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IS IT WORTHWHILE TO SEARCH FOR EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL LIFE & INTELLIGENCE?
 
 
A typical debate on the relevance of SETI, between Ernst Mayr of Harvard University's 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, and the late Carl Sagan of The Planetary Society and Cornell University's Laboratory of Planetary Studies, that  
originally appeared in The  
Bioastronomy News, is available on the web pages of The Planetary Society.
    The adherents of SETI  believe that life is 'a natural consequence of physical laws acting in appropriate environments'. In a Cosmic realm of hundreds of billions of stars, life is thus expected to be abundant and not unique to just earth. In such life-bearing planets, it would be natural for intelligence to evolve, in some cases.  With evolution, it would also be expected to look beyond its crib some day, and try to communicate with others of its kind ultimately. Since, the easiest means available for communication over intersteller distances are the radio waves, the scientists suggest that if we just listen to a broad spectrum of radio waves from outer space, we may receive an alien signal some day, settling the question of extra-terrestrial intelligence once for all. Such an event would also bring an era of interstellar communication, and exchange of information/ wisdom on a scale unimagined before, completely changing the way we look at the Cosmos and ourselves. 
    On the other hand, SETI opponents believe that existence of a planet with all environmental conditions similar to earth is a highly improbable event. They also say that 'high intelligence' is not favored by the natural selection process. Thus, if life evolves on a distant planet somehow, the intelligence in all probability will not develop at all, and even if intelligence develops it may not evolve into a civilization capable of radio communication. And even if it evolves it may be so far in space or time that it may not be accessible to SETI instruments. Thus, according to them, there are so many improbable factors that a combination of all makes the success of SETI almost impossible. 
    In the absence of any hard evidence regarding existence of alien intelligence, the scientists who believe in the uniqueness hypothesis seem to have their point. Working at projects that do not excite media attention and forever in need of funds, these scientists are advocating for alternative use of the resources and the observatory time spent on SETI. On the other hand, with emerging evidence of pre-biotic chemistry in the cosmic dust, and discoveries of Earth-like planets around nearby stars and a fossilized life form in the asteroid ALH 8401, the arguments forwarded by SETI enthusiasts grow stronger every day. These scientists, popularly known as 'contact optimists', believe that only time stands between them and success. A success which will amply reward the humanity for all its expenditure. Confident but not knowing when the time would come, they are busy in formulating a SETI protocol which can provide answers to questions, like: How Will We Respond to an Extraterrestrial Signal? Who Will Speak in the Name of Earth?  And what exactly do we want to say when we finally make contact? etc etc.
 
Against this background, the claim for an extra-terrestrial message already existing on our planet assumes gargantuan importance if found to have a rational basis worth investigating.
 
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Read 'The Ultimate Revelations' - an interesting science fiction with colossal potential of positive change.