In 1985 I was living in Galway, on the west coast of Ireland. I regularly raided the local library in Augustine Street for reading material. It no longer looks like this, but I remember walking up the stairs on the left:
Old Galway Central Library, Augustine Street, from memory
The Mysteries of Pulsars Capture My Imagination
There, I discovered a book about pulsars. As I read, I was struck by the remarkable characteristics of these cosmic phenomena—they emitted incredibly regular radio pulses, seemingly ticking like celestial clocks. Something about their precise periodicity raised a suspicion in my mind: Could these signals be of artificial origin? The idea gnawed at me. It seemed almost too perfect, too synchronized, to be purely natural.
Antony Hewish in front of 4.5-acre array, image by Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge.
Delays and Doubts: The Scientific Community’s Caution
What puzzled me even more was the fact that the researchers who first detected pulsars waited nearly two years before publishing their findings. When they finally did, they explained the regular radio transmissions as the result of some natural astrophysical process—perhaps rapidly spinning neutron stars or some other exotic object. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was being hidden, or at least not fully explored. Why delay the publication? Why rush to explain away the strange signals with a natural cause, when they could just as easily be a message—or evidence—of intelligent life?
First Observation Of Pulsar, image by Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge.
A Personal Mission: Reaching Out to a Nobel Laureate
I found myself unable to let go of the thought. I decided I had to try and get some answers directly from someone who knew the science firsthand—Professor Antony Hewish himself, the Nobel laureate who played a key role in the discovery of pulsars.
The walk to the phone booth on Eyre Square was not long—just a few minutes—but to me, it felt like a journey into the unknown. I passed by the familiar sights: the cobblestone streets, the bustling cafés, and the distant clang of the clock tower. The square was busy with people, their conversations and footsteps creating a constant hum. I could feel the cool breeze on my face, carrying the faint smell of brewing coffee from nearby cafés, mingling with the crisp air of a typical Irish day.
Pádraic Ó’ Conaire statue on Eyre Square, Galway
Making the Call: Asking the Expert About Artificial Origins
As I approached the square, I paused briefly to steady my breathing. I reached into my pocket, clutching the handful of Irish pound coins I had carefully gathered for this purpose. I looked at the phone booth—a small, glass-panelled box standing at the corner of the square, slightly worn but functional. Its faded paint and the faint smell of old metal reminded me of countless moments of waiting and hope.
I stepped inside, feeling the cool metal of the door handle against my hand. The interior was dimly lit, with the faint glow of the coin slot and dialing pad. I took a moment to collect myself. The hum of the city outside seemed to fade into the background as I lifted the receiver and inserted the coins one by one into the slot, hearing the satisfying clink as they dropped into place.
The phone was a rotary-style model, but it worked—reliable and straightforward. I stared at the dial pad, my fingers trembling slightly as I entered the number for the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. The line was long-distance, and I had only a limited amount of coins. I whispered a quiet prayer that the call would go through.
The Interview
Finally, I heard the connection click. A calm, measured voice answered.
Antony Hewish on the phone (AI generated)
“Hello?”
“Professor Hewish?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
“Yes, speaking,” came the reply.
I hesitated for a moment, my mind racing with questions. Then I blurted out, “I’m calling to congratulate you on the discovery of pulsars.”
There was a brief pause, and I could almost hear him smiling on the other end of the line.
He thanked me politely, then I took a deep breath and asked, “I find the subject absolutely fascinating, and I was wondering—are you absolutely certain that pulsars are not of artificial origin?”
He responded with quiet confidence, “Yes, I am certain.”
And then he proceeded to explain, his voice steady and reassuring:
“Pulsars are fascinating objects. They are highly magnetized, rapidly spinning neutron stars—remnants of massive stars that have gone supernova. As they rotate, their intense magnetic fields funnel particles toward their magnetic poles, which act like cosmic lighthouse beams. When these beams sweep past Earth, we detect them as highly regular radio pulses.”
Reflections Under the Galway Sky
I listened intently, my mind swirling with his explanations—ones I’d heard before, yet they only deepened my curiosity. I asked again, perhaps more insistently:
“And you are 100% sure that pulsars are not of artificial origin?”
Hewish chuckled softly on the line, “Yes, absolutely certain.”
I thanked him for his time, and before used up all my coins, I ended the call. Stepping back onto the street, I looked up at the grey, cloudy sky, pondering the vastness of space and the mysteries it still held. The conversation left me with a lingering question: could we someday truly find signs of intelligent life out there?
One Second of Error in 30 Million Years
The universe’s most precise timekeepers—the most stable pulsars—are so remarkably accurate that they would drift by only a single second over tens of millions of years. Their stability rivals—and in some respects even surpasses—that of our most advanced atomic clocks.
The most stable known millisecond pulsar, designated PSR J1713+0747, exemplifies this extraordinary precision. Its rotational period is so consistent that it would accumulate an error of just one second after approximately 30 million years.
When we talk about the superiority of pulsars as cosmic clocks, we’re referring to their ability to keep perfect time over millennia—far beyond the reach of any human-made clock. Engineers can build clocks that lose only one second in 300 billion years, but such devices are fragile, often breaking down within a few decades. Pulsars, on the other hand, can continue their steady ticking for billions of years, offering an unmatched cosmic standard of time.
Commemorating the historic Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting—24 June 1947 (Full transcript and link to original radio interview from the 26th of June, just two days later.)
THE SIGHTING THAT STARTED IT ALL
Seventy-seven years ago today, a 32-year-old Idaho businessman and experienced pilot named Kenneth Arnold unwittingly ignited the modern fascination with unidentified flying objects. While flying his CallAir A-2 over the Cascade Mountains on 24 June 1947, Arnold spotted nine silvery objects weaving in formation near Mount Rainier. He later described their motion as “like a saucer if you skip it across water,” a phrase newspapers soon shortened to “flying saucers,” forever branding the phenomenon.
ON-AIR EXCLUSIVE
The broadcast of the first radio interview with Kenneth Arnold itself has its own remarkable backstory: for over forty years, the KWRC interview existed only in second-hand reports—until researcher Pierre Lagrange uncovered the original vinyl in 1988. This pristine recording finally lets us hear Arnold’s exact words and raw emotion in the immediate wake of his sighting and the media storm that followed.
Kenneth Arnold interviewed by Ted Smith, KWRC, 26 June 1947:
“Every newspaper across the nation has made headlines out of it, and this afternoon we are honored, indeed, to have here in our studio the man himself, Kenneth Arnold, who we believe can give us a first-hand account of what happened. Kenneth, first of all, if you’ll move a little closer to the microphone, please tell—in your own words, as you told us last night in your hotel room and again this morning—what you were doing and how this entire thing started. Go ahead, Kenneth.”
ARNOLD RECOUNTS THE FLIGHT
(Kenneth Arnold) “Well, at about 2:15 p.m. I took off from Chehalis, Washington, en route to Yakima. Every time any of us fly over the country near Mount Rainier, we spend an hour or two searching for the Marine plane that’s never been found; they believe it’s in the snow somewhere southwest of that area, at an elevation of about 10,000 feet.
I had made one sweep close to Mount Rainier and down one of the canyons, looking for any object that might be the Marine ship, and about fifteen minutes later, as I came up out of the canyon, I was approximately 25–28 miles from Mount Rainier. I’d climbed back to 9,200 feet when I noticed, to my left, a chain that looked like the tail of a Chinese kite—weaving and moving at terrific speed across the face of the mountain.”
FIRST IMPRESSION
“At first I thought they were geese, because they flew like geese, but they were traveling so fast that I immediately decided it had to be a formation of new jet planes.”
TIMING THE OBJECTS
“As the objects reached the edge of Mount Rainier, heading about 160° south, I thought I’d clock them. It was such a clear day, and I could use Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams as reference points—pilots love arguing about speed. They flipped and flashed in the sun like mirrors, and the glare through my Plexiglas windshield nearly blinded me.”
