THE truth may well be out there, but the chances are that whatever extra-terrestrial life does exist is not smart enough to fathom the fact.
That, at least, is the opinion of Professor Stephen Hawking, the famed astrophysicist, who this week gave his views on the potential for alien life.
Speaking at an event to mark the 50th anniversary of Nasa, the space agency, Prof Hawking told of
his belief that mankind is not alone, but suggested our unidentified cohabitants might not be the intelligent, technologically advanced beings that are the stuff of science fiction.
Prof Hawking outlined several possible views on whether extra-terrestrial life exists in the furthest corners of the cosmos.
The first is that it does not. The second, and more disconcerting option, is that far-flung worlds are home to intelligent life, but once it is sophisticated enough to send signals into space, so too it would be capable of creating destructive nuclear weapons and bringing about its own demise.
The third theory, the one in which Prof Hawking puts his faith, is that the odds are in favour of another kind of life existing, but that it would not be blessed with any great wisdom.
Illustrating his point before an audience at George Washington University, the 66-year-old said if there was intelligent life on other planets, humanity would have detected it by now. Why, he asked, had we not stumbled upon some alien broadcast beamed deep into space, like "alien quiz shows"?
He said: "Primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare," before adding: "Some would say it has yet to occur on Earth."
He dismissed the idea of aliens abducting people as the fantasies of "weirdoes", but said humanity's long-term future depended on finding other worlds and life forms, and voiced encouragement for Nasa's plans to carry out human landings on Mars, which one study suggested could take place in the early 2030s.
Prof Hawking was scathing about apathy surrounding space exploration, comparing people who balked at spending money on the conquest of space to those who opposed the voyages which led to the discovery of the Americas.
He said: "In a way, the situation is like Europe before 1492. People might well have argued that it was a waste of money to send Columbus on a wild goose chase.
"But the discovery of the New World made a profound difference to the old … we wouldn't have had a Big Mac or KFC!"
Prof Hawking added: "There will be those who will argue that it would be better to spend our money solving the problems of this planet, like climate change and pollution, rather than possibly wasting it on a fruitless search for a new planet.
"But we can do that and still spare a quarter of a per cent of world GDP for space. Isn't our future worth a quarter of a per cent?"
Duncan Lunan, a science writer and past-president of the Association in Scotland to Research into Astronautics (Astra), said: "I agree with Prof Hawking. We are discovering new planetary systems all the time, and sooner or later we will find life. Whether it is intelligent is open to argument." Mr Lunan explained that in 1973 he sought to decode radio signals received in the 1920s, believing they came from a life form on a distant planet thousands of years ago. Though his research was subsequently discarded, he received thousands of letters of support from around the world.
"People want to believe in another kind of life," he said. "No-one is afraid of it, and it'll change our experience of life altogether."
The full article contains 620 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
