The director of SETI spoke about how, in his opinion, the first contact with aliens will occur (if at all)
In an article by The Guardian, Seth Shostak, senior astronomer and director of the SETI Research Center, which searches for extraterrestrial intelligence, argues that the aliens are more likely to be artificial intelligence (AI) on first contact.
Shostak is also skeptical about UFO reports and the upcoming Pentagon report.
“I think it is very likely that there are aliens in our galaxy. But I don't believe they hang out in our airspace. Not now and not in historical times,”the scientist writes.
According to Shostak, aliens will not look like "little green men", whose image has appeared everywhere in popular culture in the last half century.
“Any aliens that come to our planet are unlikely to be carbon-based life forms, be they hairy or bald. Their cognitive abilities will probably not be supported by the spongy mass of cells that we would call the brain. They will probably go beyond biological intelligence and, probably, beyond biology itself,”explains the astronomer.
Shostak believes that aliens will not be "alive". The fact is that it can take whole generations to cover the huge distances from one star system to another. It is unlikely that such a long journey will "please biological passengers who die long before they reach their destination." However, machines can handle it.