TAILS—OR LACK THEREOF
“It was about 2:59 p.m. when I started timing them with my sweep-second hand. I kept looking for their tails; they had none. Thinking something might be wrong with my eyes, I turned the plane around, opened the window, and looked out—still no tails.”
BRIEF BUT MEMORABLE
“The entire observation lasted no more than two and a half minutes. I could see them clearly only when they tipped and reflected the sunlight. They looked like a pie plate cut in half with a convex triangle at the rear.”
UNCONVENTIONAL FLIGHT
“I thought perhaps they were jet planes with their tails painted green or brown and didn’t think much of it, but I kept watching. They didn’t fly in the conventional formation taught in our Army; they wove in and out above the mountaintops and even dipped into canyons—probably by about 100 feet. Against the snow on Mount Rainier and Mount Adams, they were unmistakable.”
INCREDIBLE SPEED
“When the last one passed Mount Adams, I checked my watch: 1 minute 42 seconds. Later, using my map, I calculated their speed. Allowing for error, it was roughly 1,200 mph—even if I stretched the flight time to three or four minutes, they’d still be exceeding 800 mph. To my knowledge, nothing but some German rockets could do that.”
LEVEL FLIGHT, NO DIVES
“They maintained a more or less constant altitude—no climbing or diving, just straight and level. I joked with the fellows at the airport that they must have had a tailwind, but the joke didn’t help much.”
HAND ON THE BIBLE
“To the best of my knowledge, that is exactly what I saw. As I told the Associated Press, I’d be glad to confirm it with my hand on a Bible.
Kenneth Arnold in front of his CallAir A-2 plane
Whether it involves our Army or Intelligence, or some foreign country, I don’t know. But I did see it, and I did clock it. I just happened to be in the perfect position, and it’s as much a mystery to me as to anyone who’s been calling me for the last 24 hours.”
NEWSROOM FRENZY
(Newscaster Ted Smith)
“Kenneth, thank you very much. I know you’ve been busy these last 24 hours—I’ve spent some of that time with you myself—and both the Associated Press and United Press have been after you every minute. This story has been on every newscast and in every newspaper I know. United Press in Portland has made several telephone calls to Pendleton—to me and to you—and New York is clamoring for details.”
LOOKING FOR ANSWERS
“We may have an answer before nightfall. If it’s some new type of Army or Navy secret missile, there will probably be an announcement and that will be the end of it—or perhaps we’ll finally get a definite explanation. I understand United Press is checking with the Army and Navy now, and we hope for something concrete soon.”
STAY TUNED
“We certainly want to thank you, Kenneth, for coming into our studio. We’re pleased to give our KWRC listeners this first-hand report. Listeners, keep tuned to this station: any time we get something on our United Press teletype—from New York, Chicago, Portland, or any bureau across the nation—we’ll have it on the air.”
A CALL FOR SERIOUS INVESTIGATION
“We’ve seen something—hundreds of pilots have seen something—in the skies. We have dutifully reported these sightings, yet it seems we need fifteen million witnesses before anyone looks into the problem seriously. This is utterly fantastic—more fantastic than flying saucers or people from Venus or anything else, as far as I’m concerned.”
MUFON Live Stream to Present “Materials Unknown” On July 19!
New Billy Meier Film “Singularly Authentic” Now Available!
Make Contact with Star People via Global CE-5 Event, June 28!
Sir John Ventre Releases New Book About the Templars!
Special Guest Columns: The History of “Who’s Who in the Cosmic
Zoo?”; The Discovery of a Massive Unknown, Underwater Structure in
Malibu; “How to Fine Tune Your Frequency”;
And “Why Don’t People Want to Believe?
All This Plus UAP Photo of the Week And More!
Cincinnatti, OH, JUNE 2025 — MUFON will be presenting its 2025 Symposium July 17-20 in Cincinnatti, Ohio. And on July 19, MUFON will present a Special Live Stream Event. For a preview of these events, please CLICK HERE
Bay Area, CA, JUNE 2025 — On June 28, 2025, Kosta Makreas, the Founder of both The People’s Disclosure Movement and ETLetsTalk.com, invites you to join his group in “The Global CE-5 Initiative” ET/Star People contact event to be held all-day everywhere on Planet Earth. The People’s Disclosure Movement is comprised of over one-million people globally.
Beverly Hills, CA, June 2025 – Beginning Monday, June 16, at 12-noon Pacific Time, the brand new, one-hour documentary film entitled INSIDE HOLLYWOOD: ALIENS, UFOS AND THE QUEST FOR DISCLOSURE will be made available for free viewing. To View CLICK HERE
I am writing this rebuttal in regard to the June 6, 2025, Wall Street Journal article, “America’s UFO Mythology,” by Joel Schectman and Aruna Viswanatha: Since my name (Robert Salas) was mentioned in this article (page 7) with respect to an incident I experienced while I was a Minuteman I (ICBM) missile launch officer, in command of a Launch Control Facility (LCF) in Montana, designated “Oscar 1” and false representations were made, I find it necessary to respond to those statements in the referenced article here, with this rebuttal.
Most of us will never see a strange light dart across the night sky, let alone claim to be whisked aboard a craft not of this Earth. Yet, tucked away in public databases, government archives, and academic journals lie more than 200,000 firsthand accounts from people who insist such events happened to them. It makes one wonder if there is an extraterrestrial message hidden among the accounts.
No, I don’t have the time to read all those accounts personally, so I told Gemini AI DeepResearch to analyze them all for me. That’s what Large Language Models are good at. An unexpected picture emerged from the mountain of testimony: the alleged visitors, if real, seem far less interested in dazzling us with technology than in warning us about the way we run our planet.
How Many Cases Are We Really Talking About?
• Public databases: Roughly 170,000 sighting and contact reports sit in the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) catalogue, with hundreds added every month. • Declassified government projects: Project BLUE BOOK’s 12,618 files and the FBI’s post-war “Vault” documents add a further trove. • Academic & clinical work: Thirty-plus peer-reviewed psychology papers (from Harvard, Goldsmiths, and others) and at least half-a-dozen social-science surveys have examined self-identified abductees and “channelers”—people who claim to relay telepathic messages from non-human intelligences. • Independent qualitative studies: Another six to ten book-length investigations—by scholars such as the late Harvard psychiatrist John Mack or the late Temple University historian David Jacobs—bring the formal research count to “just over forty.”
Summary
The tenor of over 200,000 UFO reports from credible experiencers, military personnel, and contactees is delivering the same urgent warnings, and it’s time we listened. There appears to be a deliberate, intelligent effort to guide humanity away from self-destruction. Here’s what they’re telling us:
Cosmic Wake-Up Call: Five Urgent ET Messages for Humanity’s Survival
“Disarm Now—Or Face Extinction” (Nuclear Warnings: A Clear Pattern) Resonance: Moderate to Low, with pockets of High Concern. Politicians & People in Power: While there’s widespread acknowledgment of the catastrophic potential of nuclear weapons, the urgency of immediate and complete disarmament is a highly contentious issue.
UFOs didn’t just happen to appear over nuclear facilities during the Cold War—they were intervening. Missiles mysteriously deactivated. Radar systems jammed. Military witnesses confirm: Something was sending a message. The message? “Your weapons are a threat to the entire cosmos.” This isn’t speculation—it’s documented.
“Earth is Dying—Act Immediately” (Environmental Crisis: A Dire Alert) Resonance: High in Acknowledgment, Moderate to Low in Sufficiently Urgent Action. Politicians & People in Power: There is now widespread, almost universal, acknowledgment among world leaders and major institutions that climate change and environmental degradation represent a significant, even existential, crisis.
