Search for Aliens Should Include Intelligent Machines, Says SETI Astronomer

Monday, August 23, 2010 - 13:21 in Astronomy & Space

Arecibo Wikimedia Commons If we ever find aliens, there's a good chance they'll be intelligent machines, not biological systems as we know them. So says a senior SETI astronomer. Writing in the journal Acta Astronautica, Seth Shostak says we ought to turn our attention to galactic centers and hot, young stars - likely areas of interest to machines because of their plentiful supplies of energy and matter. He says because our own technology advances so quickly, it's reasonable to expect alien technology would, too. Biological evolution as we know it is comparatively slow. It took a few billion years of evolution before humans were capable of communicating outside the solar system. But within a couple hundred years of inventing radio, we will probably invent thinking machines, Shostak says. The same would probably go for life forms that evolved, like us, to wonder what else is out there and how to find...

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