Would Aliens Know We Are Here?

Our preoccupation with alien life forms is well-documented and far-reaching. From films such as Independence Day and E.T. to literature like H.G. Wells War of the Worlds, humans have long been fascinated with the idea that intelligent life exists out there somewhere. And if the universe is indeed infinite, as many suggest, such an event is surely more of a certainty than a possibility.

So why haven’t they made contact? While the traditional approach to alien life form discovery has been a passive, “let-them-come-to-us” attitude, there are certain quarters who believe in more pro-active methods. The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence group (known as SETI) believe that the time is ripe for us to make the first move and initiate contact. Indeed, there is the possibility that aliens exist… but have no idea that we do.

The Case For

Back in 2013, Forbes magazine published a list of five reasons why aliens would be certain to know of our existence, should they themselves actually exist. Here they are in condensed form:

1. The I Love Lucy argument. It has been argued that even planets that were 60-plus light years away from us would still be able to pick up TV transmissions from the 1950s, provided they had the most rudimentary receiving equipment.
2. Our chemical signature. The respiration of humans and animals and the photosynthesis of plant life on Earth sends out a biological signal, which would be easily identifiable to other intelligent life.
3. They wouldn’t rest on their laurels. We are, by nature, inquisitive, adventurous and filled with a thirst for knowledge and discovery – why wouldn’t aliens be, too?
4. They would have mastered the speed of light. NASA physicist Marc Millis predicts humans will have mastered faster-than-the-speed-of-light travel by 2300… aliens may well have already done so millennia ago.
5. They probably have advanced cloaking systems. Since we are capable of radar cloaking and are in the process of developing optical cloaking, it’s feasible to suspect aliens might be ahead of us on this one, too.

The Case Against

With the exception of the first point, all of those reasons above assume that aliens have an intelligence that is far in excess of our own. What basis is this made upon? It seems purely arbitrary to assume that alien life would be far more advanced than our own. Sure, it’s possible – but inevitable? Likely enough to base your whole reasoning on? It’s not sound. Indeed, Douglas Varoch, who is the Director of Interstellar Message Composition at SETI, has dubbed such a belief a “cosmic inferiority complex”.

Of course, there is another possible explanation as to why aliens have not deigned to make contact. Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson recently vented his own fear that aliens have in fact already visited us, but did not make themselves known to us because we did not exhibit signs of intelligent life. Ahem. Thanks Neil!