From Jim Sparks to countless abductees, the message is consistent: “Your planet is in critical condition.” Crop circles, telepathic warnings, and visions of ecological collapse aren’t coincidences—they’re a galactic SOS. ETs aren’t just observing—they’re urging us to change before it’s too late.
“You Are Starseeds—Awaken” (Spiritual & Evolutionary Guidance) Resonance: Extremely Low to Non-Existent in mainstream political discourse. Politicians & People in Power: This type of message, rooted in specific spiritual or esoteric beliefs like the “Starseed” concept (which posits that some humans originated from other planets or dimensions to help Earth), generally does not resonate in mainstream political circles or among those in positions of secular power.
The most profound encounters aren’t about fear—they’re about ascension. Contactees describe downloads of cosmic knowledge, sudden healing abilities, and an overwhelming sense of universal connection. This isn’t fantasy—it’s a consciousness upgrade. ETs are trying to help humanity evolve beyond war, greed, and separation.
“Unite or Perish” (A Call for Global Solidarity) Resonance: Moderate, with Fluctuations based on Context. Politicians & People in Power: The idea of global solidarity is frequently invoked in international forums, especially when addressing transboundary challenges like pandemics, climate change, economic crises, and major conflicts.
The idea that ET contact could end human conflict isn’t wishful thinking—it’s inevitable. Once we accept we’re not alone, borders, religions, and ideologies will seem trivial. The message? “You are one species. Start acting like it.”
“The Great Filter is Real—Don’t Fail” (Warning of Civilizational Collapse) Resonance: Low in terms of the specific “Great Filter” terminology; Moderate in terms of underlying concern about civilizational threats.
Politicians & People in Power: The specific astrobiological/futurist concept of “The Great Filter” (a hypothesis suggesting that some event or condition prevents life from becoming an advanced space-faring civilization) is not commonly part of mainstream political discourse.
Advanced civilizations may have already fallen to the same traps we face: war, environmental abuse, and technological recklessness. UFOs could be survivors—or even guardians—trying to steer us away from the cliff.
The Truth is Here—Will We Listen?
This isn’t random noise. The patterns are too consistent, the witnesses too credible, and the stakes too high to ignore. The messages are real. The question is: Will humanity wake up in time?
1. Disarm Nuclear Arms 2. Heal a Dying Planet 3. Awaken Your Cosmic Heritage 4. Foster peace and unity 5. Avoid the Great Filter
An Overview of Online UFO Experiencer Reports: Accessibility, Themes, Hostility, and Messages for Humanity
The Enduring Mystery of UFOs & UAPs
The phenomenon of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), now more commonly referred to as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), continues to captivate public imagination and spark intense debate. At the heart of this mystery are the firsthand accounts of individuals who claim encounters with these unexplained objects—or even their alleged occupants. These UFO experiencer reports serve as a unique body of qualitative data, offering insights into personal interpretations of extraordinary events.
This report examines: ✔ The accessibility and estimated number of online UFO reports ✔ Core themes and narratives in experiencer accounts ✔ The spectrum of reported interactions—from hostile to benevolent ✔ Potential messages for humanity embedded in these encounters
Given the diverse and often controversial nature of these reports, a comprehensive approach is necessary—one that acknowledges both scientific skepticism and the profound personal impact these experiences have on those who report them.
🔍 Accessibility & Estimated Number of Online UFO Reports
The internet serves as a vast repository for UFO-related information, with numerous platforms hosting firsthand accounts, government documents, and independent research.
Archived websites from MUFON, NUFORC, and UFO forums.
📌 Estimated Total Online Reports: 200,000+
NUFORC: ~170,000
Project BLUE BOOK: ~12,000
CORGIS/GitHub datasets: ~80,000
FBI & other archives: Thousands more
👽 Core Themes in UFO Experiencer Reports
Analysis of these reports reveals recurring patterns in abduction narratives, entity descriptions, and emotional responses.
🛸 The Abduction Narrative
Many accounts follow a structured sequence:
Capture – Sudden inability to move/resist.
Examination – Invasive medical procedures (often reproductive).
Communication – Telepathic messages or warnings.
Return – Often with missing time or physical marks.
👾 Reported Alien Entities
✔ Grey Aliens (most common in North America) Small, large-headed, slanted black eyes. ✔ Nordic Aliens (often described as benevolent) Tall, human-like, blond hair. ✔ Non-Humanoid Beings (less common but reported globally).
✔ Fear & Trauma (most common in abduction cases). ✔ Mystical or Spiritual Awakening (some report profound love/connection). ✔ Sense of Purpose (belief in being part of a “cosmic plan”).
⚠️ Recurring Warnings
✔ Environmental Collapse (“Our planet is dying”). ✔ Nuclear Danger (UFOs frequently seen near nuclear sites). ✔ Humanity’s Self-Destruction (warnings about technology outpacing wisdom).
⚔️ Hostility vs. Benevolence in Alien Encounters
Reports vary widely—from terrifying abductions to uplifting contact.
🔴 Hostile Encounters
✔ Forced Abductions (loss of bodily autonomy). ✔ Medical Experiments (often described as painful). ✔ Animal Mutilations (linked to UFO activity in some cases). ✔ Military Concerns (UAPs in restricted airspace seen as potential threats).
✔ Early Contactees (1950s) – Aliens as peaceful guides. ✔ Spiritual Experiences – Feelings of universal love. ✔ Even modern abductees sometimes report healing, guidance, or spiritual uplift. ✔ Environmental Warnings – Urging humanity to change.
⚖️ Neutral/Ambiguous Cases
✔ UFO Sightings Without Interaction (most common). ✔ Observation-Only Encounters (no clear intent).
🌍 Potential Messages for Humanity
While no verified extraterrestrial communication exists, recurring themes suggest:
🌱 Environmental Crisis – Urgent warnings about Earth’s future. 25-35%
🕊️ Call for Unity – Speculation that contact could unify humanity.
🚀 Technological Caution – Fears of self-destruction via unchecked advancement. 15-25%
📌 Key Takeaway: These “messages” may reflect human anxieties.
How is society responding?
Popular culture, for one, has embraced the subject with gusto. Streaming platforms feature dozens of alien-abduction docuseries, while TikTok’s #uaptok hashtag has sailed past half a billion views. Mental-health practitioners quietly report more clients looking for “experiencer support groups” rather than traditional PTSD counseling, suggesting that people who believe they were taken no longer feel entirely alone.
Mainstream science moves more cautiously. In 2023, NASA convened an independent study that called for “serious, stigma-free data collection,” and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics followed suit with its own UAP committee. Medical literature still explains abduction memories largely in terms of sleep paralysis, dissociation, or fantasy proneness, yet outright dismissal is no longer the reflex it once was.
Politics remains the slowest arena. The 2024 U.S. National Defense Authorization Act ordered every federal agency to hand historically significant UAP files to the National Archives, marking an unprecedented bid for transparency. The Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) has already analyzed more than 800 military encounters and promises a civilian reporting portal. France, Japan, and the United Kingdom have reopened or expanded their public UAP desks. Even so, no head of state has addressed the substance of the alleged messages—neither the nuclear warnings nor the environmental pleas. The United Nations has never tabled a resolution on them. In the halls of power, stigma still whispers more loudly than data.
Are we listening?
Polls by Pew and IPSOS show that a slim majority of Americans now believe intelligent life is visiting Earth. Only twelve percent, however, think their elected leaders treat the subject seriously. Meanwhile, global carbon emissions continue to rise, and the world’s nuclear stockpile just grew for the first time in two decades. If the visitors’ messages are real, we remain stubbornly off script.
A quiet crossroads
The existence of the data is no longer in dispute: more than 200,000 public reports and at least forty formal studies document the phenomenon. Stripped of lurid headlines and Hollywood tropes, the core warnings are surprisingly consistent—dial back nuclear brinkmanship, mend the biosphere, and evolve beyond tribal conflict. Governments have begun to lift the veil of classification, but policy inspired by those warnings is still in its infancy.
