Link: https://www.labxchange.org/library/items/lb:HarvardX:68789c56:lx_simulation:1?fullscreen=true
Reflection: The interview with Jill Tarter was interesting to me for a number of reasons. The notion of intelligent extraterrestrial life had always seemed like something that was just in sci-fi movies and books. While in the back of my mind I always felt like there may be intelligent life, I always dismissed the thought. Hearing that there have been many attempts to contact other life forms did not surprise me, but it was interesting learning about the methods we have used to try to reach out to alien life. The interview with Dr. Tarter honestly made me excited about the potential of making contact with extraterrestrial life, and I'm curious how that may look.
Question: If I had to ask Dr. Tarter a question, I would ask her how likely she actually thinks it is for us to find intelligent life in space in the near future. I also wonder about the safety behind contacting aliens. What if they are not peaceful? What would contact with them look like after the initial contact, etc.
I really enjoyed reading your discussion post Matthew! I also wrote about Jill Tarter. Based on my reading of the interview, I would guess that Jill thinks there is a reasonable chance for life to exist outside of Earth; however, the probability of us finding it in the near future I think she would say is very low due to our lack of technology. As we discussed in class, it would take years for us to even reach the closest planets to ours in our Solar System if we were traveling at light speed and so I think she would find this scenario unlikely. May I recommend this YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoL4IlCXDsM where she answers similar interesting questions!
I agree! One of the most fun things about this kind of science is that it sends us right back into our childhoods when we were looking at the sky for aliens! I remember reading all sorts of sci-fi books, watching shows like Doctor Who, and imagining what it could be like to experience that kind of unfamiliarity for real. SETI is such an interesting field, and it has a lot of fascinating implications for the future of humanity. Your questions frame that child-like interest, and hesitance, perfectly!