Conflict of Civilizations

Conflict of Civilizations

If there are millions of civilizations distributed more or less randomly through the Galaxy, the distance to the nearest is about two hundred light-years. Even at the speed of light it would take two centuries for a radio message to get from there to here. If we had initiated the dialogue, it would be as if the question had been asked by Johannes Kepler and the answer received by us.

Especially because we, new to radio astronomy, must be comparatively backward, and the transmitting civilization advanced, it makes more sense for us to listen than to send. For a more advanced civilization, the positions are, of course, reversed.

We are at the earliest stages of our radio search for other civilizations in space. In an optical photograph of a dense star field, there are hundreds of thousands of stars. By our more optimistic estimates, one of them is the site of and advanced civilizations. But which one? Toward which stars should we point our radio telescopes? Of the millions of stars that may mark the location of advances civilizations, we have so far examined by radio no more than thousands.

Photo by Elena

We have made about one-tenth of one percent of the required effort. But a serious, rigorous, systematic search will come soon. The preparatory steps are now underway. It is comparatively inexpensive : the cost of a single naval vessel of intermediate size – a modern destroyer , say – would pay for a decade-long program in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Benevolent encounters have not been the rule in human history, where transcultural contacts have been direct and physical, quite different from the receipt of a radio signal a contact as light as a kiss.

Still, it is instructive to examine one of two cases from our past, if only to calibrate our expectations : Between the times of the American and the French Revolutions, Louis XVI of France outfitted an expedition to the Pacific Ocean, a voyage with scientific, geographic, economic and nationalistic objectives. The commander was the Count of La Pérouse, a noted explorer who had fought for the United States in its War of Independence InJuly 1786, almost a year  after setting sail, he reached the coast of Alaska, a place now called Liuya Bay. He was delighted with the harbor and wrote: “Not a port in the universe could afford more conveniences.” In this exemplary location, La Pérouse perceived some savages, who made signs of friendships, by displaying and waving white mantles, and different skins. Several of the canoes of these Indians were fishing in the Bay… we were continually surrounded by the canoes of the savages, who offered us fish, skins of otters and other animals, and different little articles of their dress in exchange for our iron. To our great surprise, they appeared well accustomed to traffic, and bargained with us with as much skill as any tradesman of Europe.”