Perhaps the most telling statistic is not how many files exist, but how few decision-makers have read them. Disclosure, in other words, is happening. Whether we choose to heed the cosmic nudge remains an open question—one whose answer may determine whether humanity, too, becomes just another cautionary tale in someone else’s sky.
INSIDE HOLLYWOOD: Aliens, UFOs & The Quest for Disclosure Disclosure Advocates Call for Signing of the UAP Disclosure Act Petition! Capt. Robert Salas Responds to Erroneous Wall St. Journal Story! MUFON to Unveil “Materials Unknown” at their July Symposium! Canadians for Disclosure Seek Advocates for House of Commons! Contact from the Pleiades Book by Brit Elders Wins “Silver Award”!
ContactProject.org: Is humanity ready for contact with extraterrestrial intelligence?
ETI is already near Earth, either in the form of drones, UAPs, or UFOs—whatever you prefer to call them. That is the premise of the Contact Project. The project proposal is therefore simple: instead of broadcasting a pinpointed message to a potential civilization far, far away, we can use simple, inexpensive, and widely available omnidirectional antennas to invite communication from objects or phenomena in Earth orbit. Moreover, this effort should not be limited to a short period of time; it should be sustained and undertaken with the broad agreement of people on every continent.
The message in the Contact Project might resemble the following:
“A Beacon in the Galaxy: Updated Arecibo Message for Potential FAST and SETI Projects” https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.04288, by Jonathan H. Jiang, Hanjie Li, Matthew Chong, Qitian Jin, Philip E. Rosen, Xiaoming Jiang, Kristen A. Fahy, Stuart F. Taylor, Zhihui Kong, Jamilah Hah, Zong-Hong Zhu.
A potential ETI is, of course, capable of decoding any human transmission we are already broadcasting, but the point of the Contact Project is to address ETI directly, acknowledge their presence, and actively seek contact.
Demonstrating such openness would prove humankind’s readiness for contact. By doing so, we would not be giving away anything new—such as our position—beyond what we already broadcast. It would simply be a friendly hello, as envisioned by the Contact Project organization.
“I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello.” The Beatles ‧ 1967
Why Liu Cixin’s Chilling Vision May Exaggerate the Dangers – in Space and on Earth
Dark Forest Hypothesis
1. A Tale of Two Dark Forests
Liu Cixin’s award-winning trilogy Remembrance of Earth’s Past (commonly called The Three-Body Problem series) popularized the Dark Forest Hypothesis: in a universe where every civilization fears annihilation and resources appear scarce, the safest strategy is absolute silence – or a pre-emptive strike on anything that betrays its position.
Yet, just as children often overestimate the terrors of a literal dark forest, adults may be overestimating the hazards of its cosmic counterpart. Both fears rest on questionable assumptions about scarcity, detectability, and universal hostility.
2. How Dark Is the Cosmic Forest – Really?
2.1 Abundant Resources • Asteroid mining makes most “resource wars” unnecessary. – Example: NASA’s current Psyche mission targets a metal-rich asteroid whose contents have often been cited – though the estimate is highly speculative – as being worth about$100,000 quadrillion. – Lower gravity and higher ore purity mean it is far easier to extract metals in space than to invade a habitable planet.
• Science-fiction authors anticipated this logic well before the 1970s, from Garrett P. Serviss (1898) to Isaac Asimov (1953) and Poul Anderson (1963-65).
2.2 Alternative Solutions to the Fermi Paradox
The silence we observe could stem from: • the brevity of civilizations’ effective ‘radio window‘ (50-70 years); • the Sanctuary Hypothesis (ETI nurture developing planets without revealing themselves); • crewed or uncrewed craft-based exploration rather than radio beacons (compare UAP/UFO debate). These sightings challenge the premise of universal silence.
ABC 7 NEWS, December 2024
2.3 Humanity Has Already Broadcast
Humankind has been broadcasting TV and radio signals since the 1930s. These signals can be received hundreds of light-years away. This may have triggered ETs curiosity.
Then, between 1945 and 1961, Earth detonated more than 2,000 nuclear devices. Each blast produced an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) strong enough to be detected light-years away.
If an advanced civilization had been listening to early broadcasts of the Olympics, for instance, they’d have been surprised to see Earth suddenly erupting in artificial, high-energy flashes at irregular intervals.
In effect, we have already shouted our existence into the forest; worrying about a polite radio greeting now is like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.
The Ostrich Problem: Silence Isn’t Safety
If ETIs detected our radio signature, broadcast or EMP, but hear no follow-up, they might assume:
We’re hiding (suspicious).
We’re unstable (dangerous).
We’re ignorant (vulnerable).
3. Game-Theory Revisions: Three Big “What-Ifs”
Here are some of the big “what ifs” that challenge the whole “hide or attack” idea:
3.1 Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) on a cosmic scale If retaliation is credible – and especially if the cost of failure is extinction – first strikes lose their appeal, exactly as they did with Cold War nuclear strategy. Think about our own history with nuclear weapons. The concept of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) is a huge deterrent. What if that applies on a cosmic scale too? Let’s say there’s a certain chance of a successful attack. And, crucially, if an attack fails, the attacking civilization faces a really nasty consequence – let’s call it the disaster of retaliation. We’re talking about something far worse than just wasting resources.
Here’s how that changes the math for choosing to “Attack”:
If one civilization tries to hit another:
There’s a certain chance it pulls it off. The attacker survives, though it still pays the cost of the attack, while the other civilization is wiped out.
But, there’s also a chance the attack completely flops. In that nightmare scenario, the attacker is the one facing the disaster of retaliation (or even total annihilation if the other civilization hits back hard), and the target is still around and really angry.
So, when you consider whether to attack, you have to weigh these probabilities. If the chance of a successful attack is low, or if the disaster of retaliation is utterly catastrophic (like in MAD), then the appeal of attacking first plummets. It might even make more sense to just stay hidden, which totally undermines the “attack first” logic.
Flaws in the Dark Forest game theory
3.2 The Impossibility of Hiding
Sufficiently advanced telescopes detect radio signatures and other technosignatures whether or not we transmit on purpose. Admittedly, humankind has only transmitted purposefully for only a bit over 67 hours in its entire history. But this doesn’t reduce over a century of radio and TV signals that are already out there. Within this 130 light-year bubble (260 light-years across) there exist between 700-1,140 habitable worlds. If stealth is futile, the strategic game reduces to “communicate or attack,” and communication becomes the cheaper, more mature, safer option.
The Dark Forest idea hinges on the ability to stay hidden. But what if detection is inevitable? Imagine super-advanced telescopes that can spot signs of life without anyone broadcasting a thing. In that case, the “Hide” strategy basically becomes the same as “Broadcast” – you’re going to be found either way. The whole benefit of trying to hide just disappears.
If being detected while hiding is as bad as outright annihilation, then: – If both civilizations hide → annihilation. – If one hides and one broadcasts → annihilation. – If one hides and one attacks → annihilation.
This scenario pretty much pulls “Hide” off the table as a viable survival strategy. It forces civilizations into a choice between broadcasting or attacking, since there’s no real hiding place left.
3.3 Civilizational Diversity Assuming every species is paranoid and violent ignores the probability distribution of motives. If even a modest fraction are cooperative, expected-value calculations tilt toward cautious outreach rather than universal suppression.
“Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization”, Mahatma Gandhi
Perhaps the biggest assumption of the Dark Forest is that every civilization out there is a paranoid, aggressive killer. But is that realistic? We can think about different “types” of players in our cosmic game. What if there’s a certain probability that a civilization is hostile, and also a probability that it’s cooperative?
Now, the overall benefit of broadcasting changes dramatically, depending on who you meet. It’s a blend of the risk of annihilation if you meet a hostile civilization, and the potential benefit of survival and cooperation if you meet a friendly one.
