Physicist Paul Davies suggests looking for messages
Physicist Paul Davies suggests looking for messages from extraterrestrials in our DNA. For those of you chuckling, “sounds like a Star Trek episode”, it was an episode of Star Trek.
This site is made possible by member support. โค๏ธ
Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.
When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!
kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.
Physicist Paul Davies suggests looking for messages from extraterrestrials in our DNA. For those of you chuckling, “sounds like a Star Trek episode”, it was an episode of Star Trek.
Reader comments
Mike DAug 10, 2004 at 1:38PM
The DNA process itself developed and evolved on this planet, so his idea of aliens sending info-laden virii into the cosmos probably doesn't fly. It would be a great way for a visitor to leave a message, though.
(I love that episode of Star Trek)
barnesAug 10, 2004 at 3:15PM
The characterization of SETI as a "project has been running for 40 years" in which "the silence has been deafening" is certainly unfair. The first twenty-five years consisted of a handful of attempts at listening to one point in space at one frequency for something like an hour with the probability of one-in-a-gajillion ( -- significantly higher than zero, however) at finding anything. Even with current efforts, a rediculously small fraction of the available listening options have been explored.
souloniceAug 11, 2004 at 11:31AM
It was also a big part of the mythology of The X-Files.
This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.