SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, may have once been considered a flight of fancy, ostracized by the broader scientific community, at least in Carl Sagan's Contact, but the project has, by now, generally gained acceptance. Listening for aliens seems like an improbable, but good idea. However, a new extraterrestrial intelligence-seeking initiative, called the Lone Signal Project, may warrant a little more skepticism.
That's because, instead of listening to the cosmos for indications of intelligence, the Lone Signal Project wants to give anyone with an Internet connection an intergalactic voice. The project is asking everyone to write messages, or submit pictures, to beam to one particular spot in the night sky starting on June 18, in the hopes that extraterrestrial life gets our mass text message.
What's cool about the project is that it's humanity's first attempt to continuously send communications to alien life, according to Space.com. "As soon as I can remember, I looked up at the stars and I thought, 'Is there anybody looking back at me?' I think there's just an inherent curiosity we all have," said Ernesto Qualizza, the chief marketing officer at Lone Signal, during its press conference. "We all want to see what's on the other side of the next hill, and this is an extension of that curiosity." That's great - let's expand our horizons and reach out to possible alien life.
What's also neat about the project is that it's another example of the private sector taking space exploration (of a kind) into its own hands. "We are absolutely part of the private sector in terms of space and what's happening in space, and we are the kind of teenager alongside SpaceX and Virgin Galactic," said Jamie King, CEO of Lone Signal. "We want to be part of the wider conversation and exploration into space. We do not need to make a profit in order to sustain the operating costs in order to keep doing it."
Lone Signal is using the Jamesburg Earth Station, a communications dish, which used to be part of AT&T and COMSAT's satellite network, starting in the late 1960s. Originally built to support the Apollo 11 moon landing, the powerful old dish has been inactive for a decade. The Lone Signal Project has a secured a 30-year lease with the antenna.
Scientists with the Lone Signal Project picked out a star system called Gliese 526 as their target, because while it hasn't been identified as containing any planets yet, researchers have placed the system in the Catalog of Nearby Habitable Systems and identified it as a good candidate for harboring life. From the Jamesburg Earth Station, the project will beam several messages, including one repeated "hailing message" that explains Earth's position in the universe and includes universal scientific information that identifies the signal's source as intelligent.
It's the other messages that are the problem.
Everyone with an Internet connection is eligible for a free first text message, and after that it's $1 for four text messages, or for one text message and a photo. The project also includes a social media aspect, so messengers can dedicate beams to loved ones and share what messages they've sent. Basically, it's a crowd-funding scheme to keep a continuous signal going out to a possible extraterrestrial receiver.
That's certainly innovative, but judging by the Lone Signal Project's introductory video, they anticipate that only hipsters will be interested in sending personal messages to alien races. This is of course funny, but also serious.
When humanity sent the Voyager 1 and 2 probes on their journey, which will eventually become a mission beyond our solar system, Carl Sagan and a NASA committee carefully selected the contents of a golden record to be carried aboard and possibly recovered by alien life. The committee decided the discs had to reflect the diversity of humanity and other life on the planet. These included the sounds of bird songs, thunder, wind, and whales, the music of Beethoven, Pinghu, and Blind Willie Johnson, and greetings in more than 50 languages.
Say what you will about how representative the Voyager discs were, and there were certainly arguments about it, but beaming messages from only people who have Internet connections, and the time, inclination, and money to send them, is absolutely less representative of life on Earth. Add the fact that, at least currently, there are no filters or moderation of messages or pictures being sent, aside from the ability to tag messages as NSFW, and you've got a problem with how humanity will be depicting itself to ET, supposing the astronomically low chance that the signal makes contact.
As Rip Torn's Agent Zed once presciently said, "We're not hosting an intergalactic kegger down here."
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