If the probability of encountering a cooperative civilization is high enough, and the benefits of cooperation are truly significant, then suddenly, broadcasting might actually be a better bet than attacking. It opens the door to the idea that some civilizations might actually try to say “hello” rather than “kaboom.”
So, while the Dark Forest is a chilling thought experiment, these added factors suggest the universe might be a bit more complex than just a cosmic shooting gallery.
4. Earth’s Own “Dark Forests”: Fear vs. Fact
U.S. National Parks – millions of annual visits into true wilderness – average roughly 0.11 deaths per 100,000 recreational visits. The leading causes are drownings (20.9%), car accidents (17.3%), medical events (12%), and suicides (12.4%), not wolf packs or bear maulings.
A global study of carnivore attacks from 1950 to 2019 documented 5,440 attacks, with about one in three being fatal. Likewise, tiger attacks in India average 34 deaths per year; direct wildlife fatalities in the United States hover around eight. Our imagination inflates the danger of forests much as it inflates the peril of first contact.
Star Trek: First Contact
In the Star Trek movie “First Contact,” the Dark Forest of the human heart (causing a nuclear Armageddon) proved much more dangerous than the meeting with the Vulcan emissary.
5. Why Would ETIs Attack Us?
Possible motives beyond resources:
First-strike paranoia (fear of future competition).
But if aliens wanted resources, they’d mine asteroids, not Earth. (Take that, Zecharia Sitchin – your ancient alien gold-mining slaves theory doesn’t hold up when space is full of purer, easier-to-extract metals.)
6. UAPs & the Pentagon’s Admission: Are They Already Here?
If Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) are extraterrestrial probes:
They’ve seen our nukes, satellites, and wars.
Silence may look like hostility.
A controlled message (math, music, science) could be safer than ambiguity.
The Signal
A Science Fiction Short Story: In a universe filled with mysteries, signaling UAPs could change everything.
7. Synthesis: From Paranoia to Policy
Accept the beacon we have already lit (Radio and TV bubble, nuclear tests) and
Study apparent probes (UAPs/UFOs) with scientific rigor, but get out of the denial-loop.
Prepare a diplomatic framework – a “UN for exocivilizations” – before we need it.
Invest in asteroid-mining technology; abundance is the best antidote to resource anxiety.
The universe may contain dangers, but the data – from asteroid economics to wilderness safety statistics – suggests we routinely overrate them. Instead of cowering in silence, humanity should engage with the cosmos thoughtfully. We must do so armed with game-theoretic prudence, technological optimism, and a clear appreciation of how rarely the monsters in our dark forests turn out to be real.
Liu Cixin’s *Remembrance of Earth’s Past* trilogy, commonly known as “The Three-Body Problem” series, is a sweeping hard science fiction epic that explores humanity’s first contact with an alien civilization and the existential threats that follow.
1. The Three-Body Problem (三体): humanity learns an invasion fleet will arrive in 450 years; physics itself is sabotaged by proton-sized “sophons.”
Initial Setup & The Cultural Revolution: The story begins in China during the tumultuous Cultural Revolution, where astrophysicist Ye Wenjie witnesses the brutal death of her father. Disillusioned with humanity, she is later recruited to a secret military project called “Red Coast,” a deep-space listening station. There, she discovers a method to amplify radio signals using the sun and, in a moment of profound despair, broadcasts a message into space, essentially inviting alien intervention.
Present Day Mystery: Decades later, in the early 21st century, a series of mysterious suicides among prominent scientists plagues the world. Detective Shi Qiang (Da Shi) investigates, collaborating with nanotechnologist Wang Miao. Wang becomes entangled with a mysterious online VR game called “Three Body,” which simulates a chaotic planet experiencing extreme climatic shifts due to the gravitational pull of three suns.
The Trisolarans Revealed: Through the game and his investigation, Wang uncovers a vast conspiracy: the Earth-Trisolaris Organization (ETO), a secret society formed by humans who worship the Trisolarans and desire Earth’s destruction. The Trisolarans are the inhabitants of the chaotic “Three-Body” planet. Their civilization has been repeatedly destroyed by their unpredictable system, leading them to seek a new, stable home – Earth. They are on their way, but their fleet will take approximately 450 years to arrive.
Sophon Blockade: To prevent humanity from developing technology capable of resisting their invasion, the Trisolarans deploy “sophons” – proton-sized supercomputers that unfold into higher dimensions, act as omnipresent spies, and subtly disrupt fundamental physics research on Earth, creating the illusion that science is failing. The first book ends with humanity aware of the impending invasion but hamstrung by the sophon blockade.
2. The Dark Forest (黑暗森林): Luo Ji invents cosmic MAD – threatening to broadcast Trisolaris’s coordinates – and forces a temporary peace.
The Crisis Era and Wallfacers: With the Trisolaran invasion fleet on its way and sophons making all human communications transparent to the aliens, humanity enters the “Crisis Era.” To develop secret strategies, the United Nations designates four “Wallfacers” – individuals granted immense resources and autonomy to devise plans that remain entirely within their own minds, impenetrable by sophons.
Luo Ji and Cosmic Sociology: Among the Wallfacers is the initially reluctant and cynical astrophysicist Luo Ji. Unlike the others, he doesn’t have a clear military or scientific background. He slowly develops the “Dark Forest Hypothesis” (based on insights from Ye Wenjie): the universe is a “dark forest” filled with advanced civilizations, each acting as a silent, paranoid hunter. Any civilization that reveals its location becomes a target for pre-emptive destruction, as there’s no way to guarantee another civilization’s intentions are benign, and rapid technological explosion makes any unknown a potential existential threat.
The Deterrence Era: Luo Ji’s seemingly bizarre actions as a Wallfacer lead to his plan: he threatens to broadcast the coordinates of the Trisolaran home system to the entire galaxy, a suicidal act that would doom both Trisolaris and Earth (due to Earth’s proximity). This threat, known as “Dark Forest Deterrence,” forces the Trisolarans into an uneasy peace, as they realize Luo Ji can enact mutual annihilation. This ushers in the “Deterrence Era,” a fragile peace enforced by the constant threat of a “Swordholder” (Luo Ji) initiating the broadcast.
The Great Fleet Annihilation: Humanity flourishes during this era, building powerful space fleets, believing they have achieved parity with the Trisolarans. However, when the first Trisolaran probe (“the Droplet”) finally arrives, it effortlessly annihilates Earth’s entire space armada, revealing the vast technological superiority of the Trisolarans and shattering humanity’s hubris.
3. Death’s End (死神永生): deterrence fails, higher-dimensional weapons collapse the Solar System, and the protagonists ultimately sacrifice themselves so the universe can “bounce” and begin anew.
New Challenges and the Swordholder: The Deterrence Era continues, but Luo Ji is aging, and a new “Swordholder” must be chosen. The burden falls upon Cheng Xin, a kind and compassionate aerospace engineer. Her appointment is a calculated move by the Trisolarans, who correctly predict her moral nature will prevent her from activating the deterrence in a crisis. When the Trisolarans test the deterrence by attacking Earth’s broadcast stations, Cheng Xin hesitates, allowing them to take control of Earth.
Humanity’s Flight and Cosmic Revelations: A few human starships that had escaped the initial Droplet attack (including one that had gone rogue much earlier) manage to broadcast the Trisolaran coordinates, leading to the destruction of the Trisolaran home system by a higher-dimensional alien weapon. Earth, however, is then also targeted by a “Dark Forest” attack.
Two-Dimensional Attacks: The ultimate “Dark Forest” weapon, a “photoid,” collapses the Solar System into two dimensions, an irreversible process that kills almost all of humanity.
Light-Speed Travel: Cheng Xin and a few others escape on a light-speed capable ship. They encounter the former “brain-only” ambassador, Yun Tianming, who sends cryptic fairy tales that contain vital information about higher-dimensional physics and the nature of the universe.
