Does
What
your work take you to different locations where similar research is going on ? If so , where ?
do you think life that is not carbon based would look like ?
Do you like The X-Files ?
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Does
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What
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your work take you to different locations where similar research is going on ? If so , where ?
Today , essentially all SETI research is being done by Americans . However , the instruments we turn to the sky are not exclusively in the U . S . One project is using a big , 210-foot diameter antenna in the sheep country of Australia , and I have been there a few times . I ’ ve also visited radio telescopes in many other parts of the world , and attended conferences on the subject of SETI on just about every continent .
do you think life that is not carbon based would look like ?
Well , even if they ’ re based on some other element ( for example , silicon ), they might still be recognizable plants and animals . Not that they ’ d look exactly like what we have on Earth , of course . But they would presumably have some legs , a pair of eyes , and maybe something to cover their bodies ( skin , fur , scales …) for protection . But I suspect that the most advanced aliens are no longer biological . Rather , they ’ re thinking machines . And machines can look like anything you want them to !
Do you like The X-Files ?
I watched some of it , and found it interesting . But I don ’ t have a lot of time to spend in front of the TV . The idea in the “ X Files ” was that the aliens might be here , visiting Earth . Despite the fact that one-third of the American public think that ’ s true , I ’ m not among them . I don ’ t believe that some UFOs are really alien spacecraft .
Left and opposite page , radio telescopes at the Allen Telescope Array in Hat Creek , Calif ., listen to the universe under a starladen sky .
COURTESY OF Seth Shostak
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