Learn about the METI: Messages to Extraterrestrial Intelligence program

The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program has been around for decades to try to find signals or messages sent by alien intelligencebut unfortunately this has not happened yet. On the other hand, METI (Messages from Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is not as well known as it should be, and it also tries to question the possibility of sending ‘messages’ to extraterrestrial beings.

To date, humanity has sent very few messages into the universe to try to communicate with any form of extraterrestrial life. Two of these were on NASA’s Voyager I and Voyager II probes. There’s also Arecibo, which contains 210 bytes of data, a drawing representing humans, information about our DNA, and more. Happily, METI was created exactly to send ‘contact’ aliens.

One of the problems with the Arecibo ‘signal’, according to some scientists, is that it sends the approximate position of the Solar System and Earth. If aliens exist and are fierce enemies, it would be unwise to cede our position to them.

METI has already sent out messages to try to communicate with possible alien civilizations spread out across the universe. Perhaps the smartest thing to do is hide.

“We don’t know much about aliens, but we do know about humans. Historically, contact between humans and less intelligent organisms has often been disastrous from their perspective, and encounters between civilizations with advanced technologies and primitive technologies have been bad for the less advanced. If so, they will be much more powerful and may view us as no more valuable than bacteria,” the late American physicist Stephen Hawking said at an event in 2015.

METI and the Black Forest hypothesis

One of the problems that METI may encounter when trying to send messages to extraterrestrial civilizations is the Dark Forest hypothesis. According to the theory, if there really are aliens in the universe, they are hiding like wild animals in a dark and scary forest.

The idea is that no one wants to signal their location to avoid being attacked by any predators; in other words, we should hide our location and not show that we are here.

We don’t know if such civilizations are hostile or benevolent; for example, a group of aliens could steal Earth’s resources after discovering our presence. In either case, it’s important to note that the Dark Forest is just a theory and far from confirmed. Because it seems that as far as we can see, we are alone.

“If alien intelligence is sending us messages from Earth and we decide to respond, what kind of messages should we send? Whatever the protocol, we should be prepared to respond when we receive a confirmed message from outside Earth. The same question applies if we decide to send messages to other stars: What should our messages contain?” METI explains on its website.

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