Micro-Universes and The Big Bounce: The narrative expands to encompass the universe’s ultimate fate. It’s revealed that advanced civilizations, to survive cosmic catastrophes like dimensional collapse, create “mini-universes.” However, the proliferation of these mini-universes is draining mass from the main universe, preventing its “Big Bounce” (a theoretical cyclical collapse and rebirth).
The Final Choice: Ultimately, Cheng Xin and a few companions, after millennia of wandering the cosmos and witnessing countless cosmic events and the end of the universe itself, are faced with a profound choice: contribute their own remaining mass to the main universe’s rebirth, effectively ceasing to exist, or remain in their isolated mini-universe. They choose to return their mass, hoping to contribute to the cycle of universal renewal.
The trilogy is renowned for its grand scale, complex scientific concepts, and unflinching exploration of humanity’s place in a vast, indifferent, and dangerous cosmos. It presents a grim, yet intellectually stimulating, vision of interstellar survival.
Earth once blared its presence into space with powerful radio and TV signals—then fell almost silent as we switched to digital and cable. In just a few fleeting decades, our planet’s once-booming “broadcast bubble” shrank to faint whispers, changing Earth’s radio signature. This reshapes our view of the Drake Equation and the Fermi Paradox. Discover why that brief broadcast window matters. Is it time for humankind to shift from passive listening (SETI) to actively waving hello to the stars with powerful, deliberate beacons (METI)?
1. Early Radio History and Speculation
Early radio transmissions were generally weak. Therefore, they likely did not penetrate the ionosphere. However, as technology advanced, Earth’s radio signature grew. It marked our planet’s cosmic presence.
In the early years of the twentieth century, there was speculation that Extraterrestrials were trying to contact human beings by radio signals. In 1919, Marconi himself encouraged this speculation, claiming he was receiving strange transmissions resembling Morse code, possibly from outer space.
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO, was one of the first film production and distribution companies of Hollywoods Golden Age. RKO eventually expanded its operations to include television broadcasting.
The sound played during the “A Radio Picture” logo from 1929 is Morse code.
From the beginning, their logo featured a transmission tower relaying a Morse code sequence: VVV A RADIO PICTURE VVVV. “VVV” in Morse code means “attention, incoming message”. “VVVV” may mean: Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus “The Force of Truth Comes Alive”
2. The Rise of Detectable Signals
By 1931, about 25 TV stations in the U.S. were broadcasting television. And those who worry about Carl Sagan’s novel “Contact”: Germany began TV broadcasting in 1935. Any aliens watching Hitler speak in 1936 may have been more excited by Dolores Del Rio, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire and King Kong. (Picture: The special effects crew behind the set of “A Radio Picture” in 1929.)
The “Golden Age of Radio” and the subsequent rise of analog television broadcasting in the mid-20th century marked the first substantial contribution towards Earth’s technosignature. The total estimated radio power escaping into space reached tens to hundreds of megawatts by the 1970s. Powerful omnidirectional, analog signals characterized this period. This created an easily detectable “radio bubble” around Earth.
In the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), Earth’s radio emissions serve as a “cosmic mirror,” offering a tangible reference for the kinds of signals a distant, technologically advanced civilization might transmit—signals that, in turn, we might hypothetically detect.
4. The Decline of Broad Leakage
TV stations are growing, but their space-bound signal leakage is shrinking as they abandon over-the-air broadcasts. Our peak broad signal leakage—key to the Drake Equation—began falling as focused, less-leaky communication technologies emerged. This transition includes:
Satellite Communications: Becoming widespread from the 1970s and 1980s onwards, satellite transmissions are generally directed point-to-point, reducing broad leakage.
Cable Television and Fiber Optics: The increasing use of cable TV (reducing over-the-air television broadcasts) and later, fiber optic cables for a vast amount of data transmission. The internet significantly cut down on the amount of radio frequency energy escaping into space. This shift became more pronounced from the late 20th century into the 21st century.
Digital Transmissions: Analog broadcasts, which were once more easily detected, are being replaced by digital signals. These digital signals are often more compressed and less likely to leak into space, contributing to Earth becoming “radio quiet” in terms of traditional broadcast leakage.
5. A Short Critique of the Drake Equation’s “L” Parameter
The Drake equation speculates on alien civilizations. In Drake’s original formulation, people often interpret “L” as the total lifespan of a technological civilization.
L – IS NOT simply the longevity of civilizations! Instead it’s the timespan that a civilization releases simple detectable signals.
Earth’s broad radio leakage lasted roughly from the 1930s until the 1980s–90s. Thus, our planet broadcast Drake-equation-style signals for only about 40–60 years. Then we switched to spread-spectrum digital, satellite, cable, and internet communications. Now only random radar pings and digital blips leak into space, quickly blending into cosmic background noise (CMB).
A young Carl Sagan explains the Drake equation
Although the Drake equation was a playful practice in the last millennium, by its own metric humankind would no longer exist, because we don’t release significant radio leakage anymore. Hence, the Drake equation is somewhat obsolete. If Earth civilization is a typical technological civilization, then we can expect other civilizations to leave a similar footprint of “L”—about fifty years. That leaves almost no time for any astronomer to detect a signal.
Ever wondered about the Fermi paradox and why we hear nothing of our cosmic neighbors in the radio spectrum? Here is one possible explanation:
We are now almost radio silent in the cosmos!
But because our “L” was only a mean 50 years, that doesn’t mean that we are extinct! It’s just that we have upgraded our communication system. This explains why the focus of SETI is shifting, away from radio signals, towards bio signatures and other technosignatures, not just radiowaves.
SETI shifts away from radio siganls
The “L” (Longevity) variable in the Drake Equation is thus not a simple constant even for a single civilization.
Actually, trying to detect interstellar Extraterrestrial civilizations by radio-signatures is a futile endeavour: it’s like scrolling through static on an old TV and hoping to catch an intergalactic episode of I Love Lucy that’s been bouncing around space for a billion years. No advanced technological civilization would be using radiowaves travelling at a mere 300000 km/sec for interstellar communication. That would be like sending smoke signals across the ocean. The only alien radiowaves we can ever hope to receive are leaked planetary signals and possibly navigational beacons.
Sheikh calculated the detectability of four types of radio emissions from Earth. One conclusion was that an observer can detect planetary radar (Arecibo message from 1975) from the greatest distance. This graphic exemplifies this:
For simplification, I have translated the graph from Sheikh’s study. Labels are written out and “AU” are converted into light-years and kilometers.
Sheikh overlooks that the Arecibo radar message was highly directional—only detectable along its precisely aimed, narrow path.
The Arecibo Message
The “Arecibo message” from 1974 lasted only 168 seconds. Frank Drake, Carl Sagan, and the other organizers of the boadcast did make it clear that the message was intended not as a genuine attempt to contact extraterrestrials, but as a symbolic demonstration of human technological capability.
Any serious attempt at communication with ETI would have required using Arecibo to send continuous signals into space, not just for three minutes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_message
Arecibo telescope after its collapse (December 2021). Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Altogether, humankind sent two dozen messages intended for an extraterrestrial audience into space from different telescopes. The total combined efforts in all of history to contact Extraterrestrial civilizations amounted to a measly 62.7 hours of transmissions. Not even three days. That is almost nothing in the billions of years of history of the universe, or life on Earth. Ref.: Major METI transmissions (PDF 2)
The Arecibo message, with its directional 20 trillion watts (450 kw actual), was sent to the globular cluster M13, 25,000 light-years away. But calculations indicate the signal only penetrates about 12 000 light-years before the interstellar medium (ISM) absorbs it. Pity—what a clever demonstration of human technological prowess that was.
