Sagan and the SETIs – Not Just a Great Band Name

By The Interstellar Housewife

Ok, first off – I am taking full credit if anyone uses the above as a band name. And any variation thereof. For instance, “Steven Greer and the CSETIs" would, by default, also be mine. Theoretically, however, I may be bought off.

Star-Stuff

Now, I want to start this post off by expressing my deep respect and admiration for the late Carl Sagan. In a sense, I grew up with him – through Cosmos, his articles, appearances... books. My father spoke very highly of Sagan and a lot of that was impressed upon me.

His voice, melodically awkward, was almost meditative – or what I assume to be meditative, as I've never been able to do whatever it is that you do to bring on meditation. Anyway, Carl was a great man, but he also had some very strong opinions about UFOs. The kind of opinions that are in conflict with so-called Ufologists. However, recently I read a piece about Sagan stating that he was very enthusiastic about UFOs when he was younger, addicted in a way, but by 1966 had maneuvered a 180 and from this point on, he would stick by the belief that alien visitation to Earth is an extreme unlikelihood. This has always disappointed me, but it didn't make any of his other theories and teachings invalid.


It has been proposed that Carl was actively working as a disinfo agent. I am not comfortable diving on that grenade. For some, it his hard not to get sucked into the swirling stew of conspiracy after conspiracy. I've done my best to hold some firm footing on the edge of that storm, and am happy with my position. So, no. I do not think Carl Sagan was working against the UFO community as part of a disinformation initiative, or that he was employed by the government for some sinister scheme. What I do think is that something particular must have happened that caused Carl to become jaded. Maybe it was the disappointment of never having see a UFO himself, and due to the anger of loss – loss of that childhood fantasy of spaceships and other worlds, that he simply gave up. Or maybe it really was schooling and what he learned. I should clarify and say that Sagan most surely believed that extra-terrestrial visitation was possible, just highly unlikely. This post, despite some of it's wording, is based on his position of high-improbability and not that he thought it impossible.


Immovable Object

It is interesting to me, the rather enigmatic way he held to his definitive stance. And I have to wonder about some of what he taught and how he could accept certain ideas, but not others. For instance, wormholes. Sagan was a proponent of the theory of wormholes. Believing they very well may exist, since they would - in theory - be able to operate according to our current physical laws. But, wait - what are wormholes suggested as being capable of? Indeed. A sort of tunnel or bridge connecting two points, far apart without having to cover the extreme distance between. In essence: a short-cut. So, while he did believe there existed other civilizations in the cosmos (and for the record, he never really disputed that, only the likelihood of their presence here), and did believe in the possibility of wormholes and that some extremely intelligent race may have a practical application of such, he did not believe they were coming here -- and to me, this seems a bit strange.

And then there is SETI. The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. This is often regarded as a joke by the UFO community, and I'll get into why a little later, but Sagan was heavily involved with SETI. It's purpose: to search for transmissions from extra-terrestrial intelligence in the form of radio waves. It is assumed that any advanced civilization wanting to send a signal, would do so via radio waves. Radio waves travel at about the speed of light in space, so the time it would take for a signal to get to us, is equal to the distance from that planet/solar system from Earth. Alpha Centauri is about four-and-a-half light-years away. If there were a civilization in that system that we received a signal from, we could estimate that it would have been sent about four years prior.

But SETI is looking all over the sky, including solar systems thousands of light-years away. Let's say they receive a signal from one of these distant solar systems. We can assume that the signal was sent out when Humankind was in it's extreme infancy as a civilization, well before the discovery of electricity. So, what's my point? Well, if that civilization, the extra-terrestrial one, were still alive today, they'd probably be thousands of years ahead of us in technological advancement. So why shouldn't we take into consideration the use of a travel which bypasses the laws we currently understand, finding a way around that pesky speed/mass ratio – that is to say, found a way to travel really fucking fast. Why couldn't they come here? Why wouldn't they come here? Look, as I mentioned in an earlier post, we, the human species, are out exploring planets. One day we will explore the galaxy and then far, far off, the universe. So, why wouldn't someone else have went that route?


Few Answers, More Questions

This is all a lot of what-ifs, but my point here is not to focus on how they traveled or that they did travel, but rather, that the could possibly (and probably) have traveled here. Walking into walls and being persecuted for zany scientific beliefs for another few hundred years is not something I hope for humanity's progression in the area of science -- and now seems a good time to begin waking up. Sagan was close. Why he wouldn't think beyond the problem of distance, I cannot say. He certainly had the potential, and a colleague of his, Stanton Friedman, certainly managed to do it. Now, don't all jump on me about Uncle Stan. He has his flaws as Sagan did. But he has the schooling. He has the experience. Why should Stan's reality be any less important or viable than Sagan's?

In understanding the vast distances between star systems in space, and understanding the probability that a.) not only are there many other civilizations out there, but that b.) some of them are probably significantly older than our civilization, it seems only logical to assume that at least SOMEBODY would have a technology that is well beyond our own. The scientific community should have learned years ago that what we think isn't possible, often is. And with that floating around in your head I'm going to ask you this: What is SETI's purpose?

We KNOW there is almost certainly life out there. A radio signal from an alien people would only change that from a 99% chance to a 100% chance. We almost surely could not communicate with them due to how long a response would take to get from Earth to wherever they are. SETI's purpose begins to appear almost counterproductive, to find evidence of a species we don't believe we could ever really meet or learn about beyond the transmission. Is SETI really all just bullshit, then? What I'm suggesting is that SETI would almost have to know that extra terrestrial visitation to Earth was possible, given, say, the discovery of an ancient radio signal. I suppose I can speculate all I want, but it's not gong to get me very far, and argumentative-wormholes do not appear readily available. *rimshot*


Winding Down

Back to Ufology and it's issue with SETI: Generally, Ufologists think aliens are already here, and that SETI is either completely deluded, on drugs, both, or a major disinformation entity. People hear about SETI and think “well if they are looking for life, then it must not have already come to us.” It's the kind of disnfo you don't even have to force down people's throats, as they often come to the conclusion on their own.

It's probably pretty obvious how I feel about SETI, as far as if I think they are pointless or not. But if they are pointless, do they know they are pointless or are they really that cemented into the idea that we may find signals from an ancient, intelligent species, but that they could not possibly have advanced far enough to travel to our pale blue dot? At any rate, SETI is using those satellites for something – and just what that something is, I'll leave to your imagination.


A final thought regarding Sagan:

Carl, you were a beautiful human being and made a very large impact on my life. I Thank you for all of your incredible work, for the education you provided to so many, and for your rich imagination. The world is a better place for having known you.

*I also recently read that towards the end of his life, a colleague of Sagan's presented him with a large body of evidence collected over the years, asking for Sagan to rethink his position on visitation, which, according to the article, he did. However, I did not use it as any kind of basis for support here, since I have not been able to source that article, though I do have a request in to the author. If anyone reading this has information on this and where I can find documents or interviews, please send them my way.

**Also, I was totally kidding about the first paragraph.

***Or was I?

This post was brought to you by the hour of 12am, relatively cheap Cabernet Sauvignon and the letters "I" and "H".