A two-day conference at the Royal Society in London called The Detection of Extra-terrestrial Life and The Consequences for Science and Society gathered top astronomers to discuss the possibility that some life form on another planet will likely be discovered within our lifetime.
The all-star lineup included Dr. Frank Drake, the NASA radio astronomer has been listening to the Universe for signs of life as the founder of the SETI project. He’s been listening for 50 years but all that we’ve heard is eerie silence.
That puzzles some scientists who believe the universe is teeming with life. Paul Davies from Arizona State University thinks the problem could be that we’ve been looking in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and in the wrong way.
He offers a new roadmap for the future of SETI, arguing that we need to be far more expansive in our efforts, by questioning existing ideas of what form an alien intelligence might take, how it might try to communicate with us, and how we should respond if we ever do make contact.