7. Breakdown of Earth’s Transmission- and Key Signal Types
Directional transmission (METI )– you choose a known exoplanet or promising star, minimizing exposure of one’s civilization by targeting needles in haystack, amongst 300- 500 million stars. Takes forever. That is the current strategy, based on the Dark Forest Hypothesis. Omnidirectional transmission (unintentional METI) – “everyone in the Galaxy” can eavesdrop; historically Earth’s leakage (TV, Radio and nuclear expolsions) was unintended METI.
Mobile Communication Leakage (omnidirectional): The Sheikh paper addressed leakage from LTE cellphone communication systems. Researchers estimate the impressive peak power leaking into space from mobile towers is approximately 4 GW. This pales into insignificance when we realize that an observer can only detect these signals from up to about 4 light-years away.
Planetary Radar (highly directional): Many radio telescopes can function as radar systems—for example, to measure the distances of Solar System planets or distant asteroids and to assess their probability of impacting Earth. And for about 62.7 hours these systems have also been used to send messages to potential extraterrestrial civilizations.
The following key signal types were omitted from the study on Earth’s radio technosignatures in the Sheikh paper:
Television Signals (omnidirectional): Earth’s early Radio and TV bubble was omnidirectional. An observer can detect it in every direction. An extraterrestrial audience could theoretically detect analog television signals—which began broadcasting in the 1930s—from up to 111 light-years away, representing a historical “radio bubble” of our planet’s past emissions. Broadcasters transmitted these signals, which operated in the VHF and UHF ranges, with megawatts of power.
Radio Signals (omnidirectional): In contrast, AM and FM radio signals, do not penetrate into space as effectively as higher-frequency signals. While they are powerful enough for terrestrial reception, their intensity diminishes rapidly with distance, limiting their ability to escape Earth’s immediate vicinity into deep space.
Radar (directional): The post–World War II era saw significant, continuous growth in radar systems—military, air-traffic-control, and weather—which, despite their pulsed nature, delivered consistently high average power thanks to their high operating frequencies and widespread deployment. By the 2000s, radar emissions into space were estimated at several hundred megawatts. Radar is not omnidirectional. If ETI had instrumentation comparable to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), they might detect our radar transmissions from distances up to approximately 300 light-years.
Military Radar (directional): Military radar systems are among the most powerful signals intentionally emitted from Earth. While specific power levels are often not publicly detailed, they are generally described as “significant”. A key characteristic of military radar is its directionality. These signals are designed to be highly directional, focusing their energy into narrow beams to achieve precise detection and tracking of targets. This focused power allows them to be very strong within their beam, making them highly detectable if an extraterrestrial observer is precisely aligned with that beam.
Nuclear Explosions (omnidirectional): Humankind has detonated 2,000 nuclear bombs since 1945. The Russian Tsar Bomba of 1961 was the most powerful, and its radio emissions were ten billion times stronger than the Arecibo message.
Looking ahead, the capabilities of a more highly advanced extraterrestrial civilization might extend that range to about 1.17 million light-years. That is enough to encompass the volume of the Milky Way, which is estimated to contain 300–500 million habitable planets. Several dwarf galaxies also lie within this volume of space. The thermonuclear Tsar Bomb explosion was by far the strongest radio signal that Earth has ever sent into space.
SETI scientists argue that the short duration of nuclear electromagnetic pulses makes their detection unlikely. That may have been true if those EMP had been the only radio pulses coming from Earth. But as a matter of fact, Earth had been making waves for decades before the barrage of nuclear tests ended. The expanding TV and radio bubble made sure of that. And those broadcasts transmitted 24/7.
8. Challenges of Interstellar Detection: Signal Degradation and Cosmic Noise
How Space Wears Down Radio Signals: Distance and the Interstellar Medium The journey of any radio signal across 10,000 light-years is governed by the inverse square law, which causes a dramatic reduction in signal intensity. Beyond simple weakening, the interstellar medium (ISM) acts as a complex distorting filter. The ISM gas between the stars can spread out a broadband signal over time. Tiny variations in electron density scatter the waves. That scattering not only stretches the signal in time and space but also produces rapid, unpredictable flickers in intensity. These scintillations can make a message impossible to decode. Such distortions get much worse at lower frequencies. That is why astronomers favor the 1–10 GHz “microwave window”, the best range for sending signals across interstellar space.
The Cosmic Veil: Distinguishing Signals from Noise Space isn’t silent—it’s alive with radio chatter. From our Sun’s booming broadcasts to distant black holes belting out jets of particles, the universe drips with natural “noise.” that can easily mask any deliberate signal we send or hope to detect. Any terrestrial signal must be distinguished from the overwhelming natural radio background of the cosmos. This background includes pervasive sources like the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), which establishes a fundamental noise floor, and galactic background noise from synchrotron radiation. And are pulsars natural phenomena, mimicking certain characteristics of intelligent signals, or are they intelligent signals, misunderstood by humankinds igorance of the engineering capapilities of a Kardashev type III and IV ciilization? These questions pose a significant challenge for recognition.
9. Conclusion: The Reality of Interstellar Eavesdropping
The Hypothetical Tech Needed for Extraterrestrial Eavesdropping For an extraterrestrial civilization to detect Earth’s radio technosignature from 10,000 light-years, it would require radio astronomy technology vastly superior to current human capabilities.
This would likely involve collecting areas orders of magnitude larger than our most powerful telescopes (potentially equivalent to tens of thousands of Arecibo-sized dishes), coupled with extremely low system temperatures (achieved through cryogenic cooling), wide bandwidths, and very long integration times to achieve the necessary signal-to-noise ratio.
The Real Odds: Why Earth’s Radio Shouts Are Mostly Whispers Across the Galaxy In conclusion, while the theoretical detectability of Earth’s most powerful, directed radio emissions extends to galactic distances, the practical challenges of signal attenuation, interstellar distortion, and overwhelming cosmic noise mean that the vast majority of Earth’s radio footprint remains localized. The successful detection of Earth’s intelligent signal from 10,000 light-years would signify an extraordinary level of technological advancement on the part of the observing extraterrestrial civilization, far surpassing humanity’s current capabilities. This underscores the profound difficulty in interstellar communication and provides critical perspective for humanity’s ongoing search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
Tired of Waiting for E.T. to Call? It’s Time to Make the First Move.
Our civilization’s radio tech signature offers a stark revelation: waiting passively to be discovered is a strategy doomed by the physics of communication and the trajectory of technology. Our own history serves as a cosmic mirror, reflecting the likely silence of other advanced societies. The prospects of being detected by chance are remarkably slim; our most powerful, intentional messages have been mere momentary shouts aimed with laser-like precision at impossibly small targets. Simultaneously, our best chance for accidental discovery—the omnidirectional “radio bubble”…is rapidly fading as we become more efficient and, consequently, “radio quiet.”
Cosmic Mirror
If we accept this fleeting, whispering technological phase as typical, we must conclude that waiting for another civilization’s leaky signals is as futile as them waiting for ours. The Great Silence may not be a lack of life, but a universe of civilizations that, like us, have outgrown noisy, inefficient broadcasting.
This realization demands a shift in strategy. To stand any chance of being detected, or of detecting others, we must embrace Active METI (Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligence). We cannot hope to find a needle in a cosmic haystack by chance; we must listen for the magnets. By understanding that we would need to build a powerful, sustained, and deliberate beacon to announce our presence, the cosmic mirror shows us precisely what we should be searching for. Committing to an active, intentional transmission is therefore not just an act of introduction; it is the most logical step toward refining our own search, transforming our understanding of our own limitations into the very tool needed to finally detect a kindred signal in the void.
This article presented new independent research on Earth’s historical radio signature in the cosmos, the total duration and strength of modern METI transmissions and -by comparison- the detectability of thermonuclear explosions by extraterrestrial civilizations.
