were vehemently opposed to it.
There is a chapter in my book about METI – I call it beyond the foolish to the arrogant.
MM: Why?
JG: Because it could be extremely dangerous.
What do we know about ET and its intentions toward us? Absolutely nothing.
Is ET more like Spielberg’s cuddly guy or more like Ridley Scott’s alien monster? There is no evidence one way or the other.
We don’t know if ET would want to be aggressive against us, to trade with us, proselytize us or simply lay down the law to us. We have no idea.
MM: You say in your book the idea of sending signals into space looking for other civilizations does not make practical sense. Expand on that.
JG: This is not a practical way to communicate.
Let’s say we send a message to a star which is 100 light years away. In astronomical terms, that is very close. Our message, traveling at the speed of light, will take 100 years to arrive at ET’s planet.
We don’t know if ET will send a message back 10 minutes or 10 years or 10 centuries after receiving our signal. We don’t know what language or what algorithms they might use.
If ET replies to our message, it will take 100 years to be received here on Earth. That is 200 total years from the time we send the message until we receive a reply. You would have to dedicate a telescope to just look at that one star. Have we reserved a telescope for 200 years from now? How long do we reserve that telescope?
MM: Let’s say we receive the initial message from an alien civilization. What do you think we should do?
JG: The first question is – who has the right to decide whether to respond?
The lonely radio astronomer?
Does the rest of the world have a say in this? And who decides what the message will say?
Some suggest we just upload the entire internet and give them everything.
Well, I am an astronomer, but I am also a businessman and that is the stupidest business idea I have ever heard. Give them all our knowledge for nothing? ET could laugh at us and not give us anything back.
MM: Since SETI became operational in 1960, we still have not heard a signal we can say came from an alien civilization. Is that because we just have not sent out messages far enough for aliens to hear? Or is it because we are alone in the universe? Where are you on the question of whether there is life somewhere in the universe besides planet Earth?
JG: Life in the universe? I don’t know. It is a mystery.
But with 400 billion stars in just the Milky Way, and there are billions of galaxies. If we are all alone, the question is, how did this happen?
My bet is we are not exactly alone, but we are one of two civilizations, and we are the younger civilization. The other civilization is kind of crazy like the queen bee coming out and killing all the other queen bees before they hatch. As soon as a new civilization arises, the older civilization snuffs it out.
MM: Does the emergence and evolution of life on earth give us any sense of where or how it could have developed elsewhere?
JG: When you think about the development of intelligent life – what are the chances that we came around by figuring out how to climb trees in a better way. And it turns out posable thumbs was just what we needed to design computer hardware millions of years later.
Evolution is tough to predict.
In the last ten million years before the dinosaurs were wiped out, there were fairly intelligent dinosaurs that we know had very large brains relative to body size. These intelligent dinosaurs probably hunted in packs like the velociraptor as depicted in Jurassic Park.
If you were around at that time, you would have bet on these more intelligent dinosaurs evolving into technological developers.
You would not have bet on the little rat size mammals that were running between the dinosaur’s toes trying to escape from them. But it was those rat size mammals that survived the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs; and they evolved into us.
MM: So, if for whatever reason humans go the way of dinosaurs, which species takes over at the top of the food chain?
JG: If we disappeared, some other animal would develop technological competence.
Frank Drake used to bet on the raccoons, and I think he is right. They are omnivores and they hunt in packs. They have very facile hands, and they are very intelligent animals, so I think the raccoons may be up next. It will take some millions of years to evolve but they have a shot at it.
Humans are not irreplaceable. It was a unique set of circumstances that had us evolve intelligence. Other creatures can do the same.
