bhaskar saikia

Are we really alone, in this vast expanse of spacetime?

To break the Great Cosmic Silence, a planetary civilization first needs to sustain for a long period of time to reach a level of scientific advancement enough to break the cosmic distance barrier. For this, the civilization not just needs to be lucky enough to survive cosmic accidents like gamma ray bursts, asteroid impacts, etc. but to refrain from nuking itself over wars and politics. However, despite sustaining a civilization for thousands of years, there may still remain the question of the Great Silence of the cosmos, the so-called Fermi Paradox.

In order to overcome the limitation put by the cosmic distances for the exploration of spacetime and the longevity pressure on civilizations and also the Saikia’s Paradox, can we think of creating millions of time capsules that can be dispersed in multi-directions using our current space technologies and let them float into the cosmic ocean, in the hope to make contact with some alien civilizations?

In this regard, mankind has already tried sending four time capsules in the form of Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, and the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions. However, these has not resulted in any success; and in all probability, they may not serve their intended purpose. Let us be honest, four spacecrafts ending up contacting alien civilizations do not find statistical favor in any probable cosmic situations.

With evolving technology, we can think of more advanced form of time capsules than the metal plaques or the phonograph records of the Pioneer and the Voyager missions, respectively.

So, what would these new time capsules be made of?

Well, they could be A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) enabled digital memory discs/chips fitted on solar sails, developed only for the purpose of telling the detailed history of our planet and our species to any alien civilizations on whose shores these cosmic time capsules might land up one day. Even if by that time our civilization ceases to exist, the collective memories of our species will live on in this cosmic ocean, forever. At least, this will serve to tell the aliens that life was not limited to their planet only.

But, why is it important to tell mankind’s collective history to aliens? 

It is because, when Oumuamua – the first recorded interstellar object to enter the solar system – was detected in 2017, a sudden burst of energy among the scientific community to discover far off worlds was observed.

The debate regarding Oumuamua being artificial or natural may continue for many more years; however, what if we would have definitive proof that indeed Oumuamua was artificial?

Would not that have sparked a wildfire among governments and organizations with deep pockets to divert huge resources to make attempts to contact the civilization that made this object? Even if that ‘hypothetical’ civilization would be long gone, would not that have at least ended our self imposed belief of being a cosmic oddity?

 To me, the universe appears to be a giant fractal, and with any fractal, the subsets are the miniature version of the entire set. If there are life-forms on one planet, than that subset must be repetitive somewhere else in the fractal.

It is not the purpose of the universe to explain to us about creation, but it is the purpose of any intelligent life-form to try to unlock the mysteries of creation.

With our current space technology, the least we can do towards that end is to let the fabric of the cosmic ‘corners’ know that we exist.