A friendly, fact-based rebuttal to Zechariah Sitchin’s Anunnaki story
Asteroid Mining
1. Setting the Stage
In 1976, self-taught scholar Zechariah Sitchin published The 12th Planet, launching the idea that a race of extraterrestrials called the Anunnaki genetically engineered early humans to dig up Earth’s gold. The motive, he claimed, was to save the Anunnaki’s distant home world by dispersing that gold into their planet’s atmosphere.
Forty-plus years later the theory still floats around TikTok, YouTube, and late-night radio—but it stumbles over one gigantic 21st-century fact: asteroid mining is a far simpler, safer, and richer way to collect precious metals than forcing a brand-new species to do back-breaking labor on a heavy-gravity world.
Let’s walk through the real science and economics:
2. Gold in Space: A Galactic Free-for-All
A single metallic asteroid just 1 kilometer across can hold more platinum-group metals than have ever been mined on Earth. (Mining the sky)
NASA’s Psyche mission, launched 13 October 2023, is headed toward 16 Psyche—an asteroid thought to be 60 percent iron and nickel, with traces of gold and platinum worth an estimated \$10,000 quadrillion (that’s a 1 followed by 19 zeros).
The asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter, contains millions of these metallic bodies, all drifting in vacuum with essentially zero atmospheric drag.
In short, space is swimming in easy-to-reach metals. Why would any advanced species bother landing on a planet, fighting 9.8 m/s² of gravity, and supervising rebellious primates?
3. Physics 101: Hauling Ore Where Gravity Is Tiny
Earth’s escape velocity—how fast you must go to break free of our planet—is 11.2 km/s. From a typical near-Earth asteroid it’s often < 1 m/s.
If you want to launch one ton of gold off Earth, you need a gigantic rocket and a lot of fuel. If you want to launch that same ton from a small asteroid, you can throw it with the force of a good fastball.
Low gravity equals low cost. Any civilization capable of interstellar travel would recognize that.
Low Gravity = Low Cost
4. Tech We Already Have (and Tech We’re Building)
Prospecting: • Tiny “CubeSats” like NEA Scout carry telescopes and spectrometers to identify metal-rich candidates. • Commercial start-ups—Astroforge and Asteroid Mining Corporation—have filed dozens of patents on micro-probes that can swarm an asteroid and map its composition.
Excavation: • The European Space Agency’s Hera mission will test robotic drills and anchoring harpoons in 2026. • Autonomous “mole” robots can tunnel without human presence, solving the classic “who holds the shovel?” problem.
Processing and Transport: • A solar furnace can melt ore directly in vacuum—no atmosphere means no heat loss. • Electromagnetic rail guns or rotating tethers could fling sealed metal ingots to pre-set orbits, no rockets required.
If humans in 2024 are prototyping these systems, imagine what a million-year-old species could do.
5. The Economics: It’s a No-Brainer
Cost to lift 1 kg from Earth to low orbit: ≈ \$3,000 with today’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rates (and that’s the cheapest option).
Cost to lift 1 kg from a small asteroid to low-Earth orbit: estimated at \$30–\$50—almost two orders of magnitude cheaper once the infrastructure is deployed.
Yes, asteroid mining demands an upfront investment, but an advanced civilization likely thinks on geological time scales. Training, feeding, and controlling a population of brand-new hominids for thousands of years? That’s a management nightmare—and a wildly risky business model.
6. What About the Ancient Texts?
Sitchin claimed that Sumerian cuneiform tablets describe the Anunnaki’s gold quest. Modern Assyriologists disagree:
The tablets can be read in standard Akkadian and Sumerian; they mention no alien planets, no genetic labs, and no gold shortage.
Sitchin’s translations often swap syllables or invent words that don’t exist in Mesopotamian lexicons.
In archaeology, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. No skeletons of alien “foremen,” no laser-cut mines, no hybrid-human DNA patterns have ever turned up.
7. The Science-Fiction Counterpoint
The idea of asteroid mining isn’t new; authors imagined it long before 1976:
1898 – Garrett P. Serviss, Edison’s Conquest of Mars
1952 – Robert A. Heinlein, The Rolling Stones
1963 – Poul Anderson, Tales of the Flying Mountains
Sitchin was actually less imaginative than turn-of-the-century pulp writers. Even the fictional Martians in 1898 skipped planet-based slave labor and went straight for the asteroids.
Asteroid Psyche may have been once the nickel-iron core of a small planet. It’s about as wide as Massachusetts. Credit: Screenshot courtesy of NASA
8. Counter-Rebuttals You Might Hear
❓ “Maybe the Anunnaki needed Earth’s specific isotopic mix of gold.” • Isotopes of gold are created in supernovae and neutron-star mergers; the mix is uniform across the solar system. An asteroid and Earth gold are chemically identical.
❓ “Couldn’t gravity assist from Earth make shipping easier?” • Gravity assists don’t change the fact that launching from Earth costs huge fuel. From an asteroid you can hoist the cargo and glide it inward using solar sails.
❓ “Slaves are cheap energy.” • Not in biology: you must provide food, water, housing, and medical care—or lose productivity. Robots run on sunlight, don’t revolt, and can be shut off at night.
9. Where the Real Evidence Points
We’ve already retrieved asteroid samples with JAXA’s Hayabusa2 and NASA’s OSIRIS-REx. Both missions confirmed rich inventories of iron, nickel, cobalt, and precious metals.
In 2022 the U.S. government added asteroid mining to its Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, granting companies legal rights over what they collect. Politicians aren’t prone to passing laws about impossible ideas.
Global investment firms like Morgan Stanley estimate the space-resource market could hit \$1 trillion annually by 2040. No mention of Anunnaki labor plans in those reports.
10. Big Picture: What Would Aliens Actually Want?
Advanced civilizations likely value data, energy, and survivability far more than physical gold. Precious metals matter for circuitry and catalysts, but those are means to an end: building robust interstellar infrastructure. The fastest route to those metals is—again—low-gravity, high-concentration asteroids.
If ETs ever swing through our neighborhood, they’d probably:
Scan for suitable rocks using telescopes and spectral analysis.
Dispatch autonomous harvesters.
Haul refined ingots home or to an orbital manufacturing hub.
Humans, meanwhile, might not even notice—just as fish in the Pacific rarely notice when a cargo ship passes overhead.
11. Conclusion (TL;DR)
Aliens don’t need human gold miners. The physics is against it, the economics is against it, and the archaeological record is silent on it. In contrast, asteroid mining is easy, efficient, and already on humanity’s near-term roadmap.
So the next time a social-media video pops up claiming we’re the product of an ancient cosmic HR department, remember:
Zero-gravity rocks beat high-gravity planets.
Robots beat reluctant bipeds.
Evidence beats speculation.
And if you still crave a story about aliens digging holes on Earth, pick up a vintage sci-fi paperback—you’ll get better plots and fewer translation errors.
Happy space-prospecting—no pickaxe or alien overlord required.
Science fiction that features asteroid mining before Zechariah Sitchin’s “12th Planet”:
1898: Garrett P. Serviss’s Edison’s Conquest of Mars, which was endorsed by Thomas Edison himself, depicts Martians mining asteroids for gold. This is considered one of the earliest examples of asteroid mining in science fiction.
1932: The pulp era saw the rise of asteroid mining as a popular theme. For instance, Murray Leinster’s short story “Miners in the Sky” appeared in Astounding Stories.
1952: Robert A. Heinlein’s juvenile novel The Rolling Stones (also known as Space Family Stone in 1969) portrays the asteroid belt as a new “Gold Rush” frontier with prospectors seeking radioactive ores.
1953: Isaac Asimov’s Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids (written under the pseudonym Paul French) features asteroid mining as a key element of the story.
1963-1965: Poul Anderson’s episodic novel Tales of the Flying Mountains, published in Analog magazine (and later as a fix-up in 1970), traces the development of an asteroid mining culture.
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