SCIENTISTS TO MEET WITH ALIENS.
More than at any previous time in our species' history, technological advancements have increased the likelihood that the search for extraterrestrial life (SETI) will lead to alien contact. Astronomers are now able to determine a planet's composition outside of our solar system thanks to scientific advancements. As a result, Scotland has become the home of a brand-new research center that is completely focused on the search for extraterrestrial life.
John Elliot, an honorary research fellow at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, has officially established an alien contact research center, according to an interview with VICE. This is the realization of one of his dreams. After first contact with an extraterrestrial species has been established, the SETI-Post Detection Hub concentrates on what happens next. Science at the new research facility focuses on human-to-human communication, as well as communication with alien species. Convincing a skeptic population that aliens exist and have made contact is a challenging notion that cuts across many academic disciplines.
Most likely not First Contact
Elliot and his group are functioning under the presumption that contact with aliens will eventually occur. Someone has to be ready for what happens next, especially if other scientists are working hard to really discover life. Beyond science, the SETI-Post Detection Hub is seeking to address the moral, logistical, and legal issues raised by the realization that humans are not the only beings in the cosmos.
The SETI-Post Detection Hub conducts study on how people behave after first making contact with extraterrestrial life. To that goal, Elliot's team consists of international UFO enthusiasts as well as scientists, lawyers, and sociologists. It is hoped that this will deal with a problem that science cannot resolve: conspiracy theorists who will maintain that a signal is phony even after it has been verified.
The two groups got together after Elliot was urged to create a strategy and response for when alien contact is confirmed by other SETI Network participants in the UK. The SETI team's scientists are concerned that the 1989 strategy plan has not kept up with scientific progress over the past 30 years. The SETI-Post Detection Hub, which is operational right now, is already testing with different channels of communication regarding an alien signal.
Researchers were unconcerned about fake news on social media in 1989. Elliot asserts that a plan is now required to deal with the vast, intricate web of social media and contemporary methods of information consumption. This is not perfect science, and a lot depends on how we make contact with aliens.
Finding preserved microbial remains is one thing, but an intelligent species contacting planet Earth is quite another, according to Eliot and his team. The most recent Mars missions from NASA, for instance, may uncover old extraterrestrial artifacts, but that is a distinct kind of alien contact that can be handled much more easily by conventional scientific means. The SETI-Post Detection Hub is concentrating its efforts on these areas because there are situations where employing science alone is not sufficient. Hollywood has depicted a variety of possible post-contact worlds, but now a committed crew is working to make that world a reality.
