How to Talk to Aliens

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2016

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"Dear E.T. …” So far, so good. But now what? Writing is never easy, but what if your task was to craft a message to aliens living elsewhere in the universe, and your prose would represent all humankind? Got writer’s block yet? What to say to the aliens was the focus of a recent conference in which participants shifted their attentions away from listening for extraterrestrial signals to transmitting some. In this show, we report on the “Communicating Across the Cosmos” conference held at the SETI Institute in December 2014. Find out what scientists think we should say. Also, how archeology could help us craft messages to an unfamiliar culture. Plus, why journalists might be well-suited to writing the message. And, a response to Stephen Hawking’s warning that attempting to contact aliens is too dangerous. Guests: Douglas Vakoch – Director of interstellar message composition, SETI Institute Paul Wason – Archaeologist, anthropologist and vice president for the life sciences and genetics program at the Templeton Foundation Al Harrison – Emeritus professor of psychology, University of California, Davis Morris Jones – Journalist and space analyst in Sydney, Australia Shari Wells-Jensen – Professor of English, Bowling Green State University First released January 12, 2015. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast.
0:05.0	This episode is brought to you by Shopify.
0:07.0	Looking to start a side hustle or become your own boss, do it with Shopify.
0:11.0	Whether you're selling succulents or stilettoes, Shopify has the industry leading tools to help you create, control and grow your own business.
0:18.0	So get serious about selling and get Shopify today.
0:21.0	Sign up for a one pound per month trial period
0:23.6	at Shopify. co-deek slash special offer,
0:26.4	or lower case.
0:27.5	That's Shopify. co-deekk slash special offer.
0:31.4	The world is filled with many questions such as did giants exist?
0:35.0	What is junk DNA?
0:37.0	Does it mean that you're trash?
0:38.0	Do you ever wonder if aliens have underwater bases in our oceans
0:42.0	and that's why there are so many
0:43.3	UFO sightings off the coast of islands all over the world. How serious even is
0:48.4	climate change and when should we start building our rafts? Hello everyone, you may recognize me as Gabby
0:54.2	from the History of Everything podcast.
0:56.2	And my name is Bruna, and you don't recognize me
0:58.6	from anything yet.
1:00.4	Together, we're two scientists who explore the answers to these questions and many, many more in our new podcast,
1:05.0	Mystery of Everything, available everywhere you get your podcasts. In the movie Contact,
1:21.0	in the movie Contact, Jody Foster puts on headphones and picks up an extra-torerestrial signal from space. In real life, SETI scientists don't use headphones and they're
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Big Picture Science, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Big Picture Science and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.