Earth Must Prepare for Encounter With ALIENS, Scientists Say

A team of scientists from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland wants to come up with a plan on what to do if humans encounter aliens.

With the help of experts from around the world, they want to devise reliable protocols and treaties, as well as assess any evidence for the existence of intelligent civilizations.

Its preparatory work will be carried out at the university’s new Research Center for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).

No life outside Earth has ever been discovered; there is no evidence that alien life has ever visited Earth. However this does not mean that the Universe is lifeless, except on Earth according to NASA.

The space agency says:

“While no clear signs of life have been found, the possibility of extraterrestrial biology – the scientific logic that underpins it – is becoming increasingly plausible.”

A popular view is that our very existence is evidence that life definitely exists on other planets as the probability that Earth is a “unique example” is close to zero.

However an argument against this is:

If there is extraterrestrial life, why haven’t we found any evidence of it?

Now scientists have decided to prepare for a possible meeting and study in more detail all aspects of this question. They explained that it is necessary not only to coordinate expertise to assess the evidence, but also to consider what the social reaction of people might be.

The group believes limited attention is being paid to the implications for society if alien intelligence is discovered. While the United Nations has processes and organizations created to deal with the threat of asteroid impact, there is nothing similar for extraterrestrial life.

In June, NASA announced the start of its first study of unidentified aerial phenomena, commonly known as UFOs. They establish which observations are natural and which do not merit further study.

As for social interest, scientists note that it has grown significantly in recent years. The reason for this is the discovery of thousands of planets around distant stars in our own galaxy, as well as potential signs of life on planets as close to us as Mars and Venus.

“The potential discovery of microbial life is likely to cause various types of anxiety that will follow the discovery of intelligent life – we as a species are completely unprepared for the latter,” the scientists explained.

Scientists will manage the entire process of finding evidence, confirming findings, analyzing and interpreting language patterns and managing potential responses. Scientists from the natural and human sciences will be involved in the work.

They will also coordinate with policy experts in message decryption, data analysis, spatial law, rule making and social impact strategies to help close the policy gap.

“Will we ever receive a message from an extraterrestrial civilization? We do not know. We also don’t know when that will happen. But we know that we cannot afford to be ill-prepared – scientifically, socially and politically – for an event that could become a reality tomorrow and that we cannot afford to mismanage,” they explained.